Free Republic

Ann Coulter fired back at critics who demanded the conservative columnist apologize for comments she made during a speech in which she referred to Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards as a "faggot." "'Faggot isn't offensive to gays; it has nothing to do with gays," Coulter said on "Hannity and Colmes" Monday night. "It's a schoolyard taunt meaning 'wuss,' and unless you're telling me that John Edwards is gay, it was not applied to a gay person."

"MADISON, Wis. -- An Illinois woman is suing her Wisconsin parents for maintaining an icy driveway that she blamed for a fall that broke her ankle two winters ago."

"Slippage." That was by far my favorite word in the letter Andover's West Middle School Principal Denise Holmes e-mailed to parents regarding their children's attire, or lack thereof, at school. Her note was prompted by the outfits a group of girls was wearing on Valentine's Day, with skirts so short that ... well, let Ms. Holmes explain. "This one girl had the cutest pink underwear on," she said. "I shouldn't have known that." Well, no. But she's not the problem. The problem is that all the boys knew it as well. So Holmes sent out a gentle reminder. Very gentle....

A fight erupts among acquaintances, words give way to violence and a bystander is fatally shot amid a crowd of onlookers. For investigators, solving the crime would seem simple enough: question witnesses, identify the gunman and make an arrest. But in this particular case, the killing of a security guard two weeks ago outside a recording studio in Brooklyn, detectives have run into a stubborn wall of silence. Among scores of witnesses, including the rap artist Busta Rhymes and a half-dozen hip-hop celebrities who were present at the filming of a video at the studio, the lack of cooperation has...

Grinchy remark sends kids home in tears By RORY SCHULER Staff Writer Lebanon Daily News LICKDALE — Jamey Schaeffer stretched her mouth open wide, showing off a pair of twin gaps in her smile. With a mouthful of fingers, she said she has no interest in two front teeth for Christmas. Instead, she’d like a Barbie doll from Santa Claus — and Santa Claus only. But a substitute music teacher almost came between the 6-year-old and a Christmas Eve spent dancing cheek to cheek with sugar plums. Theresa Farrisi stood in for Schaeffer’s regular music teacher one day last week....

The scholar who exposed fraud and exploitation in the work of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey is blowing the whistle on the E! cable channel's new "reality" show about Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and his three live-in girlfriends. Judith Reisman, author of "Kinsey: Crime and Consequences" and a soon-to-be-released new title, "Kinsey's Attic: How One Man's Pathology Changed the World," says "Girls Next Door" is Hollywood's latest and boldest attempt to normalize pornography in our culture. The author, who served as a consultant to the U.S. Justice Department on obscenity issues, is angry the network is investing so much time in...

Four Fox network programs, led by the comedies "The War at Home," "The Family Guy" and "American Dad," topped a parents group's annual listing of the worst prime-time shows for family viewing. The Parents Television Council rated two aspirational reality shows, ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and NBC's new "Three Wishes," as the best programs for family viewing. The group's president, L. Brent Bozell, said he was alarmed that the three Fox Sunday night comedies are being marketed as family friendly. "Families should not be deceived," he said. "The top three worst shows all contain crude and raunchy dialogue with...

Ed Dept. eyes chargekids bullied, 1 beaten Students victims of race hate, mom sez  Lisa Brown moved from Oklahoma so that her two sons, Sloan (l.) and J.T. and her daughter Robbie could experience diversity in Brooklyn. City education officials are investigating the claims of a pair of boys from Oklahoma who moved to Brooklyn to experience diversity, and instead say they got schooled in racism and violence. Mom Lisa Brown, 33, told the Daily News she relocated her family from their small Oklahoma town so her husband, a Brooklyn native and social worker, could more easily find work...

How risky is your sex life? MSNBC.com and Zogby International asked online readers to share some intimate details about their personal lives, and more than 56,000 adult men and women — one of the largest responses ever to a sex survey in the United States — revealed that many are playing a pretty risky game. The survey, which was released Monday, found that while a majority of the survey participants consider themselves knowledgeable about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, many are in denial when it comes to sex with someone new. Just 39 percent of people who took the...

I didn't immediately see a topic for the tonight's (9/24/2005) episode of Realtime with Bill Maher on HBO, a show I wouldn't normally watch unless I REALLY feel like getting bent out of shape. Tonight's guests included Chris Hitchens and Georgie "the Arabist" Galloway, and for once, there was some casual, uncensored leeway to have an adult debate (at least on Hitchen's part). Number of times Maher insinuated Hitchens was a drunk: 3. Number of times Maher whipped the crowd into a masturbatory frenzy over the "stupidity" of Bush: 10, maybe 11. Number of times he compared Laura Bush to...

A survey of 1,230 Americans (586 men, 644 women) from all across the country was conducted to determine what elements of new television shows attracted viewers. The results were surprising. In fact, they were #@$% surprising. It seems Americans really like cursing. 43% of respondents said that "bad language" makes a show at least somewhat more appealing and exciting. Conversely only 13% said they were less likely to watch a show because of explicit verbiage. When asked which elements got respondents excited about a new show, the number one answer was Soprano's-type "edginess," chosen by 41%, followed by non-pornographic sexual...

http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20219 Hostage Situation in New Orleans -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just a heads up, armed looters have taken over one of the medical centers in New Orleans where the injured people were being sent. They are holding the entire staff of the hospital hostage and firing at the national guard. An FBI SWAT team has just been flown in (from Baton Rouge I believe) and they are just now getting situated. I'm not sure of any online scanners that are up monitoring the state trs. That is where alot of traffic is going on at. LSP Troop B is requesting immediate backup. Troopers,...

In the newest version of the movie The Bad News Bears, a Little League coach drinks in front of his team and passes out drunk on the practice field. Instead of a bank or supermarket, he gets a strip club to sponsor the squad. And he sleeps with one of his players’ mothers. Ugh! But as bad as the fictional Morris Buttermaker is, sadly, he does reflect what we sometimes see in parents and Little Leagues coaches—like a T-ball coach in Pennsylvania. The league required that every player play at least three innings. Since playing his worst player, an autistic...

A self-described Satanist has posted photos online of himself dancing on President Ronald Reagan's grave, raising the ire of the former chief executive's admirers. Posted on the message board Ruthlessreviews.com (warning: vulgar site), the photos show a thin, white man likely in his 20s wearing an AC/DC T-shirt and having hopped over the fence that protects Reagan's grave. The poster, who goes by "TheFreakKingdom" and claims he's from San Diego, writes with one photo: "Judging from my expression and body language, combined with what little I do remember, this appears to be about the time security guards noticed I had...

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers shoved two cameramen Wednesday, sending one to the hospital in a videotaped tirade that included throwing a camera to the ground and threatening to break more. Rogers, who missed his last start with a broken pinkie he sustained during an outburst earlier this month, erupted at the cameramen as they filmed him walking to the field for pregame stretching before Wednesday night's game against the Los Angeles Angels.

(Neighbor's cats allegedly poisoned in accused's back yard to save birds) Myrtle Maly couldn't stand the thought of the neighbor's cats attacking birds in her back yard. After calling authorities and getting no results, she took matters into her own hands. According to a criminal complaint, the 78-year-old woman admitted killing the neighbor's two cats by dumping D-Con rodent killer into a can of "Special Salmon Dinner" cat food and leaving it in her back yard at 1813 Spaight St. She was charged today with two felony counts of animal mistreatment, each of which carries a possible 3 years in...

Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said the "cop killer" video game, called "25 to Life," had hit an "all-time low" and discouraged the sale and distribution of the title, due out this summer. "25 to Life' makes 'Grand Theft Auto' look like 'Romper Room" Schumer said on Monday in comments e-mailed by a spokeswoman. The blockbuster video game series "Grand Theft Auto" from Take-Two Interactive is frequently criticized for its violence... First of all, if you want people to take you seriously, you need something more effective than a kids show that originally aired in 1953 like...

<p>A fight between two children Saturday night at Chuck E. Cheese in the Atlantic Terminal Mall in Brooklyn turned into a bloody brawl between parents, police said.</p> <p>About 8:30 p.m., two girls started to argue at the theme restaurant, popular for children's birthday parties.</p>

Here's a rich irony: I'm writing today about a new children's book, but I can't describe the plot in a family newspaper without warning you first that it is entirely inappropriate for children. The book is "Rainbow Party," by juvenile fiction author Paul Ruditis. The publisher is Simon Pulse, a kiddie lit division of the esteemed Simon & Schuster. The cover of the book features the title spelled out in fun, Crayola-bright font. Beneath the title is an illustrated array of lipsticks in bold colors. The main characters in the book are high school sophomores -- supposedly typical 14- and...

From Anne Newman of Operation Outcry: Silent No More (www.operationoutcry.org): "Earlier this week [of May 15, 2005], shock jock Elliot Segal of Washington, DC's radio station DC101 decided it would be hilarious to hold a contest with a prize for the listener who had the most abortions. While this contest was disgusting by its very nature, the offense was compounded because he held the competition on public airwaves during early morning hours, when people are driving to work and bringing their children to school. The 'contest' featured at least one potential statutory rape, two medical assaults and a number of...

As a group of residents cheered, a Glen Park man tackled Gary Patrolman Carl Cochran, choking the officer and threatening to kill him in an unprovoked attack Wednesday night, Lt. Roger Smith said. Cochran, a five-year veteran and member of the department’s elite S.W.A.T. team, suffered cuts to his face and injuries to his arm and back as a result of the protracted struggle with Kelvin D. Banks, 40. Cmdr. Jerome Krebes said Thursday he ordered additional patrols in the area in response to the incident. A small group of people — ten or less — surrounded the officer during...

Teenager accused of raping female student at Dayton Academy POSTED: Friday, May 20, 2005 9:04:34 AM UPDATED: Friday, May 20, 2005 9:04:59 AM DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Police in Dayton say a school hindered their investigation of a 13-year-old girl’s claim that she was raped by a 14-year-old boy in front of at least two other students. Sergeant Tom Flanders says officials at the Dayton Academy—a charter school—didn’t call police and refused to give them the names of students who witnessed the alleged rape. He says that when detectives asked for witnesses names, school officials told them to contact the...

State says ‘JOHN3:16’ plate’s OK STEVE MAYNARD; The News Tribune Last updated: May 18th, 2005 02:01 PM Enlarge image BRUCE KELLMAN/THE NEWS TRIBUNE FILE University Place resident Jane Milhans gets to keep the JOHN3:16 vanity license plate she’s had on her cars since 1984. A complainant unsuccessfully urged the state to revoke the plate because of its religious meaning. After a public outcry, University Place resident Jane Milhans will be able to keep her vanity license plate “JOHN3:16.” A Spanaway woman complained she was offended by the plate, prompting a state review. After callers in support of Milhans inundated radio...

Seattle--Mary Kay Letourneau and her former sixth-grade pupil--the father of her two youngest children--are to be married Friday night at a secluded spot in King County, "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider" reported Thursday. Tents were being erected Thursday afternoon for the ceremony, according to the television programs, which obtained exclusive rights to cover the ceremony. A rehearsal dinner was planned Thursday, with bridesmaids, groomsmen and relatives in attendance. Letourneau, now 43, served 7 1/2 years in prison after she was convicted of raping Vili Fualaau, now 22. She was released last August. The couple first met when he was in...

Woman charged with using baseball bat on daughter May 19, 2005 MCMINNVILLE, Ore. - A McMinnville woman was arrested by Yamhill County Sheriff's Detectives Monday and charged with assaulting her adopted 13-year old daughter with a baseball bat. Sixty-six-year-old Anna T. Rufo was arrested after her daughter was treated for injuries to her arms and legs. Yamhill County Sheriff Jack Crabtree explained, "Upon investigating the suspicious injuries to this child, the detectives determined that they were caused by the child's mother. A physician who examined the injuries concurred with the investigators findings." "Having been a child abuse investigator for many...

http://www.wcjb.com/news.asp?id=11413 Diante Smoke, 13, was arrested shortly after the incident, at 11 a.m. Detectives are recommending the state attorney file charges of sexual battery. "Diante was in the apartment with the nine-year-old, actually went into the bathroom with her, pulled her pants down, put a condom on his penis and had vaginal sex and oral sex with her against her will," said Gainesville Police Detective Jamie Rohrbaugh. Investigators say the girl suffered vaginal bleeding, but was treated and is recovering at home. Meanwhile, many neighbors find it hard to believe Smoke was involved. "I don't think he's capable, but you...

A federal judge this week convicted a Gardiner woman who encouraged her toddler daughter to smoke marijuana. U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull Wednesday found Jessica Durham, 23, guilty of distributing marijuana to a person under the age of 18 years. Durham will be sentenced April 20 by Senior U.S. District Judge Jack Shanstrom. She faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Cebull's ruling comes after a one-day bench trial on Oct. 27 in which a key prosecution witness described how she photographed Durham holding a water pipe while her 18-month-old daughter put her mouth over the...

It is a book with graphic sexual references and descriptions of male anatomy, and an 11-year-old girl checked it out from a school library in McAllen, Texas. The title: "Lady: My Life as a Bitch" In the book, Sandra (a.k.a. Lady) is dismayed at first, but quickly discovers the pure joys of unfettered freedom to do whatever she wants and have sex with whomever she pleases--a seemingly perfect scenario for a devil-may-care young woman who would "have shagged [Wayne] up against the wall for a bag of jelly beans a month ago." (Amazon.com) The librarian offered these quotes (off-camera) as...

The Miss Jones morning show on hip-hop radio station Hot-97 has been yanked off the air amid growing outrage over a twisted tsunami parody song even the boss called "indefensible." Emmis Radio, which owns Hot-97 (WQHT), said yesterday Jones, whose real name is Tasha Nicole Jones, and her team have been "indefinitely suspended," an action critics called belated and insufficient. "The people responsible need to be taken off the air permanently," said City Councilman John Liu (D-Queens). "And the company should face financial sanctions, so no one can profit from this kind of ugliness." Liu and other critics plan a...

POSTED: 1/26/05 9:17 AM UPDATED: 1/26/05 4:34 PM By Chris Minor EAST MOLINE, Illinois -- The dismembered body of a missing East Moline teenager has been found, and a classmate tonight is under arrest for her brutal murder. Sarah Kolb is charged with first degree murder in the death of Adrianne Reynolds, 16. Prosecutors announced the murder charge at a news conference at Illinois State Police Headquarters this morning. Authorities believe Adrianne was strangled and beaten with a wooden handle in a car in broad daylight at a Taco Bell parking lot in Moline. Later, her body was taken to...

DURANGO, Colo. (Reuters) - A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 for the distress a neighbor said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned with paper hearts. The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after neighbor Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital the next day. Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte, 18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small...

Pamela Rogers Turner was charged this week with 15 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and 13 counts of statutory rape. Turner teaches and coaches at Centertown Elementary School in McMinnville. Prosecutor Dale Potter said some of the incidents were alleged to have taken place at the school, others at the student's home. Potter said his office intends to prosecute the case to the fullest extent possible because it involves a child. (Copyright 2005, AP)

Fueled by the risk of getting caught, students are having sex in public areas on campus every day. It's a quiet night in a Chicago diner. A cook and a waitress don't have much work, so they head to the storeroom, which is brimming with boxes packed with ketchup, coffee beans and maple syrup. The cook looks around before he puts his hand in the waitress' white, button-up blouse. After a few seconds, he gets a bit nervous. He walks out of the storeroom to double-check that no one is coming. He returns, and with a grin, begins to undo...

A 42-year-old police officer arrested on charges he raped his teenage daughter has been released without bail, prosecutors said Wednesday. Prosecutors in Queens had requested $25,000 bail for the officer, whose name has been withheld by authorities. Queens Criminal Court Judge William Harrington ruled the defendant could go free after issuing an order barring him from having any contact with his 15-year-old daughter. The officer has been charged with rape, incest, endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse based on allegations by the girl that he raped and molested her several times since 2001, court papers said. The...

Dan Horwich's English class is a bastion of clean language, where students read the classics and have weighty discussions free of invective and profanity. But when the bell rings and they walk out his door, the hallway vibrates with talk of a different sort. "The kids swear almost incessantly," said Horwich, who teaches at Guildford High School in Rockford, Ill. "They are so used to swearing and hearing it at home, and in the movies, and on TV, and in the music they listen to that they have become desensitized to it."

LOS ANGELES - A 13-year-old pitcher was charged Thursday with murder for allegedly beating another boy to death with a baseball bat following his team's first loss of the season. AP Photos The alleged assailant is accused of striking 15-year-old Jeremy Rourke in the knee and again in the head after the youth league game Tuesday evening, said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Ron Smalstig. The 13-year-old and the older boy apparently had words in front of a concession stand at the Pony League park in Palmdale, about 40 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The accused youth will be...

BOSTON -- New York Yankees right fielder Gary Sheffield got into a brief scuffle with a fan at Fenway Park during Thursday night's game against the Boston Red Sox. Sheffield was fielding Jason Varitek's two-run triple along the right-field fence in the eighth inning when a fan swung a short uppercut in his direction, appearing to graze the side of the slugger's face with his right arm. After Sheffield picked up the ball, he shoved the fan before throwing the ball back into the infield. Then he whirled around with a cocked fist, but restrained himself and began shouting in...

A Windsor hairstylist who suffered "recognizable psychological injury" after discovering a dead fly in a bottle of Culligan water has been awarded more than $340,000 in damages. Waddah (Martin) Mustapha, who operates two outlets of Martin's Coiffure and Spa at the Radisson Hotel and Casino Windsor, claimed "nervous shock, emotional distress and resulting anxiety, depression and physical and psychological conditions" arising from a breach of contract with Culligan. "It's long overdue," Mustapha said of the settlement. On Nov. 21, 2001 Mustapha and his wife Lynn, who was seven months pregnant, were preparing a new bottle of Culligan water to put...

GOVERNOR RENDELL TO UNVEIL MARKER HONORING THOSE WHO COMMIT ACTS OF SODOMY AT NATIONAL CELEBRATION April 28, 2005 Our Nation is in a downward spiral. Good is called evil and evil is called good. My eldest son Caleb and I have traveled to Philadelphia to speak up for righteousness during a celebration of sin hosted by Equality Forum. Please pray for the outreaches that will be taking place during this week and ask that the Father will draw the lost to Himself. Below are several excerpts from a recent press release from Equality Forum. This sinful nation is begging the...

WEST PALM BEACH - A 13-year-old at the center of an abortion fight with the state was given permission Monday to terminate her pregnancy, but it was unclear whether she immediately underwent the procedure. Attorneys for the girl, known only as L.G. in court papers, said the abortion was scheduled for later Monday. However, the state Department of Children and Families appealed the decision, according to Maxine Williams, one of the teen's attorneys. "Since this is still in litigation, I can't speak to what's going on in court," DCF spokeswoman Marilyn Munoz said. Palm Beach Juvenile Judge Ronald Alvarez issued...

<p>For a quarter century, the man who is now Spokane's mayor has used positions of public trust – as a sheriff's deputy, Boy Scout leader and powerful politician – to develop sexual relationships with boys and young men.</p> <p>In addition, an investigation by The Spokesman-Review has revealed that 17 months after leaving the state Legislature, West has used the trappings of the mayor's office to entice and influence young men he met on a gay Web site.</p>

My previous column, 'Denying The Obvious And Becoming Stupid And Depraved," dealt with how moral truth and reality are knowable to us by virtue of the four witnesses: the witness of design in nature, the witness of our own design, the witness of deep conscience, and the witness of natural consequences. These four witneses used in conjunction with common sense (empirical historic knowledge) lead us to the principle of 'how things are meant to work.". Things naturally work correctly in certain ways and wrongly in others because of the existence of transcendant inbuilt disciplines that function as laws. In short,...

Liberals and libertarians like to ask, "How can the relationship of two people who love each other but are the same sex be detrimental to society?" How does porn hurt you or me? How does smoking pot hurt my community? What is the impact of casual sex or general filth on TV to my family? Perhaps George Will said it best when he wrote, "Some pleasures are contemptible because they are coarsening. They are not merely private vices; they have public consequences in driving the culture's downward spiral." All the vices listed above in some way do touch our lives....