Free Republic

Without the clergy guiding them, and with religion still a very important factor in the average person's life, their fate rested in their own hands, Simpson said. The rise of fundamentalist interpretations during the English Reformation can be used to understand the global political situation today and the growth of Islamic extremism, Simpson said as an example. "Very definitely, we see the same phenomenon: newly literate people claiming that the sacred text speaks for itself, and legitimates violence and repression," Simpson said, "and the same is also true of Christian fundamentalists."

[Note: You may perceive some of this column as a "spoiler".] If you liked the politics of last weekend's Oscar nominees, you'll love "V for Vendetta." It's an exciting, quality Bin Laden film. But if you're like the rest of mainstream America--you support our troops, believe in firmly responding to terrorists on our own shores, and/or respect Christianity--then, don't waste your time at this piece of garbage masquerading as a superhero movie. It is anything but. If most other Hollywood films subtly whisper of an agenda, "V" clocks you over the head with it with a still sizzling, iron frying...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, Dec. 5, 2005 CONTACT: Gary Glenn 989-835-7978 Professor David Halperin 734-647-5884 Family group renews criticism of tax- funded college class "How to be Gay" U-M catalogue calls class "an experiment in the very process of initiation it hopes to understand." ------- ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A statewide family values group Monday renewed its criticism of a controversial University of Michigan class -- offered this fall for the first time since 2003 -- again calling on state lawmakers to pressure university officials to drop the course altogether. The American Family Association of Michigan, in a letter to...

More than one in four sexual assaults occur after a woman has been drugged by her assailant, according to new Canadian research. The study, published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health, shows that the incidence of so-called ''date-rape drugging'' has increased dramatically in the past decade. It also reveals that the vast majority of those who are drugged, then raped, are teenagers aged 15 to 19. The study, conducted by a team led by Margaret McGregor of the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia, is believed to be the first to measure the extent of...