Free Republic

Today I read an article where the author suggests that we come up with another word for “marriage” because the one we’re using has been redefined by the courts and the liberals away from what is originally meant. While we’re at it, let’s come up with another word for “coffee table” since we don’t use them for coffee, and frequently they become footrests.  Or a new word for “money” because our government seems to talk about it like they have it, but they don’t.  There’s always a whole bunch of new words for “automobile”, like “SUV” and “crossover” and...

Do you remember what it was like when you were twelve? If you’re female and were like many girls, your friends were everything to you. You talked on the phone for hours, chatting passionately about who sat next to whom in the lunchroom, whether you liked Joanne’s new haircut, or making detailed plans about who to invite to your birthday party. You likely also spent a bunch of time planning your life – what your wedding would be like, what kind of dress you would wear, what kind of house you wanted, how many kids you were going to have...

Meet the Rowleys, a genetically blessed family where mother, father and all three childen all share model looks. And they're making the most of their attractiveness: the family, from Warwick, have appeared in hundreds of adverts - including campaigns for Mothercare, Next, Argos, Aldi, Umbro and Centre Parks - getting paid up to £1000 a day to pose for pictures. Father Anthony, 33, mother Kimberley, 31, and children Tilly, five, Maisie, three, and Henry, 18 months, are an advertiser's dream - and collectively they make thousands upon thousands of pounds a year from their photogenic looks.

President Barack Obama’s new report on fatherless kids doesn’t include a single mention of the words “marriage” or “married.” The report admits that fatherlessness almost doubles the failure rate among African-American and Latino kids, yet it calls for government to arrange substitute fathers for huge numbers of fatherless boys and girls instead of binding fathers to their kids via marriage. “The President is calling on Americans interested in getting involved in My Brother’s Keeper to sign up as long-term mentors to young people,” according to the White House press statement that accompanies the report, which is titled “Opportunity for All:...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Initial reviews of responses from around the world on questionnaires about church teaching on the family in advance of this fall's extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family show that the teaching is misunderstood, said a cardinal who will run one the synod's sessions. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, told Catholic News Service he found the responses "shocking, if I am allowed to use that word." Cardinal Tagle (CNS/Tyler Orsburn) "Shocking because almost in all parts of the world, the questionnaires indicated that the teaching of the church regarding family life is not clearly understood...

On Valentine's Day 2013, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families took into emergency custody then-14-year-old Justina Pelletier because the doctors at Tufts Medical Center and doctors at Boston Children's Hospital collided over the diagnosis of her rare medical condition. But when medical egos and battles lead to a child's being torn from her parents by judges ruling on dubious grounds, isn't it time to confess that something is seriously askew in society and even under the stethoscope? Fox News recently summarized the 15-month custody catastrophe by explaining that Tufts was originally treating Justina for a rare mitochondrial disease affecting...

"The biological family of a little girl taken from her foster parents and returned to her jailbird father have branded her adoptive mom and dad, ‘selfish’ for fighting to get her back and vowed never to give her up again. Sonya, aged nine, had been in the care of Kim and David Hodgin, from Dickson, Tennessee for more than seven years, but she was recently handed over to ex-con John McCaul in Omaha, Nebraska. The Hodgin family have released a heart-breaking phone conversation, revealing Sonya’s desperate pleas, begging to be reunited with them."

A family of eight, “just enjoying their Mother’s Day weekend in Savannah,” were savagely attacked by an unknown number of blacks in the Georgia city, that left several family members injured, including a 6-year-old girl who was “punched in the stomach.” A report from WTOC-TV said the attack on eight members of a family visiting from Atlanta happened in downtown Savannah on Saturday night.

10 Ways That Birth Order Affects Your Life Tyler Durden05/09/2014 15:16 -0400Zero Hedge Where you exist in your family’s birth order can profoundly inform your path in life, whether because of genetics or simply the way that family members tend to treat firstborns vs. middle children vs. youngest children. Psychologists have been debating the “Why?” since the 1800s, but, as ConvergEx's Nick Colas notes, the outcome is certain regardless of the cause – the effects of birth order last for a lifetime... For example, firstborn kids are often rules-following and do better in society, while younger children tend to be...

Well, this is a law every grown-up in the world may be willing to back. The Spanish parliament is considering a law requiring children to do their chores. The measure is part of a larger Child Protection Bill in Spain, and if it gets passed, children under 18 will be legally bound to do housework “in accordance with their age and regardless of their gender.” And it doesn’t stop there. Under the law, children in Spain will also have to “respect their teachers and fellow students,” “participate in family life” and “respect their parents and siblings.” …

The Sass family only needed 18 points for Family Feud triumph last night.But the final result was so shocking, Steve Harvey's mustache nearly fell off.Tim, the family's patriarch, delivered a spectacular Fast Money round performance, scoring 182 out of the 200 points needed to win. So when Anna stepped up to the speed-round plate, it seemed like a victory was in the bag.WATCH:

The film follows Tim Sisarich, the Executive Director of Focus on the Family New Zealand, as he goes on a worldwide quest to find out what’s wrong with the family. He starts his quest at the beginning, the foundation of what family really is and what it means to society. snip After finding out why family is so vital to a nation, Sisarich then decided to see why the family has become so devalued. So he looked at four issues affecting families today. The devaluation of sex. The devaluation of marriage. The devaluation of parenthood. The devaluation of children. Each...

....The 17-year-old scholar-athlete's acceptance to all eight Ivy League schools on March 27 brought him international recognition and instant rock-star status in the corridors of his soon-to-be alma mater. But for his family, it was confirmation of the effort behind his many nights of studying, the support of his relatives and church, and the work ethic his parents have sought to instill.... Ebenezer Enin said he spent many hours teaching his son math and science from grade school through high school. He and his wife were strict, he said. And his son, who is set on becoming a physician, has...

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is still a cause célèbre for the right-wing, drawing praise from Tea Party activists, Republican politicians, and conservative media outlets. Kevin Williamson of National Review called him a “dissident” like Mohandas Gandhi or Henry David Thoreau, Nevada Sen. Dean Heller hailed him as a “patriot,” and Sean Hannity has praised him as somebody that’s “willing to fight.” This was bad enough as an instance of conservative recklessness when Bundy was just a lawless rancher backed by armed militamen. It’s even worse now that we know that Bundy is full of racist bones. Here he is, as...

The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, the 78-page report written by a then 38-year old Daniel Patrick ‘Pat’ Moynihan, an assistant secretary of labor for policy in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, was never supposed to see the light of day. The Negro Family, which later came to be widely known simply as “The Moynihan Report,” did not even originally have Moynihan’s name on it’s cover–the document was only meant to be distributed to high-ranking members of the Johnson administration in order to spur discussion regarding what policies could be implemented in order to assist the Negro family...

".......... Lily, just like better-off men and women, believes that marriage means an unqualified commitment to the other spouse. When you marry someone, you support him in hard times. You stick with him when he disappoints you. You visit him if he ends up in jail. And you encourage him to become an important part of your children’s lives. It’s just that Lily doesn’t believe that Carl is worth that commitment. Nor does she believe that she will meet someone who will meet her standards anytime soon, and the statistics back her up.The economy has changed. A higher percentage of...

2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark, and highly entertaining television show "Good Times." The Norman Lear created sit com focused on day to lives of the Evans family, living in the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago. While the Evans clan was most certainly poor, the fictional family lived up to the show's title in that what they lacked in material possessions, they more than made up for this in the love that was ever present in nearly every episode. The show was a breakthrough at the time of its debut not only in that it had an...

My cousin Patricia read the following poem at her mother's funeral yesterday. (That would be my Aunt Pat.) There wasn't a dry eye in the place. And if that didn't get you, then her sister Debbie, in her eulogy, remembering those who have left us since last August did: my Mom, their sister Barbara, my niece Lisa and most recently, our cousin Mary Ann. Attrib. David M. Romano, 1993 If Tomorrow Starts Without Me… If tomorrow starts without me, and I’m not here to see, If the sun should rise and find your eyes all filled with tears for me;...

Holy Week Preparation By Jennifer Gregory Miller   Apr 09, 2014 Holy Week is one of the busiest weeks of the year for our family. Preparing for Christmas, especially when we have to plan celebrations for both sides of the family and possible travel is also busy, but it never reaches the level of planning as Holy Week. I think the main difference is that we are participating in the liturgy of the Church throughout the whole Triduum, so there is less time at home to “do” things.My father was in the Carmelite seminary in his younger years and...

PORTLAND, OR, April 8, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A soon-to-be opened natural foods store in Oregon is in danger of never opening its doors after homosexual activists publicized remarks its Mormon owner made online supporting true marriage and organized a boycott targeting not just the store, but its suppliers. Chauncy Childs had planned to open Moreland Farmers Pantry, an organic, locally-sourced grocery store, in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland. But because of comments she made under a pseudonym during a discussion on Facebook last year in which she defended true marriage and said business owners should have the right to refuse...