Free Republic

A school district in Maine is apologizing after middle school students learned about homosexual foreplay during what was supposed to be a “Diversity Day” presentation. “I don’t want my child taught heterosexual foreplay, let alone homosexual foreplay,” outraged parent Kristy Howard told Fox News. The principal of Gorham Middle School sent a letter to parents apologizing for the graphic nature of the presentation by PRYSM, Proud Rainbow Youth of Southern Maine. “They went beyond the scope of our intentions and discussed topics that we do not deem appropriate for our middle school,” Robert Riley wrote in a letter obtained by...

Females of the Australian redback spider, one of the world's most poisonous spiders and a close relative to the black widow, demand 100 minutes of courting or else they usually cannibalize their male suitors, research finds. Proving that bigger isn't always better in the mating game, the tiniest of males sometimes approach female redbacks after offering the critical 100 minutes of wooing and successfully mate without being eaten, according to the paper in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The study shows that puny males of this species can win at love without exerting much effort and begins...

Awesome Animals More Weird Mating Habits: The longest-lasting copulation, according to University of Arizona biologist John Alcock (interviewed for an August Knight Ridder story), is that of the lowly "stick insect" (of the phasmida family), which goes on for several months at a time, even though, he said, it is "not clear this is welcome to the female." The male attaches himself to the female's back, which allows her to continue with her daily routine during the mating, while also discouraging competitor males. According to other biologists, some ticks spend up to eight hours on what resembles foreplay, and butterflies,...

After a steady stream of mostly flattering headlines, Conservative leadership candidate Belinda Stronach received some unwelcome attention Friday in the form of a supermarket tabloid front page that blared: Hillary Screams Divorce Over BILL'S NEW BLOND. The headline in the Globe weekly, a reference to Stronach's friendship with former U.S. president Bill Clinton, is accompanied by a full-page photo of the two walking together into a Toronto charity event last year. The innuendo-filled article suggests Hillary Clinton, a New York senator and the wife of the former president, is upset that rumours of an amorous liaison between her husband and...