Free Republic

Eleven is the average age that kids view pornography. Sometimes it happens inadvertently via a mistakenly unfiltered search term. Or it occurs over at so-and-so’s house whose parents aren’t so savvy with Google filters and firewalls. But at some point or other, sexually curious youth will access pornography. I have an eleven-month-old son, and while some might say it’s premature, I’ve begun thinking about how my husband and I will handle the topic of porn with him. I certainly don’t want him viewing hardcore smut as a preteen. But if forced to choose by my Internet provider, as will soon...

In 2014 the Democrats have 20 Senate seats up for the November vote. 17 of those seats are either vacant (retired incumbent) or held by Freshmen Senators. 7 of those seats are in states that either went for Romney in 2012 or else recalled sitting Democrats from their state legislature in 2013. Faced with the above, potential GOP Senate candidates for those 20 seats would appreciate something new...campaign material that doesn't regurgitate traditional Beltway Elite talking points about taxes, abortion, gay rights, etc. However, to create material that does not involve the rehashed political ideas of the 2012 Romney Campaign...

According to the description on the video, which was posted by the Street Vendor Project, this officer had been "disrespectful" to the ice-cream man/videographer "on numerous prior occasions." It's not clear who instigated this particular confrontation, or what it's about, or why the officer is acting so weird, or whether the officer is Jesse Pinkman in disguise.

Admit it. You want a white Republican president again. Now before you start feeling like you’re a racist, understand you are not. Wanting a white Republican president doesn’t make you racist, it just makes you American. In the pre-black president era, criticizing the president was simply the American thing to do. An exercise of one’s First Amendment right. Criticism had nothing to do with color, because there had never been a black president, or at least one whom people recognized as black. So to criticize the president meant that you didn’t like his policies. The election of a recognized...

Turkish TV presenter Gözde Kansu has been dismissed after a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) criticized her for wearing a low-cut top on television, saying he found her outfit “unacceptable”. … AKP spokesperson Hüseyin Çelik criticized the presenter’s costume during the “Veliaht” TV program without naming her, but saying he found the outfit “extreme” because it revealed cleavage. …

This should come as fantastic news to former President Bill Clinton, or on a smaller scale the serial molester Vito Lopez and his enabler Sheldon Silver. Via the New York Post: It’s bad enough that unpaid interns can’t earn wages — but now a federal judge has ruled they’re not even protected from being groped by their bosses. Manhattan federal Judge Kevin Castel determined that Lihuan Wang, a former intern at Phoenix Satellite Television US, couldn’t bring a sex-harassment claim against the Chinese-language broadcasting company and her former supervisor there because unpaid interns aren’t employees — so they’re not covered...

Los Angeles, CA, October 09, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Recording artist Qba Libre today released #OneTrayvon, a music video that re-imagines the Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman incident set to the Qba Libre song “Ola Criminal.” The piece was directed by writer/director Barry Canty and can be viewed on YouTube at the link below as well as at www.onetrayvon.tumblr.com. Performed in a mix of English and Spanish, “Ola Criminal” is about crime and the recent oubursts of gun violence in America. The song is from Qba Libre’s latest mixtape Cuban Missile Crisis and features vocals from Mauri. #OneTrayvon is the third music...

Special Immigrant Visas legislation passes House, becomes law On Wednesday, October 2, the House passed legislation co-introduced by Rep. Kinzinger to provide special visas for Iraqi translators who risked their lives during the Iraqi war to assist American troops. With an estimated 2,000 visas remaining unprocessed, the bill, H.R. 3233, extends the Special Immigrant Visa Program for Iraqi interpreters, contractors, and others who aided the US effort. H.R. 3233 passed the Senate by voice vote and was signed into law on October 4, 2013.

Link to slides only: http://iccf18.research.missouri.edu/files/day3/Distributed_Power_Source.pdf

Beginning Saturday, the FOX network will air a number of animated shows that contain sexually explicit and profanity-laced content never before shown on network television during its “Animation Domination High-Def” (ADHD) programming block. The X-rated cartoons, some of which feature full frontal nudity and cartoon characters engaging in sexual activity, are modeled after Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” and will also be available on the internet. FOX Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly stated in an interview with Daily Variety that “I’d like to find the next ‘Family Guy’ out of this block.” But The Parents Television Council (PTC) strongly denounced the programming....

Russia has not received extradition request for Snowden from the United States, the Justice Ministry said Thursday. The ministry did receive a letter from Eric Holder explaining some aspects of the U.S. position on the status of Snowden... The "document did not contain (a) request for the extradition or deportation of this individual," the statement said.

Sen. John McCain has a wish for any exotic dancers who might feel the pinch from legislation he’s backing that would do away with the dollar bill and replace it with a dollar coin: Shake what your momma gave you and make more moolah. … When pressed about the predicament facing scores of the country’s skin-baring and bill-collecting women, McCain responded without missing a beat, “Then I hope that they could obtain larger denominations.” …

So, George Zimmerman was scared the night he shot Trayvon Martin through the heart. Know who else was probably pretty scared that night? Trayvon Martin. Surprised I’m asking? Me too. But it seems like a lot of people haven’t thought much about that. Obviously, Trayvon isn’t here to tell us how he felt. He’s dead. And a lot of folks disregarded Rachel Jeantel’s account of him being afraid even though she was the last person to hear Trayvon speak (besides Zimmerman). She heard his fear through the phone. She heard him try to run away. He was scared. And yet...

On Tuesday, an official in Pennsylvania's Montgomery County made a decision that he said would put him "on the right side of history and the law." He decided that he would issue a same-sex marriage license to anyone who wanted it. In Pennsylvania, same-sex marriage is illegal, but Register of Wills Bruce Hanes said in a press release that he made his "own analysis of the law." He also noted that the state's attorney general announced on July 11 that she would not defend that state's gay marriage ban against a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union. At...

I’ve had many infuriating conversations with my incredibly conservative, Republican stepdad. He’s laughed in my face for pointing out with facts the inadequacy of Mitt Romney during the 2012 election. We argued over the political reputation of Obama in 2008. We’ve also silently disagreed about immigration reform, birth control, gun control, and health care reform, because we both know how that conversation will end. Every time I turn on the television in his and my mother’s home it’s already on Fox News. Every time I get in his car the sexually frustrated, diabetic voice of Rush Limbaugh rattles the dash...

Her words, not mine. Alice Walker is the author of The Color Purple, The Color Purple, The Color Purple, and probably some other books. She also has some really awesome ideas about science. But first things first. Last week, Walker wrote about her deliberately factless, emotion-based reaction to the George Zimmerman verdict. It was on the Guardian‘s “Comment Is Free” blog, because of course it was: "I deliberately watched none of the Zimmerman trial, just as I have deliberately not read a draft of a new book by Jen Marlowe and others, soon to be published: I Am Troy Davis,...

Listening to the lead prosecutor’s final argument in the Zimmerman case, it’s hard to believe he really wanted a conviction. Lead prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda lost focus from the moment he opened his mouth and began: “A teenager is dead. He is dead through no fault of his own. He is dead because another man made assumptions….” Not only is de la Rionda’s voice flat, his tone subdued and resigned, he begins by presenting the victim as an abstraction, characterizing him in a neutral, almost dismissive way as “a teenager,” who also happens to be dead, which everyone knew...

People need to shut up about Zimmerman being found “Not-Guilty.” It might have been sh*tty, but it wasn’t a “Miscarriage” of justice. Rodney King was a “Miscarriage” of Justice (even though he was a dirt-bag). Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was a “Miscarriage” of justice. What happened to Malcolm X was a “Miscarriage” of justice. This whole thing was just a sh*tty fiasco inflated by the media that left one young man dead, and ruined the life of the other. Both sides of this issue are stupid, and I’m outraged at the social media posts from both. Martin’s side for...

A Far Rockaway man was arrested last week for making a Facebook status update with the hashtag "killallwhites," which a nervous NYPD interpreted as "making a terroristic threat," a felony. In the aftermath of the George Zimmerman verdict, Remel Newson's status update caught the eye of an NYPD officer monitoring Facebook; it read: "BLAC NIGGAS CNT GET NO TYPE OF JUSTICE FU**IN WIT DESE CRACCER'S #KILLALL WHITES DATS DA TYPE OF SH*T I'M ON F**K DIS BEEF SH*T LET'S KILL COPS ND NEIGHBO RHOOD WATCHER #FACTS DAT." Cops were at Newson's door with hours. According to investigators, Newson, 20, admitted...

Oh, Craigslist. You are so helpful for finding last-minute tickets, used vinyl records, and perfectly good furniture. You’re also good for reminding us that ridiculous people exist. In this case, specifically, people who enjoy watching actors role-play the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin altercation at a birthday party on Long Island. “HI MY FRIENDS AND I ARE HAVING A PARTY THIS WEEKEND AND WE ARE LOOKING TO HIRE TWO ACTORS TO COME IN AND ROLE PLAY THE TREVYON MARTIN/GEORGE ZIMMERMAN ALTERCATION,” the spelling-error-laden advertisement reads screams in all-caps. The ad doesn’t specify whether the actors should be lookalikes or just people of...

The moment the NAACP, the Reverend Al Sharpton and other civil rights organizations publicly demanded that the Justice Department conduct a federal probe into the Trayvon Martin slaying and George Zimmerman’s acquittal for killing him with a view toward bringing civil rights charges against him, volumes were written and spoken as to why the department supposedly couldn’t or shouldn’t prosecute him. There’s one problem with all this. Most argue that charging Zimmerman with a hate crime in the Martin killing won’t fly because there’s no basis for that from the apparent evidence. But that’s not the only reason, in fact...

Sen. Ted Cruz rejected questions Sunday over his eligibility to be president, saying that although he was born in Canada “the facts are clear” that he’s a U.S. citizen. “My mother was born in Wilmington, Delaware. She’s a U.S. citizen, so I’m a U.S. citizen by birth,” Cruz told ABC. “I’m not going to engage in a legal debate.” The Texas senator was born in Calgary, where his mother and father were working in the oil business. His father, Rafael Cruz, left Cuba in the 1950s to study at the University of Texas and subsequently became a naturalized citizen. President...

A new system for human organs harvest will soon go into operation nationwide. Haihua, of NHFPC, said patients currently on organ waiting lists will (also) be ranked as harvest candidates. The system will be used in line with organ (collection and) worldwide distribution. NHFPC rules for obtainment, distribution will make the distribution process more transparent...and make the new system compulsory, Deng said. China has about 3,000,000 patients suffering from missing organ(s) each year, but only around 10,000 organ are found. It is no secret, executed prison (donated human organs) supply 96% of the American dental, jaw-bone / tooth-bone, soylent smile...

It’s been difficult to write anything about the George Zimmerman trial verdict that doesn’t begin and end with profanity-laced diatribe topped with rage. As if the reality that there is Florida legislation — and similar laws in some 20 other states — that effectively protects prejudice-holding vigilantes like George Zimmerman and their hunting and slaughtering of Black children wasn’t infuriating enough, making it even worse is the smug behavior of the cast of characters who serve as a support system for that murderer. At their press conference, Zimmerman’s attorneys Mark O’Mara and Don West practically threw their win in the...

How is it that in this day and age, a man can kill an unarmed teenager in cold blood, get acquitted and then get his gun back a few days later? How is it that a man who cannot pass the tests necessary to become a police officer—possibly due to failing the psychological portion of the testing—can get a gun permit? How is it possible that George Zimmerman can walk this earth today legally armed, while Trayvon Martin is buried six feet under due to a bullet that came out of Zimmerman’s gun? Only in America. The Kel Tec PF-9...

The history of America is still being written and the acquittal of George Zimmerman of second degree murder by a Florida jury of five White women and one Hispanic female in the mindless shooting death of 17-year-old African American teenager Trayvon Martin is now an important chapter in that history that gave birth to centuries of slavery and Jim Crow. Like so many, I was shocked by the verdict and could not comprehend how in 2013, a jury purporting to be part of balancing the scales of justice would let go a martial arts trained man with a gun who...

Within days of Trayvon Martin's killing at the hands of neighborhood-watch volunteer George Zimmerman, the 17-year-old's story became, in part, a story about how he looked and what he was wearing. This continued during George Zimmerman's trial, which ended on Saturday with Zimmerman being acquitted of murder, as well as manslaughter. Martin had been reduced to a handful of anecdotal sketches: He was wearing a hoodie; he was suspended from school for smoking marijuana; he posed for a photo sporting a grill and trying to look tough for the camera. In short, elements of hip-hop and teen culture now embodied...

Energy Update: Speculation on the Cold Fusion Front July 16, 2013 lenrosen434 C omments What is cold fusion as we understand it today? The answer is: “nobody really knows.” It is certainly not nuclear fusion as we understand it because the transmutation of elements as described by those who purport to have developed cold fusion reactors defies the laws of physics. Once the quest of medieval alchemists, transmutation of the elements sought a way to convert dross metals like lead and turn them into gold. Well it didn’t work then and it doesn’t work today, that is, unless you compress...

I have seen this movie before and hummed its title theme in my nightmares. On April 7, 2001, 19-year-old Timothy Thomas, wanted on a bundle of minor seatbelt infractions, ran from Cincinnati Police through Over-the-Rhine and was shot dead by Officer Stephen Roach in a pitch-black alcove on Republic Street. The neighborhood’s scars have been scrubbed clean by development, but anger and confusion erupted into riots and curfews resulting in lawsuits, a federally monitored Collaborative Agreement and sweeping police reforms. On February, 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, seemingly a world away in a Sanford, Fla., neighborhood that wasn’t his own,...

Defense attorneys knew a jury of five white women and one Hispanic woman would find it difficult to identify with the humanity of a Black teenage boy.When I was a kid in Florida, I remember the old folks used to play Bingo. As far as I could tell, it was purely a game of luck. If they called your number, you simply moved your chip onto the appropriate space on the board. But what if a player controlled the boards that were distributed or the numbers that were called. That would obviously raise a ruckus, of course, unless it was...

While those of us who see the injustice, ponder the outcome, reconstruct events in our head, and search for answers, the real problem is not the system it is the lack of integrity of those that we trust within the process. Humanity and Justice call for us to answer the question, how can a child be killed by someone we know was the aggressor and six jurors return with not guilty? Many people thought this was the worst thing that could have happened, but it was Sybrina Fulton’s words that brought sobriety to us, the worst thing that could have...

Let's set aside the issue of race for just a moment in the Trayvon Martin case. Strip away the hyperbole on the left and the right and cut to the facts. Here is what the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman murder trial tells us. In the state of Florida, a grown man can stalk a teenage boy whom he thinks "is up to no good" in his gated community. He can disobey a police dispatcher who tells him he doesn't need to follow the 17-year-old. When the teen, who happens to be visiting the man's neighbor, gets upset that...

A MAN was rushed to a hospital after a snake bit his penis while he was relieving himself in a toilet, according to hospital officials in Israel. The man, 35, of northern Israel was bitten on Friday after the snake suddenly appeared from inside the toilet. The man suffered minor injuries from the bite; fortunately the snake was not venomous. -snip- It is 'snake season' currently in the Middle East and among the most dangerous are the black snake or desert cobra, the horned desert viper, the Palestinian viper which is the most common poisonous snake in Israel, the saw-scaled...

Currently 60% Yes

Just weeks ago, I returned to New York City from Fire Island on a Sunday evening, and decided to stop by my office. After I let myself into the office, I noticed some Caucasians mingling around. I paid them no mind, since our office often has off-hours visitors who rent the common space. “Can I help you?” said a middle aged white man, testily. “No,” I shot back. “But I can I help YOU?” “What do you mean?” “I work here,” I said. “This is MY office.” “Oh,” he said, stepping back slightly. “I saw you and just wanted to...

The moment George Zimmerman was acquitted the NAACP and the Reverend Al Sharpton immediately called on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to bring civil rights charges against him. The Justice Department has already conducted an exhaustive investigation to determine whether Zimmerman killed Martin out of racial animus. It found no evidence of that. That’s one hard and fast requisite for a civil rights prosecution. The other is that the state so bungled the prosecution of a defendant that in effect it nullified the intent of the law, namely to insure that justice was truly served. On the surface, this doesn’t...

A few weeks ago, Levar Burton, the actor best-known for his role as Geordi LaForge in Star Trek and the host of the long-running kids' show Reading Rainbow, appeared on a CNN roundtable and offered up a sobering how-to on driving while black: Listen, I'm going to be honest with you. This is a practice that I engage in whenever I am stopped by law enforcement and I've taught this to my son, who is now 33, as part of my duty as a father to ensure that he knows the kind of world in which he's growing up. I...

Jim Andersen has a 40-year history with hashish, the concentrated cannabis sometimes referred to as the cognac of the marijuana world. When he served in the Air Force in Southeast Asia, he said he smuggled it home in his boots. When he was in grad school in California, he made it with a centrifuge in a lab after hours. So when Washington was on the verge of legalizing the sale of taxed pot last fall, Andersen decided to move back to his home state and turn his hobby into a full-time, legitimate paycheck—a business that would supply state-licensed, recreational marijuana...

On July 13, Jay Smooth, who among many things does a hip-hop radio show in New York and occasional music commentary on NPR and is the son of an African American father and a white mother, got to the real problem of an acquittal for George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin. Via the Obama Diary, Smooth tweeted, “The fundamental danger of an acquittal is not more riots, it is more George ZImmermans.” jay smooth @jsmooth995 The fundamental danger of an acquittal is not more riots, it is more George ZImmermans. 12:51 PM - 13 Jul 2013 7,996 Retweets...

I was not in the jury room during deliberations over the guilt or innocence of George Zimmerman. But my recollection of jury duty, from a lone trial a long time ago, is that a diverse group of citizens, called to pass judgment on a fellow citizen, take their responsibilities seriously. Most jurors check their biases, personal grievances and preconceived notions at the courthouse door, and do their level best to arrive at a verdict based on the facts presented to them. So I can only assume that, in acquitting Zimmerman of all charges in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin,...

Washington, D.C. – It is distressing that George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the tragic killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager who was gunned down last year by a man who saw him as a threat, not because he posed a threat, but because of the color of his skin. We join the NAACP and others in calling on the Department of Justice to act on the violation of Trayvon Martin’s civil rights. There is no more fundamental right than the right to live. Trayvon Martin is America’s son. He represents the precariousness of life as a...

At 11 on a weeknight earlier this year, her work finished, a slim, pretty junior at the University of Pennsylvania did what she often does when she has a little free time. She texted her regular hookup — the guy she is sleeping with but not dating. What was he up to? He texted back: Come over. So she did. They watched a little TV, had sex and went to sleep. Their relationship, she noted, is not about the meeting of two souls. “We don’t really like each other in person, sober,” she said, adding that “we literally can’t sit...

Shortly after the historic election of Barack Obama in 2008, Newsweek magazine ran an article basking in the afterglow of victory, opining about the possibility of American citizens themselves … um, basking in the afterglow. In an article which showed the depths of worship in which the media had descended to support their chosen candidate, Jessica Bennett projected her own excitement upon readers, discussing the possibility of a baby boom sparked by “exhilarated” and “euphoric” Obama fans being “in the mood for love.” The title of the piece, Change You Can Conceive In, tells you all you need to know....

Over the past several days, I have been watching the trial of George Zimmerman in horror, anger, and disgust. My heart has been heavy. I watched at the attempts to discredit Trayvon’s parents - Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. I watched as they cried throughout the trial, my heart aching as Trayvon’s mother looked away when her son’s dead body was shown on the screen. I could see the immense pain in her eyes. .. And then there was Trayvon’s friend, Rachel Jeantel. I watched how Zimmerman’s defense attorney grilled Jeantel with unnecessary details. I noticed the mocking tone, and...

There’s no predicting what a jury will do. But whatever the George Zimmerman jury decides, Trayvon Martin’s parents have gotten justice for their son. Sabrina Fulton and Tracy Martin have forced the entire nation to look at the harm racial profiling can cause. Young black males die daily in urban areas across the country, and many of the people who are responsible for the deaths never set foot in a courtroom, let alone stand trial. These young black males are killed while standing on corners and riding buses. They are gunned down while sitting on porches and walking home from...

Posted from phone so no excerpt.

New Black Panther Party leader Malik Zulu ShabazzThe conservative blogosphere is brewing with ominous warnings about the inevitable riots they think will come if George Zimmerman is acquitted of charges related to his killing of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin. (My colleague Lauren Williams has rightly questioned this mania here.) An email this week from Everett Wilkinson, a former tea party leader in Florida who now runs something called the Nation Liberty Federation, outlines many of the leading (and recurring) conspiracy theories about the verdict's aftermath, which he naturally thinks will include riots: martial law. FEMA camps. But he offers up...

After all of the evidence, six women in a Florida courtroom will decide if a Community Watch volunteer went too far in taking the life of a teenager walking through a neighborhood on a rainy evening. It happened there. It could happen here. "I really encourage neighborhoods to get involved and report suspicious activities," says Harold Medlock, the Fayetteville police chief. "But that is where it needs to stop." Be vigilant, he says, but do not become a vigilante, else you may become another George Zimmerman, 29, whose confrontation with Trayvon Martin left the 17-year-old with a bullet through the...

White conservatives often criticize Black people for being too quick to play what they call "the race card." On the other hand, many Black people criticize America for not being sensitive enough to the reality that race plays in American life. George Zimmerman’s trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin clearly validates the Black community’s point of view. Trayvon Martin is dead for no other reason than he was born Black in America. That’s a non-debatable fact. Had he been a White kid, Trayvon would have still been alive today. Yet, even as the jury is out deliberating Zimmerman’s fate,...

Kingwood, Texas-My first stop in America was a little town called Brenham, TX in 1979. It is home of the Texas famous Blue Bell Ice Cream and Blinn Junior College. My ticket to study engineering in America was based on a music scholarship, but that’s another subject. I was a wet behind-the-ears black kid that spoke with an accent in a country town. The black American kids were suspicious of me, the white American kids were curious, and the Hispanic American kids giggled when I spoke to them in Spanish. I hung out with Peruvian, Argentinian, Guatemalan, and Venezuelan friends...