Free Republic

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January 25, 2012 (LiveAction.org) - Recently I’ve been discussing the correlation between the problem of emancipating slaves in the American South, and the problem of ending abortion in our country. While most pro-lifers agree abortion must be ended as soon as possible, it doesn’t change the fact that an extra one million babies per year, many born to mothers with limited resources or parenting skills, will put a great strain on federal assistance and social welfare programs. The first part of the solution to this problem is far-reaching and, admittedly, far-fetched. It involves changing the way young people view personal...

Here is the latest skirmish in the ongoing Defining Deviancy Down, to borrow from the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. At WalMart today, I saw for the 3rd or fourth time an in-the-aisle display of KY's latest product, "Date Night." It even has its own link at WalMart.com. It looks like KY is marketing the daylights out of this product (npi), which includes discounts on movie tickets. Call me old-fashioned (no, that's not an action item) but is this the right message to pass on to the general public? Where's the decorum? The concern for the children? Is Nancy Reagan's...

LET's SHOW LOVE TO PEOPLE THIS DAY and EVERY DAY!! GOD BLESS US ALL!

.....[William]Bennett introduces The Book of Man:Readings on the Path to Manhood with tidings of oy. [snip] JamesFreemanClarke (1810–1888), an American theologian and essayist, limned the distinctions between true and false manliness. His essay is a particularly interesting glimpse of the 19th-century ideal, since 20th-century feminism has worked so hard to persuade us that the “patriarchy” taught men to be tyrants and emotional stiffs. "[Manliness]expresses the qualities which go to make a perfect man — truth, courage, conscience, freedom, energy, self-possession, self-control. But it does not exclude gentleness, tenderness, compassion, modesty. A man is not less manly, but more so, because...

December 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Few things annoy pro-lifers more than being told by supporters of the practice of killing unborn children in their mothers’ wombs that they need to be more “civil.” “How about you stop ripping babies apart limb from limb, and then we’ll consider being ‘nice’!” we’re tempted to say. Fair enough. But what if a diehard pro-life advocate who works fulltime as an editor for a pro-life and pro-family news website (i.e. me) said that pro-lifers could stand to be more “civil”? Not all pro-lifers, of course. Or even most of them. Heck, there are people...

Newt Gingrich is adamant that he is not a lobbyist, but rather a visionary who traffics in ideas, not influence. But in the eight years since he started his health care consultancy, he has made millions of dollars while helping companies promote their services and gain access to state and federal officials. In a variety of instances, documents and interviews show, Mr. Gingrich arranged meetings between executives and officials, and salted his presentations to lawmakers with pitches for his clients, who pay as much as $200,000 a year to belong to his Center for Health Transformation. When the center sponsored...

I am now officially a self-declared member of the “Not Romney” camp. I will absolutely, positively support Mitt Romney should he win the GOP nomination, but I believe the GOP would meet certain doom if he is the nominee. Therefore, should Gingrich be the only other choice, I’d side with Gingrich over Romney. But I think in the next few weeks conservatives must ask themselves if they are ready to forgive Newt his sins. I’m not talking about his adultery and wives. I’m not really even talking about his ego. What I am talking about is only tangentially related to...

Ever since the conclusion of the FAMiLY Leader’s presidential forum eleven days ago, a handful of presidential candidates, the media, and social conservatives from all across Iowa have been waiting for hear who Bob Vander Plaats and his pro-family organization will publically support. Waiting for word from Vander Plaats seems a lot like waiting for the white smoke to spew out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Just as is the case in the election of a new pope to lead the Catholic Church, political observers are left to only speculate about what is transpiring at the FAMiLY Leader’s...

Republicans who don't want to vote for Mitt Romney had rallied behind the Atlanta businessman, but his campaign has been rocked by accusations of an affair. And the former House speaker has a marital track record of his own. ...Gingrich has vaulted into the top tier on the basis of his performance in televised debates, which have largely driven Republican voter preferences this year... But an indication of discomfort in some quarters over Gingrich's rise came Tuesday when a new attack on the former House speaker surfaced online from a group calling itself Iowans for Christian Leaders in Government. ...."Newt...

Sex Week at Yale University has been canceled after efforts made by students from “Let’s Strengthen Marriage - National Marriage Week,” a national campaign to encourage people to strengthen marriages. Eduardo Andino, the co-founder of the Undergraduates for a Better Yale College (UBYC) along with other undergraduates, were behind the campaign to remove Sex Week at Yale campuses. The Sex Week at Yale is a biennial event that was originally organized by students in 2002. Proclaimed to be “an interdisciplinary sex education program designed to pique students’ interest,” the Sex Week explores love, sex and relationship by focusing on how...

Details about the new sex education curriculum in New York City public schools are out -- and some are concerned the lessons are too racy. The New York Post obtained workbooks that will be used for the new recommended curriculum, which begins in middle schools and high schools around the city next spring. Parents, they say, may be shocked by details of the work. Middle school students will be assigned "risk cards" that rate the safety of different activities, the paper says, from French kissing to oral sex. The workbooks for older students direct them to a website run by...

The most common justification for the Shalit deal is to wear it as a perverse badge of moral nobility. "What other country would exchange a thousand terrorists for one man." This is a close cousin of the argument that says the United States treating terrorists with kid gloves proves that it is nobler than them. Both of these insufferable arguments are symptoms of the moral decline of civilization. If the life of a single soldier is more important than the battle, then why have battles or soldiers at all? We don't send soldiers out to fight because we think that...

Wasn't sure exactly Where this post belonged so I hope I'm in the right place!? The other night I turned on the tv and was greeted with an up close shot of a couple kissing. As the camera panned outward, the scene was of two 'guys' sitting on a couch with their arms around each other .. going at it like two boars in heat! The show is a regular which I've never seen and which I Will Never See again. The show is/was "The Good Wife". Tonight, I turn to FX (Fox) a few minutes before the movie "District...

A sociologist from the University of Notre Dame published a study gauging the moral thinking of 18-23 year olds. The results are depressing and for this father of five, they’re scary. David Brooks of the New York Times summarized the study, saying that moral thinking to a large extent was considered a relative matter or not considered at all, even regarding issues such as cheating on a partner or drunken driving. Brooks writes that “when asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not...

Last week, David Brooks of the New York Times wrote a column on an academic study concerning the nearly complete lack of a moral vocabulary among most American young people. Here are excerpts from Brooks’s summary of the study of Americans aged 18 to 23. It was led by “the eminent Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith”: ● “Smith and company asked about the young people’s moral lives, and the results are depressing.” ● “When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not moral...

[snip] "This nation has to be governed by someone's values, so let's have Christian values guide" us, Perry said quietly. This was Rick Perry standing tall and proud -- proud to be an American, proud to be a Christian, proud to stand for "a life of consequence" and "faith." And when he advised the students that each, individually, was "a spiritual being meant to live in relationship with God and one another," Philip Rucker of the Washington Post rolled his eyes so hard that he spent the rest of the convocation looking like a character out of the Little Orphan...

Churches across France have become overrun by tourists in skimpy beachwear, showing off bare stomachs and wearing baseball caps, according to priests who have spoken out about the drop in standards. A report in regional newspaper Midi Libre claims that religious leaders have tired of the increasingly disrespectful dress codes of some visitors. “Our church is right by the beach,” said Father Martin Gabet of the Notre Dame des Anges de Collioure church, close to the Spanish border. “As a result, lots of people come in wearing their swimwear. There have even been people who come in just to change...

A South Carolina megachurch pastor has chosen to press through the awkwardness and talk about what an increasing number of churches have been addressing from the pulpit – sex. Pastor Perry Noble of NewSpring Church made it clear to his congregation that when it comes to sex, the church has a lot to learn. "Let's just be honest. Sexual immorality is in the house," he told his congregation, adding that he has seen sexual immorality at each of the three churches he has served. "We can't get mad at people that aren't Christians because they act like they're not Christians....

Every society has its red lines. Areas that are off limits. Behaviors that are unacceptable. Lines that should not be crossed. And the left has progressively dismantled the red lines that constrain it, while seizing control of the infrastructure that marks out a society's red lines. By controlling that cultural infrastructure, the left can insure that all of a society's remaining standards are double standards. The inability to hold the left accountable for its actions is traceable back to this lack of standards. How does one call for accountability when there is no objective standard to measure the wrongness of...