Free Republic

New Playgrounds Are Safe—and That's Why Nobody Uses Them The problem with safety guidelines is that they make most playgrounds so uninteresting as to contribute to reduced physical activity. Playgrounds don't look like they used to. Steep metal slides and wooden towers have given way to slow, plastic slides and carefully penned-in climbing contraptions. And forget about seesaws -- they're a thing of the past. When kids are bored by unimaginative (read: safe) playground equipment, they're less active as a result, and with childhood obesity at epidemic proportions, that's a danger, too. An interesting new investigation looks into this phenomenon....

How Liberalism May Be Hurting Comic Book Sales by Darin Wagner If you are a conservative like me, you’ve been reading fewer and fewer comic books over the last 12 years. For those of you who know what I’m talking about, the weekly visit to the comic book shop has become either an exercise in irritation or a monotonous drill. You pick up a superhero comic book featuring a childhood favorite of yours, hoping to reignite some of that magic you felt way back when and you see that the opening sequence in the comic deals with an oil rig...

Kwanzaa Is Wack: There, I Said It Kwanzaa is wack. The other day I said this on my Facebook page. Actually, what I said was:” Is it wrong of me to say that I love AFRICA, but I think Kwanzaa is wack? #ducksfromthebricks .” Now, when I said it, I meant it but gave no thought to how it might affect people. I’m kind of bad like that. A ton of people (some Black and some not) got on and said they thought Kwanzaa was wack to. I never thought about it again really. Just a funny little thread. Then...

Study: Gay Parents More Likely to Have Gay Kids (Oct. 17) -- Walter Schumm knows what he's about to do is unpopular: publish a study arguing that gay parents are more likely to raise gay children than straight parents. But the Kansas State University family studies professor has a detailed analysis that past almost aggressively ideological researchers never had. When one such researcher, Paul Cameron, published a paper in 2006 arguing that children of gay parents were more likely to be gay themselves, the response from the academic press was virulent, to say nothing of the popular press; the Southern...

Mural Ignites Debate on Race, Censorship in Arizona (June 5) -- An Arizona school mural designed to promote environmentally friendly transportation has ignited a debate about race and censorship of the arts. Officials at Miller Valley Elementary School in Prescott, Ariz., asked the painters of the mural to lighten the skin of children depicted after a city councilman denounced its prominent portrayal of ethnic minorities. Following protests, the principal apologized today for making the request. "Miller Valley made a mistake when we asked them to lighten the mural. We made a mistake," said Principal Jeff Lane. The mural shows children...

White Sorority Wins Step Competition, Then Told "Not Quite" By Boyce Watkins, PhD Feb 26th 2010 When the women of Zeta Tau Alpha won the Sprite Step Off national competition last week, they raised eye brows. People were not only intrigued because of their amazing abilities on the floor; people's necks were also turning because of the skin color of the champions. The white women of Zeta Tau Alpha have learned from the best and came with the best, dominating the competition and winning the national prize. My girl and protege at Bossip, Lady Drama, says that the women brought...

<p>A special NBC Black History Month lunch spread -- featuring fried chicken, collard greens and black-eyed peas -- sparked a commissary controversy yesterday, but the African-American chef who planned it doesn't understand the fuss.</p> <p>"All I wanted to do was make a meal that everyone would enjoy -- and that I eat myself," NBC cook Leslie Calhoun told The Post last night.</p>

Notre Dame uproar over anti-gay cartoon in student newspaper By DARA KELLY IrishCentral.com Staff Writer The University of Notre Dame is being rocked by a controversy over an anti-gay cartoon printed in the student-run newspaper, The Observer. The cartoon depicts a conversation between two figures that reads: “What’s the easiest way to turn a fruit into a vegetable?" “No idea.” “A baseball bat.” Earlier, the cartoonist, who has not yet been named, posted the original version of the cartoon on his blog. In this version, it shows the punch line as “AIDS” instead of “a baseball bat.” The paper, he...

When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like "Avatar"? Critics have called alien epic Avatar a version of Dances With Wolves because it's about a white guy going native and becoming a great leader. But Avatar is just the latest scifi rehash of an old white guilt fantasy. Spoilers... Whether Avatar is racist is a matter for debate. Regardless of where you come down on that question, it's undeniable that the film - like alien apartheid flick District 9, released earlier this year - is emphatically a fantasy about race. Specifically, it's a fantasy about race told from the point...

'Mexican Man' costume offends Latino shoppers, community groups By Sean Maher EMERYVILLE — A costume dubbed "Mexican Man" has offended Latino shoppers and community groups after being discovered at a Halloween chain store. The photo on the costume packaging shows a man with a thick mustache wearing a poncho and a sombrero. Oakland resident Monica Plazola said she discovered the costume last week at the Spirit Halloween store in Emeryville, which she was visiting with her two children, ages 7 and 9. "We were there at the store, with all kinds of costumes, and that was the only one identified...

Hotel Owner to Workers: No Spanish! By MELANIE DABOVICH, AP TAOS, N.M. (Oct. 26) -- Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel. The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names. No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark. Whitten's management style had worked for him...

Man escapes charges for barbecuing pet dog By Saeed Ahmed CNN (CNN) -- A man who roasted his pet dog to enjoy as a meal with his family and friends escaped prosecution after authorities in New Zealand determined the animal was killed humanely. "We were in a dilemma at seeing something we were fairly upset about -- but being in a position of being able to do absolutely nothing about it," said Garth Halliday, of the Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, on Monday. The SPCA -- which investigates acts of animal cruelty and presses charges --...

Fanatics let into UK during G20 By Ian Kirby, 05/04/2009 HOME Secretary Jacqui Smith's department is under fire for allowing two leading terrorist sympathisers to enter Britain. Both spoke at the House of Commons last week at a pro-Palestinian meeting organised by a far-left Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn. One is Hussein Al Hajj Hassan, a member of the political wing of Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. The other is Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Belgian Muslim firebrand who has published disgusting anti-Semitic cartoons. Alert One showed Adolf Hitler and 15-year-old Holocaust victim Anne Frank both naked in bed with the caption: "Write...

Gang kicked dog in air and threatened to do same to owner Lisa Kenyon March 20, 2009 A DOG was viciously attacked by a gang of youths while walking through Milnshaw Park, Accrington, with its owner. William Townsley, 66, was walking his 14-year-old partially-blind Cairn terrier Snoopy through the park at around 1pm on Monday. As he was passing the children’s play area, William said a group of around 18 Asian youths racially abused him, shouting obscenities before kicking the defenceless dog in the face and ribs. William, of Devonshire Street, Accrington, said: "I could hear them shouting racial obscenities...

I’m a Racist Coward! by Gary Graham I am appalled. I just found out that I am a racist and a coward and I did not know it. Eric Holder said yesterday, “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.” How could I have been so self-deluded? Wow. I know, huh? The things you find out about yourself if you just listen to newly appointed/elected government officials. I always thought that I treated...

"Rename, then abort terrorists" Whether you call it liberalism or progressivism, it still remains a twisted world view where up is down, good is bad, guilt is innocence, and sinner is saint. Case and point: our fresh ingenue president, Barack Hussein Obama, has stated his desire to heal the nation's discourse and to obliterate America's red state/blue state divisions. Yet, Obama's first acts as president include opening the floodgates of taxpayer dollars to fund international abortions and coddling murderous terrorists. So, according to Obama's worldview, innocent unborn babies are not entitled to any due process or rights whatsoever. Yet, the...

The LAPD's assault on SWAT Would you rather have an elite fighting force made up of the best cops, or of officers who 'look like L.A.'? By Robert C.J. Parry March 16, 2008 On a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2005, Jose Peña fueled himself with cocaine and grabbed a 9-millimeter pistol. Waving the gun at the head of his 19-month-old daughter, Suzie, he told the LAPD officers who arrived at the scene that he was Tony Montana -- the character played by Al Pacino in "Scarface" -- and that he was going to kill his daughter and himself....

(IsraelNN.com) A Belgian restaurant waiter threw out a 64-year-old American professor because he was wearing a skullcap [kipa], according to the European Jewish Press. "We are not serving Jews; [get] out of here," the waiter shouted at Marcel Kalmann after he entered the Le Paniel d'Or cafe in the city of Bruges The tourist went to another cafe, where the owners helped him call the police. A Belgian Jewish newspaper reported that Kalmann said he will lodge a complaint against the restaurant owner and against the police for telling him the incident was not anti-Semitic and that he could not...

Muslim group says Air Force Academy speakers use hate speech By: IVAN MORENO - Associated Press DENVER -- A Muslim advocacy group is decrying the U.S. Air Force Academy's decision to invite three former "terrorists" who the group said slam the religion with "hate-filled" rhetoric. The D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said one of the speakers, Walid Shoebat, has said that "Islam is the devil." Shoebat, along with Kamal Saleem and Zachariah Anani are scheduled to speak Wednesday at the 50th Annual Academy Assembly in Colorado Springs, where the topic of the four-day event is "Dismantling Terrorism." Maj. Brett Ashworth,...

Muslim group says Air Force Academy speakers use hate speech By: IVAN MORENO - Associated Press DENVER -- A Muslim advocacy group is decrying the U.S. Air Force Academy's decision to invite three former "terrorists" who the group said slam the religion with "hate-filled" rhetoric. The D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said one of the speakers, Walid Shoebat, has said that "Islam is the devil." Shoebat, along with Kamal Saleem and Zachariah Anani are scheduled to speak Wednesday at the 50th Annual Academy Assembly in Colorado Springs, where the topic of the four-day event is "Dismantling Terrorism." Maj. Brett Ashworth,...

One in four Britons don't believe wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill existed, according to a recent survey. Churchill is compared to Florence Nightingale and Sir Walter Raleigh, seen by many survey respondents as a mythical person, the London Daily Mail reported Monday. The survey, conducted with 3,000 respondents to test their general knowledge, reported other historical figures such as Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, Cleopatra and the Duke of Wellington were made up for books and films, the Mail reported. The survey, by UKTV Gold, also found that Sherlock Holmes was a real person.

My Spanish is rusty, but it doesn't take much for me to understand that Hillary is pandering to the illegal alien lobby. Here is the description about this video: "Nuestra Amiga" señala que Hillary es la candidata que entiende tanto a la comunidad latina, como los problemas a los que se enfrenta -- falta de cuidado de salud, la crisis económica, y los altos costos de vida. Note: Go to the link provided if you really want to watch this she-devil pander to the illegal alien lobby and sell out America.

The Legacy of Multiculturalism by Bridget Geegan Blanton In a manner as openly deceitful as the ACLU, .... .... Islamic extremist front groups are abusing the court system as they deride the true meaning of the first amendment, and drag it through the dirt with petty grievance lawsuits that scarcely conceal their primary intent, which is to suppress free speech. These groups cloak themselves with a smokescreen of multiculturalism and lash out virulently against the slightest criticism with legal blowback designed to deflect scrutiny from the inner workings of their organizations. This legal ploy is being played out in every...

'Three Little Pigs CD' banned from Government-backed awards for offending Muslims and builders By SARAH HARRIS A story based on The Three Little Pigs has been rejected by a Government-backed awards event because it might offend Muslims... and builders. The digital book, retelling the classic children's tale, was criticised by judges who said "the use of pigs raises cultural issues". They also claimed the award-winning CD-rom, entitled The Three Little Cowboy Builders, might "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)". The "virtual" book is designed for use on computers and interactive whiteboards and aimed at primary school children. Its publishers,...

'Cave man' causes trouble for nursing home A 54-year-old Norwegian man who once lived in a cave and refuses to wash is now creating a health risk at an Oslo nursing home, claim its operators. A local court has ruled, however, that he can't be forced to keep himself clean. A lawyer for the so-called "cave man" (long known as hulemannen in Oslo) told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) on Friday that his client was "relieved and very satisfied" by the court ruling in his favour. "He has waited a long time, and can now finally decide over his own body," lawyer...

Halal food in US schools BSS, New York The powerful US Senate (sic) is likely to witness a bill from Democrat Senator John Sabini, who is pursuing to ensure 'halal food' for Muslim students in schools of the city and the state as well. "The 'Halal Food Bill' will be placed before the State Senate shortly," John said at a fund-raising meeting in the city on Thursday. Bangladesh Expatriates in New York organised the programme, where John Sabini also said that he and some other Democrat senators have been trying their best to raise funds from US business community for...

Woman artist gets death threats over gay Muslim photos Matthew Campbell THE Dutch were debating the limits of freedom of expression last week after an artist who photographed gay men wearing masks of the prophet Muhammad was forced into hiding and her work removed from a museum exhibit. Speaking on the telephone from an unspecified location in the Netherlands last week, the artist, an Iranian exile who goes by the pseudonym of Sooreh Hera, said she had been threatened with “execution”. She accused the director of the municipal museum in The Hague of cowardice for caving in to Muslim extremists....

Lost "Mohammed" Dog Poster Left in Front of Muslim This happened in Lewiston, Maine, the same place where a ham steak left on a lunch bag was investigated as a hate crime. Check out the phone number on the poster, Tommy Tutone now wanted for questioning.... LEWISTON (NEWS CENTER) -- Members of the Somali community in Lewiston say a poster put up in front of a local Somali owned store is an insult to their religion The poster depicts a vicious "lost" dog named Mohammed. That's the name of the Muslim prophet. It says that the dog is not good...

Lake Superior State University 2008 List of Banished Words This year, in a gesture of humanitarian relief, the committee restores "truthiness," banned on last year's list, to formal use. This comes after comedians and late-night hosts were thrown under the bus and rendered speechless by a nationwide professional writers' strike. The silence is deafening. PERFECT STORM – "Overused by the pundits on evening TV shows to mean just about any coincidence." – Lynn Allen, Warren, Michigan. "I read that 'Ontario is a perfect storm,' in reference to a report on pollution levels in the Great Lakes. Ontario is the name...

Pig heads at Islamic school site Last Updated: Wednesday, 28 November 2007 Two pig heads have been stuck on metal stakes outside the site of a planned Islamic school in Australia's largest city. A passer-by reported that the heads had been placed near an Australian flag at an empty site in Camden, a suburb of Sydney. Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims and the act was described as a "display of hatred". Detective Inspector Paul Albury said police were seeking information about a person who used a citizen's band radio to claim responsibility for the pig heads. More News Bush...

State Representative District 51 40 of 40 Precincts 100% Joe Harrison 4,338 57% Carla Dartez (I) 3,276 43% (I) denotes incumbent candidate

Freedom Middle School Orlando school uses extra-sensitive dog as counselor for students Mr. Harv instinctively picks up on body language, facial expressions and tone of voice. Susan Jacobson Sentinel Staff Writer November 9, 2007 When Mr. Harv goes to school, he spends his time playing ball, sitting on students' laps and lying down on the job. It's all in a day's work for Harv, Freedom Middle School's unofficial mascot and Central Florida's only known full-time canine counselor. At Freedom, every day is a dog day. Students greet Harv with hearty "hellos" and a vigorous belly rub. If there's a crisis...

MISS MANNERS It's best to ignore strangers who shout their prejudices Judith Martin Miss Manners November 8, 2007 Dear Miss Manners: This evening I found myself waiting in line with two young men who proceeded loudly to proclaim at least five different countries they would like to bomb, and advocated reintroducing the draft so that everyone else would have to share their "sacrifice." They then loudly branded several political figures they disapproved of with a crude word. I bit my tongue and waited quietly. Then the people in front of me joined in and, incredibly, they all complained about how...

Afghan blasphemy suspect arrested Agence France Presse KABUL: An Afghan official accused of misinterpreting the Holy Quran in a translation of the holy book was arrested trying to cross into Pakistan Sunday, a day after parliament banned him from travelling, the attorney general said. Mohammad Ghaws Zalmai, a spokesman for attorney general Abdul Jabar Sabet, was picked up at the Torkham border crossing in the early morning, Sabet told reporters in Kabul. "Ghaws Zalmai was arrested at the border gate as he was crossing into Pakistan," he said. Sabet said he had also ordered the arrest of a Kabul preacher,...

Christians laud Walt, criticize Disney Co. Religious filmmakers study the innovator's virtues but say his firm forgot family values. From Reuters October 23, 2007 Hundreds of Christian filmmakers gathered in Texas on Monday to study the work of Walt Disney and discuss their belief that his corporate heirs at Walt Disney Co. have strayed from his family-friendly legacy. The Christian Filmmakers Academy, which trains aspiring filmmakers and promotes films with "biblical values," contends that Disney Co. has become "an engine of cultural decline after Walt's death" that exercises an alarmingly vast global influence. The two-day analysis of Disney, the man...

Quebec legislature bans word 'weathervane' Speaker says its hurtful and a slur after Charest called Dumont a weathervane one too many times October 16, 2007 THE CANADIAN PRESS QUEBEC – Politicians in Quebec's legislature will have to come up with a new way to slag their opponents now that the word "weathervane" has been added to the list of unparliamentary language. Speaker Michel Bissonnet judged the word to be "hurtful" as the legislature resumed Tuesday after the summer break. Premier Jean Charest has called Opposition Leader Mario Dumont a weathervane on numerous occasions recently, elevating him on Tuesday to "national...

A veteran San Francisco police officer is under departmental investigation - and could be suspended - for writing a letter to The Chronicle criticizing the way Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Police Department are handling the homeless problem in Golden Gate Park. According to police sources, Sgt. John Lewis of Park Station is being investigated for authoring a letter that "undermines the efficiency of the department." Lewis' letter, published on The Chronicle's editorial page Aug. 15, questioned the Newsom administration's tactic of sending cops and outreach workers into the park before dawn to steer campers into social programs or, if...

Psychiatric Association Releases Final Report on "Lee Bollinger's Disease" By William S. Smith : 03 Oct 2007 (SATIRENEWSSERVICE) The World Psychiatric Association (WPA) today issued its long-awaited, massive study on Intelligentsia Derangement Disorder (IDD). Known popularly as Lee Bollinger's Disease, IDD is characterized by profound disruption in cognition involving the most fundamental human attributes: language, thought, perception and desire for self preservation. The disease has been found in epidemic proportions on university campuses. The WPA study, which included extensive case histories of every single academic in the United States and Western Europe, reports that 99.99999% of all, non-economist social science...

Men get 7000 lashes for sodomy From correspondents in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 04, 2007 08:56pm TWO men in Saudi Arabia have been sentenced to 7000 lashes each after being convicted of sodomy and have received their first round of punishment in public, a newspaper said today. The men, who were not identified, were meted out an unspecified number of lashes in public in the the southwestern city of Al-Bahah on Tuesday evening, the Al-Okaz daily reported. They were then returned to prison where they are to be held until the full punishment is completed, the newspaper added, without saying...

Judge Rules for Bearded DC Firefighters By SARAH KARUSH – 21 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday struck down a requirement that firefighters in the District of Columbia be clean-shaven. A group of firefighters who wear beards for religious reasons first sued in 2001 to challenge the fire department's "grooming policy." That policy was replaced with a safety policy in 2005 that held that beards are not compatible with breathing units because they make it impossible to form a tight seal around the face. U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that the district did not meet...

Student tears Mexican flag; suspect remains at large 9/19/07 by Jeremy Hunt Daily Lobo A student took down a Mexican flag from a flagpole outside Scholes Hall Monday, tore it and took it to the Air Force ROTC office, police said. A summons was issued for Peter Lynch, 30, by the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court for criminal damage to property, said Lt. Pat Davis, spokesman for UNM Police. Davis said Lynch is not a member of ROTC, and it is unclear why he took the flag to that office. Lynch has not been charged because UNMPD cannot find him, Davis...

McGreevey tells wife: You'll get zilch from me BY ADAM NICHOLS DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Saturday, September 15th 2007, 4:00 AM Jim McGreevey yesterday accused his soon-to-be-ex wife of "greedily" grabbing at the perks of being New Jersey's First Lady - and refusing to give them back. In legal papers packed with snide and catty comments, the openly gay McGreevey told estranged wife Dina Matos McGreevey she can expect to get nothing from him. Matos McGreevey had asked him to pony up $4,000 a month in alimony to help her live a lavish lifestyle like his. "Her jealousy and contempt...

Bush apologizes to Wiccan widow Published: Sept 2, 2007 at 10:16 AM WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush apologized to a Nevada Wiccan who was left out of a presidential meeting with relatives of soldiers killed in combat. Rebecca Stewart, who sued to have the Wiccan symbol placed on her husband’s grave marker in a military cemetery, told The Washington Post the president called her to apologize. She said she explained to Bush the faith she and her husband shared. Sgt. Patrick Stewart was killed in Afghanistan in 2005. Stewart said she heard about the private meeting...

Artist defends Osama-as-Jesus ELIZBETH FORTESCUE, SYDNEY August 30, 2007 02:15am THE Queensland artist behind a controversial work depicting terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden morphing into Jesus today invited those considering her work to look a little more deeply than the obvious comparison of good and evil. Priscilla Bracks denied she had deliberately set out to be offensive. "Absolutely not, no, no. I am not interested in being offensive. I am interested in having a discussion and asking questions about how we think about our world and what we accept and what we don't accept," she told ABC radio. The Prime...

Hallway rape went unreported by neighbors Surveillance video shows that five to 10 people in the St. Paul apartment building saw a man attack a woman - but did nothing. By Anthony Lonetree and Pat Pheifer, Star Tribune Last update: August 24, 2007 – 8:37 AM The video shows what most witnesses in a St. Paul apartment building apparently didn't tell. A man beat a woman, removed his pants and sexually assaulted her in a hall, and five to 10 people saw at least part of the attack but did nothing to intervene or help, according to investigators and court...

FReep This Poll! Do you think the term 'anchor babies' is racist or hate speech? Yes No Not sure Link over to the North County Times/The Califorian link provided. Scroll down a bit and look for the poll on the right hand side. Vote your choice. This poll should remain active for the next 24 hours (approximately.)

What Does G.I. Joe Stand For? More details surface on the live-action film. by Stax August 24, 2007 - Who needs A Real American Hero? Not Paramount or Hasbro it seems. The studio's live-action feature film version of G.I. Joe will no longer revolve around a top-secret U.S. special forces team but rather an international operation. In a follow-up to their confirmation that Stephen Sommers will direct G.I. Joe, Variety offers this new description of the team: "G.I. Joe is now a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, an international co-ed force of operatives who use...

Stop The Apologizing Already Apologies must be in this year, Danes sorry for looting and pillaging MORE than 1200 years ago hordes of bloodthirsty Viking raiders descended on Ireland, pillaging monasteries and massacring the inhabitants. On Wednesday, one of their more mild-mannered descendants stepped ashore to apologise. The Danish Minister for Culture, Brian Mikkelson, who was in Dublin to celebrate the arrival of a replica Norse longboat, apologised for the invasion and destruction inflicted. "In Denmark we are certainly proud of this ship but we are not proud of the damage to the people of Ireland that followed in the...

South Park: The Best of the Bleeping Best Monday, August 13, 2007 By TODD VANDERWERFF The Press-Enterprise Picking the 10 best "South Park" episodes is hard work. But they pay us to do these things so you don't have to, so grab your Cheesy Poofs and join us for our chronological top 10. 'Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods' The early, wackier seasons of "South Park" aren't as good as the more satirical later years, but this episode (originally aired Sept. 2, 1998) turns on one of Cartman's ultimate temper tantrums and features very funny business at a...

'South Park' leaves crude, rude stamp on TV after 10 years Monday, August 13, 2007 By TODD VANDERWERFF The Press-Enterprise Until 10 years ago today, no one knew what a reference to killing Kenny meant, and most children on TV were sweet and mild-mannered. But on the night of Aug. 13, 1997, when "South Park" debuted on Comedy Central and became an instant hit, all of that changed. Now in its 11th season with another batch of new episodes arriving in October, "South Park" has gone from sensation to institution. Adam Simmons, a fan of the show who lives in...