Free Republic

Culture Challenge of the Week: Poll-Driven “Principles” The American people are not stupid. Recently, President Obama announced he’d discovered a new conviction in favor of homosexual marriage (conveniently timed to maximize his standing at a $15 million Hollywood fundraiser among the liberal glitterati). It was nothing more than a blatant attempt to fire up his base, particularly young liberal and independent voters: If they don’t vote, Mr. Obama loses big-time. But the American people are not buying into his pandering. A CBS/New York Times poll found that 67 percent of all Americans think Mr. Obama’s announcement was “mostly for political...

Kool-Aid. It conjures up contradictory images.  On the one hand, it brings to mind thirsty gulps, drink-stained lips, and happy children.  On the other, it suggests the shadow of the Jonestown massacre, where a cult leader killed his followers, including children, by spiking their sugary drinks with poison.  It tasted good going down but led to inevitable death. These days, too many of our children are drinking spiked Kool-Aid. ] And it’s being served to them by unwitting educators, dysfunctional celebrities, government leaders, and the whole of pop culture. What’s in the Kool-Aid? The sweet flavor of unrestrained sexual pleasure...

I'm penning this column from Australia where I was privileged to speak a few days ago at an event at Parliament House celebrating Australia's National Marriage Day. As in America, marriage in Australia is under attack by homosexual activists who seek to shoehorn their lifestyle choices into a shoe that will never fit: marriage. They want the law-and public opinion--to redefine marriage to include homosexual sex as something good, the moral equivalent of marital sexuality expressed by a husband and a wife. Pro-family Australians are blessed with charismatic leaders like MP's Bob Katter and Kevin Andrews, and pro-family advocate Babette...

Two weeks ago, New York’s legislature imposed its radical redefinition of marriage on its citizens:  homosexual ‘marriages’ now have legal approval and will happen by month’s end.  The law affirms the  messages of homosexual advocates who say that the sexual union of homosexual pairs is as natural and moral as that of a married husband and wife, and that children don’t need a mom and a dad.  But the damage doesn’t stop there. From the homosexual perspective, two lesbians, two homosexual men or indeed any combination of transgendered adults can parent as effectively as a family headed up by a mom...

Nobody ever said being a parent is easy. But do politicians have to make it harder? Here I've been all these years, teaching my three children that you can't get something for nothing. If youwant something, you have to work for it. Now along comes the Senate to debate an immigration bill that would undermine that very principle. It's a simple question of mathematics. The Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector – probably the most widely quoted expert in the country on immigration – has crunched the numbers and figured out the average illegal immigrant family receives about $30,000 annually in government...

In the two weeks since I first wrote about the human-cloning amendment on the ballot in Missouri, the debate has really heated up.? Actor Michael J. Fox grabbed headlines by taping a TV ad asking voters there to approve Amendment 2. The amendment is designed ?to ensure that Missouri patients have access to [embryonic] stem cell therapies.? These therapies, we?re led to believe, will bring cures for terrible diseases such as the Parkinson?s that, sadly, has stricken Fox and many others.Then the ever-brave and straight-talking Rush Limbaugh spoke out against this ad, surmising that Fox had deliberately gone off the...

It was parents' orientation at my son's new college when the young co-ed introduced her academic pursuit as "Women's Studies." My son and I sat stone-faced, desperately trying to hold back the smirks we knew would reveal our thoughts about the absurdity of such an "intellectual, academic" pursuit.  "Where are the degrees in 'Men's Studies'?" I wanted to ask. Of course, there aren't any. Only the pro-lesbian, egocentric, sexually perverse "Women's Studies" majors and minors are considered politically correct. The clear bigotry and plain ridiculousness of such classes, and the messages they send our college men and women, seemed lost...

Liberals and libertarians like to ask, "How can the relationship of two people who love each other but are the same sex be detrimental to society?" How does porn hurt you or me? How does smoking pot hurt my community? What is the impact of casual sex or general filth on TV to my family? Perhaps George Will said it best when he wrote, "Some pleasures are contemptible because they are coarsening. They are not merely private vices; they have public consequences in driving the culture's downward spiral." All the vices listed above in some way do touch our lives....

By WES ALLISON, Times Staff Writer Published February 28, 2005 WASHINGTON - It was cold and snowy outside the Heritage Foundation, the nation's leading conservative think tank, but the rhetoric inside was collar-tugging hot. The entitlement state has replaced personal responsibility for too many black Americans. So-called civil rights leaders are too quick to blame racism for dysfunction within the black community, rather than an urban culture that often rejects education and glorifies vulgarity. Although it is getting easier, African-Americans are still too timid about speaking out for the right, for fear of being tarred as turncoats and Uncle Toms....

Parents beware!Rebecca Hagelin (archive) February 11, 2005 | Print | Send Parents, does the school your children attend feature a sex-education program that’s billed as “abstinence-based” or “abstinence-plus”? If so, you may be under the understandable impression that it tells teens, in clear-cut language, that they’re not ready for sex. That they should wait. That it focuses on … well, abstinence.But a major study from The Heritage Foundation, “Comprehensive Sex Education vs. Authentic Abstinence: A Study of Competing Curricula,” shows that isn’t the case. Like “People for the American Way” or “Planned Parenthood,” the label “abstinence-plus” is a flat-out lie....

Four activist judges in Massachusetts may have just marked the beginning of the end for America. How? By destroying the building block of society, and replacing it with nothing more than straw. To redefine marriage – the very core of what we know as family – is to wreak havoc on every other institution that holds our country together. From the legal system, to interstate commerce, to health care, to your neighborhood, everything would eventually fall apart. Why? Because the nuclear family – starting with the marriage of one man and one woman – is the very foundation of the...

A lot of folks I know who have teen-age kids actually hire a housekeeper or cleaning company to do the dirty work around their homes. Not me. Nope – it seems immoral to pay another adult to clean up after healthy children. Although life would be a lot easier at the moment if we could arrive home to magically clean home, in the end, I know I'd be teaching my kids to be irresponsible and lazy. Unfortunately, it seems too many folks have gotten used to someone else cleaning up after them. In our home, the message is loud and...

I've often wondered what exactly Albert Gore envisioned when he was, um, "inventing" the Internet. Did he see it as the ultimate book of lists? As the world's yellow pages? As the ultimate source of up-to-date sports statistics? Seriously, it seems unlikely Gore or anyone else expected the Internet to turn out as it has. What began as a project of the Department of Defense to gather and organize national security information has become a powerful worldwide marketplace of ideas, products and information the likes of which – even 10 years ago – man could not fathom. Considering its enormous...

It's been four years now, and the District of Columbia caseworkers – no strangers to horrific stories of child abuse and neglect – still can't get over the incident. Two brothers – ages five and three – lay down for a nap in their mother's house. When she went in to awaken them, she found the boys engaged in oral sex. Further investigation revealed they'd learned this from a neighborhood man who often visited their home and cared for them when their mother was away. No prison sentence could be too long for this man. The damage he inflicted on...

Have you ever been asleep on a plane, only to be rudely awaken by a sudden jolt? One minute, it's smooth flying. The next, BAM! The plane hits some air pocket and falls fast enough to nearly bounce you out of your seat. Within seconds the pilot's authoritative voice is heard gently reassuring you that he's in the process of taking the plane to an altitude of smoother air. If you're like most people, you feel much better knowing that the plane is no longer on auto-pilot: The sudden jolt has caused the pilot to take full control. Lately, I've...

My husband and I have always been blessed with enough of an income that the educational choices we make for our kids are based more on our children's needs than on what is "affordable." We also both share a commitment to jointly take the responsibility for making sure our kids are taught in whatever manner is best for them at a given time in their lives. We've kept on top of the ever-growing choices in education and taken advantage of them – we've had our children in public schools, private schools and we even homeschooled them for five years. My...

One recent fine spring morning as I started to leave for work, I found that the police had left little presents on both my husband's car and my car. Apparently, we missed – by two days – the deadline to renew the state license plates. Two days. As it turns out, my car was also ticketed a second time before I could obtain the blasted sticker. The final sum owed the government was now a whopping $180 dollars, plus the cost of the two sticker fees. No mercy for residents who live on a numbered street where notices are lost...

Politicians will tell you there are certain things in America that you just can't oppose. You can't be against mom or apple pie or jobs. You can't be against good schools or clean air or low crime rates. You might expect to find marriage on the list. But as President Bush has learned ever since he floated a modest initiative to promote marriage among poor Americans, some people – ones who don't think the words "wedded" and "bliss" belong within 100 miles of each other – are willing to trash society's most venerable institution. The president wants to spend $300...

Politicians will tell you there are certain things in America that you just can't oppose. You can't be against mom or apple pie or jobs. You can't be against good schools or clean air or low crime rates. You might expect to find marriage on the list. But as President Bush has learned ever since he floated a modest initiative to promote marriage among poor Americans, some people – ones who don't think the words "wedded" and "bliss" belong within 100 miles of each other – are willing to trash society's most venerable institution. The president wants to spend $300...

Sex, sadness and suicideRebecca Hagelin (archive) June 5, 2003 | Print | SendEven those TV viewers who consider themselves big fans of the teen soaps – "Beverly Hills 90210," "Party of Five" and the now-defunct "Dawson's Creek" – must have realized that something about the way those shows depicted sex just didn't ring true. The "cool" kids, the kids everyone wanted to be like, were the ones who "did it." Supposedly, they were tough enough and strong enough to have sex and then walk away. They were able to "do it" for "its" sake. They didn't have to get involved...