Free Republic

Michelle Obama is sharing her rules for finding Mr. Right. For starters: Looks aren't everything. "Cute's good," the First Lady tells the new issue Glamour magazine, out November 10. "But cute only lasts for so long, and then it's, 'Who are you as a person?'" According to Mrs. O, women shouldn't be concerned with the "bankbook" or "the title," but instead focus on the heart and soul of the person they're interested in. "You should always feel good," Obama says. Obama, who is the covergirl of Glamour's December issue, donned a stunning bright red dress for shoot and is...

Jewish Speed Dating Queen Expands London, New York, Paris, Israel Events By Gayla Goodman Israel News Agency Tel Aviv, Israel ---- October 17, 2009 ..... Speed dating, a highly popular, formalized dating system whose purpose is to encourage people to meet a large number of new people traces its origins to Rabbi Yaacov Deyo of Aish HaTorah. The Rabbi has said it was originally created as a way to help Jewish singles meet and marry. Today, Michal Matityahu, a native of Tel Aviv is ensuring that Rabbi Deyo work is carried on and expanded. "I saw a need to bring...

Looking for romance? Head to Honolulu. But if you are single, like live music, boutique hotels and want a wild weekend, New Orleans is the city to visit. In its latest survey of America's favorite cities Travel and Leisure magazine asked readers to pick the best places for everything from the most attractive, intelligent, stylish and the friendliest people to where to find the best museums, restaurants, bars, museums and affordable hotels. "The big news this year is that New Orleans received the most number one rankings over New York," said Travel and Leisure Assistant Editor Stirling Kelso. ...The city...

With the holidays fast approaching, is the "Singles Thread" coming back. It was a good thread with a lot of interesting people. What say we bring it back???

Even Power isn't THAT Strong an Aphrodisiac OMG. Janet Napolitano has made the list of D.C.'s Most Eligible Singles. To help out the romance seekers, POLITICO has highlighted 20 of Washington's most eligible singles. They're cute and connected, charming and compelling. To be sure, many won't be single for long so it's best to work on your pickup lines now. Golly, that's how I've always thought of Janet...cute, charming and compelling. And I'm sure that Politico is right she "won't be single for long"...I'm sure she's just looking for the right man to come along...er, well, whatever. Here's her write...

Dear Carrie: My husband died recently, and it's just me now. Who will look out for me if I have issues with Medicare or Social Security? -- A Reader Dear Reader: My heart goes out to you as you adjust to the loss of your husband. The death of a loved one can make everything else pale in significance. But as your question implies, you still need to deal with the practical and financial issues in life, and those can seem a lot more difficult when facing them alone. At this time, it's really important to reach out to friends,...

Dating when money's tight can be a challenge. You want to make a big impression and not look like a cheapskate. With a bit of creativity, you can keep things interesting without overspending. Here are 10 ways to plan a cheap date, plus dozens of ideas to get you started. Many are free, and none should cost more than $20 total:

A 48-year-old Utica, Michigan man has been charged with a disorderly conduct after he used his 7-year-old son to try and meet women in a park. Utica police Detective Sgt. David Faber said the man instructed his son on Sunday evening to ask women in Grant Park "if they would like to meet his dad so he could have a mother." "Dad orchestrated this. He would send him up to different women, and when he would get turned down by the women, the 7-year-old would begin to cry and try to see if they would feel sorry for him and...

Update: As several commenters point out, this isn’t an ad directly served by FacebookFacebook, but rather one from a third-party ad network that operates within the social network. Facebook also uses member photos in ads, but this particular mis-match is not directly their fault and could be a violation of TOS. Apologies for the confusion, the original article is below: At times, Facebook ads can be clever and useful, for example, seeing that some of your friends are fans of a brand that’s advertising on your homepage. Other times, they can seem somewhat odd and irrelevant, if not incredibly...

Osama says, "Before I found this site my love was limited to beast of the field."

The days of Sex and the City's influence are long gone. From Tina Fey's fake prude to Sarah Palin's real power play, here's why strong women just aren't that into having sex with you anymore. Brilliant, funny, and powerful women are retreating from sex as never before, and if you don't believe it, take the curious case of Liz Lemon. The most complicated and intelligent woman in television comedy barely ever has sex. She doesn't sit on laps, either — "not a lap sitter," she tells one handsome date she brings home in the first season. (He turns out to...

Unmarried Americans Tend to Be Democrats NEW GALLUP POLL July 13, 2009 Those never, married, single, or divorced or live in domestic partnership go heavily for Democrats. How do Republicans capture this vote? Or could it be captured at all while staying true to Republican principles of traditional values, limited government, and strong national security

(CNN) -- Wendy Duren thought she did everything right. Wendy Duren says she doesn't get as much sleep but loves her adopted daughter, Madison. Wendy Duren says she doesn't get as much sleep but loves her adopted daughter, Madison. She broke off relationships with men who didn't want to settle down. She refused to get pregnant out of wedlock. She prayed for a child. Duren's yearning for motherhood was so palpable that her former fiancé once offered to father a child with her. But he warned her that he wasn't ready for marriage. "I get bored in relationships after a...

SAME-sex couples are refusing to out themselves ahead of new rules requiring gay relationships to be registered with Centrelink. The agency expected 11,000 of its clients to disclose same-sex relationships, but only about 1200 have come forward. By keeping their circumstances under wraps, same-sex pensioner couples can stay on the higher singles' rate, saving a combined $165 a week. Newstart and family assistance recipients also have a financial incentive to keep quiet because the payments are linked to a couple's combined income. But if Centrelink finds out, rorters will be liable for substantial repayments. Their reluctance to come forward comes...

Out-of-work bachelors struggle in dating game Men held nearly 80 percent of jobs lost since December 2007 Christopher Floyd, 39, met girlfriend Angela Sowers, 30, on an online dating site. Floyd is unemployed and Sowers works in human resources, but Floyd's unemployment hasn't stopped their love from growing. "It's who he is and what's in his heart that matters to me," she said. Chris Floyd / AP NEW YORK - Sean Hamilton considered stopping his search for that special someone when he lost his job in January. With 90 percent less income and no unemployment coming in, the 34-year-old IT...

Neuroscientists found woman's partner status relevant for her interest in the opposite sex A study by neuroscientist Heather Rupp and her team found that a woman's partner status influenced her interest in the opposite sex. In the study¹, published in the March issue of Human Nature, women both with and without sexual partners showed little difference in their subjective ratings of photos of men when considering such measures as masculinity and attractiveness. However, the women who did not have sexual partners spent more time evaluating photos of men, demonstrating a greater interest in the photos. No such difference was found...

A female millionaire's public announcement to seek a life partner is becoming the talk of the town. It is rare in Korea for rich female singles to publicly seek a future husband through a match-making agency. The businesswoman has asked matchmaking company Sunwoo to find her future husband. The agency posted an open proposal on its website on May 21. According the agency, the businesswoman is 49 years old and is worth 20 billion won (about $16 million). The proposal starts with the headline "success in business, now looking to succeed in love! We are looking for a special man...

Our dear friend is fighting hard the last leg of his battle with cancer. He lost his wife a few years ago & has gone through his own journey of misery with the big C How to you pray for a good friend who is fighting the last struggle? I guess with lots of love and with the trust of God to see him through his transition to glory. I regret deeply we never met face to face(YET).. but email & phone calls do strengthen ties & that is good I guess. LanZALot needs our prayers and needs to...

In a recent column on the Huffington Post, "Why I'm Single," writer Lea Lane lists all the reasons that she's still single. Why? So she can send the URL to all the nosy, possibly well-meaning busy-bodies who keep asking her why she isn't in a relationship. Lane presents a persuasive case; it almost made me wish for the days I, too, had the whole bed to myself. She's one of what I'll call the "Happies," women who are perfectly content with their single status. They don't want for a companion; they love their solitude and have enough friends, hobbies, and...

I was surfing the cable channels one afternoon when I landed on an old black and white movie about a young man in his late twenties who agreed to go out on a blind date. The guy was very handsome and his prospective date was top model material. Their date started with a walk on the beach, followed by a formal diner, and then a movie. At the end of the first evening he dropped her off at her place and went home. A few days later they would repeat the process. On the third date they retreated to her...

“Honey, do you remember our first date?” I asked Husband-Head after hanging up the phone with my old high school girlfriend from California. “What did we do and how did we meet?” Husband-Head was sitting on the couch and it was clear that there couldn’t be a subject he was less interested in than that of reminiscing about our dating days nearly 20 years ago. Why is it that we girls want to remember every detailed minute, yet the actual wedding date seems to be a painful memory for the men? From what I recall, the first time I met...

Because I write about relationships, readers ask me a lot of questions about dating. One particular question pops up all the time: Where can I meet single, nice, straight men over the age of 35? If I am to believe readers, those men are an endangered species. A woman who recently logged in to my weekly online chat put it like this: "I think that just about everywhere on God's green earth is better for dating than Boston. I never had a problem with meeting men until I took a job here!" So, where does one meet a nice man...

Single FReeper Ping List (An experiment)   There are many of us here who are happily married or in a relationship, and many here who are single. There have been a few other singles ping lists on here concerning this subject. I wanted to begin a new one. There must be a few things to remember about this issue, though. We are conservatives. Therefore, we have people out there who lurk on here to attempt to embarass, shame, ridicule, or otherwise attack us for our beliefs. These are small people who have no lives themselves, and should be simply ignored. That being...

General Chat

When straights-only dating site eHarmony settled a suit with the state of New Jersey by agreeing to start up Compatible Partners, a sister site for gays, the solution seemed Solomonic to some (everyone got what they wanted) and like a sell-out to others (anti-gay Christians chafed that their religious liberties were being trampled). But what the move hasn’t done is clear up eHarmony’s legal problems: a second suit charges that by relegating gay dating services to a separate site, eHarmony is still discriminating. A class action suit in California that names both the site and its founder charges that creating...

 Egyptian Cleric Hazem Shuman Warns Muslim Youth Against Valentine's Day – More Dangerous than AIDS, Ebola, and Cholera   Following are excerpts from a speech by Egyptian cleric Hazem Shuman, which aired on Al-Rahma TV on February 6, 2009. To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2019.htm. TO VIEW THIS CLIP AND OTHERS, YOU MUST LOG IN/REGISTER FOR MEMRI TV, AT http://subscriptions.memri.org/content/en/member_registr_tv.htm. REGISTRATION IS FREE OF CHARGE. For Valentine's Day, "Everything Red Will Become More Expensive... Only One Red Thing Will Become Cheaper: The Blood Of Muslims... [Due To] Sins Committed By Muslim Youth" Hazem Shuman: "In a few days something...

If you all remember, I promised we'd come back for a little pretend tropical island getaway next year, and since most of us are still in the middle of winter, I thought it would be appropriate to follow up with another thread, even if most of us have gone our separate ways. Everyone can give us an update on what they've been up to, and post pictures and tell stories. Here in my state, we're still recovering from a major ice storm that made national headlines. I'll try to get some photos of that up soon. There are still...

Earlier this week, I got a frantic call from a friend whose daughter has been away for her first semester at college. “She’s not bringing her boyfriend home,” my friend wailed. “In fact, she says he’s not really her boyfriend at all!” The “he” in question was a male my friend’s daughter had repeatedly mentioned she spent time with socially: going to the movies and out to dinner, seeing concerts, once spending an entire weekend camping at a state park. Oh, there were always other people around, but the regularity of their contact led my friend to believe her daughter...

Early in November, the popular online dating company eHarmony settled with the New Jersey Attorney General's Division on Civil Rights (DCR) over allegations that the company violated the state's anti-discrimination law by limiting its matching service to heterosexual couples. In 2005, gay New Jersey resident Eric McKinley had filed a complaint with the state, and in July 2007 the director of the DCR issued a finding of probable cause that eHarmony had violated the statute. In the face of mounting legal costs and the risk of crippling civil and administrative liabilities--stemming not only from the New Jersey investigation but other...

Merry Christmas!Greetings Singles! A few months ago, we decided to try to run a monthly thread, but as you can see, we haven't had much luck. Life has been busy for me and I know for at least one other host. We've had the misfortune of seeing the least qualified candidate ever nominated by either party elected to our nation's highest office, and that event has certainly hurt the morale of many of us. By this time next year, Pelosi, Reid, and SOBama may have shut down Free Republic by application of the so-called "fairness doctrine." They're doing their best...

The Right Weighs In on eHarmony Settlement (Hint: They’re Not Happy)by Kilian MelloyEDGE ContributorFriday Nov 21, 2008 When eHarmony refused to list matches between men seeking men or women seeking women, other sites such as Chemistry.com stepped in with their ads reading, "Because I’m Gay?" and promised gay and lesbian customers that they, too, would get a fair shake at finding someone special through their services. But for new Jersey resident Eric McKinley, that was not a satisfactory alternative. McKinley wanted the same service from the same provider that heterosexual customers would get, so, in 2005, he filed suit. The state...

As mentioned in the September thread we are going to put up a monthly thread where we can all drop in from time to time during the month, just to say hello or post an update on what we are doing and anything that we maybe other singles would find interesting or helpful.

Welcome to the Weekend Singles Thread! We're trying to re-launch this discussion thread in a way that can relieve the pressure some of its hosts find themselves in, without disrupting the consistency of the thread discussions. The best compromise at this point seems to be a monthly thread, with pings each weekend to the same thread, to discuss anything and everything you want. We'll try to provide some questions to provoke conversation as often as we can. (If no one feels like participating, the thread will most likely dry up pretty quickly.) Old TV Shows: There may be some appealing...

Welcome to the Weekend Singles Thread! Tonight's topic is phobias and manias - the things you fear, and the things that bring out your devilish side. For example: Apimania - Excessive interest in bees Monophobia - Fear of being alone Bibliomania - Excessive interest in books Neophobia - Fear of anything new Caligynephobia - Fear of beautiful women Pyromania - Excessive interest in fire And of course, there's Luposlipaphobia, the fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly-waxed floor. (Ala Gary Larson and The Far Side.) For more, visit the Indexed...

Welcome to the Weekend Singles Thread! TONIGHT'S SUBJECT IS PET PEEVES. WHETHER IT'S TOILET PAPER HANGING THE WRONG WAY ON THE ROLL - IF THERE'S ANY THERE AT ALL - SOMEONE WHISTLING OFF-KEY IN THE NEXT CUBICLE, OR ANNOYING CUTESY E-MAIL FORWARDS, EVERYONE HAS LITTLE SITUATIONS IN LIFE THAT IRRITATE THEM. I, for one, don't like ALLCAPS guy! I get annoyed by drivers who blow past me at fifteen and twenty miles per hour over the speed limit just to get ahead of me when a two-lane road is becoming one-lane, as happened today. I also get miffed when cars...

Welcome to the Weekend Singles Thread! How prepared would you say you are to face a sudden emergency in life? The Following are famous last words uttered by hospital patients and cemetery residents the world over, who weren't prepared: "I'll get a world record for this." "It's fireproof." "He's probably just hibernating." "What does this button do?" "I'm making a citizen's arrest." "So, you're a cannibal..." "It's probably just a rash." "Are you sure the power is off?" "Yeah, I made the deciding vote on the jury, so what of it?" "The odds of that happening have to be a...

Welcome to the Weekend Singles Thread! Roughly six months ago, people all around the world were making semi-sober vows to lose a certain amount of weight in this, the "new year", 2008. Those fantasies soon dried up for a lot of people on the next trip to the market, or especially by the time the Super Brawl rolled around. (I can't say "Super Bowl" because the name is copyrighted. Oops.) So as "swim suit season" rolls around, the issue of health comes 'round again. I had this topic in mind several weeks ago, and put back some interesting articles to...

Our old pal DaveLoneRanger asked me to take on the awesome responsibility of actually doing this thread tonight, but I think this will be an amalgamation of a whole bunch of mini-topics that are on my mind. (I would have entitled it “pet peeves” as Dave suggested, but I didn’t want anybody to think I’m stealing their ideas or anything.) In my day to day life, I know a lot of Democrats. Yeah, it happens. Many of them enjoy hearing themselves pontificate, especially about Barack Hussein Obama. Maybe it’s me, but I’m sick of the guy already. And it’s has...

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Bachelor Carl Weisman got fed up of being classified as a playboy, a loser or a commitment-phobe so he set out to find out exactly why he and a growing number of eligible men were steering clear of marriage. Weisman, 49, conducted a survey of 1,533 heterosexual men to research a book aiming to give women an insight into why some smart, successful men opted to stay single -- and help lifelong bachelors understand why they are still the solo man at parties. He concluded that most men were not afraid of marriage -- but they...

Welcome to the Weekend Singles' Thread!! This weekend's topic is crushes, and once again, this one wasn't my idea. The idea may still be interesting, and we'll see what people have to say. Just in case, I'm going to try to give some extra bonus questions. A couple of things are true about crushes. First, everyone has had them. Second, I'm not sure that anyone really likes admitting them. If I'm right, maybe this will be a difficult thread, but I'm not going to ask anyone to admit to anything. A third thing about crushes may be that we don't...

History and heritage - this mean many things to each person.  It can mean a dry and boring lesson at school that appeared to have no relevance to today's world or it can bring up warm rich memories of being taught the importance of the part and how it has shaped our future.  For me I could never get into social history and the various industrial and agriculture revolution but loved learning about the various Kings and Queens of England.   There was a Queen in fact named Eleanor and there is a famous stone cross in London which marks...

While DaveLoneRanger is on vacation going to a touristy spot in a random blue state, we here in the House of GOP_Raider have a somewhat momentous occasion. My brother (pictured here is going to graduate from college tomorrow. A grand event though this certainly is for the entire family and what not, I do hope you'll forgive me if I'm a little off my game this weekend, considering that I have the song of note from my high school graduation, Vitamin C's Graduation stuck in my head This is where Wikipedia's disambiguation comes in mighty handy. So anyway, we've all...

Does your home reflect your single status including your attitudes towards it or are they formed from childhood and how your parents home was like. Is your home functional, decorative, needs attention and somewhat tired or well maintained and modern? If you had a partner do you think it would be different? Daveloneranger gave a few single spins on the topic. Would a guy who can “DIY” be somehow more attractive to a lady? If he was not a pratical person either around the house or with cars/bikes or other machines would that make him somehow less attractive, appealing or...

Well, it's perhaps a tad early for the thread to be up, but it is Happy Hour on the East Coast, so by the time a few of you have a few pre-weekend beverages, you'll be more than ready for the thread! So in a few weeks, my nephew will be coming into town. Since his Mom and Dad (my sister and brother in law) thinks the boy will have no use for fancy book learnin', I am the one responsible to read to him. "But my Uncle did read to me the entire Declaration of Independence when I last...

Americans like the freedom to travel. That trait makes sense. This continent was settled by people who were willing to travel in order to make a better life. One could say that the association between freedom to travel and prosperity is in our genes. The old GM commercial said, "It's not just your car. It's your freedom." Movement has always been a defining part of our culture. Today, we have cars. In the past, we had horses. In either case, the means of travel was personal and represented a private possession. Our heritage and history are not oriented towards mass...

Welcome to the Weekend Singles Thread! Spring is finally springing all across the nation. In my case, the sneezing and itchy eyes are returning from their months-long absence! In some northern states, spring manifests its penchant for sweet-smelling flowers and blossoming greenery by thoughtfully dumping feet of snow on everyone! But one thing spring reminds us of (besides a newfound appreciation for generic claritin!) is that life changes. We've been experiencing plenty of change right here on the forum, if you haven't noticed before. Our programmer and part-time janitor John Robinson has been making some updates and upgrades to the...

This weekend I have on good authority that our resident fearless leader DaveLoneRanger is celebrating his birthday this evening. I think Dave turns 16 or 17, so try and stay off the roads tonight if you live in his neck of the woods. (Just kidding Dave.) "Go, go, go, go Ranger it's ya birthday..." Dave did want me to ask the thread at large his main question and topic of discussion idea for the weekend, "What is the best song you've heard in the past two weeks?" So I'll go ahead and start things off.... I have a subscription to...

Some years ago, I was awakened early one morning by a phone call from a friend. She had just broken up with a boyfriend she still loved and was desperate to justify her decision. “Can you believe it!” she shouted into the phone. “He hadn’t even heard of Pushkin!” We’ve all been there. Or some of us have. Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the Pushkin problem: when a missed — or misguided — literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast. At least since Dante’s Paolo and Francesca fell in...

Welcome to the Weekend Singles' Thread The last thread I hosted was called "The Bucket List" and was based loosely on a movie that I'd never seen. I'm repeating the idea of threads about movies I've never seen again this week. In my defense, this one wasn't my idea. Someone else suggested a discussion of platonic friendships between men and women and the idea from the "Harry met Sally" movie that those friendships can't exist. I'm going to add an idea from a news story this week in part because the story seemed amusing and in part because I wonder...