Free Republic

Our kids, at least many of them, are not doing very well. The reason, writes Harvard professor Robert Putnam in his just-published "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis," is the "two-tier pattern of family structure" that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s and continues to prevail today. Starting in the late 1960s, rates of divorce, unmarried births and single parenthood rose sharply among all segments of society. About a decade later, they fell and leveled off among the college-educated, who almost entirely raise their kids in Ozzie-and-Harriet style families today (except that Mom usually works outside the home). Among...

When was the last time anyone heard a sermon that condemned the evils of fornication, or adultery, or cohabitation, or divorce, or bearing children outside wedlock (let alone homosexuality)? Controlling these sins is a core Christian value. At one time a preacher could be expected to devote extended attention to these sins. And he could be expected to condemn them unequivocally. Yet today, even as the social and economic fallout from precisely these practices becomes ever more glaring and serious, pastors and priests seem ever more determined to avoid discussing them.Of course, the dowdy old parson long ago became the...

Perhaps the decisive factors in combating poverty and enabling upward mobility were not economic but cultural — the habits, mores and dispositions that equip individuals to take advantage of opportunities. This was dismaying because governments know how to alter incentives and remove barriers but not how to manipulate culture. The assumption that the condition of the poor must improve as macroeconomic conditions improve was to be refuted by a deepened understanding of the crucial role of the family as the primary transmitter of the social capital essential for self-reliance and betterment. Family structure is the primary predictor of social outcomes,...

Morality may be ignored, but it never ceases to provide the foundation and guidelines for a healthy society. “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.” —John Adams (1735 - 1826), second President of the U.S.A. It’s hard to consider the success of the book and film “Fifty Shades of Grey” without...

Emojis have become a cultural phenomenon, and now you can bring the fun to a face near you.

I recently saw the end of some TV show where a band called Madison Rising did a great new rendition to the Star Spangled Banner. As a muscian and a rocker it touch me and I just want to share it with all Patriots.

.....we are taking a brief hiatus from our series on the moral law to talk with one of my favorite authors, Stella Morabito, about an article she published in The Federalist, “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Vomitorium.” This is a striking essay worthy of your time and attention. Regular readers will recognize Stella’s name from the HB. She appears regularly in the Heidelquotes. She’s widely published (e.g., in The Federalist, The Washington Examiner, and The American Thinker). She’s been an intelligence analyst, studying aspects of Russian and Soviet politics including communist media and propaganda. She’s a...

Allysha Tomlin may not have been the intended targeted when she was shot to death in Superior Township early Sunday morning, investigators said Tuesday. David Gordon. Police say the 23-year-old was killed when a man she was in a relationship with, 20-year-old David Gordon, shot up her apartment trying to hit Tomlin's on-again-off-again boyfriend and the father of her 2-year-old twins. Gordon was arraigned on an open murder charge, as well as two weapons-related felonies, at the 14A-1 District Court Tuesday, according to police. Officials originally anticipated the arraignment was going to take place Wednesday, when a second person believed...

I know this thread and topic is going to go over like a lead balloon but I have to say it. The constant, prevalent and gruesome pro-life themed articles are really becoming a nuisance to this long time reader and occasional poster. This is not a call for a pro-choice viewpoint, I'm not advocating that personally and realize that will, thankfully, never happen here. However there becomes a point when preaching to the choir about the horrors of abortion in heinous detail either visually or in writing just becomes disgusting. I frequent this site overnight and scanning from top to...

The Vatican will offer homeless people in Rome not only showers but also haircuts and shaves when new facilities open next month, the head of Pope Francis' charity office said. The Vatican announced last year that it would provide shower facilities in St Peter's Square for homeless people. Bishop Konrad Krajewski told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire on Thursday that it would also offer haircuts and shaves when the services start on Feb. 16 in an area under the colonnade of the square. Krajewski, whose official title is the pope's almoner, said barbers and hairdressers would volunteer their services on...

More at Reaganite Republican...

Photographer Eliot Dudik captures breathtaking images in a beautiful region of South Carolina known as the “Lowcountry”.

How do you think 2015 will be for you? If you’re typical, you’ll be pessimistic; and, if you’re typical, you’ll be wrong. Only 21 percent of Americans agree with the proposition that “life for our children’s generation will be better than it has been for us” — 76 percent disagree. Well, barring some unforeseeable calamity — what Nassim Taleb would call a “black swan,” or Donald Rumsfeld an “unknown unknown” — the 76 percent are mistaken. The next generation of Americans will lead healthier, happier, more fulfilled lives than the present one. That sentence could have been written at any...

""Manspread" - the habit some male NY subway riders have of spreading their legs beyond the confine of their hips to take up two, or even three, seats - is a source of increasing irritation for polite riders concerned about the comfort of others."

If you are an American, then odds are you are spending some significant chunk of today [Black Friday] fighting your way through unpleasant, stressful, and chaotic shopping lines. There's a better kind of line. And it's in Japan. Watch this time-lapse video of patrons lining up at Comiket, a regular comic book festival in Tokyo, and just marvel at the order of it all. (They're lining up to enter the festival, one chunk of people at a time.) The experience looks easy, even downright pleasant, and most amazing of all appears entirely self-organized. I challenge you to find a single...

Before he checked into rehab in September, Michael Phelps was having a steamy affair with much older blonde, Taylor Lianne Chandler. But the most shocking aspect of their relationship wasn’t the 12-year age difference. RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal that Chandler, 41, was actually born a man! Chandler, born David Roy Fitch, tells Radar in an exclusive interview that she was an intersex baby.

According to a survey by tech giant Cisco Systems, about a fourth of professionals ages 18 to 50 would leap at the chance to get a surgical brain implant that allowed them to instantly link their thoughts to the Internet. The study was conducted on 3,700 adults working in white-collar jobs in 15 countries. Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/November17/171.html#CRwG8spidOWI60L4.99

(Please read before posting.) Informed people know that it is going to take more than just a team of new leaders to save the USA, if it is still possible. It is being said that repentance needs to begin with the Christians, with the Church. Of course, the importance of repentance is relevant to all people. The next purpose of this article is to encourage the American people to see the need for electing the right leaders in all levels of our American government. Responsible citizens are focused on campaigns and the pending results of this November election. When considering...

A goofy guy named Adam Weinstein writing for a goofy website called Gawker has called for the jailing of those who deny global warming. Weinstein says, “there is the body of purulent pundits, paid sponsors, and corporate grifters who exploit the smallest uncertainty at the edges of a settled science.” Those who disagree with Weinstein on a scientific and political point are criminally negligent and should face not just fines but even prison.As goofy as he is, he’s not the only one.Just this past weekend serial adulterer Robert Kennedy Jr., who may have driven his second wife to suicide—and...

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel is famously outspoken and sharp-tongued, and on CNBC on Wednesday he did not disappoint. In a "Squawk Box" interview.Thiel trashed Twitter, Uber and Apple, among others, "Twitter is hard to evaluate. They have a lot of potential. It's a horribly mismanaged company—probably a lot of pot-smoking going on there. But it's such a solid franchise it may even work with all that," the co-founder of PayPal and early Facebook investor said.