Free Republic

The new fall season of television has begun. Oh, joy. What creative license has Hollywood taken now? How will this industry top -- because it always must top -- last year's shock? You're a parent. You come home, open the TV book and see listings like this: "BONES (Season Premiere): A skull smashes through the windshield of a car driven by a group of teenagers on the freeway; a trail of suspects leads Brennan and Booth to a strange cannibalistic society." A late-night offering for adults? Think again. Fox airs this gruesome twosome tracking the cannibals at 8 p.m. eastern...

Vegan teacher threatens to sue school district Fox River Grove Middle School teacher Dave Warwak gave school officials an ultimatum Monday: Go vegan, or I'll sue. Warwak told school officials that unless the middle school served exclusively vegan lunches, which contain no animal products, Warwak would pursue a case against the school for its violation of the Illinois school code. "The state of Illinois is not going to be happy with Fox River Grove when they find out that the vision they have for Illinois schools is being abandoned," Warwak said. Warwak's offer came less than a week after school...

PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Souvenir shops lining this sugary white Panhandle beach display Confederate flag beach towels, window decals and T-shirts. Hooters and other bars fly POW-MIA, Marine and Navy flags and cater to the sailors and Marines from the nearby base. Vacationing Southern families usually fill the hotels and condominiums in this slice of paradise long nicknamed "The Redneck Riviera." But every Memorial Day they mostly stay away as this town becomes more like trendy Miami Beach—700 miles and a world away. Starting in the mid-1980s, gay men from New Orleans and other nearby cities began gathering here...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Congressional Democrats said on Wednesday that they don't plan to reauthorize federal funding for the Title V abstinence education program, which expires at the end of June. Pro-abortion lawmakers claim the programs have not been effective and want to see more money spent on birth control and the morning after pill. In his latest budget, President Bush has asked Congress to appropriate $191 million for the program for fiscal year 2008, an increase of $28 million from FY 2007 funding levels.Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who heads the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which considers...

May 17, 2007, 6:02 a.m. Politicians Set Their PricesThe Democratic Congress seems intent on reviving the worst ideas of our past. By Carrie Lukas Apparently some lessons we must relearn. One might assume our disastrous economic flirtation with socialism in the 1970s — never mind the sorry record of command-and-control economics in the former Soviet bloc — would have buried the concept of government wage- and price-controls for at least a generation. Yet this Congress appears intent on resurrecting the worst policies of the past. Price controls have superficial appeal. The average gas-price rose more than 10 percent last...

ALBANY -- A renowned poet who taught the Virginia Tech killer found his presence so intimidating it felt like he was "controlling my classroom," the professor said in an interview. . . . The evening wasn't all solemn, though. Giovanni's often profane jokes about men, Jesus, and especially the Bush administration kept the crowd in stitches, though most of them can't be printed in a family newspaper. And from this article:But it wasn't what the celebrated poet said about the massacre that provoked one of the loudest reactions from her audience of University at Albany students Thursday. What really got...

The abortion debate brought home He and his wife have always been pro-choice; recently, they were forced to make the Choice. By Dan Neil May 6, 2007 MY WIFE AND I just had an abortion. Two, actually. We walked into a doctor's office in downtown Los Angeles with four thriving fetuses — two girls and two boys — and walked out an hour later with just the girls, whom we will name, if we're lucky enough to keep them, Rosalind and Vivian. Rosalind is my mother's name. We didn't want to. We didn't mean to. We didn't do anything wrong,...

What if hospitals could put a sign over their doors stating, “We reserve the right to refuse life-sustaining care?” People would be outraged. Yet that is precisely what Texas law explicitly grants to hospitals — namely, to say no to wanted life-sustaining treatment, on the basis of subjective judgments about the quality of the patient’s life. It is an example of a bioethical concept known as Futile Care Theory, a.k.a. medical futility. How did Texas, of all places, become ground zero for futile-care impositions? Back in 1996, a group of Houston hospitals adopted internal administrative protocols, called the Collaborative...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-life organizations are once again concerned about members of Congress limiting their free speech rights in an effort to clamp down on lobbying reform. The House of Representatives is expected to take up the legislation later this month and the groups don't want an amendment by Rep. Marty Meehan added to it. Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat, says his amendment targets grassroots lobbying but pro-life organizations say it would hurt their efforts to tell private citizens about what is occurring in Congress. The groups backing the Meehan Amendment assert that the measure would require merely “disclosure” of...

Homosexual acts are a moral aberration, yet the drive to have them accepted as normal by society continues full steam ahead. Egregious recent examples can be found in two bills under consideration in Congress which would grant special privilege to those embracing the homosexual lifestyle, and intimidate and punish those citizens whose values and principles are opposed to the moral revolution advocated by the homosexual movement. The first bill is H.R. 2015, known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007; the second is H.R. 1592, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007. "Sexual Orientation," a Set of...

Our columnist, who has opted to have a termination since the birth of her two children, argues that it is a moral duty not to bring unwanted offspring into the world: On Wednesday, More4 broadcast Travels with My Camera — A Matter of Life and Death, a “personal journey” by the journalist Miranda Sawyer. This was heralded by a piece in The Observer, written by Sawyer, explaining the purpose of her quest. Sawyer’s dilemma has been that, until recently, she had been a dyed-in-the-wool, card-carrying, pro-choice feminist. After the birth of her son last year, however, she began to have...

Amanda Onnis just wanted a nice wedding. That's why, when the 33-year-old unmarried cosmetics saleswoman discovered she was pregnant last November, she panicked. She had known her boyfriend only a few months and recently moved from Boston to the Denver area to live with him. He immediately asked her to marry him. She figured they'd better elope. After all, it wouldn't be long before she would start to show. Still, a part of her heart broke to give up her girlhood dream of a lavish ceremony and a really great dress. But, in the end, she didn't. On April 21,...

By the time Fred Thompson decides whether or not to join the presidential fray, you will have heard the story of his red pickup truck at least a dozen times. The truck in question is a 1990 Chevy, which the famed statesman-thespian rented during his maiden Senate campaign in 1994. The idea was that Thompson would dress up in blue jeans and shabby boots and drive himself to campaign events around the state. Upon arriving, he'd mount the bed of the truck and launch into a homespun riff on the virtues of citizen-legislators and the perils of Washington insider-ism. For...

  post columnist Court system has been hijacked by "liberal tolerance" By Al KNightDenver Post ColumnistThe Denver Post Article Last Updated:01/23/2007 06:50:34 PM MST Liberal groups that routinely use the court systems to achieve political ends often speak glowingly of the "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society." This phrase was first uttered in 1958 by then Chief Justice Earl Warren in a case involving cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Since then, these same words have often been quoted in regard to other matters, ranging from the...

"I am speaking the Truth to break the silence. Silence isn't freedom. It's a constraint. Truth tolerates open discussion, because the Truth emerges when healthy discourse is allowed. By proclaiming the Truth in love, hurts will be halted, hearts will be healed, and lives will be saved." "Christian students should be allowed to express their viewpoint just like any other student," said Mike Johnson, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. "The Day of Truth provides an opportunity for Christian students to respectfully present a different viewpoint than students participating in the Day of Silence. Allowing the communication of...

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 04/24/2007 Pelosi: ‘Working Women and Their Families Deserve Equal Pay for Equal Work’ Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement this morning at an Education and Labor Committee hearing on equal pay: “I want to thank the Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller for convening this critical hearing today on Strengthening the Middle Class: Ensuring Equal Pay for Women. “I also want to recognize the leadership of Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, a champion for equal pay in the Congress, who for 10 years has been introducing the Paycheck...

From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all Tuesday April 24, 2007 The Guardian Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent armed soldiers into residential areas, took over...

BYU students wanting an alternative commencement speaker to Vice President Dick Cheney could get their wish, thanks in part to a local filmmaker. The Deseret Morning News reports shortly after director Steven Greenstreet posted video footage online from a protest April 4 at BYU, the donations came pouring in. By Monday afternoon, students, faculty and alumni received more than $12,000. The money should be able to fund an alternative commencement at Utah Valley State College. Meanwhile the uproar has drawn national attention because it's seen as a sign the Bush administration's support is waning. Cheney will speak at BYU's commencement...

The country was plunged into tragedy and despair this week after the savage killing of Virgina Tech students and staff. All the emotions now familiar to us after similar incidents rippled across the country, but were particularly acute on the campus. It couldn't get any worse could it? Yes, unfortunately, it could. It seems almost inconceivable that anyone would want to try and gain political capital from such a tragedy. But step forward Democrat Liberal Senator Barbara Boxer, who less then 2 days after the shooting was using the butchery to call for stiffer gun laws. What an obscenity. If...