Free Republic

Matt Lewis writes of the controversy over Duck Dynasty that "There really are two Americas" and that the divide over the show "has as much to do with class and geography and culture and attitude as it does with religion." That's true. Specifically, there's one America where comparing homosexuality to bestiality is considered acceptable, and another where it is rude and offensive. In one America, it's OK to say this of gays and lesbians: "They’re full of murder, envy, strife, hatred. They are insolent, arrogant, God-haters. They are heartless, they are faithless, they are senseless, they are ruthless. They invent...

The last remaining U.S. independent counsel, David Barrett, after spending $21 million over 10 years, on Jan. 12 finally will close down his investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros' lying to FBI investigators about hush money paid to an ex-mistress. The political significance is that the Barrett report's shocking allegations of high-level corruption in the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department are likely to be concealed from the public and from Congress. A recently passed appropriations bill, intended to permit release of this report, was altered behind closed doors to ensure that its politically combustible elements never saw the...

Lost in the tumult over Islamic port deals and Katrina video capers is the recently released -- and willfully ignored -- Barrett Report. David Barrett, you'll recall, is the independent counsel appointed in 1995 to investigate allegations of impropriety against President Clinton's Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros. Mr. Barrett found his path mined by the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service and President Clinton's attorneys, even after Mr. Clinton departed the White House. He prepared 18 felony indictments against Mr. Cisneros but had to settle for a guilty plea on a misdemeanor charge (lying to the...

TORONTO, October 20, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Vision Television, a Canadian television station, that claims openness to religions, is set to air a program in which a Catholic priest is to "come out" as homosexual. A press release for the upcoming program is entitled, "360 Vision Exclusive: a gay Catholic priest comes out." The release states, "On Thursday, Oct. 20 at 10 p.m. ET , VisionTV 's signature current affairs series 360 Vision presents a special report on the renewed debate over gays in the Catholic priesthood - and elicits a startling revelation from one priest. Defying the Vatican, he declares...

Protesters can claim one more case where protesting has proven effective. The Hollywood remake of the comedy “Oh God!” planned for this summer will not be going anywhere soon. Last fall, Hollywood announced with some fanfare the news that Jerry Weintraub Productions would be filming the remake which portrays God as a wise-cracking cranky individual full of defects and imperfections. As if that were not bad enough, the so-called Supreme Being was to be played by the avowed lesbian talk show host Ellen DeGeneres! That was before thousands of protest flyers went out nationwide. Prior to the production of this...

I sort of came out in sixth grade, but like a lot of kids who get harassed for "being gay," it wasn't anything about my sexuality that prompted the harassment. It was because I was a boy who did his homework and paid attention in class and did all the things boys weren't supposed to do. I was harassed relentlessly through my junior high and high school years. I made a little promise to myself right there, and said, "I will do whatever I can so that the next generation has it better than we had it." So, I started...

Amanda Simpson was recognized last week by the YWCA as one of a dozen local Women on the Move. That's more than a personal accomplishment for the 43-year-old senior principal systems engineer at Raytheon Missile Systems. It's also a personal victory, since Simpson is a transgendered woman who very publicly allowed the media to recount her transition from Mitchell Simpson four years ago. "To say that I was absolutely thrilled is a bit of an understatement," Simpson said. She was selected from a pool of 89 finalists for the award, which gives the nod to women who are committed to...