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(AgapePress) - I think she still holds it against me. As a teen today, it's absolutely ludicrous to think that my niece Katie needs to hold my hand while crossing the street.But way back when, when Katie was just three, our battle of wills produced fierce tears. On a shopping trip, I her aunt, was entrusted with her safety. All was going well ... until the moment I grabbed Katie's hand before we crossed the busy parking lot in front of the store.Katie jerked her hand away from me. Hearing a car's motor on the left, I reached out...

New strains of highly potent cannabis are as dangerous as heroin and cocaine and the drug can no longer be dismissed as "soft and relatively harmless", the United Nations said yesterday. In an implied criticism of Britain's decision to downgrade cannabis, Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said that countries got the "drug problem they deserved" if they maintained inadequate policies. His comments indicated deep unhappiness with the Government's decision to reclassify cannabis from a Class B drug to Class C. Heroin and cocaine are Class A substances, attracting the toughest penalties for...

When writer Marcia Segelstein headed to the bookstore to scout out books for her 12-year-old, she wasn’t sure what to expect. But she certainly didn’t expect rampant drinking, drug use, profanity, and explicit descriptions of sex and nudity. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what she found. Segelstein’s daughter had been clamoring to read the Gossip Girl series, which “‘all’ of her friends were reading,” she said. After seeing what was in the books, Segelstein was floored. But a school librarian confirmed, “They’re very popular among sixth and seventh graders.” Even worse, the librarian added, “Some parents are so happy that their kids...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sexually charged music, magazines, TV and movies push youngsters into intercourse at an earlier age, perhaps by acting as kind of virtual peer that tells them everyone else is doing it, a study said Monday. "This is the first time we've shown that the more kids are exposed to sex in media the earlier they have sex," said Jane Brown of the University of North Carolina, chief author of the report. Previous research had been limited to television, said the study which looked at 1,017 adolescents when they were aged 12 to 14 and again two years...

HARRISBURG -- Cash with far higher-than-normal trace levels of cocaine can be seized as contraband from speeding drivers, a divided state appeals court ruled today. The 5-2 Commonwealth Court decision concerned the seizure of $451,000 from two separate vehicle stops by state police on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 2002 and 2004.

Pool Area Not For Breastfeeding, Ann Arbor Woman Told YMCA Rule Concerns Food, Drink By Pool And Distraction To LifeguardsPOSTED: 4:12 pm EST January 11, 2006 An Ann Arbor woman says she was asked to stop breastfeeding her baby in public at an area YMCA. Now she hopes by speaking out, the gray line about breast-feeding in public is eliminated. On Dec. 22, Kelly Fuks took her 6-month-old daughter, Ansley, and her 3-year-old son, Maxwell, to the swimming area of the YMCA in Ann Arbor. According to Fuks, a lifeguard of the YMCA approached her and told her she could...

Letter: 'Gay Day' not for 'the public' Wednesday, December 28, 2005 A few days before Newton North's all-day "Gay Day" assembly, a parent called and asked me to attend it for him because he had to work. I'd been to several over the past few years, when my own children were students. (It was on Dec. 7 - they had Gay Day instead of Pearl Harbor Day.) I called the superintendent's office and was told that this year "the public" was not allowed. Taxpayers in Newton who aren't Newton North parents have been to assemblies there in the past without...

Essay one addressed Modern Liberalism as the religion, albeit the false religion, that it is. Next, enter stage right, Libertarianism. Libertarianism, or at least that mainstream brand of Libertarianism which zealously waves that oxymoronic political banner "Political Conservative, Social Liberal," has its own pint-sized political party, but more importantly the faith of Libertarianism has a Titanic-sized impact upon the religious inclinations of the leadership ranks of the Republican Party, and upon many of the prestigious think-tanks which preach republicans their gospel. Libertarianism's central claim to fame from a political standpoint is that it represents an anti-statist, limited government answer to...

(AgapePress) - A Maryland school board is under fire for placing members of three pro-homosexual groups on its new Citizens Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development (CAC). Among the groups represented on the committee are the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and Teach the Facts, a homosexual advocacy group whose founder has close ties to the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).Members of a conservative parents group called Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC) are criticizing the Montgomery County Public Schools ((MCPS) for the pro-homosexual appointments to its...

WINONA, Minn. - Winona Senior High School has prohibited students from wearing a certain style of baggy pants because of safety concerns. Although the straps haven‘t caused any injuries at the school, Sampson said they could possibly hook students onto something or someone and would be especially dangerous around shop class equipment. Students said the new prohibition is aimed at groups who some label as "Goth" or "freak." They said teachers have been less stringent enforcing the dress code among students in other groups who wear skimpy blouses, T-shirts promoting alcohol or pants that show underwear.

The county school system is re-thinking its definition of sexual abstinence after complaints from two parents that their children were receiving incorrect and even risky information in sex ed classes. Karen Sees and Cindy Richards said the ‘‘contraception comparison chart” used in eighth-grade health class at Herbert Hoover Middle School describes three types of abstinence: No intercourse, withdrawal (ejaculation outside of the body) and rhythm (no intercourse during ovulation). ‘‘Since when did the term abstinence change to include the two most ineffective forms of birth control possible?” said Cindy Richards of Potomac. ‘‘Here we have been teaching our kids that...

Traditional sexuality morality — meaning sexual restraint, particularly for women — was based on that connection between sex and conception: it evolved to protect paternity and patrimony. Now the connection has all but disappeared, as has patrimony, and the less connection, the less restraint and the more empty the morality. For this reason Christian moralists and others are doomed to failure with their quixotic hopes of getting people to say no to sex or to save themselves for married monogamy; they might as well try to put a genie back in his lamp. Because higamous, hogamous we are mostly not...

The Apostle Paul said, "Let us behave decently." And at one time not so very long ago, the majority of Americans believed that behaving decently was the right thing to do. Decency, respect, and civilization go hand in hand. But modern libertine man has spurned decency, because where decency is, libertinism, which goes hand in hand with disrespect and indecency, can not exist openly. Writing in "Judaisms Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism And Then Christianity Rejected Homosexuality," Dennis Prager said; '.....Human sexuality, especially male sexuality.....is utterly wild. Men have had sex with women.....men....little girls and young boys....a single partner...large groups....immediate family...

In a new video to be distributed to 61,000 schools across the nation, homosexual activists are using popular children's TV characters such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Barney the dinosaur to surreptitiously indoctrinate young children into their lifestyle, a pro-family activist group charges. SpongeBob Squarepants is one of the popular children's TV characters appearing in a new 'tolerance' video. Based on the 1970s hit song "We Are Family," the video will be distributed to public and private elementary schools nationwide March 11, along with lesson plans for teachers, points out the American Family Association. The distribution, sponsored by FedEx, will coincide...

This November, Judy Blume was presented with a medal from the National Book Award Foundation. The same day, Madeleine L’Engle received a medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Though both authors are best known for their books for teenagers, they couldn’t be more different. Blume made her name as the writer of Deenie, Forever, and other young adult novels known for their sexual themes and explicit descriptions. Typically, many of the articles written to celebrate her medal pictured Blume as a sort of big sister who provided guidance and reassurance about premarital sex, masturbation, and similar topics. Washington...

Flag stirs flap at Howell High Controversy centered over meaning of Diversity Club message Thursday, December 23, 2004 BY STEPHENIE KOEHN News Staff Reporter What is the meaning of a rainbow? For many who see one during or after a rainstorm, it's a harbinger of good luck or at least a warm and fuzzy feeling. In the form of a flag hanging at Howell High School, however, it has created a controversy between those who see it as an expression of diversity and those who see it as supporting homosexuality. Confusion over the meaning of the flag, said Howell High...

I have read many messages which object to same-sex marriage but I am still waiting to learn what specific adverse consequences opponents of gay marriage anticipate to result from its legalization. In other words, suppose same-sex marriage becomes law during 2005. By 2010 or 2015 what specific indisputable adverse consequences to society do opponents predict to occur? With respect to those critics of same-sex marriage who refer to "God's law" and "procreation" --- do they believe that heterosexual couples who cannot have children, or who do not wish to have children, should also NOT be allowed to marry? The essence...

What is it about sex education that causes some otherwise rational adults to behave irrationally?  When it comes to other topics -- smoking, drinking, drug abuse -- we don’t hesitate to give our children the benefit of an unambiguous “no.” We tell them flat out that they shouldn’t do it. If anyone said, “But kids are going to drink any way, so let’s show them how they can minimize the effects of a hangover,” most parents would suggest that that person have his head examined.  Yet who can deny that the same logic (or lack thereof) lies behind the push...

Two Kinds of Freedom? Gregory Koukl Greg compares the freedom of a hedonist and the freedom of a President Last week, an issue came up that hinged specifically on the definitions of words. Do you know what clear thinking is? It's like a clear picture, one that's in focus. When you get a snapshot back from a holiday and look at it, if it wasn't in focus it will appear blurry. In the same fashion, if we want our thinking to be clear, it must be in focus. If there are words whose meanings are blurry to us, then...

Today, forty years after the dawn of the sexual revolution, most realize that the notion of “free love” is false. AIDS is wiping out half a continent; abortions take more than a million lives a year, and countless STDs negatively impact the health our sex-crazed culture. Out-of-wedlock pregnancies make it much more likely teenage mothers will spend their lives in poverty. Given these social ills, promoting abstinence as an alternative for our young adults seems logical to most people. Inexplicably, the minority staff of the US House Committee on Government Reform released an inaccurate and biased study last week attacking...