Free Republic

DOHUK, Iraq — Locked inside a room where the only furniture was a bed, the 16-year-old learned to fear the sunset, because nightfall started the countdown to her next rape. During the year she was held by the Islamic State, she spent her days dreading the smell of the ISIS fighter’s breath, the disgusting sounds he made and the pain he inflicted on her body.... Soon after buying her, the fighter brought the teenage girl a round box containing four strips of pills, one of them colored red. [She] learned only months later that she was being given birth control....

The Punjab Province of Pakistan's efforts to criminalize violence against women was denounced as un-Islamic by the Council of Islamic Ideology. "The Quran explicitly grants men control over their women," Muhammad Khan Sherani, head of the Council pointed out. "The secular authorities have no right to impede the laws given to us by Allah." Fazlur Rehman, the chief of one of Pakistan's largest religious parties, the Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam, concurred. "This law makes every man insecure. If a husband is barred from beating his wife, if a father is prohibited from killing a wayward daughter we will descend into the same...

Fox host Bill O'Reilly loses custody of children amid abuse allegations Published time: 1 Mar, 2016 Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly lost custody of his teenage children over allegations of domestic abuse by his ex-wife. The New York Appellate Division unanimously ruled that O'Reilly's 13- and 17-year-old children should live full time with their mother, Maureen McPhilmy, who was married to the conservative commentator for 15 years. A 1,400 word opinion using anonymous names was issued by the court last week, but the media only figured out who it was this week. The ruling states it was the "clearly...

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama began peddling his national healthcare system. On more than one occasion, he pointed to Canada and the United Kingdom as examples of a workable national healthcare system. When I first heard him point to them, I instantly thought of Rachel, a work acquaintance who lived and worked in the United Kingdom. She was experiencing abdominal pains and having problems eating for months before England’s National Health Service doctors finally diagnosed the problem to be her gall bladder. The doctor said it needed to be removed. However, from the time they wrote the...

A Louisiana judge has ruled unconstitutional a new state law requiring priests to report sexual abuse that is mentioned in a sacramental confession. Judge Mike Caldwell made his ruling in a long-running and complicated case in which Father Jeff Bayhi had been directed to testify about what a young woman reportedly told him in a confession. The young woman has said that she told Father Bayhi about being molested by a member of his parish. Father Bayhi had refused to testify, citing the inviolability of the confessional seal. Judge Caldwell ruled that the state law making priests mandated reporters of...

Hundreds of children were molested, raped and destined to lasting psychological trauma by at least 50 priests and others associated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown across half a century, a state grand jury has found in denouncing coverups orchestrated by two bishops and enabled by the law enforcement officials they controlled.

In second grade, the family agreed to let Daniel legally change his name and at the boy's request, his school agreed to go along with the change, even letting Daniel use the boy's bathroom. "He is very well-adjusted" but still feels stress because he knows not everyone is so accepting, Heumann said. Daniel "was very anxious before coming out at school," but refused the option of keeping the secret, Heumann recalled. "He looked at me and said, 'Dad, I can't. It's harder to live a lie and not as I am truly than to deal with this anxiety right now.'"

Two Franciscana dolphins were ripped from the waves near an Argentinan resort last week, then manhandled to shore, where they were passed around a clutching mob seeking cute selfie moments. In the process, at least one of the intelligent, playful cetaceans died from the experience. Franciscana, or La Plata, dolphins are unable to spend as long out of the water as their larger brethren. “At least one of these dolphins suffered a horrific, traumatic and utterly unnecessary death, for the sake of a few photographs,” a spokesperson from the World Animal Protection group told ABC in Australia, condemning the despicable...

Jeffrey Epstein underage abuse victims sue government saying they were kept in the dark about 'sweetheart deal' giving billionaire immunity after he pleaded guilty to hiring teen for sex A decade after police began an investigation into claims that financier Jeffrey Epstein had solicited teenage girls for sex, two women who the government designated as underage victims at the time have filed a lawsuit over his 'sweetheart deal.' The women, identified as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, claim in court papers filed Wednesday that they were unaware of the secret deal being made between the defense team and...

TORONTO, February 2, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) -- Canada’s most celebrated homosexual activist minister has been charged for allegedly sexually abusing a boy in the mid-1970s. Rev. Brent Hawkes, 65, of the Metropolitan Community Church in Toronto, has been charged with indecent assault on a male and gross indecency. He was summoned to court in Kentville, Nova Scotia yesterday to face the charges. Local police have refused to provide further details.   Hawkes, who lives with his male "husband," has become a major icon of homosexual activism in Canada. He famously flouted Canadian law by illegally "marrying" a homosexual couple in his Toronto church...

Justice: It's not often that the victims of IRS abuse find satisfaction, but the Tea Party groups mistreated by the tax collector will get a shot. Maybe next will be an audit of the IRS — which apparently hasn't changed its ways. On Tuesday, Day 978 of the unresolved IRS scandal, a federal judge granted class-action status to as many as 300 conservative groups that have been affected by the agency's practice of unduly scrutinizing small-government organizations that sought tax-exempt status but which the IRS saw as dangerous dissidents. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Dlott's ruling also opens the door...

The “zoo” is located near the town of Gyumri in Armenia “[The animals] display all the signs of creatures slowly being driven mad by their unnatural existence.”—Allan Hall “The World’s Saddest Zoo” Cruising the “Drudge Report” yesterday, I noticed the photo of a forlorn looking bear peering out from behind bars with the accompanying headline “The World’s Saddest Zoo,” which linked to an article by Allan Hall in the UK’s “Daily Mail.” News headlines often depict a crazy and cruel world, and perhaps I’ve become too jaded and cynical regarding the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” – but Hall’s...

Parents of a five-year old "transgender" child are asking the school's kindergarten class to take up the task of educating students on gender dysphoria, the condition of identifying as a sex that is opposite of one's biological makeup. The request has prompted opposition from a number of parents, while several others have voiced their support. According to the Daily Caller, it began when the parents of a gender-confused boy, who remains unidentified, sent their child to Nova Classical Academy, a charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota, wearing a girl's jumper and pink shoes. The parents, Hannah and Dave Edwards, indicated...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - A new bill in Washington state seeks to create a statewide registry of people convicted of animal abuse. Senate Bill 6234, sponsored by Republican Sen. Joe Fain, is modeled on a law that recently took effect in Tennessee. Under the measure, the registry would be posted online by the state Attorney General's office and would include the names, addresses and photos of people convicted of first or second degree animal cruelty, animal fighting or poisoning. Convicted animal abusers would remain on the registry for 10 years after conviction.

Eight-year-old Ethan Wilwert wanted one special thing for Christmas—not a puppy, nor, thankfully, a hoverboard. Ethan wanted an in-person makeup tutorial at the MAC Cosmetics store in his family’s local Florida mall. “A couple of months before Christmas, he and I were at the mall, and we went into the MAC store,” Ethan’s mom, Season Wilwert, told The Daily Beast. “He’s always been interested in makeup. It’s something he likes to do creative-wise. It’s something he gets excited about. He watches a lot of online tutorials.” In fact, Wilwert laughed that Ethan is already helping her do her own. “He...

The moment a rescue dog was stroked for the first time has been captured in a heartbreaking video.

Donald Trump launches scathing attack on Bill Clinton over his alleged affairs and calls him 'one of the great abusers' Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sought to assail Democrat Hillary Clinton on Wednesday by calling her husband, former President Bill Clinton, 'one of the great abusers of the world.' Speaking to about 2,000 supporters at a rally, Trump again invoked the ex-president's alleged extramarital affairs and accused Bill Clinton of engaging in 'tremendous abuse' of women. Dismissing Hillary Clinton's accusation that Trump himself engaged in sexism, the real estate magnate and reality TV star said: 'And she wants to accuse...

Excerpts from the program transcript (and I've added a few notes for explanation): [Family in a doctor's office] 00:14:09 The medications are very expensive, and so they can be $15,000 to $25,000 a year for some of these things, which is cost prohibitive for most people. 00:14:19 So we have worked on an option that we have, we can offer here now actually, which is called Vantas. 00:14:24 And its FDA approval is for men with prostate cancer, but this has been used successfully by pediatric endocrinologists taking care of kids like Daniel, and it seems to work just as...

Climate: Want to know the latest global warming news? Don't bother looking in U.S. media. They can't be bothered with stories that contradict the man-made climate change narrative. But the truth is out there. Let's start with a new paper from NASA — a distinctly American organization — that was covered by the British Express. The newspaper tells us that our space program has "found the Earth has cooled in areas of heavy industrialization where more trees have been lost and more fossil fuel burning takes place." This is, of course, the opposite of what we've been told for decades.

A new food cart in Portland, Oregon, El Diablito, staged its grand opening celebration by featuring dancers and a Donald Trump pinata. A banner on the stage read “El Diablito” which means “the little devil.” Little kids and adults lined up to take turns battering the effigy, which they say they were destroying to “promote peace” and “fight hate.” One little kid screams out “I want to kill him!” when he takes his turn beating the Trump piñata. The food cart owner claimed this wasn’t about politics.