Free Republic

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — First lady Michelle Obama got rave reviews for the custom-made Tracy Reese pink and copper dress she wore while giving a tribute to her husband at the Democratic National Convention. The sleeveless dress showed off Mrs. Obama's famously toned arms and the length modestly skirted her knees. She paired the dress with pink pumps from J. Crew and her fingernails were painted a trendy blue-gray.

WASHINGTON — When the jubilant couple were wed in June, they exchanged personalized vows and titanium rings, cheered the heartfelt toasts and danced themselves breathless. Then, as the evening was winding down, unexpected questions started popping up. One after another, their guests began asking: Are you going to have kids? When are you going to have kids? Tom Lotito and Matt Hay, both 26, could not help but feel moved. They never imagined as teenagers that they would ever get married, much less that friends and family members would pester them about having children. “It’s another way that I feel...

On Aug. 1, thousands flocked to local restaurants in support of National Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. For the Aug. 7 National Marriage Equality Day -- not so much...Just might smash last week's "Kiss In" record for epic fail on the "fluster cluck" meter. According to their website, gay rights activists at Equally Wed Magazine launched a campaign Tuesday designed to counter the highly successful outcome of last week’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, during which the company announced “record sales.” Here are ten reasons why this counter offensive qualifies as a "fluster cluck." According to the Urban Dictionary, a “fluster cluck” is defined...

There has been plenty to criticize about President Obama’s handling of the economy. Yet the overriding story of the past few years is not Mr. Obama’s mistakes but the scorched-earth opposition of Republicans, who have done everything they can to get in his way — and who now, having blocked the president’s policies, hope to win the White House by claiming that his policies have failed. Many economists believe that the overhang of excess household debt, a legacy of the bubble years, is the biggest factor holding back economic recovery. Loosely speaking, excess debt has created a situation in which...

Gay rights activists are planning to hold on Friday a "national same-sex kiss day at Chick-fil-A," the restaurant chain whose president's opposition to same-sex marriage sparked a media frenzy. "Let's show Chick-fil-A thanks for their support of Love, Equality, and the Real Definition of Marriage!" organizers posted on their Facebook page. Same-sex couples are expected to arrive at restaurants across the country and kiss in protest, then post video or photos of the event on social media. But on Wednesday, throngs of others weighed in on the Chick-fil-A debate, buying chicken sandwiches at stores to show their support of the...

Why are so many willing to back down when logic is on their side? Talk about power: The gun lobby barely had to say a word before the media sent advocates of saner gun regulation shuffling off in defeat. In a political version of Stockholm syndrome, even those who claim to disagree with the National Rifle Association's absolutist permissiveness on firearms lulled themselves into accepting the status quo by reciting a script of gutless resignation dictated by the merchants of death. It's a script built on half-truths and myths. For example, polls showing declining support for gun control in the...

Tech. Sgt. Erwynn Umali, 34, and civilian Will Behrens, 35, held their wedding at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in N.J. in June When Tech. Sgt. Erwynn Umali and civilian Will Behrens wanted to seal their commitment in a civil union in New Jersey, they chose a venue that nine months ago would have been unthinkable: a military base. The grooms said their vows on June 23 before 150 guests at the chapel at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst — the first time a civil union or gay wedding has been held in such a facility in the United States. While the...

Retailers are going mainstream with ad campaigns aimed at gay customers in an effort to get their merchandise into more consumer closets. “Retailers, particularly fashion retailers, always like to be ahead of the curve,” said local retail analyst Chris Boring of Boulevard Strategies. “In 2012, supporting gay rights and accepting gays is pretty mainstream.” In one high-profile move, J.C. Penney is running an ad for Father’s Day featuring a gay Texas couple and their two children. A month ago, the retailer had an ad for Mother’s Day showing a lesbian couple with their children. The iconic retailer also has tapped...

It’s no secret that I have been and remain a vocal critic of Mitt Romney. To say that his conservative bona fides are suspect is an understatement. I have tremendous respect for a number of fellow evangelical Christians who say that they will not support his presidential candidacy. I expect I will anger some of them, and may even lose a few friends. Still, in November, I am voting for Mr. Romney and suggest that any Christian - Republican, Democrat or independent - should do the same. Jesus admonished: “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of...

Every year he has been in office President Obama has made it a point to cozy up to America’s tiny homosexual activist minority by officially recognizing June as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.” This year, of course, was no exception. Having just come out officially in favor of legalizing same-sex “marriage,” the President followed up on June 1 by issuing this year’s proclamation setting aside the entire month to commemorate the valuable contributions that gays, lesbians, transvestites, and an odds-and-ends assortment of sexually- and gender-confused individuals have made to American society. “The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)...

What would the U.S. look like if McCain/Palin had won the presidency in '08? Christianity 101, drilled into me through 10 years of Catholic schools from elementary to high school: Heaven and Hell, respectively, are places to work towards entering joyously and avoiding at all costs. Purgatory was that ambiguous place where souls not quite pure as the driven snow yet not as dark as the devil's--went to "dry out." Think of it as rehab for the slightly sinful before they could be rehabilitated into Heaven. Purgatory comes to mind envisioning a John McCainJohn McCain and Sarah PalinSarah Palin victory....

He may be the leader of the free world, but he still takes a moment to tuck his wife in at bedtime. First Lady Michelle Obama revealed that tidbit and other details from the couple’s personal life in a People magazine interview that hit newsstands Friday. "We have a ritual where he tucks me in, because I'm usually in bed before anybody," the First Lady spilled. "He'll come and turn the lights out and give me a kiss, and we'll talk. He's like, Ready to be tucked? I'm like, Yes I am.'"

Barack Obama is one of history's three greatest political leaders with Irish ancestry, according to an international poll. John F Kennedy, however, is voted the greatest such leader, ahead of Ronald Reagan second and Obama third, in an online poll of over 4,000 Americans and Britons conducted by YouGov for the genealogy site findmypast.com and its Irish partner, findmypast.ie. Che Guevara, the Latin American revolutionary who also had Irish roots, ranks fourth. "The most surprising people turn out to have Irish ancestry," says Cliona Weldon, spokesperson for findmypast.ie, which marks its first birthday this month. The findmypast poll asked respondents...

Actress Betty White is a big fan of President Barack Obama, the AP reports: As she prepares to visit the Smithsonian Institution and National Zoo next week, White told The Associated Press she "very, very much favors" President Barack Obama in the election. The 90-year-old actress said Friday she is very bi-partisan and has stayed away from politics all of her life. She usually never says who she is for or against because she doesn't want to turn off any of her adoring fans. White says in this year's election, she likes what Obama has done and "how he represents...

Conservatives will be enthusiastic about the 2012 election, but only in a negative way because of grim danger of a second Obama term. Kerry, Gore, and Clinton were crummy politicians, but compared to the quiet malevolence of Obama, those Democrats were Boy Scouts. The problem with conservatives is that since Reagan left office, we have had nothing to vote for; George H. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, and John McCain treated conservatives like barely tolerated stepchildren. Will the Republican presidential campaign this time be as condescending and dull? Mitt Romney, almost unnoticed, has done something no other Republican nominee...

A quick review of the long and illustrious career of Facts reveals some of the world's most cherished absolutes: Gravity makes things fall down; 2 + 2 = 4; the sky is blue. But for many, Facts' most memorable moments came in simple day-to-day realities, from a child's certainty of its mother's love to the comforting knowledge that a favorite television show would start promptly at 8 p.m. Over the centuries, Facts became such a prevalent part of most people's lives that Irish philosopher Edmund Burke once said: "Facts are to the mind what food is to the body." To...

As many of us have been made well aware of, on Feb. 26, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was found shot to death in a community in Sanford, Fla. Since then, the story has gained a lot of national attention from people all over the country. Racism and a lack of justice seem to be the central theme that has angered thousands of people all over the nation. I would like to present the argument that these issues are terrible, however I do believe that a bigger issue has been overlooked for far too long. The death of Trayvon Martin is, was,...

In Puerto Rico, for the price of 20 delegates, Mitt Romney sold out his conservative principles. There is a long history of Congress requiring English to be the language of government and schools for territories seeking to be admitted to the Union — e.g., Louisiana, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. For all of the territories that had large non-English speaking populations, Congress announced before the territories voted on the question of statehood that a change in language policy would be a prerequisite for statehood. In the case of Puerto Rico, where according to the latest Census only 15% of residents...

President Obama: “I deserve a second term” By Erik Wasson - 02/05/12 04:57 PM ET President Obama in a pre-Super Bowl interview aired on Sunday said that despite being unable to completely turn the economy around in three years, he still deserves to be re-elected. “I deserve a second term but we're not done,” Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer in an interview broadcast from the White House. Lauer noted that in a pre-Super Bowl interview three years ago, Obama had said "If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” Obama said...

...given the enormity of what he inherited, and given what he explicitly promised, it remains simply a fact that Obama has delivered in a way that the unhinged right and purist left have yet to understand or absorb. Their short-term outbursts have missed Obama’s long game—and why his reelection remains, in my view, as essential for this country’s future as his original election in 2008.