Free Republic

Alittle late in making those Thanksgiving flight plans? Wondering how you could possibly afford your ticket -- that is, without putting a kidney up for sale on Craigslist? Good news! You can get a free flight home on Southwest plus a $300 travel voucher. Just do what I plan to -- get on a Southwest flight in the next few days, and when it's taking off, shout over and over, "Go, plane, go!" and "I want Daddy! I want Daddy!" Pamela Root got the free flight and the voucher, plus an apology from Southwest, after her 2-year-old kept screaming those...

WASHINGTON – Faced with limited job options, many young adults are turning to an old standby to weather the recession: moving back in with mom and dad. Nearly 1 in 7 parents with grown children say they had a "boomerang kid" move back home in the past year, according to a study being released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. In a turnabout in the rite of passage in which a college graduate finds a job and an apartment, many are returning to their parents' empty nests because of tight finances or as they pursue an advanced degree. "The journey...

Students at Al Soonobar School greet Soldiers with the 36th Sustainment Brigade out of Temple, Texas, Nov. 18, in Jaber Mohamed Village, Iraq. Photo by Spc. Lisa A. Cope, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). COL ADDER — U.S. Soldiers here delivered supplies and stuffed animals to students at the Soonobar School in Jaber Mohamed Village, Nov. 18. Lt. Col. Clinton Moyer, chief of civil operations with the 36th Sustainment Brigade out of Temple, Texas, has worked with the school's staff and the local community for roughly a year to build a new school.Moyer, a Clearwater, Kan., native, said the new school...

Al Jazeera surfed community boards on popular Korean internet sites, and found an underground trade where pregnant women can sell their unborn children. The few cases that have surfaced have alarmed the government so much that it is believed to have formed a special task force to bring human-trafficking laws up to date, Al Jazeera's Steve Chao says.

A poster from the atheist billboard campaign. Photograph: Public Domain This week, the final phase of the atheist bus campaign will appear in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast – not on buses, but on billboards. Due to the amazing sums donated to the campaign fund by many Cif readers at the end of last year, we raised enough for a second wave of adverts – and the above posters will launch today. When, in this Cif piece back in October 2008, we asked how the extra funds should be spent, one of the issues which came up repeatedly in the...

Kids have got stuffed toy bug   By STAFF REPORTER Published: Today     NOT many of us would want to cuddle up to E.coli and Streptococcus this winter, but that's exactly what these cuddle toys are. The bizarre creatures, designed to look like the bugs that cause common colds, sore throats and coughs have become the latest craze. The fluffy GiantMicrobes are the same shape and colour as the real thing — but one million times bigger. They have been given human features such as eyes, a mouth and nose to make them more appealing to young children....

Nearly one in four children in the United States lived in a home that suffered from food insecurity in 2008, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In total, 16.7 million children, or 22.5 percent, were from families that had difficulty putting enough food on the table last year. That’s 4.3 million more children than in 2007. “Child hunger is not just a casualty of the recession,” commented the Rev. David Beckmann, president of the Christian anti-poverty group Bread for the World, in response to the data. “It was a problem before the recession, and unless we...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – At least one in two children in 17 small counties in the United States is living in poverty, according to a U.S. Census survey measuring income and poverty in small areas and school districts. Ziebach County, South Dakota, an area with a population of 2,542, leads with a poverty rate for those under the age of 18 of 67.1 percent, the survey released on Wednesday showed. For all ages, the poverty rate is 54.4 percent. In at least 30 counties with populations ranging from just over 2,000 people to nearly 62,250 people, the poverty rate for all...

Children from a small school near Forward Operating Base Scania line up to receive school supplies and gifts, Oct. 27, during a Civil Military Operation conducted by the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team and the Iraqi Army. Photo by Spc. Cory Grogan, 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team. FOB SCANIA — U.S. Soldiers here are working with the citizens surrounding this Forward Operating Base to ensure local children have the tools needed for a proper education. Oregon National Guard members with Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 162 Infantry Regiment, based out of Springfield, Ore., from the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, were...

As many as 150,000 poor British children were shipped off to the colonies over three and a half centuries, often taken from struggling families under programs intended to provide them with a new start - and the Empire with a supply of sturdy white workers. Forty years after the program stopped, Britain and Australia are saying sorry to the child migrants, who were promised a better life only to suffer abuse and neglect thousands of miles from home. The British government said Sunday that Prime Minister Gordon Brown would apologize for child migrant programs that sent boys and girls as...

For the last 25 years, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, has aided in the search for missing children. In conjunction with all levels of law enforcement, children's organizations and John Walsh's America's Most Wanted, 492 (at last report) children have been recovered. Through the daunting tasks involved in these cases, searchers, law enforcement, and the observant citizens, work tirelessly to either bring home the missing, or provide closure.

Children’s Christian song, Dig A Little Hole and Put The Devil IN! Song sung by Granddaughter.

LEXINGTON, Mo. (Nov. 11) - Authorities on Wednesday searched a rural property in western Missouri for bodies and buried glass jars containing notes written more than 15 years ago by children who may have documented sexual abuse by five members of their own family.

A British woman said she was followed home by an off-duty police officer who overheard her yelling at her children and later received a warning. The 34-year-old mother, who asked not to be named, said she threatened to smack her misbehaving children while they were shopping at a Woolston, England, grocery store in August, The Daily Mail reported Monday. The woman said two officers came to her door six weeks later and informed her an off-duty officer had overheard her during the incident and followed her home. She said a letter from the Southampton council children's services department told her...

Practitioner Admits Yes I Am Killing Unborn Children in Abortions Dallas, TX -- The late-term abortion practitioner at the new abortion center in Dallas has admitted in a shocking interview that he kills unborn children during abortions. Curtis Boyd is one of the few abortion practitioners to admit what he is doing, but he has no qualms with his job. http://www.LifeNews.com/state4549.html

An Iraqi school teacher helps distribute school supplies to Iraqi children at the Jadeeda Primary School near Hawijah in the Kirkuk province of Iraq, Oct. 28. The supplies were provided by families of Soldiers from 1/8th Cav., 2BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Douglas, 1st Cavalry Division. KIRKUK — The 46th Iraqi Army Brigade delivered U.S.-donated school supplies to the children here at the Jadeeda Primary School near Hawijah, Oct. 28. The supplies were donated by families of Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.According to 1st Lt. Sean...

Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky Vintage; Reissue edition (October 23, 1989) Buy It An inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer! Saul Alinsky wrote the book on American radicalism - two books, in fact: a 1945 best-seller, "Reveille for Radicals" and "Rules for Radicals" in 1971. The "Reveille" title page quotes Thomas Paine... "Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul." Saul Alinsky, who was a labor and civil-rights activist from the...

Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky Vintage; Reissue edition (October 23, 1989) Buy It An inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer! Saul Alinsky wrote the book on American radicalism - two books, in fact: a 1945 best-seller, "Reveille for Radicals" and "Rules for Radicals" in 1971. The "Reveille" title page quotes Thomas Paine... "Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul." Saul Alinsky, who was a labor and civil-rights activist from the...

Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky Vintage; Reissue edition (October 23, 1989) Buy It An inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer! Saul Alinsky wrote the book on American radicalism - two books, in fact: a 1945 best-seller, "Reveille for Radicals" and "Rules for Radicals" in 1971. The "Reveille" title page quotes Thomas Paine... "Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul." Saul Alinsky, who was a labor and civil-rights activist from the...

IFI Media Watch A little over a year ago, I wrote a column regarding the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services' (DCFS) supposed confidential hotline. The DCFS hotline itself was a means by which Illinois citizens could report cases of child abuse and/or neglect. I had a personal experience regarding the use of the confidential hotline which was disturbing, to say the least. I was aware of a family who lived near me in which children were exposed to an unhealthy environment according to anyone's standards. During a visit to the home, three children (all under the age of...

The Indiana law disallows those convicted of sexual offenses, the ability to live beyond a 1000 feet from a school or public park. California's law only allows....

11/3/2009 - QALAT, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Airmen and Soldiers from the Zabul Provincial Reconstruction Team delivered school supplies to an Afghanistan National Army compound here Oct. 27. The delivery of supplies is part of an ongoing project to help educate the young soldiers, many of whom have nothing more than an elementary school level education. The program grew from a request from senior ANA officials to help raise the literacy levels of the soldiers, said Major J.D. Loftis, the PRT's information operations officer. "This program is basically just like your average elementary school program," he said. But, unlike that average...

Add one more soldier to the Left’s war on Fox News: Oscar the Grouch. Last week, in a re-broadcast of an episode that originally aired two years ago, Oscar starts his own news network, GNN (Grouchy News Network). An irate viewer calls in to berate him that the news is not grouchy enough: “I am changing the channel. From now on I am watching ‘Pox’ News. Now there is a trashy news show.” Later , Anderson Cooper from 4th place CNN, guest stars as a reporter for GNN. “Walter Cranky” and “Dan Rather-Not” — Muppets representing real-life liberal news personalities...

Educational slavery for four-year-old children Trojan horse in the Brazilian Congress alters Constitution to establish compulsory institutionalization of young children By Julio SeveroCongressional measure PEC 96A/03, which increases the education budget, was approved 28 October 2009 in the Brazilian Senate. The vote had the participation of 52 senators, who unanimously approved the budget increase — an increase that will cause more sacrifices from the pocket of the Brazilian taxpayer.Yet, it is not just in their pockets that Brazilians will be hit. PEC (which means Proposta de Emenda à Constituição [Constitutional Amendment Proposal]) makes, according to the liberal newspaper Folha de...

We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq, Nov. 2, 2009 – Soldiers here visited students in a unique learning environment last month to drop off school supplies, treats and even guitars. Children attending St. Efram Elementary School welcome soldiers to their classroom before being surprised with care packages Oct. 22, 2009, in Basra, Iraq. These children receive a culturally diverse education by attending one of the only two schools in Iraq to combine children of different religious denominations into one learning environment. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Stephanie Cassinos  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The students of St. Efram Elementary School,...

The charity warns that over 900 million children in the next generation will be affected by water shortages and 160 million more children will be at risk of catching malaria – one of the biggest killers of children under five – as it spreads to new parts of the world. In a new report Save the Children claims that climate change is the biggest global health threat to children in the 21st century as droughts and floods force families to leave their homes and children to drop out of school. Starvation and economic collapse caused by natural disasters could even...

News from across the pond shows yet another means via which liberal, anti-family types are pushing to separate children from their parents. The lead paragraph says it all:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Al Qaeda's umbrella group in Iraq claimed responsibility for the twin suicide bombings in the heart of Baghdad that killed at least 155 people, including 24 children trapped in a bus leaving a day care center. The Al Qaeda branch, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, said in a statement posted on the Internet late Monday that its "martyrs ... targeted the dens of infidelity."

"Somali jihadists forcing civilians to watch executions" SNIPPET: "Movies and television? No way. Executions? Bring the whole family -- or else! "Somalis 'made to view executions'," by Mary Harper for BBC News, October 25:" SNIPPET: "Hundreds of people in Somalia have been forced to watch Islamist militants executing two people accused of spying. People in Merca said al-Shabaab militia patrolled the town with loudspeakers, demanding they attend the executions. The militants also ordered schools to close for the day as they were keen for children to watch the two men being shot dead by a firing squad. Most of those...

Army Sgt. 1st Class Donna Sendelbech receives a hug from a student at the Shalaw Elementary School after receiving a backpack during a recent delivery of gifts donated by service groups back in the U.S. (GRD Photo by Mike Scheck). SULAYAMANIAH — U.S. Soldiers and Army Corps of Engineers employees recently delivered supplies to elementary students of the Shalaw School here. However, the students are in for a bigger surprise after the first of the year when they move into their new school thanks to the efforts of the USACE Gulf Region District.The school supply giveaway was orchestrated by Army...

Senator Marlin Stutzman has placed his name on the ballot for the race against Evan Bayh. Mr Stutzman is a Republican Senator from Howe, IN.

AMBEPUSSA, Sri Lanka — Vinojan's boyhood ended when Sri Lanka's civil war reignited. Fifteen at the time, he says he joined the separatist Tamil Tigers to save his older brother from forcible conscription, and became a reluctant fighter as the rebels fought their last, desperate battles for survival. [snip] The rebels tied him to a tree and whipped him with a palm branch, he said. Then they gave him 10 days of training and a rifle and sent him and other child soldiers to the front.

Sgt. Jonathon Chambers, a Streator, Ill. native with 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, helps separate supplies during a delivery to the Baghara Elementary School in Hawijah, Kirkuk province, Oct. 18. Photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Douglas, 1st Cav. Div. KIRKUK — Seeing a disparity in the quantity and quality of school supplies in some Iraqi primary schools, one U.S. Soldier here decided to do something about it. Staff Sgt. Jared Wiegand, a Fort Wayne, Ind. native with 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, was home last March...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A Malaysian woman who gave premature birth to a boy on board an airplane minutes before it landed will get free flights for life along with her child, an airline official said Friday. Liew Siaw Hsia, 31, gave birth on budget carrier AirAsia's flight from Penang to Kuching on Wednesday.

PINELLAS PARK, Fla.- A Florida couple said the homeowners association of their retirement community is trying to evict their 6-year-old granddaughter. Jimmy and Judie Stottler of Pinellas Park said their granddaughter, Kimberly, came to live with them as an infant when authorities took her away from her drug-abusing mother, WSTP-TV, St. Petersburg, Fla., reported Thursday. The girl has stayed with her grandparents in the retirement community since, even though the community's rules don't allow children. The couple said the homeowners association is now pressuring them to comply with the ban on children, but they are unable to move because they...

Children receive backpacks from Iraqi Army Soldiers during a “Junior Hero Program” supply delivery to their school in Arab Koy, Kirkuk province, Oct. 20. The children also recited a pledge to become “Junior Heroes” in their community and respect the Iraqi Security Forces who work to protect them. Photo by Pfc. Justin Naylor, 1st Cavalry Division. KIRKUK — "I like to see them in my village, they make me feel safe," said Huda Akhmed Hussan, a 13-year-old sixth-grader here, about the Iraqi Army Soldiers he sees every day. In addition safeguarding residents, the 12th IA Soldiers here are also trying...

Sol SternE. D. Hirsch’s Curriculum for Democracy A content-rich pedagogy makes better citizens and smarter kids. Autumn 2009 At his Senate confirmation hearing in February, Arne Duncan succinctly summarized the Obama administration’s approach to education reform: “We must build upon what works. We must stop doing what doesn’t work.” Since becoming education secretary, Duncan has launched a $4.3 billion federal “Race to the Top” initiative that encourages states to experiment with various accountability reforms. Yet he has ignored one state reform that has proven to work, as well as the education thinker whose ideas inspired it. The state is...

JACKIE KLEIN is a devoted mother of two little boys in the suburbs of Portland, Ore. She spends hours ferrying them to soccer and Cub Scouts. She reads child-development books. She can emulate one of those pitch-perfect calm maternal tones to warn, “You’re making bad choices” when, say, someone doesn’t want to brush his teeth. That is 90 percent of the time. Then there is the other 10 percent, when, she admits, “I have become totally frustrated and lost control of myself.” It can happen during weeks and weeks and weeks of no camp in the summer, or at the...

Vaccines acquired immunity is temporary while immunity gained after recovering from influenza is longer lasting. Few choices will be allowed and every child from 6 months to 18 years must have an annual flu shot . . . .

10/20/2009 - JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (AFNS) -- Nearly 100 Iraqi children spent Oct. 10 running, playing and, more than anything, smiling as they had fun with American servicemembers on Joint Base Balad. The local Iraqi youths, from 5 to 18 years old, were invited to the base as part of a project initiated by the U.S. Department of State's Salah Ad Din Provincial Reconstruction Team, and Joint Base Balad Airmen and Soldiers jumped on the idea to coordinate the details for the children. Capt. Amy White, the 332nd Expeditionary Mission Support Group executive officer and lead organizer for the...

Earth: An environmental writer mainstreams an idea floating around the green fringe — save the earth by population control and give carbon credits to one-child families. Are we threatened by the patter of little carbon footprints? New York Times environmental writer Andrew Revkin participated in an Oct. 14 panel discussion on climate change with other media pundits titled "Covering Climate: What's Population Got To Do With It?" People who need people they are not. In a recently rediscovered book, "Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment," co-authored with Malthus fans Paul and Anne Ehrlich, Holdren wrote that families "contribute to general social deterioration...

Jabar, Iraqi Federal Police officer, hands out books to young girls at a local school in Baquba. The Humanitarian Aid mission was oversaw by the Iraqi Federal Police, with support from U.S. forces. Photo by 1st Lt. Meghan E. Keefe, 37th Engineer Battalion. BAQUBA — A recent humanitarian assistance mission by Iraqi Federal Police (FP) and U.S. Soldiers here, Oct. 12, gave Iraqi children basic school supplies for the new year. The 37th Engineer Battalion- Joint Task Force Eagle, based out of Fort Bragg N.C., joined the 6123 FP Training Team, based out of Fort Riley, Kan., and their FP...

NEW MOVIE: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE ================================================== Skip to comments.THE REAL HILLARY CLINTON: Episode #2 - Children in the Hospital various sources | 12-22-02 | dfu Posted on 12/22/2002 7:49:44 AM PST by doug from upland NOTE: the survival of our Republic is threatened by two things -- fundamentalist Islamic terrorists and Hillary Rodham Clinton. President Bush is leading the fight against the terrorists. It is up to those of us who know the real Hillary Clinton to lead the fight against her. We must shine the light of truth on this dangerous woman so that all Americans...

As the H1N1 flu outbreak strikes the U.S. early and hard, health officials are pointing to a worrisome number of child deaths and warn that supplies of vaccine will remain scarce for at least the next couple of weeks. Delays in producing the vaccine mean 28 million to 30 million doses, at most, will be divided around the country by the end of the month, not the 40 million-plus doses that states had been expecting. The new count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention means anxiously awaited flu-shot clinics in some parts of the U.S. may have to...

Airport security chiefs have been banned from subjecting children to a controversial new X-ray scanner that produces ‘naked’ pictures of passengers because of legal warnings the images may break child pornography laws...

Pvt. Vince Dalseg, 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, interacts with children during a ceremony to re-open a refurbished primary school in Zaidon, western Baghdad, Oct. 15. Photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. BAGHDAD — Children laughed and talked excitedly throughout the re-opening ceremony of the Zuhair Bin Abysulma Primary School in western Baghdad, Oct. 15. The $67,000 refurbishment project was a joint effort between U.S. troops and the local government that came to fruition after three months of hard work, said Navy Lt. Ross Simpson, a civil affairs officer, from Dalton, Ga.The project included cleaning up...

OKLAHOMA CITY — The mother of an Oklahoma boy who says he was locked in apartment closets over four years was charged Thursday with 29 counts of child abuse for allegedly torturing and imprisoning him. snip........ McCall was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in New York in 1996 in the death of her 2-year-old daughter and served six months jail time.

Students of the Twin Schools wait for the official opening of the schools in Taji, Iraq, Oct. 12. The Twin Schools will provide education to more than 1,200 children. Photo by Pfc. Adam Halleck, 1st Cavalry Division. TAJI — Following two years of hard work, a ribbon cutting ceremony here celebrated the grand opening of two schools nestled in a small village north of Baghdad, Oct. 12. Known as the “Twin Schools� to American Soldiers, the facilities can now provide the more than 1,200 students of the area with the high-quality education they deserve.In the past two years, this project...

NEW YORK, Oct. 15, 2009 – As filming for Sesame Workshop’s latest “Talk, Listen, Connect,” video got under way here yesterday, it became clear that while it’s not always sunny on Sesame Street, ultimately the clouds can be swept away. Deborah Mullen, wife of Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, poses with Elmo’s mom, Mae, on the New York set of Sesame Workshop’s third “Talk, Listen, Connect,” video Oct. 15, 2009. The new video in the TLC series addresses the loss of a loved one and offers parents and children alike tools to deal with...