Free Republic

Over the last several months—and especially the last few weeks—much has been made of the “Ferguson effect.” The phenomenon is now so widely discussed that it has its own Wikipedia page (though I wouldn’t suggest visiting it for an explanation). St. Louis police chief Sam Dotson coined the phrase in November of 2014, but Heather MacDonald popularized it in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in 2015... Again, out-of-wedlock births in the U.S. are at historic highs, and the vast majority of black children in America are born to single mothers. And just as criminal gangs and other undesirables fill the...

Maclean’s spoke with Eric Walters, author of national bestselling children’s books, to find out how Canadian parents and teachers can explain America’s rowdiest politician to kids. Q: How can adults explain Trump to kids? A: How do you explain a sociopath to an eight-year-old? That’s a hard one. A mean man. A non-Canadian. Darth Vader. Actually, can’t you picture Darth Vader with that hair? But in the end, good does prevail. Show them there are good parts of life. Show them Michelle Obama’s speech. You need to say, “but here is what good people do. Here in Canada, we’re different.”...

Everyone is abuzz over Michelle Obama’s passionate speech at the convention Monday night. The most profound part of her speech came towards the end. “This November,” she said, “when we go to the polls, that is what we are deciding. Not Democrat or Republican, not left or right. In this election and every election, it is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four or eight years of their lives.” That statement should send chills up your spine. Even if you knowledgeably agree with everything the Obama administration has done over the last eight...

A gunman shouting 'Allahu Akbar' opened fire at children in McDonald's before rampaging through a shopping mall, killing at least eight people. Munich is in lockdown tonight, as a major police operation is ongoing around the city's Olympic Park, with the force warning people to stay in their homes and avoid public spaces. A ninth body has been found tonight and investigators are looking into the possibility of it being the attacker. Terrified shoppers were seen running for their lives from the Munich Olympia Shopping Centre, in the district of Moosach, after hearing gunshots. Witnesses said that the gunman screamed...

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said authorities were initially called to reports of an active shooter and bomb threat. Miami-Dade Police Detective Daniel Ferrin said the hospital has been evacuated as a precaution because of the reported threats. Officers are going floor to floor to ensure that the campus is safe.

HELBY COUNTY, Tenn. -- Four children were killed at a Shelby County Apartment complex early Friday afternoon. The Shelby County Sheriff's Office confirms they took the mother of the children is in custody around 1 p.m. All of the children are under the age of six and were deceased when deputies arrived. Sheriff Bill Oldham said, "Our community has suffered an egregious act of evil and tremendous loss today." Oldham went on to say, "One of the most difficult questions in any investigation always is 'why?'"

The German Defense Ministry is taking flak after pictures emerged of soldiers letting very small people play with some very big weapons. It all started at an open-house event in Stetten, Baden-Württemberg at the weekend, where civilians were invited in to learn about the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr. But on Monday, the advocacy group German Peace Society/United Opponents of Military Service posted pictures on Facebook showing small, preschool-aged children being offered the chance to handle some powerful guns on their own. The guns in the pictures included a G36 assault rifle, a USP pistol, and a MP7 submachine gun,...

Antidepressants in young people may do more harm than good, warn scientists. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/06/08/antidepressants-in-young-people-may-do-more-harm-than-good-warn/ *"researchers at Oxford University who carried out the review said effectiveness and safety of antidepressants taken by children and teenagers remained unclear because of the poor design and selective reporting of trials, which were mostly funded by drug companies."

The star’s much-lauded effort to help girls in the African nation of Malawi just imploded. In this week’s Newsweek, Wayne Barrett asks: Is Kabbalah to blame?Late last month, it was reported that Madonna’s Raising Malawi foundation, one of the most visible celebrity-driven charity efforts in the Third World, one that pulled in major donations from around Hollywood and elsewhere, was abandoning its planned mission: to build a $15 million girls’ academy in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. A report by the Global Philanthropy Group, which Madonna brought in to represent her as trouble developed in the...

South Sudan’s Child Soldiers and Hillary Clinton’s Complicity Published 10 June 2016 The former Secretary of State’s department allowed military aid to the region, despite laws against this. Rebel forces in South Sudan used child soldiers and the U.S. State Department under Hillary Clinton sent arms there despite passing a law that banned providing military assistance to nations that used child soldiers, The Intercept reported Friday. Waivers were issued by the White House that kept aid flowing there and U.S. President Barack Obama said in 2012 the waivers were in “the national interest of the United States.” The move was...

MIRAMAR, Fla. (WPVI) -- A 40-year-old Philadelphia woman has been charged with murder in the apparent suffocation deaths of her 7-month-old son and 3-year-old daughter during a visit to South Florida. It happened Wednesday afternoon in Miramar, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale.

Illegal immigrants are kidnapping children and bringing them across the border, hoping to appear to be families so they can take advantage of lax enforcement policies, the Obama administration told a federal appeals court on Tuesday. Leon Fresco, a deputy assistant attorney general who handles immigration cases, made the stunning claim as he defended the administration’s policy of detaining illegal immigrant parents and children caught traveling together as they jump the border. After a federal judge last year ordered the families quickly released, Mr. Fresco said it’s served as an enticement for kidnapping. “When people now know that when I...

Kesha helped a fan surprise his boyfriend by proposing on Sunday (June 5). She was performing One Magical Weekend at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL when two fans joined her onstage for the sweet moment. ... Kesha shared a photo of the moment on Instagram. The picture shows the couple kissing while she looks on ecstatically.

Famous (and I use the term lightly) YouTuber "CJ So Cool" pulls off what he likes to call a "prank" as he gives children laxatives mixed in their ice cream treats. As if that's not bad enough, this disgusting gorilla humiliates them further by filming and mocking them while on the toilet. The video has since been deleted from YouTube because it caused him trouble, but several uploads are re-appearing. His girlfriend even uploaded a video DEFENDING him and going so far as even saying if it did anything IT HELPED her kids. That video was also taken down (what...

NBC News chief Deborah Turness offered up her 3-year-old daughter to break into zoo enclosures as motivation for the news team to come up with more creative suggestions to cover the horrific Harambe controversy. SNIP “She asked, ‘Shall I strap a GoPro to my 3-year-old and let her go to the Bronx Zoo and try to see how easily she can get into enclosures?’' SNIP

[Liam Fee]'s mother Rachel and her lesbian partner Nyomi were able to carry out two years of sustained attacks on the toddler and two other boys as social services repeatedly failed to act. The pair’s depraved abuse included: * Imprisoning one boy in a cage made from a fire guard, using cable ties to bind his hands behind his back; * Tying another boy naked to a chair in a dark room with nine snakes and several rats, forcing him to eat his own vomit and telling him a boa constrictor ‘ate naughty little boys’; * Forcing the youngsters to...

"Changing the definition of marriage to entrench motherless and fatherlessness in public policy and teaching our kids their gender is fluid should be opposed...The cowardice and weakness of Australia's 'gatekeepers' is causing unthinkable things to happen, just as unthinkable things happened in Germany in the 1930s." Mr Shelton began the post by declaring he loved to read obituaries in The Economist, specifically one published last week on the late German-born historian Fritz Stern. According to the obituary, Stern argued the rise of Adolf Hitler owed less to the Fuhrer's personality cult and more to the failure of Germany's 'gatekeepers' to...

hould children be allowed in art galleries? In 2014 Jake Chapman caused a minor furore, and prompted a lot of column inches, when he said that taking kids to galleries was a “waste of time”. He told The Independent parents were "arrogant" for thinking their children could understand artists like Jackson Pollock or Mark Rothko, adding "children are not human yet". The two children in this video, which has been going viral in recent days, clearly couldn’t give a hoot what Jake Chapman has to say about their appreciation of art. ... And as their parents look on, filming their...

Moderate Malay­sians are making a stand against the unilateral conversion of children, urging that they be allowed to hold on to their original faith until they can decide for themselves at age 18. Businessman and moderation activist Anas Zubedy said a child’s religion must be agreed on by both parents. “Unilateral conversions should not be allowed for whatever religion, be it Islam, Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism. “Should a parent convert to a religion different from that at the time of marriage, especially during dissolution of the marriage, the children should remain in the original faith until they turn 18,” he...

"“If it’ll save my kid, there’s no stuff that’s too extreme,” she told us. “Micro-chipping would be an extra layer of protection, if something bad does happen.” However, Steffany is in the minority, when it comes to the Tampa Bay Moms Group in which she’s involved. “I’m definitely the odd mom out,” she told us. “But, I stand by my opinion. I think Microchipping, is a good thing.” The topic has come up from time to time within the popular group of Bay Area mothers, and Steffany’s stance on the controversial issue has been extremely unpopular, she admits. She maintains...