Free Republic

“Since when is a crime a disability?” asked Jeff Herrity. His son, Brian was a victim of child molestation by Catholic priest, Gil Gustafson from 1977 to 1982, Brian was ten years old when the abuse began. “If that is the case, everyone in prison should be disabled”, said Herrity. This was thirty years ago, in 1983, Gustafson was convicted of molesting Brian and was sentenced to a forty dollar fine, ten years of probation, and six months in jail, he only served four and a half months and was released. The abuse “mentally and physically destroyed” him. Brian died...

Harvard University has imposed an effective travel ban on Ebola-striken countries, requiring students, faculty, and staff to obtain official permission from the university administration before traveling to affected parts of West Africa, and possibly staying off campus for 21 days after returning to the U.S. from those countries. The severe restrictions at Harvard, reported early Monday by the Harvard Crimson, "expand on those detailed in August that asked for Harvard students, faculty, and staff to avoid nonessential travel to the three countries." The new restrictions also exceed any guidelines imposed by the U.S. government. The new policy comes in the...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said pastors from across the United States should send "thousands and thousands" of Bibles and sermons to the Houston mayor who demanded pastors turn over their sermons to the government due to their objection to an LGBT discrimination city ordinance. "I hope she gets thousands and thousands of sermons and Bibles," Huckabee said on his Fox News show Saturday, referring to Mayor Annise D. Parker. "It ought to make you mad that the mayor thinks she can turn in her pastors. And so I got an idea," Huckabee explained. "If she wants a sermon, here...

…and the distinction between gay rights and religious persecution just vanished. It begins with equality and ends with everyone losing their freedom.But I love all these new freedoms we’re getting. We now have the freedom to do what various pressure groups want or go to jail. I hope we don’t get too many more new freedoms or we’ll run out of jail cells. Officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, are threatening an elderly couple who run a wedding chapel with jail time unless they perform wedding ceremonies for gay couples.Donald Knapp and his wife, Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching...

Scroll down the RealClearPolitics poll summary for the last few days, and you see a lot more red than blue in the latest surveys [1] released for Senate, House and governor’s races. Many races are very close in all three categories, but over the past two weeks the GOP position — particularly in House and Senate races — has generally improved.Governor’s races are the biggest crapshoot. RealClearPolitics counts 14 races as tossups: Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado, Hawaii, Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, and Michigan. Since eight of the 14 are currently in Republican hands, this...

Brain Bath: A Clever Design Solution by Brian Thomas, M.S. * What makes sleep so mentally refreshing? University of Rochester neuroscientist Jeff Iliff addressed the crowd gathered at a September 2014 TEDMED event and explained his amazing new discoveries.1 The words he used perfectly match what one would expect while describing the works of an ingenious designer.2 Other organs rely on the lymphatic system to remove metabolic waste that builds up in the spaces outside cells, but no lymph vessels exist behind the skull. Since the brain uses a fourth of all the body’s energy, there must be some other...

I-594 has been cleverly drafted to sound like it merely makes small changes to gun laws, not a flat-out ban or gun registration scheme. This is why it is so dangerous. People are less likely to oppose it; in fact, polls show that even a majority of gun owners - 54 percent of the 35 percent of Washington residents who own a gun - are in favor of it.

White voters are more likely to say they support voter ID laws if primed with a picture of an African American voting, versus a White person voting, or no picture at all, according to a recent study. In order to examine the way bias might play a role in support for voter ID laws, researchers with the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication conducted an online survey in 2012 of a nationally representative sample of 1,436 adults.

Just how many illegal aliens is President Obama planning to amnesty and grant work permits to after the election? An announcement to federal contractors that the government is seeking to print millions of Green Cards and Work Permits gives us an idea of what the president has in mind. Daily Caller: President Barack Obama deputies are secretly preparing to print work permits for up to 11 million illegal immigrants over the next two years, despite the nation’s high unemployment, stalled wages and increasing automation. If Obama actually goes ahead with the plan that is sketched in a federal contract...

Amber Vinson, the second nurse in Dallas to contract the Ebola virus, has retained a high-profile attorney, her family said in a statement.

Ron Klain is a sharp-elbowed Democratic political operative with no medical expertise. Tapping him as “Ebola czar” may not be the president’s best move when, as it is, no one can believe a word the Obama administration says. And that’s not just because Mr. Klain is yet another lobbyist recruited despite Mr. Obama’s vow that his administration would shun lobbyists. Klain was also a central player in the president’s Solyndra fraud, which soaked taxpayers for over half a billion dollars for the benefit of Obama cronies. In Faithless Execution, I recount the Solyndra fraud. It never got the attention...

Pot smoking — and its stereotypical associations like munching on carbohydrates and other treats — seems like it’d be your teeth’s worst enemy. And now some Colorado dentists are saying more research needs to be done on how smoking pot can affect dental health, including causing an increase in cavities. “We’ve been finding more cavities in our patients who are smoking more than a few times a week,” dental hygienist Julie Baukus at LoDo Dental says. The journal of the American Dental Association finds smoking marijuana can lead to abnormal growths and lesions inside the mouth. Some Colorado dentists are...

A new aggressive daytime-biting mosquito capable of transmitting debilitating and possibly deadly viruses has been found in the Los Angeles region, officials announced Wednesday. Known as yellow fever mosquitoes, the insects were found Oct. 7 and 8 in Commerce and Pico Rivera, respectively, according to the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District. The Aedes aegypti species, which has black and white stripes and grows to about a quarter-inch in size, can transmit dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever -- viruses that can cause painful symptoms including headaches and high fever, officials said. "While these debilitating viruses, so far, aren't locally...

Gay couples in Wyoming will soon be allowed to marry after a federal judge on Friday struck down a state ban on same-sex nuptials and defendants in the case, including Gov. Matt Mead, announced they will not appeal. "I’ve never been prouder to be a Wyomingite," said Jeran Artery, who led the fight to legalize gay marriage through his work with Wyoming Unites for Marriage and Wyoming Equality. Gay couples are expected to start marrying in the next week. Some visited county clerk's offices Friday to begin the paperwork for marriage licenses. Other couples are relishing the thought that their...

As questions of how many people the second Dallas nurse infected during her journey to and from Dallas throw scary possibilities, a WHO situation assessment report gives more cause for concern by stating that the incubation period of the virus has been seen to extend to as long as 42 days in some cases. It says that recent studies conducted in West Africa have demonstrated that 95% of confirmed cases have an incubation period in the range of 1 to 21 days; 98% have an incubation period that falls within the 1 to 42-day interval. For WHO to declare an...

Exclusive: Obama Administration Quietly Prepares 'Surge' Of Millions Of New Immigrant IDs Despite no official action from the president ahead of the election, the Obama administration has quietly begun preparing to issue millions of work authorization permits, suggesting the implementation of a large-scale executive amnesty may have already begun. Unnoticed until now, a draft solicitation for bids issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Oct. 6 says potential vendors must be capable of handling a “surge” scenario of 9 million id cards in one year “to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements.” The request for proposals says the...

Cuomo on Sunday defended the parts of the NY Safe Act that remove guns from people deemed mentally unstable, saying the number might be too low. That came after Sunday's New York Times story about the 34,500 people who have been judged too unstable to possess guns since Cuomo signed the gun laws into effect in early 2013.

A rare appearance on the campaign trail by President Obama on Sunday night was marred by a steady stream of crowd members leaving early and even a yelling heckler. The president had shown up at the Democratic rally in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, near Washington, to support Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown, who is running for governor. With Obama's approval levels hovering around record lows, many candidates from his party have been wary of appearing with the president during their election races because of his sagging popularity. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2799603/crowds-walk-obama-speech-rare-campaign-trail-appearance.html#ixzz3GgxiUfWu Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order Friday to stop officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, from forcing two ordained Christian ministers to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples. City officials told Donald Knapp that he and his wife Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, are required to perform such ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines. The city claims its “non-discrimination” ordinance requires the Knapps to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies now that the courts have overridden Idaho’s voter-approved...

As you can imagine, I was alarmed, but not very surprised, when I received reports of rioting at the Pumpkin Festival in Keene, NH. The residents of Keene hold the Pumpkin Festival annually. Their mission is first and always to amass the most number of jack-o-lanterns in history. In 2013 they broke the previous record held by Boston when they brought together 30,581 jack-o-lanterns, according to accounts by the Keene Sentinel.But into their 30,581 points of light this year was inserted sinister, dark forces. Forces that were nonsensical, dystopian and anarchical.And those forces descended into the hallmark expression of Obama’s...