Free Republic

[....]The outrage expressed, today, at the very existence of Sarah Palin, not only by progressive Democrats but by urbane "establishment" Republicans, is in many ways the product of this shift. Increasingly, I find, people on the left simply cannot accept any right-wing view as legitimate. The mere fact it can be so labelled puts it beyond the pale. We often read that the old categories of "left" and "right" have become irrelevant. It is an argument almost invariably propounded by the left. They have been freed, for more than a generation, from anything resembling serious public debate, and have thus...

I fancy myself open-minded and easygoing, which is why I was disturbed at my behavior last week when a pair of cyclists, riding side-by-side, blocked a lane of traffic and slowed my car to a speed that fell between trotting and brisk skipping. I laid on the horn, something I normally wouldn’t do, while my passenger, a generally subdued gentlemen and an avid cyclist himself, yelled at them to get out of the way. Discuss COMMENTS (41) It was only the next day that I realized the reason for my aggressive behavior. I was annoyed with these two because they...

The days of Sex and the City's influence are long gone. From Tina Fey's fake prude to Sarah Palin's real power play, here's why strong women just aren't that into having sex with you anymore. Brilliant, funny, and powerful women are retreating from sex as never before, and if you don't believe it, take the curious case of Liz Lemon. The most complicated and intelligent woman in television comedy barely ever has sex. She doesn't sit on laps, either — "not a lap sitter," she tells one handsome date she brings home in the first season. (He turns out to...

Movieguide® has sent a letter asking local government officials throughout the U.S. to consider stopping the screening of the controversial movie "Brüno" starring comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, Movieguide® Publisher Dr. Ted Baehr announced today. In the letter, Movieguide® asks officials to get an injunction against screening the movie on Friday until officials can look at the movie and determine whether it should be banned because it does not fit the "community standards" in their area, as defined by U.S. Supreme Court rulings on obscenity and pornography. "This movie has been cut to get an R rating," Dr. Baehr said, "but...

Moral Relativism; The Liberal LynchpinPosted By Michael McGruther On July 9, 2009 @ 2:51 pm In Entertainment, Politics, Religion | 2 Comments The vast majority of adults in this world know that moral perfection is absolutely impossible, so I get upset when self proclaimed Hollywood/MSM liberals ruthlessly attack any conservative that cannot do the impossible; avoid succumbing to temptation for their entire life. Hollywood/MSM liberals always use this angle to attack conservatives nationwide because by strongly believing in nothing specific they’ve set themselves up to perpetually come out on top of any moral argument, guilt, worry and public-scorn free.[1] In...

The Washington Post called it an "orgy of praise" and an "exercise in excess." They were referring to the star-studded, mega-televised Michael Jackson memorial service in Los Angeles. It just as accurately described the supposedly serious national media’s weeks of outsized hyperbole concerning the life and death of a man who was a pop sensation, to be sure, but also highly controversial, even scandalous. There certainly was the exercise in excess on the "news" programs. On the night of July 6, ABC, CBS, and NBC, paid twenty times more attention to Jackson (more than a week after his death)...

Reihan Salam, an influential young player in the effort to revive the Republican Party, writes this weekend that Sarah Palin's resignation is another sign of the fading culture wars: What does seem increasingly clear is that Palin's collapse represents the end of a certain kind of politics. If the culture war really is ending, culture warriors like Palin will fade from the scene. I can hear many mainstream Republicans sharing Salam's sigh of relief. I think they're fooling themselves. It's wishful thinking by the GOP's non-social conservatives, who want the party to double down on fiscal conservatism—especially now that Democratic...

Charlie Barlow plans to room with one of his best friends next semester at the University of Chicago: Lauren "Lulu'' Danzig. The two are among 50 students who will take advantage of a new policy allowing male and female undergraduates to room together -- something that was forbidden throughout the 117-year history of the Hyde Park school.

Last week, in the midst of President Obama's efforts to push unprecedented expansions of federal regulatory authority through Congress, North Korea's bellicose threats of nuclear annihilation, and the Iranian regime's brutal campaign to suppress political dissent, the American public's attention was focused elsewhere. On June 25th, 2009, the nation plunged into mourning upon learning of the tragic deaths of Michael Jackson—inimitable King of Pop—and Hollywood's original "angel" Farah Fawcett. In the time it took for a commercial break, the coverage of the Iranian protests, the debates about cap and trade and healthcare reform, and the diplomatic efforts to recover two...

Of all the reactions to Sarah Palin's Friday morning press conference, the most common by far is bafflement followed by gentle and not-so-gentle mockery. Those who've long since deemed Palin a criminally incompetent Lady Macbeth were delighted to see her crash and burn. Sensing some kind of ulterior motive, one emerging narrative is that she is abandoning ship before some messy ethics violation is revealed in an effort to preserve her 2012 presidential viability. One outlandish theory I've toyed with is that she intends to build a new life as an evangelical super-celebrity, the tough-but-loving mother of a large Christian...

The conventional wisdom was that George W. Bush was the most faith-based president in recent history, by a long shot. Citing Jesus as his favorite philosopher and Billy Graham as a mentor, Bush won evangelical voters in numbers not previously seen. In office, he launched a controversial office of faith-based initiatives and consulted religious leaders in developing science policy. Bush routinely opened cabinet meetings with prayer and acknowledged conferring with "a higher father" before going to war in Iraq. How remarkable, then, that religion might be playing an even bigger role in Barack Obama's administration. While Bush invited megapastor Rick...

So Michael Jackson's body was going to be returned to his ranch at Neverland, where it would lie in state in a glass coffin for his helplessly grieving fans to say their goodbyes. It would be borne there in a white 'fairyland' horse-drawn coach as sobbing crowds line the route. Then would come the bad-taste funeral to end all bad-taste funerals, an orgy of saccharine camp with yet more artificially whipped-up sentiment.

With Father’s Day almost upon us, expect a host of media stories on men and family life. Some will do a good job of capturing the changes and continuities associated with fatherhood in contemporary America. But other reporters and writers will generalize from their own unrepresentative networks of friends and family members, try to baptize the latest family trend, or assume that our society is heading ceaselessly in a progressive direction. So be on the lookout this week for stories, op-eds, and essays that include these five myths on contemporary fatherhood and family life. 1. THE ‘MR. MOM’ SURGE Open...

President Obama will announce tomorrow that he is extending federal benefits to include unmarried domestic partners of federal workers, including same-sex partners, White House officials said tonight. Obama will sign an executive order implementing the change in the Oval Office, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid upstaging the president's announcement. The move would give partners of federal employees access to health care and financial benefits such as relocation fees for moves. The State Department announced a similar extension of benefits last month, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calling it "the right thing to do."...

A hardcore pornographic movie was accidentally screened at PS 17 in Brooklyn, N.Y., school officials said. Students from five classes at the school had assembled to watch "Camp Rock," a Disney Channel movie starring the Jonas Brothers, but after a teacher powered up the DVD player and walked away to get the Disney movie, a skin flick began to play, the New York Post reported Sunday. The students, some as young as 5-years-old, were exposed to 45-seconds of sex acts in the incident late last month, the newspaper said. "My son told his friend he saw a naked lady at...

A steamy Calvin Klein billboard that seems to show a teenage girl in a threesome - with suggestions of a foursome - is raising eyebrows and ire. Passersby can't miss the massive, sexually charged ad on a building at Lafayette and Houston Sts. in SoHo, and they can't believe their eyes. "It's borderline pornographic," said neighborhood resident Lisa Marchese, 36, a marketing specialist who was disturbed by the youthfulness of the models. "They all look so young, particularly the girl. And to portray them in a threesome - it's just taking it too far." The ad depicts a topless young...

Much of the debate surrounding Sarah Palin’s feud with David Letterman this week has been based around questions over whether Palin overplayed her hand, or if it is wise for someone who wants to be president to be spending their time feuding with a late night host, but there is deeper motive at work here. Palin is trying to use Letterman to motivate the GOP base, and reignite the culture wars. Here was Palin’s response to Letterman’s apology for some jokes he told about her daughters this week, "Laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity...

The Politics of Nihilism at the Denver Art Museum: ... Garcia’s "not thinking about revolution or war" statement is a clear indication of a rift between the R. G. Davis Marxists and the Timothy Leary Drug Utopians. Although the Communist Party (CPUSA) had made a great effort to formulate the 60’s "youth revolution" the drugs and hip philosophy was diverting their efforts in an unforeseen way. CPUSA had used folk music as a tool to attract followers to their labor movement in the 30’s 40’s and 50’s. Now they were continuing that strategy in the 60’s by attracting talented musicians...

He may have further burnished his left-wing bona fides, but when it comes to winning elections David Letterman did his side no favors this week ‘joking’ about the statutory rape of Governor Palin’s 14-year old daughter. From the looks of this interview, She Who Strikes Terror In Leftist Hearts wants to turn the unsavory affair around into a push back against all of pop culture, which is certain to resonate, especially if we keep pushing back. Just compare the bitter, sour, twilight-of-his-increasingly-pathetic-career Letterman to this intelligent, poised, cheerful, vibrant woman with her horizons still open to everything. It’s kind of...

The chances of a new GOP governor increased and gay “marriage” decreased in New York State yesterday. Now Republican governorships look probable in New Jersey Florida and New York, three key states. New York politics and gay “marriage” took a U turn yesterday in Albany; all but dropping the governor’s seat in Rudy Giuliani’s lap and ending gay “marriage” hopes. First State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo stunned us by passing on a primary challenge to incumbent Governor David Paterson. Then the NY State Senate got into the act when its leadership was ripped away from the Democrats and returned to...

... The next belief that is thrown at those who disagree with homosexuality is that people are born gay—they can’t help who they are. The only conclusion I can come to is that this silly way of thinking was thought up in an effort to make people feel sorry for gays, thus changing their opinion on the whole concept of homosexuality. I come to this conclusion because the idea that homosexuals are born gay is both factually and medically incorrect. No one is born gay, it is a lifestyle choice. There are many documented cases of homosexuals changing their sexuality...

The Spot: Two guys walk into a store that sells insurance services from Progressive. The first guy says he needs to save some money on his auto insurance—things have gotten so dire that he was forced to sell his watch to the other guy. After the clerk finds a lower coverage rate, she suggests that the first guy will now be able to buy his watch back. "Not for sale," says the second guy. "That's cold," says the clerk. Are they or aren't they? There's been chatter on the Web, and in YouTube comments, about whether the two guys in...

A polygamy advocacy organization says the New Hampshire law that is intended to assure "equal access to marriage" for all instead specifically embeds in state statutes bigotry against polygamists. According to a statement posted on the Pro-Polygamy website, when on Wednesday New Hampshire "became the sixth U.S. State to codify the legal construction of same sex marriage," it was hailed by homosexuals as a "civil rights victory." "Declaring that the new law advances fairness and equality for all, they proclaimed that New Hampshire had supposedly 'ended discrimination' for everyone," the statement said. "But the law did no such thing. Rather,...

1) Lack Of Personal Responsibility: As a society, we encourage a "victimhood mentality" and an overweening government that never met an issue it didn't want to dive into with both feet; so we shouldn't be surprised that so many Americans expect to be rewarded for failure. If GM fails, we've got to step in and keep it afloat. If people snuck into this country illegally, we can't be so hardhearted as to obey the law and deport them! If you bought a house you couldn't afford, you shouldn't be penalized for that when the market takes a bad turn. If...

On Sunday, abortion doctor George Tiller was murdered at his church in Wichita, Kan. He was one of a handful of doctors in the U.S. who performed late-term abortions and for decades had been a target of virulent criticism from antiabortion activists. His clinic had been bombed and vandalized, and in 1993 he was shot in both arms in a failed assassination attempt. Tiller's alleged killer, Scott Roeder, is a long-time radical antiabortion activist with reported ties to a militant antigovernment organization called the Freemen. Within hours after the murder, every antiabortion group in the country denounced the attack. Robert...

Porn films are no longer a career-killer Dylan Vox has bridged the gap between adult films and mainstream fare Dylan Vox bares his fangs in his new mainstream psychological thriller, "The Lair." The actor is making the slow but steady move from adult films to more mainstream fare. By Alonso Duralde Film critic May 21, 2009 Appearances by porn performers in mainstream movies usually fall into one of three categories: one-shots (like “Behind the Green Door” star Marilyn Chambers, who starred in David Cronenberg’s “Rabid” before returning almost exclusively to adult fare), stunt-casting (for instance, porn veteran Nina Hartley’s turn...

Last week, I took my wife to see the Zac Efron flick "17 Again." I didn't expect much. After all, I think High School Musical and its endless sequels are insipid. I certainly wasn't expecting any morality tales about the virtues of abstinence until marriage. But that's what "17 Again" was -- a tribute to the value of chastity before wedlock. For those who haven't seen the movie, Matthew Perry plays Mike O'Donnell, a former high school hotshot who passed up a college athletic scholarship to marry his high school sweetheart Scarlet, whom he had impregnated before marriage. It's been...

Fourth Poll Shows U.S. Public Opinion Trending Pro-Life on Abortion Washington, DC -- The fourth poll released this month has confirmed a definite shift in American public opinion towards the pro-life perspective on abortion. A new Rasmussen Reports poll joins surveys from Gallup, Pew and Fox News in confirming that Americans are taking a decidedly more pro-life position on abortion. Results at: http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5071.html

If you were trying to find a staff lawyer in Washington, D.C. who could automatically turn off party moderates and push the GOP further into its social issues cave, you'd have to look long and hard. Not Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-al.) though. He found one in record time after taking over the ranking Republican seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. From the Legal Times: The new chief Republican counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote a blog post last month in which he linked same-sex marriage to pedophilia, according to a Web site that has since been taken down. The...

Strong families need strong fathers, but American television has come a long way from the 1950s series "Father Knows Best." Now Lifetime TV, a network known for its movies about women being endangered by men, has sunk to a new low - a reality program called "Deadbeat Dads." In the beginning of gotcha TV, viewers enjoyed watching the police bust down a door and haul away the bad guy on a show like "Cops." That same format migrated over to Animal Planet, where the cops bust down the door and arrest the man who has been starving his dogs or...

James Dobson, the founder of the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family Christian ministry, warned today that there is "utter evil" coming out of Washington, D.C., these days. "I want to tell our listeners something has come up that is so shocking and so outrageous, we must make our friends out there aware of it," he said on his daily radio program. "I'm going to speak very bluntly today because there's no other word for it: the utter evil that's coming out of Congress," he said. "I've been on the air 32 years and I've never seen a time quite...

Last week, Washington, D.C., City Councilman Marion Barry raised eyebrowns when he predicted that there would be a “civil war” if the District of Columbia endorsed gay marriage legislation. "All hell is going to break loose," warned Barry, the former D.C. mayor and one-time convicted felon, after the council voted 12-to-1 Tuesday to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere in America. "We may have a civil war," declared Barry. "The black community is just adamant against this." .... During the Prop 8 campaign in California, the tensions spilled onto the streets and got ugly. “It was like being at a klan...

Miss California keeps her crown thanks to Donald Trump (Miss USA pageant owner) who understands people have the right to an opinion -- PC police notwithstanding.... Sadly, principled opposition to same-sex marriage--shared by most Americans, including Pres Obama--- is all too often ascribed to bigotry. Carrie Prejean's response to a direct question from an agenda-driven Miss USA pageant judge -- sparked controversy even as Prejean went out of her way not to offend...... when she did not give the pro-gay-marriage answer that flamboyant gaydar Perez Hilton was looking for, she lost the contest......Hilton called Prejean a "dumb b**ch,".....saying he would...

As more states—like Iowa—approve same-sex “marriage,” conservatives are claiming that freedom of religion is in peril. Same-sex “marriage” supporters accuse them of engaging in hysterical gay-bating. Who’s telling the truth? Let me share some stories with you from an excellent news broadcast produced by National Public Radio. Then you decide. Two women decided to hold their civil union ceremony at a New Jersey pavilion owned by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association. This Methodist group told the women they could not “marry” in any building used for religious purposes. The Rev. Scott Hoffman said a theological principle—that marriage can only...

If we have reached a point in the development in our society, where a beauty pageant contestant is disqualified for believing that marriage should be restricted to a union between a man and a woman, then shouldn't the President of the United States get the same treatment? I am just saying fair is fair. And personally, I care much more about Barack Obama's view of same sex marriage than the polite comments of Carrie Prejean. I must ask you liberals, why do you hate Carrie Prejean so much and love Barack Obama, who has done nothing for gay rights, does...

WHITINSVILLE, Mass. — Twenty years after he met the love of his life, nearly five years after their wedding helped make history, it took a nasty bout of pneumonia for Gary Chalmers to fully appreciate the blessings of marriage. “I was out of work for eight weeks, spent a week in the hospital,” Chalmers said. “That was the first time I really felt thankful for the sense of the security we had, with Rich there, talking with the physicians, helping make decisions...it really made a difference.” At stake was the most basic recognition of marital bonds — something most spouses...

First came traditional marriage. Then, gay marriage. Now, there's a movement combining both—simultaneously. Abby Ellin visits the next frontier of nuptials: the "triad." Less than 18 months ago, Sasha Lessin and Janet Kira Lessin gathered before their friends near their home in Maui, and proclaimed their love for one another. Nothing unusual about that—Sasha, 68, and Janet, 55—were legally married in 2000. Rather, this public commitment ceremony was designed to also bind them to Shivaya, their new 60-something "husband." Says Sasha: “I want to walk down the street hand in hand in hand in hand and live together openly and...

LISTEN TO THE REAL REVEREND JESSE ON THE INTERNET OR A RADIO STATION IN YOUR AREA......BOND Action, Inc...Educating, Motivating and Rallying Americans! The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show Streamed live online from 6-9 a.m. PST / 9-12 a.m. EST. For Live Questions or Comments Call 1-888-77-JESSE(5-3773) You can email comments and questions to radio@bondaction.org For more information on getting The Jesse Lee Peterson Show picked up on a station in your local area call Ermias Alemayehu at 1-877-WE ACT77 (932-2877)

A measure that would prevent radio and television broadcasters from airing advertising between 6 a.m.-10 p.m. related to erectile dysfunction has popped up again in Congress. Jim Moran, the left-leaning Virginia Democrat who first introduced the Families for ED Advertising Decency Act in Congress in 2005, along with fellow Democrat Robert Brady of Pennsylvania, reintroduced the measure on April 29 with the aim to "prohibit as indecent the broadcasting of any advertisement for a medication for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and for other purposes." The prohibition would apply to all "pioneer and generic drugs that are medications for treatment...

Part 3 of a symposium on the career of Judge Robert Bork and the publication of A Time to Speak. Part 1. Part 2.When Slouching Toward Gomorrah appeared, it bore on its dust jacket a few words of mine praising the book and its distinguished author: “The ideological triumph of liberalism among American elites, far from bringing the individual and social enlightenment it promised, has produced unprecedented decay. The principal victims of this decay are the poorest and most vulnerable among us, those most in need of a healthy culture. Bork courageously and boldly states these truths. A judge as...

The flip-side of same-sex marriage Those who object on religious grounds need legal protection too. By Robin Wilson May 3, 2009 As a growing number of states stand poised to pass same-sex marriage laws, they should consider this: It's possible to legalize gay marriage without infringing on religious liberty. But it takes careful crafting of robust religious protections. And no state has gotten that right yet. The country is deeply divided on same-sex marriage. But once it is recognized legally, all kinds of people -- clerks in the local registrar's office, photographers, owners of reception halls, florists -- might not...

But as Twenge goes on to illustrate, all that narcissism is a problem that can range from the discourteous—residential advisers at Southern lament students disregarding curfews, playing dance music until 3 a.m., demanding new room assignments at a moment's notice and failing to understand why professors won't let them make up an exam they were too hung over to take—to the disastrous—failed marriages, abusive working environments and billion-dollar Ponzi schemes. Seems that the flip side of all that confidence isn't prodigious success but antisocial behavior.

DISCLAIMER: In no way should the description of columnist Michael Musto and blogger Perez Hilton in the following piece be understood to apply to all males who engage or are curious about homosexuality. Has anyone seen Carrie Prejean's brother? I'm not even sure if she has one.

There is a major cultural schism developing in America. But it's not over abortion, same-sex marriage or home schooling, as important as these issues are. The new divide centers on free enterprise -- the principle at the core of American culture. Despite President Barack Obama's early personal popularity, we can see the beginnings of this schism in the "tea parties" that have sprung up around the country. In these grass-roots protests, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans have joined together to make public their opposition to government deficits, unaccountable bureaucratic power, and a sense that the government is too willing...

Anyone who thinks that same-sex “marriage” is a benign eccentricity which won’t affect the average person should consider what it has done in Massachusetts. It’s become a hammer to force the acceptance and normalization of homosexuality on everyone. And this train is moving fast. What has happened so far is only the beginning. On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court announced its Goodridge opinion, ruling that it was unconstitutional not to allow same-sex “marriage.” Six months later, homosexual marriages began to be performed. The public schools The homosexual “marriage” onslaught in public schools across the state started soon...

Say what you want about Meghan McCain, the girl knows how to grab a headline. Speaking Saturday to the Log Cabin Republicans, McCain pronounced her belief that the GOP is too far behind the times to be relevant to the American electorate. "I feel too many Republicans want to cling to past successes," the 23-year-old McCain said. "There are those who think we can win the White House and Congress back by being 'more' conservative. Worse, there are those who think we can win by changing nothing at all about what our party has become. They just want to wait...

With the decision by the Iowa Supreme Court and an enactment of a statute Vermont Legislature sanctioning same-sex marriage, a great deal of commentary, filled with understandable but unwarranted optimism, has appeared on the possibility of same-sex marriage being legislated in additional states, including New Jersey. Advocates are dismissive of the slippery-slope argument — that is, by allowing same-sex couples to marry, then any restrictions on a parent marrying his child or his couch will logically fall. Such views are easily ridiculed if not rebutted, but the next logical step in this debate — namely, polygamy — is not readily...

These are dark days for traditional Americans, folks who believe that the Judeo-Christian principles of right and wrong should be considered when making public policy. The other day, former "Focus on the Family" founder James Dobson actually told his crew that the culture war was being lost in America. And it is hard to argue with Dobson's opinion. All over the USA, secular progressives are on the move promoting gay marriage, legalized drugs and unfettered abortion, and attacking almost all judgments on personal behavior. And nowhere is the movement more intense than in the nation's most liberal state: Vermont. The...

James Dobson claims the culture war has been lost! In a message to his staff at Focus on the Family that was never meant to be heard by the outside world, Dr. James Dobson, in his own words, stated that the culture war had been lost. After the tape of his talk was leaked to the public, he began damage control, going on Sean Hannity's program (he went on no other programs despite numerous offers by other programs to have him on) since Hannity would never challenge him, claiming the "media took him out of context." The fact is, the...

"Vermont's state legislature is considering a bill that would exclude teenagers engaging in "sexting" from being tried under child pornography laws. Across the country, teens are being charged for allegedly sending suggestive photos of minors via cell phone."