Free Republic

Back in September, our family received an Obamacare-induced health insurance death notice. We joined millions of other Americans whose individual market health plans died after Democrats lied about our ability to keep the plans and doctors we liked. President Obama tried to "fix" the mess he created. But as usual, the federal government's solutions have made things even worse. Confusion and chaos reign not just in our household, but across the country. As I reported last fall, our letter from Anthem BlueCross BlueShield of Colorado informed us that we could no longer keep our high-deductible PPO plan with a wide...

"But the purpose of prayer," wrote Bill Buckley, "surely, is to stress the great divisions between the material and the supernatural condition, not to gloss over them." Indeed, though it seemed in recent days that the chasm between the material and supernatural has grown so great that not even a multi-million dollar congressionally funded bridge to nowhere and back could connect the distant shores. I'm not Catholic, (though I am doing some reading on the faith), so I'm unfamiliar with the specialties of the various saints. I know there is a patron saint for traveling, another for the military, and...

WASHINGTON – A German home-schooling family facing deportation following the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear their appeal is being allowed to stay in the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security has granted the family “indefinite deferred status,” their attorney confirmed to Fox News. That means the Romeike family, who claim the German government is persecuting them because they want to raise their children in accordance with their Christian beliefs, can stay in the United States without the threat of being forced return to their home country, the family’s legal team told Fox News. The family moved to Morristown, Tenn., in...

The Romeike family sought to stay in the United States because returning to Germany would mean they could not home school their children in that country. The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from a German family seeking asylum in the United States because their home country does not allow home-schooling. The justices rejected an appeal from Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, who claim the German government is persecuting them because they want to raise their children in accordance with their Christian beliefs.

ROME, February 27, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “I am a homosexual, but I’m against ‘gay marriage,’” a French pro-family activist told an Italian Catholic opinion paper earlier this month. Jean-Pier-Delaume Myard, spokesman for Manif Pour Tous, told La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana that the “sole purpose” of the homosexualist “gay rights” movement is “destroying the family.” Myard gave the interview following the first big pro-family Manif Pour Tous event in Italy on February 11. Myard noted that in a recent talk, he said “we must break the silence” about the real nature of the homosexualist movement, noting that many homosexuals “have nothing to...

The traditional family is dead, so we've been informed. It's been replaced by blended families, cohabitation, single-parent families, and, if the latest scientific controversy regarding mitochondrial DNA pans out, multiple biological parents for a single child. It's not wrong to declare that the face of the American family is changing (even if most of the changes have been for the worse), but it may be overwrought. The only way to sing a dirge for the "traditional" family is to define it exceedingly narrowly -- and even then, it's not dead, just diminished. If you define "traditional" as a father working...

Jesus once rebuked the people of his time for their stubborn and unrepentant hearts: This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At...

Just read this and weep for our future. David Wise is at the top of his sport. He’s always smiling among his friends and competitors, however, he’s not like the rest of the field. He is mature. Not to say the rest of the freestyle skiers of halfpipe are not mature, but Wise is mature far beyond his years. At only twenty-three years old, he has a wife, Alexander, who was waiting patiently in the crowd, and together they have a two-year-old daughter waiting for them to return to their home in Reno, Nevada.At such a young age, Wise has...

Culture Challenge of the Week: No Future for our Kids? President Obama recently warned Americans that too many members of our society never climb the ladder to success—they’re defeated before they even begin. When children have no future, it poses “a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe.” He actually got that right. According to a recent Pew study, “[m]ore than 40 percent of Americans raised in the bottom quintile of the family income ladder remain stuck there as adults.” It’s a tragedy to see human potential go to...

A Mexican man was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison in the December 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in ATF’s Fast and Furious gunwalking case. Manuel Osorio-Arellanes was wounded at the crime scene and pleaded guilty to first degree murder. Terry's sister, Kelly Terry-Willis told Osorio-Arellanes at the sentencing hearing in federal court in Tucson, Ariz., that he was a coward who had chosen the wrong path in life, the Associated Press reported. She also described her brother as a loving and devoted family man - "a man who loved God and life," according to the...

Time and time again I have been accused of being on the "wrong side of history" when it comes to the arguments over abortion and, especially, to so-called gay marriage. This linguistic fad has exploded in use lately as if history itself is the sole arbitrator of what is right and true. It is the weapon of utter dismissiveness that is boldly and routinely wielded by the Left. One should, in reality, not be interested in being on the "right side of history," but on the right side of right and wrong. The most recent and sudden burst of Leftist...

FR is pro-God, pro-Life, pro-family, pro-constitution, pro-limited government and will remain that way. Regardless of any consequences!! You're either with us on this or against us. Moderation is not the solution, it is the problem!! We do not surrender, we do not retreat, we do not negotiate or compromise on our unalienable rights to Life and Liberty or our sovereignty!! Karl Rove and the GOP-e moderates and all like them can KMA!! You cannot moderate evil, you fight it!!

Numerous studies have found that children who do not live with both biological parents, irrespective of socioeconomic status, are far more likely to be sexually abused than their peers in intact families. In particular, girls living in non-traditional families are found to have been sexually abused by their ‘stepfathers,’ either the married, cohabiting or casual partner of a divorced or single mother, at many times the rate girls are sexually abused by their natural fathers in intact families. (Snip) Child sexual abuse is not fully and frankly discussed because the public discourse is self-censored by politicians, academics, social service organisations,...

He refused to be knocked out, even in death. The family of a Puerto Rican boxer — who was shot to death last week — honored his dying wish on Friday by propping up his corpse in the corner of a fake boxing ring to memorialize his career. Like an ashen wax figure, Christopher Rivera’s pale, embalmed body was positioned in the corner of the ring decked out in boxing gloves, a hoodie, shades and sneakers.

Divorce rate is higher among religiously conservative Protestants, and even among those living around them, finds a new study that examined all counties in the United States where divorces occurred and looked at what the characteristics of those counties were. Demographers Jennifer Glass at the University of Texas and Philip Levchak at the University of Iowa looked at the entire map of the United States, and found that a key factor predicting divorce rates is the concentration of conservative Protestants in a county. To be published in the American Journal of Sociology next month, the study notes that religiously conservative...

Vatican II, "Gaudium et spes" A man and a woman, who by the marriage covenant of conjugal love ‘are no longer two, but one flesh’, render mutual help and service to each other through an intimate union of their persons and of their actions. Through this union they experience the meaning of their oneness and attain to it with growing perfection day by day. As a mutual gift of two persons, this intimate union, as well as the good of the children, imposes total fidelity on the spouses and argues for an unbreakable oneness between them.

My mother's father died of cancer before I was born. My mother was pregnant with me, but had not told her father that she was to have a second child. The story I've been told is that they opened him up to remove the cancer -- and found it everywhere. They closed him back up and sent him home to die. Both of my mother's brothers died of cancer. All three of these men were heavy smokers, one ignored the signs of potential trouble for years, and all three died from cancer. My mother was diagnosed with cancer in 1978...

As you probably know by now, former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe went full-frontal on the Vikings last week -- accusing special teams coach Mike Priefer of being a "bigot" and implicating Leslie Frazier and Rick Spielman by association. He charged that Priefer made anti-gay slurs in the locker room, and in his initial post at Deadspin, Kluwe wrote: "If there's one thing I hope to achieve from sharing this story, it's to make sure that Mike Priefer never holds a coaching position again in the NFL, and ideally never coaches at any level." ... Interestingly, in a Tuesday appearance on...

The Supreme Court has put gay marriage on hold in Utah. The high court on Monday granted the state a stay in their same-sex marriage challenge. The decision comes after a federal judge last month ruled in favor of gay marriage.

From The Times of India: Women who take oral contraceptives regularly are at a higher risk of developing breast cancer compared to others, shows a study by AIIMS doctors. Breast cancer risk was found to be 9.5 times more in women with a history of consuming such pills. Early menstruation cycle, late marriage and lower duration of breastfeeding were the other major factors responsible for the disease amongIndians, according to the study published in the latest issue of the Indian Journal of Cancer.The study was conducted on 640 women, of which 320 were breast cancer patients.“We found long-term use of...