Free Republic

....The 17-year-old scholar-athlete's acceptance to all eight Ivy League schools on March 27 brought him international recognition and instant rock-star status in the corridors of his soon-to-be alma mater. But for his family, it was confirmation of the effort behind his many nights of studying, the support of his relatives and church, and the work ethic his parents have sought to instill.... Ebenezer Enin said he spent many hours teaching his son math and science from grade school through high school. He and his wife were strict, he said. And his son, who is set on becoming a physician, has...

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is still a cause célèbre for the right-wing, drawing praise from Tea Party activists, Republican politicians, and conservative media outlets. Kevin Williamson of National Review called him a “dissident” like Mohandas Gandhi or Henry David Thoreau, Nevada Sen. Dean Heller hailed him as a “patriot,” and Sean Hannity has praised him as somebody that’s “willing to fight.” This was bad enough as an instance of conservative recklessness when Bundy was just a lawless rancher backed by armed militamen. It’s even worse now that we know that Bundy is full of racist bones. Here he is, as...

The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, the 78-page report written by a then 38-year old Daniel Patrick ‘Pat’ Moynihan, an assistant secretary of labor for policy in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, was never supposed to see the light of day. The Negro Family, which later came to be widely known simply as “The Moynihan Report,” did not even originally have Moynihan’s name on it’s cover–the document was only meant to be distributed to high-ranking members of the Johnson administration in order to spur discussion regarding what policies could be implemented in order to assist the Negro family...

".......... Lily, just like better-off men and women, believes that marriage means an unqualified commitment to the other spouse. When you marry someone, you support him in hard times. You stick with him when he disappoints you. You visit him if he ends up in jail. And you encourage him to become an important part of your children’s lives. It’s just that Lily doesn’t believe that Carl is worth that commitment. Nor does she believe that she will meet someone who will meet her standards anytime soon, and the statistics back her up.The economy has changed. A higher percentage of...

2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark, and highly entertaining television show "Good Times." The Norman Lear created sit com focused on day to lives of the Evans family, living in the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago. While the Evans clan was most certainly poor, the fictional family lived up to the show's title in that what they lacked in material possessions, they more than made up for this in the love that was ever present in nearly every episode. The show was a breakthrough at the time of its debut not only in that it had an...

My cousin Patricia read the following poem at her mother's funeral yesterday. (That would be my Aunt Pat.) There wasn't a dry eye in the place. And if that didn't get you, then her sister Debbie, in her eulogy, remembering those who have left us since last August did: my Mom, their sister Barbara, my niece Lisa and most recently, our cousin Mary Ann. Attrib. David M. Romano, 1993 If Tomorrow Starts Without Me… If tomorrow starts without me, and I’m not here to see, If the sun should rise and find your eyes all filled with tears for me;...

Holy Week Preparation By Jennifer Gregory Miller   Apr 09, 2014 Holy Week is one of the busiest weeks of the year for our family. Preparing for Christmas, especially when we have to plan celebrations for both sides of the family and possible travel is also busy, but it never reaches the level of planning as Holy Week. I think the main difference is that we are participating in the liturgy of the Church throughout the whole Triduum, so there is less time at home to “do” things.My father was in the Carmelite seminary in his younger years and...

PORTLAND, OR, April 8, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A soon-to-be opened natural foods store in Oregon is in danger of never opening its doors after homosexual activists publicized remarks its Mormon owner made online supporting true marriage and organized a boycott targeting not just the store, but its suppliers. Chauncy Childs had planned to open Moreland Farmers Pantry, an organic, locally-sourced grocery store, in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland. But because of comments she made under a pseudonym during a discussion on Facebook last year in which she defended true marriage and said business owners should have the right to refuse...

The Christian organization Focus on the Family is releasing a movie in theaters May 6 called “Irreplaceable” about the value of traditional families, the importance of fathers being engaged in their children’s lives and the healing power of forgiveness. But apparently to some advocates for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, community, that’s a cardinal sin. LGBT advocates have launched an effort to disparage the movie online, petition against it and work to make sure “Irreplaceable” isn’t seen in your local theater. Focus President Jim Daly reports in a blog post that some of the more than 700...

WINTER HAVEN (FOX 13) - A man breaking into a Winter Haven home Monday morning was shot and killed by the family living there, Police Chief Gary Hester said. It happened at a little before 7 a.m. on Lake Marriana Road Drive. A mother, father, and son woke up to the sound of someone, identified by police as 40-year-old Mitchell Large, trying to get in through a porch door. Chief Hester said one of the family members fired a warning shot. "[A resident] fired a warning shot above the door. That warning shot did not deter the intruder. The intruder...

‘Cities Changing Diabetes’, a new partnership programme to fight the urban diabetes challenge has been launched with Mexico City the first major city to sign-up to the programme. “The global diabetes epidemic is an emergency in slow motion,” says Lars Rebien Sørensen, CEO, Novo Nordisk, the Danish based healthcare company that is leading the initiative.

The Eucharist: Foundation of the Christian FamilyFr. John A. Hardon, S.J.We do not normally associate the Holy Eucharist with marriage and the family. But we should. Without the Eucharist, there would not be a livable Sacrament of Matrimony or a stable Christian family. What are we saying? We are saying that Christ intended these two sacraments to be related as condition and consequence. The Eucharist is the condition, and matrimony as the core of the family is the supernatural consequence. Surely this calls for an explanation, and a clear explanation. Needless to say, this is a most important subject....

Agenda 21 is alive and well in Klamath County, Oregon. Klamath Basin farmers are feeling the wrath of the Klamath Tribes in collusion with the Federal and Oregon state governments. Water is now basically off limits to ranchers unless they get approval from the tribes, and approvals are few and far between. ... The success of this plan spells disaster for not only the Klamath Basin family farmers, but for all family farmers, as it will be a precedent. Without locally grown produce and animal feed, we will be even more dependent on imported food at a much higher price....

As a mother, I often dwell on my role and that of my husband in influencing our children. I also think about the roles their peers and their environment play in affecting their growth. Are our children being challenged enough? Are they being taught responsibility, gratitude and manners? Should they be focusing on one activity or many? Are they over- or under-scheduled? The list goes on and on. Recently our 14-year-old daughter Maggie has been questioning me about her talents. Specifically, she has been wondering what those talents might be. My response most often has been to tell her that...

Dallas.. (AP PHOTO/BAYLOR HEALTH, WIECK) Premature quintuplets born this week in North Texas are doing “remarkably well,” their doctor said Thursday. Dr. Vijay Nama, director of neonatology at the Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, said during a news conference that the four girls and one boy were breathing on their own after birth, and although four were later put on machines to help their breathing, all are expected to be off the machines soon. He expects the babies to remain in the hospital for six to seven weeks.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Manson Family member Bruce Davis, who was sentenced to life in prison for two 1969 murders carried out with other members of the cult, was granted parole on Wednesday by a California parole board, although it was not certain he would be freed. Davis' parole must still be affirmed by California Governor Jerry Brown, who reversed a similar decision by the same board last year, saying that the 71-year-old convicted killer remained a danger to the public.

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.