Free Republic

You just have to shake your head at some liberals who think that having a baby is like catching a disease. Mitt Romney gave the commencement address at Southern Virginia University, a largely Mormon school, where he told the grads to marry young and have children. He quoted Psalms 127: Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in...

HB 2675 is sponsored by State Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago). It requires that any public schools that currently teach sex ed would have to teach Planned Parenthood’s idea of “complete,” “comprehensive,” age-appropriate,” and “medically accurate” sex education.

J.C. Penney Co Inc Chief Executive Ron Johnson received total compensation of $1.9 million in 2012, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday, a sharp decline after a year that saw the department store chain's sales fall perilously. [Snip] Johnson's base salary was unchanged at $1.5 million, but he received no bonus or stock award in 2012 because of Penney's results, Penney said in its filing. He was eligible in 2012 for a bonus of $1.875 million.

On Monday, during his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama took time to parallel the gay rights movement with the Civil Rights movement. At the core of this civil rights argument is the need for same-sex marriage equality, according to the Associated Press. “Never before Monday had an inaugural address conveyed support for marriage equality, and activists now hope the Obama administration will take concrete steps to follow up, including escalated engagement in pending Supreme Court cases,” reports the AP on January 23. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments regarding the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s...

President Obama on Monday became the first American president to refer to gay rights in an inaugural address, drawing effusive praise from gay rights advocates for his strong embrace of the cause and reflecting how much his views have changed. “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” the president said, “for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.” He invoked the Stonewall riots of 1969, a landmark event in the history of the gay rights...

SALEM, Mass. — A Lawrence man yesterday pleaded guilty to raping a young girl over a three year period and will deported to the Dominican Republic as a result. Ariel Mendez, 48, pleaded guilty to raping the girl on diverse dates from January 2004 to January 2007 when the child was 6 to 9 years old. The incidents occurred at various Lawrence addresses where Mendez lived with the girl’s mother, prosecutor Jessica Strasnick said in Salem Superior Court yesterday. On one occasion, Mendez raped the girl while holding a pillow over her face, Strasnick said. Mendez was indicted on a...

Track Palin, the eldest son of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, is reportedly ending his marriage to Britta Hanson after a year and a half. The couple, who were former high-school sweethearts, are jointly petitioning for divorce, reports TMZ. Shortly after they got married, Track, now 23, and Britta, 22, announced the arrival of their first child, a girl named Kyla Grace Palin. Track is an Army Reservist who spent a year deployed in Iraq with a Ft. Wainwright Stryker Brigade. At the time of his marriage it was reported that he had planned to study at the University of...

What if you had to choose between your child learning to read and making ends meet each month? Before child labor laws were passed, the solution for the poor seemed to be to pull kids out of schools and place them to work in factories or other employment. For some today, argues Nicholas D. Kristof in a recent column, the solution may be to make sure their kids don’t learn to read. That way the parents can continue to collect Supplemental Security Income (SSI) checks. “This is what poverty sometimes looks like in America: parents here in Appalachian hill country...

This Christmas Dr. Russell D. Moore might call upon us to think of Joseph, Jesus’ father, and his role in the nativity story. Dr. Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, argues that Joseph’s decision to be a father to Jesus reflects God and the way he treats his Christian children. “Joseph acts as a father when he takes Mary into his family, when he takes her as his wife,” said Dr. Moore at a recent Family Research Council event. “He acts fatherly toward Jesus in terms of identity (naming him),” Dr. Moore continues,...

My son, age 42, finally got married. His bride, in a shimmering turquoise maternity dress, walked down a red carpet with rose petals scattered by his 8-year-old twin nieces, to join a cantor who sang the Jewish blessings under a chuppah, a canopy held by a man on each corner, in a quasi-traditional wedding ceremony. The bridegroom broke the traditional glass under his foot, the guests cheered, and a jazz combo struck up syncopated rhythms heralding the happy couple. If that sounds more quasi- than traditional, the bridegroom gets credit for breaking through a social trend. More than 23 percent...

One significant development in the recent election was votes in four states approving same sex marriage initiatives. Until now, all previous state referenda to approve same sex marriage – 32 of them - failed. The Wall Street Journal editorial page – a place where conservatives usually turn for intellectual capital – saw this as cause for celebration. According to the Journal, marriage definition should come from voters, not from court orders. Americans, they argue, have “shown themselves more than capable of changing their views on gay marriage the democratic way.” In other words, our definition of marriage should follow process,...

As the lack of opportunity in America becomes less of an issue of race and more of perpetual class separation, liberal reporters and academics continue to propose the same recycled, progressive policies which have little hope of solving the marriage problem but will undoubtedly bloat federal and state governments. For example, in a New York Times article printed this summer, Jason DeParle cast the growing trend of lower-class single mothers as one of class conflict. “Estimates vary widely, but scholars have said that changes in marriage patterns — as opposed to changes in individual earnings — may account for as...

Brothel owner who employs 80 prostitutes wins election as county commissioner in Nevada... and he's a Republican Lance Gilman is a thriving businessman with dozens of employees. That those workers include a good many prostitutes didn't faze the people of a rural Nevada county who recently elected him as a Storey County commissioner by a wide margin. The Mustang Ranch brothel owner is the first such owner to win election to public office in Nevada since prostitution was legalized here in 1971, Nevada historian Guy Rocha said. And he's believed to be the first to do so in the state's...

'I am bitterly, bitterly disappointed': retired naval officer's email to children in full This is the full email that retired Royal Navy officer Nick Crews sent to his son and two daughters in February expressing his and his wife's disappointment in them. 2:31PM GMT 18 Nov 2012 Dear All Three With last evening's crop of whinges and tidings of more rotten news for which you seem to treat your mother like a cess-pit, I feel it is time to come off my perch. It is obvious that none of you has the faintest notion of the bitter disappointment each of...

Next week voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington will vote on whether to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples. Given that there are good people on both sides of this issue, how are we to explain their opposing views? The primary explanation is this: Proponents and opponents ask two different questions. Proponents of same-sex marriage ask: Is keeping the definition of marriage as man-woman fair to gays? Opponents of same-sex marriage ask: Is same-sex marriage good for society? Few on either side honestly address the question of the other side. Opponents of same-sex marriage rarely acknowledge how unfair the age-old...

I am the mom of a 12-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy. They have been huge fans of Nickelodeon TV programming throughout their childhoods. We even took them to the Nick Hotel in Florida, where we stayed in a SpongeBob SquarePants family suite. But enough is enough. Like disgusted parents across the country, I put my foot down and am standing up for decency: No more Nick. This weekend, the Viacom-owned children's network will debut a reboot of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" TV series. One of the lead characters ("Leonardo") will be voiced by actor Jason Biggs. On August...

“You can't own a mountain any more than you can own an ocean or a piece of the sky. You hold it in trust. You live on it, you take life from it, and once you're dead, you rest in it.”-- Grandpa Walton

An increasing number of couples in the United States are choosing to cohabit as a prequel to or replacement for marriage. This can have some dire consequences for the romantic couple or any children involved, argued Mike McManus at a recent Family Research Council event. McManus is the Co-Chair of Marriage Savers. He and his wife of over forty years recently co-authored Living Together: Myths, Risks and Answers. “So, as I see it the central issue of America actually is the disintegration of marriage,” argued McManus. “Divorces have tripled, the marriage rate’s down 54%, cohabitation is up seventeen-fold, and so...

One of my mother's favorite sayings is to do the best you can with what you have at the time. She should know. She was the first in her family to go to college, graduating from Auburn University in three years. She taught high school mathematics at a time when few math teachers were women. As a single mother of two adolescent girls, she encouraged us both through college. While I was in high school, she dealt with her own mother's failing health. On weekends, she drove two hours each way in Georgia from Carrollton to Columbus to check on...

EXCLUSIVE NY state Assemblyman Naomi Rivera unwittingly shed light on the web of tax-funded Latino nonprofits in The Bronx —that benefit a self-serving collusive network of Latino insiders. Rivera installed her boyfriend to head the Bronx Council for Economic Development; he alleges Rivera used the group to fund their posh dates, sex romps and weekend getaways----and alleges Rivera used tax funds designated for "the poor" to finance her campaigns.

The progressive mindset is set. It believes that whatever it pursues at the moment must be progress. Think Progress is one of the groups that is convinced progress is achieved by the right people thinking the right thoughts. Or, the right people thinking the left thoughts. "We are the people we've been waiting for," said candidate Obama four years ago. Better to wait for Godot. The president's re-election slogan is an expression of this mindset. Forward. Just that one word. It's not as bad perhaps as MSNBC's "Lean Forward." Imagine you're on a cliff, looking over into the vast chasm...

A former Texas high school teacher was convicted of multiple felonies after having sex with five 18-year-old students at her home. The conviction was a victory for the prosecution but it was a setback for the feminist movement. It was also a setback for the homosexual uncivil rights movement, which seeks unlimited authority to redefine relationships among consenting adults. Brittni Nicole Colleps, 28, of Arlington, was found guilty of 16 counts of having an inappropriate relationship between a student and teacher. In Texas, this second-degree felony is punishable by two to 20 years in prison per count. Because none of...

A Charlotte, N.C., woman has been accused in a tax scheme to defraud the government of more than $3.8?million. In court documents filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, 40-year-old Candida Mayo Figueroa was named as a suspect. Federal authorities said the U.S. Postal Service intercepted an "extraordinarily large number" of mailings from the U.S. Treasury Department that appeared to contain checks going to several apartments close to one another in Charlotte. The Postal Service alerted investigators because the names on the mail were people not known to receive mail at those addresses. Authorities said much of the mail was sent...

In a recent article published in the New York Times, reporter Jason DeParle casts the fact that more lower-class mothers are having children out of wedlock as a product of class conflict. He posits a theory of marital “scarcity” in which the upper classes have greater access to marriage than the poorer classes. DeParle paints a bleak picture, writing that “College-educated Americans like the Faulkners are increasingly likely to marry one another, compounding their growing advantages in pay.” He reports that “Less-educated women like Ms. [Jessica] Schairer, who left college without finishing her degree, are growing less likely to marry...

It's the best that she's ever looked! Note: Better put down your drink before you look at this thread

Midlanders who didn’t think Chick-fil-A could become anymore crowded than it already is were proved wrong today. Supporters from around the Permian Basin showed up in droves at both the Chick-fil-A on Loop 250 and the restaurant in Midland Park Mall. Some waited in the drive-thru line for more than an hour, while others stood in a line* that stretched outside and around a portion of the building so they could place an order. “I’d stay here for four hours if I had to,” said Maryann Harless, who had been sitting in the drive-thru for about an hour. “I...

Some have opposed the company's support of the traditional family. "Well, guilty as charged," said Cathy when asked about the company's position. "We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that. "We operate as a family business ... our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that," Cathy emphasized. "We intend to...

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Brad Pitt has long been an advocate for gay rights (initially vowing to hold off on marrying longtime love Angelina Jolie until gay marriage became legal nationwide), but his mother, Jane Pitt, apparently takes a different stance on the issue. In a letter penned for her local newspaper, Jane urged Christian voters not to be put off by candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, as he still maintains conservative views in line with Christian beliefs despite his differing religion — including his posture on gay marriage and abortion. “I think any Christian should spend much time in...

(CNN) -- A 6-year-old girl, detained in Arizona on suspicion of entering the United States illegally, is now at a shelter in El Paso, Texas, as authorities try to locate a relative. The girl, who told authorities she is from El Salvador, had to be moved to El Paso because there is no room in Arizona shelters for minors in her situation, said Jose Joaquin Chacon, the consul general for El Salvador in Arizona. The girl was traveling with her mother through Mexico, Chacon said, but for some unknown reason the mother apparently turned her daughter over to smugglers at...

First lady Michelle Obama, adding her support to her husband’s endorsement of same-sex marriage, said this week she supports marriage equality because she believes in the “basic values” of fairness and equality she taught her daughters. “In a country where we teach our children that everyone is equal under the law, discriminating against same-sex couples just isn't right,” she said in a video posted by the White House on Thursday night. “It's as simple as that.” The video featured Michelle Obama answering a series of questions asked through Twitter. In the video, Obama doubled as a campaign surrogate for...

Father Killed Children, Put Remains In Trash, Police Say May 7, 2012 When police arrived at a bloodied Orange apartment last Thursday, they say it was clear something was wrong. The couple who lived on West Chapman Avenue with their two sons had moved out days ago. No one had been reported missing, and the move-out went without a hitch. Yet there was enough blood in the apartment that police quickly began a search for the four members of the family, including the father, Shazer Fernando Limas. On Monday, prosecutors filed three murder charges with special enhancements against Limas, who...

One of the men accused in last month's kidnapping that police say has ties to the Gulf Cartel was arrested by Brownsville police this weekend for allegedly molesting a child. Brownsville police spokesman J.J. Trevino said police brought Hector Primitivo Salinas, 39, of Brownsville, from the Cameron County jail to the city jail Friday after investigators determined he was wanted in connection with an incident reported in February. A 9-year-old girl told a teacher in February that Salinas touched her inappropriately. Police declined to release the girl's relationship with Salinas or the circumstances surrounding her contact with him. The school...

A mother in Texas has been arrested for allegedly using her children and teenage sister to smuggle narco cash from Dallas to Mexico. After pulling over Betzabeth Perez-Torres, 23, in a Mercedes Benz in Combes en route to Brownsville, an officer noticed the three children in the car were fidgeting. The officer became suspicious when Perez-Torres told the children to stop fidgeting and to keep their coats on. The officer eventually discovered the children had cash in plastic bags wrapped around their waists and hidden by the coats. The two younger children, aged 2 and 6, are said to have...

Reports suggested that the misconduct involved prostitutes in Cartagena, site of the Summit of the Americas. A Secret Service spokesman did not dispute that. A US official said 12 officials were sent home. The agents were staying at Cartagena's Hotel Caribe, which is also hosting members of the White House staff and press corps during the summit A hotel employee said the agents arrived at the beachfront hotel about a week ago, and claimed they were drinking heavily during their stay. The employee said the agents left the hotel Thursday, a day before Obama and other regional leaders arrived for...

The Fix's Chris Cillizza marvels at Rick Santorum's increasing polling strength among Republican women, as measured by a new Washington Post/ABC News poll: Judging from the coverage of Rick SantorumÂ’s presidential campaign over the last few weeks, you might think that the former Pennsylvania SenatorÂ’s numbers would be cratering among women.But you would be wrong. Way wrong.In a new Washington Post-ABC poll, SantorumÂ’s numbers among Republican and Republican-leaning women have soared over the past month. He now has the highest favorability rating among that group of any of the top-tier Republican presidential candidates. ...The poll numbers reinforce findings from recent...

Santorum Says He Would Enforce US Obscenity Laws That Obama Ignores By NBC's Andrew Rafferty ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL -- Rick Santorum accused President Barack Obama of not enforcing the country's obscenity laws and said Friday that as chief executive he would crack down on illegal pornography. Santorum found himself answering pornography questions during a stop at an Italian restaurant here after the discovery of a statement posted in his campaign website in which he asserts that "America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography." Recent reporting has shed light on the letter in which the former Pennsylvania senator vowed...

Internet pornography could conceivably become a thing of the past if Rick Santorum is elected president. The unapologetic social conservative, currently in second place behind Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination, has promised to crack down on the distribution of pornography if elected.

It is hard to argue against Newt Gingrich's brainpower, skills, experience, ideas, & sincere desire to put America back in its rightful place as the leader of the free world both technologically and culturally. It would be ashame to exclude Newt Gingrich from the next administration that takes office, January 2013. In that vein, we conservatives should be willing to accept a Santorum-Gingrich or Gingrich-Santorum Ticket, denying Romney the nomination, in order to truly fix America with Conservative Ideas and Actions. This requires that both Santorum and Gingrich stay in the GOP race until the convention. Any takers?

In 1993, then Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan published a paper in which he coined the phrase “defining deviancy down.” He was ringing an alarm about what he saw as a dangerous social unraveling as result of our redefining deviant behavior as normal, rather than doubling down on traditional standards of behavior. It’s through this lens that we should view the Obama administration mandate that employers provide free contraception and sterilization and its refusal to grant an exemption to morally opposed religious institutions. Our audacious president, as part of his ongoing enterprise to transform America, has gone beyond defining deviancy down....

The fact that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is a “good family man” is why he has gained traction recently with voters, according to radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. “My guess [why Santorum’s popularity is rising] might have to do with the fact that it’s now widely known that Santorum is a loving, devoted father,” Rush argued. A recent Washington Post/ABC News story stated that Santorum is winning more support from Republican women and is “less unpopular” among Democrat and independent women than his GOP rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich despite his views on abortion, contraception, and prenatal screenings...

There's a shocking twist in the saga of Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer and the incident at a Newark hotel that landed her in the hospital and a male acquaintance under police scrutiny. We're told that a sex tape of Nadia Lockyer and the man was given to her husband, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, about six weeks before the Newark incident. The treasurer believed that the man, who has a history of arrests for alleged methamphetamine use, might make the tape public if forced to break off a romantic relationship with the supervisor.Here's the story, as we've pieced it together...

Santorum 31% (-2%) Romney 30% (+3%) Gingrich 16% (-) Paul 11% (-)

She always called him “Mr. President” — not Jack. He refused to kiss her on the lips when they made love. But Mimi Alford, a White House intern from New Jersey, was smitten nonetheless. She was in the midst of an 18-month affair with the most powerful man in the world, sharing not only John F. Kennedy’s bed but also some of his darkest and most intimate moments. In her explosive new tell-all, “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath,” Alford, now a 69-year-old grandmother and retired New York City church administrator, sets...

Sen. Rick Santorum has no viable path to victory and brings no new issues or ideas to the table. He no longer serves a purpose, or has a justification to remain in the race. Santorum has no viable claim that he is more conservative or more electable than Gingrich. He has no viable claim that he will be better in raising money, in organization, or would do a better job as president. There is simply no path for him. Further — despite winning Iowa, Santorum lost badly in NH and SC, and has no means to complete in FL. It...

I can confirm tonight from multiple sources that phone calls are in fact occurring between Republicans in Washington and among evangelical leaders to raise money for Rick Santorum rapidly. The sources tell me that this is not for a Santorum win, though the evangelicals I spoke to continue to hope it is possible. This is to stop Newt Gingrich. One evangelical leader I spoke to said, “If Newt wins, we won’t be able to make family values an issue in the general.” One lobbyist I spoke to said, “They [the GOP leaders in DC] are really nervous about Gingrich and...

At least it was cordial. But the 150 or so "movement conservatives" gathered at Paul Pressler's this weekend (1/13-14) were a fractured lot. Maybe 10% were for Perry. Almost all of them were against Romney. Well, sort of. Caveat below. There was an official Romney guy there who explained that "You'll either work with us now or work with us later, but you'll all have to get on Mitt's train, because we have the money and the organization, so there's no stopping us." This did not go over well. It just made everyone more determined than ever to do whatever...

Mitt Romney: 36 Newt Gingrich: 25 Rick Santorum: 17 Ron Paul: 7 Other: 5 Undecided 10 Other: 5

Complete Headline: HHS Plans ‘Cultural Competency’ Training for Health Professionals Dealing with Homosexuals, Transgenders Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says her agency's plans for the coming year include improving the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities; training health professionals in "cultural competency"; and developing definitions of sexual orientation and gender identity. On the HHS Web site, Sebelius also summarized actions taken thus far on behalf of the LGBT community, such as forming an internal LGBT Coordinating Committee, the inclusion of LGBT people in implementing the Affordable Care Act and ongoing anti-bullying efforts. The Web...

I'm always a little put off by the phrase "family values." It's not that I don't believe in them; I just don't believe that the people who use the phrase every five minutes have any monopoly on defining what family values are. A lot of these people are conservative Christians. They seem to think that the rest of us are all in favor of destroying family values. Now, some people want to destroy their personal families, but not because they don't like the values - it's just that their families are not the value-oriented kind. NB: This has nothing to...

“That was really an accident,” Mitch Albom recently called the publication of his first nonfiction book, “Tuesdays with Morrie. .” At the time, the sports columnist was just trying to help pay his former professor’s medical bills. However, when the book was published, it became something more. An international sensation. It also changed Albom’s life. Next Sunday, the television movie based on “Have a Little Faith”-- Albom’s second nonfiction book-- will air on ABC. I recently had the opportunity to interview Albom about his new film, his career path and finding his glory in life. “Faith” tells the true story...