Free Republic

...secretive group in upstate New York...videotaped ceremonies where they were branded in their pelvic area with a symbol featuring Raniere’s initials. “During the branding ceremonies, slaves were required to be fully naked, and the master would order one slave to film while the other held down the slave being branded,” the complaint says...“slaves” had to stick to very low-calorie diets...“forced to wear fake cow udders over their breasts while people called them derogatory names,” or threatened with being put in cages,...Raniere has been bankrolled by Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagram’s liquor fortune. Bronfman gave millions of dollars covering...

Not for nothing, but the latest fruits of the sexual revolution are even more bizarre than most of us imagined.We knew things would get a little freaky, but maybe we didn’t know it would involve an upswing in polygamy, amorous activities with plastic women, or cuddling sessions with electric candelabra.But that is the state of affairs as we approach Valentine’s Day this year.We shouldn’t be surprised. When a society deifies sexual expression, it deifies a jealous god who will not be satisfied until every biological, social, and moral norm is overturned.Consider the upswing in open marriages. In a recent edition...

MANCHESTER — - Drivers along I-291 had quite a sight Saturday, as a man wearing nothing but a thong, fake breasts and a wig sauntered along the side of the highway. Police said they received several calls about the man, which prompted an hour-long search. Police said they found the man, fully clothed and collecting cans behind a business on Batson Drive in Manchester. Police said they found a wig and fake breasts in the man's car. David Gebhardt, 42, of Manchester, was charged with disorderly conduct and simple trespass and was released on $2,500 bail.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - From bondage to "breath play" and zoophilia, it's not easy keeping up with society's fast-developing sexual trends. That's why some of North America's top sexologists are hunkered down with academics and therapists at a Fisherman's Wharf hotel this weekend: to swap findings about everything from teens with underwear fetishes to transgender couples. "These couples have problems that I didn't know how to deal with," said Olga Perez Stable Cox, president of the Western U.S. region of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. "You have to understand the culture, otherwise you're an outsider, and you...

BIG ADO FOR BILL IN LITTLE ROCK November 5, 2004 -- THE Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock opens Nov. 18, with a four-day celebration that begins Nov. 14. President Clinton Avenue will be turned into a mall. Bands, singers, stalls, merchants, gifts, arts and crafts, big video screens, bleachers, whatevers enough for 27,000 guests. No room to accommodate the 35,000 requests for invites. The leftover 8,000 will have to watch on TV or read my description today. Maggie Williams, who was Hillary's White House chief of staff and Bill's post-White House chief of staff, gave me an advance tour....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation to strengthen 1960s-era federal hate crime law and broaden it to cover gay people and the disabled overwhelmingly passed the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. The legislation was passed by a 65-33 vote as an amendment to a defense bill. Backers hope the large bipartisan margin will ensure the measure remains part of the bill after negotiations with the House of Representatives. The House, which has been less sympathetic to the hate crimes legislation, did not include hate crimes in its version of the defense bill. Eighteen Republicans joined all the Senate Democrats present to pass the...