Free Republic

Former Arizona Governor and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will be part of the United States delegation to the Winter Olympics in Sochi next month.

<p>Topeka resident William Marotta had argued that he had waived his parental rights and didn’t intend to be a father.</p> <p>Shawnee County District Judge Mary Mattivi rejected that claim, saying the parties didn’t involve a licensed physician. “The parties failed to perform to statutory requirement of the Kansas Parentage Act in not enlisting a licensed physician in the artificial insemination process, and the parties’ self-designation of (Marotta) as a sperm donor is insufficient to relieve (Marotta) of parental right and responsibilities to the child,” Mattivi wrote.</p>

A former commander of the Swiss Guard, the small force of men whose job it is to protect the pope, has said there is "a network of homosexuals" within the Vatican, the latest in a series of claims about gay priests working at the heart of the Roman Catholic church. Elmar Mäder, who was commandant of the Guard from 2002 until 2008, said his time at the heart of the Vatican had given him an insight into certain aspects of life there. "I cannot refute the claim that there is a network of homosexuals. My experiences would indicate the existence...

Jeremy has AIDS and no income. He lives with his parents in Chesapeake. Up to now, most HIV-related medical care for him and other low-income, uninsured patients in Virginia has been paid for by government grants. Starting this year, they will be enrolled in health insurance through the Affordable Care Act's marketplace. The new plans cover not just HIV care, but also other medical needs. That means Jeremy might finally be able to see a specialist to find out why one medication makes him nauseous and another makes him so dizzy that he can't drive. But he's not rushing to...

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday no athlete would face discrimination at next month's Winter Olympics, hoping to ease international concern over a Russian law banning gay "propaganda". Aware that the success or failure of the Sochi Games will help shape his legacy, Putin has closely identified himself with the $50-billion event which opens on February 7. Putin outraged many in the West last year by signing a law banning the spread of homosexual "propaganda" among minors. Critics say the law is discriminatory and aimed at stifling dissent but calls for a boycott of the Games have failed.

Driven to distraction by the amorous betrayals of her husband, Jackie Kennedy embarked on a wild fling with ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev while she was still in the White House, according to a new tell-all book. Nureyev, who was nine years younger than the First Lady, was also once spotted with Jackie’s brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy ‘kissing each other passionately in a phone box’, the book claims. Much has been written through the years about President Kennedy’s dalliances while in office. His mistresses were famously said to include actresses Marilyn Monroe and Angie Dickinson, mafia moll Judith Exner and a...

JCPenney is cutting 2,000 jobs and closing 33 stores as the battered department store seeks to revive revenue growth, the company announced Wednesday. The move will save about $65 million annually beginning in 2014, the company said. JCPenney, which has about 1,100 stores, has struggled to turn a profit since former CEO Ron Johnson was fired in April.

... Many health experts hoped that the medication — Truvada, a combination of two antiviral drugs that has been used to treat H.I.V. since 2004 — would be exuberantly embraced by H.I.V.-negative gay men. Instead, Truvada has been slow to catch on as an H.I.V. preventive in the 18 months since the strategy’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration. In some quarters, the idea that healthy gay men should take a medication to prevent infection — an approach called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP — has met with hostility or indifference. “It’s gotten tons of attention at H.I.V. meetings as...

I've gotten a number of messages in the last few days — from both supporters and opponents of gay rights — expressing sympathy over the rude and hateful messages I've been getting (and publishing) ever since I started writing about Phil Robertson. This is sweet, but misplaced. The worst of my problems from being openly gay is that I get some nasty email. That means I have it really easy. In a country where gay teenagers are being bullied at school and thrown out of their homes by their parents and told by their clergy that they're going to Hell,...

First, let me say that I don’t want to hear anything from the homosexuals, their supporters, supporters of polygamy or any other perversion of God ordained sexuality. We told you this was coming and it has arrived. Researchers with Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health have concluded, after a decade of research, that pedophilia is a deep-rooted, unchangeable predisposition. The Toronto Star reports: Pedophilia has been widely viewed as a psychological disorder triggered by early childhood trauma. Now, many experts see it as a biologically rooted condition that does not change — like a sexual orientation — thanks largely...

As the Left foams at the mouth over Phil Robertson, the Christian man who described Almighty God's take on homosexuality and other gross sins, their fear is becoming more and more apparent. They seem gradually to be realizing that they are a pernicious minority that only thrives because they are bolstered by Obama's morally corrupt federal government; intellectually lightweight media, devoid of principles; and interestingly, a general decency of American people influenced by the nation's Judeo-Christian roots. The masses, however, are becoming increasingly fed up with the Left's imposition of a twisted worldview that does not comport with anything resembling...

All this ballyhoo and hullabaloo about the “Duck Commander” and his biblical reference – why? The blowback and national firestorm raging in the wake of the remarks by the patriarch of “Duck Dynasty” is a stunning indictment of left-wing hypocrisy. The visceral response and resultant leftist temper tantrum gives us a revealing look behind the left’s mask of intolerant tolerance and the true objective of its “pro-homosexual” agenda. People are free to think what they want. It’s when you torture, beat, hang or burn homosexual people alive – that’s the line in the sand, that’s real “homophobia.” Where’s the A&E...

Some people did not like my recent article about Phil Robertson, star of "Duck Dynasty."In the article, I noted problems with Robertson's comments that go far beyond the idea that homosexuality is a sin. Robertson said blacks didn't seem unhappy about oppression in the Jim Crow-era South; he blamed Pearl Harbor on the failure of the Japanese to accept Jesus; and contrary to his protestations, he hates gay people. I don't think any of that is O.K. I got dozens of letters taking issue with my claims. Some of the letters are hilarious and some are sad, like the father...

While the Japanese were celebrating the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the mastermind of that attack, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, had a sobering message for his countrymen. "We have awakened a sleeping giant," he said. Even before the war began, the admiral had warned his emperor that Japan would enjoy early victories in any war with the United States, but that winning streak would last only six months to a year, after which American industrial might would inevitably overwhelm the small island nation. He was right. For the first few months of World War II, the Japanese war...

Sometimes we make America more complicated than it really is. With 2013 nearing the end and yet another make-or-break midterm election about to knock us upside the head, we look at our inability to get anything done, our inability when we do try to do something to get it right, the inability of millions of people to find meaningful work or to make ends meet, and we wonder if things have ever been worse. This, interestingly, in a nation that was forged in a violent revolution and had a second one that was cut short -- with a civil war...

Phil Robertson, star of the mega-hit reality show Duck Dynasty, has been suspended indefinitely for remarks made in an interview labeled “anti-gay” by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists. “A&E has shown its cowardly bigotry toward Christians,” says Paul Rondeau, executive director of American Life League, the oldest Catholic pro-life group in the nation. “GLAAD spokesperson Wilson Cruz said, ‘Phil and his family claim to be Christian, but Phil's lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe.’ “Instead of defending the religious expression of the Robertson family, A&E sides with GLAAD as the authority...

If you're confused how a duck hunting entrepreneur's disparaging comments about gay people became the biggest news story of the week, you're not alone. There were plenty of other things to talk about, from Iran and Syria, to Obamacare and the NSA, yet "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson's suspension from A&E commanded by far the most interest, as anyone who monitors traffic for news websites could tell you. The story has stayed atop the news ranking site Memeorandum's leaderboard for the past three days and absolutely dominated Google searches compared to other stories: (INTERACTIVE-GRAPH-AT-LINK)Why? You could blame a slow news...

A&E has distanced itself from Phil Robertson, the patriarch in its enormously popular “Duck Dynasty” series, following his comments about homosexuality. Yet the opinion he expressed, that homosexuality is a sin, is shared by 45 percent of Americans, according to a recent poll. Fully 78 percent of white evangelical Protestants agree with Robertson, according to the data. They are demographic group analyzed in the poll that is presumably most likely to watch “Duck Dynasty.”Scott Collins compares A&E to other networks that have condemned the same traditional world views that make their shows so popular and so lucrative: Once again, TV...

So rednecks need to be politically correct now? Wait, before the National Association of Rednecked Persons attacks me, let me be clear that I don’t mean “redneck” as an insult. Indeed, Redneck Pride has been on the rise ever since Jeff Foxworthy got rich informing people they “might be a redneck.” Redneck reality shows have been all the rage: “Rocket City Rednecks,” ‘‘Hillbilly Handfishin’ ” and, of course, “Swamp People.” But the gold standard is “Duck Dynasty,” which follows the Robertsons, a family that struck it rich selling duck calls. It’s like a real-life version of “The Beverly Hillbillies.” All of...

One of President Barack Obama’s close friends has been arrested in Honolulu on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute. Robert “Bobby” Titcomb was one of four men arrested in an undercover sting operation late Monday and later released on $500 bail, according to Honolulu police. Titcomb, 49, attended Punahou School in Honolulu with Obama in the 1970s. The president graduated in 1979, a year before Titcomb. The two often golf, play basketball, go to the beach and dine together when the president returns home to Hawaii for vacation. Obama’s family has also attended barbeques at Titcomb’s beachside home in Waialua, located...