Free Republic

How the hell did we get into this mess?'"          The War on Drugs is nothing more than alcohol Prohibition dressed up for the 1990s. It certainly can't stop people from making, selling, or using drugs, any more than the Volstead Act ever stopped them from making, selling, or using alcohol, but it has succeeded in boosting the price of drugs from mere pennies a pound to hundreds of dollars an ounce -- which anyone who knows anything about economics will immediately recognize enormously increases the incentive to enter the illegal drug market.          It's driven the weakest competition out of...

When writer Marcia Segelstein headed to the bookstore to scout out books for her 12-year-old, she wasn’t sure what to expect. But she certainly didn’t expect rampant drinking, drug use, profanity, and explicit descriptions of sex and nudity. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what she found. Segelstein’s daughter had been clamoring to read the Gossip Girl series, which “‘all’ of her friends were reading,” she said. After seeing what was in the books, Segelstein was floored. But a school librarian confirmed, “They’re very popular among sixth and seventh graders.” Even worse, the librarian added, “Some parents are so happy that their kids...

Silvia Johnson, who became known as the "Cool mom" for partying with her children and their teenage friends, pleaded guilty this morning to a charge of violating bond conditions. Johnson, 41, is serving a 30-year sentence for plying high school boys with liquor, drugs and sex. She was charged with violating bond conditions and a protective order that barred her from contact with some of her children, while she was free awaiting sentencing. Johnson was arrested on the new charges after a Sept. 25 car crash in which a 14-year-old girl was driving. Johnson and a carload of teens, including...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sexually charged music, magazines, TV and movies push youngsters into intercourse at an earlier age, perhaps by acting as kind of virtual peer that tells them everyone else is doing it, a study said Monday. "This is the first time we've shown that the more kids are exposed to sex in media the earlier they have sex," said Jane Brown of the University of North Carolina, chief author of the report. Previous research had been limited to television, said the study which looked at 1,017 adolescents when they were aged 12 to 14 and again two years...

Catholic League Not Amused By ‘VILE’ Leary Special By Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - Updated: 12:15 AM EST The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has put Worcester homey Denis Leary on its Naughty List and the religious group is demanding that Comedy Central ax future showings of his “vile special” “Denis Leary’s Merry F#%$in’ Christmas.” “Hate speech dressed in humorous garb is still hate speech,” said Catholic League president Bill Donohue. “Leary is obviously bedeviled by some disorder but nothing excuses this crap.” In the Yuletide yukfest, the “Rescue Me” star has a...

Judge Orders 17-Year-Old Girl Not To Have Sex POSTED: 10:16 am EDT September 30, 2005 SHERMAN, Texas -- No sex. That's part of a sentence imposed on a 17-old-girl by Texas state district judge Lauri Blake. She's ordered the young drug offender not have sex as long as she is living with her parents and attending school, as a condition of her probation. It is one of several unorthodox rulings Judge Lauri Blake has imposed since she was elected 10 months ago in the district court that covers Fannin and Grayson counties. She has also prohibited tattoos, body piercings, earrings...

I have been watching NFL football today, one of my few TV viewing vices. The games were great, especially the Lions finally winning an opener in a convincing fashion. However throughout the games, on those channels as well as several others I watched are these totally vulgar ads. For those of you who have not seen them the theme is that 'cable TV sucks'. The visuals involve various things being sucked onto the TV screen, shoes, one old mans clothes except for his underwear, etc. Most parents I know have worked diligently to help our kids understand what words and...

BISMARCK -- First, a series of heterosexual couples kiss. Then, two men are shown about to lock lips. All are dressed for a wedding. That is followed by three people, depicting a wedding of two men and a woman. The campaign commercial's message: Sen. Byron Dorgan supports gay marriage and unless North Dakotans vote for Republican Mike Liffrig for the U.S. Senate, they can "kiss their morals goodbye." Democrats demanded Tuesday that Liffrig pull the plug on that ad and another commercial that claims Dorgan supports human cloning, saying the allegations are lies. The ads began running statewide Monday and...

Pornography is tearing apart the very fabric of our society. Yet Christians are often ignorant of its impact and apathetic about the need to control this menace. Pornography is an $8 billion a year business with close ties to organized crime.(1) The wages of sin are enormous when pornography is involved. Purveyors of pornography reap enormous profits through sales in so-called "adult bookstores" and viewing of films and live acts at theaters. Pornography involves books, magazines, videos, and devices and has moved from the periphery of society into the mainstream through the renting of video cassettes, sales of so-called "soft-porn"...

WASHINGTON -- Lam Nguyen's job is to sit for hours in a chilly, quiet room devoid of any color but gray and look at pornography. This job, which Nguyen does earnestly from 9 to 5, surrounded by a half-dozen other "computer forensic specialists" like him, has become the focal point of the Justice Department's operation to rid the world of porn. In this field office in Washington, 32 prosecutors, investigators and a handful of FBI agents are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off...

Personal liberties are the hallmark of the Libertarian Party, but party leaders are fretting that a Mountain View man convicted of a sex-related crime is just a few votes from becoming their candidate for a state Senate seat this fall.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Rush Limbaugh was wrong when he accused prosecutors of singling him out, but not by much. Palm Beach County prosecutors investigating the right-wing radio host for his prescription drug abuse have filed "doctor shopping" charges against one other person in the past five years, according to records. Limbaugh's lawyer said the court documents, reviewed by The Palm Beach Post yesterday, prove his client was unfairly targeted. "Rush Limbaugh has been singled out for special prosecution because of who he is," Roy Black told the paper. "We believe the state attorney's office is applying a double...

Isn’t it despicable that the self-described “compassionate” Leftists are treating Limbaugh’s use of prescription pain-killers to that of recreational users? News reports from every medium are barely mentioning the pesky little fact that Rush Limbaugh was taking pain-killers because -- shock, horror! -- he was in pain! And Limbaugh continues to suffer with spinal pain as a result of disc injuries and an unsuccessful operation performed on his back that left him in agonizing pain, which is now extending up to his neck. According to Rush Limbaugh, himself, after his initial, unsuccessful operation and a discussion with his doctor, he...

<p>PITTSBURGH — Actor-comedian Tommy Chong (search) reported to a privately run federal prison to serve his nine-month sentence for conspiring to sell bongs and other drug paraphernalia over the Internet even as his attorneys prepared to argue for his release pending appeal.</p>