Free Republic

One WORLD subscriber, Thomas Sandlin, describes himself as “just an old retiree living in the backwater small town of Liberty Hill, Texas.” But any community with Liberty in its name is not a backwater. Liberty is not a backwater concept. It’s the high-water mark for politics in America, where our Liberty Bell exhorts us, in the words of Leviticus 25:10, to “proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof.” Sandlin continued, “My pastor cannot get up and tell the congregation how to vote, but he certainly can point out the duty of Christians to participate in the...

Health officials have been sounding the alarm about a drug-resistant strain of gonorrhea, and data from around the world now suggests that oral sex could be the means of transmission of the so-called superbug. Gonorrhea (i.e., the gonococcus microbe) is said to be the second most commonly reported infectious disease in the US, and cephalosporins — the class of drugs most commonly used to treat it — are apparently no longer effective against the infection. As a result, scientists fear a global sexually transmitted gonorrhea epidemic. The New Yorker discusses the connection between gonorrhea (a.k.a. “the clap”) and oral sex:...

Bioethics: British and Japanese researchers have been awarded this year's Nobel Prize for showing how to create embryonic stem cells without using human embryos in a genuinely promising line of research. For decades now, embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) has been trumpeted as the most promising avenue of research, and those who had moral qualms about using human embryos were dismissed as Bible-thumping troglodytes who stood in the way of making the lame walk. ESCR supporters said their way led to finding "imminent" miracle cures to tragic and sometimes deadly conditions and diseases. They dismissed suggestions of a more promising...

Bioethics: The former director of the National Institutes of Health, once an enthusiast for embryonic stem cells, now says their future has "dimmed." So why is the administration bailing out research into such therapies while troubled states like California have committed billions?Aside from creating or saving a few research jobs, the administration's decision to federally fund embryonic stem cell research is, as we've noted, a bailout of bad science. It throws money at an avenue of research that time and adult stem cell progress have passed by. Applauding the administration's move was Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., who echoed the claims...

When the great philosopher G.K. Chesterton said, “Let all the babies be born. Then let us drown those we do not like,” he wasn’t advocating infanticide but was just making a point. Unfortunately, though, we’re getting closer to a time when people would take his words literally. An example of this is a judge’s decision in Canada that a woman who strangled her newborn baby shouldn’t be incarcerated because Canadians’ failure to criminalize abortion indicates that they “sympathize” with the mother. ...So Justice Veit’s decision seems to make no sense whatsoever; that is, unless you look beyond the facts of...

An Iraqi woman has been accused of beating her teenage daughter and padlocking her to a bed after she was seen speaking to a young man. After Yusra Farhan was arrested in the Arizona hospital where her daughter was being treated for her injuries, she told police she wanted to punish the girl for violating her 'culture'. Farhan, 50, faces charges of aggravated assault, unlawful imprisonment and resisting arrest. She was being held in a Maricopa County jail. Police did not identify her daughter by name. The incident started on Tuesday, when the daughter was spotted by her father talking...

Our country made history in 2008 when we elected our first black president. The 2012 election is already historic as well, but for a much less promising reason. This year marks the first time in history that a major political party has put the redefinition of marriage into its national platform. The obvious question for many of my friends was, "Why are they in such a hurry?" If their victory is so inevitable, as they always tell the mainstream media; if the next generation is as likely to fall into their grasp as they think; why don’t they just trust...

Forty-three hospital patients starved to death last year and 111 died of thirst while being treated on wards, new figures disclose today. There were 558 cases last year where doctors recorded that a patient had died in a state of severe dehydration in UK hospitals The death toll was disclosed by the UK Government amid mounting concern over the dignity of patients on NHS wards. They will also fuel concerns about care homes, as it was disclosed that eight people starved to death and 21 people died of thirst while in care. Last night there were warnings that they must...

Redefining marriage won't satisfy gay rights activists; they want to redefine reality. Segregating genders in marriage to suit the sexual attractions of less than 2% of the population isn't enough. This woman with same-sex attraction wants scientists to "try harder" and give "priority" to making it possible for two women to procreate. Michelle Cheever says: "I want to have babies the way straight people do." Huffington Post: What I mean is that I want the ease, the convenience, the — dare I say it — naturalness that straight people have when starting a family. I want both the simple beauty...

Justice Antonin Scalia says his method of interpreting the Constitution makes some of the most hotly disputed issues that come before the Supreme Court among the easiest to resolve. Scalia calls himself a "textualist" and, as he related to a few hundred people who came to buy his new book and hear him speak in Washington the other day, that means he applies the words in the Constitution as they were understood by the people who wrote and adopted them. So Scalia parts company with former colleagues who have come to believe capital punishment is unconstitutional. The framers of the...

Call it having sex for a good cause. A 20-year old college student in Brazil is auctioning off her virginity to the highest bidder in an attempt to raise money to build homes for poverty-stricken families in her hometown. The leggy Catarina Migliorini plans to give the money from the highest bidder – currently standing at $160,000 from a U.S. man named Jack Miller – to a non-governmental organization that will build modern homes in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. While she insists she is not a prostitute and that she is only doing this to make a...

As a young single woman, Michelle Robinson was a fixture in the home of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who along with Rev. Jeremiah Wright “arranged” her marriage to Barack Obama, according to sources in Chicago who know the couple. Jackson’s daughter, Santita, is still one of Michelle’s best friends. “It all relates back to Trinity and to the Jesse Jackson orbit of blacks here in Chicago who gave Obama legitimacy and helped him establish his identity as a black man,” Robyn explained. “The political left wanted to push a black to the presidency, and the key operatives in the...

Last week, a federal district judge in Missouri dismissed a case against the HHS mandate, ruling that forcing Catholics to pay for contraception and abortion-inducing drugs does not violate their faith, because they remain “free to exercise their religion, by not using contraceptives.” In her ruling, Judge Carol E. Jackson contended that the mandate does not prohibit a business owner’s religious worship or personal decision not to use contraceptives, echoing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ contention that the new mandate does not “affect an individual woman’s freedom to decide not to use birth control.” “This Court rejects the proposition that requiring...

'Matchmaker' Rev. Jeremiah Wright 'provided cover for gays' After nearly four years in office, many Americans still express frustration that much about Barack Obama remains a mystery as establishment media remain incurious about the Democratic president, while seemingly ready to dispatch crack investigative teams at a moment’s notice to probe into the personal lives of Republican figures such as Sarah Palin. Largely ignored in 2008 was research by the Hillary Clinton campaign based on contacts developed with members of the church Obama attended for two decades, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. This is the first of a series...

Over the past few centuries, science can be said to have gradually chipped away at the traditional grounds for believing in God. Much of what once seemed mysterious—the existence of humanity, the life-bearing perfection of Earth, the workings of the universe—can now be explained by biology, astronomy, physics and other domains of science. Although cosmic mysteries remain, Sean Carroll, a theoretical cosmologist at the California Institute of Technology, says there's good reason to think science will ultimately arrive at a complete understanding of the universe that leaves no grounds for God whatsoever. … Another role for God is as a...

Conscience rights' protection and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services contraception mandate were the topics foremost on the minds of medical professionals gathered in St. Paul, Minn., for the Catholic Medical Association’s (CMA) 81st educational conference.The Sept. 26-29 conference, which drew more than 600 attendees, featured prominent speakers who shared the history of the present cultural battle and how to bear witness to the truth and bring it to bear on the practice of medicine.(snip)“The Catholic Church stands in the way of the sexual revolution — efforts to redefine marriage, access to abortion and reproductive technology and mercy killings,”...

NEW YORK, October 1, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At least one in five patients declared “brain dead” and approved as “organ donors” by one organ donation organisation, are in fact still alive and are being killed by the removal of vital organs, a lawsuit filed last week in Manhattan alleges. The suit outlines the ghoulish worst-case scenario, one that was widely dismissed as scaremongering in the early days of the development of organ transplant technology, but which is getting a second hearing amidst growing concerns that coercion and abuse are becoming increasingly common in the highly lucrative transplant business. Patrick McMahon,...

The screen cap below can currently be found on the "Obama 2012 campaign's official home on Tumblr," where you have to submit whatever you would like to post on the official page prior to approval.

This past weekend, a pro-life protestor was booed – at a D.C. church – for attempting to ask Kathleen Sebelius a question regarding the HHS contraception mandate at a forum following the church service. From WorldNetDaily: Brandi Swindell [pictured right], National Director of Generation Life, a pro-life group dedicated to mobilizing activists, students, artists, musicians and young professionals to end abortion and spread the message of sexual integrity, told WND that she had a “divine appointment” in Washington today. “Three of us chose to attend church at St. John’s this morning,” Swindell said, “and at the last minute found out...

To counter the gloom and doom spread by the corrupt, vintage media (which has definitely become a Ministry of Truth pumping out nonstop Democrat propaganda) let’s today examine who out there is really voting for Barack Obama in 2012. From where I sit, things shake out like this: Those Voting for Obama No Matter What: * Blacks — who will vote out of race-pride like they did in 2008. Black voters are the most racist in the country, supporting Obama with 95% of their numbers. Once again, blacks will prove that the job a person does in office is not...