Free Republic

Like banishing beads and masks from Mardi Gras or removing the red carpet and gold statues from the Academy Awards, the banning of floats, beer and nudity at this year's Bay to Breakers will take all the fun out of it, many longtime revelers say. City leaders and sponsors of the 98th annual wacky footrace announced several major changes Wednesday that detractors say will turn the over-the-top, only-in-San Francisco party into a 12K footrace like any other race in any other city in the world. At the May 17 event, police will cite or arrest anybody openly drinking alcohol or...

Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis and Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt say they have sent letters to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) asking for $5 billion. “People don’t understand the importance of our industry in these hard economic times,” Francis said. “Men who’ve lost their jobs will have time on their hands. We can help occupy that time. Instead of roaming the streets looking for trouble, they can be safely diverted. Besides, Larry has some confidential information that many in Congress might find especially persuasive.”

Ryanair on Friday claimed Sweden's Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising (ERK) was out of touch with the "Britney Spears generation" after the agency accused the discount airline of running a sexist ad campaign. In defending the advertisement, Ryanair questioned whether the ERK accurately reflected the views of most Swedes. “We are sure that the anti-funsters at the ERK do not speak for the majority of the famously liberal and easy going Swedes,” the company said in a statement. “The ad simply reflects the way a lot of young girls like to dress. We hope the old farts at...

American actress Eva Mendes, who had jetted off to Australia for the 30 Days of Fashion and Beauty festival, was irked when her risque appearance in a Calvin Klein fragrance ad was cut off for showing too much skin. In the ad, Mendes could be seen naked and rolling about on a bed, which revealed too much to suit the conservative US audiences. "I''m completely American, I was born and raised in America and I love it but I think we are too quick to censor nudity," the Daily Telegraph quoted her as telling fashion editor Jen Melocco.

ST. PETERSBURG — The night started with a complaint about a giant penis statue. Before it was over, police had pinned the owner of the art gallery to the ground and taken him to jail. "Oh, my God," said gallery owner Bill Schramm, his glasses falling off in the scuffle. "This is the city's response to a penis. That's fabulous." Officers arrested Schramm and another man after a raid Friday night on the Erotic Lounge in the Grand Central District of St. Petersburg. It wasn't the statue that they were arrested for. Instead, investigators said they saw a nude man...

Women will continue to be barred from bathing topless at an indoor pool in the central Swedish town of Enköping following a decision by the town council’s recreation committee on Tuesday. Prior to the decision, committee member Stefan Brandberg cited concerns about the health of young girls in his opposition to the proposed lifting of the ban. “We believe that it can contribute to anorexia—there is a risk for that,” he said to the newspaper Expressen. Monica Hällgren, chair of the Enköping recreation committee, confirmed that one of the central arguments for leaving the ban in place was concern over...

You are probably here because you looked closely at the Starbucks logo and were a little confused about what is depicted on it. Is it a mermaid? What are those things that she is holding up with her hands? Wasn't the logo different before? What's the history of it? I asked those questions myself and did a little bit of digging. My research started with a book that I had, called A Dictionary of Symbols by J.E. Cirlot. In it there was a chapter about Sirens. Basically, from what I gathered from different sources, including that book, there is a...

It's often called the world's longest party, but this year's Bay to Breakers race through San Francisco was anything but fun for the residents, cops and public workers who bore the brunt of the drunken young "runners" who staggered around Golden Gate Park and the city's west side, relieving themselves wherever it proved convenient. "We tried to get out in front of the problem, but this year some of these kids were just beyond gone," said city Recreation and Park Department spokeswoman Rose Dennis. "The media covers this as some kind of wonderful party, but at the end, there is...

** EXCERPT ** WASHINGTON — He shot his hunting partner, but Vice President Dick Cheney apparently doesn't fly fish with naked women. Since Wednesday, the blogosphere has been atwitter over a photograph on the White House Web site of Cheney with a caption that said he was fly-fishing on the Snake River in Idaho. The photo is a tight shot of Cheney's face sporting dark sunglasses and his trademark grin. What's stirring all the buzz is the reflection in the vice president's dark glasses. Some thought that the reflection looked like a naked woman and, this being Cheney and this...

December 21, 2007 -- THE feud inside the New York Times over a provocative photo of a semi-nude, underage fashion model intensified this week after Times Magazine Editor Gerald Marzorati fired off a missive defending the photo. The picture in question appeared in the Holiday issue of the glitzy fashion insert T, which came out Dec. 2, and features a soft-focus side-shot glimpse of 17-year-old model Ali Michael, and her exposed left breast.

A female television presenter on TV4 has been charged after flashing her breast to an elderly man in Humlegården park in Stockholm last summer. The stunt was to be part of comedy programme 'Raj Raj' but the man didn't see the funny side. Instead he reported the woman, who is now the subject of a police enquiry, reports Metro. Despite the fact that the presenter repeatedly apologised to the man and assured him that the scene would not be broadcast, he refused to withdraw his allegations. The episode was to be shown on what TV4 describes as 'a Swedish comedy...

Boycott on Miller Beer Working, Keep Up Pressure Urges Catholic League Miller supported parade featured stripper in cage hoisted above church during mass By John-Henry Westen SAN FRANCISCO, October 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic League in the United States which, along with 200 supporting groups, last week launched a boycott of Miller Brewing Co. has indicated that the boycott is having an effect. The boycott was launched as the result of the beer company's sponsorship of a sadomasochistic gay street parade which features full nudity and public sex acts witnessed by children who attend the parade. The Folsom Street...

Boycott of Miller Beer Launched Because of Sponsorship of Sadomasochistic, Anti-Christian Gay Parade WASHINGTON, DC, September 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Catholic League president Bill Donohue announced a national boycott of Miller Beer on this morning's "Fox and Friends." The boycott comes after leading Christian groups were outraged at Miller's sponsorship of a sadomasochistic, anti-Christian homosexual parade which regularly includes full nudity and public sex acts. "Never have we experienced greater corporate arrogance than in this dispute with the Miller Brewing Company. Miller is sponsoring an incredibly outrageous and palpably anti-Christian event in San Francisco: the Folsom Street Fair," explained Donohue....

Women from a new Polish political party have stripped off in a controversial poster campaign ahead of national elections. Seven candidates from the Women's Party are featured posing behind a billboard that reads: "The party of women. Poland is a woman." The attention-grabbing move is making waves in staunchly Catholic Poland, where the ruling Kaczynski twins have pushed a fiercely conservative agenda. Writer Manuela Gretkowska said she founded the party as the Polish government considered tightening already strict controls on abortion. "It is the straw that broke the camel's back," she said, adding that Poland's political scene was usually run...

Two female students are demanding their rights after they were banned from bathing topless at a swimming pool in Uppsala. If girls are forced to wear bikinis, boys should be too, one of the women told The Local. Ragnhild Karlsson, 22, and her friend Kristin Karlsson, 21, live on the same corridor in a student residence in the university town. On September 5th they took a trip to the Fyrishov leisure complex, where they decided to hop in for a swim without their bikini tops. Though the pool was full of swimmers, a female lifeguard eventually caught sight of the...

An appeals court reinstated a charge of indecent exposure against a woman who disrobed in front of a 14-year-old boy.

Toronto Police Slough Off Gay Pride-Related Criminality By Tony Gosgnach TORONTO, September 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In response to media reports of apparently criminal moral and sexual excesses associated with this year’s “gay pride” events in Toronto this past summer – and what seemed to be a police conflict-of-interest with respect to them – the Life Ethics Information Centre wrote seeking clarification to the mayor of Toronto, David Miller, Police Chief William Blair and the chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, Alok Mukherjee. In its letter, the LEIC began by referring to a “Pride Week Reception” that the Toronto...

New Study Shows Broadcast TV Family Hour Fare Filthier Than Ever Fox is the worst broadcast network overall LOS ANGELES, September 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new Parents Television Council study of Family Hour programming conclusively shows that children watching television during the first hour of prime time are assaulted by violence, profanity or sexual content once every 3.5 minutes of non-commercial airtime. During the 2006-2007 study period, almost 90% of the 208 television shows reviewed contained objectionable content. The PTC found that Fox is the worst broadcast network overall, noting its 20.78 instances of violent, profane and sexual content...

Complaint Filed on Behalf of Firefighters Forced to Participate in San Diego "Gay Pride" SAN DIEGO, August 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced today that its West Coast Director, San Diego area attorney, Charles LiMandri, filed a sexual harassment and freedom of speech complaint in California state court on behalf of four respected San Diego firefighters. Charles LiMandri was also the Thomas More Law Center's lead counsel in the successful Mt. Soledad Cross case in San Diego. In July, four San Diego firefighters were ordered,...