Free Republic

Wednesday December 9, 2009 Commentary: Another Major Problem with the Senate Health Care Bill: Sex Ed Commentary by Colin MasonDecember 9, 2009 (www.pop.org/) - It's funny, the things that never make the news.Take the recent amendment to the Senate health care plan by Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). This language allocates hundreds of millions of dollars of your money toward "Personal Responsibility Education for Adulthood Training."What can this possibly mean? According to the amendment's mostly vague language, $400 million from the years 2010 to 2015 will be spent on "evidence-based effective programs" that will supposedly teach kids...

The conflict between parenting and career is hardwired in the female brain.In the struggle for equality between the sexes, it keeps coming down to motherhood, doesn’t it? Consider a recent article by Hanna Rosin in The Atlantic. Rosin finds that nursing her infant is holding her back from the work she enjoys, despite her plan for a fully egalitarian marriage. “We were raised to expect that co-parenting was an attainable goal,” she laments, yet breast-feeding ties her, and not her husband, to their baby. She combs through research on the health benefits of breast-feeding for babies and makes a convincing...

A video advertisement on CBS's Web site that "mashes" material from the iconic "Frosty the Snowman" Christmastime cartoon with two of the network's comedy series is offensive and should be pulled, media analysts told FoxNews.com. The video ad, "Frosty the Inappropriate Snowman," takes authentic dialogue from CBS' "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and a Half Men" and dubs it on top of the cartoon classic, changing well-known "Frosty" scenes to contain suggestions that the snowman and his friends visit a "strip club." The mash-up also discusses Frosty's "porn collection" and contains repeated mentions of prior sexual conquests. The...

How an event about building character in children became headline advocacy for gays.A headline squawking “Lesbian parents better at raising children� flew around the English-speaking world last week, having been released by The Times of London. No doubt this thrilled the gay lobby, while alarming traditionalists of all parties. But the real story here is not about lesbians. The real story is the media’s severe case of Gay Infatuation Syndrome: anything that makes gays look good is newsworthy. This seriously misleading headline should caution readers to make a habit of looking behind the headlines. There may be, as in this...

December 2, 2009School Choice and the Common Good of All Children by Kevin E. Schmiesing Ph.D. The United States justifiably celebrates its pluralism. The mandate to find unity in diversity—e pluribus unum—is predicated not on the premise that all peculiarities of creed or color must be washed away; instead, it insists that all such cultural and social differences must be respected. Part and parcel of this freedom is the right of parents to educate their children as they see fit. Like all rights, this one carries with it a duty: to prepare the child adequately for participation in society by...

Wednesday December 2, 2009 New Major Study Catalogues How Porn Harms Marriages, Children, Communities and Individuals By John-Henry WestenWASHINGTON, December 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Family Research Council (FRC) has released a comprehensive study on the devastating effects of pornography, identifying its harms to countless marriages, children, individuals and communities. "Pornography corrodes the conscience, promotes distrust between husbands and wives and debases untold thousands of young women," explains the study's author Dr. Pat Fagan, Senior Fellow at FRC and Director of the Center for Research on Marriage and Religion.  While it is often said that it is harmless entertainment,...

The acclaimed new video game Dragon Age: Origins features a "secret" scene in which a man and an elf have gay sex, it has been disclosed. Players of the fantasy game can only access the steamy footage by seducing the warrior elf Zevran with the correct combination of cheesy chat-up lines. In a clip posted online, the gamer-controlled human character opens with the old favourite "I want to discuss something personal" - one of four dialogue options available He then makes his intentions explicit with "Can you join me in my tent?", before pressing home the point with the unequivocally...

What began as an experiment in 1992 has become 5,043 charter schools in 39 states and the District of Columbia, providing nearly 2 million American families with opportunity not available in the public school system. Jeanne Allen, president of The Center for Education Reform, said parent demand fueled the rise. "No other form of school choice has provided such a dramatic impact on the lives of so many students," she said, "and no other reform has had the teeth to push conventional public schools to be better like charters have."

A Vermont judge rules Lisa Miller must turn over her daughter to her former lesbian partner. Superior Judge William Cohen ruled last week that Lisa Miller, a former lesbian who is now a Christian, must hand her daughter, Isabelle, over to her former partner, Janet Jenkins by Jan. 1. Miller conceived Isabella through artificial insemination while she was in a civil union with Jenkins. About a year later, Miller left homosexuality. Jenkins sued for custody, even though she has no biological tie to the child. Miller admits she made mistakes, like signing a custody agreement while still in the relationship...

The Church and Education 1459. Do Catholics regard state schools as monuments of blind bigotry, that they won't use them? They are not monuments of blind bigotry. I believe that the state school system was evolved by men who honestly but mistakenly believed it to be the best system for our country. But they appealed to blind bigotry in order to secure their purpose. Sir Henry Parkes said publicly in support of the necessary legislation, "I hold in my hand a bill which will spell death to the calling of the Roman Catholic clergy." It did not. And in order...

A German couple who tried to teach their children Christian values at home has been fined by a Kassel court for refusing to send them to school. The couple from the Hessian village of Archfeld bei Herleshausen has seven children between the ages of two and 17, who they told the court they had hoped to “give the Bible their unlimited trust” through lessons at home. Rosemarie (43) and Jürgen D. (48) were sentenced on Wednesday to pay a daily €1 fine for 60 days for defying the country's compulsory school attendance. The ruling was a lenient judgement compared to...

A 15-year-old boy told Buffalo Grove police that his parents had taken away his video game system and asked whether they were within their rights. They were, police told him. The teen called 911 about 12:50 p.m. Sunday but then hung up, said Cmdr. Steve Husak. Officers went to the house, and after hearing the story, told the youth that his parents have the authority to take away his Xbox as punishment.

The insanity crept up on us slowly; we just wanted what was best for our kids. We bought macrobiotic cupcakes and hypoallergenic socks, hired tutors to correct a 5-year-old's "pencil-holding deficiency," hooked up broadband connections in the treehouse but took down the swing set after the second skinned knee. We hovered over every school, playground and practice field — "helicopter parents," teachers christened us, a phenomenon that spread to parents of all ages, races and regions. Stores began marketing stove-knob covers and "Kinderkords" (also known as leashes; they allow "three full feet of freedom for both you and your child")...

By Paul Thigpen, Ph.D. Do Animals Go to Heaven? Responding to a common question from children Not long ago a TCA reader wrote us to ask a familiar question: What should we tell children when a pet dies and they ask whether animals have souls and go to heaven? She reported that she had upset some parents when she told their children (students in her class) that the answer to both questions was no.The answer to the first question -- do animals have souls? -- depends, of course, on how we define "soul." Ancient and medieval writers, both pagan and...

A 1970s-era Texas law that allows parents to show “harmful material” to their children has come under fire after a prosecutor said he couldn’t file charges against a man accused of forcing his 8- and 9-year-old daughters to watch hardcore online pornography.

Texas Law Challenged After Man Allegedly Forces Daughters to Watch 'Hardcore Porn' October 30, 2009 DALLAS — A 1970s-era Texas law that allows parents to show "harmful material" to their children has come under fire after a prosecutor said he couldn't file charges against a man accused of forcing his 8- and 9-year-old daughters to watch hardcore online pornography. Randall County District Attorney James Farren has asked the Texas attorney general's office to review his decision not to pursue charges in the case, which has prompted at least one lawmaker to vow to change the state's public indecency law. "Our...

Europe Cracks Down on Home School Parents MUNICH, Germany - Increasing custody cases in Europe are proof that officials there have declared war against home schooling and parental rights, according to some residents.In Sweden, police burst onto a plane and took 7-year-old Dominic Johansson from his parents as they were about to leave the country.Months earlier, they told school officials they were going to home school Dominic, prompting officials to open an investigation. In a similar case in Germany, the government abducted 7-year-old Dan Schulz while the family was sleeping. He can be heard on tape screaming that he...

Real Witches Practice Samhain: Wicca on the Rise in U.S. More Americans Are Wiccan, and Will Celebrate Samhain, Not Halloween, Saturday By RUSSELL GOLDMAN Oct. 30, 2009— Patti Wigington is a soccer mom. She is the vice president of her local PTA. And she's a witch. This Saturday while her neighborhood outside Columbus, Ohio, is crawling with costumed witches in search of candy, Wigington and a group of other local witches will not be celebrating Halloween, but the new year festival Samhain, which also occurs Oct. 31. In her backyard, Wigington and six other local women who make up...

A Dallas mother wants to change an obscure Texas law that allows parents to show their young children hardcore pornography. Crystal Buckner claims her ex-husband made their two little girls watch graphic sex videos, but Buckner says the law protects him from being prosecuted.

GPS device can track children Updated: Tuesday, 27 Oct 2009, 12:13 AM EDT Published : Tuesday, 27 Oct 2009, 12:13 AM EDT KELLY JOYCE | FOX 35 News ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A GPS device the size of your pinky finger is about to hit store shelves and the web. Some parents say it's a good way to keep track of children given all of the children disappearing in central Florida. The "insignia little buddy tracker" is a Best Buy brand GPS system that's about to hit store shelves. It's already drawn so much interest it's on back...

It’s that time of year. College seniors from around the world are graduating, and they are hitting the career world looking for a job. And the interesting thing is that most are not doing it alone. Many parents are by their Gen Y’s side and not just for support and to be a sounding board. If you are a helicopter parent who is hovering over your adult child’s job hunt and interview process, you may be hurting your child’s professional development and their chances to land the job. Helicopter parents have not only been bombarding college campuses, they are now...

Josie Romero loves the colour pink, braiding her hair and having her fingernails painted. But life has not always been easy for this sweet and charming eight-year-old, who was born in the body of a boy. The transgender youngster, then called Joseph, knew at the age of four that she was the wrong sex and even told her parents: 'I am really a girl.' At five, she was refusing to have her hair cut and only wore colours like orange which were nearest to girly pink. By the time she reached six, Josie had been diagnosed as transgender and was...

A Palm Bay woman and her boyfriend were arrested Monday for child abuse after the couple went old school to punish their 8-year-old daughter for swearing. They washed her mouth out with soap. We don't know about you, but we would petition President Obama and Congress to make it mandatory for every parent to carry a bar of Irish Spring in their back pockets with all the profanity kids use today.

Fired Up by: Alllie Winegar Duzett, October 02, 2009 Rafe Esquith is a one-in-a-million teacher: he truly believes that each of his students can be extraordinary, with proper coaching. His 2009 book, Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Children in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World, highlights specific things parents can do to help their children get the most out of their education—and their lives. To Esquith, there are a few things every child needs to be extraordinary: an understanding and appreciation of time; the ability to concentrate; and humility. The beauty of Esquith’s methods is that they are rooted in the...

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Enrique Gonzalez wanted his 7-year-old son to have a gang tattoo, like the many that adorn his own body. About that there is no dispute. The question that a judge says she will decide Friday is whether placing a tattoo on a minor is a permanent and painful disfigurement worthy of the potential life sentence that comes with a mayhem conviction, or is it something less?

Spanking Lowers A Child's IQ, Researcher Says September 24, 2009 Being spanked as a child is linked to having a lower IQ, according to a study presented today at the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma in San Diego. The relationship between spanking and intelligence is found in children around the world, said the lead author of the study, University of New Hampshire professor Murray Straus. Children in the United States who were spanked had lower IQs -- by 2.8 to 5 points -- than those who were not spanked, Straus found. Straus studied 806 children ages 2 to...

Spanking can get kids to behave in a hurry, but new research suggests it can do more harm than good to their noggins. The study, involving hundreds of U.S. children, showed the more a child was spanked the lower his or her IQ compared with others. "All parents want smart children," said study researcher Murray Straus of the University of New Hampshire. "This research shows that avoiding spanking and correcting misbehavior in other ways can help that happen." One might ask, however, whether children who are spanked tend to come from backgrounds in which education opportunities are less or inherited...

September 13, 2009 Why Can’t She Walk to School? By JAN HOFFMAN TO get to school, the child leaves home by herself, proudly walking down the boulevard in a suburb of a small city in upstate New York. The crossing guard helps her at the intersection. She lives only a block and a half from school. Yet she walks by older children waiting with parents for buses to the same school. She is 7, a second-grader, and her mother, Katie, hears the raised-eyebrow remarks: ‘Are you sure you want to be doing this?’ Katie said friends ask. ‘She’s just so...

I see, the problem is the parents, not Obama...

VERNON — Gregoria Martinez, 94, might seem like your typical grandma. She made quilts for her grandchildren, encouraged them to go to church, prayed for them, and gave advice. Except the Vernon grandma didn't have just a handful of grandchildren when she died Tuesday. She had nearly 300. Ninety-eight were grandchildren; 164 were great-grandchildren and 16 were great-great-grandchildren — all descendants of her own 11 offspring. That's without counting her three stepchildren or any of their descendants — or the three great-great grandchildren currently on the way. The family purposely underestimated the total count but felt if all were included...

The purpose of this thread is to secure a commitment from each local Principal to provide an opt-out so that no one is forced to endure Obama's subtle, presumptuous speech. Below, I will provide a sample of reasonable letters we want the Principal to sign. If refused, we know where they stand and will take the appropriate action against them. Here is an article of how they roll in Colorado. http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/09/douglas_county_school_allows_p.php It would be useful if the only comments on this thread are how to do this, report your results and contact information for the press to report and follow-up...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin's grandchild, said the former Republican vice presidential candidate wanted to adopt his child so that people wouldn't know her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Johnston said Palin had a plan to deal with Bristol's pregnancy. "Sarah kept mentioning this plan. She was nagging — she wouldn't give it up. She would say, 'So, are you gonna let me adopt him?' We both kept telling her we were definitely not going to let her adopt the baby. I think Sarah wanted to make Bristol look good,...

PARENTS 1ST TEACHERS OF FAITH School is back in session. Children are taught by teachers who educate your children by imparting information to them. Some of that information is mandated by government leaders bureaucrats, and teachers’ unions who dominate the teachers and force them to impart information that is not true or against family and faith. In the Rite of Infant Baptism the church addresses this issue several times. “In asking to have your child baptized you are accepting the responsibility of training your child in the practice of the faith. It will be your duty to bring your child...

Friday, August 28, 2009 BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS The insanity of the right Exclusive: David d'Escoto asks why conservatives continue to turn kids over to the left Posted: August 29, 2009 1:00 am Eastern Most likely you've heard Einstein's definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Nowhere is this more obvious today than with political and religious conservatives, the so-called right. What do I mean? Next month the right will send millions of their own children to public schools that are literally controlled by the left – meaning that it is only the...

Paganism and Witchcraft in Youth Culture Written by Crusade    Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Mrs. Linda Harvey Mrs. Linda Harvey is the founder of Mission: America, a non-profit organization whose purpose is to help in dealing with cultural issues such as feminism, homosexuality, education and New Age influences. She is the author of Not My Child—Contemporary Paganism and New Spirituality and her articles have appeared in USA Today and Whistleblower. Mrs. Harvey is a frequent guest on radio talk shows and has testified on legislation before the Ohio General Assembly on numerous occasions. Crusade: How would you define witchcraft?...

“Homeschooling is the sleeping giant of the American education system,” is the opening line of a recent article by Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews. He’s right. He’s also right when he says, “All surveys of home-schooled students so far indicate they have higher achievement rates on average than regular students,” and when he dismisses the claim that homeschoolers might not be properly socialized by saying, “Homeschoolers go outside often and get just as big a dose of pain and joy and ignorance and wisdom as regular school kids.” Where Mathews goes wrong is his support for a recommendation by...

It’s a spectacular day at Harmony Playground in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, with children swinging and running through sprinklers. An “icy man” with his pushcart of fruit ices stands near the jungle gym, as parents look toward the gated entrance. A second ices vendor enters, also setting up shop inside the playground’s cast-iron fence. Vicki Sell, mother of 3-year-old Katherine, tenses when the vendor starts ringing his little bell, over and over, hoping her daughter doesn’t have the typical Pavlovian response. Ever since Katherine had an inconsolable meltdown about not being able to have a treat, Ms. Sell has been trying...

Shortly after 10 o’clock in the evening Tuesday night, I (Alissa) watched a clip of President Obama on Anderson Cooper 360. I had just had a bowl of ice cream and was nursing my almost-7 month old, Sam. The President was talking about health care reform, of course. He said, “Where we do disagree, let’s disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that bear no resemblance to anything that’s actually been proposed.” I don’t think anyone is opposed to reading the bill. In fact, I can think of a chant at a recent town hall meeting in...

“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!” —President Ronald Reagan Life Legal Defense Foundation continues to watchdog the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and in doing so found the latest attempt to promulgate embryonic stem cell research by “educating” children. Let us introduce you to Senate Bill 471. Titled “The California Stem Cell and Biotechnology Education and Workforce Development Act of 2009,” the purpose of SB 471 is purportedly to train up a new generation of...

AUSAU, Wis. — A Wisconsin man accused of killing his daughter by praying instead of seeking lifesaving medical help considered her illness "a test of his faith," a prosecutor told jurors Saturday. Dale Neumann, 47, is a "full-Gospel Christian," who did not know his 11-year-old daughter had diabetes, his defense attorney said. There's also not "a shred of evidence" Neumann knew his prayers would fail to help his daughter or cause her death, the lawyer said. Neumann is charged with second-degree reckless homicide in the 2008 death of his daughter Madeline Neumann, called Kara by her parents. His wife, Leilani,...

In aisle six there’s a man wheeling a grocery cart filled with prepackaged and ready-to-make food: TV dinners, frozen breakfasts, macaroni and cheese, and similar items. The cart is also overflowing with sugary cereals and a variety of soda. The man weighs about 400 pounds. With him is his son. The boy is about 12-years-old and weighs close to 200 pounds. He’s pointing to things he wants — Pop-Tarts, Oreos, Rice Krispies Treats — and the father is throwing everything the kid asks for into the cart. “That’s child abuse,” I think to myself. “That man is endangering the welfare...

Hey, parents, leave those kids alone! Amy Douthett , July 17, 2009 Parents, at least in the West, have never had it so good when it comes to raising children: childbirth is safer and the life of an infant has never been less nasty, brutish or short. So what went wrong - why can't parents enjoy having kids? Review Free Range Kids : Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry by Lenore Skenazy, “America’s Worst Mom” Jossey-Bass, 256 pages, $24.95“It is a curious fact that the young woman of to-day, faced with the arrival of...

Childhood obesity could be linked to the weight problems of parents in a gender-specific way, research in the EarlyBird Diabetes study has suggested. Girls whose mothers were clinically obese and boys whose fathers had the same condition were more likely to follow suit at a young age, according to a study. Researchers from the EarlyBird Diabetes Study found the trend did not exist between mothers and sons and fathers and their daughters. This suggests behavioural rather than genetic factors could hold the key to finding out why so many British children are obese, scientists claimed. The EarlyBird Study, based at...

July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new review of studies examining various types of prenatal loss and the effects on subsequent parenting has concluded that abortion may be "particularly damaging to the parenting process."The article, published in Current Women's Health Reviews, looks at already published studies on miscarriage, induced abortion and adoption. The author, Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green State University, focuses on psychological reactions to these various types of loss and discusses how they might affect a mother's relationship with children born after the pregnancy loss.   It is now known that women usually begin feeling maternal attachment...

Study: Abortion Has More Negative Parenting Impact Than Other Pregnancy Loss - A new review of studies examining various types of prenatal loss and the effects on subsequent parenting has concluded that abortion may be "particularly damaging to the parenting process." The article, published in Current Women's Health Reviews, looked at already published studies on miscarriage, induced abortion and adoption. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5193.html

Not everyone should be a parent. In Sweden, a pair of moonbats are attempting to turn their child into a freak by pretending the poor kid has no gender: Pop’s parents, both 24, made a decision when their baby was born to keep Pop’s sex a secret. Aside from a select few — those who have changed the child’s diaper — nobody knows Pop’s gender; if anyone enquires, Pop’s parents simply say they don’t disclose this information. In an interview with newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in March, the parents were quoted saying their decision was rooted in the feminist philosophy that...

Teenagers are better than Congress because. . . 1. Teens can be forced to take care of their own dirty laundry. 2. When caught in a lie, teens will admit it. 3. No one forces us to give teens more money to waste. 4. Most teens are smart enough to read something before they sign it. 5. Teens do not cuss as much when they think nobody else is listening. 6. It's easier to find out who teens are talking to on their cell phones. 7. When we get tired of hearing it, teens can be sent to their rooms....

The princess industry has been booming in the past few years -- not just the Disney dolls and scratchy toy-store ball gowns that are a rite of passage in most American girlhoods, but a brazen new breed of princess products that target a far wider age range and tap into less seemly attitudes. The hot-pink, leopard-print princess backpacks, T-shirts, purses and bedspreads that girls are now buying (or, rather, their parents are buying for them) have little to do with indulging sweet princess fantasies and everything to do with catering to over-indulged princess egos. [Taste] Sara Schwartz Take the popular...

I am the stay at home mother of five children, four of whom are biologically mine. I’m asked quite often how the heck we get by. I almost never give an honest answer. To do so would only make the person asking the question feel belittled and make me sound superior and that’s not what I would ever want. When I look at the world around me today I see so many lost little faces. Little people feeling disconnected and big people feeling like they missed out on something but knowing not quite what. I have friends who work fifty...

29 Children Killed in Fire at Day Care in Mexico By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: June 6, 2009 MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Flames engulfed a day care center in northern Mexico on Friday, killing at least 29 children and injuring dozens as neighbors and teachers ran through thick, black smoke to pull preschoolers from the blaze, officials said. The fire may have started at a tire and car warehouse Friday afternoon and spread to the neighboring ABC day care center in the city of Hermosillo, said Jose Larrinaga, a spokesman for Sonora state investigators. But Larrinaga added that the cause...