Free Republic

What is the relationship between Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas? Much more than most might appreciate .....

There’s no good time to tell a guy you’re a virgin. First date? Too much, too soon. Wait until the third date and you risk being considered a tease. Second date? Perhaps, but at this point you’re both still fretting over whether or not to eat another piece of bread; delving into sexual histories (or lack thereof) seems a bit extreme. So: There’s no good time to tell a guy you’re a virgin. Even worse? Telling him you’re waiting until marriage.

Alexandra Pelosi’s HBO documentary Fall to Grace tracks the evolution of New Jersey’s disgraced, self-dubbed “gay-American,” former governor, Jim McGreevey. In one passing scene, McGreevey enters a church ostensibly more welcoming than the judgmental Catholic Church of his childhood. The message board on the church front reads -- and this is a close paraphrase -- “Lord help us overcome the sins of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia.” Had the message board been bigger, the good pastor might have added nativism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia. In a postmodern world that prides itself on “non-judgmentalism,” these have emerged as the seven new deadly...

    PURITANS WERE MORE JEWISH THAN PROTESTANTS  Hugh Fogelman     A Puritan is a name often misunderstood. During the 17th century English Civil War (known as the Puritan Revolution), the Puritans were Protestant fundamentalists who wished to “purify” the Church of England. Some of the Puritans, known as Separatists “separated,” forming their own church. The Puritans felt that Parliament, and not the King, should have the final say and that the moral guidance for all legal decision should come from the Jewish Bible which they considered to be the highest authority in all matters. The Puritans were obsessed...

After spending $5 million on its five automated public toilets, Seattle is calling it quits. In the end, the restrooms, installed in early 2004, had become so filthy, so overrun with drug abusers and prostitutes, that although use was free of charge, even some of the city’s most destitute people refused to step inside them. The units were put up for sale Wednesday afternoon on eBay, with a starting bid set by the city at $89,000 apiece. The dismal outcome coincides with plans by New York, Los Angeles and Boston, among other cities, to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars...

The nature of theocracy in the New England colonies is widely misunderstood. Few recognize that the New England town meeting, the prototype of American institutions of democratic self-government, was nothing more than the governing process of each Congregational (Puritan) church community. Theocracy is a broad term encompassing many different degrees of religious influence in civil government. Critics of New England Puritanism focus on two aspects: exclusion of non-church members from civil government, and reprobation of moral laxity. Looking back at Puritanism only through the lens of present-day cultural standards leads most people to conclude that Puritans were repressive and anti-democratic....

Too bad Ginger White, a Bradenton figure artist and director of the Anna Maria Island Art League, found it necessary to go to Sarasota to exhibit her work. White experienced censorship at the Manatee County Public Library in Holmes Beach last year and had to relocate her work to the Digital 3 Gallery in Sarasota. Chalk drawings, which included bared breasts, were taken from view at the library because they were said to be too near the children's section. As if children haven't seen breasts since birth. As if children think of nudity in the same way adults do. Not...

Worried that measures to limit smoking don't go far enough, Elk Grove Village officials are considering banning the sale of cigarettes, apparently the first time that has been seriously proposed in Illinois, experts said. Mayor Craig Johnson said the village would be hypocritical to consider a current proposal to restrict smoking in bars and restaurants without going after cigarettes themselves. "If we think smoking is so detrimental to the community that we should ban it, then we should think about a ban on selling cigarettes,"

Yankees Touching Harps of GoldAppropriately, it was 1984. The Reagan-Bush ticket had won reelection. The U.S. Olympic team had destroyed everyone else at the Summer Games in Los Angeles. The HIV virus had been identified, and a cure for AIDS would surely follow. Hezbollah terrorists had bombed the U.S. embassy northeast of Beruit, and the CIA was busy training terrorists to carry out covert operations in Lebanon to stamp out terrorism. All was right with the world. Except in Africa, where people were starving, while American yuppies sat at home in the lap of luxury. Fortunately, a collective of British...

(03-30) 13:50 PST Edinburgh, Ind. (AP) -- The Venus de Milo had better wear a top and Michelangelo's David should put on some pants if they're going to be seen at a yard art business. Bartholomew County officials told the business near Interstate 65 that it must move cement copies of the classical statues — and about 10 others — out of public view because they are obscene under Indiana law. "It's not fair to point out our business, and personally, I don't find them offensive," Ginger Streeval, a co-owner of White River Truck Repair and Yard Art, told the...

Man of the Year: Roy Moore by Ann Coulter Posted Dec 19, 2003 Uttering the standard liberal cliché a few years ago, Richard Reeves described "representatives of the new South" as "Republicans of old Puritan definition, righteous folk afraid that someone, somewhere, is having fun." (I'll skip the context of Reeves' insight, except to note that apparently aging liberals view sodomy with the chubby intern in the back office as "having fun.") Like all beliefs universally held by liberals, Reeves's aphorism is the precise opposite of the truth. It's the blue states that are constantly sending lawyers to the red...

Ruined Snow Penis Stimulates Debate When a few members of the Harvard crew team decided to build a snowy representation of the male anatomy on Feb. 11, they never imagined it would be so hard to keep it up. The 9-foot snow phallus, constructed in Tercentenary Theater, was torn down just hours after its erection. But its impression still sparked an intense debate, from dining halls to dorm rooms, over the appropriateness of public displays of genitalia. Even The Economist magazine weighed in on the discussion, offering the destruction of the sculpture as evidence of American prudishness on its usually...

Drinking and Driving Deaths Plummet Is it tougher laws or raised consciousness? By Eric Peters Getting liquored-up and getting behind the wheel hasn't been cool for 20 years at least — and the general public opprobrium has had demonstrably positive effects. According to data just released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the number of "alcohol-related" traffic deaths has dropped by more than 50 percent since the early 1980s — 0.63 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2001 vs. 1.64 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 1982. The question is, are tighter penalties for drunk driving...

"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God;" — John 1:13. The words have a dependence on what goes before, and therefore I must direct you to them for the right understanding of it. You have it thus, —"He came to his own, but his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the...

or THE TORMENTS OF THE WICKED IN HELL, NO OCCASION OF GRIEF TO THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. REVELATION 18:20 By: Jonathan Edwards Rejoice over her thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. Introduction IN this chapter we have a very particular account of the fall of Babylon, or the antichristian church, and of the vengeance of God executed upon her. Here it is proclaimed that Babylon the great is fallen, and become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful...