Free Republic

Outraged parents say a New York middle school instructed young female students to ask one another for a lesbian kiss – and boys learned how to spot young sluts – in an anti-bullying presentation on gender identity and sexual orientation, according to Fox News’ Todd Starnes. According to Starnes’ Report, the children attended a special April 11 health class taught by college students at Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook, N.Y. Parents say they were not notified of the presentation. The students were introduced to terms such as “pansexual” and “genderqueer.” Some of the young female students said they...

Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned from Russia last year "with a willingness to kill people." He was asked after a meeting in Belgium if the United States has a problem with young people being hopeless about their futures, an issue that countries like Syria are grappling with. "Well, of course we have the same problem. We just had a young person who went to Russia, Chechnya, who blew people up in Boston," Kerry said. "So he didn’t stay where he went, but he learned something where he went and he came back with a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Blocked by Congress from expanding gun sale background checks, President Barack Obama is turning to actions within his own power to keep people from buying a gun who are prohibited for mental health reasons. Federal law bans certain mentally ill people from purchasing firearms, but not all states are providing data to stop the prohibited sales to the FBI's background check system. A federal review last year found 17 states contributed fewer than 10 mental health records to the database, meaning many deemed by a judge to be a danger still could have access to guns. The...

Via the Examiner, the only thing that makes this slightly less creepy than Demi Moore’s famous pledge of allegiance to The One is the fact that Rock can always plead “it’s a joke” later on. Is it, though? If you wanted a concise explanation of why liberals are suddenly A-OK with kill lists and drone strikes, you could do worse than this. Exit question: Is the president still our dad and our boss when he’s a Republican?

EL MONTE (CBSLA.com) — A teenaged boy and girl severed their fingers during a game of tug-of-war at South El Monte High School Monday. The accident happened during lunchtime homecoming week celebrations at the school, located at 1001 Durfee Avenue. “They wrapped the rope around their hands and somehow the rope when on to snap, I guess it created some extra tension and caused the injuries,” Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Brian Riley told KNX 1070. The boy reportedly lost four fingers. Officials did not say how many fingers the female student lost. Both students are reportedly athletes at the...

From the leader of the unfailing public servants who brought you 350,000 Chicago students abandoned for two weeks, comes this gem. Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union: In the clip, recorded Dec. 2 during her keynote address of the Illinois Labor History Society’s Union Hall of Honor dinner and posted on YouTube Monday, Lewis noted that an earlier generation of labor leaders resolved their differences with the rich with a very straightforward mantra: "Off with their heads.""Do not think for a minute that the wealthy are ever going to allow you to legislate their riches away from them,"...

<p>Temperatures in the contiguous United States last year were the hottest in more than a century of record-keeping, shattering the mark set in 1998 by a wide margin, the federal government announced Tuesday.</p> <p>The average temperature in 2012 was 55.3 degrees, one degree above the previous record and 3.2 degrees higher than the 20th-century average, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. They described the data as part of a longer-term trend of hotter, drier and potentially more extreme weather.</p>

Urooj Khan had sworn off playing the lottery after he took an Islamic pilgrimage to the Middle East in 2010, but as he stood in a 7-Eleven near his home on Chicago's Far North Side this summer, he lost his will for a moment, handing over $60 to buy two instant-game tickets. After scratching off the second ticket, he leaped in the air, shouting over and over again, "I hit a million!" When Khan, 46, accepted an oversized check from Illinois Lottery representatives days later at the same store with his wife and teenage daughter at his side, he spoke...

I'm a little under the weather today --- a drag when you have family visiting from out of town --- so we're a little late getting a thread started on the Biden-McConnell fiscal-cliff deal. The Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of the package, which deals with tax rates but pushes spending decisions out another two months: The Senate, in a pre-dawn vote two hours after the deadline passed to avert automatic tax increases, overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday that would allow tax rates to rise only on affluent Americans while temporarily suspending sweeping, across-the-board spending cuts.The deal, worked out in...

<p>MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Police in Georgia handcuffed a kindergartner after the girl threw a tantrum and the police chief defended the action.</p> <p>The girl's family demanded Tuesday that this central Georgia city change policy so that other children aren't treated the same way. They say the child was shaken up by being put in a cell at the police station.</p>

Nearly 20 Democrats abandoned their party’s pick for speaker of the House, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a sign of their concerns about supporting the unpopular former speaker and of the difficulty she will have in marshaling her forces in legislative battles to come in the next two years. Pelosi brushed off the 18 votes for other lawmakers on Wednesday afternoon — 11 of them for North Carolina’s Heath Shuler — in a brief exchange with POLITICO. “We’re excited about the votes I got,” said the California Democrat, who handed over the speaker’s gavel to John Boehner of Ohio at...

Happy Festivus everyone!!!! May your Feats of Strength go well and have fun with the Airing of Grievances!

A buxom Playboy centerfold tried to bust out -- midair -- from a jet yesterday amid a bad case of high anxiety. Sexy 21-year-old model Tiffany Livingston was aboard JetBlue Flight 522 from Orlando, Fla., to Newark when she bolted from her seat and tried to open the door of the plane, a law-enforcement official said.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- A man went to the police after getting robbed by a woman he intended to pay for sex, but refused when she flashed a smile full of bad teeth. The man told investigators he and a 25-year-old woman were negotiating a price until he noticed her dental problems.

MONDAY, JANUARY 18, FROM 8AM-7PM (ET/PT) New York, NY — January 12, 2010 — David Vincent has seen them. Returning home after a hard day, the architect parks his car in an old ghost town to rest. He is awakened in the middle of the night by a spacecraft landing nearby. From this moment, Vincent will risk his life to persuade a skeptical world that Earth has been invaded by aliens from a dying planet, who have taken human form as an advance guard paving the way for the ultimate conquest of the planet. The nightmare has begun. Syfy is...

The Talk Shows Sunday, October 11th, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Govs. Jennifer Granholm, D-Mich., and Mitch Daniels, R-Ind; Wynn Resorts Ltd. CEO Steve Wynn.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Lindsay Graham, R-S.C.; retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey; retired Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Jack Reed, D-R.I. THIS WEEK (ABC): Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.; retired Army Gen. Jack Keane. STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sens....

It's official! New Line is developing a feature film based on "MacGyver." The daughter of Dino De Laurentiis, Raffaella De Laurentiis, is producing the film through her Raffaella Prods. And Mister Laurentiis is taking the role of executive producer. According to a recent poll, "MacGyver" beat "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "24" as America's favorite TV action hero! So can "MacGyver" be a global franchise? New Line's Richard Brener says, "We think we're a stick of chewing gum, a paper clip and an A-list writer away from a global franchise."

The quality of "Saturday Night Live" season premieres is almost always on the shaky side, and the 34th season debut was no exception. It took off, however, like a skyrocket. Saturday's "cold open" sketch — a "Nonpartisan Message From Sarah Palin & Hillary Clinton" — rose to the occasion and then kept rising, right into the stratosphere. Former writer and cast member Tina Fey, making a brief return to the show, played the Republican vice presidential candidate, with pregnant cast member Amy Poehler doing her surefire, time-tested Clinton beside her. In the parlance of the show, they "killed." With CNN...

Mickey Mouse is a corrupting influence and must die, a Muslim cleric has declared. Sheikh Muhammad Munajid claimed the mouse is "one of Satan's soldiers" and makes everything it touches impure. But he warned that depictions of the creature in cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, and Disney's Mickey Mouse, had taught children that it was in fact loveable. The cleric, a former diplomat at the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, said that under Sharia, both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed.

(AP / WASHINGTON) — Democrat Barack Obama says he would delay rescinding President Bush's tax cuts on wealthy Americans if he becomes the next president and the economy is in a recession, suggesting such an increase would further hurt the economy. Nevertheless, Obama has no plans to extend the Bush tax cuts beyond their expiration date, as Republican John McCain advocates. Instead, Obama wants to push for his promised tax cuts for the middle class, he said in a broadcast interview aired Sunday. "Even if we're still in a recession, I'm going to go through with my tax cuts," Obama...

A San Francisco radio host billed by his station as the "Lion of the Left" was sentenced yesterday to seven years of prison on a charge of e-mailing images of child pornography. Bernie Ward, a former Catholic priest who is now married with four children, hosted a Sunday radio program called "God Talk" on San Francisco-area radio station KGO-AM 810 and another program on weeknights devoted to news and politics. According to several reports, Ward earned his "Lion of the Left" nickname for his outspoken and staunchly liberal viewpoints. Ward came under FBI investigation last year after a woman with...

Denver, CO (LifeNews.com) -- During the Democratic convention in Denver where pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama will be coronated as the party's nominee, a leading pro-abortion group will put on a big shindig. Emily's List will unite failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Obama's wife Michelle. That Barack Obama's wife would attend a gala for a pro-abortion group that supports partial-birth abortions and taxpayer-funded abortions is no surprise. Michelle Obama came under fire in May for a letter she wrote defending partial-birth abortions. The 2004 letter, written to help Obama in his campaign for his U.S. Senate seat, opposes the...

The Greenest Show on Earth: Democrats Gear Up for Denver From Organic Fanny Packs to 'Pure' Trash, Party Planners Face Logistical Nightmare By STEPHANIE SIMON June 25, 2008; Page A1 DENVER -- As the Mile High City gears up to host a Democratic bash for 50,000, organizers are discovering the perils of trying to stage a political spectacle that's also politically correct. Consider the fanny packs.

Bob Beckel Seems Very Worried.

SANAA (AFP) — A Yemeni court on Tuesday granted a divorce to an eight-year-old girl whose unemployed father forced her into an arranged marriage this year, saying he feared she might be kidnapped. "I am happy that I am divorced now. I will be able to go back to school," Nojud Mohammed Ali said, after a public hearing in Sanaa's court of first instance. Her former husband, 28-year-old Faez Ali Thameur, said he married the child "with her consent and that of her parents" but that he did not object to her divorce petition. In response to a question from...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, unveiled plans on Monday to film its gun sales in the United States and create a computerized log of purchases in a bid to stop guns falling into the wrong hands. Wal-Mart, which is the largest seller of firearms in the United States, agreed a 10-point code, which also includes rigid inventory controls, with a bipartisan coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns led by New York's Michael Bloomberg.

Gazans celebrated a “victory” over departing IDF forces today, but Israel warns that the operation has not yet concluded — and probably will not for the foreseeable future. After destroying a number of suspected rocket-manufacturing sites, the Israelis pulled back out of Gaza to consider options and targets. Meanwhile, rockets still landed in Sderot and Ashkelon: A government spokesman said after the troops pulled back on the ground: “We will continue with our defensive actions against those who fire lethal rockets at our civilians.”Another Israeli official said Hamas should view the latest operation as a hint of future Israeli action...

A human tongue has been served up in a hospital canteen's chicken risotto — and bosses reckon it was accidentally dropped into the food by a doctor.

The Democrats are trying to give away an election they should win in a walk by nominating someone with real problems -- like, for example, a first-term senator with a 100 percent rating from Americans for Democratic Action and whose middle name is "Hussein." But we won't let them. The bright side of the Florida debacle is that I no longer fear Hillary Clinton. (I mean in terms of her becoming president -- on a personal level, she's still a little creepy.) I'd rather deal with President Hillary than with President McCain. With Hillary, we'll get the same ruinous liberal...

Another factor might be contributing to the thinning of some of the Antarctica's glaciers -- volcanoes, according to the authors of an article published on the Web site of the journal Nature Geoscience. According to Hugh Corr and David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey: Volcanically, Antarctica is a fairly quiet place; but sometime around 325 B.C., a hidden and still active volcano erupted, puncturing several hundred yards of ice above it. Ash and shards from the volcano carried through the air and settled onto the surrounding landscape; that layer is now out of sight, hidden beneath the snows that...

A conservative Christian pastor plans to launch a high-profile campaign Tuesday urging religious followers to load up on Microsoft Corp. stock, in an attempt to force the company to "stop financing ungodly ventures." The Rev. Ken Hutcherson, who leads Antioch Bible Church in Microsoft's hometown of Redmond, says that he will create a global and powerful group to promote traditional family values, including marriage exclusively between a man and a woman. Hutcherson, joined by some of the country's most influential Christian leaders, has created a new organization, AGN Financial Network, to finance the effort. The worldwide venture asks people to...

Secessionists meeting in Tennessee By BILL POOVEY, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 3, 3:15 AM ET CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions — New England and the South — are sitting down to talk. ADVERTISEMENT Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully. That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence. "We believe that an...

LONDON (AFP) — Iranian engineers were among those killed in a blast at a secret Syrian military installation two months ago, defence group Jane's said Wednesday after claiming that the base was being used to develop chemical weapons. The July 26 explosion in Aleppo, northern Syria, was reported at the time. The official Sana news agency said 15 Syrian military personnel were killed and 50 people were injured, most of them slightly from flying glass. The agency said only that "very explosive products" blew up after fire broke out at the facility and that the blaze was not an act...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hit back on Sunday at Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton and other U.S. critics who have called for him to be replaced, telling them "to come to their senses." Maliki is under mounting pressure from officials in Washington to show political progress towards reconciling his majority Shi'ite Muslim sect and minority Sunni Arabs. U.S. officials are frustrated by the negligible progress so far. Clinton and fellow Democratic Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, have called for Maliki to be voted out because of his failure to find a...

Walter Cronkite created Fox News. This aspect of Mr. Cronkite's long and distinguished career as a journalist was not mentioned in this week's showing of the PBS series American Masters that saluted the veteran CBS newsman. The show, which is designed to examine "the lives, works, and creative processes of our most outstanding cultural artists," dug deep into Mr. Cronkite's life and career. He was praised (one might even say worshiped!) for his coverage of the Kennedy assassination, political conventions, Vietnam and Watergate. He was cited as a television pioneer, which he most certainly was.

While promoters of "The Da Vinci Code" have tried to downplay the film's challenge to Christianity, actor Ian McKellen took a shot at the Bible in an interview with the "Today" show, saying Scripture should carry a disclaimer that it is "fiction." McKellen, who played Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings" triology, was responding to a question from host Matt Lauer about the requests by some Christian groups to insert a "fiction" disclaimer at the beginning of the controversial film, which suggests Jesus and Mary Magdalene were man and wife and that the divinity of Jesus was an invention...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has banned arms sales to Venezuela -- which has been on a buying spree to prepare for an alleged U.S. invasion -- accusing President Hugo Chávez of failing to cooperate in the war on terrorism and maintaining close ties to Cuba and Iran. The decision announced Monday may be largely symbolic because Chávez has been buying the bulk of his weapons, including attack and transport helicopters, patrol boats and military transport airplanes, from Russia and Spain. The first batch of 33 Russian helicopters arrived in Venezuela last month, and 33,000 of the 100,000 Russian Kalashnikov...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's leader has written to President Bush proposing "new solutions" to their differences in the first letter from an Iranian head of state to an American president in 27 years, a government spokesman said Monday. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki delivered the letter to the Swiss ambassador on Monday, ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told The Associated Press. The Swiss Embassy in Tehran houses a U.S. interests section. In the letter, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proposes "new solutions for getting out of international problems and the current fragile situation of the world," spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham told a news...

In an effort to "ratchet down" the level of hostility between police and lawbreakers, officers have been instructed to be less critical and more understanding when confronting miscreants. Under the new rules, police are to let burglars off with a "caution," rapists will be required to apologize, and murderers will be subjected to abusive and derogatory chastisement. "Incarceration is so barbaric," said Horace Bottomly of the Home Office. "We're striving for a more tolerant live-and-let-live attitude." Bottomly cited anticipated budgetary savings and safety gains expected from the new policy. "With fewer arrests we will save quite a bit on prisons,"...

Actor Chris Penn Found Dead at Residence By PAUL CHAVEZ, Associated Press Writer 36 minutes ago LOS ANGELES - Actor Chris Penn, brother of Sean Penn, was found dead Tuesday at his condominium near the beach in Santa Monica, police said. Police said they discovered the 40-year-old actor's body around 4 p.m. Lt. Frank Fabrega said there were no obvious signs of foul play. Sean Penn's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, issued a statement saying that "the Penn family would appreciate the media's respect of their privacy during this difficult time." Chris Penn's body was found inside the four-story condominium complex after...

LOS ANGELES - Former teen idol Leif Garrett is hooked on heroin, his mom says - and she blames hard-partying rock 'n' roll legends like the Rolling Stones for steering her son toward drugs. "Leif idolized rock stars ... that whole life of rock 'n' roll and drugs ... the Rolling Stones. He figured if they could do it, so could he," Garrett's distraught mother, Carolyn Stellar, told the Daily News yesterday.

After 10 years and $23 million, Independent Counsel David Barrett's report on an investigation of Henry Cisneros, a former Bill Clinton housing secretary, will reveal additional details of the particularly slimy nature of Slick Willie & Co. According to The New York Sun, citing specifics from a report set to be released Thursday, "there was a coordinated effort by Clinton administration officials to first block and then limit the probe as a way of taking pressure off an administration that was already beset by scandals." Among those said to be implicated -- then-Attorney General Janet Reno.

Conservatives planning to attend Grover Norquist's popular Wednesday Group meeting tomorrow will be the target of a MoveOn.org protest outside Norquist's downtown Washington, D.C., office building. Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.org Political Action announced the protest in an e-mail to supporters Tuesday morning. Norquist's meeting is attended by a broad range of Republicans. It starts at 10 a.m. "The group hosting the meeting—Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform—is at the center of the Republican power machine in Washington and has been implicated in the corruption scandals from lobbyist Jack Abramoff," Matzzie wrote in the e-mail. "But they still meet even after...

There will be a replay of the South Park episodes from the second half of Season 9, starting tonight (Wednesday) at 10:00 PM on Comedy Central.In looking over the replay schedule, you may notice that the controversial final episode of the season, Bloody Mary (Episode 914), is missing. 10:00 PM Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow (Episode 908) A global warming state of emergency is declared in South Park. The world's largest beaver dam breaks and floods the adjacent town of Beaverton. As the victims wait for help to arrive, everyone in South Park tackles priority number one: who...

The Los Angeles Police Department has instructed its officers to stop using Glock 21 pistols because of concerns that the weapons could misfire. According to Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell, the LAPD's Armory discovered that there may be a mechanical flaw with about two percent of the guns. Officials with Austria-based Glock Inc. are expected to investigate the matter with the LAPD next week, he said. The moratorium is being taken as a safety precaution for officers. The lighter-weight, easier-to-shoot Glocks were approved in August 2003. About 70 percent of law enforcement agencies across the country use Glocks, a futuristic-looking plastic...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUE AUG 09, 2003 08:02:25 ET XXXXX JAGGER ROCKS BUSH, RICE: 'HOW COME YOU'RE SO WRONG, MY SWEET NEO-CON' "You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/ You call yourself a patriot. Well, I think your are full of sh*t!... How come you're so wrong, my sweet neo-con." Ready to drop in the coming weeks, a new Bush-bashing tune from the ROLLING STONES: "Sweet Neo Con." "It is direct," Mick Jagger says with a laugh to fresh editions of NEWSWEEK. "Keith [Richards] said, 'It's not really metaphorical.' I think he's a bit worried because...

A featured speaker at Saturday's civil rights march in Atlanta said the Bush administration and Republican Party leaders are "thieves" who "need to be locked up" for stealing the past two presidential elections and presiding over federal budget deficits and the war in Iraq. "They all need to be locked up because they are all criminals and they are all thieves," said Judge Greg Mathis, the star of the syndicated television program "The Judge Mathis Show." Mathis made his remarks to an enthusiastic crowd assembled in Atlanta to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Participants...

WHAT'S LOVE got to do with it? Bill Dalrymple, 56, and best friend Bryan Pinn, 65, have decided to take the plunge and try out the new same-sex marriage legislation with a twist -- they're straight men. "I think it's a hoot," Pinn said. The proposal came last Monday at a Toronto bar amid shock and laughter from their friends. But the two -- both of whom were previously married and both of whom are looking for a good woman to love -- insist that after the humour subsided, a real issue lies at the heart of it all. "There...

BELFAST (Reuters) - The IRA admitted on Friday to the 1973 killing of a teenage girl that it had blamed on the British army and apologised to her family who had called on the paramilitaries to accept responsibility. Kathleen Feeney was shot dead near her home in Londonderry. At the time, the IRA, which put its violent, 30-year campaign against British rule on hold in 1997, blamed British soldiers for the 14-year-old's murder. "We wish to apologise unreservedly to the Feeney family for the death of Kathleen and all the grief that our actions have caused to them," the IRA...