Free Republic

Cops had to shut down a Versace sample sale in Chelsea on Wednesday after more than 1,000 deal-savvy shoppers flocked to the store, with fights breaking out before shoppers could even get their hands on the discounted designer labels. Videos shared on social media captured the chaotic scene unfolding just after 9 a.m. at 125 W. 18th St. as thousands of shoppers crowded the sidewalks — some having waited in line for hours — only for a fight to cause the sale to be shut down by police just before noon, the NYPD told The Post. Within hours, the store’s...

Florida cops are asking for the public’s help identifying two men caught on camera brandishing guns as shots rang out on a crowded boardwalk Monday, leaving nine people shot and frantic crowds running for their lives. The footage shows a scuffle breaking out along a crowded stretch of the popular Hollywood attraction before a man in a yellow hoodie pulls out a pistol and begins firing. Another suspect in a gray hoodie and black pants can also be seen squeezing off several shots before sprinting away from the late evening bedlam. Several children ranging in age from 1 to 17...

“And in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance . . .” (2 Peter 1:6). Personal self-control demonstrates the certainty of your salvation. In Peter’s day, the word translated “self-control” was used to describe athletes. The successful ones abstained from sexual activity and an unhealthy diet for the sake of disciplined training exercises. You practice personal self-control when you control your desires and don’t allow them to control you. Let me share some practical tips that have helped me with self-control. 1. Start small. For example, begin by cleaning your bedroom or office, then extend that discipline to the...

Findings from three separate studies link a person's political ideology and their self-control performance, with conservatives demonstrating greater self-control than liberals. In each study, Clarkson says participants who identified as politically conservative consistently showed greater attention regulation and task persistence—hallmark indicators of self-control—and that these effects were independent of participants' gender, race, age, education or income.

What do you expect from your relationship to Jesus Christ? I have come to discover that many do not expect all that much. In effect they hope that faith can kind of help them “muddle through” life and offer them a few consolations that, perhaps things will be better some day, and in heaven. Others see the moral life described in the scriptures more as a duty than a description of the person being transformed by Jesus Christ. And because they see it as a list of duties,  rather than the result of grace, they tend to resent it, consider...

A common reason for failure is confusing self-control with willpower. We imagine that by applying enough willpower, things will fall in place. However, those who continue in sin know that their willpower is no match for the battle. This being the New Year, resolutions abound. Though our intentions may be sincere our ability to follow through is pitifully weak. We find that we are unable to drive sin from our lives. Our weakness reveals itself ceaselessly. Willpower is not the source of self-control. My own struggle with lust and the things I have learned as a result of gaining victory...

Improbably enough, people who are better able to resist impulses report being more satisfied with their lives.PROBLEM: "Among humankind's most valuable assets" is self-control, according to Wilhelm Hofmann and his team of researchers at the University of Chicago. They define it as "the ability to override or change one's inner responses" and to refrain from acting on impulses. As an immediate consequence of leading lives of constant self-denial, it would seem that people with a lot of self-control aren't likely to derive a lot of pleasure from life, although in the long run they might benefit from the satisfaction of...

“Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control…” (1 Cor. 9:25-27; ESV). In a horrifically terrible and tragic event which transpired on Saturday, December 1st, 2012, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher allegedly shot and killed his (former?) girlfriend before eventually taking his own life with a handgun later that same day in the parking lot of Arrowhead Stadium. The following evening, on Sunday...

Ever since Adam and Eve ate the apple, Ulysses had himself tied to the mast, the grasshopper sang while the ant stored food and St. Augustine prayed “Lord make me chaste — but not yet,” individuals have struggled with self-control. In today’s world this virtue is all the more vital, because now that we have largely tamed the scourges of nature, most of our troubles are self-inflicted. We eat, drink, smoke and gamble too much, max out our credit cards, fall into dangerous liaisons and become addicted to heroin, cocaine and e-mail.

I encourage you to set aside the burgers and dogs and soda and beer for a moment this Fourth of July and contemplate something decidedly different, maybe even as you gaze upward at the flash of fireworks. Here it is: Confirm thy soul in self-control. What do I mean by that? Let me explain. The founders of this remarkable republic often thought and wrote about the practice of virtue generally and self-control specifically, two things long lost in this modern American culture of self. Thomas Jefferson couldn’t avoid a reference to one of the cardinal virtues—prudence—in our nation’s founding document,...

In the Spring of 1968 at the Bing Nursery School in Palo Alto California, America came to an end. Within its walls, the elites learned just how cheaply our souls could be had: All it cost was a couple of minutes and one marshmallow per soul on average.

After 20 years and two children together, Laura Munson’s husband told her that he wanted to leave their farmhouse home. Laura suppressed the urge to rage at his selfishness – and her restraint had surprising consequences…

The New Yorker has a fascinating essay this week on self-control in children and the role it plays in their life chances. The story starts with a Stanford academic who experimented on whether children when left alone with a sweet of their choice would delay eating it in exchange for being allowed to eat two later. The study found that when these children grew up “the child who could wait fifteen minutes had an S.A.T. score that was, on average, two hundred and ten points higher than that of the kid who could wait only thirty seconds.” Another study in...

Last night, quite late in the evening, and on the show, the girl who has pledged to sell her virginity for the highest bid, convinced her to not "give it up" if a higher bid - individual or cumulative comes in to top the present $3.7 million offer that has been registered. Having done MANY interviews declining similar offers, Natalie Dylan (not her real name) has agreed to remain a virgin, and give ALL of the proceeds (that she had previously agreed to use towards graduate school) instead--to stopping the horrific practice of child sex trafficking.

The news reports seem to vary from day to day. Either condom-based sex education works, or it doesn't. Either abstinence should be the focus, or it shouldn't.But, according to government-supported research at the Heritage Foundation, one thing is clear: Teens who abstain from sex share some characteristics.The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health identified eight personality and behavioral traits that were associated with both abstinence and academic achievement:• Future orientation, with a focus on long-term goals. • Willingness to postpone current pleasures for larger future rewards. • Perseverance, as in the ability to stick to a task or commitment. • A belief that...

CBS hosts a pro-abstinence relationship expert, but the morning show has a history of denouncing abstinence. Patti Stanger, star of BRAVO’s “Millionaire Matchmaker,” shared her tips for finding Mr. Right on Wednesday’s CBS “Early Show.” The author and relationship expert surprisingly supports abstinence, telling women, “no sexy…no spreading.” Stanger’s advice is a welcome change from CBS’ usual take on sexual abstinence. Author of Become Your Own Matchmaker, Stanger gives women “eight simple steps for attracting your mate” and among those she includes abstaining from sexual activity. She told host Maggie Rodriguez that women should abstain until Mr. Right gives them...

Religious people have more self-control than non-religious counterparts, says a study by University of Miami professor of Psychology Michael McCullough and he says this is why religious people may be better at pursuing and achieving long-term goals and also might help explain why religious people tend to have lower rates of substance abuse, better school achievement, less delinquency, better health behaviors, less depression, and longer lives.

But the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Galatians 5:22-23 Groan. Nobody enjoys self-control. We just like to do what we want, when we want. Whether it’s our out-of-control eating, our wayward tongue, our selfish temper, our destructive lusts, our bad habits, our limitless spending, or how we entertain ourselves, we don’t like self-control. And we know it. But the beautiful thing about God is that if we want He’ll point out things that we should have more control over and give us the strength and the power to accomplish it. "For the grace of God …teaches us to say...

DECLINING house prices, rising job layoffs, skyrocketing oil costs and a major credit crunch have brought consumer confidence to its lowest point in five years. With a relatively long recession looking increasingly likely, many American families may be planning to tighten their belts. Interestingly, restraining our consumer spending, in the short term, may cause us to actually loosen the belts around our waists. What’s the connection? The brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in one area often leads to backsliding in others. The good news, however, is that practice increases willpower capacity, so that in the...

Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss—and the Myths and Realities of Dieting, by Gina Kolata, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 257 pages, $24 Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, by Brian Wansink, New York: Bantam Books, 276 pages, $25 Gina Kolata says losing weight is nearly impossible. Brian Wansink says it’s easy. But they don’t really contradict each other, because they’re talking about different kinds of weight loss.Although their new books offer very different messages for dieters, Kolata and Wansink share a suspicion of collectivist responses to the “obesity epidemic.” Both writers are intensely...