Free Republic

Today, Salon gave a platform to a self-confessed pedophile to explain his urges in sympathetic terms. “I’m a Pedophile, But Not A Monster” reads the headline. It’s a long, self-pitying screed that ends with a call to be “understanding and supportive” of adults who crave sexual intimacy with children. Forgive me if I’m not first to start the standing ovation. In fact I’m pretty sure most people will find the existence on Salon’s website of this post both shocking and distasteful. The timing of Nickerson’s post, barely a week after multiple high-profile progressives rallied around progressive activist Sarah Nyberg, couldn’t...

The New York Times published a story today about U.S. policy in Afghanistan to turn a blind eye to “bacha bazi,” or “boy play.” You see, although Afghans stone to death women for adultery and beat people to death for blasphemy, keeping young boys chained up as sex slaves is an old and respected tribal custom. And our troops have been strictly warned not to intervene when senior Afghan military and police commanders want to indulge in their taste for pederasty. Afghanistan is not only a military quagmire in which we are pointlessly bogged down. It is a moral cesspool,...

In a new web advertisement released this week, Hillary Clinton expresses solidarity with victims of sexual assault. She implores those who have been abused not to “let anyone silence your voice. You have a right to be heard. You have a right to be believed. We’re with you.” So, Hillary Clinton, a willing participant in the 1992 Clinton for President Campaign’s plan to handle “bimbo eruptions,” is supposedly concerned about victims of sexual assault. She is so skilled at lying that she does not realize the hypocrisy so evident in her new campaign message. In defending her husband from the...

Time to move on. Too juvenile and too much name-calling. Not near the level of critical thinking that used to go on back in the day. I wish the best to all the good ones left out there.

The State Department (which Hillary Clinton used to run and where she still holds significant influence) has been very clear about one thing. There is no relationship between donations to the Clinton Foundation and actions taken by the Secretary of State during her tenure there. Period. Full stop. End of discussion. Perish the thought. You’re all just a bunch of Clinton haters who are trying to stop the ongoing charity work of these wonderful people. And yet for some strange reason we keep seeing stories like this. Hillary hadn’t even finished unpacking her things in her new office at...

A 15-year-old Deltona boy told investigators that he drank alcohol and had sex twice with a 23-year-old woman for two days while his family couldn't find him, an arrest report states. The teen said he spent his time away in an apartment with 23-year-old Jessica Belue, her 5-year-old son and a 31-year-old man, the report states. Belue is charged with lewd lascivious battery sexual activity with a person under the age of 16. She was being held Friday at the Volusia County Branch Jail on $5,000 bail. The boy's mother, whose name is not being published so that the teen's...

The double standard our media impose on child sexual abuse is garishly obvious. On Aug. 14, The Washington Post set the stage for the coming American visit of Pope Francis with another splashy front-page story on a man still berating the Catholic Church after being abused by a priest from 1969 to 1976. But on Aug. 21, after a court sentenced former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader Molly Shattuck, 48, for sexually abusing a 15-year old boy merely a year ago, the Post ignored it completely. Apparently, there was no room. That boy's family had no media advocate there. It's horrible that...

Between 2007 and July 31, 2015 there were reportedly 690 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse for all categories of UN personnel, according to the UN’s own Office of Internal Oversight Services The United Nations Security Council issued a press statement on August 18th expressing “outrage and anger” regarding allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by United Nations peacekeepers, including the latest allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse committed in the Central African Republic (CAR). The members of the Security Council had been briefed by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week regarding these allegations and the measures he was...

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced Tuesday it will pay $21 million to compensate victims of childhood sexual abuse under a settlement agreement announced Tuesday — a deal that clears the way to ending its nearly 5-year-old bankruptcy. Of the 575 men and women who filed sex abuse claims in the bankruptcy, 330 would receive financial settlements of varying amounts, to be determined by an administrator appointed by the bankruptcy court. Federal law requires the settlement to be approved by a bankruptcy judge. It's also not known how many additional millions of dollars will go to pay fees of numerous attorneys...

Donald Trump's ex-wife, Ivana, recently denied a 30-year-old allegation that Donald Trump raped her. The allegation, according to the New York Daily News, stems from the book "The Last Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump" by Harry Hurt III. The News wrote: "Hurt's 1993 book ... cited a divorce deposition, in which Ivana Trump claimed her then-husband sexually attacked her. ... In a rage, Trump allegedly tore out clumps of his wife's hair, the book claimed, and ripped off her clothes and assaulted her. 'According to versions she repeats to some of her closest confidantes, 'he raped me.'...

TONTITOWN, AR, July 16, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- TV's biggest family is officially off the air.Two months after TLC suspended "19 Kids and Counting," the network has formally cancelled its biggest show. "TLC and the Duggar family have decided to not move forward with '19 Kids and Counting,'" the channel told The Associated Press. "The show will no longer appear on the air."According to the Duggars, there are no hard feelings. "Years ago, when we were asked to film our first one hour documentary about the logistics of raising 14 children, we felt that it was an opportunity to share with...

Josh Duggar and his family may be heading to court as a victim of his molestation is reportedly planning to file a civil suit. InTouch reports that the individual is a non-Duggar victim, and according to a law enforcement insider is not happy with the way the family presented the scandal to the media after it was revealed what Josh had done to minor girls as a teenager. 'I have heard that the [non-family] victim is preparing to sue,' said the insider. 'This whole sordid affair with Josh rattled a lot of people, including the victim, who had to relive...

It took 20 years for Jolene Reinboldt to have anyone take her story seriously. After her brother Steve died of AIDS in 1995, she was shocked to see Dennis Hastert, her brother’s teacher and coach in high school, show up for the viewing. She followed Hastert out to the parking lot and told him she knew his secret, and then tried for years to get law enforcement and news agencies to investigate it, all to no avail. Two weeks ago, though, the FBI came calling and wanted to hear her story for themselves as part of an investigation into...

As a Democrat, I know I’m supposed to cheer now that former Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has been charged with federal crimes. But, in fact, I feel just the opposite. It looks to me like he got a raw deal, and ended up the victim of an overzealous federal prosecutor. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t condone Hastert’s rumored sexual abuse of a former student, if that’s what happened. But if that student still felt harmed, so many years later, why didn’t he go to the police instead of going to Hastert and hitting him up for hush money?...

A former Utah State University fraternity president is accused of sexually abusing a woman at a fraternity party. Logan police arrested Ryan Wray, 26, on Tuesday night on suspicion of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony. During Pi Kappa Alpha parties at the fraternity house, which is off-campus, people who "could no longer take care of themselves" were placed in Wray's care, said police Capt. Tyson Budge on Wednesday. "Several of the girls got talking and realized that they may have been taken advantage of," between last October and now, Budge said. One of the college-age women gave a statement...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and The Boy Scouts of America are facing a lawsuit from a former Boy Scout who over alleged sexual abuse at a church-sponsored Scouting trip.

A GAY Roman Catholic priest on trial for sex abuse has admitted being shown a child porn film by a close friend. Tony McSweeney, 68, was father at St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Eastwood Road North, Eastwood, before being moved from the church in 1998, just months after his cleaner found pornographic video tapes at his home. McSweeney denies molesting three youngsters at Grafton Close Children’s Home in Hounslow, West London, between 1979 and 1981. He admitted being shown a child sex porn film by close friend and care home manager John Stingemore, 72, and broke down in tears...

Fifty Shades of Grey is easily seducing the North American box office, where it's poised to gross north of $26 million Friday for a historic $75 million to $85 million debut over the long Valentine's Day and Presidents Day weekend. Universal's film adaptation of EL James' S&M-laced romance novel will easily best the $63.1 million launch of Valentine's Day in 2010 to tie up the best showing of all time for the holiday. The range of $75 million to $85 million indicates that no one is exactly sure how the movie will perform or how front-loaded it is since there...

MINNEAPOLIS — For decades, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has been shifting money into separate nonprofits that may be beyond the reach of its creditors in bankruptcy court. *snip* The nonprofits were created for various reasons, but they carry the potential benefit of protecting the church’s assets from liability linked to clergy abuse suits.

MADRID (Reuters) - Ten Spanish priests were charged with child sexual abuse on Tuesday, in a case brought after Pope Francis telephoned the victim to offer the Church's apology, court documents showed. The victim, now 24, wrote to the pope to say he had been molested when he was an altar boy. The pope called the man in August to apologize, Spanish news site Religion Digital reported in November, a report later confirmed by the pope himself.