Free Republic

Following the president’s speech where he promised to end “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Meghan McCain – pro-gay rights pundit and daughter to Sen. John McCain – weighed in on the Daily Beast blog. Now, I cannot speak for my brothers, but I know many men and women who serve in the military. Let’s give them more credit. Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, I suspect it could be said that there is no homophobia in foxholes either. I find it hard to imagine that when a soldier is in a Humvee fighting terrorist insurgents, that the thing on...

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Heath Wieseler chats with his sister, Sgt. Andrea Wieseler, in a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter on COB Speicher Aug. 13. Heath and Andrea spent a few days together here after not seeing each other for more than two years. Photo by Rich Kemp, Multi-National Division – South. COB SPEICHER — Deployments usually separate servicemembers from their families. However, for one U.S. Soldier here, it provided the chance to reunite with her brother. Sgt. Andrea Wieseler, a telecommunications sergeant with the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, hadn't seen her brother, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Heath Wieseler, in more...

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq — When Gunnery Sgt. Amber Beegle received orders to deploy to Iraq, she had no idea she would be working just a few miles away from her younger brother, Sgt. James Ihle, an aviation ordnance system technician with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 26. “My brother informed me that he was also going to Iraq about two months before we left,” said Beegle. “I was really happy since he just finished his re-enlistment package, and I knew he wanted to deploy.” What the Ocala, Fla., natives couldn’t have predicted, however, was a surprise meeting at Marine...

CAMP ECHO, Iraq, April 15, 2009 – Typically, deployment marks a separation from family. It can be a difficult sacrifice that walks hand in hand with selfless service to answer the nation’s call. Army Sgt. Jordane Lovin, right, shares a joke with her older brother, Army Pfc. Robert Lovin, at Camp Echo, Iraq, April 6, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Rodney Foliente  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Occasionally, however, circumstances bring family members together and strengthen the bond between them. Army Sgt. Jordane Lovin, a Special Troops Battalion signal intelligence analyst with the 4th Infantry Division’s 2nd...

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq, Dec. 16, 2008 – Two deployed soldiers share a lot more in common than just their jobs as mechanics. Army Sgt. Abbi Erisman, left, from Mountain Home, Ark., and Army Sgt. Shandy Erisman from Little Rock, Ark., are mechanics with 2nd Battalion, 153rd Infantry Regiment, at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Kiyoshi Freeman  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army Sgt. Shandy Erisman, of Little Rock, Ark., and Army Sgt. Abbi Erisman, of Mountain Home, Ark., are siblings and Arkansas National Guardsmen serving together in Iraq with 2nd Battalion,...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 10, 2008 – Two deployed soldiers decided to make their re-enlistment a family affair. Siblings Army Pfc. Marlene Banuelos and Army Staff Sgt. Normando Gallardo, natives of El Paso, Texas, swear the oath of enlistment administered by Army Col. Pat White during a Dec. 7, 2008, re-enlistment ceremony at Camp Striker, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Scott Wolfe   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army Staff Sgt. Normando Gallardo and his sister, Army Pfc. Marlene Banuelos, both Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers, made a six-year commitment to the Army together during a Dec. 7 re-enlistment...

Obama has at least 7 (maybe 8) half siblings from 4 different women. Papa got around.

German brother and sister are challenging the law against incest so that they can continue their relationship free from the threat of imprisonment. Patrick Stübing, an unemployed locksmith, and his sister Susan have had four children together since starting a sexual relationship in 2000. Three of the children are in foster care, and two have unspecified disabilities. The couple, who live near Leipzig, grew up separately and only met many years later. Their supporters say they will fight until incest is no longer regarded as a criminal offence, arguing that the law is out of date. They say it harks...

What happened to Joseph the father of Jesus We know very little about the years of Jesus prior to His public ministry. The gospels are without notation of any childhood events beyond Christ's birth except one reference that is found in Luke. It is the very last time that Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus, is ever mentioned. Luke 2:41 reads: "Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning...

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani traveled to New York this week for the opening of the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly. In a letter to the people of the United States, Talabani describes Iraq’s security situation, challenges and progress, and his country’s special relationship with the U.S. “Dear Americans, As I am visiting the United States for the second time representing free and democratic Iraq, I felt it my duty to give you an update on what has been achieved in Iraq over the past year and on the challenges that lie ahead. The first thing I would...

he devoted older brother of a dying Dorchester teen fulfilled a promise to join his little brother on his journey into eternal life when he died Tuesday in a motorcycle accident just hours before a brain tumor claimed his kin. William Davulis, 26, the eldest of 10 children, was on his way to say goodbye to his younger brother, Dominic, 17, when he lost control of his motorcycle at the intersection of East First and O streets in South Boston at about 4:35 p.m. “William wasn’t expecting to see God. He was expecting to see his dying brother,” said the...

Boys with a number of elder brothers are more likely to grow up to be gay than boys with relatively fewer older brothers, younger brothers or sisters of any age - but is not the result of upbringing, says a study published today. For each additional older brother, a boy's chance of being homosexual increases by a third, it says. Prof Anthony Bogaert, at Brock University, in St Catherine's, Canada, says his research provides strong evidence that sexual orientation may be the result of biological processes in the womb. "If you have a biological brother, and you never even lived...

Two brothers who called sheriff's deputies about a break-in at their apartment didn't take time to clean up the place. They ended up in jail after the deputies they called Thursday found a pound of marijuana, other drugs and guns lying out in the open. The brothers claimed someone who had broken in randomly planted the drugs, but the deputies didn't buy it. One of the brothers said "Do you think I'd be stupid enough to call police if I had drugs lying around the house?'' Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Darren Carr said. The front door had been kicked...

LONDON - Using in vitro fertilization to create a baby that might cure sick siblings was ruled legally acceptable by Britain's highest appeal court on Thursday. The Law Lords upheld a Court of Appeal ruling in 2003 that said some couples using fertility treatment could get their embryos screened for tissue matches for gravely ill children. Anti-abortion groups had challenged the ruling, alleging it would encourage the creation of human beings "to provide spare parts for another." Supporters say the ruling may help save desperately ill children. The case stems from Raj and Shahana Hashmi's desire to conceive a child...

Three-year-old runs over sisterA frighteningly precocious three-year-old managed to get hold of the family car keys and finally run over his five-year-old sister just outside their home.The young girl was flown to Trondheim's St. Olav's Hospital by air ambulance on Tuesday evening. According to local policeman Dagfinn Herskedal at Hitra, the five-year-old was in great pain after scrapes and broken bones, but was conscious when taken to hospital.A report from St. Olav's Tuesday night signaled that the girl was in stable condition with minor injuries.Deputy Arild Sollie said the girl had a guardian angel, and explained the incredible sequence of...

Japanese police questioned three siblings today after it was discovered they had been living with the decomposed corpse of their father for nearly a decade. Police found the body of Kyujiro Kanaoka lying on a futon bed at the family’s home in Itami, western Japan, said a police spokesman. Kanaoka’s three elderly children, all in their 70s or older, told police they thought their father was still alive but that one of them recently had consulted a relative about the possibility that he might be dead, the spokesman said. Police were investigating the cause of Kanaoka’s death. Judging from the...

LIMA, Peru (AP) - A Peruvian judge said Tuesday that she issued arrest warrants for former President Alberto Fujimori's three siblings on allegations they embezzled millions of dollars from a Japanese charity. Anticorruption Judge Antonia Saquicuray told The Associated Press that she issued the international arrest warrants for Juana, Rosa and Pedro Fujimori on charges they stole more than $21 million of private Japanese donations to Peru during their brother's 1990-2000 presidency. The two women are in Japan, and Pedro Fujimori is in the United States, said the former president's spokesman in Lima, Carlos Raffo. Saquicuray said Peru will seek...

No flight of fancy: German siblings prove Lindbergh was their father By Andrew Gumbel 29 November 2003 Fans of the pioneering American aviator Charles Lindbergh have had to swallow a few uncomfortable facts about their hero over the years, such as his sympathy for the Nazis, his campaigning against the involvement of the United States in the Second World War and his anti-Semitism. Now comes a new, seemingly incontrovertible bit of awkward news: DNA evidence confirming that Mr Lindbergh, who made the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, had a secret, second family in Germany with a Munich hatmaker,...

Bob Kunath recognized something in the way the pixie face of the vintage cookie jar winked at him. It was like it had a secret. What he didn't know was that he had come upon a secret that would change his life. [snipped] It wasn't until the package arrived last week that the secret was revealed. The man who sold Kunath the cookie jar was a brother he has never met. Kunath, adopted when he was an infant, has often wondered about his biological parents. He knew from his adoption papers that his mother's name is June Shaw and his...

Lewisville siblings face hearings in brother's killing 04/27/2002 By KENDALL ANDERSON and RACHEL HORTON / The Dallas Morning News The court-appointed attorney for a 15-year-old Lewisville girl who's charged with killing her 6-year-old brother said Friday that the teen is a loving child whose behavioral problems over the years were never adequately addressed. Kimberly McCary said she doesn't know whether the fault rests with parents, counselors, school officials or state and local agencies. But she said she intends to find out as she builds her client's case. "It's hard to know who to blame in this," she said. "There...

Girl's maturity weighed in killing Hundreds mourn slain 6-year-old Lewisville boy 04/20/2002 By RACHEL HORTON / The Dallas Morning News The question of whether a 15-year-old Lewisville girl should stand trial as an adult in the slaying of her younger brother is complicated by reports of her stunted emotional and mental development, law and psychology experts said. The girl and her 10-year-old brother are being held at the Denton County Juvenile Detention Center. Police have said the siblings confessed to stabbing 6-year-old Jackson Carr to death behind their Lewisville home. Funeral services for the 6-year-old boy were Friday in...

Parents wake to slaying's reality Siblings who admitted killing brother, 6, to remain in custody 04/18/2002 By RACHEL HORTON / The Dallas Morning News As their longest Tuesday night stretched into Wednesday, the sad tasks piled up for Michael and Rita Carr. They needed time to pull together criminal defenses for their oldest children. There was the funeral to arrange for their youngest, 6-year-old Jackson. In their spare moments, they asked God to help them understand. "Obviously, no one can imagine what they are going through," said attorney Donna Winfield, who represents the Carrs' 15-year-old daughter. "They lost their...