Free Republic

1) You learned how to spell with this song: [video] 2) You survived a Fear Factor inspired eating game. 3) You’ve been to Mexico for a mission/service trip. 4) You’ve given your “testimony” to a large group before. 5) Your public prayers are filled with “Father God” and “just…” 6) You learned just enough on the guitar to lead worship songs with 4 chords.

They served their country with honour and courage – and 453 paid the ultimate price. But, after 13 years of bloodshed, there will be no memorial in Afghanistan to mark the troops’ sacrifice. The lives of the young Britons killed fighting the Taliban had been commemorated on memorial walls in Camp Bastion, but as the UK’s campaign in the country ended yesterday, it was confirmed they had been dismantled. A source said: ‘There is no memorial left in Afghanistan.’ The Army insisted the decision was not because of fears the memorials would be defaced or destroyed. But top-ranking soldiers and...

A woman who was brutally beaten by three men on a Crown Heights sidewalk says the attack, which left her with a broken nose and facial lacerations, will not stop her from pursuing her modeling career. Gwendolyn Reyes, 21, was jumped by three muggers as she walked on Franklin Avenue between Prospect Place and St. Mark's Avenue at approximately 2:30 a.m. on October 2nd. Yesterday the NYPD released security camera video of the assault and robbery: Reyes, an aspiring model, says she found it "difficult to watch" the video, for obvious reasons. "They just rushed me, so the first thing...

Five suburban Ohio teenage boys were charged Tuesday with dumping a bucket of urine, water and tobacco spit on an autistic 15-year-old boy who thought he was participating in the ice bucket challenge for charity. The Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office filed the charges in juvenile court against the teens, who are between the ages of 14 and 16.

A surveillance video posted online shows a group of teens trashing a Brooklyn store Saturday night, the store’s owner said. Dozens of teens gathered outside of Gourmet Butcher on Troy Ave. near Carroll St. in Crown Heights before several rushed into the store and knocked over shelves and pushed products to the floor, a video posted on CrownHeights.info on Monday shows. The Store’s owner, Yanki Klein, told CBS 2 the vandalism happened on Saturday around 9 p.m., only hours after he reopened his store following the Jewish holiday Sukkot.

'We made a big mistake': Teenage Austrian poster girls for ISIS who moved to Syria to live with jihadis are now pregnant and want to come home... but officials say that will be 'impossible' Interpol became involved when the girls left Austria in April, despite the fact that they wrote a note telling their parents: “Don’t look for us. We will serve Allah – and we will die for him.” Once they arrived it is believed they were married off to local fighters and both the girls are thought to be pregnant. Police in their homeland Austria say that the...

Reports of creepy clowns carrying knives and other weapons have been scaring people in the California city of Bakersfield for the past week, police said on Sunday. ... "We've been having sightings all over the city," Matson said. "They range from anywhere from a guy carrying a gun to a guy carrying a knife running up to houses." The Bakersfield Californian newspaper reported earlier in the week that at least some of the reports were hoaxes. Matson said he did not know whether the incidents were pranks. At least one of the reports was not a hoax - police arrested...

Anyone using the Teen Safe cell phone ap to control their teen's cell phone use. I would like to use something like Ignore No More but it is not available for iPhone, Android only.

LINK TO VIDEO-WARNING DISTURBING! NEWARK, Del. (WPVI) -- Two teenage boys have been arrested in connection to a videotaped attack on a mentally challenged man in New Castle County, Delaware. Two boys, ages 13 and 14, were taken into custody on Saturday. The arrests came after their parents went to police complaining about harassing phone calls the teens were getting. Instead, investigators turned the tables and two the pair into custody. They were released to the custody of their parents on $2,500 bond. Police say more arrests are expected.

Teenaged boys on bicycles rob two female drivers of horse-drawn carriages downtown. It happened Sunday around 9 p.m. at two separate locations – one near Broadway and Kiener Plaza, another at Broadway and Washington.

Greenacres police said they arrested a man accused of slashing a teen in the face and then running him over in a car because he thought the teen harassed his pregnant wife.

Suicide Teenagers Feared Family Would Keep Them Apart Charleigh Disbrey, 15, and her Turkish boyfriend Mert Karaoglan,18, ran in front of a train holding hands Suicide teenagers feared family would keep them apart: Charleigh Disbrey, 15, and her Turkish boyfriend Mert Karaoglan,18 Charleigh Disbrey, 15, and her Turkish boyfriend Mert Karaoglan,18 Photo: National Pictures 19 Aug 2014 Two teenagers who feared that their cultural differences meant they would never be accepted as a couple killed themselves by running in front of a train while holding hands, an inquest heard. Charleigh Disbrey, 15, died alongside Mert Karaoglan, her 18-year-old Turkish boyfriend,...

It was a vicious attack: The alleged beating of a man by teenagers amid a large crowd in northwest suburban Park Ridge’s Hinkley Park last weekend. And it was was caught on video. Footage first obtained by the Park Ridge Herald-Advocate shows a 48-year-old man in a yellow shirt pushed to the ground and then punched and kicked by three individuals while a raucous crowd looks on. CBS 2 aired the video on Thursday night at 10 p.m. Police say the man was looking for his son when someone threw a lit firework near him. When he tried to find...

Images broadcast on Palestinian television this weekend appeared to show Israeli police beating and kicking a teenager. The victim, Tariq Abu Khdeir, is reportedly a US citizen who was hurling rocks with a slingshot at police. Khdeir goes to school in Florida. The edited footage was released by the Palestinians and widely reported around the world.

Tape seems to dispel scenario that terrorists had panicked and possibly not meant to kill the 3 Israeli boys; the killers can be heard speaking in Arabic, one of them saying, "We got three." The terrorists who murdered three Israeli teens after abducting them on June 12th broke out into celebratory singing after gunning them down, according to an extended version of the emergency dispatch call placed by one of the boys on the night of the killings. In addition, the killers can be heard speaking in Arabic, one of them saying "We got three."

A lost bet sent two teens wearing only the stars and stripes into four Tega Cay area businesses Monday night before police halted the patriotic display. The teens’ visits to a QuikTrip, Hardee’s, Pelicans SnoBalls and Walmart drew attention not because of the apparel’s theme. Rather, the teens’ skimpy outfits caught the eyes of customers, employees and, eventually, the police. The pair were only wearing Speedos and sunglasses. Fort Mill teens Houston Vandiver and Michael Pearson chronicled the night on various social media accounts. Vandiver was on the graduation list for Nation Ford High School in May and Pearson was...

A new video probe by the group Live Action, known for exposing shocking abortion clinic techniques, reveals some Planned Parenthood counselors and associates pushing curious teens to engage in domination, sadism and even asphyxiation. “If it’s consensual, it’s OK,” said an unidentified Planned Parenthood counselor on a video trailer of a longer version due out Wednesday. Another warns that whipping during sex can leave “welts across the back.” And a third advisor tells the Live Action videographer posing as a teen seeking sex advice, “It just depends on what type of pain you can take.” The video preview can be...

In education circles, universal preschool is hot. But it’s only half the answer. If we really want to raise a generation of employable kids, we need universal 13th and 14th grades too. As taxpayers, we’ve decided to subsidize the education of every American child between the ages of 5 and 18. But current education funding structures reflect a bygone industrial age, when a high school diploma met or in some cases exceeded the needs of the local and national economies. Now, neither preschool nor college is a luxury, and families shouldn’t have to pay for the schooling that keeps society...

Smoking cannabis as a teenager lowers IQ into adulthood and could have a lifelong impact, researchers have warned. U.S. researchers found the damaging effects of the drug remained even if users stopped smoking marijuana as adults. They said teenagers face increased risks from smoking cannabis, because the brain is rapidly developing at this time. The scientists, from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) in the U.S., added that smoking cannabis affects critical thinking and memory during use, with the effects persisting for days. Reviewing a range of studies on marijuana smoking, they reiterated that cannabis impairs driving and increases...

This week, five teenagers decided to drive around some Santa Fe, New Mexico neighborhoods and shoot random cars with BB guns. It would appear that they wound up shooting the wrong person’s car, though. A victim decided to chase after the teens, scaring them so much that the teens felt the need to call 911 for help. As KOAT reports, police came right away and…arrested the teens. The Santa Fe Police Department had been receiving calls - complaints about vandals shooting at cars, so when they heard from the teenagers, they were already aware of the crimes they had committed....