Free Republic

At her first public event since voters learned that she used personal email to handle sensitive government business for four years, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton avoided any suggestion or shadow of the scandal, instead delivering a dress rehearsal campaign speech to an audience of pro-choice advocates. As for her long-deferred announcement about the 2016 presidential race, Clinton did no more than repeat old quips about the difficult question of whether to run for president, at one point asking: “I suppose it’s fair to say: don’t you someday want to see a woman president?”

Where to begin to expose the over-the-top dishonesty of abortion advocate Dr. David Grimes’ piece on abortion and breast cancer posted on Feb. 26 in the Huffington Post Blog (“Abortion and Breast Cancer: How Abortion Foes Got it Wrong“)? Not surprisingly Grimes begins by announcing dismissively that the abortion-breast cancer connection (ABC link) “was debunked long ago.” In truth, it is the denial that has been repeatedly debunked. Ironically, one of the key studies Grimes relies on as “a landmark prospective study of women in Denmark” to “prove” the ABC link is a myth is actually the largest and most...

WOMEN are moody. By evolutionary design, we are hard-wired to be sensitive to our environments, empathic to our children’s needs and intuitive of our partners’ intentions. This is basic to our survival and that of our offspring. Some research suggests that women are often better at articulating their feelings than men because as the female brain develops, more capacity is reserved for language, memory, hearing and observing emotions in others. These are observations rooted in biology, not intended to mesh with any kind of pro- or anti-feminist ideology. But they do have social implications. Women’s emotionality is a sign of...

It’s that time of year and Americans are honoring some of our favorite presidents. How about honoring our female presidents this time around? Oh, I forgot. There aren’t any. Frankly, I find America’s two-centuries-and-counting streak of all-male presidents astounding. You’d think it was against the law to elect a woman. (It probably would have been if the founding fathers had even thought it could happen — it’s not like they let them vote or anything.) And it’s not that women haven’t tried. Most people don’t know about the first woman to run for our highest office. Victoria Woodhull gave it...

Is anyone else tired of seeing women who are a mess with tattoos?

The Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden says there is a welcome mat out for women SEALs if they can meet the grueling physical and mental standards that exist today. Former Chief Petty Officer Robert O’Neill, whose handpicked SEAL Team Six unit raided bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, answered “absolutely” when asked whether women can meet the demands of sea, undersea, ground and airborne warriors. Asked by The Washington Times how he knows, Mr. O’Neill said, “I’ve met women that I think can beat me up. I’m not joking. Here in the states. There are some tough women out...

Four out of five women admit they don't shower every day, and a third say they can go for three days without washing their body. The personal hygiene of Britain's fairer sex - or the lack thereof - has been laid bare in a survey of 2,021 women aged 18 to 50 for skincare range Flint + Flint. It also found that almost two thirds can't be bothered removing make-up before they go to bed, and one in eight own up to not brushing their teeth before they sleep.

Police are appealing for help to find three schoolgirls who have gone missing and are thought to have travelled to Turkey with the intention of crossing the border into Syria. They are Shamima Begum, 15, who could be using the name Acklina Begum, and 16-year-old Kadiza Sultana. The third girl, 15, is not being named at the request of her family, Scotland Yard said. Police fear the girls, all pupils at the Bethnal Green Academy, in east London, might be heading to join terror group Isil - Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as Islamic State. They...

California Clothing Mavens Hit The Road For New Hunting Series They’ve come a long ways, metaphorically at least, from designing outdoor fashion clothes for women out of a home garage in northern California. Jen Adams and Norissa Harman had a vision that spawned a successful company, Girls With Guns Clothing. But while the gals remain small-town at heart, choosing to continue their work out of Red Bluff, a quiet hamlet of 14,000 off Interstate 5, 130 miles north of Sacramento, even for these ambitious entrepreneurs, traveling across a continent, an ocean and hunting the wild lands of Africa in...

On the happily few occasions when callers to my radio show make a particularly foolish comment, I ask them what graduate school they attended. When they ask why I assume they attended graduate school, I respond, "Only someone who went to graduate school would say something that foolish." Because it is never my intention to humiliate a caller, I always hasten to explain that my comment is not directed at the caller; it is directed at our universities. Moreover, I mean it literally. In order to say certain things that are so obviously foolish, one has to be taught them....

The National Shooting Games Establishment (NSSF) as of late discharged a thorough report details regarding women and guns. The report, “Women Gun Owners: Purchasing, Perceptions and Participation,” speaks to a study of more than 1,000 women, which investigates almost every part of weapon proprietorship. In spite of the fact that we hear an incredible arrangement about the quantity of women who have as of late procured their first gun, the majority of those reviewed, 42.1 percent, have claimed a weapon for no less than 10 years. About 33% of the women reviewed, however, are a piece of the female gun...

Yoga pants are under attack. Lately, they have been a hot topic on Facebook, blogs and other corners of the web. Some say they are too tight. Others complain that we, as a society, have lost all sense of modesty. The question has been posed: Should women wear yoga pants in public? For one state legislator in Montana, the struggle against yoga pants is real. No. Seriously. From the Billings Gazette:

It may have been touted as the steamiest thing in Hollywood - but movie critics rounded on Fifty Shades of Grey for being too light on the sex. In a barrage of reviews published on Tuesday night, most of those who sat down with the raunchy adaptation ahead of its 13 February release date lamented its 'run-of-the-mill' lovemaking. One critic pointed out that sex only makes up 15 minutes of the two-hour runtime. Another pointed out that there are no visible genitals, no orgasms - and not that much nudity.

The United States can be quite an incoherent place at times. Here are a few examples. Diversity Sometime in the 1990s the growing contradictions of affirmative action in a multiracial society became problematic. Ethnic ancestry was often neither easily identifiable nor readily commensurate with class status, and so gave way to a more popular term: “diversity.”

Conservative media were in an uproar last week over the President’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. He said that we see “faith being twisted and distorted … sometimes used as a weapon” and “lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ." Nearly everyone took the statement to mean “Catholic pot, don’t call the Muslim kettle black.” And they were quick to point out that the “terrible deeds in the name of Christ” were...

Fans of Fifty Shades Of Grey, you've been warned: leave those whips and riding crops at home on your way to the movies next week. AMC, Regal Entertainment and Cinemark have banned movie goers from bringing naughty props to the cinema in anticipation of the hotly awaited world premiere of Fifty Shades Of Grey. The film adaptation of EL James' steamy best-selling erotic romance starring Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey and Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele hits the big screen on Valentine’s Day, February 14.

More Than 500,000 In U.S. Could Be At Risk Of Female Genital Excision Preliminary data shows that up to 507,000 women and girls in the United States were at risk of female genital excision in 2013. By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS A new study finds that nearly 507,000 women and girls in the U.S. could be at risk of female genital excision There is anecdotal evidence of U.S. girls being sent to their parents' home countries for 'vacation cutting' Nearly 507,000 women and girls in the United States could be at risk of female genital excision, including 57,000 in California, a new...

Have you ever run across couples who want to tell you “we’re pregnant”? It’s part of the gender neutrality, everyone is the same, there is no difference between men and women, nonsense.

As noted here, Pope Francis, who once boasted of having been a bouncer,"has called for more women in the International Theological Commission, even after tripling the number of women on the team this past September. 'In the ever more diverse makeup of the Commission,' he said, 'I want to see a higher presence of women.' The Pope also said recently that it is chiefly women who pass on the faith, and urged men to listen to women more and not be so 'macho.' He said that men often don’t allow enough room for women while 'women are capable of seeing...

“Trauma from an abortion can also affect men. Guilt and hurt after an abortion can drive couples apart, especially if one partner was unsure about the decision. Often couples split up following an abortion. You may want your relationship back to where it used to be, but this is impossible. Sometimes men react with a gut instinct that it is better to do something quickly and worry about the consequences later. A common reaction is “Get rid of it”. But this is not one of those situations, and an abortion will not put things back as they were. In short,...

Am I the only person watching this "football game" (which is actually a good football game) annoyed by these annoying lectures, masquerading as commercials, about how powerful, capable, independent and valuable women are, so we barbaric men shouldn't devalue them, disrespect them (not actually a word) or hit them? Is this really what we need to be told while we're trying to just watch a ball game? I know the rest of the culture insists on this, but aren't men the primary clientele of the NFL? Why does the NFL have to subject us to this nonsense?

Former Alaska governor to discuss how women are showing 21st century leadership. UTPB’s John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute is hosting a lecture featuring former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Feb. 12 at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center. As part of the Shepperd Distinguished Lecture Series, Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate, will address the topic, “Groundbreakers, Mavericks and Trailblazers: How Women are showing 21st Century Leadership.” The lecture is free and open to the public and begins at 7 p.m. The event will be co-moderated by Patrick Canty, publisher of the Odessa American, and Robert Brescia, executive director...

Americans support women in the pulpit and in senior leadership positions within the church. But they are more hesitant when it comes to supporting openly gay and lesbian religious leaders. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of American Adults favor women in the pulpit, while just 16% are opposed. Twenty-five percent (25%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Even more (74%) support women in leadership positions in their respective faiths. Just nine percent (9%) are opposed, with 17% undecided. Just 43% of Americans favor openly gay and lesbian individuals in the pulpit. Thirty-eight...

Here is another mark against sugary drinks: A new study has found that drinking them is associated with lowered age of menarche. Age of first menses has decreased substantially since the early 20th century, and studies have shown that younger age of menarche is associated with increased risk of breast and endometrial cancer in later life. [Snip] After controlling for birth weight, maternal age at menarche, physical activity, and many dietary and behavioral factors, [researchers] found that girls who drank one-and-a-half 12-ounce cans a day of nondiet soda or sugared iced tea had their first period an average of 2.7...

Every girl’s life matters to Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett only so long as those lives can be exploited for publicity Are first lady Michelle Obama and her mentor Valerie Jarrett, who is her husband’s senior advisor, complicit in a publicity stunt making it appear that they champion women’s rights? While Michelle Obama seized the spotlight by not wearing a head scarf when meeting with Saudi officials in Riyadh yesterday, Jarrett was sending out this message on Twitter: “Every girl’s life matters. Every woman should be able to go about her day and be safe and treated with respect.” The...

Heavier women are more likely to be lighter in the wallet, reports a new study that says obese females tend to occupy lower-paying, more-strenuous jobs in less-visible corners of the U.S. workforce when compared to average-sized women and men. In fact, the link between extra pounds and leaner paychecks is distinct: When a woman “becomes overweight,” she already is less likely to land a public-facing role in better-paying white-collar jobs, according to research released Tuesday by Vanderbilt University. And women who are considered obese or morbidly obese — based on their body mass indexes — are more likely to forced...

I am trying to purchase new original Sacred Sisterhood Of Wonderful Wacky Women Mugs and they seem to have gone off the radar - just since Christmas. The inscription on the inside reads, "Forever Friends Kindred Spirits." Everything seems to be out-of-stock on-line, with caveats that they may no longer be available. So, I a wondering if anyone on FR knows of a Mom-And-Pop specialty shop that carries them. Any help is appreciated.

I have come as a beggar, says PM as he pleads to save girl child Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches the Sukanya Samridhi Account Scheme at the launch of the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ Programme, at Panipat, in Haryana along with actress Madhuri Dixit. Photograph: Press Information Bureau  Denouncing the practice of female foeticide, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the discrimination against girls reflects "mental illness" and displays a mindset worse than that in the 18th century.Launching 'beti bachao beti padhao (save daughter, educate daughter)' scheme in this district of Haryana, a state with one of the poorest...

As part of President Barack Obama’s annual effort to provoke Republicans and cheer up disheartened Democrats, the president touched on a theme that he has deployed effectively in the past that is designed to inflame tensions between the genders: The idea that women are systematically discriminated against in the workplace. “Of course, nothing helps families make ends meet like higher wages. That’s why this Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work,” Obama said during his State of the Union address. “It’s 2015....

President Barack Obama shamed Congress in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to pass legislation that already exists. Apparently not briefed by his secretary of labor and attorney general, Obama announced: "That's why this Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work. Really. It's 2015. It's time." But it was June 10, 1963 when Congress passed “The Equal Pay Act of 1963,” which can be found at 29 U.S.C. § 206(d). It says: (d) Prohibition of sex discrimination (1) No employer...

Manspreading and manslamming are just the beginning! By now, you may have heard of “manspreading” – when a guy sits with his legs apart on the subway to assert his dominance — and “manslamming” – when a man doesn’t get out of the way of a woman on the street and they run into each other. While these are definitely very important women’s issues, there are still so many more we need to be talking about. Here are ten words for even more ways men are constantly oppressing women: 1. Broplimenting This is when a guy says something nice to...

A while back I brought up that my daughter had mentioned she was researching and thinking about joining the military. About 80% of the people that responded said "not in this environment". Which I completely understand. She brought it up again tonight. I asked her why. She is a very intelligent girl and would probably get in to many colleges with scholarship money. Before when she brought it up, she didn't say why, just that she was looking. Today was different. She told me how much of her high school has turned anti-military and talk about today's soldiers and marines...

There’s a widening gap between the baby-having of married women, who tend to be more educated and more affluent, and their less-educated, less-financially-secure, unmarried peers. A growing body of research, including work by Johns Hopkins University sociologist Andrew Cherlin, raises the possibility that because people like to feel financially secure before taking the marriage plunge, the rise of income inequality has divided Americans into those who marry and those who don’t. Now this could be playing out with childbearing, too. America’s recessionary “baby bust” has clearly leveled off now, but we’ve yet to see the birth recovery one would expect...

Blake Vaught and Alex Williamson, buddies in their late 20s, were having a cognitive dissonance moment. “This place is like a country club,” Vaught said, looking at a concierge desk, granite countertops and sleek black couches. “Or like a really nice steakhouse,” Williamson said. They were not at a country club. They were not at a steakhouse. They were at Elite Shooting Sports, a new gun range in Manassas, Va., that, like a wave of other new ranges around the country, is targeting a new breed of shooter — younger, more affluent, style-focused, increasingly female and even environmentally conscious. The...

Very long... suggest reading at the link. Basically he seems to blame women and feminization for the ills of the church, for loss of manliness, and even for homosexuality!

To quote a friend of mine, “Trying to understand Church issues through mainstream secular media is like trying to understand global economics through a 13-year-old girl’s Instagram account.” In short, it just won’t happen. The personnel aren’t equipped, and likely don’t want to take the time to become equipped, to speak well and foster understanding about nuanced issues in the Church. They’re only after eyes, likes, and shares, (and I don’t know that they deny it) so why, OH WHY do we fall for this every. single. time? A bit of background: Cardinal Raymond Burke, former bishop of the Dioceses...

Cardinal Raymond Burke at the extraordinary Synod on the Family in Rome in October 2014 (CNS photo) Kaya Oakes, a revert to Catholicism after spending time as a self-described pro-choice liberal, has penned a little screed—a veritable bundle of befuddlement!—aimed at the recent New Emangelization interview with Cardinal Raymond Burke (which I posted about on Monday). I've not read Oakes' book about her spiritual, uh, arc, which is titled, Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Catholic Church, but my impression is that she has some—nay, numerous—issues with orthodoxy, or what she apparently calls "Catholic conservatism", which is in...

My "Aha Moment" happened because of a package of hamburger meat. I asked my husband to stop by the store to pick up a few things for dinner, and when he got home, he plopped the bag on the counter. I started pulling things out of the bag, and realized he'd gotten the 70/30 hamburger meat - which means it's 70% lean and 30% fat. Read more at http://www.sunnyskyz.com/blog/610/I-Wasn-t-Treating-My-Husband-Fairly-And-It-Wasn-t-Fair#EY4FIxGCmr92Qrb1.99

From an article titled "8 Quirky Ways Epiphany Is Celebrated Around the World": 1) “Women’s Christmas” Also known as “Little Christmas,” in Ireland Epiphany is a day that women take off from work to rest and celebrate for themselves after all the work of the Christmas holidays. Women gather together in pubs without men for special meals and wine (in commemoration of the Wedding at Cana miracle, of course!). Women also receive gifts from their children and grandchildren. (How do we bring this tradition to more places??)

You might not think that it’s appropriate for the government to launch a campaign telling men how to sit on the subway. Well guess what? You’re wrong. If you “manspread” on the subway (which, by the way, means to sit with your legs apart, in case you are a fixture of the patriarchy who doesn’t educate himself on important women’s issues), you are doing so much more than taking up space. Here’s what’s really going on with manspreading, as explained by some of the bright, forward-thinking minds on the Feminist Internet: 1. Manspreading is saying, “Who gives a f*** if...

An ancient law of the sea says that, when at risk of shipwreck, women and children must be helped into the lifeboats first. This is what was done on the Titanic, in the most notorious shipwreck in history. On that famous ship the orchestra continued to play to buoy the courage of those who were doomed to drown, including the musicians themselves. And a Catholic priest gave confession and absolution to all those who asked for them, himself going down with the ship. Old-fashioned gentlemen? Nope, Christians. Because the unwritten rule of «women and children first» dates back to...

We asked some brave women to try on old-time bras and corsets. This is what happened.

Making it to the White House will shift prejudices not only in America, but far beyond. Hillary Clinton was on my mind even before word came of the death of Mario Cuomo. The former governor of New York will be remembered by those who have long forgotten, or never knew, his record running that state chiefly for his oratory and his knack for an enduring phrase. Eight minutes spent on YouTube watching his 1984 rebuttal of Ronald Reagan’s depiction of the US as a “shining city on a hill” will not be wasted. It was Cuomo who memorably told us:...

WATERTOWN, N.Y.— Elise Stefanik, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, has never held elected office, but her résumé looks more like that of a Beltway insider than a political newcomer. By the time she won her seat representing a swath of upstate New York in the November election, she had served as a domestic policy aide for former President George W. Bush , a policy director for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty ’s 2012 presidential campaign and head of debate preparation for vice-presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan .

Thousands of sailors get out of the Navy every year because they want to start a family. Or to enroll in school. Or because they are burned out on frequent deployments and months away from home. With the national unemployment rate dropping and more service members leaving for the private sector, the chief of naval personnel says he wants to do everything he can to keep the best sailors in uniform longer — even if that means letting them go for a while. “We need to offer meaningful incentives to keep the best talent we can, both men and women,”...

Men who take part in violent conflicts are more likely to father more children, researchers have found. Researchers at Harvard University studied a small tribal populations in eastern Africa - and found violent conflict does result in more wives and children for certain warriors. They studied the Nyangatom, a group of nomadic herders living in a region of southwest Ethiopia and South Sudan.

Bill Cosby has refused to address the scores of rape allegations that have been hurled at him in recent months, but that doesn't mean he isn't working to clear his name. The comedian is allegedly paying private investigators six-figure fees to dig up dirt on the more than two dozen women who have come forward to accuse him of rape, according to a report in the New York Post. A source told the paper that Cosby has hired a Glendale, California, firm to discredit his many alleged victims' stories.

I’ve been dismissive of Jim Webb’s prospects for winning the Democratic presidential nomination. But Jacob Heilbrunn’s column on Webb, and Steve’s commentary on that column, made me take another look. On second look, I still don’t see Webb getting very far. Will female Democrats favor Webb — currently in his third marriage and the author of what some might consider a sexist novel — over Hillary Clinton? Not likely. Will African-Americans favor Webb — so proud of his Scotch-Irish heritage — over the wife of “our first black president”? Not likely. Will white southern Democrats favor Webb? Arguably. But he’s...

The risk of being raped in Sweden during one’s lifetime is one out of four (if every raped woman is only raped once), which is probably equal to the risk of being raped in countries in war, such as Iraq or Syria. When it comes to rapes, Islamized Sweden is already in a state of war. Sweden does not publish statistics on immigrant crime. If we want to have a hint about who is committing these tens of thousands of rapes and other types of sexual assaults yearly, we can turn to another Scandinavian country, Sweden’s neighbor Norway, the country...

Authorities on the alert to ensure only men attend much-anticipated football match in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabian authorities have intensified security around a stadium in the Red Sea city of Jeddah to ensure no woman could sneak in to watch a football match. ... Saudi Arabia has a very strict policy regarding female attendance at sports matches. Permissions are needed to allow foreign women to watch the matches in which their home teams play.