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Is there a "gay gene"? Major new study says no By Dennis Thompson August 29, 2019 / 8:33 PM / HealthDay There's no such thing as a single "gay gene" that drives a person's sexual behavior, concludes the largest genetic study ever conducted on the issue. Instead, a person's attraction to those of the same sex is shaped by a complex mix of genetic and environmental influences, similar to what's seen in most other human traits, researchers report. "This is a natural and normal part of variation in our species," said researcher Ben Neale, director of genetics with the Stanley...

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope St. John the Baptist, Martyr for the Sanctity of Marriage The Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist celebrated on Thursday speaks to a critical issue in our times. Herod both resisted and violated his own conscience; he feared the opinion of the crowd more than that of God, ordering the hideous and unjust murder of John the Baptist. Unfortunately, such acts are commonly committed by some leaders and others who compromise with evil in order to survive and flourish in an evil world. The reason for John’s...

he money is going to pensions and health care.” The comments underscore the persistent fiscal pressure on New Jersey, a high-tax state contending with massive debts to employee pension funds after years of failing to set aside enough to cover the $212 billion of benefits that have been promised.

Back when the world was young, I was taught that four visionaries’ theories shaped modernity: Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein. Of them, only Einstein’s could be subjected to scientific scrutiny. The rest remained hypotheses, resistant to such standard scientific tests as falsifiability, replicability and predictability, but so beautiful in their comprehensiveness that the intelligentsia accepted them for what they were not: settled science. Time has proven unkind to Freud’s and Marx’s theories, but very kind to Darwinism. Why? Shhh. If you dare to ask, you invite ridicule. Because the minute one expresses doubt about Darwin’s basic...

If Juniper Eastwood is feeling particularly motivated on a training day, she’s up at 6 a.m. She eats a banana and plugs in a podcast before taking off on an 11- to 12-mile run. She should stretch, but is often short on time. After a shower and getting dressed, she heads to work as a camp counselor for a youth empowerment program. Eastwood’s routine is similar to that of other college athletes practicing in the offseason. She has to prepare for grueling cross-country practices while balancing work or school. The difference between Eastwood and her teammates on the University of Montana’s cross-country team is the...

Trump supporters say they’re “tired of being called racists.” At a recent rally in Cincinnati, the Atlantic reported, white attendees defended themselves against the charge by citing the “evidence”: They had donated money to help black foster children; they deeply loved their black and mixed-race grandchildren. Shortly after rejecting the “racist” label, however, these same rallygoers made racist remarks to the journalist who interviewed them. Regarding Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who came to the United States as a Somali refugee, one woman offered: “I don’t want her stinkin’ Muslim crap in my country.” Making racist remarks while claiming not to...

President Trump’s statement portrays loyalty to the Jewish homeland as positive and consistent with devotion to America US President Donald Trump never criticized Jews for “dual loyalty.” The president did the opposite: He urged greater Jewish loyalty to Israel. Moreover, the president’s statement urging greater loyalty to Israel and the Jewish people was certainly not antisemitic. Rather, it was the opposite of antisemitic; it was philosemitic. Antisemites depict loyalty to Israel as a negative, and as inconsistent with American interests. By contrast, the president upheld loyalty and caring about Israel as a positive good. The president’s detractors also ignored the...

Former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell said she is hoping for a bull’s-eye hit by Hurricane Dorian on Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s prized Florida resort and so-called Winter White House. “I’m rooting for a direct hit on Mar a Lago!” Campbell, who served as the 19th Canadian prime minister for less than five months in 1993, tweeted on Thursday.

From pick-up games to livestreamed tournaments, China loves basketball in every shape and form. Pass by a public sports complex on any given day and you’re likely to find row upon row of courts at full capacity. Basketball as entertainment is just as, if not more so, prevalent — almost half a billion people watched the NBA’s most recent season through Tencent, the entertainment and tech giant that last month extended its exclusive digital partnership with the NBA for another five years.As China gears up to host the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup from August 31, here’s a look...

Dear FRiends, We need your help to get this FReepathon wrapped up. Prayers up for continuing progress and success. FR is funded solely by contributions made by the liberty loving patriots who love and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. Definitely no government subsidies or tax breaks. No 501c or other IRS non-profit status. This means no commercial ads. No annoying pop-ups. No ad tracking. No mail campaigns. No spam. No third-parties -- not even the IRS -- trying to control what we do or say....

Democrats “have to stir up fear, tears, [and] terror” by “saying that President Trump is a racist” because “they don’t have any substantial platform issues,” said Dr. Alveda King, director of Priests for Life’s Civil Rights for the Unborn project and the niece of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in a Wednesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak. Dr. Alveda King said, “African-American men really turned out for [Donald Trump]. That’s because they were listening, and still are, when he says, ‘We’re going to bring the jobs back. We’re going to get people...

At Pizza Heaven in Upper Darby, the after school rush after only one full day of school has become unbearable. The kids, they say, from Upper Darby High School forced them to close early. Corinne Gountis, of Pizza Heaven said, “It starts off with a group of 10, then 30, and then they’re jumping on tables.” They say so many kids came in on Wednesday, acting up, they requested police outside their shop Thursday. […] Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood says they have to keep the kids safe. But it’s coming at the expense of the safety of the...

A Florida man survived a shark attack this week after falling off his surfboard mid air and landing on a bite happy 6.5-foot shark. Don Walsh was surfing on Tuesday morning at New Smyrna Beach, Florida, when the incident occurred. Walsh, who is a chiropractor in Brevard County, had taken the day off from work and spent several hours that morning surfing.

Why did Lawrence O'Donnell Retract his Trump/Russian Co-Signer Story so Hard? He had just done a Bombshell of a story that Trump had Co-signed with a Russian Oligarch and that Duetsche Bank had the documents to prove it. But now he is doing a crab walk backwards and is doing a Full Mea-Culpa which PMSNBC almost never does. What gives? Well if he was Trolled, I believe he would have done a Partial Mea-Culpa couching it in terms still snide to the President. But he's doing the full crab-walk backwards. A troll just makes up stories and PMSNBC has run...

During a contentious discussion at Monday’s Selectboard meeting, Police Chief Robert Leighton said inadequate police facilities are to blame for the escape of a suspect earlier this month. ... The Northfield station does not have any separate area to hold detainees. There are stations to handcuff suspects to the floor, but Leighton said the department “tries very hard to not treat people we arrest like animals,” adding that police try to allow detainees some mobility to use their right to a phone call or be fingerprinted.

Joe Biden defended the heartfelt war story he told a New Hampshire crowd last week as having gotten its 'essence' correct after an analysis showed it was nearly entirely fabricated, or a combination of unrelated memories. The former vice president brushed aside a Washington Post report showing he got numerous details wrong when he talked about awarding a Navy war hero the Silver Star. 'The assertion I made was there was a young man that I attempted to pin a medal on at the request of the commander and he said "I don’t want it. He died. He died." It...

Ziva surprises Gibbs with a cryptic warning, prompting him to question why she remained underground for years while being presumed dead by family and friends, and what led to her return, on the 17th season premiere of NCIS, Tuesday, September 24th on CBS. View trailer here.

Over the next day, Dorian should continue on a fairly steady northwest course. Forecast models have been consistently projecting that Dorian will make a turn toward the west-northwest on Friday, as it feels the steering effects of a westward extension of the Bermuda high and a weak upper low to its southwest. Models then keep Dorian heading west or west-northwest toward the Southeast U.S. coast, with a landfall in central Florida on Monday the most likely scenario at present.

The Supreme Court will hear a pivotal case in October on sex, gender identity, and discrimination: R.G. and G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As both sides build their cases, numerous influential organizations and individuals have filed amicus (friend of the court) briefs to aid the members of the Supreme Court in their understanding on this topic.One brief in particular stands out. ItÂ’s so powerful, it should not only persuade the Supreme Court but influence people on both sides of the transgender debate, particularly the mainstream media.There Is No Such Thing as Gender Fluidity The...

The United States is the freest, wealthiest, most tolerant society the world has ever known. Even today’s poor live lives undreamed of by royalty less than a century ago. Yet in what seems like a major disconnect from this reality, we have major politicians calling for a transformation of society. Why is this? Well, other than pandering for votes and power, which is a large part of it, there is another more basic and more dangerous process at work. And that is success breeds failure. This is a common and accurate theme in management thinking. Success breeds complacency. Success can...