Free Republic

With schools under increasing pressure to improve test scores, Mount Diablo High School has resorted to a new way to motivate students: by race. The Concord campus on Friday held separate assemblies for students of different ethnicities to talk about last year's test results and the upcoming slew of state exams this spring. Jazz music and pictures of Martin Luther King greeted African-American students, whereas Filipino, Asian and Pacific Islander students saw flags of their foreign homelands on the walls. Latinos and white students each attended their own events, too, complete with statistics showing results for all ethnicities and grade...

State’s attorney general says there’s no reason to deny them recognition. PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch says his state should recognize the gay marriages of state employees performed in Massachusetts. A letter dated yesterday from Lynch says Rhode Island prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and also extends benefits such as health insurance to domestic partners of state employees. And because there’s no Rhode Island law banning gay marriage — Lynch says there’s no reason to deny recognition of same-sex unions performed in Massachusetts. Massachusetts is the only state where gay marriage is legal.

He looks like a good cop. He's got the 'stache, the short-cropped hair, the pushed-out chest and the shiny badge. He sounds like a good cop too; drawled and official. He's got a TV reporter's microphone in his face and a brick of marijuana in his hand, and he's answering questions—not in the "I just accidentally Tasered an old lady" kind of way, but with a grin of accomplishment. The total bust was in the neighborhood of 275 pounds. This is the old Barry Cooper. Top cop. Total prick. He claims more than 300 felony drug arrests during his eight...

IN A move widely seen to be bowing to Muslim pressure, Bolton Council has scrapped its Holocaust Memorial Day event. The council is to replace it with a Genocide Memorial Day in June. This is in line with the policy of the Muslim Council of Britain, which continues to boycott HMD and is asking for a Genocide Day, which will also mark "the ongoing genocide and human rights abuses of Palestinians" by Israelis. The council decision was made in consultation with the town's Interfaith Council. But Rabbi Joseph Lever of United Synagogue who has participated in the Bolton event for...

Pop star Moby, known for his political statements as well as his music, says he'd do everything he could to make his future child homosexual should the singer ever have a family. He's also blasting conservatives Tom DeLay, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich as "amoral/immoral" right wingers. In an interview with Planet Out, a publication geared toward homosexuals, the musician, who is not "gay," was lamenting so-called homophobia in society when he suggested his future child should be raised to be a homosexual. "As a matter of fact, I was talking to my friend Laura, who sings on...

MARSEILLES, France, June 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A documentary promoting euthanasia received the 5th European Broadcasting Union Golden Link Award, at the documentary film festival the Sunny Side of the Doc, in Marseilles last week.EXIT, le droit de mourir (the right to die) was produced using public funds by an association of five European Public Broadcasters. The documentary promotes Switzerland’s liberal approach to assisted suicide, where organizations have set up clinics offering assisted suicide “services”, for a fee, to both Swiss residents and foreigners.The film purports to show “how volunteers accompany sick and handicapped people towards a death of...

A Giant statue by Damien Hirst showing the insides of a pregnant woman and entitled The Virgin Mother was unveiled at the Royal Academy of Arts in London yesterday. The Virgin Mother took 18 months to complete The 35ft bronze sculpture, which dominates the courtyard in front of the gallery, reveals the foetus and the woman's skull, muscles and tissue. The work, weighing 3.5 tons, took a year and a half to make and will form part of the Summer Exhibition, From Life, which starts on June 12. "It will be very interesting to see people's reactions," said Edith Davaney,...

MONTREAL, Quebec, June 12, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Leger Marketing conducted a telephone poll of 1,508 Canadian adults between April 17 and April 23. The poll results, with a margin of error of ±2.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, have found that an alarming 11% of Canadians do not consider pedophilia immoral.The question was in no way slanted.  Respondents were asked: "Do you consider the following behaviour as immoral?" and to "pedophilia" 81% responded 'yes', 11% 'no', and 8% did not know or refused to respond.Pedophilia did, however, rank as most immoral of the items in the poll. ...

Lifeguard on Tiberias beach uses loudspeaker to tell off homosexual couple making out in water ; young man to receive NIS 5,000 in compensation from municipality What is the value of a hug? Quite a lot, if you live in Tiberias. A resident of the northern city, who was making out with his male partner on the beach and was told off in public by a lifeguard with a loudspeaker, will receive a compensation of NIS 5,000 (about USD 1,117) from the municipality and its economic company. At first, the young man filed a lawsuit against the municipality, but the...

Justices Shy Away From Gay Parent's Case May 15 11:36 AM US/Eastern Email this story By GINA HOLLAND Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON The Supreme Court refused Monday to block a gay woman from seeking parental rights to a child she had helped raise with her partner. Justices could have used the case to clarify the rights of gays in child custody disputes stemming from nontraditional families. They declined, without comment, to disturb a ruling of Washington state's highest court that said Sue Ellen Carvin could pursue ties to the girl as a "de facto parent." The girl is now 11....

THE NUTTY PROFESSORS Freshmen required to undergo homosexual indoctrination Mandatory 'diversity seminar' at university where profs 'banned' 'Marketing of Evil' With last week's stunning revelations that the entire faculty of a Midwestern university campus voted without dissent to investigate a Christian librarian for "sexual harassment" simply because he recommended the bestselling book "The Marketing of Evil," many are asking why not a single faculty member stood up for the librarian. The question is especially compelling in light of the decision reported Wednesday that the entire faculty had essentially overstepped their own written policies and had wrongly accused the librarian. The...

Thirty-five years after Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry (D) appeared before a Senate committee to call for an end to the war in Vietnam, he defended that decision yesterday in a speech in his home town and linked it to his current insistence on an early drawdown of troops from Iraq. Kerry, in remarks delivered in Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace, cast dissent in wartime as a patriotic act -- a response to Republican critics who insist that questioning the conduct of the war in Iraq emboldens America's enemies. "I believed then, just as I believe now, that it is profoundly...

Pakistani Kids Rally Over Prophet Cartoons By ZARAR KHANThe Associated PressTuesday, February 28, 2006; 6:56 AM KARACHI, Pakistan -- About 5,000 children chanting "Hang those who insulted the prophet" rallied in Pakistan's largest city on Tuesday in the latest protest in the Islamic nation against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.The children, ages 8 to 12, burned a coffin draped in U.S., Israeli and Danish flags at a traffic intersection in the port city of Karachi as police in riot gear looked on.

KARBALA, Iraq - More than one million Iraqis marched and beat themselves Thursday in blood-soaked processions through this holy city and other Shiite centers around the country to mourn the seventh century death of their revered martyr, Imam Hussein. Swept by a thick yellow sandstorm, mass processions choked Karbala's wide streets as more than 8,000 security forces and additional militiamen prevented terrorist attacks that have rocked Ashoura ceremonies over the past two years, killing more than 230 people. Karbala police chief Brig. Razzaq Abid Ali al-Taei said up to 2 million people either marched in drum banging and flag waving...

West Hollywood -- I am a gift. A prize. After years of difficult repression, men with a secret seek me out as a reward for their good behavior. I make a living having sex with these closeted married men. I'm an "escort," to use the euphemism, which gives me a unique perspective on a potential, and particular, cultural fallout as "Brokeback Mountain" widens out not just to Britain but to every remaining crumb in America's breadbasket. Much has been made about the "turning point" effect Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee's Oscar-jockeying film could force upon Hollywood. The movie is based...

Father imprisoned four girls in flat to 'teach them Islam' By Henry Samuel in Paris (Filed: 07/01/2006) A Moroccan father of four girls who imprisoned his wife and children in their flat "in the name of Islam" received a 10-month suspended sentence and was stripped of his parental rights yesterday. The unidentified 45-year-old was found guilty of breaking French law on compulsory schooling for children over the age of six, which applies to three of the four girls - aged four, 10, 13 and 14. The man, from the town of Romans-sur-Isère in the Drôme region, said he had refused...

Do abortionists wish each other a Merry Christmas? Every year one in three pregnancies worldwide ends in an abortion. A total of 40 million abortions are performed each year, which means that since 1980 one billion children have not been allowed to be born. Contemplating Baby Jesus in the crib one may wonder whether the fact that there are 6.5 billion of us today instead of 7.5 billion is a human achievement or not. Some think it is, some think it is not. But why do those who consider universal legalised abortion to be a sign of progress want to...

A Christmas magic show on British television claiming to recreate miracles – including making a virgin pregnant – has been condemned by Christian groups. "The Magic Of Jesus," broadcast on the independent Channel 4, features illusionists Barry Jones and Stuart McLeod attempting to see if eight New Testament "feats" are possible, reports The Sun newspaper of London. The performers sought to raise a headless corpse from the dead, cure a blind person, feed 5,000 soccer fans with five loaves and two fishes and walk on water, the paper said, but angry Christian leaders said Jones and McLeod are dishonest....

The New Underground Railroad Thousands of women come to New York each year for late-term abortions. A hundred New Yorkers take them in. Haven Coalition volunteer Suzanne in the space where she hosts women who travel to New York for abortions. (Photo credit: Donna Ferrato) It’s 8 p.m. on a Friday, and Adeena is lying on a bed in my apartment, squirming in pain, her pants unzipped to reveal a disturbingly large belly. We’re watching a DVD she chose from the corner Blockbuster: Coach Carter, starring Samuel Jackson and Ashanti. Jackson has just taken a job at a ghetto...