Free Republic

Archbishop Harry Flynn, the spiritual leader of Twin Cities Catholics, and Bishop Peter Rogness, the head of St. Paul's Lutheran Synod, spent Wednesday afternoon with some of Minnesota's poorest citizens, touring a health-care clinic on St. Paul's west side, chatting with toddlers at a child-care center and serving a meal at Loaves and Fishes. It was a powerful statement by two of the state's most influential clerics, but it also sent a much-needed message at a time when Minnesota is retreating from its neediest citizens. As the Legislature begins grappling with the third state budget deficit in as many years,...

Habitual watchers of "Seinfeld" reruns know that tomorrow is Festivus, the holiday for the "rest of us" created by George Costanza's father for "the airing of grievances." It's in that comic spirit that we offer a holiday grievance of our own: the perception that Christians are victims of religious persecution in America and, more specifically, their warnings of a secular conspiracy to stamp out Christmas. These complaints strike us as melodramatic. For a rising tide of evangelical believers to raise these laments is a bit like the wealthy complaining about high taxes or the Yankees about not winning the World...

WASHINGTON: A new study hints that when women are at the most fertile point in their monthly cycle they tend to have a lower opinion of other women's looks. Bitching: An effective tactic? And that’s not just because of mood swings. The menstrual phase had no effect on how the same women rated the looks of men; Nature quoted Maryanne Fisher of York University in Toronto, Canada, as saying. Fisher asked 57 women and 47 men to look at pictures of female and male faces, and rate their attractiveness on a seven-point scale from 'extremely unattractive' to 'extremely attractive'. Whereas...