Free Republic

I use the word “courtesans” advisedly. The numerous young women whom Harvey Weinstein allegedly bedded are generally painted as unfortunate and unwilling victims of a sexual predator, but this is hardly the case. These women were over the age of consent. They were not mentally incapacitated. The man they decided to sleep with was not their a professor in their college course, nor a priest in their parish church, nor a judge before whom they appeared in court. They were free agents, and he was a man who was in a position to provide something that they earnestly desired. Mr....

This week President Trump made some administrative revisions to the Affordable Care Act health insurance program. Using latitude granted to the president in the original legislation, Trump issued an executive action that allows individuals more choices in how to insure themselves. This expansion of choice was denounced by key Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) called Trump's move "a stab in the back. Allowing people more choices is the exact opposite of what is needed if the changes made by Obamacare are to be made permanent. People will choose selfishly. They will only buy coverage they think they need....

We're living through a time when there seems to be something new and alarming in the news every day. Our media cycle is dominated by the dramatic, and one consequence of this is that alarming events can unfold on the state and local level going unnoticed despite their ultimately national consequences. One such example is before Oregon's state legislature. First introduced in January, an alarming bill, SB 494, would radically change the meaning of healthcare in that state, with the potential for national ripple effects. SB 494 would put countless medically vulnerable persons at risk of a premature and untimely...

Michigan charter schools are among the most regulated schools in the country, according to the Michigan Association of Public School Academies. Here are 13 rules and laws the association says charter schools in this state must follow: Michigan law requires a charter school to be closed if it is in the bottom 5 percent of state public schools in academic achievement three years in a row. Charter school authorizers hold charter schools accountable to the requirements spelled out in a legally binding contract. The contract covers expectations and goals for the school. Charter schools can limit enrollment based only on...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has made some pretty outrageous statements about abortion in the past. During a recent CNN Town Hall event, Pelosi stuck her foot in her mouth again when she told a young woman who was adopted that her mother should have had the “choice” to abort her. “I am part of the pro-life generation,” college student Brianna Kristyn Roberts told Pelosi. “I believe that abortion is not the answer for unplanned pregnancy.

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- A White House official says President Donald Trump could announce his pick for the Supreme Court as early as Monday.</p> <p>Trump originally said the announcement would come on Thursday, but the official says the timeframe could be sped up.</p>

At the time of the Roe v. Wade decision, I was a college student — an anti-war, mother-earth, feminist, hippie college student. That particular January I was taking a semester off, living in the D.C. area and volunteering at the feminist “underground newspaper” Off Our Backs. As you’d guess, I was strongly in favor of legalizing abortion. The bumper sticker on my car read, “Don’t labor under a misconception; legalize abortion.” The first issue of Off Our Backs after the Roe decision included one of my movie reviews, and also an essay by another member of the collective criticizing the...

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee expressed doubts about the fitness of President-Elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. "I appreciate that Ms. DeVos took the time to meet with me, I can't say that I would have done the same had our roles been reversed," Murray declared. "At our meeting she did nothing to allay my fears that she would continue to be an advocate for school choice. This pernicious ideology is founded on the absurd premise that individual parents ought to have the biggest say in...

I have been watching OANN as a cord cutter for three weeks and its positive attitude and its willingness to air news even Fox won't air has convinced me that cord cutters need help (I know I do) locating quality, non-cable sources of programming. I plan on a separate vanity about One America News Network, but I think cord cutting is a concept that needs to reach a tipping point. Thoughts?

The Blaze founder Glenn Beck took to his Facebook page last Saturday to urge his followers to abandon support of Republican nominee Donald Trump, declaring that if such an action results in the election of Hillary Clinton, “so be it” because “[a]t least it is a moral, ethical choice.” Beck’s latest missive was in response to the release of an 11-year-old hot-mic tape of Trump saying lewd things about women.

The Left hates Donald Trump, but nothing has inspired more invective than his outreach to the black community. It’s like he has barged into an exclusive club wearing the wrong color shoes. In a recent column in The New York Times, Charles Blow sounds positively unhinged by Trump’s overture to African-Americans, writing a hate-filled screed that calls the GOP candidate a bigot, a reprobate, and a charlatan whose soul is “dark” and who is “a prime example of the worst of humanity.” And that’s just in the opening paragraphs. Related: Clinton’s Email Mess Hands a Lifeline to the Floundering Trump...

French media mocked President François Hollande on Tuesday after he described sexual orientation as “a choice”, in his reaction to the Orlando gay nightclub massacre, comments that had provoked outrage on social media. In Orlando, “it is America that has been hit but it is also freedom, the freedom to choose one’s sexual orientation and to determine one’s style of life”, Hollande said in condemning “the appalling homophobic killing in Orlando.” Hollande was speaking as he left the US embassy in Paris on Monday, where he had expressed France's condolences over the massacre in Orlando at the weekend that left...

Overshadowed by important debates and competing proposals about the future of education in Detroit, a longshot legislative proposal to give special-needs students access to more opportunities has exposed the priorities of school choice foes. House Joint Resolution B by Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw, would place a constitutional amendment before Michigan voters to allow families of special-needs students to use public funds to support their child even if they enroll in a private school. A favorable vote from two-thirds of House members would be needed to place the idea before voters on the ballot. An onerous provision in Michigan’s state constitution...

Last fall, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley took the helm of a group to recommend reforms to Michigan’s special education system. For affected Michigan families looking for something better, one particular solution, unfortunately, lies out of immediate reach. The special education task force, primarily comprised of educators and policymakers, is working to address problems Calley identified after a 2015 town hall listening tour throughout the state. The desire to improve services reflects in part the scale of the challenge. More than one in eight students served in Michigan public schools received special education services during the 2014-15 school year, according to...

The Free Republic Dance When we were children We did as we were told They say it’s wrong to play to win It get’s worse as you get old Try to force you to conform To do things their way Break down your inner Republic Even tell you how to play But deep inside you were so sad No joy was in your life And when you tried to be yourself Their words cut like a knife Eventually you start to see You have to take a chance Be who your are Do what you do And do the Free...

There's been a lot of talk in this election about strategic voting -- voting for someone you don't really support to block someone else you support even less. That's not our advice to our readers in this very important election. We urge you to vote for the leader and party you believe is best qualified to lead Canada. On that basis, we endorse Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. Harper successfully led Canada through the worst recession since the Great Depression, emerging in better shape than almost any other developed country. Since then, he has successfully balanced the federal...

In animal husbandry, the word "cull" means to remove undesirable animals from the herd — the scrawny and the sickly. To hear the word applied to human beings is harsh, but that's just how Valerie Hudson, professor in the Department of International Affairs at Texas A&M University, means it when talking about the growing worldwide trend of families — largely in Asia, Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and some parts of Africa — to have sons rather than daughters. "This is a very troubling turn, that in the 21st century the culling of females is once again becoming more prevalent...

Answer the following questions to see how your beliefs match each political party.

 Vicious Fetuses Form Group Terror Hack Against Defenseless Pro-Choicers  Fanatical anti-abortion scientists used the latest in direct mind-controlled, brain-to-brain communication to link 100,000s of dirty little vermin, white-trash, N-Word and Illegal Immigrant fetuses, then trained them to attack innocent pro-choice defenders and guarantors of a woman's sacred right to choose. Fanatical fetal cohorts operating under the handle iFetus, coordinated hack attacks against heroic Planned Parenthood and NARAL defenders, using collective psi-power under the direction of anti-choice criminals David Daleiden and Lila Rose. Our sincere and idealistic pro-choice patriots had no choice but to counter-attack against the vicious fetal forces, only...

"Leadership is not a talent or a gift. It's a choice. It's not complex, but it's very hard." General Stanley McChrystal explains to a packed auditorium of 600 at Stanford Graduate School of Business. McChrystal shares his perspective on leadership and influence discussing the importance of understanding culture, leading by example, building trust, and creating a common goal within a team. McChrystal is a four-star general and former commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan. He also served as the former leader of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).