Free Republic

Ann Coulter fired back at critics who demanded the conservative columnist apologize for comments she made during a speech in which she referred to Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards as a "faggot." "'Faggot isn't offensive to gays; it has nothing to do with gays," Coulter said on "Hannity and Colmes" Monday night. "It's a schoolyard taunt meaning 'wuss,' and unless you're telling me that John Edwards is gay, it was not applied to a gay person."

"MADISON, Wis. -- An Illinois woman is suing her Wisconsin parents for maintaining an icy driveway that she blamed for a fall that broke her ankle two winters ago."

"Slippage." That was by far my favorite word in the letter Andover's West Middle School Principal Denise Holmes e-mailed to parents regarding their children's attire, or lack thereof, at school. Her note was prompted by the outfits a group of girls was wearing on Valentine's Day, with skirts so short that ... well, let Ms. Holmes explain. "This one girl had the cutest pink underwear on," she said. "I shouldn't have known that." Well, no. But she's not the problem. The problem is that all the boys knew it as well. So Holmes sent out a gentle reminder. Very gentle....

A fight erupts among acquaintances, words give way to violence and a bystander is fatally shot amid a crowd of onlookers. For investigators, solving the crime would seem simple enough: question witnesses, identify the gunman and make an arrest. But in this particular case, the killing of a security guard two weeks ago outside a recording studio in Brooklyn, detectives have run into a stubborn wall of silence. Among scores of witnesses, including the rap artist Busta Rhymes and a half-dozen hip-hop celebrities who were present at the filming of a video at the studio, the lack of cooperation has...

Grinchy remark sends kids home in tears By RORY SCHULER Staff Writer Lebanon Daily News LICKDALE — Jamey Schaeffer stretched her mouth open wide, showing off a pair of twin gaps in her smile. With a mouthful of fingers, she said she has no interest in two front teeth for Christmas. Instead, she’d like a Barbie doll from Santa Claus — and Santa Claus only. But a substitute music teacher almost came between the 6-year-old and a Christmas Eve spent dancing cheek to cheek with sugar plums. Theresa Farrisi stood in for Schaeffer’s regular music teacher one day last week....

The scholar who exposed fraud and exploitation in the work of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey is blowing the whistle on the E! cable channel's new "reality" show about Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and his three live-in girlfriends. Judith Reisman, author of "Kinsey: Crime and Consequences" and a soon-to-be-released new title, "Kinsey's Attic: How One Man's Pathology Changed the World," says "Girls Next Door" is Hollywood's latest and boldest attempt to normalize pornography in our culture. The author, who served as a consultant to the U.S. Justice Department on obscenity issues, is angry the network is investing so much time in...

Four Fox network programs, led by the comedies "The War at Home," "The Family Guy" and "American Dad," topped a parents group's annual listing of the worst prime-time shows for family viewing. The Parents Television Council rated two aspirational reality shows, ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and NBC's new "Three Wishes," as the best programs for family viewing. The group's president, L. Brent Bozell, said he was alarmed that the three Fox Sunday night comedies are being marketed as family friendly. "Families should not be deceived," he said. "The top three worst shows all contain crude and raunchy dialogue with...

Ed Dept. eyes chargekids bullied, 1 beaten Students victims of race hate, mom sez  Lisa Brown moved from Oklahoma so that her two sons, Sloan (l.) and J.T. and her daughter Robbie could experience diversity in Brooklyn. City education officials are investigating the claims of a pair of boys from Oklahoma who moved to Brooklyn to experience diversity, and instead say they got schooled in racism and violence. Mom Lisa Brown, 33, told the Daily News she relocated her family from their small Oklahoma town so her husband, a Brooklyn native and social worker, could more easily find work...

How risky is your sex life? MSNBC.com and Zogby International asked online readers to share some intimate details about their personal lives, and more than 56,000 adult men and women — one of the largest responses ever to a sex survey in the United States — revealed that many are playing a pretty risky game. The survey, which was released Monday, found that while a majority of the survey participants consider themselves knowledgeable about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, many are in denial when it comes to sex with someone new. Just 39 percent of people who took the...

I didn't immediately see a topic for the tonight's (9/24/2005) episode of Realtime with Bill Maher on HBO, a show I wouldn't normally watch unless I REALLY feel like getting bent out of shape. Tonight's guests included Chris Hitchens and Georgie "the Arabist" Galloway, and for once, there was some casual, uncensored leeway to have an adult debate (at least on Hitchen's part). Number of times Maher insinuated Hitchens was a drunk: 3. Number of times Maher whipped the crowd into a masturbatory frenzy over the "stupidity" of Bush: 10, maybe 11. Number of times he compared Laura Bush to...

A survey of 1,230 Americans (586 men, 644 women) from all across the country was conducted to determine what elements of new television shows attracted viewers. The results were surprising. In fact, they were #@$% surprising. It seems Americans really like cursing. 43% of respondents said that "bad language" makes a show at least somewhat more appealing and exciting. Conversely only 13% said they were less likely to watch a show because of explicit verbiage. When asked which elements got respondents excited about a new show, the number one answer was Soprano's-type "edginess," chosen by 41%, followed by non-pornographic sexual...

http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20219 Hostage Situation in New Orleans -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just a heads up, armed looters have taken over one of the medical centers in New Orleans where the injured people were being sent. They are holding the entire staff of the hospital hostage and firing at the national guard. An FBI SWAT team has just been flown in (from Baton Rouge I believe) and they are just now getting situated. I'm not sure of any online scanners that are up monitoring the state trs. That is where alot of traffic is going on at. LSP Troop B is requesting immediate backup. Troopers,...

In the newest version of the movie The Bad News Bears, a Little League coach drinks in front of his team and passes out drunk on the practice field. Instead of a bank or supermarket, he gets a strip club to sponsor the squad. And he sleeps with one of his players’ mothers. Ugh! But as bad as the fictional Morris Buttermaker is, sadly, he does reflect what we sometimes see in parents and Little Leagues coaches—like a T-ball coach in Pennsylvania. The league required that every player play at least three innings. Since playing his worst player, an autistic...

A self-described Satanist has posted photos online of himself dancing on President Ronald Reagan's grave, raising the ire of the former chief executive's admirers. Posted on the message board Ruthlessreviews.com (warning: vulgar site), the photos show a thin, white man likely in his 20s wearing an AC/DC T-shirt and having hopped over the fence that protects Reagan's grave. The poster, who goes by "TheFreakKingdom" and claims he's from San Diego, writes with one photo: "Judging from my expression and body language, combined with what little I do remember, this appears to be about the time security guards noticed I had...

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers shoved two cameramen Wednesday, sending one to the hospital in a videotaped tirade that included throwing a camera to the ground and threatening to break more. Rogers, who missed his last start with a broken pinkie he sustained during an outburst earlier this month, erupted at the cameramen as they filmed him walking to the field for pregame stretching before Wednesday night's game against the Los Angeles Angels.

(Neighbor's cats allegedly poisoned in accused's back yard to save birds) Myrtle Maly couldn't stand the thought of the neighbor's cats attacking birds in her back yard. After calling authorities and getting no results, she took matters into her own hands. According to a criminal complaint, the 78-year-old woman admitted killing the neighbor's two cats by dumping D-Con rodent killer into a can of "Special Salmon Dinner" cat food and leaving it in her back yard at 1813 Spaight St. She was charged today with two felony counts of animal mistreatment, each of which carries a possible 3 years in...

Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said the "cop killer" video game, called "25 to Life," had hit an "all-time low" and discouraged the sale and distribution of the title, due out this summer. "25 to Life' makes 'Grand Theft Auto' look like 'Romper Room" Schumer said on Monday in comments e-mailed by a spokeswoman. The blockbuster video game series "Grand Theft Auto" from Take-Two Interactive is frequently criticized for its violence... First of all, if you want people to take you seriously, you need something more effective than a kids show that originally aired in 1953 like...

<p>A fight between two children Saturday night at Chuck E. Cheese in the Atlantic Terminal Mall in Brooklyn turned into a bloody brawl between parents, police said.</p> <p>About 8:30 p.m., two girls started to argue at the theme restaurant, popular for children's birthday parties.</p>

Here's a rich irony: I'm writing today about a new children's book, but I can't describe the plot in a family newspaper without warning you first that it is entirely inappropriate for children. The book is "Rainbow Party," by juvenile fiction author Paul Ruditis. The publisher is Simon Pulse, a kiddie lit division of the esteemed Simon & Schuster. The cover of the book features the title spelled out in fun, Crayola-bright font. Beneath the title is an illustrated array of lipsticks in bold colors. The main characters in the book are high school sophomores -- supposedly typical 14- and...

From Anne Newman of Operation Outcry: Silent No More (www.operationoutcry.org): "Earlier this week [of May 15, 2005], shock jock Elliot Segal of Washington, DC's radio station DC101 decided it would be hilarious to hold a contest with a prize for the listener who had the most abortions. While this contest was disgusting by its very nature, the offense was compounded because he held the competition on public airwaves during early morning hours, when people are driving to work and bringing their children to school. The 'contest' featured at least one potential statutory rape, two medical assaults and a number of...