Free Republic

The cases before the Supreme Court regarding same-sex marriage are significant far beyond the issue of whether a small sub-section of less than 3% of Americans deserve governmental benefits available to heterosexual married couples, or even whether traditional marriage will be damaged by same-sex marriage. That this issue has even arisen at all is testimony to the dysfunctions of modernity that have radiated throughout the culture and created numerous social problems.

This OWS experiment is fascinating.  It's like being in a laboratory and watching Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies unfold before our very eyes. Just for those of you keeping score at home, here are some of the very latest dispatches from the OWS frontier. Remember, this is what leftism looks like. From the Depravity File: In Manchester NH, a now-tearful occupier (see photo above) has taken to pimping out teenage girls.  (Union Leader)Occupy Madison can't renew its permit because too many people complained about "inappropriate behavior, such as public masturbation, from street protesters."  (The Daily Cardinal)From the Socialism Doesn't Work...

Californians are bummed out. The Golden State's residents rated their quality of life at its lowest mark in almost 20 years, citing the economic downturn and stagnant personal finances, according to a joint UC Berkeley and Field Poll. "Residents are reconsidering the image of the Golden State and showing more ambivalence toward it," said Jack Citrin, a Berkeley political science professor who co-wrote the report. "The changes going on - socially, culturally, economic - have made people here less Pollyannaish about the reality of life here." The poll, based on a telephone survey of 898 registered voters in February, showed...

ZABUL PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN -- Sitting on the dusty flightline at Forward Op erating Base Lagman in the Afghan hinterlands, what could make better leisure reading than the November issue of Inspire -- the English-language magazine of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula? The lavishly illustrated, 23-page PDF, is a "special issue" devoted to the attempted toner-cartridge bombings via UPS deliveries from Yemen. Besides a page taunting Yemen's president, the issue focuses on how the explosives were prepared, how difficult they are to detect and how economically the plot was accomplished. Of course, none of the bombs mailed to out-of-date addresses...

my epson 500 printer prints leaving blank stripes across the page. this is the 2nd epson 500; the first was replaced because of problems. it's less than a year old, on warranty.

Now, findings from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital shed light on the neural basis of memory defects in Down syndrome and suggest a new strategy for treating the defects with medication. The study, which was conducted in mice, is the first to show that boosting norepinephrine signaling in the brains of mice genetically engineered to mimic Down syndrome improves their cognition. Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter that nerve cells use to communicate...

A measure that would prevent radio and television broadcasters from airing advertising between 6 a.m.-10 p.m. related to erectile dysfunction has popped up again in Congress. Jim Moran, the left-leaning Virginia Democrat who first introduced the Families for ED Advertising Decency Act in Congress in 2005, along with fellow Democrat Robert Brady of Pennsylvania, reintroduced the measure on April 29 with the aim to "prohibit as indecent the broadcasting of any advertisement for a medication for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and for other purposes." The prohibition would apply to all "pioneer and generic drugs that are medications for treatment...

Reporting from Oceanside -- Vanessa Iberri and Kelly Cartier noticed the balding man in the red Datsun pickup as he drove past them into the Blue Jay Campground of Cleveland National Forest. The 12-year-old girls were leaving the campground ahead of Vanessa's mother, heading for a creek-side picnic spot where they all planned to eat lunch. The truck turned around, passed the girls again and disappeared around a bend of the dirt road. The driver, Thomas Francis Edwards, an expert marksman who worked at a shooting range, pulled over and waited. "Hey, girls!" Edwards yelled from the cab when the...

Erectile Dysfunction May Signal A Broken Heart ScienceDaily (May 20, 2008) — Erectile dysfunction is always a matter of the heart, but new research shows that more than romance is at stake. Two new studies of men with type 2 diabetes found that erectile dysfunction (ED) was a powerful early warning sign for serious heart disease, including heart attack and death. One of the studies also showed that cholesterol-lowering medications could cut the risk of heart problems by about one-third--and suggested that Viagra and other compounds in the same drug family might offer similar protection. The research, which was published...

Our view: California's fiscal condition even worse than it appears It wasn't supposed to be like this. By this stage in the Schwarzenegger administration the budget was to be balanced and state spending under control. That the "Governator," whose starring role in epic films was his primary qualification, squandered an epic opportunity for reform can't be denied, but there's plenty of blame to go around. In case you've been enjoying your summer instead of following state politics, here's an update: The state missed the June 30 deadline for passing its $100 billion-plus budget, and all sides ---- the governor and...

Like a column collapsing under the burden of a heavy roof, erectile dysfunction is a classical mechanical engineering problem, says a US urologist. Using mathematical models of penis geometry and hydrostatic pressure, doctors can predict when penises will fail – and in which vagina – he says. The most widely investigated parameter of penile rigidity is intracavernosal pressure (ICP) – the fluid pressure achieved by blood build up in the two expandable "caverns" of the penis. For a healthy man, the erect ICP is between 60 and 90 millimetres of mercury (mmHg), but can drop to just 30 mmHg, in...

SACRAMENTO - Voters are optimistic that the cooperative mood that prevailed at the Capitol this year will continue to lead the state in the right direction, according to a statewide poll. And if it does not, observers said, voters could quickly turn sour. A majority of voters -- 53 percent -- approve of the way that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature are working together, according to the a post-election survey of 2,000 people by the Public Policy Institute of California. A year ago, a mere 14 percent had the same view. And most voters -- 58 percent -- are...

'The Path to 9/11' Annotated: CLIPS, SYNOPSIS, THE CLINTON-9/11 NEXUS, THE CLINTON JACKBOOT annotated by Mia T, 9.10.06 (clips, synopses from Redstate.org) he islamofascist terrorists declared war on America and committed acts of war against America when BILL CLINTON was president of America. But bill clinton IGNORED the declarations and acts of war because he is a coward and because crushing the muslim terrorists didn't comport with his personal goals. This self-absorbed postmodern blight on America thought he could perform his usual deconstructionist sleight of hand, fool the people and define away the threat ("It all depends on what...

WASHINGTON -- The House has voted to divert federal funds covering erectile dysfunction drugs to hurricane relief.

Even as a lad, Alfred Charles Kinsey was not quite what he seemed to be. A perfectionist, he could be hard on himself, both figuratively and literally. Perhaps as a way to punish himself, he inserted objects – ouch! – in his penis, graduating from straws to the handle of a hairbrush. After two years of training as an engineer, Kinsey enrolled in Bowdoin College in Maine as a biology major, the first love of this budding naturalist. Indeed, his high-school yearbook had projected him, in a worthy bit of prophecy, to become "a second Darwin." As a graduate student...

In April 2004, followers of Iraqi Shi‘ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr launched a well-coordinated uprising across southern Iraq. While Western media focused on events in Sadr City, Najaf, and Karbala, violence occurred elsewhere as well. A Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) source forwarded the following after-action report regarding violence in the town of Al-Kut, the capital of the Wassit governorate and home to the Ukrainian contingent.The unclassified report, written by a coalition security contractor, highlights dysfunction between regional coalition offices and the Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters in Baghdad, as well as tension between diplomats and security officers. The summary faulted a British...

In the wake of a heartbreaking defeat, Democrats have made no attempt to reinvigorate their party’s spirit or commitment to its cause, instead choosing to commiserate over their failings with any sympathetic passerby who appears willing to lend an ear. Consider Emory’s Democrats a microcosm of this dysfunction. Offered editorial space in the Wheel, recent contributors chose to rant against the Republicans’ perceived pandemic ignorance, sensationalism and reckless use of the good vs. evil polemic with — yes, indeed — their own brand of ignorance, sensationalism and use of that much-feared good vs. evil polemic. Recent articles cite the Republican...

John "One Position on Iraq" Kerry's 1971 Replay WHY JOHN KERRY IS LETHALLY DANGEROUS FOR AMERICAWHY THE LEFT IS GONNA GET US KILLED   by Mia T, 9.23.04     (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com    KERRY DOESN'T HAVE THE JUDGMENT TO BE PRESIDENT Senator Kerry's contradictions on Iraq are the wrong signal to send to our troops on the ground, to our coalition partners, to the Iraqi people and to the terrorists seeking our destruction. On the eve of Prime Minister Allawi's visit to the United States, Senator Kerry today said that America and the...

BROTHER FACES MURDER CHARGES Police say brothers had rocky relationship Tensions between two middle-aged brothers apparently erupted Monday, leading one to shoot and kill the other at their Gainesville home, police said. Richard Crosby Lyles, 40, a University of Florida senior in the College of Engineering, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his brother, Jesse Linus Lyles, 47, Gainesville police reported. The shooting occurred in front of the brothers' 73-year-old mother, Annie, as the family was preparing to have a spaghetti dinner, police said. Police said there wasn't a clear-cut precursor to the shooting, but alcohol, reports...

<p>The more than 1,000 men and women who lobby Capitol politicians on behalf of thousands of clients don't approach their jobs with high levels of expectations for procedural purity.</p> <p>They know that the California Legislature is more a bazaar than a deliberative body. They know that legislators have ideological biases, often tilt toward their big campaign supporters and are prone to other exterior influences. They expect to see a certain quota of grandstanding. They often watch procedural rules bent, or even violated, in pursuit of certain predetermined ends.</p>