Free Republic

Catholics in the U.S., one of the country's largest single Christian groups, hold far more diverse views on abortion rights than the official teaching of their church. While the Catholic Church itself holds that abortion is wrong and should not be legal, 6 in 10 U.S. adult Catholics say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a newly released profile of Catholicism by Pew Research.

The debate between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz on Tuesday night shifted the betting odds 20 points in favor of Oz, according to PredictIt betting market. Before the debate started, Oz was favored to win the Pennsylvania Senate seat by 53/100 cents. After the one-on-one, those odds dramatically changed. Wednesday morning odds showed Oz favored by 64/100 cents, an 11 point swing.

While more than six in 10 registered voters continue to believe the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade, the latest Fox News poll also finds over half favor banning abortions after 15 weeks.

Kamala Harris has sought the counsel of twice-failed presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton on the best way to reverse diving approval ratings while at the same navigating the travails of public life, according to a report Thursday. The vice president has also concluded she would get better treatment in the media if she were white and male like all of her predecessors, telling her allies her current travails are manifestly unfair, according to the piece in the New York Times.

With less than a week to Iowa’s caucus, Donald Trump has convinced enough elected officials, insiders, and lobbyists to prefer him to Sen. Ted Cruz. A field of economics known as “public choice” explains why: Trump threatens their interests less than Cruz. Trump is the candidate of bread and circuses. His rallies feature immense crowds that show up to hear him insult, gloat, boast, growl, bark. Trump is spectacle by design. His campaign operation compares favorably to the French philosophy behind professional wrestling. The wealthy reality TV star rents movie theaters and entertains fans with a combination of ego and...

A number of decades ago at the Ligonier Valley Study Center, we sent out a Thanksgiving card with this simple statement: “The essence of theology is grace; the essence of Christian ethics is gratitude.” In all the debates about our role versus God’s role in sanctification—our growth in holiness—we’d stay on the right track if we’d remember this grace-gratitude dynamic. The more we understand how kind God has been to us and the more we are overcome by His mercy, the more we are inclined to love Him and to serve Him.Yet we can’t get the grace-gratitude dynamic right if...

DECEMBER 20---A three-time U.S. Olympian whose illustrious running career has included a Nike TV commercial, a swimsuit calendar, and ongoing promotional work for Disney has spent the last year doubling as a $600-an-hour call girl, an astounding secret life that she now regretfully calls a “huge mistake.” Beginning last December, Suzy Favor Hamilton, 44, has worked with one of Las Vegas’s premier escort services, booking scores of “dates” in Sin City and other U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston.While Favor Hamilton (seen at right) has used an alias, “Kelly Lundy,” when working as an escort, she inexplicably shared...

Add tech executives to the list of the well-heeled who have fallen out of love with President Obama. Two-thirds of them think his re-election would not be the best thing for their industry, and would prefer to see Mitt Romney in his place. However, three-quarters of them don't think they'll get their wish, according to a survey by the tech-heavy law firm DLA Piper. How the tables have turned. In 2008, close to 60 percent of tech leaders in a similar DLA Piper survey said Obama "would have a more positive impact on technology development and investment" than his opponent,...

Would be first recent nominee to win approval with less than majority public support PRINCETON, NJ -- More Americans want the Senate to vote for rather than against Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court, but the percentage in favor is less than a majority. Support for Kagan's confirmation remains essentially the same as it was before her June confirmation hearings.

After getting frustrated out of the lemons his problems gave him, David Miller made his own corporate lemonade. Due to the frustration of always having to call technical support to solve his own frequent hardware problems, he started taking the initiative to educate himself.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of Likely Voters in Pennsylvania support sending U.S. troops to the border with Mexico to help prevent illegal immigration, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state. Sixteen percent (16%) are opposed to such a move, while 14% are not sure. Nationally, 79% of voters believe the U.S. military should be used on the country's southern border for that purpose. President Obama is sending troops to the Mexican border but says they are there only to prevent Mexican drug violence from spilling into this country. The survey of 500 Likely Voters in Pennsylvania was...

The dynamics of the farm labor population have changed since César Chávez and others began organizing workers in California's fields. In the early 1960s, a guest-worker program that had imported workers from Mexico since the days of World War II was drawing to a close. Those who were left picking crops were largely legal residents or U.S. citizens of Mexican and Filipino descent, along with working-class white and black Americans. “Back then, probably 80 percent were documented, and about 20 percent were undocumented. Today it would be just the reverse,” said Arturo Rodriguez, president of United Farm Workers, the nation's...

Washington, DC -- The second poll in a week finds Republicans voters placing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at the top of their list for potential Republican presidential candidates in 2012. GOP voters say the pro-life running for to John McCain is their top choice for a nominee against Barack Obama's potential re-election bid.

DALLAS - Hillary Rodham Clinton has been waiting to get to Texas to begin her comeback against a surging Barack Obama. She might be more careful about what she wishes for. Clinton has been banking on the state's large Hispanic population — typically about a quarter of the turnout in Democratic primaries — to give her a victory on March 4. But the Democratic Party in President Bush's home state has a complicated, hybrid primary-caucus that might just be better suited for Obama. "I had no idea how bizarre it is," Clinton told reporters this week. "We have grown men...

RENO, Nev. - Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani defended Newt Gingrich, who has admitted having an extramarital affair as he pursued President Clinton's impeachment after the Monica Lewinsky affair. Giuliani, speaking to reporters during a campaign stop late Saturday afternoon in Reno, said the episode shows no one is perfect and the former House speaker can learn from it. "I think the American people realize, and I'm speaking for myself now, we've made a lot of mistakes, and hopefully we've done some good things in our lives and it's probably always been that way," he said. "The American people have...

Democrats in the state Senate on Thursday said California does not need to build new reservoirs as it tries to cope with the expected consequences of global warming. Instead, the state should rely on conservation, underground storage and boosting the height of existing dams. Their plan, outlined in a series bills, runs counter to Republicans' desire for new reservoirs to help California address the changes anticipated from global climate change. It sets up a potential clash in the coming months with Republicans and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who proposed $4.5 billion for two new reservoirs and underground water storage in his...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In his bid for re-election as governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a comfortable lead over Democratic challenger and state Treasurer Phil Angelides among the state's "high propensity" voters, according to a report released on Tuesday. These voters also back two of four general obligation bond measures that lawmakers put on the November 7 ballot that seek billions of dollars in debt issuance for public works. The celebrity governor, a Republican, has the support of 53.6 percent of high-propensity voters, compared with 31.4 percent backing Angelides. Another 11.4 percent of these voters favor other candidates and...

A state appeals court has ruled that a landowner can build his dream home on an oceanfront cliff along the Central Coast despite attempts to block the construction because it would be an eyesore for boaters and surfers. The California Coastal Commission sued Dennis Schneider, trying to stop construction of his 10,000 square foot mansion in San Luis Obispo County. In a unanimous opinion Wednesday, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said there were no grounds to restrict seaside development. "We believe that it is unreasonable to assume that the Legislature has ever sought to protect the occasional boater's views...

There's no helping you. This site is now just a diversion -- like a train wreck. This site is inherently for and about raving egomaniacs, and Jim's site policies -- which amount to excluding reality and actual dialogue in favor of political/militaristic pornography -- is conducive to cognitive dissonance, which at the times your worldview is threatened leads you into psychotic breaks (on the political cognitive plane, that is, and just maybe in other realms too). Not to mention that your baseline politics is based in mythology about American demographics, science, economics, ethics etc. You spoonfeed each other in the...

DOVER, Del. - In a decision hailed by free-speech advocates, the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed a lower court decision requiring an Internet service provider to disclose the identity of an anonymous blogger who targeted a local elected official. In a 34-page opinion, the justices said a Superior Court judge should have required Smyrna town councilman Patrick Cahill to make a stronger case that he and his wife, Julia, had been defamed before ordering Comcast Cable Communications to disclose the identities of four anonymous posters to a blog site operated by Independent Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Delaware State...