Free Republic

Army and Marine Corps leaders swapped pledges with members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday not to cave to political pressure and relax ground combat skill requirements so that more women will qualify to serve in infantry, armor and special forces units. Certainty that such pressure will come, and the need to resist to protect combat effectiveness, was expressed both by senators and witnesses during the first congressional hearing held to review how Army and Marine Corps plan to open all ground combat jobs to women. No senator on the committee suggested Congress should block the Dec. 3...

For years, religious conservatives argued against same-sex marriage by saying that it would put society on the slippery slope to (horrors!) polygamy. Now comes the New York Times‘ Ross Douthat, a day late and a dollar short. In yesterday’s column, Douthat seizes upon a new Gallup study that shows a broad shift to the left in Americans’ social values during the present century. The exception, he says, is on abortion, but actually it’s not an exception; the pro-choice position has gained some ground. The exception is adultery — where the old-time disapproval is holding firm at over 90 percent. You’d...

There is a frog in Central American swamps who, during the mating season, gathers by the thousands with his male rivals at night in a particular shallow jungle resevoir to croak to any listening females the (ala The Jimmy Castor Bunch) desperate , "Gotta have a woman! gotta have a woman!" and if a lady amphibian even gets close, "Sock it to me, sock it to me! et cetera!" Flying above in the inky night as the frogs try to get it on below is a carnivorous bat that has his highly developed hydrophone ears tuned in to seperate the...

"The Netherlands and Belgium were the first countries to give full marriage rights to homosexuals. In the United States some politicians propose “civil unions” that give homosexual couples the full benefits and responsibilities of marriage. These civil unions differ from marriage only in name. Meanwhile in the Netherlands polygamy has been legalised in all but name. Last Friday the first civil was registered. Victor de Bruijn (46) from Roosendaal “married” both Bianca (31) and Mirjam (35) in a ceremony before a notary who duly registered their civil union. “I love both Bianca and Mirjam, so I am marrying them both,”...

To read the letters and e-mails to this newspaper in response to a few opinion columns by Jeff Gannon, you would think he represents a grave threat to the achievement of equality for gay Americans. In fact, many of his loudest critics represent a much more serious obstacle to the success of the gay rights movement. Gannon, of course, made headlines earlier this year after a softball question he asked President Bush at a press briefing led members of the White House press corps to do some digging into his background. They discovered that Gannon's legal name was Jim Guckert...

JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi voters will decide in November whether to amend the state constitution to include a ban on same-sex marriages. The amendment also would prohibit the state from recognizing gay unions performed in other states. Mississippi has banned same-sex marriages by law since 1997. Supporters of a constitutional amendment say it would protect the law if there are court challenges. With little discussion, the state Senate this week gave final approval to putting a proposed amendment on the Nov. 2 general election ballot, when people also will vote for president, members of Congress and some judges. Georgia legislators...