Free Republic

The number of trans-identifying students is rising exponentially, leading to majorities in the student bodies of the most progressive schools. This rise is without any historical precedent. It is proof of social contagion, not of a preexisting biological reality.It has been almost 90 days since Gay Pride month. According to the Los Angeles Unified School District, that is too long a hiatus from the imperative of immersing young children in the arcana of gay and trans identity. So throughout the week of October 9, many elementary school classrooms in Los Angeles will celebrate “National Coming Out Day,” which falls on...

The first Ayn Rand novel since the iconic "Atlas Shrugged" was published in 1957 will be released in hardcover and paperback on July 7, the New American Library, which is associated with Penguin Random House, announced Thursday. Rand wrote the book, "Ideal" as a novel at first, but shelved the manuscript when she was not satisfied with it, and later rewrote it as a stage play. The play itself didn’t have its New York premiere until 2010, reports The Wall Street Journal.

A study has found that men always want to be with women in their mid-20s The magic number for men of all ages was around 24 or 25-years-old Evolution and Human Behavior journal found women were more realistic They prefer to be with men who are around two or three years older Ask a man in his 50s about his ideal woman, and chances are she would be half his age. And if a 20-year-old described his dream date, he’d probably choose someone a little bit older. For, according to a study, no matter how old a man is he...

"So, you know, I think that, have we achieved everything that some might have imagined us achieving in the best of scenarios? Probably not. You know, there's a human enterprise, and you know, you fall short of the ideal," said Obama. The president went on to say that America has achieved some measure of success in Afghanistan, however. "Did we achieve our central goal? And have we been able, I think, to shape a strong relationship with a responsible Afghan government that is willing to cooperate with us to make sure that it is not a launching pad for future...

Peshawar — In Pakistan, where many seek government benefits for any physical disability, there is an entire family of blind people living in Peshawar without receiving any benefits from the government. These blind family members should be recognized as ideal examples of Pakistani citizenship. Qari Asad Ullah — one of the elder brothers of the remarkable family — works as Hafiz QURAN in a private school in Peshawar, where he earns 2500 rupees (27 dollars) per month and also another 2500 rupees teaching QURAN to students later in the day. His family expenses are about 54 dollars monthly but their...

Washington acknowledges in US TV interview that Teheran with nuclear weapons is a "real problem," but US still "open to diplomatic solution." US President Barack Obama acknowledged that Teheran posessing a nuclear weapon would present a "real problem," in a Monday interview with American news station CNBC cited by Reuters. However, the Amerian president stated that he did not think military action by Israel or the United States was the "ideal way" the threat posed by the Islamic regime's nuclear proliferation effort. "We continue to be open to diplomatic solutions to resolve this," Obama told CNBC. "We don't think that...

While reading the following news story: http://uk.reuters.com/article/motoringAutoNews/idUKTRE5406CF20090501 ---------------- I was reminded two very important quotes from John Adams about the American Revolution: * As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 - 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington. o Letter to Thomas Jefferson (1815-08-24),...

Did you know that John Edwards is the son of mill worker? Did you? Edwards's toothy display of hopeful vacuities at the Democratic National Convention moved socialist economist Max Sawicky to lament yet "another paean to the self-made man." The American Prospect's Matthew Yglesias pushed the anti-bootstrapping point even harder, trumpeting on his blog "the insight that equality of opportunity and the cult of the self-made man is an utter fraud both empirically and morally. Meritocracy is an appalling ideal. Being born with the inclination and ability to become financially successful is no more morally praiseworthy than being born with...

Futurism was an international art movement founded in Italy in 1909. It was (and is) a refreshing contrast to the weepy sentimentalism of Romanticism. The Futurists loved speed, noise, machines, pollution, and cities; they embraced the exciting new world that was then upon them rather than hypocritically enjoying the modern world?s comforts while loudly denouncing the forces that made them possible. Fearing and attacking technology has become almost second nature to many people today; the Futurist manifestos show us an alternative philosophy. Too bad they were all Fascists. TO THE YOUNG ARTISTS OF ITALY! The cry of rebellion which...

Meaningful Art in a Meaningful Universe: the Fallacies of Abstractionist Ideology by Frederick Turner HUMAN BEINGS TAKE A NATURAL DELIGHT IN FORM and pattern. Our eyes and visual cortex are designed to pick out shapes and hints of half-hidden presences, and to recognize the colors, textures, and fine details of natural objects. These are the necessary skills of a hunter-gatherer species, adapted to follow the obscure tracks of fleeing prey, to resolve the outline of a camouflaged animal in hiding, to remember and find again a nutritious berry, root, or herb. Nature rewards the exercise of such skills, which...

Scientists reveal ideal European nose size Swiss scientists have worked out the ideal dimensions for a European nose. They say at the age of 30, the average European man's nose is 5.8cm long, and sticks out 2.6cm from the face. For a woman of the same age, the average length is 5.1cm with 2.2cm sticking out. In the first research of its kind, scientists and doctors have put together growth charts showing normal nose sizes for every age group from newborn to 97. The aim of the research, reported in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, is to help doctors...

<p>Seattle Slew, the horse that won the Triple Crown in 1977, has died. So have the political ideas that were as dominant as he was 25 years ago.</p> <p>Caught up in today's political battles, we forget how much the world has changed since then. Jimmy Carter was president. Tip O'Neill, whose political life began during F.D.R.'s New Deal, was speaker of the House. Despite Nixon's usurpation, everyone knew that Democratic control of the American government was permanent — as was communist domination of half the world.</p>