Free Republic

Republican Bob Turner won handily over the Democratic candidate in a district that no a Republican has won since 1923. His opponent's vote in favor of same-sex "marriage" in the New York legislature played an important role in the Republican's victory. Every significant GOP candidate for president is pro-life; snip Social conservatives make up a significant percentage of the Tea Party movement snip With 33 Senate seats up for grabs in 2012, the Democrats will have to defend 23 while the Republicans must defend only 10, snip When Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) called on conservatives to declare a "truce"...

The use of language to persuade is a skill much admired since ancient times. Few people become leaders without the ability to move others to agree with their arguments. Rightly understood, rhetoric is only one of the tools of persuasion; the other two, logic and dialectic, are required to truly change peoples’ minds. During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama awed the media and voters alike with his rhetorical skills. He continues to awe as he uses rhetorical manipulation to sell the stimulus package to the American public. Legitimate rhetoric balances the skills of public speaking with sound logic and appeals...

When the data showed a decline in teen pregnancies, teen abortions, and teen sexual activity, the mainstream media barely noticed. Almost nobody heralded that landmark accomplishment which coincided with more widespread abstinence programs in schools and community programs. However, now that the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported a slight increase in teen births, it is making headlines. Let’s get one thing straight at the outset: the increase in teen births was primarily in the 18- to 19- year-old group — in other words, primarily college students who have entered...

The latest issue of The Journal of Communication and Religion (November 2008, Volume 31, Number 2) contains an excellent analysis of the importance of opposite-sex parent relationships. The common sense conclusion is backed up with social science data and affirmed by a peer-reviewed scholarly article: girls need a dad, and boys need a mom. Not surprisingly, the study also found that communication is an essential building block for all family relationships — family interactions are the crucible for attitudes, values, priorities, and worldviews. Beyond the shaping and modeling of these essential personal characteristics, the family shapes an individual’s interpersonal system...

I spent the first 10 years of my life living near my grandparents and my father's four younger brothers. I heard dozens of tales about the escapades of those five Shaw brothers; from the accounts, my dad and his brothers certainly fit the description given of boys by one psychologist who called boys “little aggression machines.” The mischief of my dad and his brothers was tolerated (and often encouraged) by my grandfather, but he also established boundaries and meted out decisive punishment when the boys found ways to sneak around the rules. In the process of taming those troublemakers, while...