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Connecticut parents claimed a school district is indoctrinating elementary school students about transgenderism, including with a book for kindergarteners.Officials of the West Hartford Public Schools told parents that they could not opt out from the materials, according to a release from advocacy group Parents Defending Education. The reading list for kindergarteners included the book “Introducing Teddy,” according to a lesson sheet shared with The Daily Caller News Foundation.“One sunny day, Errol finds that Thomas is sad, even when they are playing in their favorite ways. Errol can’t figure out why, until Thomas finally tells Errol what the teddy has been...

On Nov. 5, the Times Free Press published a front-page story about the arrests of 32 men charged with gun and drug crimes after a four-year local and federal investigation. Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd called the suspects the "worst of the worst" in Chattanooga's criminals. We heard no reaction from readers. Not a peep. On Nov. 17, the newspaper published a second front-page story about the suspects and their criminal histories. This time, we were barraged with feedback. Some of the words used to describe the report: irresponsible, distasteful, racist. The difference? The second story included the mugshots of...

Sarah Palin is, and always has been, an intellectual and political featherweight. As a moose-killing Barbie doll, she was exactly what the Republican Party in Alaska wanted for a mouthpiece. She was adored by the Republican masses in Alaska (she carried a gun and favored secession, the only qualifications needed). That worked well for Alaska. It enhanced the image of Alaska to have someone in frilly blouses, rather than plaid wool shirts, to front for their oil industry. Good for Alaska. Then something weird happened. The Republican Party nominated the oldest person ever put forth by a major political party...

"What (Palin) had, more than anything else, was a toughness and a dedication to her position. She blew all that with her announcement today." One of the things that Palin had going for her was that she was, as Cindy McCain described her during the Republican National Convention, a "hockey-mommin' ... basketball shootin' ... moose huntin' ... fly-fishin' ... pistol-packing ... mother of five." She had been nicknamed "Sarah Barracuda," and took on the "good ole' boys" who controlled Alaska politics. However, to all but her most loyal supporters, today's bizarre press conference made her look brittle -- like a...

She might have sent John McCain’s White House ambitions up in smoke but Sarah Palin is relishing her new role as a conservative sex symbol and her hubby Todd doesn't like it one bit according to Alaskan associates. Yes, Sarah Palin has become that hockey mum next door that the guy's down at the local ................

Shut Me Up If you shut me up If you shut me up I promise to stop If you shut me up If you shut me up I promise to stop I've been running cold Keith is a kicking gonna throw up real hard If you shut me up If you shut me up I promise to stop I make a grown man cry Spread out the oil, the heroin I walk smooth, ride in a mean, limousine machine Shut me up If you shut me up Kick on the fillibrator give it all you got, you got, you got...

THIRTEEN years ago, Vice President Dan Quayle attacked the TV sitcom “Murphy Brown” for the title character’s bearing a child out of wedlock, claiming the show’s failure to defend traditional family values was encouraging America’s youth to abandon marriage. His speech kicked off more than a decade of outcries against the “collapse of the family.” Today, such attacks have given way to a kinder, gentler campaign to promote marriage, with billboards declaring that “Marriage Works” and books making “the case for marriage.” These campaigns share the idea that people are willfully refusing to recognize the value of traditional families, and...

This stain on America's honor warranted accountability much higher on the Pentagon's chain of command L ooking tired, puffy and somewhat bewildered, Pfc. Lynndie England took center stage this week as the face of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. If only she really were. The true face of this national disgrace has found refuge in much higher places, safely beyond the spotlight's glare. Thus the role goes to 22-year-old England, the star of so many of those putrid pictures that began flooding the world one year ago. We all saw the grinning England, posing with hooded prisoners in a pyramid,...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Defense Department is considering major changes to the military tribunals that the Bush administration established to prosecute foreign terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions. Citing military and administration officials, the newspaper said the proposed changes were detailed in a more than 200-page draft manual for the tribunals that has been circulating among Pentagon lawyers. However, there are reservations about effecting the changes because of the opposition of Vice President Dick Cheney, the newspaper said. The changes, in the wake of widespread criticism from the federal courts,...

Iraq violence will get worse, says CIA chief By David Rennie in Washington and Robin Gedye (Filed: 08/12/2004) The CIA's station chief in Baghdad has sent a bleak cable to Washington, giving warning that the situation in Iraq is getting worse and may not improve any time soon. The senior undercover operative, whose 300-man post represents the largest CIA presence abroad since the Vietnam War, offered his blunt assessment that the political, economic and security situation in Iraq was deteriorating and was likely to get worse in coming months, with more violence and clashes between ethnic and religious groups, the...

URBANA--A resolution to retire Chief Illiniwek, the mascot that for years has divided the University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus, was withdrawn from the board of trustees' agenda Thursday. Frances G. Carroll, the trustee who introduced the motion earlier this week to retire the American Indian mascot, said she was withdrawing it because other trustees were upset at the short notice. Carroll said she would reintroduce the resolution for a vote at the board's July 2004 meeting. Carroll's resolution called for retiring the chief and the American Indian-head image that adorns banners, sweat shirts and other merchandise advertising the school. The...