Free Republic

In the downstairs loo of Richard Dawkins’s house in Oxford there’s a framed award from the Royal Society; to remind visitors, or maybe Richard himself, that here lives a man of some purpose, some gravitas and intellectual clout. ... he holds the Simonyi chair in the public understanding of science at Oxford University. ... He is probably more famous these days for kicking God around than for the hard science of his earlier work (a fact he accepts, with some misgivings); he is our most belligerent and brilliant atheist. Show him a deity — Jehovah, Allah, Sat Guru, whoever —...

Transgender teachers face tough transition While some schools embrace them, others struggle with change 12:00 AM CST on Sunday, November 26, 2006 By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press TUCKERTON, N.J. – For nine years, he was Mr. McBeth, a substitute teacher who kept things moving along in the classroom and filled in ably when the regular teacher was out sick. After her sex change in 2005, Lily McBeth had a hard time being rehired as a substitute teacher for young children but had little trouble re-signing with a high school. And then one September, he was Miss McBeth. The sex-change operation...