Free Republic

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - A 22-year-old B.C. woman is suing her ex-boyfriend to pay tuition for a class she says she failed due to distress over the breakup. Roopam Plawn, a marketing student at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, says in her notice of claim that she is seeking $500 for the class, $600 for anxiety, depression, insomnia and loss of working time and performance and $250 for "severe distress." She also wants Jasmeet Ahluwalia to pay court costs. Plawn says in the court document that she met the international student in September 2013, they broke up in early 2014, got...

US President Barack Obama released a statement Tuesday, conveying the "warmest wishes" to Israel on its 66th Independence Day. Obama acknowledged the Jews' millennia-long struggle to return to their ancient homeland and their success in achieving that dream in 1948. "Generations of Jews dreamed of the day when the Jewish people would have their own state in their historic homeland, and 66 years ago today that dream came true," he stated. "Today, Israel thrives as a diverse and vibrant democracy and as a 'start-up nation' that celebrates entrepreneurship and innovation." He stated that the Israel-US relationship is "based on shared...

Incredible is the word for the news that the Obama administration has warned Britain against betting on American backing if it withdraws from the European Union. In all of President Obama’s leftism, there is little so myopic as this. Yet that’s the news that broke over the weekend, and on Memorial Day, no less. It’s a day on which we remember the fallen in our wars. It’s hard think of any country that has stood faster with us — and vice versa — than Great Britain. So if the British people were to decide, democratically, that their best interests lie...

The most accurate crime statistics are on murders. When proponents of infringements on the Second Amendment talk about murders, they often claim that murders by strangers are only a small percentage of the total, often about one quarter. This statistic is misleading, because it implies that people that you are close to are the most likely to murder you. The largest category of victim to murderer is unknown. That is 44 percent of the murders reported to the FBI. The next largest category is acquaintance. It is 21 percent of murderers. The misleading part is that all people who...

Barbara Walters, ABC News: "What is your biggest peeve of each other?" President Obama: "I don't have one." Walters: "Aww." Michelle Obama: "My list is too long."

The madman who burned an elderly Prospect Heights woman to death had been doing odd jobs for her - but was fired after she caught him stealing, her nephew said today. “He was doing more stealing than cleaning,” said a distraught Rickey Causey, 52, about the man in custody for allegedly setting 64-year-old victim Delores Gillespie on fire Saturday. Causey said the unidentified suspect - who turned himself into cops at Brooklyn’s 32nd transit district early today reeking of gasoline - had left a note on Gillespie’s door with a list of chores he was demanding payment for.

Gov. Rick Perry’s friendly relationship with some Texas Muslims was touted in a recent story on Salon.com. While some other presidential candidates bring up concerns about American Muslims’ loyalty and decry Islamic law in the U.S., here’s a Christian, Republican politician who initiated a teacher-training program on Islamic history and has been friends for years with the Aga Khan, head of an Islamic sect called Ismailis, Salon points out. Perry even laid the first brick at the groundbreaking ceremony for an Ismaili worship center in Plano in 2005. According to Ismaili national spokesman Mahmoud Eboo, the premise of the Salon...

Let’s get this out of the way: the idea that you, a man, should choose a firearm for a woman who’s never had one is sexist and disrespectful. Women are fully capable of making their own decisions. They don’t need you, a man, telling them what gun is best for their home defense. To even think such a thing reveals you as a Neanderthal. Contact your local community college and sign up for some sensitivity training at your earliest opportunity. Now, let’s have a look at the three questions you need to consider before you choose the right gun for...

We all know this guy — or are this guy: in his 30s, affable, attractive, and yet he’s never been in a serious long-term relationship. And as his single status stretches into a third decade, one has to wonder: What’s the deal? Far from being undateable, this guy may simply not be ready to change his independent ways. Or, he may be all too willing to do so — but something’s blocking him. If you feel you may fall into the latter category (or know someone who does), stop worrying about what’s slowing you down and read on to learn...

He's 24, but she is older than his mother. He’s a strict Muslim, she has fervent Kabbalah beliefs. So it was hardly likely to last. Madonna, 52, has split from her lover Brahim Zaibat, a hip-hop dancer, after nine months, the Daily Mail has learned. Last night a close friend of Zaibat’s said sarcastically: ‘Who’s Madonna?’ The friend added: ‘Brahim has been home and he’s a single guy

Corning, N.Y. — A 40-year-old female East High health teacher admitted Wednesday to having an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old male student, which allegedly included a Valentine’s Day tryst in a classroom at the high school. Teri K. Decker, of Geneva Street, Elmira, admitted she engaged in an inappropriate relationship with the boy by sending him sexually explicit text messages. She pleaded guilty to a single count of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, in city court Wednesday morning. Corning police allege the relationship also included kissing and groping on multiple occasions, but there was no evidence the...

Many have been the times I have heard people say that obedience to God is not as important as our relationship with Him. People believe that God knows their heart and that if they have love for God in their hearts then His grace will somehow make up the difference between obedience and disobedience. I have spoken with people who say they have their own relationship with God and that they do not have to attend the assemblies of the saints or seek God's will through His word and live in obedience to that will. The purpose of this lesson...

What exactly is the temperment of Russian men and what sort of spouses do they make?

How a new report on HIV infection in the Big Apple scared a health reporter into getting tested and having a frank discussion with her "boo." By Tomika Anderson My longtime lover and I were driving through Harlem when we passed a billboard that made me want to slam on the brakes and pull the car over. On it were two women -- one black and one Latina -- their pretty, youthful faces in lights. But under their pictures was a statistic that sucker-punched me: 93.4 percent. As in, 93.4 of all new HIV cases among women in NYC occur...

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France plans to propose a new security and economic relationship between Europe and Russia when he meets with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany this month in Deauville, senior French officials said Friday.

Scientists have stumbled across the first example of a photosynthetic organism living inside a vertebrate's cells. The discovery is a surprise because the adaptive immune systems of vertebrates generally destroy foreign biological material. In this case, however, a symbiotic alga seems to be surviving unchallenged — and might be giving its host a solar-powered metabolic boost. Algae cohabit with salamander embryos in their eggs — and inside their cells.T. LEVIN/PHOTOLIBRARY.COM The embryos of the spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) have long been known to enjoy a mutualistic relationship with the single-celled alga Oophila amblystomatis. The salamanders' viridescent eggs are coloured by...

George Clooney was quick to stifle recent rumours that he had split up with Italian girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis. And if these pictures of the couple getting intimate in Hawaii are anything to go by, breaking up could not be further from their minds. Clooney, 48, took time out from filming his new movie The Descendants with a stroll along the harbour with his Sardinian girlfriend.

Snips: Talk of a "special relationship" between Britain and the United States should be dropped, a House of Commons committee said Sunday, adding the Iraq war carried important lessons for Anglo-US ties. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee said Britain should be "more willing to say no" to the United States and warned that London will probably not be able to influence Washington as much in future. It also noted that President Barack Obama's administration was taking a "more pragmatic tone" towards Britain than had been the case for some previous US administrations.

Tampa, Florida - New details are emerging about the case of a Tampa psychologist accused of having sex with his patient. Dr. Daniel R. Lerom is listed in documents as having a long-standing sexual relationship with his Lakeland patient, listed only as "HK" in a lawsuit filed with Hillsborough County Circuit Court. Each time they two had sex, documents say, the doctor would bill her Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance for their "sessions." Text messages show that the 49-year-old doctor told his patient, "My body felt great all over after last night. " "I wish you were here in the...

These suitors aren't interested in a real-life hookup, just the virtual kind!