Free Republic

Of the more than 1,100 Army captains notified last month their military careers would soon end, 87 were deployed worldwide and 48 were serving in Afghanistan at the time, Army officials said Wednesday. The Army has been talking for months about the need to separate the captains as well as more than 500 majors this summer as part of the broad Army drawdown, but it’s the first time details have emerged about the sobering business of delivering pink slips to troops in harm’s way.

In the George W. Bush years, liberals were routinely shocked and awed that the Bush administration would obliterate their sacred wall of separation between church and state. They frowned on federal faith-based initiatives and worried about the bureaucracy being invaded by frightening people with college degrees from Christian schools like Liberty University, Regent University or Catholic University. Government was no place to be spreading a dangerous Christian majoritarianism with a swaggering certitude that wouldn't tolerate opposing views and respect minority opinions. The media presented the Bushies as -- to quote a slur from NBC anchor Brian Williams -- "anti-gay, pro-Jesus...

The phrase “Separation of Church and State” is not in the language of the First Amendment, and the concept was not favored by any influential framer at the time the Bill of Rights was drafted. So how did it become part of the jurisprudence surrounding the First Amendment?As Jim Lindgren, a law professor at Northwestern, explains, the Ku Klux Klan had something to do with it . . . 7. The first mainstream figures to favor separation after the first amendment was adopted were Jefferson supporters in the 1800 election, who were trying to silence Northern clergy critical of the...

'...with his public approval rating plummeting after  the disastrous roll­out of his 'Obamacare' health plan...  now he’s walked smack into the worst marital crisis of his life' Reports in the tabloid National Enquirer (don't laugh- they broke the John Edwards story when the candidate himself dismissed it as 'made-up' and most everybody else thought it too crazy to be true) have President Obama and his beard wife basically separated and no longer sharing the presidential bed these days. With the last straw being his flirting with the blondie Danish PM at Nelson Mandela's wake, 'inside sources' also had her locking him...

**SNIP** Neighbors at the low-rise apartment complex where she lives in tony Mamaroneck, Westchester County, said the glamorous mom moved in a couple of months ago with a teenage daughter. “She’s a nice person. I usually see her in the morning with her teenage daughter,” one neighbor said. At night, she’s often spotted with Sharpton at the Grand Havana Room on Fifth Ave., an uber-exclusive, member’s only cigar bar whose regulars include Alec Baldwin, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump’s kids — Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr. McShaw “always eats” at the bar, a source said, but Sharpton —...

I want some advice as to any FReepers who have gone through a divorce. We have good jobs, good health (I'm a little overweight - 245 lbs and 6'4") and two young kids, 6 and 2. There is just no feeling there anymore, we just resent each other and there is no love or passion. We sleep apart, don't do date night and our social lives, other than family and kid/school/sports activities are apart. I tried to get her to church, she isn't super religious, but spiritual (good person). I live in the suburbs on San Francisco and feel really...

Divorce is an ugly word. For devout Christians and Jews, it’s a particularly unthinkable term. The Bible strictly discourages it, even forbids it, except in the most exceptional circumstances. But for Americans faithful to the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the heritage of sacrifice and liberty that set apart this country from the rest of the world, it’s time to consider separation and divorce from those who have committed adultery. The election of 2012 provides more stark evidence that we are not really one country, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We are already two peoples – those...

Is nothing sacred? One of Hollywood's longest running -- and most admired -- couples has thrown in the towel. Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman, married for 30 years, have separated. DeVito's rep, Stan Rosenfeld, confirmed to FOX411 that the pair, who have three grown children, are going their separate ways.

CATALONIA may be the catalyst for a renewed wave of separatism in the European Union, with Scotland and Flanders not far behind. The great paradox of the European Union, which is built on the concept of shared sovereignty, is that it lowers the stakes for regions to push for independence. While a post-national European Union may be emerging out of the euro zone crisis, with a drive for more fiscal union and more centralized control over national budgets and banks, the crisis has accelerated calls for independence from member countries’ richer regions, angry at having to finance poorer neighbors. Artur...

Sometimes the sweetest blessings in life can be the the bitterest pills to swallow. That's how it is with an aging dog. If both the dog and owner are aged, it becomes a concern when it's time to put the dog to sleep. I thought putting my own dog down was hard. I found out that putting my Mom's beloved Molly to sleep was a hundred times worse.

We live in an increasingly secularized world of massive and pervasive nation states in which traditional religion, especially Christianity, is ruled unwelcome and even a real danger on the basis of a purported history of intolerance and “religious violence.” This is found in most all “public” domains, including the institutions of education, business, government, welfare, transportation, parks and recreation, science, art, foreign affairs, economics, entertainment, and the media. A secularized public square policed by government is viewed as providing a neutral, rational, free, and safe domain that keeps the “irrational” forces of religion from creating conflict and darkness. And we...

"See I have given before you today life and good and death and bad." (From this week's Torah portion, Netzvim, Deuteronomy 30:15) Don't we know that life is good and death is bad? Not really. Our natural will is to stop living and to merely exist. In other words, to stop working and to just be passive; to shed responsibility. To live, we must preserve a state of separation or differentiation. The world was created in a process that separated light from darkness, heaven from earth and land from water. A living organism lives in the same way: it is...

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, have separated, with Shriver moving out of their Brentwood mansion while the two determine the next step in their 25-year marriage. Shriver has been residing apart from the actor-turned-politician for the last few weeks. The former first couple confirmed the separation in a joint statement released Monday after questions were raised by The Times. "This has been a time of great personal and professional transition for each of us," the statement read. "After a great deal of thought, reflection, discussion and prayer, we came to this decision together. At this time,...

Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver have announced they are separating after 25 years of marriage. In a shock announcement the couple, who have four children together, released a joint statement saying they were living apart while they 'worked on the future' of their marriage. Shriver helped bolster Schwarzenegger's campaign eight years ago to become California Governor. She stood by the Terminator actor at the time amid claims he groped a string of women during his movie career. The Los Angeles Times broke the story late on Monday night saying that Shriver is 'moving out of their Brentwood mansion...

In international politics, religion has been the elephant in the room for most of the modern age. And in recent years, it has only grown larger and louder. And in recent years, it has only grown larger and louder. The authors of God Is Back are an exception. They admit that religion is here to stay and seek to find out what it is really all about... In the twentieth century, a worldwide march of the Jacobins' heirs attempted to get rid of God once and for all.... The revolutionaries who founded the American republic respected God without patronizing him....

Since their national debut on the Hannity Show, I have been swamped with patriots wanting to know my opinion of the Black Tea Party. Some are offended by blacks separating themselves. From my understanding, these black patriots are not separating themselves. They are simply hosting tea parties in urban areas. I say, "Right on!" There is a saying, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". In principle, I would prefer not to have a "black" tea party, Republican club, etc. However, there is a catastrophically destructive vicious fire breathing dragon wreaking havoc across America named Obama-zilla. Daily, Obama-zilla is...

The battle over America's Judeo-Christian identity is heating up, and at least one author isn't taking the fight lying down. Two new books from best-selling author Brad O'Leary put the lie to secularist claims that America is not a Christian nation and that Christianity isn't under an intense attack. "God and America's Leaders" is the definitive collection of quotations by our Founding Fathers and past presidents on matters pertaining to God, Jesus Christ and Christianity. This invaluable resource leaves no doubt that America's top leaders were men of faith, and that ultimately, their strong faith in God inspired their faith...

I am not against children having fun or getting candy; however, why isn’t Halloween a violation of the so-called “separation of church and state?” If someone argues that the children in public schools are oblivious to the religious significance (to Christians, Wiccans and Satanists) of Halloween and are just having fun, then why can’t the same be argued for children participating in a Christmas or Easter party? If the names Christmas and Easter had to be changed to winter break and spring break, then why shouldn’t all references to Halloween also be changed to fall festival — or some other...

America was created by our Founding Fathers, a group of strikingly intelligent men. As they wrestled with the leviathan task of penning the documents that would lay the foundation for a sovereign constitutional republic, they used their brilliant minds to write as concisely, as clearly, and as succinctly as they could. Proof of this can be found in the relative brevity of our Constitution. That a document so comparatively short could contain such previously unimaginable gravitas as to guide what would become the greatest, most prosperous nation on the face of Earth for more than two centuries surely proves their...

Who's Hiding Behind Jefferson's "Wall"? Certainly NOT God! Many folks misapply the "wall" quote from Thomas Jefferson. Some seem to suggest that Jefferson favored a situation similar to what we find ourselves in today. Federal judicial tyranny. (Yes, charging "tyranny" sounds provocative today. But I still agree with Tom on that assessment.) Eliminating mentions of God from every level and function of government and in the public square generally is NOT at all what Jefferson was talking about when he made the "wall of separation" comment. While some might be agenda driven, many make the mistaken claims out of simple...