Free Republic

ICANN evaluation takes absurdity to new levels This time last year, the applicants for the internet top-level domain .gay were stunned to find that their application to be recognized as a "community" was rejected because they weren't gay enough. After successfully arguing for re-evaluation and waiting nine months for the result, Dot Gay LLC has now been told the self-same application has been rejected again. But this time because it was too gay. In October 2014, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) gave the application from Dot Gay LLC just 10 out of 16 possible points, missing the 14-point threshold for...

LEVENS, France, - Mud run participants might have to start worrying about more than sprained ankles or scraped knees after more than 1,000 people became sick to their stomach after participating in an event last week in France. The regional health agency in southern France said 1,000 of the 8,400 participants involved in the Levens Mud Day on June 20 reported symptoms of acute gastroenteritis. The agency said the stomach ailments -- mostly diarrhea, vomiting and fever -- were caused by norovirus, a highly infectious disease that causes an inflammation of the stomach or intestines. The U.S. Centers for Disease...

J.C. Penney Co. is reporting a bigger-than-expected loss and plummeting sales, as its customers continue to be turned off by a new pricing plan that gets rid of hundreds of sales in favor of every day lower prices. It also withdrew its profit guidance for the year. The department store, based in Plano, Texas, says that it lost $147 million, or 67 cents per share, in the quarter ended July 28. That compares with a profit of 14 million, or 7 cents per share. snip

Homophobia is more pronounced in individuals with an unacknowledged attraction to the same sex and who grew up with authoritarian parents who forbade such desires, a series of psychology studies demonstrates.

Thanks to U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy's ruling (PDF file of preliminary injunction order) that the Endangered Species Act protections must be reinstated for wolves in both Montana and Idaho, be prepared to hear of more reports about large packs of wolves roaming the countryside in neighboring states like the one that was filmed in Oregon.  Even though neither state, Washington or Oregon, were part of the Fish and Wildlife Service's wolf reintroduction program, they are definitely a recipient of the outcome. It was the late "90"s when the first wolves made it to Oregon, now they are beginning...

Maxim brings the hottest female stars to FOXNews.com every Monday. Today, meet 'Bring It On' star Christina Milian. Christina Milian likes to keep her relationships exciting. The “Bring It On” star, 27, says that includes everything from costumes (like the red, robed, maid one she describes as “really cute”) to strip clubs. “I try a little bit of everything,” she says in the new issue of Maxim magazine. “Im all about keeping the excitement in the relationship. That’s why I sing songs like ‘Dip It Low.’ When I’m with somebody, I like to keep it exciting.”

A California school has landed in court over its disciplinary action against a student for using the expression "That's so gay." The case offers a lesson for Wisconsin's school officials: When dealing with teenagers and offensive language, a little common sense goes a long way. In contrast, speech police armed with inflexible policies produce unfair results and dangerous precedents. The case at a Santa Rosa, Calif., high school began when classmates taunted Rebekah Rice about her Mormon upbringing, asking "Do you have 10 moms?" Rebekah criticized the razzing with the phrase: "That's so gay." Her response got her sent to...

Howard Dean Demands GOP Candidates Denounce Ann Coulter for Referring to John Edwards as a 'Faggot' Please read some of the reply posts contained within the above link. We all hear the complaints of how Libs stereotype and exaggerate the belief models of the GOP. Each of the complaints are justified due to the self-serving nature in which they're presented by different individuals imop (i.e. Sharpton, Jackson, Gore, Clintons, Dean etc). Understanding the attention this forum carries and willingness of the MSM to stereotype, it really makes a person wonder "why these posts"? It's well known Coulter is a loose-cannon...

By SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press Writer 44 minutes ago NEW YORK - With a city-issued broom in his hand, Boy George started his court-ordered community service early Monday, sweeping leaves and trash off the sidewalks of New York. It took less than an hour for the former Culture Club frontman to get into a spat with the media. "You think you're better than me?" he yelled. "Go home. Let me do my community service." Boy George took to the streets of Manhattan as a Department of Sanitation worker wearing an orange vest, dark capri pants, shoes without socks, and without...

DePetro pulled off air for slur, #2-2692 By Jessica Heslam Boston Herald Media Reporter Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - Updated: 08:13 PM EST Shock jock wannabe John DePetro has been yanked off the air for two days and ordered to apologize for calling embattled Big Dig chief Matt Amorello a “fag” yesterday on his morning radio show. “This corporation has zero tolerance for racial intolerance. Mr. DePetro has 72 hours to think about it,” said Jason Wolfe, vice president of programming at WRKO (680) and WEEI-AM (850). DePetro referred to Amorello - who is married to a woman - as...

The Backstreet Boys are saying goodbye to the oldest member of their band, according to a statement posted on the group's Web site Saturday. Kevin Richardson, 33, said he was leaving to purse other interests. "It was a very tough decision for me but one that was necessary in order to move on with the next chapter of my life," Richardson said in the statement. The Orlando-based pop band ushered in a new teen-music craze in the late 90's, buoyed by their soulful harmonies, synchronized dance steps, clean-cut good looks and charm. Their three albums sold a total of more...

After his second smash-up in three weeks - and a lot of unanswered questions about an alleged police cover-up - Rep. Patrick Kennedy yesterday declared that he's entering rehab to deal with an addiction to painkillers. This was hardly the congressman's first such incident. And he was in rehab just last Christmas.......the son of Sen. Ted Kennedy, said he doesn't remember anything about the incident, but that he's "deeply concerned." (At least no one died in the back seat.) The congressman crashed the car he was driving at 2:45 a.m. into a Capitol Hill traffic barrier after he narrowly averted...

How to address a bitter, war-torn but still somehow giddy and deeply horny nation. My fellow Americans, we're not as royally screwed as everything Bush has done during his miserable term in office would have you believe.

when I finally saw “Brokeback” I found it nearly perfect. It’s more than a love story; it’s really about loneliness, which is a more universal emotion anyway. Some of us haven’t been in love; some of us don’t believe in love. Everyone’s been lonely. It’s ambiguous enough to argue about endlessly. Heath Ledger’s Ennis del Mar feels like the man in the film — in the one sex scene, he gives rather than receives — and he’s taciturn and bottled-up in the way of men. He talks with his fists, and sometimes he talks too much, but he’s gentle with...

What do the bitter neocon nominee and the amazing Oscar-bound film have in common? There is this theory, more of a truism really, tossed about like a fuzzy beach ball by the gurus and the masters and the mystics since Jesus was but a lint ball of possibility in the Great Belly Button of Time. . . .

CHARLOTTE (AP) — Federal prosecutors have indicted a contractor on charges of conspiracy and tax fraud — and allege he illegally used millions of dollars of his company's money to further a romantic relationship with another builder. David Boone, 51, intends to plead not guilty to charges of conspiracy and tax fraud, said his lawyer, Peter Anderson. "He denies being involved in any conspiracy," Anderson told The Charlotte Observer. "Mr. Boone fully expects to be acquitted at trial and looks forward to his day in court." If convicted, the charges could bring a prison sentence of up to 38 years...

I am a Gay Republican but I almost never chime in on political issues. I believe in small government, which the Bush administration has not been good at, as well as low taxes and the free market. I don't believe in manmade global warming and I think environmental activism is mostly a cover for people who want to make more rules to control our lives. Social issues don't get me very excited and I know I should be more grateful to my gay forefathers for all their sacrifices, but I've never encountered homophobia in my entire life so gay rights...

It has wowed film festivals, won rave reviews and sparked Oscar buzz, but when "Brokeback Mountain," a.k.a. the gay cowboy movie, begins playing to general audiences on Friday, it faces its toughest challenge yet -- wooing mainstream America. Two of Hollywood's hottest leading men, Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, risk alienating fans and sending their stars plummeting if, after watching the pair have sex on screen, audiences cannot see them any other way than gay. Winning over middle America is important for the roughly $12.5 million movie because its backer, art house specialist Focus Features, wants a big box office...

[Hollywood star JOHNNY DEPP is so shocked by the riots raging through France, he's considering abandoning his home in the country.] Depp and Paradis moved to France to bring up their children because he said LA was too violent. Has he become disenchanted after the recent riots and curfews that spread out from Paris? "It's insane that setting cars on fire is the new strike. It takes a lot away. I'm sure it'll clear up to a certain degree, but now we are based back in LA because I have work here. I went there [to France] to live because...

Give me one reason why "judicial extraordinaire" Harriet Miers is qualified to sit on the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court. One.