Free Republic

A man who helped make famous the songs "YMCA" and "In the Navy" will soon be featured on the television show "America's Most Wanted," after failing to appear in a San Mateo County courtroom for his sentencing in October, according to San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. (snip) Willis was found to be in possession of 3.23 grams of cocaine and a loaded .45-gauge, semi-automatic handgun, according to the district attorney's office... (snip) ...also charged with violating his probation from a 2003 incident in which he was found in possession of 4 grams of cocaine.

In what may be the oldest Thanksgiving Dinner for the homeless in New York City, if not the country, The Salvation Army will be providing a holiday feast for thousands of men, women and children in the Greater New York area at the McBurney YMCA on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24. The centerpiece of the Thanksgiving Dinner program for the hungry and homeless will be held at the McBurney YMCA, located across the street from The Salvation Army's Greater New York Divisional Headquarters, 120 West 14th St., from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. "We are thrilled to be able to partner...

LOS ANGELES A consultant to top state Democratic leaders has admitted that he molested two brothers while working at a Y-M-C-A more than 30 years ago. John Robert Stevens was an adviser to former Governor Gray Davis and Assembly speakers Antonio Villaraigosa (vee-yah-ry-GOH'-sah), Herb Wesson and Fabian Nunez. In April, he testified in a deposition for a lawsuit accusing the Y-M-C-A of Metropolitan Los Angeles of failing to protect the boys from Stevens' abuse. He admitted he fondled and masturbated the brothers, who were then 13 and 10, when he was youth director of the Rio Vista Y-M-C-A in South...

Yes, I know you were drunk. Must've been. Either drunk or on serious meds and/or you just didn't give much of a damn about anything anyway because you're just one of those people, one of those types who comes lurching around the city like a chunk of numbed pain in your big-ass mid-'80s burgundy car with the white top and chrome bumpers -- an old Cadillac? Monte Carlo? -- early last Sunday morning to wreak casual havoc. Is that about right? Do you remember any of it? Here is what I'm guessing: probably not. Let me tell you what happened,...

Arkansas mom gives birth to a whole freakin' baseball team. How deeply should you cringe? Who are you to judge? Who are you to say that the more than slightly creepy 39-year-old woman from Arkansas who just gave birth to her 16th child yes that's right 16 kids and try not to cringe in phantom vaginal pain when you say it, who are you to say Michelle Duggar is not more than a little unhinged and sad and lost? And furthermore, who are you to suggest that her equally troubling husband -- whose name is, of course, Jim Bob...

Apparently, it wasn't just "invade Iraq and Afghanistan in my name." A special report: Scene: White House private residence, night, not long ago. President Bush present in his most favoritest guns 'n' bunnies PJs. Laura asleep, knocked out by a combination of too much Good Housekeeping and excessive hair-spray fumes. Suddenly, a burst of black smoke. A deep, resonant voice speaks: "Psst! George! God here, taking a break from supervising the well-being of eight billion troubled souls along with infinite galaxies of unimaginable vastness to speak with you directly one more time because, well, you're special, aren't you, George? Yes...

Leather, techno, sex & war: more only-in-SF juice to make you proud. Take that, uptight neocons. It was the moment when we walked by a jam-packed S.F. City Hall and realized it was open to host a VIP techno dance party, while immediately outside its gilded doors upward of 50,000 revelers wandered and shimmied and flaunted their costumes and drank nasty Red Bull cocktails in the huge Civic Center plaza for the third annual Love Parade, everyone baring flesh and shaking their groove thangs to any one of 200 world-class (well, some of them) DJs spinning their wares on over...

At last, one scientist BushCo will definitely -- albeit resentfully -- listen to. Sometimes. So now we know. This is what it takes. This is how far the nation has to crumble and this is how many people have to die and this is how many tens of billions it has to cost and this is how far his dirt-low poll numbers have to fall before Bush will finally come out and say he agrees with one of those godforsaken gul-dang book-learned scientist types. You know the ones. Those informed and well-educated data-crunchers he normally despises like a kid hates...

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif., Sept. 13, 2005 – For more than 140 years, the Armed Services YMCA continues to increase quality of life for service members and their families by offering support to communities and families. For director Anita Neu-Fultz and her staff at the Combat Center ASYMCA, that goal is paramount and unwavering as they volunteer to help others year-round. "Many people do not even know the Armed Service YMCA even exists," said Neu-Fultz. "They hear YMCA, and they think of sports programs and hotels and gyms and pools. But not many realize what we actually do here. We are...

Body of Thread. body of thread.

The New York Sun takes on the Air America story today and advances it by leaps and bounds, talking with the president of the non-profit which had its money taken by Air America founder Evan Cohen. It turns out that Cohen didn't just get money for the netlet, but also managed to get plenty for his own pockets as well while sitting on the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club board: Initially, members of the executive committee viewed Mr. Cohen fondly because he had thrown a tremendously successful fund-raising affair for Gloria Wise in Manhattan last year. They recalled being...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...

CD Raises Awareness for Armed Services YMCAAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, June 14, 2005 – Sony BMG Music Entertainment company today, Flag Day, released a CD entitled Patriotic Country 2, which features 17 patriotic songs from well-known country music artists. The CD will raise awareness and money for the Armed Services YMCA, a leading private provider of social and support services for military families. Patriotic Country 2 is a compilation of popular, wholesome, contemporary country music hits that express pride in America, according to a fact sheet from the music company. It is the follow up to last year's...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

The Royal Navy has turned to Stonewall, the gay lobby group, for advice on how to recruit and retain homosexual sailors. Senior officers want to encourage more gay and lesbian sailors, estimated at 2,100, to “come out”, paving the way for the first openly gay admiral. The partnership, to be announced tomorrow, will provide the template for a wider change in the culture of the armed forces. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, said: “We hope that the RAF and the army will be following shortly.” Vice-Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent, Second Sea Lord, said he looked forward to working with...

What happens when habitual warmongering and BushCo lies become part of our daily diet? And then you read the appalling little story about how BushCo is now "taking steps" to further the investigation into why their original intelligence on Iraq was so painfully, treasonously, colon-clenchingly wrong, why they thought Saddam had giant Costco-sized warehouses stacked to the rafters with snarling nukes and nasty biotoxins and active warheads when, in fact, he had nothing but a couple Dumpsters full of rusty 20-year-old shell casings and a bucket of stale glue.

We kill millions of pets every year Who cares if a few get posh shelters and humane laws? OK. So I tend to think people who insist on calling themselves pet "guardians" instead of "owners" are exasperating and a bit wrongheaded, and that such uber-PC thinking does almost nothing to change or improve the behavior of the thousands of animal abusers in this country. And I tend to agree with fabulous dog writer Jon Katz that such semantic sidestepping does more harm to the animals than good, and leads to naive treatment, lack of decent training and an outright ignorance...

A new year, a Bush-gutted, storm-ravaged world and you in need of some juicy, heartfelt pledges -- This is the year. No, really. This is the it. This is the year you resolve to let it all hang out and lick the fingertips of the divine and stop holding back and stop quivering with unchecked anticipation/dread as you realize that, if you care a whit for self-definition and spiritual nuance and hot wet intelligence and deep karmic color in this tsunami-hammered, Bush-ravaged world, you are desperately needed right now. It's true. Alas, many are dejected. Many of the blue or...

YMCA Chief Fired for Transgender Ball Flap Dec 24, 10:00 AM (ET) CHICAGO (AP) - A YMCA director has been fired and overnight facility rentals banned after the parents of young children arriving for a morning swim meet clashed with participants in an overnight transgender fashion show and ball. Greg Weider, who had been acting director of the New City YMCA for two years, was fired Wednesday. Programming manager Michael Horton, who oversaw scheduling at the center, resigned two days earlier. "We've taken very swift, decisive action, and we will do everything we can in order to restore the...

Attention, liberal shoppers! Next year, screw those GOP-supportin' companies, and try buying blue Do you care much that greasy ol' Pizza Hut gave tens of thousands in PAC money to the GOP last year? How about the fact that Taco Bell stopped pumping out their happily toxic semirancid meatlike substances just long enough to write a fat check to the conservative Right? Isn't that weirdly fascinating, in a depressing and indigestible sort of way? Does it matter a whit that, say, Fruit of the Loom underwear gave nearly 100 percent of its corporate donations to tighty-whitey-wearing Republicans, nearly every one...