Free Republic

GRANDVILLE, Mich. (WWJ) – A west Michigan business owner claims he’s been the target of death threats after he announced he won’t serve gays. Brian Klawiter, who owns Dieseltec Automotive Repair in Grandville, posted a message on his business’ Facebook page saying that he is a Christian, and that his company does not welcome “immoral behavior” — including homosexuality. “Our rights as conservative Americans are being squashed more and more everyday. Apparently if you are white (or close to it), you have a job, go to church, and own a gun… That translates into racists, privileged, bigot, conspiracy theorist.

Tennessee's attorney general says a bill seeking to make the Bible the state's official book would violate separation of church and state provisions in the federal and state constitutions. (Attorney General Herbert) Slatery in the opinion cites the provision in the Tennessee Constitution that states that “no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religion establishment or mode of worship.” …

It turns out some Muslim-owned bakeries are no more willing to create wedding cakes for same-sex ceremonies than their Christian counterparts. Conservative podcast host Steven Crowder posted hidden-camera video Thursday showing employees at several Muslim-owned bakeries in Dearborn, Michigan, declining his business or referring him to other shops when he asked for a wedding cake with the message “Ben and Steven forever.” Which was fine with Mr. Crowder. “I’m not even saying these Muslim bakeries shouldn’t have a right to do whatever they did — they absolutely should — and many more of them would than Christian bakeries,” he said...

The hullabaloo over false information being propagated about Indiana’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA) reveals a much more serious underlying problem in America. Morality according to the 3 Percent (the gay community in America) is defined by imposing conformity, control, coercion, and oppression over those who disagree with their definition of equality, fairness, tolerance, or even love. The 3 Percent’s “outrage” cannot be about equal rights, as same-sex couples already benefit from civil unions, domestic partnerships, marriage, adoption and fostering children, in addition to receiving health benefits and other legal rights. Nor can it be about fairness. I recently...

The greatly anticipated “fix” to the Indiana religious freedom law has been released by the Indiana legislative committee, and it is far worse than conservatives feared. According to law professor Mark Rienzi, the new fix will allow the state to prosecute Christians criminally for denying gay weddings their professional affirmation.Rienzi, of the Becket Fund and Catholic University School of Law and who was lead attorney in the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case that upheld a claim under the federal religious freedom law, said this would “criminalize religious objectors.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is busy making good on its promise to fight for students’ free speech rights through a massive litigation campaign. Since last year, FIRE’s Stand Up For Free Speech effort has filed nine First Amendment lawsuits against campuses that quash the First Amendment, according to its website. Four of the cases have already enjoyed successes in FIRE’s favor, and the others continue to wind their way through the court system. FIRE’s early victories in its litigation campaign illustrate that colleges’ limits on free speech are onerous and unconstitutional. But the battle continues.

No one, I think, would ever have denied that Maurice Bessinger was a man of faith. And he wasn’t particularly a “still, small voice” man either; he wanted everybody in earshot to know that slavery had been God’s will, that desegregation was Satan’s work, and the federal government was the Antichrist. God wanted only whites to eat at Bessinger’s six Piggie Park barbecue joints; so His servant Maurice took that fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1968 decided that his religious freedom argument was “patently frivolous.” Until the day he died, however, Bessinger insisted that...

A throng of likely Republican presidential contenders came to the defense Monday of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s signing of the state’s religious-freedom law, signaling a sharp contrast with Democrats on an issue that could extend into the 2016 race.

It's obvious to me that Mayor Ballard cares more about Corporate Cash & the NCAA Final 4 than the 1st Amendment. He's either a progressive or too stupid to not realize that this a phony Democrats Smear Campaign and should support Gov Pence.

Chilling, scary movie about the creep of Sharia law and loss of free speech rights throughout the west. Narrated by Fred Grandy. Mark Steyn, Daniel Pipes, Frank Gaffney, Lars Hedegaard, Geert Wilder all appear.

The 'gay cake' controversy could have implications for shop owners with religious beliefs, a court has heard. A barrister for County Antrim firm Ashers Baking Company said if they lost the discrimination case there would be wide-reaching consequences. He said it would mean a Muslim printer could not refuse to print a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. The case has been taken by a gay rights activist, Gareth Lee. He placed the order for the cake with Ashers. The barrister for Mr Lee said that businesses needed to make clear in advance what they would and would not do. He...

The project was awarded this month to Rutgers University, which has received $117,102 so far. The real-time, automatic detection of hurtful online speech is necessary, according to the NSF grant, because cyberbullying is a “critical social problem.” The grant said 40 percent of American teenagers have reported being cyberbullied. ... Vivek K. Singh, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University, is leading the project. “I have worked on multiple projects including designing a novel media sharing application, detecting patterns in large scale Twitter feeds, and analyzing community behavior in social media to design...

How to be "Progressive."

Xin Tian Yong, a contributor for the Chicago Maroon, has declared that free speech needs to be curtailed if people disagree with it. Specifically, Yong believes that speech that he considers “immoral or hateful” should be banned, especially if he considers it hurtful to minority religious or race groups like Muslims or African Americans. Yong’s article, titled “Actions speak louder than words,” begins by talking about a writer for Charlie Hebdo speaking at the University’s French Club. Zineb El Rhazoui, the writer for Charlie Hebdo, defended both satire and free speech... Yong writes that El Rhazoui spoke about the terrorist...

Texas commemorates the Confederacy in many ways, from an annual celebration of Confederate Heroes Day each January to monuments on the grounds of the state Capitol in Austin. Among the memorials is one that has stood for more than a century, bearing an image of the Confederate battle flag etched in marble. But you're out of luck if you want to put that flag on your license plate. Texas says that would be offensive.

No, the title of this article is not hyperbole and yes, the title is accurate. The IRS sometimes has their agents pose as clergymen to deceive church parishioners in attempts to gain information from them surreptitiously. I kid you not. Reverend Patrick Mahoney is the Director for the Christian Defense Coalition and he told the Christian Post that, “It is an absolute disgrace that IRS undercover agents can pose as members of the clergy. It is the role of government to protect religious freedom and the First Amendment, and not to use it to gather information and spy on American...

Two weeks after passage, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finally released its landmark “net neutrality” regulations Thursday morning. Among its many determinations, the FCC stated that broadband providers do not enjoy First Amendment protections because they do not have a right to free speech. “The rules we adopt today do not curtail broadband providers’ free speech rights,” the commission said on page 268 of its decision, noting that because they merely serve as a means for others to express themselves, broadband providers are not entitled to free speech rights themselves. “When engaged in broadband Internet access services, broadband providers are...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)University of Oklahoma President David Boren has expelled two students for leading a racist chant. These students’ speech was indeed quite repugnant, but for reasons I discuss here, it’s protected by the First Amendment. And here’s one reason why. Consider the president’s statement to the students: “You will be expelled because of your leadership role in leading a racist and exclusionary chant which has created a hostile educational environment for others.” Similar things could be said about a vast range of other speech. Students talking to each other about a student group event about how Hamas has it right? (The...

This week several University of Oklahoma frat boys were caught on tape singing a vile, racist song (and, no, it wasn’t “unconscious” racism or “coded” racism — it was straight up segregation-era hate). The video triggered a tidal wave of outrage on and off campus. A top football recruit “de-committed” to OU and committed to Alabama, the national fraternity expelled the local OU chapter, and students, coaches, professors, and administrators marched in protest. To this point, the matter is rather simple. The SAE students engaged in racist expression, and private citizens countered with expression of their own — doing what...

It is a matter of record that the Constitution was ratified as a strict, narrowly-defined enumeration of federal powers. Anything not specifically spelled out in it as a federal power is a federal power that does not exist, and that must be left to the state and local levels. The Framers identified each Congressional power in Article I, Section 8 (why would they do this if the General Welfare and Commerce clauses granted Congress a blank check to do whatever it wants?), and even added the 10th Amendment to further clarify that this is all it is authorized to do...