Free Republic

Fire and huge waive of smoke #MiloAtCal pic.twitter.com/zckGbe4zsG — Charlotte Kosche (@charlottekosche) February 2, 2017 University of California, Berkeley is on a campus-wide lockdown after protests broke out against Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, an alt-right leader who was scheduled to speak at the school. Yiannopoulos's event has been canceled, and university police urged students to shelter in place and stay away from the protest area.

Short video statement from Milo Yiannopoulos about the rioting tonight on U.C. Berkeley campus.

Ironically, Beza found his "signal example"8 of how to deal with tyranny and resistance not so much in the work of early Calvinists as in the work of later Lutherans—particularly the Lutheran jurists and theologians who had drafted the Magdeburg Confession of 1550. The Magdeburg Confession was a major distillation of the most advanced Lutheran resistance theories of the day.9 The leaders of the small Saxon city of Magdeburg had drafted this Confession in response to the order of the Holy Roman Emperor to impose by civil law the uniform Catholic doctrines and liturgies being crafted by the Council of...

American college campuses are becoming the main battleground for the First Amendment, usually because faculty or administrators don’t respect the free speech rights of students. In November I wrote about such a case at Iowa State. Another case showing the authoritarianism that increasingly characterizes the professoriate involves the master’s program in social work at Rhode Island College (RIC). A student who did not believe that lobbying the state legislature for “progressive” causes was properly a part of his education and suffered for it filed suit against the school in state court. This remarkable case started way back in 2004, when...

The YouTube channel of influential conservative politics and law website Legal Insurrection has been removed by the video sharing service, citing copyright infringement claims. “This account has been terminated because we received multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement regarding material the user posted,” explains YouTube, in a notice posted to channel’s page. Legal Insurrection founder and publisher and Cornell University Law Professor William Jacobson voiced his anger and astonishment at the channel’s removal. “It’s very frustrating, it’s very scary, to have 8 years of content removed without a chance to defend yourself,” he told FoxNews.com.

Following the presidential election, numerous stories surfaced about how “fake news” influenced the results. This prompted a reaction from the media and a concerted effort by the social media giant Facebook to crack down on the phenomenon—announcing that it would in part by using liberal fact-checkers to distinguish the “real” from the “fake” news.The truth is that while the American media landscape has been in a constant state of change over two centuries, the spread of hyperpartisan, scurrilous, and even phony news stories has been more common than uncommon throughout the history of the republic.Ultimately, despite the increasingly Wild West...

The popular right-leaning web portal, The Drudge Report, was briefly knocked offline last week. Incidents like this will only become more common until policymakers or tech companies get serious about fixing connected gadgets, also known as the internet of things (IoT). In a since deleted post, the site’s verified @DRUDGE account on Twitter posted last week, “Is the US government attacking DRUDGE REPORT? Biggest DDoS since site’s inception. VERY suspicious routing [and timing],” as the International Business Times reported.... Traffic from the Drudge Report is gigantic. ...178 million visits in November and that almost 80 percent of that traffic was...

The conservative legal group Liberty Counsel is claiming that the public school district violated the Constitution by censoring the anti-abortion student group’s poster. The poster, which took over 25 hours to make, included hand-painted hearts and the phrase “3,000 Lives Are Ended Each Day.” . . . Administrators also asked the students to refrain from using the word, “abortion,” in club material, in written or oral communications, or on social media. Administrators even went as far as asking students from the club to sign an agreement that would bar them from seeking legal assistance to protect their right to express...

A massive Satanic pentagram has been placed in a Florida park, causing outrage - with some people calling it 'ridiculous' and 'offensive'. The display was installed in Boca Raton's Sanborn Square and is located next to a nativity scene. Preston Smith got a permit from the the city for the display, WPTV reported. Scroll down for video

"I don’t know how to begin to write about what I consider to be a turning point on the restriction of free speech on our precious Internet. I just discovered that YouTube has censored some videos of one of the best citizen journalists on the Net: David Seaman. He is one of the most reputable and honorable journalists on YouTube…I will mourn the loss of his material and the assault on our First Amendment Rights. So be it…God is in control, and He will guide those of us who trust Him..."

The presidential election was so close that many factors were “but-for” causes of Donald Trump’s victory. One that’s been mostly overlooked is Trump’s surprising success with religious voters. According to exit polls, Trump received 81 percent of the white evangelical Christian vote, and Hillary Clinton only 16 percent. Trump did significantly better than the overtly religious Mitt Romney and the overtly evangelical George W. Bush. He likely over-performed among other theologically conservative voters, such as traditionalist Catholics, as well. Not bad for a thrice-married adulterer of no discernible faith.

Last week, president-elect Trump sent a tweet that ought to alarm the majority of Americans who voted for another candidate as well as most of those who voted for him. Here’s what Trump wrote: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or a year in jail!” The very last thing we need in America is more activism meant to punish people for thinking the wrong things. Our college campuses are awash in left-wing thought control, whereby students who say or write anything that hypersensitive students...

A pair of Arizona-based Christian artists is challenging the local law that threatens to fine and imprison them for refusing to make same-sex wedding invitations. Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, owners of Brush & Nib Studio in Phoenix, lost a case at trial level which accused them of violating a local ordinance that protects homosexuals from discrimination, Fox News reported. The ordinance also prevents the business owners from publicly explaining their convictions or even defending their decision lest they face jail time for that as well. This apparent violation of the First Amendment protection of free speech is at the...

Well, look what’s back: the instantly compelling and ultimately confounding parlor game of “What do we do about flag burning?” Dormant for years, largely because this is something virtually no one ever does, the flag burning issue is back. You could hear it knocking lightly when several idiotic pro athletes decided to lodge their concerns over policing issues by showing public disdain for the flag that is a symbol of the nation that has made them free and wealthy. Throw in the Donald Trump victory, which has dredged up some of the most hateful and juvenile reactions in election history,...

<p>The fall out from media bigwigs on the receiving end of a smack down of epic proportions from President-elect Donald Trump continues, with several participants whining to The New Yorker about how mean Trump was.</p> <p>Four executives who attended the off-the-record meeting are quoted without being identified and if there’s a common theme in the remarks, it may be the liberal application of f-bombs.</p>

The appointment of Marine Corps General James N. Mattis to head up Central Command (CENTCOM) is, of course, very good news. Mattis, after all, may well be America’s greatest living general. He certainly is one of the most intellectually formidable advocates of counterinsurgency warfare. However, Mattis’ appointment –- or, to be more precise, the reaction to his appointment amongst reporters and by the Pentagon leadership — raises troubling doubts about whether the American elite understand and are committed to free speech. I say this for two reasons: First because the Pentagon has imposed new and more restrictive rules on military...

Documents obtained by LifeSiteNews.com uncover a disturbing pattern of public officials colluding with NARAL to hinder the efforts of pro-life pregnancy care centers. But the greatest find is on pages 5-7 of the exchange: A two-page document, on official letterhead, revealing NARAL's seven-point plan to harass CPCs. LifeSiteNews filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with Montgomery County, Maryland, to obtain the e-mails, which can be read in their entirety here. At the time, county officials were locked in a legal battle with Centro Tepeyac Silver Spring Women's Center, which they had targeted with an ordinance forcing the pro-life...

It is no secret that religious liberty is under attack. The wedding photographer, florist, and cake baker are no longer able to practice their faith at work without fear of retribution for refusing to fall in line with the new government orthodoxy. The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment is designed to ensure that all Americans may freely live out their faith. This is not limited to freedom of worship, but includes the heart, mind, and soul of religious people, thereby guiding how people act in the public square. When a law restricts that first freedom, the American conscience...

Feminists should be celebrating the election of Donald Trump. What Trump did this election cycle should be every feminist’s dream – he ran against a female candidate and treated her like he would have treated any man he’d run against. After all, that is the goal, right? He displayed breathtaking courage in refusing to tiptoe around Hillary Clinton’s shortcoming and failures. He did not fear calling her out for them simply because she uses a toilet sitting down. No, he treated her as an equal and called her out on every single scandal and so much more. Trump’s bravery...

[snip] Compared to his hate speech against Muslims, Mexican immigrants and women, Trump's rhetoric against LGBTQ Americans was relatively tame during his campaign for the presidency. His policy-related promises, of course, told a different story — Trump pledged to support the First Amendment Defense Act, which would allow businesses and healthcare organizations to legally discriminate against LGBTQ folks. He supports HB2, North Carolina's infamous law that prevents trans people from using the bathroom of their choice. And he appointed Mike Pence to be his vice president, the governor best known for his plan to defund AIDS research and support conversion...