Free Republic

I believe Mark Steyn’s new column is a triumph, and wrote him on Friday to say that. The ensuing critical take on it by my colleague, Jason Steorts, left me shaking my head. My diminished intelligence, compared to NR’s Big Brains, should lead me to remain quiet, but I won’t.One brother — or sister, or let’s say a sibling — of the gay issue, from the perspective of the Left, is environmentalism. Or, specifically, “global warming,” now in its 2.0 version as “climate change.” Its advocates pronounce their positions with utmost scientific certainty, and just as eagerly label their foes...

Progressive liberals are always claiming to be the most "tolerant" group in existence and they can be found jumping on any social bandwagon, such as bullying, but their bleating of standing up for free speech and tolerance rings false. The fact is that the progressive left is incredibly intolerant and unless you agree 100% with them at all times, the calls for boycotts, censorship, and firing pile on. Every single time that progressive liberals could stand up and defend the free speech rights of someone they disagree with, they do not. Instead, they mobilize their various groups to harass, bully,...

The oddest thing is that A&E Networks has been constantly censoring the Ducks for mentioning Christ or God in many of the shows. Yet, cursing and other profanities are not bleeped out to my knowledge on A&E's other shows. Send a message to Mel Berning - President of Sales at A&E by faxing him at 2122101308 There are free fax services on the net such as GotFreeFax.Com and they will let you send a hard copy letter directly to A&E offices. Twitter A&E at @AETV    Facebook A&E at https://www.facebook.com/AETV My fax to A&E Below: Dear Mr. Berning, I am very...

First the Los Angeles Times, and now the popular website Reddit have banned critical comments on global warming orthodoxy in responses to their articles. Giuseppe Macri of The Daily Caller reports.

...Duck Dynasty is one of our favorite television programs. Obviously, we are not alone. Duck Dynasty has been a ratings success for the A&E television network. It averages 14 million viewers an episode. The question the main stream media should really be asking is - why? Maybe, just maybe, if they paid attention, they might learn something about this wonderful Nation and the longing in the human hearts of real, regular folks. Perhaps if political observers paid attention, they might actually recognize a growing resistance movement... I am tired of the agendas of the Cultural Revolution winding their way into...

In 1984 moment, N. Korea deletes near entirety of news archives In striking development, North Korean media deletes near-entirity of its article archives by Chad O’Carroll , December 16, 2013 North Korean state media outlet the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) has deleted over 35,000 articles from its on-line archives. The deletion, the biggest ever article removal in KCNA’s history, means that with the exception of a small number of articles about Kim Jong Un, the digital record of state-approved news currently only reaches back to October 2013 on KCNA’s North Korea (.kp) hosted website. “There were 35,000 articles dated...

"Some clowns and jokers over at 4chan thought it would be a funny idea to put together a web page for a programming language named 'C Plus Equality' as a parody of feminism, dismissing OOP as 'objectifying' and inheritance as "a tool of the patriarchy". But this parody was apparently too hot to host at Github, which took down the original Github repository after receiving criticism on Twitter, prompting a backlash and inquiry into the role of free speech and censorship on Github's platform. The project has since found a new home on BitBucket, at least for the time being."...

The left wants the disclosure of private information about conservative donors. Six months after the Internal Revenue Service's inspector general revealed that the tax-collection agency had been targeting conservative organizations for added scrutiny and delaying their applications for tax-exempt status, the IRS has proposed new rules for handling political activity by nonprofits. The proposed rules would plunge the agency deeper into political regulation. The rules would upset more than 50 years of settled law and practice by limiting the ability of certain tax-exempt nonprofits, organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, to conduct nonpartisan voter registration and voter...

President Vladimir Putin tightened his control over Russia's media on Monday by dissolving the main state news agency and replacing it with an organization that is to promote Moscow's image abroad. The move to abolish RIA Novosti and create a news agency to be known as Rossiya Segodnya is the second in two weeks strengthening Putin's hold on the media as he tries to reassert his authority after protests against his rule. Most Russian media outlets are already loyal to Putin, and opponents get little air time, but the shake-up underlined their importance to Putin keeping power and the Kremlin's...

WASHINGTON, December 4, 2013 — How far will President Obama go to control what we see and hear? How about removing First Amendment protections from FOX News or even from MSNBC, ABC, CNN, CBS or NBC. Maybe no free speech or freedom of the press for The Washington Times nor The Washington Post nor The New York Times or any other major media? Obama would justify it by claiming they are all tainted because they seek to profit from the news business. Don’t laugh. This is the danger from the ground-breaking legal theory being argued by the Obama Administration to...

As NewsBusters reported Sunday, liberal cartoonist Ted Rall was recently banned from the progressive website Daily Kos for publishing a comic strip with Barack Obama in it that was deemed to be racist. On Monday, Rall spoke with Newsmax TV’s Steve Malzberg about the incident, and warned that if Hillary Clinton gets the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, “sexism will be the new racism” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Concerned that “excessive opposition is impeding the Administration’s ability to govern the country,” the IRS has moved to tighten regulations on “right-leaning” political “education” organizations. “The notion that anyone can organize to speak out against government policy and still get the same exemptions from taxes that those working to help the government is wrong-headed,” said Mark Mazur, Treasury Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy. “People should all be pulling together to help propel the ship of state toward the attainment of the greater common good. Those rowing with us deserve preferential tax treatment. Those rowing against us do not. It’s as...

The US Justice Department is intervening in a private lawsuit against H&R Block for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. H&R Block is a large provider of American tax services and informational services for tax payers.

The Quinn and Rose show has been on the air for 18 years with great success. Ten of those years were at 104.7. We love doing our show. We want our listeners to know how much we have enjoyed bringing you the news every morning. We feel like we are all part of one big family. Your loyalty and support over the years has meant so much to us and we think you know that. Please know that we appreciate each and every one of you. A morning without you is like a morning without coffee. And we HATE a...

Countless tax dollars have been spent on anti-bullying programs, and 49 states have anti-bullying laws. After New Jersey passed a broad anti-bullying law, hundreds of schools “snapped up a $1,295 package put together by a consulting firm that includes a 100-page manual.” But a University of Texas researcher found that anti-bullying programs increase bullying, and “actually teach students different bullying techniques—and even educate about new ways to bully” classmates. … The term “bullying” is increasingly being used as an excuse for censorship of speech protected by the First Amendment, such as anti-abortion advocacy, publicly revealing the names of students who...

The Los Angeles Times is giving the cold shoulder to global warming skeptics. Paul Thornton, editor of the paper’s letters section, recently wrote a letter of his own, stating flatly that he won't publish some letters from those skeptical of man’s role in our planet’s warming climate. In Thornton’s eyes, those people are often wrong -- and he doesn’t print obviously wrong statements.

UN hides naked male sculpture to please Iranians A relief carving of a naked man at the UN's Geneva headquarters was covered up on Monday, apparently to spare the blushes of Iranian diplomats ahead of fresh talks on the country's nuclear drive. UN officials would not comment on why the wall relief, inspired by Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam", had been masked by a large white screen, referring questions to the Swiss authorities. But Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve claimed that the aim was to avoid offending the Islamic republic's delegation for the talks taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday. Iranian...

The Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is asserting authority to block the publication of whistle blower John Dodson’s book The Unarmed Truth: My Fight to Blow the Whistle and Expose Fast and Furious. The book ban was issued by Deputy Ethics Official Greg Serres on the grounds that supervisors can deny outside employment “for any reason.” Dodson writing a book on his own time is considered “outside employment.” “Dodson is seeking to profit from knowledge he gained while being employed by the ATF,” Serres said. “It is the agency’s contention that all knowledge gained on the job belongs to the agency....

Resident of Somers, New York, John Gibson has had three yard signs promoting the Second Amendment right to bear arms stolen from his property. The latest theft was video taped by a hidden camera. Much to Gibson’s surprise a local police officer was revealed to be the culprit. Mary Beth Murphy, an official from the Town of Somers, maintains that “the fact that the sign was on Mr. Gibson’s property doesn’t give him an unfettered right to inflict his opinions on others. The sign was intentionally placed so that its message could be seen from the street, which is public...

Comments can be bad for science. That's why, here at PopularScience.com, we're shutting them off.It wasn't a decision we made lightly. As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide. The problem is when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former, diminishing our ability to do the latter.That is not to suggest that we are the only website in the world that attracts vexing commenters. Far from it. Nor is it to suggest that all, or even close...