Free Republic

The US woke up on Friday to the news that Donald Trump was a full 20 percentage points ahead of Ted Cruz, his nearest rival, for the Republican nomination, and a good 16 percentage points higher than America’s top political analysts thought he would be. Running on a platform of “making America great again”, his campaign has been noteworthy for Trump’s egregious widespread insults and total fabrications, on a gargantuan scale. The most recent of which was him claiming to have seen “thousands of Muslims” dancing in the streets of New Jersey after 9/11. No evidence exists of this, because...

In the current issue of National Review, I have a piece called “Underground at Brown.” What’s it about? I’ll tell you. In fact, I’ll blow that piece out — i.e., expand it — here in Impromptus. At Brown University, in Providence, R.I., there is a secret forum in which students may discuss potentially controversial issues freely. Let me say that again: At Brown, there is a secret forum in which students may discuss potentially controversial issues — or anything they want — freely.

Republican presidential candidates, others too quick with reckless rhetoric Words don’t carry consequences of gun, but they can influence people Ramblings about ‘body parts’ in Planned Parenthood shooting is proof

San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Visualizing Impact launched Onlinecensorship.org today, a new platform to document the who, what, and why of content takedowns on social media sites. The project, made possible by a 2014 Knight News Challenge award, will address how social media sites moderate user-generated content and how free expression is affected across the globe. Controversies over content takedowns seem to bubble up every few weeks, with users complaining about censorship of political speech, nudity, LGBT content, and many other subjects. The passionate debate about these takedowns reveals a larger issue: social media sites have...

The protests at the University of Missouri that resulted in the ouster of President Tim Wolfe and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin have reinvigorated student movements against freedom of speech across the nation. Brenda Smith-Lezama, vice president of the Missouri Students Association, took pride in the rising groundswell of support for censorship saying "it's about time the youth of this nation take a stand against the verbal pollution that hides behind the First Amendment. Social justice shouldn't be thwarted by slavish devotion to the out-dated idea that everyone has the right to speak his mind regardless of the consequences." Smith-Lezama hailed...

The debate over Halloween costumes began late last month when the universitys Intercultural Affairs Committee sent an email to the student body asking students to avoid wearing “culturally unaware and insensitive” costumes that could offend minority students. It specifically advised them to steer clear of outfits that included elements like feathered headdresses, turbans or blackface. (clip) In response, Erika Christakis, a faculty member and an administrator at a student residence, wrote an email to students living in her residence hall on behalf of those she described as “frustrated” by the official advice on Halloween costumes. Students should be able to...

An astute professor once said that political wrangling in universities is so vicious because the stakes are so small. There are those in proverbial ivory towers who will struggle to get control of a faculty or become an assistant dean with an animus that would ill befit a general in battle. There is one caveat here, though, and it is this: the stakes are not so small when you consider that professors can shape the minds of a whole generation. A recent letter in The New York Times signed by Catholic academics, objected that a columnist had no right to...

The New York attorney general has begun a sweeping investigation of Exxon Mobil to determine whether the company lied to the public about the risks of climate change or to investors about how those risks might hurt the oil business. According to people with knowledge of the investigation, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman issued a subpoena Wednesday evening to Exxon Mobil, demanding extensive financial records, emails and other documents. The focus includes the company’s activities dating to the late 1970s, including a period of at least a decade when Exxon Mobil funded groups that sought to undermine climate science. A...

Wait! Please don't visit that site right now! Google detected badware on the site you were visiting. Firefox uses Google's blacklist to warn you about "Reported attack sites." We understand that you may know and trust this site, but it's possible for good sites to be infected with badware without the site owners' knowledge or permission. Who is StopBadware? StopBadware is a nonprofit organization that fights badware. Google and Firefox link to us to help you understand the warnings. We also help website owners prevent and clean up badware websites. Question: I visited the site and didn't see any badware...

GRESHAM, Ore. – Dexter McCarty Middle School student Alan Holmes understands that his freedom is intricately tied to those who fought and died defending the United States of America. His older brother joined the U.S. Marines when he was 19 years old and served a tour in Iraq, Fox 12 reports.

Beijing escalates campaign to restrict free flow of information from U.S. companies, journalists pple is reported to have deactivated its news app in China amid concerns that Beijing is escalating its campaign to restrict the flow of information from U.S. news outlets and technology companies. The New York Times reported that, even for users who downloaded the app on their phones in the United States, content does not appear in China. Instead, the error message “news isn’t supported in your current region” appears. Beijing requires most companies operating in the country to develop a censorship system, which can include automated...

An Australian electrical engineer named Dr David Evans discovered a mathematical error in the model used to predict global warming that exaggerated the impact of carbon dioxide 10-fold. Basically, the effects of CO2 on climate are far lower than has been assumed. While most reasonable people would find this reassuring, Philippe Sands QC, an international law specialist and Professor of Law at University College London, did not. Alleging that “the publicity given to Dr. Evans’ finding could seriously undermine efforts to mitigate climate change,” Sands argued for “the suppression of contradictory evidence and arguments that might thwart action.” “In theory,...

A Chinese official on Friday called on the United Nations to impose an international code of conduct on the Internet. "It is highly necessary and pressing for the international community to jointly bring about an international code of conduct on cyberspace at an early date," said Wang Qun, director-general of the Arms Control Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in comments to the U.N. General Assembly. Wang's comments were reported by China's main state-owned press outlet, the Xinhua News Agency. "China, for its part, will continue to commit itself to establishing a peaceful, secure, open and cooperative cyberspace and pushing...

Circulating on the web tonight: During an appearance on the Alex Jones Show, Drudge asserted that copyright laws which prevent websites from even linking to news stories were being advanced. “I had a Supreme Court Justice tell me it’s over for me,” said Drudge. “They’ve got the votes now to enforce copyright law, you’re out of there. They’re going to make it so you can’t even use headlines.” “To have a Supreme Court Justice say to me it’s over, they’ve got the votes, which means time is limited,” he added, noting that a day was coming when simply operating an...

It may not have intended to, precisely, but the United Nations just took sides in the Internet’s most brutal culture war. On Thursday, the organization’s Broadband Commission for Digital Development released a damning “world-wide wake-up call” on what it calls “cyber VAWG,” or violence against women and girls. The report concludes that online harassment is “a problem of pandemic proportion” — which, nbd, we’ve all heard before. But the United Nations then goes on to propose radical, proactive policy changes for both governments and social networks, effectively projecting a whole new vision for how the Internet could work. Under U.S....

A gaggle of university climatologists have written to President Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch urging them to prosecute people who continue to contradict the "scientific consensus" on climate change. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) immediately endorsed the idea as "essential to our survival as a planet." "The freedom of people able to contradict the accepted science impedes the government from taking the steps necessary to combat dangerous climate change," Whitehouse contended. Paraphrasing a famous observation made by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes for justifying suppression of free speech, the Senator averred that "allowing a person to deny the truth...

Google hints it may decide to use structured data in its ranking algorithm some day, though the company has previously denied it. Structured data, structured markup and rich snippets have always been about helping Google and search engines understand your content and potentially lead to Google making your search result snippet richer, with the goal of increasing your click-through rate from the organic results to your page. Google has said, time and time again, that these are not used in the ranking algorithm to make a Web page rank better. They have said that adding structured markup to your pages...

One of television’s most sacred and central responsibilities is making sure they only display images that are “right and appropriate” for the viewing public to consume. Yet, judging by NBC’s decision to not show the post-game prayer gathering of players on the field after the Patriots’ 28-21 victory over the Steelers in the Thursday night Kickoff Special, NBC clearly believes public displays of the Christian faith are not suitable for all audiences. It isn’t as if the prayer didn’t happen. Despite the heavy downpour, members of the Patriots and some of their coaching staff knelt and bowed their heads. MRCTV’s...

“When people stir up sedition on social networks using their real name, it’s not only the state that has to act, but also Facebook as a company should do something against these paroles,” Merkel told regional newspaper Rheinische Post. She said Facebook already had the necessary code of conduct, but there was a lack of control and enforcement. “The rules need to be implemented,” Merkel said. Last month, Justice Minister Heiko Maas accused Facebook of doing too little to thwart racist and hate posts. Maas sent a letter to Facebook public policy director Richard Allan in Dublin saying he received...

The story behind the chemical explosion that rocked China’s Tianjin port last Wednesday continues to evolve amid fears that the public could be at risk from the hundreds of tonnes of sodium cyanide stored at the facility. More specifically, Monday’s heightened concerns were related to the possibility that rain could interact with the water soluble chemical, releasing deadly hydrogen cyanide gas into the air. "First rain expected today or tonight. Avoid ALL contact with skin," a text message purported to have originated at the US Embassy in Beijing read. The Embassy would later deny the message’s authenticity, perhaps at the...