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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Protesters rallied in dozens of cities Saturday as part of a global protest against seed giant Monsanto and the genetically modified food it produces, organizers said. Organizers said "March Against Monsanto" protests were held in 52 countries and 436 cities, including Los Angeles where demonstrators waved signs that read "Real Food 4 Real People" and "Label GMOs, It's Our Right to Know."… The U.S. Senate this week overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would allow states to require labeling of genetically modified foods.

According to Peter Schmidt in the Chronicle of Higher Education, yet another individual working in higher education has been demolished for saying the wrong thing about homosexuality. The basis on which to define people as "anti-gay" has, however, taken a turn to the absurd (and eerie). Unlike Angela McCaskill, who was nearly fired from Gallaudet University for signing a petition on gay marriage, Crystal Dixon of the University of Toledo was fired for writing an editorial in a local newspaper. She referred to Exodus and mentioned people who chose to leave the gay lifestyle. For this column I will stick...

Abortion is not to be spoken of, only done. In Philadelphia, at a human abattoir on Lancaster Avenue, is where it ends, not where it starts. It starts with the perversion of language. It starts when the icons of a dissipated culture reduce a baby to a “fetus.” From there, Yeats’s blood-dimmed tide rolls rapidly in. Before long, a baby is not a person but a punishment, as President Barack Obama framed the matter in his familiar off-the-cuff iciness. Of course, to describe newborn children in their boundless possibilities and wonder would be to acknowledge, foremost, their humanity. That is...

Takeaway: Is the Linux desktop really a “mess” as some pundits call it? Jack Wallen takes issue with this claim and explains why he thinks the desktop is getting a bad rap. It seems nearly every pundit, every mouthpiece on the planet has decided that the Linux desktop is a “mess.” This “downfall” of the Linux desktop started with GNOME 3 and seemed to gain more momentum with Ubuntu Unity. I have a theory — and an idea for a fix.Linux is all about choice. It’s always been that way; from the earliest inception of the desktop, the Linux community...

WASHINGTON, DC - President Barack Obama signed a spending bill, HR 933, into law, the "Monsanto Protection Act," that strips federal courts of the authority to immediately halt the planting and sale of genetically modified (GMO) seed crop regardless of any consumer health concerns. "The provision would strip federal courts of the authority to halt the sale and planting of an illegal, potentially hazardous GE crop while the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) assesses those potential hazards," explains a letter to the House that has been signed by dozens of food businesses and retailers, as well as interest groups and...

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the law creating the nation’s broadest school voucher program, clearing the way for a possible expansion. In a 5-0 vote, the justices rejected claims that the law primarily benefited religious institutions that run private schools and accepted arguments that it gave families choice and allowed parents to determine where the money went. The Indiana case has received national attention because the program has wide eligibility. Middle-class families are allowed to participate in Indiana, while in most states, such programs are limited to low-income families or those in failing schools.

I was surprised and honored that Jihad Watch was among the nominees for the People's Choice Blog Award, sponsored by Right Wing News and TheTeaParty.net, to be awarded at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2013. As you can see from the vote above, Jihad Watch won decisively, getting over 50% of the vote in a field of fifteen. And I received confirmation of the victory from one of the organizers of the CPAC blog awards when I asked him when voting officially ended: From: XXXXXXXXX Subject: Re: You've Been Nominated For A People's Choice Award At the CPAC Blogger...

**Note to the moderators: this is a summary post for a number of stories on this same topic. All cited links below include full original titles. No single story/link was sufficient; trying to also prevent multiple posts. Summary: An Alabama Legislative Conference Committee transformed an 8-page education reform bill into a 27-page "bombshell" bill that has now passed both Houses and awaits the Governor's signature. This new bill includes the following provisions: 1. Parents of children in "chronically failing" schools will be allowed to either (a) move into a different (non-failing) public school; or (b) take 80% of the school's...

Hi Freepers, Just wanted some feedback on this non-profit which is going to bring true school choice to every child in the land. The following is our declaration. Let me know what you think. And please spread the word if you agree. thanks jc This is the first edition of End the Education Plantation’s newsletter, The Liberator. In the months ahead, we’ll use it to offer up news and opinions about school choice. We take our name from William Lloyd Garrison’s anti-slavery newspaper. Garrison fought against the evils of physical slavery; we fight against the evils of educational slavery. In...

Windsor on Monday joined the growing number of municipalities which have voted to end the decades-old practice of adding fluoride to the water supply in the fight against tooth decay. “A lot has changed in the last 60 years … fluoride is not the be-all and end-all to prevent tooth decay,” said Mayor Eddie Francis, who voted with the majority.… “I want to be shown that when we ingest this, we are safe,” said Kimberley DeYong of Fluoride Free Windsor. She and others said not a single study among those cited by fluoridation proponents looked specifically at the industry-sourced chemical...

First, on a personal note: Thank you, thank you and thank you, Mary Elizabeth Williams! What a glorious service you’ve done the pro-life cause. I know, that’s not what you intended. But that’s precisely what you’ve accomplished. Did I say thank you? In her jaw-dropping article, “So what if abortion ends life?” Williams – a mainstream, though uncharacteristically honest pro-abort scribe for Salon.com – has inexplicably broken from the Orwellian left’s ministerial script. In so doing, she’s severally undermined the very cause for which she would gladly “sacrifice” (dismember alive that is) her very own daughter. A daughter, mind you,...

Last week America’s abortion giant Planned Parenthood announced that it will be moving away from the slogan “choice” as a way to describe killing a child in the womb. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards told a press briefing that abortion is “complicated” and that the “pro-choice” label was unacceptably limiting.That’s the spin. Here’s the truth: The term has become a political loser.Today more Americans know the science of the developing child and the reality of what abortion does to her and to her mother, and increasingly they refuse to cloak themselves in the propaganda that the abortion industry pushes. Thanks...

The way to end abortion is to show women that abortion strips them of freedom. Abortion does not preserve choice; abortion pollutes choice. Not All Free Choices Are Beneficial Killing in the name of freedom does not preserve one’s own freedom. Women nearly always have the freedom to kill; they do not always have the right to kill. Pro-choice activists tell women that in order to preserve their freedom, they must defend their right to kill their children. But the question is not whether an act is committed freely, but whether it is an objectively good act. If you...

OptimismRevolution   h/t Vince

I know it sounds outrageous, but the arguments my liberal readers make for abortion have convinced me that they are trying to legalize rape. Aside from the obvious fact that rape is a moral issue (and one can’t legislate morality), pro-abortion reasoning provides 10 additional reasons for making rape legal. I have enumerated all of them below. I have even taken the time to expand on some of the more disturbing arguments: 1. It is uncertain where consent ends and force begins. Because that is largely a religious question that cannot be determined by science, it has no place in...

NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC Proudly Endorses Elizabeth Warren for U.S. SenateThursday, 11 October 2012 10:39 Pro-choice group will activate its 21,049 member activists in key race Washington, D.C.--(ENEWSPF)--October 11, 2012. Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, announced yesterday that her organization’s political action committee endorsed pro-choice candidate, Elizabeth Warren to represent the Bay State in the U.S. Senate. **SNIP** NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC has given the maximum contribution of $10,000 to Warren’s campaign. The organization will activate its 21,049 members in Massachusetts and encourage them to support Warren’s election efforts.

In a recent article in the Detroit Free Press, an education policy organization called Education Trust-Midwest expressed concern that taxpayers were supporting too many “failing [charter] school operators.” A focus on school quality for all schools is certainly needed, but Ed Trust’s analysis of charter public schools is short-sighted, unhelpful and risks creating negative unintended consequences. The Free Press reported that Ed Trust created a “cut score” for charter school quality based on the state’s “Top-to-Bottom School Ranking.” If a charter school performed better than 33 percent of the schools in the state, it passed; if it fell below this...

To begin with, we can all agree that the days of the conservative Blue Dog Democrats forcing their party to compromise with Republicans is over. Other than a handful still in office, soon you will only find a reference to the term "Blue Dog" in the footnotes of history history classes. If you are wondering what happened to the God fearing conservative blue dogs, just take a look at the DNC Platform. Even the mere mention of God was left out of the language until the negative publicity got so bad they had to force it back in against...

A pair of videos out of the DNC are letting the Democrats indict themselves with their own foolish utterances. First, from Reason, comes this look at the “pro-choice” party is actually committed to allowing people to make their own choices: And second is the video from Peter Schiff, who has some surprising success (or not so surprising if you regularly read the new additions here at LotM) in getting attendees to agree that there should be a ban on profits. See video(s) at link...

Suppose you went to eat at a strange restaurant and, upon asking the waitress what was good on the menu, she told you that she didn’t know because she never ate there. When you ask why, she explains that the food and atmosphere are much better at her favorite place, and even though the food costs more, it’s worth it. You would naturally attribute a great deal of credibility to this waitress because she was honest enough to point you away from the place where she has a personal stake in its success. In other words, you would trust her...