Free Republic

President Barack Obama's LGBT workplace discrimination order has revealed a rift among Democrats over whether religious freedom trumps gay rights. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives could exploit that rift by bringing the Senate-passed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has a religious exemption, to the floor for a vote. ENDA, which would ban workplace discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity, was passed by the Senate in November with the support of 54 Democrats and 10 Republicans. The bill likely would not have passed if it had not contained a religious exemption. The exemption was a major point of contention during...

A Colorado baker who was found guilty of discrimination for not baking a wedding cake for a same-sex couple is appealing the decision. Jake Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop hopes to win at the appellate level after being told that he must serve gay couples wedding cakes and take a diversity course. Phillips is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, who filed the appeal in the Colorado Court of Appeals last Wednesday. ADF lead counsel Nicolle Martin, who is involved in the appeal, said in a statement that Phillips did not unlawfully discriminate against anyone, but rather refused to endorse...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Twin Cities man is upset about the way his family was treated on a Southwest Airlines flight because of a tweet. Duff Watson says he was asked to de-board a flight from Denver to Minneapolis with his two kids on Sunday after an agent didn’t like a tweet he wrote about her service. Watson and the agent had a disagreement before boarding initially. “I was left, you know, very upset, very embarrassed, very humiliated,” Watson said. He’s an “A-List” passenger, which means he gets priority boarding. But a gate agent wouldn’t let his 6-year-old and 9-year-old...

On Sunday, Lincoln Center Out of Doors hosted the third of five days of “New York City Honors Pete Seeger,” or Seegerfest, as the events are called. This was the festival’s main event. A concert featured artists singing songs Seeger was associated with, like “The Hammer Song,” “Turn, Turn, Turn,” and, of course, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” The artists included old-time folkies like Judy Collins, who opened the program, Fred Hellerman of The Weavers, the popular children’s singer Dan Zanes, banjo master Tony Trischka, Tom Chapin and the Chapin sisters, and Jay Ungar and Molly Mason. The artists...

It’s an odd tale of two very ideologically conservative icons coming down on very different sides of the crisis of unaccompanied immigrant children flowing into the United States. Radio and television personality Glenn Beck and former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin have come out diametrically opposed to each other on what the nation should do to help—or not help—these children. The mainstream press, or as she would call it, the “lamestream” press, doesn’t pay much attention to Palin any more, but she is frequently quoted in outlets like the Breitbart News and conservative newspapers such as the...

During the financial crisis of 2008, one of the pressing questions of the day had to do with whether or not various giant corporations—AIG, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, GM, and others—were too big to fail. The consensus among policymakers at the time was that these companies had to be bailed out by the government, or else the global economy would collapse with them.A similar question can be raised with regard to Islam. Is it too big to fail? Would its collapse bring chaos in its wake? Judging from their behavior, most policymakers seem heavily invested in Islam’s survival. Their reasoning...

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans want to slash President Barack Obama's emergency spending request for the border, speed young migrants back home to Central America, and send in the National Guard. The proposals Wednesday morning amounted to a rebuke of Obama's proposed solution to the crisis on the Southern Border. They put the House on a collision course with the Democratic-run Senate, and increased the likelihood that congressional efforts to address the crisis on the Southern Border, where unaccompanied kids and teens have been showing up by the tens of thousands, will end in stalemate. "Without trying to fix the...

The notion that Elizabeth Warren should challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential nomination has been optimistically tossed around in left-wing circles for a while now. Activists at Netroots Nation recently chanted ”Run, Liz, run.” And no doubt, the excitement generated by Warren is a function of her ideological sincerity—a sincerity that’s most obvious when contrasted with Hillary Clinton’s lack of earnestness and pandering.Still, it seems to me that a lot of people are overestimating the appeal, uniqueness, and popularity of Warren. What’s most enticing about Warren right now is the perception of her, not the reality.For starters,...

when I started to write Clinton, Inc: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine, I knew the reaction to expect. I was well aware that the former (and perhaps future) first family and its massive retinue of loyalty enforcers, professional defamers and assorted gadflies would rue my intent to examine the real Clintons—especially in my search for the real Chelsea Clinton, who until now has been a media-protected nonperson despite her aggressive public activities on her family’s behalf and despite raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from her role as former first daughter. MSNBC’s David Shuster learned this the...

This week, the NAACP is holding its 105th Annual Conference, with “All in for Justice and Equality” as its theme. Apparently, black conservatives are not welcome under the organization’s umbrella. As evidenced by a video posted on Progressives Today and expounded on by writer Jim Hoft, blacks who “do not toe the liberal line … are not welcome at the NAACP.” So on Sunday, as FreedomWorks’ Deneen Borelli and Rev. CL Bryant, a former NAACP chapter president, manned their booth at the event, a member of the NAACP approached them and commenced to treat them with disdain and hostility. Admittedly...

NASA's Far Out Search for Life by Brian Thomas, M.S. * With lofty words about humanity’s future, NASA promoters discussed the hope of discovering life on other planets at a recent meeting in NASA headquarters in Washington.1 Despite billions of dollars spent on the decades-long search and the fact that not one shred of distant life evidence has been found, NASA continues to suggest that life might really be out there and that its discovery is within reach. Does scientific evidence really justify this expensive search for distant life? If not, what’s the driving force behind this program? The hope...

First-time political candidate David Perdue won a surprise victory over favored Rep. Jack Kingston in the Republican runoff for the US Senate nomination in Georgia. Kingston, who had the backing of the US Chamber of Commerce as well as conservatives such as my Salem colleague Erick Erickson, had been leading in almost every poll as the runoff approached. In the end, Perdue’s outsider message may have won the day: Businessman David Perdue stunned Georgia’s Republican political establishment Tuesday by capturing the party’s U.S. Senate nomination in his first run for office.The former CEO of Reebok and Dollar General toppled 11-term...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit invalidated a major provision of Obamacare, ruling 2-1 that participants in health exchanges run by the federal government in 34 states are not eligible for tax subsidies. No doubt, cheers went out from the anti-Obamacare crowd. However, just a few hours later, the Richmond Appeals Court ruled 3-0 the opposite way, citing pizza in its explanation. Conflicting Rulings The New York Times reports Courts Issue Conflicting Rulings on Health Care Law. Two federal appeals court panels issued conflicting rulings Tuesday on whether the government could subsidize health insurance premiums for people...

The Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case was met with incandescent outrage from progressives. The overturning of a mandate never passed by Congress which had not existed prior to 2010 signaled, those who consider themselves members of a class of deliberative and reasoned thinkers said, evidence of a theocratic judiciary in the United States. Recognizing the indignation on their side of the aisle, the White House responded by reassuring their base supporters that this offense would not go unanswered. “Today’s decision jeopardizes the health of women who are employed by these companies,” White House Press Sec. Josh...

It’s been more than three years since the Fukushima disaster, in which an earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated the Fukushima region of Japan and significantly damaged its nuclear power plant. *******snip***** Once the demand for news from Japan waned, however, little follow-up ever occurred in the media to those stories being told days after the tsunami struck, particularly those of American first responders. The USS Ronald Reagan responded almost immediately to the tsunami disaster. The carrier, reports in 2013 noted, may have coasted through a radiation plume. Photos of bizarrely foamy snow aboard the ship began to circulate in some...

A new poll offers details on the way citizens of the world think about climate change, and U.S. participants are looking particularly ignorant to the risks of global warming. Only one in four Americans said climate change was a "major threat," making the U.S. the least concerned nation.

In some sense, there’s nothing remotely funny about the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party organizations. It is disgusting that a powerful arm of the government became a corrupt vehicle for illegal partisan politics. But it’s better to laugh rather than cry, so let’s enjoy this new video from Remy at Reason TV.

In January 2011, the Weber-Morgan County Narcotics Strike Force conducted a nighttime drug raid on the Ogden, Utah, home of Matthew David Stewart. An ex-girlfriend had tipped off the police that Stewart was growing pot in his basement. He was; Stewart, a former veteran, suffered from PTSD, and used the pot to self-medicate. The police had no evidence that Stewart was selling any of his pot. Once police took down his door with a battering ram, Stewart, who was sleeping, grabbed a handgun.

AMMAN – The terrorist army formerly known as ISIS has conquered about a third of Syria and much of western Iraq. What are these jihadists going to do next? Assuming they can’t go to Disneyland -- and, trust me, that’s high on their bucket list -- Baghdad would doubtless be their destination of choice. But despite a series of bombings last weekend that killed more than two dozen people, the predominately Shia capital is unlikely to fall easily as did such Sunni-majority cities as Mosul. So the question being asked is whether these warriors will turn their lethal attentions toward...

When I was a small child, one of the most dramatic and effective business boycotts in the history of America occurred. This, of course, was the Montgomery bus boycott. By refusing to ride the bus, blacks who were being discriminated against were able to terminate many discriminatory practices not only in Alabama, but throughout the South. The white-owned businesses were clearly being unfair, and the public transportation system was no better. The actions taken were appropriate and in many cases heroic. The power of the purse, particularly in a capitalistic society, is mighty, and business boycotts are a potent tool...