Free Republic

Perhaps universities should begin teaching ethics again, or at least bioethics. In the course of her investigation into the sale of fetal tissue, illegal under federal law, U. S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-TN, discovered a relationship between the University of New Mexico and a local abortion provider. Rep. Blackburn, who chairs a House Select Investigative Panel, wrote to the attorney general of the state, urging him to investigate further. She cc'd New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez on the letter. The section of the federal code "which forbids the transfer of fetal tissue for valuable consideration" also "requires that safeguards be...

Everyone expects neo-Nazis to be thuggish and simpleminded. They're losers who need a movement that tells them they are winners, so they troll for grievances and battles from which they can emerge as both morally superior and victims. They hate freedom. Traditionalist Worker Party leader Matthew Heimbach even wrote a piece, "I Hate Freedom," in which he explained, "Freedom is a word and a concept that everyone loves and enjoys because of the license that it gives us as a society; that is why freedom failed and that is why freedom must die." Like I said, white supremacists are losers....

Fifteen years after President George W. Bush first sent American forces into Afghanistan, his wife considers the job unfinished. “I hope we won’t leave,” former First Lady Laura Bush said on Monday. She cited the conversations she’s had with Afghan women, who worry about what follows the exit of U.S. forces. “They hope that our troops won’t leave too fast,” she said, “because if we leave there’s a vacuum. And they saw what happened in Iraq, where it just wasn’t successful for us to leave.” And she applauded the progress that Afghan women had made over the past decade and...

To ensure a “fair and impartial” criminal justice system, the U.S. Department of Justice plans to train every one of its law enforcement employees and prosecutors to “recognize and address” their “implicit bias.” […] According to the DOJ news release, “Implicit bias can affect interactions and decisions due to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion and socio-economic status, as well as other factors. Social science has shown that all individuals experience some form of implicit bias but that the effects of those biases can be countered through training.” […] “At the Department of Justice, we are committed to ensuring that...

Police in Central California say two family dogs killed a 3-day-old baby after her mother left her on the couch and walked away for a few seconds... The girl’s mother had left the door open because it was hot and she thought the dogs were tied up in the back yard. The baby died at a hospital shortly after the attack. the two male dogs, which are believed to be a mix of shar-pei and pit bull are owned by the woman’s brother.

The man who played the 2,000 Year-Old Man has gotten one year closer: comedy legend Mel Brooks is 90 today. Born Melvin James Kaminsky in Brooklyn, NY, Brooks started as a writer on Your Show of Shows. Brooks and another comedy icon, Carl Reiner first met in 1950. They delighted audiences and inspired a generation of comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and others with the improvised sketch about a really old man who has seen it all, as well as other now-famous bits.

Police officers staking out San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood for car burglars caught a group of armed robbers in the act of mugging three women sightseers who just visited the iconic crooked part of Lombard Street — and the whole bust was caught on security video.

Some of us have long predicted the breakup of the European Union. The Cousins appear to have just delivered the coup de grace. While Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU, England voted for independence. These people, with their unique history, language and culture, want to write their own laws and rule themselves. The English wish to remain who they are, and they do not want their country to become, in Theodore Roosevelt's phrase, "a polyglot boarding house" for the world. From patriots of all nations, congratulations are in order. It will all begin to unravel now,...

An elderly man who lost consciousness during a flight this weekend and was all but taken for dead regained his pulse and consciousness after Tim Tebow reportedly walked down the aisle and prayed with the entire section of plane and the gentleman’s family.

White House National Security advisor Susan Rice had some strong opinions to share on whether working women could “have it all,” a successful career and be a great mother. During a conversation at the Aspen Ideas Summit moderated by The Atlantic‘s David Bradley, Rice was asked if she believed former State Department employee Anne Marie Slaughter’s famous argument (penned in The Atlantic) that career women could not have it all.

Maybe it was those college courses on the history of Europe that soured me on the idea of a united continent. How could a conglomeration of nation states noted for invading each other, pillaging and warring against each other form a union? How could a continent with different languages, cultures and money become a united states of Europe modeled after the USA? Unity is not union. As the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher observed: "European unity has been tried before, and the outcome was far from happy." The euro, which I also mocked at the time it was introduced...

Many leaders of big business support Hillary Clinton. Last week she announced a list of 56 corporate backers. No wonder Bernie Sanders is still running against her. Hillary Clinton always has attracted well-connected business supporters. Even before she ran for office. Remember the lucrative cattle trades when she was Arkansas first lady? That came from a local businessman who knew how important it was to have friends in the governor’s mansion. Bill Clinton had plenty of business support when he ran for president. As New York senator she was quite friendly with Wall Street—a relationship that continued afterwards, with her...

Milwaukee Police (MPD) are looking for a man who fired shots at a Milwaukee Taco Bell early Monday morning after the disgruntled customer was upset over a mix-up in his order, according to restaurant management. The shooting occurred around 12:20 a.m. on the 5700 block of W. Fond du Lac Avenue, said MPD Sgt. Timothy Gaurke.“A customer fired a gun into the drive through window and into an employee’s car,” Sgt. Gaurke said.Sgt. Gaurke said the investigation is ongoing and Milwaukee Police are looking for the suspect. Taco Bell management said that the man was upset that employees forgot to...

It is hard to deny that there is a worldwide impulse against elitism, globalism, unaccountable regulatory bureaucracies and illegal immigration that is powerfully present in the United States and transcends the Donald Trump candidacy. The vote to leave the European Union won decisively in Britain, which doubtlessly shocked the elites and political forecasters. Populist forces have also gained ground against former leftist strongholds in other parts of Europe. Many attribute this trend to an uprising of working-class voters, who have been damaged by the global economy and ignored by elites. That certainly proved true in the Brexit vote, in which...

Earthquakes seldom hit the British Isles. But one did late Thursday night and early Friday morning, as the constituency returns started pouring in on the referendum to decide whether the United Kingdom would remain in or leave the European Union. Most polls had shown a small margin for remain, and betting markets made it an odds-on favorite. Hedge funds went long on the assumption "Remain" would win. It had the support, after all, of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, the leftist Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Bank of England President Mark Carney and the financial leaders of the City of London....

Abortion Clinic That allegedly Killed Woman and Failed Inspection Just Gets $77 Fine Dog Pounds Are Better Regulated Than Abortion Businesses John Jansen April 3, 2015 | Chicago, Illinois | LifeNewsImagine you run a shoddy abortion clinic that amasses a $36,000 fine by your state’s health department after an 18-year old patient dies. “Women’s Aid Center” Abortion Business “Providing the Support and Care You Deserve”You file for bankruptcy, but your case is dismissed.Then, you close out your bank account, dissolve your old company, change your name, and move to a different location.When the state comes calling, you say the old...

One of the common laments of leftist commentators in Europe and America concerning Brexit is that holding referendums is a bad idea. The most frequently expressed example is the contempt in which the left holds British Prime Minister David Cameron for having suggested the referendum in the first place. But why would the left hate referendums? Doesn't it claim to represent "the people"? Isn't "power to the people" one of the most popular sayings of the left? Isn't the American left trying to abolish the Electoral College precisely because it isn't directly representative of "the people's" will? One would imagine,...

A 20-year-old man who was seen in widely circulated photos squirting lighter fluid on a pile of propane cylinders during the rioting in Baltimore in April 2015 was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison. Donta Betts of Baltimore pleaded guilty in March to making a destructive device near the intersection of Pennsylvania and North avenues on April 27, 2015. He also pleaded guilty to shooting a woman in the leg over a $20 drug deal on July 2, 2015, federal prosecutors said in court Friday. "Donta Betts engaged in arson, looting, assault and other mayhem during the Baltimore riots,"...

In an apparent rejection of the basic principles of the U.S. economy, a new poll shows that most young people do not support capitalism. The Harvard University survey, which polled young adults between ages 18 and 29, found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism. Just 42 percent said they support it. It isn't clear that the young people in the poll would prefer some alternative system, though. Just 33 percent said they supported socialism. The survey had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points. The results of the survey are difficult to interpret, pollsters noted. Capitalism...

Once upon a time, Democrats would sit-in to press for civil rights. Today, they sit-in to take civil rights away. How else to describe the goal of last week's 24-hour sit-in by House Democrats? They took to the floor Wednesday demanding a vote on gun control legislation in the wake of last week's terrorist attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando. Gun ownership is a right. Due process of law is a right. The government needs to meet a very high threshold before denying citizens either one. Rep. John Lewis led the protest, which devolved into screaming matches early Thursday....