Free Republic

An atheist professor said Tuesday that it's acceptable to criticize Christians but not Muslims, because he does not "fear" retaliation from Christians. "I know what keeps me from critiquing Islam on my blog is just fear," Phil Zuckerman said at a discussion on religious liberty at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "I've got three kids. "So I know I can say anything about Christianity or Mormonism, and I'm not living in fear, which is a testament to Christianity and Mormonism, and that's wonderful. Thank you," said Zuckerman, who is a self-described atheist and professor of secular studies at Pitzer College...

Maria Espinoza, the passionate national director of The Remembrance Project in Houston, TX, was in Washington, D.C. recently to announce November 1 as the group’s annual memorial day for The National Remembrance Day for the Victims Killed By Illegal Aliens. Espinoza calls on Washington to “place Americans first” as “Americans are being killed by people who shouldn’t even be here.” Recalling what the father of slain 18-year-old Joshua Wilkerson told Espinoza about his own experience, that if Americans can’t put Americans first, they should be prepared to “go home and gather your children and choose the one you will sacrifice.”...

GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush has returned to Florida to recharge his struggling campaign. He spoke and took selfies with supporters at an outdoor rally Friday night before attending a high school football game in southwest Florida. ...

With the number of gay and transgender people on the upswing in the District of Columbia, city council members want to force doctors to take cultural competency classes to better accommodate them.The council heard testimony Wednesday from local activists urging them to pass legislation that would make "LGBTQ cultural competency training" a part of their continuing education requirements.The new regulations would require any medical professional to take two courses on LGBTQ cultural competency in order to obtain or renew their licenses or certifications to work in the District.According to the new law, the classes must “teach attitudes, knowledge, and skills...

Are you lazy as hell? Do you absolutely hate to work and want to get paid for doing almost nothing? As a fringe benefit, you will also score big bucks on your way out the door after months as a parasitic do nothing to the tune of perhaps $40,000. If this sounds like the opportunity for you, a no-work job is waiting for you at Politico.Erik Wemple of the Washington Post reported on just such an example. The favorite  part of the story for your humble correspondent was his link titled criticism that he was "lethargic." However, before we get to that, Wemple describes...

Washington, D.C. leads the nation with the highest per capita cost of excessive drinking, according to a new study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Researchers measured 26 cost components to estimate the total cost imposed by excessive alcohol consumption in 2010 for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. They found that the total cost of of excessive drinking hit $1,526 per capita in D.C.—higher than any of the 50 states. The per capita cost to government of excessive drinking in Washington, D.C., was $619, or 87 cents for every drink poured...

A county police chief on Long Island, New York, resigned on Tuesday amid an ongoing federal probe into whether he beat a suspect accused of stealing a duffel bag from his car in 2012. James Burke, the chief of Suffolk County, one of the state’s largest by population, stepped down on Tuesday after a 31-year career, his attorney confirmed. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the beating allegations, according to a source familiar with the matter. …

Marco Rubio, who hates his job, should follow John Boehner's lead and resign. After five years in the U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio does not like his job. A long-time friend told The Washington Post "he hates it." Rubio says hate might be too strong a word, but he sure acts like he hates his job. Rubio has missed more votes than any other senator this year. His seat is regularly empty for floor votes, committee meetings and intelligence briefings. He says he's MIA from his J-O-B because he finds it frustrating and wants to be president, instead. ... Sorry, senator,...

DENVER -- in the face to conservatives." Likely speaker of the House Paul Ryan has said the process that created it "stinks." But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is the first Republican to pledge outright that he'll try to scutter the compromise debt limit bill designed to kick any tough new vote into 2017. "I will filibuster the new debt ceiling bill," Paul said at an event on the University of Colorado's Denver campus. "It is horrible, it's hard for me not to use profanity describing it." Paul also called the bill a "steaming pile of legislation," and urged fellow Republicans...

Here's the scene last week: Army Delta Force troops, in boots on the ground in Iraq, swooping into an ISIS prison camp along with Kurdish and Iraqi soldiers. The mission: Free more than five dozen Kurdish and Iraqi captives believed in imminent danger of mass execution. In the darkness, a fierce firefight erupts. The Kurdish and Iraqi break-in stalls. The experienced Special Ops guys, who happen to be heavily-armed in body armor, night-vision goggles and full combat gear, open up. Numerous ISIS troops fall. So does one U.S. operative, Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, a veteran of 14 deployments. They breach...

DCRTV hears that DC radio legend Ed Walker died Monday morning, just hours after his last "Big Broadcast" nostalgic radio show aired Sunday evening on WAMU, 88.5. It was taped weeks earlier in Sibley Memorial Hospital, after Walker was diagnosed with cancer. He was 83. More at wamu.org. Walker listened to the final broadcast Sunday night on WAMU, surrounded by his family, a few hours before his death, according to WAMU. In mid-October, Walker announced that he was retiring from WAMU due to health issues. Walker has been host of WAMU's longest-running program since 1990. The first blind student admitted...

Radio pioneer Ed Walker, whose “Joy Boys” broadcasts with Willard Scott dominated Washington’s airwaves in the 1960s, has died at age 83, three hours after his final broadcast. Related Stories After cancer diagnosis, radio pioneer Ed Walker reluctantly signs off Walker, who was born blind, “died quietly in his sleep at 2 a.m.” says Ken Mellgren, Walker’s longtime friend and former boss at WWRC. “He was in no pain,” Mellgren told WTOP. Walker was recently diagnosed with cancer. Last week he recorded his final broadcast of “The Big Broadcast” for WAMU from his hospital room. The final installment was replayed...

Jeb Bush, the man who once pledged famously/infamously that he would run for president "joyfully," had this to say on the campaign trail in South Carolina: "If this election is about how we’re going to fight to get nothing done, then I don’t want anything, I don’t want any part of it. I don’t want to be elected president to sit around and see gridlock just become so dominant that people literally are in decline in their lives. That is not my motivation. I’ve got a lot of really cool things I could do other than sit around, being miserable,...

U.S. Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas) wants the federal government to drop the word “alien” from laws and documents because “when you use the word ‘alien’, you think of Martians and people from outer space.” Castro introduced the The Correcting Hurtful and Alienating Names in Government Expression (CHANGE) Act last week. The measure removes the term “illegal alien” and replaces it with “undocumented foreign national” in federal law and government documents. …

JENNIFER RUBIN, WASHINGTON POST: What strikes me is not only the outsider/insider, but how backward looking Jeb Bush's ad was. He's talking about what he's done. His family has an esteemed record, one of the great political families of our era. And it's not enough this time. I'm also struck in that opening segment that you showed, how small he seems. How petty, how put upon.

HOUSTON — Right to Rise USA, the super PAC supporting former Florida governor Jeb Bush's campaign for president, is considering deploying ground staff to key states after focusing most heavily on running television ads so far. It's a notable strategic consideration that comes as Bush's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination has struggled to gain traction in early-voting states and as it makes moves to curtail costs in what began as a sprawling operation.

The day after the first Democratic presidential debate, Donald Trump called Bernie Sanders a maniac. "This socialist-slash-communist," Trump said to raucous cheers. "I call him a socialist-slash-communist, because that's what he is." Well, no. The terms "socialist" and "communist" are often confused, thanks in large part to the Cold War. Layer on top of that the nuance of the term "democratic socialist," which is how Sanders describes himself, and it's easy to see why people might generally be confused... To offer America a bit of a primer, I reached out to Dr. Lawrence Quill, chairman and professor of political science...

The headlines recently have been full of suggestions that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is solidifying his lead while the other real outsider in the race, Ben Carson, is firmly in second place — and that the political class’s favorites, including Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Marco Rubio, can’t gain traction. I don’t buy it. Republicans should not overcommit to the notion that Trump, much less Carson, are serious candidates for the Republican nomination for 2016. I’ll admit to being a little perplexed by the polls right now. When Trump entered the race, I said he would max out somewhere...

Islamic State video features Hebrew-speaking militant for the first time By Hugh Naylor October 23 at 12:22 PM JERUSALEM — The Islamic State's slick — and grisly — propaganda videos regularly feature militants who speak flawless Arabic or English or French. Now, the Islamist group is using the language of the Jewish state. A video it released this week shows a masked militant speaking impeccable Hebrew as he praises a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis and threatens to eradicate Jews from the Holy Land. It’s the first time the group has released a video in Hebrew, but the message...

Heather Larrison, the Jeb Bush campaign finance director who may have pocketed $1.3 million in 2015, either directly or through companies in which she may have an ownership interest, from the Bush campaign and the pro-Bush Right to Rise USA Super PAC, certainly has chutzpah. The Washington Post reports that Larrison spent time last week trying to persuade Bush donors that the campaign has a good financial plan: Though the Bush campaign has not responded to our question, Bush donors may be asking that same question at an emergency meeting in Houston today. It will be harder for the Bush...