Free Republic

Google wants public high school students, especially girls, to discover the magic of coding. Each eligible female student who completes our computer programming lesson will earn DonorsChoose.org credits for your classroom. [ ... ] You’ll receive a $100 DonorsChoose.org gift code for every female student who completes the course. When 4 or more female students complete it, we’ll email you an additional $500 gift code

“When women gained their equality, they lost their superiority.” ~ Unknown It’s nobody else’s danged business what an employer pays any employee, provided both parties have freely entered into the arrangement without force or fraud. Despite the unfortunately already existing abundance of passed legislation in this area, and especially despite much more actual and urgent problems facing our country, it’s really none of the government’s damned business at all–but of course the cultural Marxists in the Obama administration and the Democrat party are at it, full-force, again. Out comes the stale, overused Democrat media script bemoaning Republicans’ broad (pun intended)...

Under the heading “Brendan Eich steps down as CEO,” Mozilla has posted the following statement in the name of executive chairwoman Mitchell Baker. Eich has “stepped down” from his position at Mozilla days after his appointment, following the revelation that he contributed $1,000 to the campaign supporting the passage of Prop 8 in California six years ago. The Wall Street Journal covers the story here. Baker’s statement is must reading, though it requires some translation. It is not exactly straightforward. Using the mandatory shibboleths, the statement refers to a corporate culture of “diversity and inclusiveness.” If you’ve read 1984, you...

A man accused of causing a crash that killed a 22-year-old Miami Heat dancer in 2010 has been found guilty, but the verdict is being withheld while the court investigates allegations of juror misconduct.... At issue is whether the jury of six men made remarks about Careaga's gay lifestyle that could have influenced their decision...

It's a common for people in the acting, modeling and music industries to feel pressure to maintain a young appearance. Actors and actresses over 30 and 40 complain they cannot get roles. Now, all that anxiety is coming to Silicon Valley. In The New Republic, Noam Scheiber illustrates just how severely ageism plagues parts of the tech business in California. "Silicon Valley has become one of the most ageist places in America," Scheiber writes. Dr. Seth Matarasso, a plastic surgeon that administers Botox treatments in the Bay Area, told Scheiber that he frequently treats middle-aged Silicon Valley workers, saying the...

First Amendment enthusiasts are thrilled that Mike Adams, a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, won his lawsuit against administrators who denied him a promotion because of his conservative, Christian views. Adams joined the university in 1993. He was an atheist at the time. By the year 2000, he had converted to Christianity and become an outspoken political conservative. He eventually wrote columns for Townhall.com. In 2006, he was denied a promotion. Administrators were retaliating against him for his conservative views, he claimed. The jury agreed. Adams’s lawyers said the victory is an important one for free speech...

New York City reached an historic settlement with the Vulcan Society of black firefighters, agreeing to pay $98 million in back pay and benefits to minority FDNY applicants without acknowledging intentional discrimination at the fire department.

Today, as most of you sit in your offices pretending to work while reading my column (thanks, by the way) I'll be taking the stand in federal court in a First Amendment lawsuit against my employer, UNC-Wilmington. The trial will be over in three days, thus ending a seven-year legal battle with important implications for academic freedom. Some have asked how the outcome of the trial will affect my work in the campus free speech movement. I'm writing this column in response to those inquiries. There are three possible outcomes to the trial this week in Greenville, NC. We could...

WASHINGTON – Errico Auricchio produced cheese with his family in Italy until he brought his trade to the United States more than 30 years ago. Now, the European Union is saying his cheese isn't authentic enough to carry a European name. As part of trade talks, the EU wants to ban the use of names like Parmesan, feta and Gorgonzola on cheese made in the United States. The argument is that the American-made cheeses are shadows of the original European varieties and cut into sales and identity of the European cheeses. Auricchio, president of Wisconsin-based BelGioioso Cheese Inc., says he...

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- An attempt to fight racism at a community college may have backfired. A group of employees at South Puget Sound Community College sent out an invitation to all 300 staffers. The "Staff, Faculty and Administrators of Color" encouraged employees to reply to the invitation to find out the confidential date and time of what was being called a "happy hour" to "build support and community" for people of color. The invite made it clear white people were not invited. The email read: "If you want to create space for white folks to meet and work on racism,...

This weekend I was listening to a talk radio show discussing the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where the subject of “women’s rights” came up. Sirius XM radio host David Webb had a liberal and a conservative guest providing opposing perspectives on the purported pay disparity between men and women. While it has been conclusively discredited that, as of current, women are being paid less than men as a matter of systematic discrimination, what never ceases to amaze is how liberals continue to parrot the charge that this is indeed the case. It appears that no matter what evidence is...

As innocuous as they might seem, bakeries have been the center of controversy in America for some time. Oregon and Colorado bakers have been told recently that refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding is tantamount to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and therefore punishable by fines or other sanctions. These kinds of cases were the cause of the controversial changes to the Arizona Religious Freedom Restoration Act that Governor Jan Brewer vetoed in February. But there are some services a bakery is still free to deny, and no sane person would deny them the right...

Israelis Detained on Board Norwegian Jade as Cruise Ship Docked in Port of Tunis Israeli tourists were denied the right to disembark from the Norwegian Jade, a vessel operated by the Norwegian Cruise Line, when it stopped in the Port of Tunis, Tunisia recently, Jewish human rights organization B’nai Brith Canada said on Sunday. As passengers prepared to get off the ship to visit the North African republic, the Israelis were quietly told that they were not welcomed by the Tunisian Government, the group said in a statement. The cruise line did not advise the passengers in advance that Israeli...

The good news coming out of the just-concluded legislative battle in Arizona is that religious freedom remains what it has been there, undiminished by Governor Jan Brewer’s veto of a bill meant to protect it. The bad news is that the debate over religious freedom has taken an ominous turn. Here are six takeaways from the controversy. The media cannot be trusted to report accurately on social issues. I mention this first not because it is the most important part of the Arizona story — though it is very important — but because it has made understanding that story...

The rejection of Condoleezza Rice as a commencement speaker at Rutgers by its faculty council won’t surprise many Hot Air readers. It doesn’t surprise Fox News commentator and generally liberal Juan Williams, but he’s not shrugging it off, either. Williams, who has written about the shocking treatment of black conservatives by his supposedly enlightened liberal brethren, makes sure to note this episode as yet another marker in a long arc of hatred and bigotry against African-Americans who dare to challenge liberal orthodoxy — even Juan Williams himself: There is a disgraceful double standard amongst liberals, particularly those in academia, in the...

Oh, what a joy it is when a bad person makes a mistake that makes them into a hypocrite. Even better, it’s profoundly rewarding to see hypocrisy displayed on a national scale. And what’s even better that that? When it happens immediately following a triumph. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and nothing is bigger at this moment than the liberal hatred of Arizona for what many liberals labeled the “anti-gay” law. While I agree that the Arizona bill could have been written more precisely, and with a more adept legislative hand, the bill was clearly intended to...

President Obama announced last week a new race-based initiative, My Brother’s Keeper. According to the White House, the program will coordinate government agencies and private foundations to help young men and boys of color. “Of color” basically means blacks and Latinos. In fact, it’s pretty obvious the program is aimed at young black men. This fact has invited some conservative criticism. The Weekly Standard’s Terry Eastland notes that the program is likely unconstitutional. Doling out benefits explicitly based on race is generally a no-no, according to the Supreme Court. Even more frowned on: discrimination against women. The program will categorically...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a religious organisation registered as a private unlimited company in the UK, was told in 2005 that it was not exempt from paying business tax on its temple in Preston, Lancashire. Because the public were not allowed access to the temple, which was reserved for the most devout Mormons, the High Court dismissed their appeal in July 2008. However, the church refused to accept the decision, claiming that it amounted to discrimination on religious grounds and taking their battle all the way to Strasbourg. Now the European Court of Human Rights has...

By the time Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer announced that she was vetoing SB 1062, a bill that would have made it easier for business owners to turn away gay and lesbian customers, the religious right had already lost. ...................................................... There’s no chance that LGBT rights activists will give up that fight. While religious conservatives see the issue of allowing people to act according to their conscience, gay rights supporters see them as essentially demanding state sanction of gays and lesbians as a semi-pariah class against whom discrimination is less objectionable than it is against people on the basis of...

A quarter-century ago, I was a legislative reporter in Arkansas assigned to a ceremony honoring Daisy Bates, the civil rights giant who led the Little Rock school integration effort in 1957. As Gov. Bill Clinton spoke and Bates beamed, a hunched old man limped into the room and leaned against a back wall. "Gov. Faubus?" I asked. ....................................................... Safety was his straw man. Religious liberty, like public safety, is a just cause, except when it's used to justify intolerance.