Free Republic

A Dean at Cornell University proclaimed on camera he’d give the green light for an ISIS club on campus in which actual members conducted training exercises. I’m curious if this demonstration of humanitarianism would be preempted by recent video of ISIS soldiers beating, raping, torturing, mutilating, and beheading countless men, women and children in the name of Allah? I also wonder if American Christians would enjoy an equally enthusiastic welcome if similar proof existed of their ranks committing mass atrocities. Oh, that’s right, Christians or Jews really aren’t welcome because the Crusades, which ended over 700 years ago, were a...

After months of legal wrangling, the votes are in. Secretaries at Grand Rapids Community College have chosen to decertify the Michigan Education Association local and form their own union. Out of 95 members, 40 voted in favor of the new union, the Alliance of Professional Support Staff, while 28 voted to stay with the MEA and 3 chose no union. “We are free,” said election organizer, Penni Weniger. This is the second time in 15 months that a group of employees at a state college or university has broken ranks with the MEA. The first defection involved over 300 technology...

No way to know when Common Core will die or whether No Child Left Behind will suffer a similar fate but the trend nationwide is obvious. Parents, teachers, schools and districts want the federal government out Americans are learning the hard way that the federal government should not be permitted to impose one-size-fits-all standards to education. It was never intended to play a role in education and the absence of any mention in the Constitution is proof enough that education was intended to be supervised by the states where the school districts, schools, and parents are closest to the process....

In a very encouraging turn of events, the Jesuit run University of Scranton has announced it will no longer pay for abortion coverage for its employees. The school’s President Father Kevin P. Quinn S.J. made his announcement in a statement issued on February 10th in which he said that “it [abortion] is inconsistent with the moral teachings of the Church. …. [Because] The University is self-insured we can, and therefore must, offer insurance plans that are free of all abortion coverage.” Like clockwork, the numbingly predictable protests from Planned Parenthood and Concerned Clergy for Choice appeared to show their ardent...

Liberals across the country rejoiced today as Ted Cruz announced that he is officially running for president, thus ensuring a plentiful gaffe harvest for progressive writers like myself to feed upon for months. The GOP has pretty much nothing to gain from Cruz’s decision to throw his hat in the ring. In fact, if anything, it will probably hurt them, as Cruz will only serve to solidify the idea that Republicans are anti-women, anti-LGBT, and anti-immigrant. Yes, Ted Cruz, the son of an immigrant from Cuba, is anti-immigrant. As a Latino, I can tell you right now that Latinos won’t...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, 44, announced his candidacy for president Monday, March 23, at Liberty University’s weekly Convocation. “Today, I am announcing that I am running for president of the United States,” Cruz said to an energetic crowd in a packed Vines Center, receiving loud applause and a standing ovation. In announcing his bid, the 2016 hopeful, who placed third in this year’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, skipped the longstanding traditional step of first forming an exploratory committee. “It is time for liberty, it is time for truth, it is a time to reclaim the Constitution of...

RANT OF THE DAY ! The link consist of two Facebook videos: Kathleen Smith's experience with unruly toddler(2 or 3) in a Tomball, Texas HEB supermarket. She took some heat on Facebook. Then issued her unapology.

Almost every feature of gun proprietorship for women have been looked at with the exception of an exceptionally key inquiry: What are the reasons that motivates women to buy and own guns? In this last segment of NSSF’s report, we look at the driving variables of a women enthusiasm for owning guns. According to NSSF’s survey, the biggest motivation for a woman’s purchase is personal defense. Almost half of the women in the poll stated either self-defense (26.2%) or home defense (22%) as the “most important reason to own a gun.” Another significant motivator was hunting at 15.3 percent. To...

In what was no doubt a rare moment for all involved, Huffington Post editorial director Howard Fineman noted on MSNBC’s “Hardball w/ Chris Matthews” that Harvard Law School professors were “in awe” of Texas Republican Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s intellect. “At Harvard Law School, he was — the professors were in awe of his intellect,” Fineman noted. “Even if they disagreed with him, which they did vehemently, these people knew that — this guy was trained under the Federalist Society second-generation Republican wave. In other words, not the Reagan years, but these years.” The rare complement from the...

LYNCHBURG, VA – Just hours after Ted Cruz announced he was running for president here, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. was defending the fact that nearly 10,000 of his school's students had served as the backdrop while attending a mandatory school event. "It is no secret that Convocation is held three times a week and attendance is required, just like class is required for students," Falwell said in a written statement. "No one is expected to agree with every speaker on every point." Falwell issued the statement after reports, in National Journal and elsewhere, that a group of students...

If you want to transform American students into pliant proletariat workers for crony capitalist corporations, Common Core is the way to indoctrinate them into the collectivist utopian mindset During a late evening visit to our local restaurant, I witnessed a progressive middle-aged couple pleading with their young child to give up a toy she had taken from her playmate’s home. As they were arguing back and forth, loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear, all I could think of was, why bring a small child so late to a restaurant and, for God’s sake, isn’t anybody in charge of...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz ’92 plans to announce a presidential bid on Monday, according to a Houston Chronicle article published on Saturday. Cruz did not respond to a request for comment. Cruz will officially declare his candidacy at a convocation ceremony at Liberty University in Virginia on Monday, according to the Chronicle. He is scheduled to make an appearance in New Hampshire this Friday and in Iowa in approximately two weeks. Cruz was elected to the Senate as a Republican candidate from Texas in 2012 and is one of three Latino Senators currently serving. Liberty University, which was founded by...

I keep hearing Obama is pushing this Iranian nuclear deal for his legacy. He pushed Obamacare for his legacy. The great majority of the American people did not want Obamacare. The great majority of the American people and most of the countries of the world do not want this Iranian nuclear deal. In fact, the great majority of Americans do not like Obama's decisions and the direction the country is going. Obama is so worried about his legacy. So far his legacy is that of the worst president ever. His planned disasters are too numerous to list here. (See my...

Here are four lively short articles about our president: ------------------------------------------- "Obama and the Ineligibility Circus." Some of the cleverest trolls on the Internet devote their time to spreading confusion about the requirements for being president. You have to be a citizen. You have to be 35. And you have to have two parents who are themselves Americans. That last requirement is called the "natural born" requirement. Because of that requirement, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are not eligible to be president. My hope is that one of them drops out of the race and tells the country why. http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-and-the-ineligibility-circus?cid=db_articles --------------------------------------------...

Sarah Palin so completely traumatized Weather Undergrounder Bill Ayers in 2008, he is still talking about the former vice-presidential candidate seven years later. In a March 18 Publishers' Weekly interview at Hyde Park's Seminary Co-op bookstore, Ayers injected Mrs. Palin into the conversation. It seems he still can't forget a governor from Alaska who dared to expose his fellow traveler at a private fundraiser on October 4, 2008 in Englewood, Colorado:. VP Candidate Sarah Palin, 2008: Our opponent, though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough that he’s palling around with terrorists who would...

ST. LOUIS • The Missouri History Museum canceled a speakers panel set for Thursday evening that intended, in part, to compare “state violence” in Ferguson and Palestine. Sourik Beltran, an anthropology student at Washington University and president of the student group AltaVoz, proposed the event early in February. He originally called it “From Ayotzinapa to Ferguson: A Dialogue on Solidarity and Inter-Movement Collaboration.” He said the goals were to connect activists, foster collaboration among social justice groups and “draw parallels between state violence here and in Mexico.” A week or two later, Beltran added a third comparison. The panel would...

I don’t know. And I don’t care. I recalled an old, make that VERY old joke. Students were asked “What is the difference between ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Apathy’?” The most common answer the questioners received was “I don’t know, and I don’t care.” I thought of this while I was listening to all of Barack Obama’s blather on Thursday suggesting that it would be an absolutely terrific idea if voting was made mandatory in the United States. And “blather” is a fairly accurate description which pleases all of Obama’s handlers, or if he prefers “communications specialists” who desperately want to change...

LaKiesha Allen is a 35-year old Lansing school secretary who pays the Michigan Education Association $38 a month in union dues from her $23,000 annual salary. Local union officials have threatened to get her fired if she stops paying those dues. So Allen was stunned to learn that MEA President Steve Cook, a man she has never met, swung a deal with her employer to parlay his six-figure union salary into a richer pension payout. Cook's payout will come from the same pension fund that Allen is counting on for her own retirement – a fund that is currently underfunded...

“You Still Have ‘White Privilege’ Even if you ‘Survived a Nazi Concentration Camp’ ” This extraordinary claim, that “it doesn’t matter what hardships you’ve had to face, you still have white privilege,” was directed to husband and wife survivors of Nazi tyranny by Robin DiAngelo, Professor of Multicultural Education at Westfield State University. With a scholarship in Social Justice Education and Whiteness Studies, DiAngelo teaches courses in Multicultural Teaching, Inter-group Dialogue Facilitation, and Cultural Diversity & Social Justice. It is to progressive thinkers and holders of powerful educational credentials like Professor DiAngelo that Jerry Todd has directed his response today....

For most people who follow government, nothing is more meaningful or more dramatic than the struggle to pass a law. In this romanticized view, the passage of a law means that change was required, and that those who break the new law will be punished. In 2011, the Michigan Legislature passed a series of education reforms, designed to retain and reward Michigan’s best teachers. According to these new laws, districts would have to pay high-achieving teachers a premium, and could not make teacher hiring and firing decisions on the basis of seniority alone. For those who celebrate new laws, this...