Free Republic

This video shows the moment dozens of students encircled a Yale University official and screamed at him for sending an email telling them to ignore people dressed in offensive Halloween costumes. Nicholas Christakis, the master of Silliman College at Yale, was surrounded after telling students to allow others to exercise free speech by wearing what they wanted on Halloween. He was shouted down as he tried to explain why he believed students should be able to wear what they want, with one young woman yelling at him and telling him to 'shut the f*** up'. The email - sent by...

If anyone wonders why I often write about the antics that go on in academia, it's not merely because I've spent 25 years as an academic -- and so I know the way the sausage is made. It is also because higher education in the United States provides nearly limitless fodder for astonishment, outrage or mockery. In any given week it's possible to find multiple instances of manifest silliness, absurdity, or worse. This week is no exception. Exhibit One: James O'Keefe's Project Veritas group released a video that shows administrators and faculty members at Vassar College and Oberlin College shredding...

For months now, pundits and establishmentarians have depicted American anger at upside down government as a phenomenon that will just go away. It won't. Whether you like Mr. Trump's manner or his manners, whether you like his positions or his politics, what has attracted so many people to him is his willingness to tell it like it is, to cut through a lot of political baloney and get to the point of a matter. To him goes the credit for upping the game of most other candidates to a clearer level of needed in-your-face passion and energy about things that...

The mainstream media is loath to admit it but Hillary Clinton had a very bad day testifying before the Benghazi committee. When Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) confronted the former Secretary of State with her own emails concerning the 2012 terrorist attack, Mrs. Clinton flailed gracelessly and backpedaled from previous statements. The emails concern the motive for the attack and its perpetrators. It was never about “The Innocence of Muslims,” a Youtube video that portrayed the historical Mohammad as a truly villainous character. Nearly everyone now admits that the video did not spark the great Benghazi conflagration that left four Americans...

Ted Cruz Says He ‘Cannot Overstate’ the ‘Threats’ to Internet Freedom, Independent News Websites Like Drudge Ted Cruz said Sunday evening that the “threats to Internet freedom” have “never been greater” and could have the potential of affecting independent online news outlets like the Drudge Report.Speaking to TheBlaze Sunday evening in Dallas, Texas, the Republican presidential candidate responded to reports that Congressional review of digital copyright law could threaten aggregator news websites. “I think threats to Internet freedom continue growing,” Cruz said. “This administration views the Internet as a threat.” The Texas senator cited the Federal Communications Commission’s move to...

Perception is everything. Wars are often won or lost based on how the actors perceive one another’s strengths and weaknesses, not so much how strong or weak they are in reality. So it goes with any agenda item. When people sense a shift in public opinion on an issue, a fair number will shift right along with what they perceive. Thus, power elites can shape behaviors and attitudes by applying various techniques of crowd psychology, focused on propaganda and silencing dissent. ... Effective propaganda also keeps you in the dark about the fact that you are being manipulated. You Can’t...

A Chinese official on Friday called on the United Nations to impose an international code of conduct on the Internet. "It is highly necessary and pressing for the international community to jointly bring about an international code of conduct on cyberspace at an early date," said Wang Qun, director-general of the Arms Control Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in comments to the U.N. General Assembly. Wang's comments were reported by China's main state-owned press outlet, the Xinhua News Agency. "China, for its part, will continue to commit itself to establishing a peaceful, secure, open and cooperative cyberspace and pushing...

MADISON, Wis. – Targets of Wisconsin’s political John Doe investigations will share their stories of government-stifled speech on an upcoming Fox News special. “Censored in America,” as reported by John Stossel, airs at 7 p.m. Central Time Saturday. “America is the first country to say to its people: all of you have a right to speak. But today speech is under siege,” Stossel writes in a blog promoting the special. In it, he tells the stories of several people who have lost that right to speak, suffering varying consequences for doing so. Stossel includes the story of John Doe targets...

Circulating on the web tonight: During an appearance on the Alex Jones Show, Drudge asserted that copyright laws which prevent websites from even linking to news stories were being advanced. “I had a Supreme Court Justice tell me it’s over for me,” said Drudge. “They’ve got the votes now to enforce copyright law, you’re out of there. They’re going to make it so you can’t even use headlines.” “To have a Supreme Court Justice say to me it’s over, they’ve got the votes, which means time is limited,” he added, noting that a day was coming when simply operating an...

I receive loads of mail in response to my weekly nationally syndicated column. Some recent mail has been quite disturbing. Here's a sample: "Given your support of freedom on a great many issues, I wish to bring to your attention the following George Mason University staff who have formally called on the President to use RICO statutes to punish organizations and individuals who dispute the 'consensus' of the" Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The writer goes on to say, "I am appalled that anyone associated with George Mason would so misuse the power of the Federal government." The writer names...

Oxford University has banned a free speech magazine named “No Offence” from being distributed at a freshman fair because some people might find the content offensive. “No Offence” is described as being a “new political magazine based in Oxford, devoted to controversy and free speech.” In a call for submissions, “No Offence” wrote, “We aim to broaden the spectrum of opinion at Oxford, and create a climate where people are more comfortable expressing ideas some see as offensive. Our purpose is to publicize ideas and arguments that people otherwise may never encounter.” The creators of “No Offence,” Jacob Williams and...

French far-right party leader Marine Le Pen will go on trial for comparing Muslim street prayers to wartime Nazi occupation, party officials and the prosecutor's office said on Tuesday. Le Pen, whom polls see likely to win a regional election in northern France in December, has widened the National Front's appeal since she took its helm in 2011 by expelling extremists and cracking down on anti-Semitism. But the party also thrives on concerns over immigration and radical Islam. In a meeting in 2010, Le Pen criticised Muslims praying in the streets when mosques are full. [....] Le Pen had told...

A group of students at American University labeling themselves the “AU Justice League” have taken credit for ripping down anti-abortion flyers on campus. The campus’s College Republicans put the flyers up Wednesday night, and called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. But by Thursday morning, the vast majority of the flyers had disappeared. It didn’t take long to figure out why. At 12:30 a.m., the Twitter account @AUJusticeLeague tweeted a photo of dozens of crumpled-up flyers with the caption “We had some fun with the college republican posters tonight. Let us know if we missed any guys!” The incident was...

Students attempting to recruit for a Turning Point USA chapter were told by a campus policeman that he would have to "lock [them] up" if they did not stop soliciting their opinions.

Donald Trump is hitting back twice as hard as Democrats — led by the White House – attack him for not rebuking a town-hall questioner who declared that President Barack Obama is a Muslim. “The bigger issue is that Obama is waging a war against Christians in this country,” Trump tells The New York Times. But he also said that Americans liked the fact that he did not react to things like voter anger and debate questions with the ordinary language of politicians.

New York, September 16, 2015--The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores a decree signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today which, according to a copy viewed by CPJ, bans at least 41 international journalists and bloggers from Ukraine for one year. The journalists and bloggers were among 388 people named as representing an "actual or potential threat to national interests, national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," according to news reports. "We are dismayed by President Poroshenko's actions, including a ban on dozens of international media covering Ukraine," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "While the...

When federal politicians passed the Higher Education Act, they thought they were only going to help good students who couldn’t otherwise afford college to attend. They did not think about possible unintended consequences — like making college far more expensive, undermining academic standards, or giving federal bureaucrats leverage to dictate to colleges and universities. But all of that has happened. I’m going to focus on that last consequence—the way federal intervention in higher education has empowered bureaucrats to whittle away at free speech on (and even off) campus. A strange case involving a student at the University of Kansas illustrates...

Invoking Hitler usually is done by an over-the-top left-wing politician about something a Republican did which has nothing to do with the actual situation. Using the name of Hitler for a Jew in any other context than historical debates or reminiscing about Mel Brooks’ The Producers should always be done with great caution. But the stifling of free speech permeating our society warrants this deviation from my long-standing policy. To me there remains nothing as sacrosanct as protecting rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution. As I often repeat, there is a reason it is the First Amendment. My...

Tuesday morning felt normal to Monica Foy, a junior and English major at Sam Houston State University. The first thing the 26-year-old, who lives outside Houston with her husband, did when she woke up was check her Twitter and Facebook feeds. Both were full of people mourning the loss of Darren Goforth, a Harris County Sheriff’s deputy who was murdered Friday night by a man named Shannon J. Miles, who came up behind him at a gas station, shot him in the back of the head, and then emptied every bullet in his gun into the officer. [Snip] Foy tweeted...

Author’s Note: The following column is comprised of excerpts taken from my first lectures on the first day of classes this semester at UNC-Wilmington. I reproduced these remarks with the hope that they would be useful to other professors teaching at public universities all across America. Feel free to use this material if you already have tenure.Welcome back to class, students! I am Mike Adams your criminology professor here at UNC-Wilmington. Before we get started with the course I need to address an issue that is causing problems here at UNCW and in higher education all across the country. I...