Free Republic

Ordinarily I wouldnÂ’t concern myself with what some billionaire far-left oligarch thinks. Usually, they donÂ’t think about much beyond making money and having millions of people they neither know or respect suck up to them. AppleÂ’s Steve Jobs made a career of this type of self-important asshattery. His successor, Tim Cook is no different. Weighing in on the Indiana RFRA law signed by Governor Mike Pence last week, Cook has demonstrated he is not only has distinctly fascistic tendencies (part of the whole billionaire far-left oligarch thing) and scarcely as passing knowledge of the US Constitution and the issue at...

Apple chief Tim Cook slammed what he called a wave of “dangerous” laws in several US states that he said promote discrimination and erode equality, in an editorial published Sunday. Cook — one of the most prominent chief executives to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality — wrote in the Washington Post that so-called “religious freedom” laws passed in several states threaten to undo progress toward greater equality. "There’s something very dangerous happening in states across the country," Cook wrote in the editorial.

So-called “religious freedom” laws in Indiana, Arkansas and other states are merely thiny veiled discrimination that harkens back to the days of segregation, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. “There’s something very dangerous happening in states across the country,” Cook wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Monday. “The days of segregation and discrimination marked by ‘Whites Only’ signs on shop doors, water fountains and restrooms must remain deep in our past,” the head of the world’s largest company wrote. “We must never return to any semblance of that time.” The op-ed from Cook, who is gay and grew up...

The 'gay cake' controversy could have implications for shop owners with religious beliefs, a court has heard. A barrister for County Antrim firm Ashers Baking Company said if they lost the discrimination case there would be wide-reaching consequences. He said it would mean a Muslim printer could not refuse to print a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. The case has been taken by a gay rights activist, Gareth Lee. He placed the order for the cake with Ashers. The barrister for Mr Lee said that businesses needed to make clear in advance what they would and would not do. He...

Adam Smith is living on food stamps in an RV In 2012, Smith rolled into a Chick-fil-A drive-thru and slammed the female attendant: "Chick-fil-A is a hateful corporation," Smith announced, then posted the video he took of the incident online

Tim Cook: Apple Will Oppose Bills Like Indiana's 'Religious Freedom' Law Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook on Sunday broadened his criticism of a new law in Indiana, which opponents say could be used to discriminate against gay people, to other states that he says have similar laws. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law Thursday, sparking an outcry from those, including Cook, who say it could be used to protect businesses that refuse to serve gay people. The law's supporters say it will prevent the government from forcing business owners from providing services that go...

Gay activists and corporate leaders assailed a new Indiana allows that extends legal protections to religious business owners and individuals and vowed to boycott the state, according to CNBC. The law, signed by Pence on Thursday, allows businesses to use an owner's faith as a reason to refuse service to customers, including same-sex married couples. The law risks setting off a business chill in the state, with money-making conferences and major corporations threatening to pull out. Big corporations were among the loudest critics. Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins, the world's largest diesel engine maker, opposed the new law in strong terms. "Cummins believes...

Attention, hotels…if you’ve got a “Sir Ian McKellen” on your list of incoming guests, you should probably remove the Bible from the bedside table drawer in his room and read this recent Q&A with Details magazine (quoted on PopEater): “The openly gay ‘Lord of the Rings’ star admits to a habit of tearing out the Bible passage that condemns homosexuality — (“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” – Leviticus 18:22) — every time he finds one in his hotel room.[…] “I’m not proudly defacing the book,” he asserts, “but it’s a choice between removing...

GenCon, the world’s biggest convention for tabletop gaming and a massive moneymaking machine for the State of Indiana, has responded to a bill that legalizes discrimination against LGBT customers by threatening to leave the state—and take their $50 million-a-year convention elsewhere. This isn’t because GenCon is run by political progressives or “social justice warriors” trying to make a difference. It really, really isn’t. If GenCon leaves Indianapolis it’ll be for the same reason it came to Indianapolis and abandoned its original home of Wisconsin, the home state of founder of D&D Gary Gygax (peace be upon him). Because it makes...

Adam Stinnett looks up to his older stepbrother – a soldier in the U.S. Army. So when it came time to get a haircut, the seven-year-old told his mother he wanted a basic military-style cut. And that’s exactly what he got – high and tight – just like his stepbrother. Adam got his haircut on March 8. On March 9, his mother got a letter from the principal of Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School in McMinnville, Tennessee. It seems they were not all that thrilled with the second grader’s new hairdo. The principal told Amy Stinnett that her son’s haircut...

A few years ago I hosted gay activist attorney Andrea Ritchie on my radio program and asked her whether she believed the homosexual lobby could peacefully coexist with traditional Christian morality. After a very pregnant pause, she responded pointedly: "Sure, if Christians will give up their resistance to our cause." Today, in the midst of the inane opposition to the Indiana religious freedom bill, her alarming words prove frighteningly prophetic. Let's be clear what we are witnessing. Seeking to harness the power of the state to deny the rights of conscience to those who disagree with you – as the...

In an open letter to his employer, Home Depot employee Timothy Noffsinger, expressed loud and clear how he feels about the company’s promotion of homosexual behavior.Besides going against his deeply held religious convictions, Noffsinger, a member of Denver Bible Church, expressed in his letter how its aggressive endorsement of homosexuality in the workplace is detrimental to productivity. "What would happen if Craig Menear, Chairman and CEO of The Home Depot (THD), were to appear at the next board meeting in lipstick and a wig wearing a skirt and pantyhose?” Noffsinger asked. “In the midst of such absurdity, could the Board...

Bob Jones III Apologizes For Saying Gays Should Be Stoned By Ed Payne, CNN March 23, 2015 (CNN)Three and a half decades after calling for homosexuals to be stoned, former Bob Jones University President Bob Jones III has apologized. "I take personal ownership of this inflammatory rhetoric," Jones said. "This reckless statement was made in the heat of a political controversy 35 years ago." The weekend apology came days after the conservative Christian school in South Carolina received a petition asking for an apology for a statement Jones made to the Associated Press in 1980 at the White House. "I'm...

“How can you call yourself a Christian, let alone a minister?!” I get asked that question frequently and the questioner is hostile more often than not. Still, I like to answer it if I believe the questioner is sincere. Though I self-identify as a Christian and I am an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I raised eyebrows a few years ago when I posted an article on my website about how my personal beliefs don’t align with those of most Presbyterians. For example, I believe that: - Religion is a human construct - The symbols of faith are...

California State Attorney Kamala Harris may be forced to let petitioners decide if gay people should be executed for having sexual relations. Because Matt McLaughlin, a licensed attorney in Huntington Beach, did everything right by state standards in proposing the “Sodomite Suppression Act,” Harris will likely follow state law and allow a ballot measure to be circulated. The policy would make the “monstrous evil” that is homosexuality a crime punishable by death with “bullets to the head” or whatever form of execution is most “convenient.” If the state fails to do its part in the mass killing of gay and...

California Attorney General Kamala Harris, an announced candidate for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat in 2016, may have to prepare a title and 100-word summary of a ballot initiative titled the “Sodomite Suppression Act,” which calls for anyone participating in homosexual sexual acts to be shot to death by a bullet to the head.

A human rights activist and writer is dismayed that there are no laws that allow the imprisonment of those who state certain offensive positions, such as Bill Maher and Phil Robertson. If the United States were a "civilized country" like those in Europe, Tanya Cohen wrote for Thought Catalog, then Robertson, a reality show star on A&E's "Duck Dynasty," "would have been taken before a government Human Rights Tribunal or Human Rights Commission and given a fine or prison sentence for the hateful and bigoted comments that he made about LGBT people." Among the types of speech that should be...

The University of Minnesota Duluth will begin offering a minor in LGBTQ studies so that students can be better prepared for life in “an increasingly diverse society.” To complete the minor, students will have to take classes such as “An Introduction to LGBTQ” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer), “Queer Theory,” “Queer Media,” “Queer Cinema in International Perspective” and “History of the Homosexual Rights,” Campus Reform reported. “This minor will prepare students for life,” Gesa Zinn, head of the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, told Campus Reform. ” ‘The job’ the LGBTQ minor prepares students for is to understand and...

One of the most admirable things about Europe is that most (if not all) of the right-wing rhetoric that you hear in the US is explicitly against the law there. For example, attempting to link Islam with terrorism, saying that gay marriage isn’t really marriage, or saying that trans women aren’t really women would get you charged with discrimination and/or incitement to hatred. Numerous European public figures have been charged with hate crimes for implying that large-scale immigration is connected to higher crime. In fact, a politician in Sweden was prosecuted for hate crimes for posting statistics about immigrant crime...

Former Brazilian Presidential Candidate Levy Fidelix Condemned to Pay R$ 1 Million for Voicing “Homophobic” View By Julio Severo Former Brazilian presidential candidate Levy Fidelix was condemned by the São Paulo Supreme Court to pay a fine of R$ 1 million (over US$300,000) in a public civil action filed by the LGBT movement. The condemnation, delivered Friday (March 14), deals with declarations that Catholic Fidelix made in an interview in a TV show September 28, 2014, where he said: “The large intestine does not reproduce… How can I, a family man and a grandfather, be afraid of losing votes?...