Free Republic

<p>Pedophilia is considered to be the most taboo issue in the world. For obvious reasons, those who are known pedophiles live with a huge stigma attached to them. Many of them struggle with pedophilic impulses but don’t act on them - and they have been the subject of much media attention, scientific attention, and psychiatric attention as well.</p>

More than a thousand people protested in central Zürich on Tuesday against the planned arrival of US President Donald Trump in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum (WEF). Trump is due to make a speech at the gathering of international business and political leaders in Davos on Friday. The demonstrators marched through the Swiss city chanting “Trump not welcome”, with some carrying banners and placards reading “dump the Trump” and “Switzerland is hosting Nazis”, an AFP reporter said, putting the turnout at over 1,000. “We are protesting against both Trump and the WEF. The discussions between the richest one percent...

San Francisco supervisors Tuesday voted 10-1 to rename Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples' Day despite a last-minute effort to delay the vote in response to objections from some members of the city's Italian-American community. Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who represents the North Beach neighborhood, where the annual parade on Columbus Day has long since been renamed as the Italian Heritage parade, asked the board to postpone a vote on the resolution after receiving a large number of emails from constituents. "I would like some time to figure out a path forward that works for our indigenous native peoples as well as...

The State Department announced a new $600,000 taxpayer-funded study that suggests "ideals of masculinity" in Kenya are contributing to terrorism.The department's Bureau of Counterterrorism is seeking a nonprofit group to "explore gender identities of boys and men in Kenya." The grant proposal states that men being "tough, heterosexual, aggressive, unemotional, and achieving" can make them vulnerable to joining Islamic extremist groups."Gender is increasingly recognized as an essential aspect to understanding and countering violent extremism throughout the world," the State Department said. "To date, research and interventions on gender in Kenya have predominantly focused on the role of women and girls...

Trust in social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter has reached a new low, a major credibility survey has warned, over concerns they do not do enough to tackle bullying, illegal activities and the spreading of extremist content on their sites. Most people think the online companies are not regulated enough (64 percent) and lack transparency (63 percent), according to the Edelman Trust Barometer. Just over half (57 percent) believe social media firms take advantage of users’ loneliness, and 62 percent think they are selling people’s data without their knowledge. A third (34 percent) do not think social media...

The Norwegian Center Against Racism has criticized Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s newly-formed cabinet for failing to “reflect the population”. Rune Berglund Steen, who is head of the NGO, also said the lack of diversity represented a “democratic problem”. “Even Trump’s government has more people with minority ethnic backgrounds than the Norwegian [government],” Steen, who was speaking to broadcaster NRK, said. Among the 68 ministers and secretaries presented by Solberg as she unveiled the new government on Wednesday, only two appear to be of minority background, according to NRK — State Secretary Anne Karin Olli, who is of indigenous Sami heritage,...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the Republican-led Congress should offer a path to citizenship for DREAMers now and pass a bill that deals with border security and “chain migration later” in exchange for granting “amnesty” to all undocumented immigrants. Rather than waiting until Congress can agree on some sort of comprehensive immigration package, conservatives in Congress have argued that any deal granting legal status to “Dreamers,” called so in reference to the DREAM Act, should be tied to additional border security measures, such as funding for the border wall and legislative language that prevents “chain migration,” or family reunification, in...

In his relentless efforts to demonize the press, Trump capitalized on a media landscape degraded by partisanship and media outlets emphasizing spin at the expense of substance. Donald Trump’s first year in office is drawing to a close, but his war on the media is not. It’s tempting to think we’ve been here before. Every president has considered himself the victim of skewed reporting and baseless slanders, and more than a few distrusted, denounced, and despised the press corps. In fact, most other presidents—including Barack Obama for his liberal Espionage Act prosecutions, and George W. Bush for his White...

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is not done with DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Not even close. The intense tantrum from Booker at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday was due to two things; 1) He’s running for president in 2020; and 2) the “tears of rage” that flowed when he heard about the president’s remarks about immigrants from “s**thole countries,” and why are we letting them come here. Nielsen couldn’t recall the president using this exact language when he said it during a meeting between Democrats and Republicans over immigration, the obstacle that could shut down the government later tonight.

It often looked like Abraham Lincoln wouldn’t survive his first year as president. The mere fact of his election so infuriated seven southern states that they seceded from the Union before he was sworn into office. Rumors of an assassination plot caused him to sneak ignominiously into Washington for his inauguration, disguised in a cap and cloak that for weeks became objects of derision by cartoonists. A horrible first year for one of the nation’s greatest presidents might serve as a source of inspiration for Donald Trump who’s had his own rocky start —except. Except just about everything. Lincoln constantly...

California is poised to meet its goal to reduce greenhouse gases 33 percent, to 1990 levels, by the year 2020. Its targets for use of more renewable energy by that date are, in some cases, already exceeded. ...hold on tight for what comes next. The state’s overarching plan was intended to ease industry and consumers into a carbon-free future bit by bit; ten years in, the training wheels are off. Emissions-reduction must hit 40 percent by 2030 and twice that by 2050. In 12 years, half the state’s energy must come from renewable sources. 14 million buildings must operate twice...

New Jersey has some of the best public schools in the country. But our current system is not operating on a level playing field. While wealthy suburban schools continue to provide rich educational experiences for their mostly white student population, too many Latino and African American students attend segregated schools hampered by intense poverty. We allowed segregation to permeate our state education system for too long, institutionalizing a separate but equal doctrine. New Jersey's schools are among the top five most segregated in the country. This decades-long failure continued under both parties. The Latino Action Network is heartened that Governor-Elect...

The United States embassy in Bern has issued a warning to its citizens in Switzerland to stay away from demonstrations ahead of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. A demonstration alert published on its website said protests were expected in Bern, Geneva, Zürich, Davos and possibly other places in the run-up to the WEF, which begins on January 23rd. The alert, published on January 12th, came a day before a planned demonstration in Bern against the WEF and the visit of US President Donald Trump. Several hundred anti-capitalists took part in a march through the center of Bern on...

When truck driver Chris Gromek wants to know what’s really going on in Washington, he scans the internet and satellite radio. He no longer flips TV channels because networks such as Fox News and MSNBC deliver conflicting accounts tainted by politics, he says. “Where is the truth?” asks the 47-year-old North Carolina resident. Answering that question accurately is a cornerstone of any functioning democracy, according to none other than Thomas Jefferson. But a year into Donald Trump’s fact-bending, media-bashing presidency, Americans are increasingly confused about who can be trusted to tell them reliably what their government and their commander in...

When Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the US last January, politicians in Berlin worried that it could have a dramatic impact on relations between the two allies. A year on, there are reasons for optimism, as well as continued concern. […] Top of the list of German concerns about a Trump administration were his insinuations that the US would no longer automatically come to the defense of Europe in the event of an attack on a NATO member. And the fact that he repeatedly barracked Germany for its trade surplus with the US in his...

Facebook is tweaking what people see to make their time on it more “meaningful” in a move that could hurt publishers and news organizations that rely on it to spread their content. Facebook has said before that it will emphasize personal connections over business pages and celebrities that people follow. But the latest move represents a major shift, one intended to highlight the posts users are most likely to engage with rather than passively consume.The company says people will likely spend less time on Facebook as a result. The changes come as the company faces criticism that social media can...

Washington Governor Claims ‘Just 59 Days’ To Save Children From Global Warming Michael Bastasch 4:47 PM 01/09/2018 Washington state’s Democratic Governor Jay Inslee warned there was “just 59 days” to save future generations from “an endless cycle of crop-killing droughts one year, and rivers spilling their banks the next.” Inslee went on a lengthy Twitter rant in efforts to convince the state legislature to pass legislation to tax carbon dioxide emissions. Washington residents voted down Inslee’s last carbon tax plan by a wide margin in 2016. We have just 59 days to do our part to save our children from...

Golden Globes was an indication she’s preparing to run for the White House. Kristol then took-up the hashtag #ImWithHer — once used by supporters of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — to highlight his support for Winfrey’s worldview. In an email, Kristol said the tweets were "tongue in cheek." "Though if she runs, couldn't she win the Democratic nomination and the general election?" he added. "And wouldn't she be a better president than Trump?"

This is the type of deep thinking in Hollywood today. Actress, singer and producer Connie Britton wore a “poverty is sexist” T-shirt at the Golden Globes.Tell that to the starving Africans. And the media cheered her for her courage. .@conniebritton's #GoldenGlobes tee: "Poverty is sexist." pic.twitter.com/5hDP003bG0— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 8, 2018 The sweater costs around $380… So we know Connie is not suffering.For the record… homelessness mostly impacts men. Mark Dice weighed in… Only women live in poverty, according to this #GoldenGlobes idiot. https://t.co/rcLA30M2ge

Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer says he will spend $30 million to get young voters to the polls for the 2018 midterm elections. Steyer is a former hedge fund manager who has invested some of his wealth into an array of political causes, most notably fighting climate change. […] He says it’s critical for Democrats to “run the table” in the 2018 elections. …