Free Republic

A lone pianist touched the emotional core of Western sensibilities when he played John Lennon’s “Imagine” outside the Bataclan theatre in Paris, where concert-goers were murdered by Islamist gunmen last weekend. The pianist was reportedly watching a France v Germany soccer game when the attacks began. He said that he “just knew he had to do something.” It was his “duty” to pay tribute to the victims of the Paris attacks. So he drove 400 miles through the night from Konstanz, Germany to Paris.

The layers that obscure the truth are burying humanity in large numbers. Yes, Paris was burning again and those flames and the dead bodies may well be a grim foreshadowing of what the future holds. I was in neighboring England the night the massacre scattered across Paris took place, as people going out to enjoy a dinner or concert or a football game were the targets of hate-filled and ruthless killers. The newspapers the next day had similar words: “Carnage”; “massacre”; “assassination”; “murder”; “blood”; “death”; “screams”; “terror,” and so on. Television programming was preempted and viewers were cautioned that...

Originally posted on Facebook, U.S. Marine Marcus Rogers created a video discussing the spiritual forces behind the Islamic State (ISIS), along with the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

The Eugenics Disaster by Randy J. Guliuzza, P.E., M.D. * Evidence for Creation Imagine yourself a young woman diagnosed as “feeble-minded” and trapped in legal proceedings. You take the defense of your personal autonomy to the Supreme Court and finally hear your name in this decision: Carrie Buck “is the probable potential parent of socially inadequate offspring, likewise afflicted, that she may be sexually sterilized without detriment to her general health and that her welfare and that of society will be promoted by her sterilization,” and thereupon make the order. [The “order” is compulsory submission to “the operation of salpingectomy…for...

And what is “micro-aggression?” What can that possibly mean? A raised eyebrow? A snicker? An eye-roll? An opposing point of view? Seems like it could be almost anything, which is convenient if what you want to do is pitch a public fit. The situation is ridiculous and made even more so by the fact that anyone anywhere is taking these kids seriously. Though maybe we should -- there’s some obvious mental derangement problems on our campuses.

Jesse Watters on white privilege: "I'm also tall, athletic, smart and rich - should I apologize for that too?" Charming as ever, Bill O'Reilly's bloodhound Jesse Watters went to the University of Missouri to hector students about race, gender and sexuality. Watters' stuck to his shtick, using "common sense" interpretations of phrases with specific meanings to prove that college campuses are no place for men-of-the-people. For example, he asked one woman if he was in her "safe space," and when she said he wasn't, he took a step closer to her and asked, "what about now?" Deliberately confusing the concept...

Deb Howard of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America spoke to a packed room at South Church on Sunday afternoon. She was invited by Valerie Fagin, one of the social justice associates of South Church, who introduced Howard. “Since the Newtown (Connecticut) shootings three years ago, I’ve wanted to do something,” Fagin said. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown when 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and six adult staff members. “We know what to do, but we’re not getting it done,” said Howard of North Hampton and a mother...

Is anyone really surprised? In what is quickly beginning to look like a bad case of copycat hysteria, yet another American campus of higher learning has produced an uprising. It’s taken root among students who find certain people to be insufficiently enthusiastic about their agenda and they are calling for the removal of people from their positions and staging hunger strikes. This time it’s at the University of Kansas and the targets aren’t the school administration, but the elected student council. (HuffPo)

'First, do no harm" is a guiding principle for physicians, warning against interventions that would make a patient's life worse. Regulatory agencies should follow it too, as they can harm millions of patients. The Obama administration's final "Clean Power Plan" is a prime example. Finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency in August, the regulation requires states to sharply reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, closing low-cost power plants and replacing them with more expensive sources. While President Obama touts the supposed health benefits, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy recently admitted that "low-income minority communities would be hardest hit" by the regulation.

....The newest ad for Barbie’s Moschino doll line features a new figure for the first time ever — a boy. “Moschino Barbie is so fierce!” the boy yells before placing a designer purse on the doll’s arm. The ad features him and two girls touting Mattel’s already popular line that includes clothes and accessories from the fashion designer Moschino. The ad, released earlier this month, is the latest in a series of steps to remove gender from toy shopping.

We shouldn't allow this isolated event in Paris to take our eye off the ball. After all we have our President, Secretary of State and top Democratic candidate focused like a laser beam on the most dangerous threat to our freedom; climate change. They are showing true leadership. Al Gore was doing a 24 hour webcast at the Eiffel Tower Friday the 13th on climate change. If only the terrorists had been listening maybe they could have understood how much we cared and the attack wouldn’t have happened. Thank goodness France is a gun free zone. That kept them safe.

The Dartmouth Review, campus newspaper of the Ivy league Dartmouth campus, reported on the chaos a group of Black Lives Matter protesters brought to their campus over the weekend. The newspaper reported: "The tactics, tone, and words of the Black Lives Matter protesters eerily mirrored everything they claim to stand against." "Those who tried to close their doors were harassed further. One student abandoned the study room and ran out of the library. The protesters followed her out of the library, shouting obscenities the whole way," according to the Review. "'Stand the f-k up!" "You filthy racist white piece of...

Random thoughts on the passing scene: Some financial institutions may be considered "too big to fail," but contemporary Western society may be too frivolous to survive. The Romans had bread and circuses to keep the masses passive and unthinking. We have electronic gadgets, drugs and pornography. Like the Roman Empire, we too may decline and fall. What happened in Paris may be just the beginning. With the "global warming" zealots predicting catastrophic consequences over the next century, I wonder if anyone has studied how accurate five-day weather forecasts turn out to be. Cheap shots at the police by politicians and...

Donald Trump is brilliant. Trump is a chess master. His instincts about immigration and the border were 100 percent on the money. First of all, with the terrible Islamic State terrorist attack in Paris, immigration and our open border with Mexico just became the No. 1 issue in America. All the presidential candidates are now playing on Trump’s home turf. Trump is in command of the most important issue in America. Next, always remember Trump wrote the book on negotiation. It’s called “The Art of the Deal.” Well his new book should be called “The Art of the Immigration Deal.”...

Donald Trump says he's now more against allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S. than ever, warning it could be a way for terrorists to sneak into the country. "We have no idea who these people are, we are the worst when it comes to paperwork," Trump said Monday on CNBC. "This could be one of the great Trojan horses." Trump has been saying for weeks on the campaign trail that the U.S. should not accept refugees from the civil war torn country, and he says he's only standing by that position stronger in the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks...

Pundits and professors love to divide conservatives into camps, specifically, economic vs. religious. Like most of the dichotomies they concoct, it is a false one. At the Family Research Council last Thursday, Catholic University professor Jay Richards showed that there is an overwhelming overlap among countries that score highly on both the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom and the Pew Research Center survey of religious liberty, outliers such as Singapore notwithstanding. Moreover, in this country alone, the lawsuit that the Little Sisters of the Poor brought against Obamacare shows the startling degree to which the interests of secular libertarians...

Barack Obama's presidency has been pockmarked by rioting, looting and protests. That's no coincidence. It's what the former community organizer sought from Day One. And it's just going to get worse before he leaves office. The senseless protests we're seeing break out on the campuses of the University of Missouri, Yale and other colleges, as well as on bridges and highway overpasses and outside police stations, are precisely the kind of thing Obama was trained to organize while attending leftist agitation schools founded by Chicago communist Saul Alinsky. He learned to a fare-thee-well how to "rub raw the sores of...

Endorsing Bernie Sanders will cost you – big time!This works on two levels… His socialist ways will leave your pockets empty.Hi, Ronda. Or, should I say former champ? Check out what goofball Sanders thinks is the biggest threat America faces…From Breitbart via WZ: Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said on Saturday that climate change is directly related to terrorism."In fact, climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism," said Sanders."And if we do not get our act together and listen to what the scientists say, you're going to see counties all over the world...they're going to...

A Democratic candidate for Minnesota state representative is ending his campaign because of backlash to a post he made on social media about the Islamic State. Dan Kimmel, a software developer and self-described "business process expert" from Burnsville, Minn., posted a tweet Saturday night that said "ISIS isn't necessarily evil. It is made up of people doing what they think is best for their community. Violence is not the answer, though." His tweet came a day after attacks in Paris left 128 dead and at least 350 injured. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. Kimmel has since deleted the statement and...

[Snip]...On Tuesday, November 10, the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) — the undergraduate student government at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (UMN) — rejected a resolution for a moment of recognition on future anniversaries of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks…."I am well aware that 9/11 was a devastating tragedy but I am also fearful for the welfare of our Muslim and Middle Eastern students on campus, of which I identify with."