Free Republic

The Seattle Public school system may be finding itself in more hot water, following dustups over last fall’s “Myth Of Thanksgiving” incident, and last summer’s “Exploring White Privilege” conference. A reliable source has informed ORBUSMAX that at least one Obama supporter was caught openly selling Obama for President t-shirts, “on Seattle Public School premises during an official School District Training” for teachers, yesterday and today, at the Aki Kurose Middle school. The source says they overheard the Obama supporter being told by an attendee of the training on Monday that the table display was inappropriate and may be in violation...

I like to pick up old textbooks from the 1950s and 1960s at yard sales. They are less politically correct. I recently bought a set of children's encylopedias published in 1966. The entry on "communism" was so devastating that I couldn't help chuckling -- I can't imagine it being published today in a reference work. If anyone is interested, I can type in a few paragraphs from the article on communism. All of it is still true.

Teen Screen Lawsuit Advances: Federal Court Affirms Family’s Right to Sue School for Subjecting Teen to Mental Health Test Without Parental Consent SOUTH BEND, Ind.—A federal court has given the green light to a civil rights lawsuit filed by Rutherford Institute attorneys in defense of a 15-year-old Indiana student who was subjected by school officials to a controversial mental health examination without the knowledge or consent of her parents. In ruling that the lawsuit filed on behalf of Chelsea Rhoades and her parents, Teresa and Michael, may proceed to trial, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana...

HOMOSEXUALITY IN AMERICA: PART EIGHT–GAY DESIGNS ON KIDS In Part Six of this series (August 3), I made reference to the designs homosexuals have on America’s children. Aside from my comments on Paul Cameron, Ph.D., nothing evoked more disdain and ridicule from gays than suggesting they were after our kids, which was expected since nothing they are in process of doing–and accomplishing–is more repugnant and hence their defensiveness is understandable. They deny the allegation vociferously but facts are indeed facts. Obviously, homosexuals by definition can’t procreate and therefore their only source of new converts is through recruiting and what better...

Majority Democrats in the California Assembly have rejected two amendments that would have allowed schools to fire any employee discovered to be part of an extremist terror network and require users of school facilities to affirm they are not terrorists. A report from Karen England at the Capital Resource Institute said the amendments were submitted by assemblymen Martin Garrick and Chuck DeVore to a plan that also would allow members of the Communist Party to teach in public schools. "I am appalled that Democrat lawmakers will not agree to these commonsense amendments," said England, executive director of CRFI. "My son...

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Lindsey Ellerson Report: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Planned Parenthood Tuesday that sex education for kindergarteners, as long as it is "age-appropriate," is "the right thing to do." "I remember Alan Keyes . . . I remember him using this in his campaign against me," Obama said in reference to the conservative firebrand who ran against him for the U.S. Senate in 2004. Sex education for kindergarteners had become an issue in his race against Keyes because of Obama’s work on the issue as chairman of the health committee in the Illinois state Senate. "'Barack...

There's a splendid controversy brewing at the University of Chicago--at least we'll consider it splendid so long as it has a happy ending, which now seems likely. The U of C may be best known these days as home to the law school where Barack Obama used to lecture on constitutional law (twice a week!), but in simpler times it was most famous as the academic perch of the great free-market economist Milton Friedman, who died in 2006. So when a prestigious university wants to name a research center after its most celebrated (Nobel prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom, etc.,...

Children learn many useful things from television shows and cartoon characters. They learn letters and numbers from the characters on Sesame Street; Dora the Explorer helps them hone their reasoning and problem-solving skills. Now, a cartoon character is telling them when they should die. He’s a dog in a lab coat named “Professor Schpinkee.” He is a creation of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Planet Slayer website. Kids who visit the website are invited to pay a “game” called “Professor Schpinkee’s Greenhouse Calculator.” But instead of learning letters or numbers—or even how to take a bite out of crime—they learn “how...

Students at a California public school have written a series of letters to Chicago's Heartland Institute, which works to discover and develop free-market solutions to society's problems, attacking its members for "destroying our planet" by refusing to endorse the politics of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" film. According to students in the sixth-grade class of teacher Michael Steria at David A. Brown Middle School, the institute consists of "fools" and "horrible people." "I think your (sic) fools for denying G.W. you know it could kill us all & you're just adding to it. I want you to help stop G.W....

While many on the left are super-sensitive when it comes to any inference of voter disenfranchisement or coercion, their thin skins have emerged when it comes to the ongoing charge of liberal indoctrination in academia, demonstrated by the current rise of all things Obamanation. How else to debunk a conspiracy theory on liberal indoctrination in schools? Try a survey conducted by academics. According to the Associated Press, “The research, to be published later this year in the journal PS: Political Science and Politics, analyzes separate surveys on the attitudes of about 6,800 students at 38 universities and how they changed...

In California, your child's neighborhood bully is likely to be the state. And if the state government can't successfully mandate absolute allegiance to its dictates, then a judicial buddy can do the dirty work.

An evangelical Christian photographer was brought before the New Mexico Human Rights Commission after she declined for religious reasons to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony. When Elaine Huguenin of Albuquerque, N.M., declined in September 2006 an e-mail request from a lesbian couple to photograph their ceremony, one of the lesbians responded by lodging a human rights complaint with the New Mexico Human Rights Division, the state agency charged with enforcing state anti-discrimination laws and sending cases to the commission to be adjudicated.

GLENDALE, Ky. -- Bobby Thorn wanted to be the only boy on his school's cheerleading squad, but that didn't happen. The 13-year-old attends East Hardin Middle School in Glendale, but the controversial decision to cut him from the team expands beyond the district's boundaries. Bobby's mother filed a discrimination claim with the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights two years ago, and now a settlement has been reached. Bobby works with coach Jen Brewer at a gym called Becca's Fliptown, something he's been doing since he was about 5. He's been successful, too, winning trophies for gymnastics and cheerleading. “Bobby's phenomenal,”...

In 1997, the National Association of Social Work (NASW) altered its ethics code, ruling that all social workers must promote social justice “from local to global level.� This call for mandatory advocacy raised the question: what kind of political action did the highly liberal field of social work have in mind? The answer wasn’t long in coming. The Council on Social Work Education, the national accreditor of social work education programs, says candidates must fight “oppression,� and sees American society as pervaded by the “global interconnections of oppression.� Now aspiring social workers must commit themselves, usually in writing, to a...

Bush is no rocket scientist by any stretch, but if there was ever a doubt why Kerry didn't get elected it is moments like this. Wow.

The Maryland State Board of Education has ruled that the right of the state supersedes the rights of parents in teaching children about homosexuality. The Board said the "right (of parents) is not absolute. It must bend to the State's duty to educate its citizens." The ruling means that the teaching of homosexuality as an accepted and approved lifestyle in Maryland public schools can move forward

Of course, there will be the initial criminal investigations and accusations of foul play from those wanting to know if the typical illegal contributions were involved. But what if the Beast was actually sworn in as president? What then? She won't be Queen - at least not after a few years. I mean, c'mon, Americans voting in a large Republican Congress would be obvious after seeing the Clintons in power once more. (Hey, the RATS aren't in the lead by THAT much.) Billy Jeff will be free to troll the grounds for fresh meat. Hillary, with a new stash of...

Communist Re-education in Action by: Matt Hadro, June 18, 2007 Communism may be dead in Eastern Europe, but its influence is alive and well in various areas of the world, even though intellectuals in and out of the Ivory Tower would rather not talk about it. “Why do they kill so much?” Dr. Richard Pipes, Professor of History at Harvard University, asked the audience at the Heritage Foundation. “Yes, they desire to stay in power, but they also have no value of human life.” “Real humans are created by the Communist society.” On the same panel with Dr. Pipes, Tran...

The University of Colorado has sent letters to the 400 students signed up to live next year in the Cheyenne Arapaho dorm — saying they must take a 101 course, or move to another hall. The wide-ranging course explores the history of higher education, and touches on topics including diversity, binge-drinking and the psychology of going away to college... But some professors — who say they support a more tolerant campus — are concerned with how the university is rolling the CU 101 course into its curriculum. Hadley Brown, a newly elected CU student-body president, and the others on her...

04/24/07 Massive Arrest of Chinese and American Christian Leaders in Xinjiang Article Photos China Aid Association Press Release 04/24/07 Tel: (432) 689-6985 Fax: (432) 686-8355 Contact: Bob Fu info@ChinaAid.org www.ChinaAid.org www.monitorChina.org Midland, TX (CAA)-April 24, 2007 Massive Arrest of Chinese and American Christian Leaders in Xinjiang CAA has learned though credible sources that on April 19, 2007 in Akesu city, Xinjiang province, about 30 major house church leaders were arrested when they met with four American Christians Among two American are a senior pastor and an associate pastor of an American church. Sources tell CAA that the four Americans arrived...

As a new School of Ed student hoping to become an English teacher, I'm perfectly used to left-wing academic claptrap. I've already suffered through four years of it as an liberal-arts literature-major undergraduate. Deconstructionism and Derrida ruled the day. But now I'm with the School of Education folks and it's a rather different strain of pseudo-Marxist hogwash. The problem is this: with the Literary Liberals, it was just a zoo of academic dimwits up in the ivory tower babbling to each other. These Education Liberals are the ones teaching the people who will be teaching the children of America; they...

Children will be taught race relations and multiculturalism with every subject they study -from Spanish to science - under controversial changes to the school curriculum announced by the Government. In music and art, they could have to learn Indian and Chinese songs and instruments, and West African drumming. In maths and science, key Muslim contributions such algebra and the number zero will be emphasised to counter Islamophobia. And in English, pupils will study literature on the experiences of migration - such as Zadie Smith's novel White Teeth, or Brick Lane, by Monica Ali. One critic accused Education Secretary Alan Johnson...

SHILOH, Ill. - A picture book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin is getting a chilly reception among some parents who worry about the book‘s availability to children — and the reluctance of school administrators to restrict access to it. Complaining about the book‘s homosexual undertones, some parents of Shiloh Elementary School students believe the book — available to be checked out of the school‘s library in this 11,000-resident town 20 miles east of St. Louis — tackles topics their children aren‘t ready to handle. For now, "And Tango Makes Three" will stay put, said school district Superintendent...

BATAVIA, N.Y. (AP) _ Five parents who asked to transfer their children out of Batavia High School classes with a transsexual teacher have been denied, according to city schools Superintendent Richard Stutzman. The written requests did not meet the guidelines set out by the district, Stutzman said Tuesday without providing specifics. "That's all between the school, the teacher, the parents," he said.......... .

The history of the United States is a tale of constant oppression— a story of a checkered past where political leaders and economic moguls continually acted in their own self-interest… or so many left-leaning history authors would prefer modern Americans to believe. American history has been hijacked by the left wing, where the mistakes of America’s past such as slavery, disenfranchisement, and class warfare are overemphasized, while Franklin D. Roosevelt is simultaneously glorified as the savior of the twentieth century with his New Deal policies. While most textbooks of that nature may cast American history in a bad light and...

Veto threat forced an overhaul, but senator sees progress on rights. State Sen. Sheila Kuehl has given up her hotly contested campaign to force changes in California school curriculum to reflect the contributions of gays and lesbians. Faced with a certain veto by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kuehl unveiled amendments Monday to Senate Bill 1437 that delete any requirement to alter curriculum. "I'm very disappointed that the governor twisted our arms on this," the Santa Monica Democrat said of the amendments, which she said eliminated 90 percent of her bill. Kuehl said she did not talk personally with Schwarzenegger, but that...

College campuses today may seem to house more activist professors than politically charged students. Professors, perhaps recalling their own Vietnam days, are constantly making headlines in campus publications and occasionally national news by voicing their personal opinions about the current administration and the war on Iraq. But for many professors, the greatest worry is an apparent lack of political action in their students. Austin Sarat, a political science professor at Amherst University, longs for the protests of the past: “There was a certain nobility in being gassed. Now you don’t get gassed. You walk into a dining hall and hand...

How much is in a serving? "This guy is overweight," she says, explaining that this is because he eats too much fast food and drinks cola. "And guess what happens?" she asks. "Inside his body there are lots of problems." At a table, a dozen or so refugees - most of them from Africa - sit and nod. Some smile and chat among themselves. They appear to get the picture. This workshop on how to eat American food responsibly is part of an Illinois state-funded programme to improve the nutrition of refugees who are being re-settled in the land of...

Few will know this genetic truth, because the 5-year-old's parents and school administrators have agreed that it's in his best interest to blend in as a female. Mental health professionals have diagnosed Pat - not his real name - with gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person believes that he or she is the opposite gender. After two years of examination, they have determined that he is not simply effeminate or going through a phase. "Gender dysphoria can take place during a fetus' development in the womb," said noted gender specialist and sexologist Marilyn Volker, Ph.D., of Miami. While...

We've deluded ourselves into believing in the myth of the noble and peaceful primitive Nicholas Wade's Before The Dawn is one of those books full of eye-catching details. For example, did you know the Inuit have the largest brains of any modern humans? Something to do with the cold climate. Presumably, if this global warming hooey ever takes off, their brains will be shrinking with the ice caps. But the passage that really stopped me short was this: "Both Keeley and LeBlanc believe that for a variety of reasons anthropologists and their fellow archaeologists have seriously underreported the prevalence of...

Spineless and rude: Ryerson University shows how notto grant an honorary degree National Post Mon 19 Jun 2006 Page: A13 Section: Issues & Ideas Byline: Lorne Gunter Talk about intellectual cowardice and appalling bad manners. Today, Ryerson University will award an honorary science doctorate to Margaret Somerville, one of Canada's most renowned and respected academics. Whenever there is a major debate about medical or bio-ethics anywhere in the world, Somerville will almost certainly be summoned to explain the moral, legal, historical and cultural intricacies. Several networks around the globe call on her expertise. The United Nations, at the highest...

During the lazy, long, hot days of summer, which activity would you rather see your son or daughter engaged in – playing a video game or reading a book? A silly question, right? After all, nearly every parent will say, "Reading a book." But whether that's truly the better activity depends on what book your child is reading. And as I've told readers of this column before, plenty of books designed for today's pre-teens and teenagers undermine the traditional moral values most parents struggle to teach their children. This time of year, kids of all ages come home with...

I must admit that I left the Millersville hearings on academic freedom angry, because I had the nagging feeling that the Pennsylvania House Select Committee was missing the point. I felt like I’d been had. It has been my responsibility to report on the hearings at Temple University and Millersville University for The Campus Report, and I will be attending the final hearings on May 31 and June 1, as well as reading the committee’s report when it comes out. When I learned of the committee several months ago, I had high hopes for Pennsylvania students that the investigation by...

ABC News reporter John Stossel once did a show called "Tampering With Nature" in which he quizzed schoolchildren on their perceptions of the health of the environment. He asked the children "whether America's air and water were getting more polluted. The kids loudly agreed that they were," recounted Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute in a July 2001 article. "When Stossel told the kids that Environmental Protection Agency monitoring shows the air and water getting rapidly cleaner, they shouted 'No!' One little boy yelled 'They lie!'" Not much has changed. Environmental alarmism remains dominant in the popular culture. But there's...

An open letter to the Judson Independent School District: First, I would like to thank those who have dedicated themselves so energetically to banning my novel, "The Handmaid's Tale." It's encouraging to know the written word is still taken so seriously. That thought aside, I would like to congratulate the students, parents and teachers who have supported the use of my book in Advanced Placement courses. They have aligned themselves against the censors, book-banners and book-burners throughout the ages and have stood up for open discussion and a free expression of opinion — which, last time I looked, was still...

Parents will be surprised -- at times shocked -- to learn that leading colleges and universities have used the February Black History Month to lash out angrily at whites, to spread socialist ideas, and to honor the Black Panthers, according to a statement released by the Young America's Foundation. They claim that missing from many Black History Month campus activities were positive messages and discussions about the accomplishments that blacks have made in business, education, government, and science. They also complain that "too few black conservative speakers, such as Ward Connerly, Walter Williams, and Star Parker, were invited to provide...

Every now and then, Hillary Clinton lifts the curtain and gives the world a peek at her real views. It's not pretty. New York's junior senator spoke this week to the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp., raising the issue of tax-funded school vouchers — which many reformers see as a key tool, one that gives parents immediate alternatives to public schools that are failing to educate their kids. Now, vouchers face a major obstacle in New York: The state constitution's Blaine Amendment arguably bans sending public funds to parochial schools. Then there' the implacable opposition to vouchers of the...

Here's Hillary Clinton going bananas over school vouchers, via FNC's Hannity and Colmes: Download and watch the video (Windows Media file). Hillary screeches that providing inner-city and poor students with more choice in education will lead to a a "school of the Church of the White Supremacist " and a "School of the Jihad." Transcript: CLINTON: Suppose that you were meeting today to decide who got the vouchers. First parent comes and says 'I want to send my daughter to St. Peter's Roman Catholic School' and you say 'Great, wonderful school, here's your voucher. Next parent who comes says, 'I...

The assumption that America's campuses are impenetrable bastions of liberalism--where left-leaning faculty predominate, progressive student activism flourishes and conservatism is fiercely marginalized--still rules the day. But in reality, since the 1970s the conservative movement has become the dominant political force on many American campuses.... "We didn't have our act together," says Joshua Holland, a fair-trade and antiwar activist.... "We tried to keep things nonhierarchical and loosely structured, but at the end of the day... we weren't getting anything done." ...At the University of North Carolina senior Jessica Polk says students have long been "sick of what the left is doing--they...

Written in the text of “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution” is something I believe with my heart and soul, “Freedom requires us to live as self-reliant individuals, to think for ourselves, to solve our own problems, to cope with uncertainty and change, and to assist and respect others.” Only if those living under the protection of our Constitution understand this, can we maintain our way of life. This requires an educated citizenry that understands the responsibilities inherent in a “Democratic Republic.” The WTP authors make it clear that the Founders believed that good “Citizens are made, not...

Have you ever noticed how self-righteously outraged liberals become if you DARE to accuse them of being sympathetic to communism? They will accuse you of trying to smear them as well as go into a "How dare you question my patriotism?" mode. However, if you actually READ what the DUmmies and their leftist cohorts actually say to each other on the subject of communism, you will see not only sympathy but flat out LOVE for communism as you can see in this DUmmie THREAD titled, "Why do some people (DU'ers too) think that Communism is the worst?" As usual,...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — New Mexico State University's (search) mascot, Pistol Pete (search), is being disarmed. University officials have also stripped the word "Pistol" from Pete's name. The new logo shows Pete twirling a lasso. The old Pete toted a pistol. The changes are part of a marketing plan to remake the university's image on the national stage. Officials have been working on a redesign of Pistol Pete for months. Athletics director McKinley Boston (search) said the university plans to unveil the new Pete later this month. The decision to remove the pistol had more to do with a consensus...

Latest breaking news . . . After one year of gay "marriage" in Mass: Hard-core pornographic homosexual "how-to" booklet given to hundreds of kids at Brookline High School April 30 - see links below! Titled "The Little Black Book - Queer in the 21st century", contains deadly misinformation on health. Written by Boston-based "AIDS Action Committee" with help from Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston Public Health Commission. Funded also by major corporations, universities, even charities. At statewide "Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network" conference held at Brookline High School for children and teachers to promote homosexuality in schools, elementary through...

The Montgomery County public school system plans to revise its sex-education course, but it first must face the daunting task of reconciling the groups that support and oppose it. Supporters say they are trying to offer a factual and scientific presentation of human sexuality, including homosexuality, while fending off the repressive impulses of conservative Christians. Opponents say they are trying to separate fact from opinion in the course and provide the traditional moral views about sexuality that the curriculum ignores or dismisses as being wrong. Negotiations on the curriculum over the next seven months will determine how children in one...

The link (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44185) is to an article about interesting resolution that has been submitted for consideration at the next the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. The resolution encourages every SBC church to investigate whether the school district in which it is located has either a homosexual club or any curriculum or program that attempts to influence children to accept homosexual behavior as a legitimate lifestyle. If the school district has any of these, the resolution urges churches to inform parents of this fact and encourage them to remove their children from the district’s schools immediately.

Teacher Resource Materials for Montgomery Curriculum Called Too Judgmental As chairman of the 27-member committee overseeing the rewrite of Montgomery County Public Schools' sex education curriculum, David Fishback, the father of two, knew he was venturing into sensitive territory....snipBut when a federal judge this month issued a 10-day order blocking the school system from teaching the curriculum that for the first time would have allowed teachers to initiate discussions about homosexuality in eighth grade and would have offered a seven-minute video on how to put on a condom to 10th-graders, Fishback was shocked at the reasoning.It wasn't the carefully worded...

“In fact, the breadth and extent of the anti-evolutionary movement that has spread almost unnoticed across the country should force American politicians to think twice about how their public expressions of religious belief are beginning to affect education and science. The deeply religious nature of the United States should not be allowed to stand in the way of the thirst for knowledge or the pursuit of science. Once it does, it won’t be long before the American scientific community—which already has trouble finding enough young Americans to fill its graduate schools—ceases to lead the world.” That is the editorial voice...

Two parent-backed groups filed a lawsuit against a Maryland school district today to block a sex-ed curriculum that advocates homosexual behavior and includes a video illustrating condom usage using a cucumber. Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, or PFOX, complain the pilot program for 8th through 10th grade in six Montgomery County Public Schools, scheduled to begin Thursday, presents sexual variations and behaviors, including homosexuality, as morally equivalent to traditionally accepted norms. The curriculum never refers to husband and wife, but, instead, redefines family as "two or more people who are joined together...

SpongeBob in crosshairs The New York Times WASHINGTON — On the heels of electoral victories to bar same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said that SpongeBob's creators have enlisted SpongeBob in a “pro-homosexual video,” in which he appeared with other children's television characters. The makers of the video, Dobson said, plan to mail it to thousands of elementary schools this spring to promote a “tolerance pledge” that includes tolerance for differences of “sexual identity.”

No Name Calling Week?     1/12/2005By Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D.Yes, name-calling is wrong. But this event’s sponsors reveal the agenda behind banning it. “There is a special place in hell for people like you!” These words were directed at me by a teacher during this past summer’s National Education Association (NEA) convention in Washington, D.C. This delegate to the NEA convention made his prediction in response to my presence at the NEA’s Ex-Gay Educators’ Caucus booth in the convention exhibit hall. His cheery salutation caught me off-guard given the message of tolerance and acceptance I had been hearing around the exhibit hall....