Free Republic

In recent columns, I've mentioned a disturbing trend involving the lack of due process in the adjudication of campus rape cases. The fact of the matter is that rape cases are rarely handled properly on university campuses. They are usually either a) taken too seriously or, b) not taken seriously enough. That is unsurprising, given that rape is both the most over reported and under reported crime in America. To say that rape is the most over reported crime in American is to say that there are more false allegations of rape than of other serious crimes like robbery, burglary,...

I Have Seen Shameful Things By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | April 22nd, 2013 at 04:30 AM | 30 I am an immigration squish. There are jobs Americans won’t do at the existing price point. We have a real need in this country for unskilled workers who will pick domestic crops and do jobs Americans will not do for a low wage. I know a number of people who came here illegally who are harder workers than me, who love this country, and who just want a job. More specifically, I know a number of illegal immigrants — a few of...

MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell made the case this evening that the National Rifle Association is to blame for the slow investigation into the Boston bombings: Video here"There are new developments tonight in the bombing investigation here in Boston," said O'Donnell. "But that investigation could be moving faster were it not for the successful lobbying efforts of the National Rifle Association. The NRA's efforts to guarantee that American mass murderers are the best-equipped mass murders in the world is not limited to murderers who use assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. The NRA is also in the business of helping bombers get...

Actress Daryl Hannah says she suffers for her hard-left activism. The Splash star, talking up her appearance in the new assault on climate change skeptics dubbed Greedy Lying Bastards, says being outspoken in Hollywood comes with a price. CM: Do you think that your acting career has suffered in any way — or that you’ve lost any roles — because of your outspoken activism? DH: I know that’s been the case in some instances, for sure. But that’s OK. The truth is, I’m a human being above all. I love life. And I’d love to see life go on on...

"Arson, vandalism, burglary, grand larceny, firebombing, kidnapping, slander, conspiracy, computer crimes, and theft. If you think this sounds like a rap sheet for a hardened, malicious criminal, you would be close. It's your local neighborhood animal lover and tree hugger gone berserk," ex-Senator Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.) writes. And columnist Todd Wilkinson notes, "Because involved individuals are anonymous, they could be anyone. Parents, teachers, church volunteers, your neighbor or even your partner could be involved." SHAC, a violent anti-medical research organization that has harassed and beaten individuals linked with Huntingdon Life Sciences, now says it will extend its campaign or terror ...

Law: A quarter of a century ago, a good and great man was slandered to maintain liberal judicial power. It was Vice President Joe Biden, who as a senator, led the injustices committed against Judge Robert Bork. The Wednesday morning death of Bork, Ronald Reagan´s failed 1987 Supreme Court nominee, should make us think how much freer and better this country would be if Bork´s intellectual power and constitutional integrity had been present within the justices´ deliberations over the past 25 years. Had Reagan nominated Bork to replace retiring Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1986, when Republicans

Ever since the 1970s, it seems many of our heroes are being toppled—especially by the media and entertainment industry. This happens whether or not such a toppling is deserved. We’re often scolded, “Don’t impose your morality on me,” with no thought given to the immorality they might impose on the rest of us. Now, it looks like Hollywood is ready to impose its immorality on a man who not only doesn’t deserve it, but is not here to defend himself: George Washington. They’re working on a TV series—with complete artistic license—showing the father of our country hopping in bed with...

Flyers claiming to be from a non-existent Tea Party in Medina, Ohio were placed in mailboxes on Monday urging Ohio voters to defeat "the n***er" in the White House to "help keep our country strong and white." The flyers, obtained by Breitbart News, were found in mailboxes along Rt. 252 in Medina County, Ohio. It is against federal law to place such flyers into mailboxes. Amy Brighton, Co-founder and Co-coordinator of Medina Tea Party Patriots, told Breitbart News that these "disgusting" flyers were a "desperate attempt to smear the millions of Americans involved in and supportive of the tea party...

The writer is a new immigrant to Israel who served in the elite IDF Golani Brigade, and is now a political science major and the head of the Zionist student organization Im Tirzu at Bar Ilan University. Earlier this week, the singer Izhar Ashdot was scheduled to appear on Galai Tzahal, the Israel Army Radio station. In his new song, which he was supposed to sing, Ashdot comes out against Israeli soldiers, singing, “In their heart is only hate, evil intention and darkness...they learn cruelly...how to instill fear...how to kill - it's just a matter of habit." When I found...

President Obama spoke to the UN Tuesday, but what he had to say depended on the media outlet reporting it. It was about “optics” according to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow; “free speech” said CBS’s Nancy Cordes and Iran, explained NBC’s Chuck Todd. Not that they’re wrong. It was a 4,000-word speech. Obama covered a lot of ground. But the ground the major media covered conveniently left out was the most provocative line of the entire speech. The president told the UN that the “future must not belong” to a series of people including “corrupt” leaders and those who “bully women.” But...

From the point of view of Muslims, one of Geert Wilders’ many crimes has been to slander Islam. But what does Islam mean by “slander”? The word does not carry the same connotations to a Muslim that it does to a European or an American. One of the most widely respected manuals of Islamic jurisprudence is Reliance of the Traveller, or ‘Umdat al-Salik, by Ahmad ibn Naqib Al-Misri. It represents the Shafiite school — one of the four major schools of Islamic law — and was written in the 14th century. Here’s what al-Misri has to say about slander (quoting...

NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. – Beef Products Inc. sued ABC News, Inc. for defamation Thursday over its coverage of a meat product that critics dub "pink slime," claiming the network damaged the company by misleading consumers into believing it is unhealthy and unsafe. The Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based meat processor is seeking $1.2 billion in damages for roughly 200 "false and misleading and defamatory" statements about the product officially known as lean, finely textured beef, said Dan Webb, BPI's Chicago-based attorney. The lawsuit filed in a South Dakota state court also names several individuals as defendants, including ABC news anchor Diane...

Featured Term (selected at random):DEFAMATION Unjust injury of a person's good name. It consists in telling facts that harm another's reputation. In defamation, there is at least an implicit intention to harm the reputation of another, who is absent and therefore not a witness to being defamed. Defamation may be committed in tow ways: by spreading injurious facts that are true but not publicly known, or by saying things that are false. Since defamation violates commutative justice, it involves the duty of making reparation for the foreseen injury inflicted. Hence the defamer must try, not only to repair the harm...

For once, Harry Reid held his tongue. The Senate majority leader had agreed to participate in a conference call Monday afternoon with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about renewable energy, but it was obvious that the questions would instead be about Reid’s own windiness, and his decision to go nuclear on Mitt Romney last week by suggesting that the Republican presidential candidate didn’t pay taxes for 10 years. The call’s moderator tried to direct reporters away from Reid’s constantly replenishing verbal energy, saying that the “media are asked to focus their questions on today’s announcement only.” Yet even that was too...

Special prosecutor Angela Corey just released more than 120 recorded phone calls that murder suspect George Zimmerman made from the Seminole County Jail... Also released is the statement of "Witness 9," a woman who says Zimmerman is prejudiced against blacks and that he molested her when she was a child.

Unbelievable. The Democrats are looking down the barrel of a humiliating defeat in Wisconsin’s recall election on Tuesday, so today they played their last card: they started a rumor that Scott Walker fathered an illegitimate child 24 years ago. The “scoop” comes from something called the Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op. The “Co-op” attributes the story to a woman named Bernadette Gillick, who teaches physical therapy at the University of Minnesota. Ms. Gillick claims to have known Walker’s girlfriend when they were students at Marquette. The “Co-op” says it has “not been able to independently verify Bernadette’s account.” No surprise there.

The town of Itamar in Samaria has been particularly hard-hit by Palestinian Authority terrorism over the past decade, losing 20 of its 1,000 residents to various attacks. The Fogel family, five members of which were massacred brutally by terrorists as they slept in their beds, lived in Itamar. But in a bizarre twist, residents of the town found themselves accused of being perpetrators of terrorism by Haaretz journalist Neri Livneh in a televised appearance by her last year. Livneh termed Itamar “a settlement populated by particularly violent people,” and claimed, “Someone there commits murder roughly once every two years.” Livneh...

"50 Things you may not know about Rick Santorum......."

It won't shock AT readers to learn that the Left is deceitful, but here's another piece of evidence: a fundraising letter from Ralph Neas's People for the American Way (PAW) arrived in the mail today. The outside of the envelope and the letter inside display a large photo identified as "Demonstrators at Presidential Inauguration." The signs held by these "demonstrators" read: "God Hates Obama," "Fags Love Obama," and "Hell to the Chief." Anyone paying the slightest attention knows that signs with the word "fag" and "God hates..." most likely originate from the despicable Westboro Baptist Church, and sure enough, a...

Not many people get the opportunity to attend seminary. In an amazing way I have attended two. The first was training for the Roman Catholic priest­hood in Ireland and the second at a conservative Evangelical seminary in England. Raised a Catholic . . . but not knowing God Like most boys in the Republic of Ireland in the 1980s, I was brought up a Roman Catholic. My parents taught me to live a good life, say my prayers, and attend mass every Sunday. I believed there was a God, but I didn't know him personally. I prayed as my mother...