Free Republic

This Halloween, Hampshire College students — and Americans who care about free inquiry — have reason to be spooked. As part of its “Hampshire Halloween” celebration, Hampshire’s “Hype Committee” scheduled a performance by Afrobeat band Shokazoba. But that decision quickly turned sour. As Hampshire carefully explained, some students asked “whether [Shokazoba] was a predominantly white Afrobeat band and express[ed] concerns about cultural appropriation and the need to respect marginalized cultures.” Shokazoba keyboardist Jason Moses explained in emails that it began when someone posted, “lol leave it to hampshire to book a bunch of white folks playing afrofunk” on the event’s...

In early October, I posted a blog entitled "Dear Texas: Please Secede" that advocated kicking Texas as well as Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and perhaps other Southern states out of the USA because they have an inferior culture and their stupidity and greed has had a negative effect on the nation from Day One. Since then, I have read even more articles about two kinds of secession -- Southern states leaving the USA and rural conservatives in liberal states seeking to form their own state. It's clear that the partisan divide in Washington, D.C., and in numerous states has become so...

Today being United Nations Day, and with Halloween next week, I thought this was appropriate-

FOX Sports Southwest hired former NFL running back Craig James as an on-air analyst only to fire him days later. The move came after statements he made on gay marriage while campaigning for the Senate resurfaced. "People choose to be gay," he said during an April 2012 campaign stop. "I think it's a choice, I do. Same-sex marriage, if someone chooses to do that, that's done. And God's going to judge each one of us in this room for our actions. And in that case right there, they're going to have to answer to the Lord for their actions." James...

Los Angeles public schools are encouraging teachers and staff to wear badges that identify them as “LGBT allies” and supporters of the pro-gay movement. Superintendent John Deasy kicked off the effort Thursday, which he said was necessary to prevent gay kids from being bullied. “We want all our youth and staff to know that it is safe to be you in LAUSD,” said Deasy in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. The move is part of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center’s “Out for Safe Schools” initiative. The front sides of the badges have the word “ally” written on...

An estimated 20 players from the Ole Miss football team reportedly disrupted the university theater department's performance of "The Laramie Project." The play covers the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay male student from Laramie County, Wyoming.

Comments can be bad for science. That's why, here at PopularScience.com, we're shutting them off.It wasn't a decision we made lightly. As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide. The problem is when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former, diminishing our ability to do the latter.That is not to suggest that we are the only website in the world that attracts vexing commenters. Far from it. Nor is it to suggest that all, or even close...

No excerpt from IHE allowed, story here. To summarize, an engineering education magazine publishes a letter by a professor critical of homosexuality, and many are appalled.

Absolute equality is absolute despotism. This statement is becoming truer every moment in which the Sodomite agenda is incessantly advancing over the moral infrastructures, and they are not doing so without destroying lives. Look at the decree that was just passed in San Antonio, TX, which now prohibits all those in political office from being bias toward homosexuals. Homosexuality is not a right, and sodomite marriage is not even recognized in the state of Texas, yet the reprobates are not stopping in their endeavorment to make everyone accept them. Now let me make one thing clear, this bill is not...

(Newser) – Do you send your kids to private school? Then congratulations: "You are a bad person," Allison Benedikt argues in Slate. "Not bad like murder bad—but bad like ruining-one-of-our-nation’s-most-essential-institutions-in-order-to-get-what’s-best-for-your-kid bad. So pretty bad." Her reasoning is simple: if everyone were invested in public schools—and not just monetarily invested, "but real flesh-and-blood-offspring" invested—they would get better. Involved parents can make a huge difference. Yes, your kid may not get as excellent an education. "Take a deep breath and live with that." "If you can afford private school," even just barely, "chances are that your spawn will be perfectly fine...

On a good day, transgender people can expect entirely well-meaning journalists and commentators to screw up what pronoun to use when describing one of their own in the news. (The Times and Associated Press are at least trying.) But Fox & Friends leaped into the lead this morning for the most bigoted and insensitive handling of Chelsea Manning by a major news organization when it played the Aerosmith song "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" to tease a segment. In case you didn't catch the subtle reference, the song's title was displayed in the upper left corner of the screen. "That's...

San Antonio City Councilwoman District 9 Elisa Chan enters a briefing room for a press conference at City Hall, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013. In a secret recording by former staff member James Stevens on May 21, Chan condemned homosexuality and described it as "disgusting". At the press conference, Chan reiterated her rights to free speech and personal opinions. "Political correctness will not win this dayÉ.I stand strong in my First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech," she said.     GetEQUAL Texas has issued a travel advisory for LGBT people considering visiting San Antonio. “GetEQUAL TX alerts those traveling...

There is a new case in the never ending war waged by homosexual activists on people of faith. From the Washington Post: "The state Bureau of Labor and Industries will investigate whether Sweet Cakes by Melissa violated a 2007 state law that protects the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people in employment, housing and public accommodations, The Oregonian...reported Wednesday. In her complaint, Rachel N. Cryer, 30, said she went to the Gresham bakery on Jan. 17 for an appointment to order the cake. She met with owner Aaron Klein, who asked for the date and names of the...

OFA volunteer at Climate Day Action in Huntington Beach calls for the arrest of Congressman Rohrabacher and anyone who opposes the government. He says opposing the government is treason.

The Obama-loving media are totally apoplectic about revelations of a rodeo clown wearing an Obama mask during a bull riding competition Saturday at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia. Maybe these folks should report that these things aren't that unusual at such events, and that in 1994, a bull attacked a dummy wearing a George H.W. Bush mask without the world coming to an end, anybody being fired, or any press outrage.

The Missouri State Fair has banned for life a rodeo clown who wore a Barack Obama mask during a bull-riding competition and suggested that “Obama” might be run down by an angry bull. “Hey, I know I’m a clown,” the still-unidentified performer said. “He [Obama] is just running around acting like one. Doesn’t know he is one.” Many in the audience were amused; at least some were offended. The event was captured on home video, which quickly made the rounds of news reports. In a press release Monday, the State Fair said, “the statements and actions Saturday night were inappropriate...

A Florida beach safety officer was fired on Friday after he referred to Trayvon Martin as a “thug” on his personal Facebook page. Todd Snipes, a beach officer of 15 years who was stationed about 40 minutes from where Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Fla., was initially suspended for the post he made on Facebook last month. “Another thug gone,” Snipes wrote the night of George Zimmerman’s acquittal. “Pull up your pants and be respectful. Bye bye thug r.i.p.” In his termination letter, Department of Public Protection Director George Recktenwald wrote that Snipes had “engaged in behavior that threatens...

Eastern Michigan University hosted a day-long conference Saturday that dared to ask the question: “Is Islam a Religion of Peace?” Leaders of the state’s Muslim community apparently didn’t care to hear the answer because they tried mightily to get the conference cancelled. “We respect the freedom of speech,” claimed Victor Begg, senior advisor of the Michigan Muslim Community Center. “However, denying the Holocaust, yelling ‘fire’ in a theater, or glorifying Hitler would not constitute freedom of speech.” In other words, anyone who wonders aloud whether Islam truly is the peaceful religion its adherents claim is on a moral par with...

George Carlin is rolling over in his grave. The New York City Department of Education is waging a war on words of sorts, and is seeking to have words they deem upsetting removed from standardized tests. Fearing that certain words and topics can make students feel unpleasant, officials are requesting 50 or so words be removed from city-issued tests. The word “dinosaur” made the hit list because dinosaurs suggest evolution which creationists might not like, WCBS 880′s Marla Diamond reported. “Halloween” is targeted because it suggests paganism; a “birthday” might not be happy to all because it isn’t celebrated by...

An editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press has been fired after adding a pithy headline to a piece critical of President Obama's stimulus plan. Author Drew Johnson announced on Twitter that he had been fired: I just became the first person in the history of newspapers to be fired for writing a paper's most-read article. The Times Free Press published the piece Tuesday under the headline "Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough." Johnson has admitted the headline was his idea but claims headlines are changed routinely. A statement published by...