Free Republic

Inspired by Apple CEO Tim Cook, Virgin founder Richard Branson has taken to his blog to say that businesses should begin standing up against climate change deniers. "While Tim told sustainability skeptics to 'get out of our stock,'" Branson writes, "I would urge climate change deniers to get out of our way." Cook's statements came at a recent shareholders meeting, where he soundly shot down a proposal rooted in climate change denial that would have had Apple putting its bottom line above its interests in sustainability. Cook said that those who would prefer Apple do everything purely for profit simply...

Can banning one school-yard word really change the world? Sheryl Sandberg says yes. Sandberg -- the chief operating officer of Facebook and author of the best-selling book "Lean In" -- is spearheading the launch of a campaign today to ban the word "bossy," arguing the negative put-down stops girls from pursuing leadership roles. "We know that by middle school, more boys than girls want to lead," Sandberg said, "and if you ask girls why they don't want to lead, whether it's the school project all the way on to running for office, they don't want to be called bossy, and...

A Jihad Watch reader attended the Georgetown University presentation on “Islamophobia” last week and kindly sent in this report. I wrote about this presentation here before it happened, saying that it would not be a true academic inquiry, amassing the facts and training the student to make an informed judgment, but an exercise in propaganda, attempting to manipulate attendees into holding certain opinions and skewing the presentation to ensure that those opinions would be the only ones anyone could come away with. This report shows that that was indeed what it was, with professors Daniel Varisco and John Esposito openly...

from the buttle/tuttle dept We've talked a lot over the years about the attempts to get out "ahead of crime" by using computer programs and algorithms to try and predict who might commit a crime. Predictive computing can then either target specific areas or specific people that might be in need of some extra law enforcement attention. Except as we've noted repeatedly, these programs are only as valuable as the data they use. Garbage in, garbage out, but in this case you've got a human being on the other end of the equation whose life can be dramatically impacted by...

(big time BARF ALERT!)When I was a little kid, I used to hear my brothers, cousins, and friends say things like “That’s so gay!” on a pretty regular basis. I would usually laugh along, hoping with all my might that they didn’t know my secret. My parents and other adults in my life would tell me things like “Boys don’t cry” or “Be a man!” which essentially was their way of telling me that being emotional was forbidden or a sign of weakness. When I was a teenager, there were a few boys at my high school who ridiculed me,...

The UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) – which is noted for its support for Hezbollah – yesterday announced the winner of their risible 'Islamophobe of the Year' prize. The winner was none other than our own Managing Editor, Raheem Kassam!

Back when gay rights advocates were first pushing for gay marriage, they claimed that they only wanted equality and that no one would be compelled to participate in gay marriage events.They lied.As soon as gay marriage went on the books, and in some states where it wasn’t even on the books, religious bakeries and photographers were assaulted with demands that they participate in gay ceremonies, sued if they didn’t and ordered to take part in gay ceremonies or face fines… and even jail time.States have responded by trying to pass measures that will protect religious freedom and freedom of...

The NFL could be set for a radical rule change. The new penalty, which will be automatic 15-yards if a player uses the N-word, is set to be introduced during the league’s owner’s meetings in March, according to a CBS Sports report. John Wooten, who heads up the Fritz Pollard Alliance which pays attention to diversity in the NFL, says he expects the NFL’s competition committee to suggest creating a rule penalizing players who use the N-word. The rule would also include the potential for players to get ejected from the game, if they use the word a second time....

Scott Oak and his husband, Jamie Smith, said they heard Black Diamond Police Chief Jamey Kiblinger use the word "fag" repeatedly. "Cops can talk rough, and I understand things like that, but she used it to personally attack me," said Oak, who was a Black Diamond police officer. He left in 2012. His husband said that he heard Kiblinger use the slur in front of them at a work-related party back in 2011. "When she said that, other officers looked around, and she looked around and she put her hand over her mouth like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ She knew she...

Every two years, the National Science Foundation releases a report on the state of science in the U.S. and around the world.... The results of the most recent survey, conducted in 2012 with more than 2,200 adults, have just been released. Here's a list of the questions in the survey... As you'll see, in the words of the report, "many Americans provide multiple incorrect answers to basic questions about scientific facts." Then again, "residents of other countries, including highly developed ones, appear to perform no better." 1. The center of the earth is very hot 2. The continents have been...

Today, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral argument in the case of Wagner v. Jones. Our friend Peter Berkowitz discussed the case in a Wall Street Journal op-ed (it’s behind a pay wall). Teresa Wagner accuses the University of Iowa College of Law of violating her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by refusing to hire her for its legal analysis, writing, and research program due to her strong pro-life views and activism. Her accusation is strongly supported by a comparison of her qualifications for the position and those of the two individuals selected by the law school. Wagner...

I've actually thought about this in a more serious way than this graphic presents. While I understand why anti-bullying campaigns have been springing up I'm noticing that like with all the other "isms" out there people are starting to misuse the term in the same way the left uses "racism" to squelch discussion they don't like.Only yesterday I was part of a Facebook thread about politics where a liberal friend whipped out the "B" word against a conservative friend in reaction to him saying something the liberal friend didn't like.My conservative friend was displaying a different "B" word...backbone. Yet rather...

A Christian college in Wisconsin is dropping its “Crusaders” nickname after nearly 50 years, claiming the moniker has become outdated in a “more global society,” university officials told FoxNews.com. Maranatha Baptist University in Watertown and its Division III athletic teams have used the name since its founding in 1968. Matt Davis, the university’s executive vice president, said no complaints have been received by the school and stressed that it coincides with its name change from Maranatha Baptist College in December. “But I also agree that times change and we understand that context changes,” Davis told FoxNews.com. “Our world has changed...

Another insane cold wave — not the infamous “polar vortex ” but its evil twin — is bringing sub-zero and single-digit temperatures to much of the nation. And global warming may be even more extreme, and potentially more catastrophic, than climate scientists had feared. This is, of course, no contradiction. The rallying cry of the denialists — “It’s really cold outside, so global warming must be a crock!” — can be taken seriously only by those with a toddler’s limited conception of time and space. They forget that it’s winter, and apparently they don’t quite grasp that even when it’s...

That's the title of a new book by Fred Jerome, a compilation of essays from these and other noteworthies: This anthology features essays by revolutionary thinkers, activists, and artists-including Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, civil rights activist Angela Davis, incarcerated journalist Mumia Abu Jamal, and economist Rick Wolff- addressing various aspects of a new society and, crucially, how to get from where we are now to where we want to be, living in a society that is truly fair and just. I suppose that's one way to describe their vision. I might ask the question, "fair and just for whom"?...

An 11-year-old autistic Middleboro boy’s claim that he was sexually assaulted by another youth inside his foster home was dismissed as “consensual” sex by child welfare officials charged with protecting him, in a stunning case the boy’s family and school officials charge was plagued by missteps by the embattled Department of Children and Families. According to DCF investigative reports, police reports and letters, the boy — then 11 but with the cognitive ability of a 5- or 6-year-old, his father told police — was allegedly sexually assaulted by another youth in the foster home while the parents slept during the...

The next time you hear someone dispute that human activity is destabilizing our climate, remember this pie chart. It represents geochemist James Lawrence Powell's review of 2,258 peer-reviewed scientific articles about climate change, written by 9,136 authors, published between Nov. 12, 2012 and December 31, 2013. Of all those hundreds of papers and thousands of researchers, Powell found one article, authored by a single scientist, that attributed climate change to something other than human actions: "The Role of Solar Activity in Global Warming," by S.V. Avakyan, appearing in the Herald of the Russian Academy of Science, Vol. 83, No. 3....

Washington (CNN) – The heated debate over the Washington Redskins name has now moved beyond living rooms and corporate offices to the U.S. government itself, with one agency making an unequivocal ruling that the term "Redskins" is offensive slang. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected an application to trademark the name "Redskins Hog Rind," writing that the term "Redskins" is "a derogatory slang term that refers to, and is considered offensive by, American Indians." The agency cited five definitions from online dictionaries - from The Oxford Dictionary to Yahoo – that labeled the word as offensive or disparaging. In...

Because MSNBC long ago stopped being a news channel in favor of becoming visual left-wing talk radio, the "Lean Forward" network continues to make a fool of itself in ways both big (mocking a black infant) and small. On a slow news Friday, MSNBC rising star Thomas Roberts and a guest spit-balled on the air over how to "combat" the Duck Dynasty clan from doing something legal -- like releasing their own line of firearms:

Homosexual activists are ripping a former homosexual who deserted their ranks and married a woman. Michael Glatze was an activist promoting special rights for homosexuals for an organization called Young Gay America. He saw the truth about the lifestyle through Christ and got out of it, leaving a note on his computer screen at work that read, "Homosexuality is death and I choose life." Glatze recently married a woman and that lit a fire among activists.