Free Republic

A 2,977 flag memorial was ripped out of the ground in front of Mead Memorial Chapel shortly before 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11 by a group of five protestors claiming that the flags were on top of a sacred Abenaki burial site. The flags — meant to commemorate each of the 2,977 lives taken in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks — have been posted in the grass between Mead Chapel and the Davis Family Library annually in a joint effort between the College Republicans and Democrats for nearly 10 years. Ben Kinney ’15, president of the College Republicans, spent...

As of right now, Bill de Blasio is the man to beat in the race to be the next mayor of New York City. The latest polls put him at 43%, which is enough to avoid a run-off in the Democratic primary, and it is widely believed that whoever wins the Democratic primary will sail into office. For the most part, sitting mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has stayed out of the race, but in an extensive interview with New York Magazine the term-limited Independent ripped de Blasio's campaign as "class-warfare and racist":

President Barack Obama faces a clear uphill battle in swaying skeptical lawmakers of the merits of military action in Syria, as top officials were dispatched to Capitol Hill Sunday to make the administration’s case. For example, Senate Democratic aides are drafting new language for an authorization of military force in Syria, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said Sunday. The administration’s proposal is too open-ended — a complaint many lawmakers have — Leahy said after leaving the classified briefing. The current version wouldn’t garner his support, but he indicated that a more tightly written draft might. “I know it’s going to be...

In a week when we celebrated one of the greatest speeches in history, we also saw discrimination win over science. Again. Ideology defeated reason. As a scientist, I was saddened in a way I am not usually wont. The Great State of Vermont threw away cheap clean energy this week out of ignorance and fear. Vermont chose to be stupid, and will hurt the environment as a sidebar.

Former Vermont Gov. and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean showed that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) irritates the left as much as the Republican establishment when he declared that he was fearful that Cruz would one day become president. "God help us if he ever gets to be anything more than the senator from Texas," Dean said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday. Dean was responding to an interview CNN's Candy Crowley had done earlier in the week with Cruz in which Cruz said that he would do whatever he could to encourage a "grassroots tsunami" that would...

A Unitarian church in Middlebury Vermont has been attempting to induce people to give their guns to the Government to be destroyed for a price far below market value.  From wcax.com: Minister Barnaby Feder says he recognizes that guns tend to sell for much more than $50 online, but that he hopes this incentive will at least make people aware of the option to dispose of firearms. So far no guns have been brought to the police department for cash. I do not see anyone organizing massive protests over this clear Church/State cooperation.   The money has been turned over...

BURLINGTON, Vt. — A Bosnian immigrant accused of lying to U.S. immigration authorities by denying involvement in war crimes during the conflict in Bosnia two decades ago pleaded not guilty on Friday. Prosecutors allege Edin Sakoc, who has been living in Burlington, the state's largest city, was involved in war crimes against a civilian Bosnian Serb family in 1992. An indictment says he raped a Serb woman and aided in the killing of the two elderly people she was caring for and the burning of the house they were staying in. ... Vermont has a sizable Bosnian community. Between 1993...

On Friday, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry put forth a theory as to why Detroit inevitably went bankrupt — terminal lack of government. We’ll do our best to explain. While discussing Detroit’s downfall, Harris-Perry and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean agreed that “you’ve got to have a government to run the place.” Harris-Perry noted Detroit’s declining population, and in turn its tax base. The population of the city has declined dramatically over the last 10 years. Mediaite’s Noah Rothman, who calls the MSNBC host’s assessment “delusional,” provides some analysis and facts: Harris-Perry presents this fact as though former Detroit residents left –...

Danilo Lopez will be allowed to stay in the country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says. Lopez, a Vermont migrant-worker-turned-activist from Mexico, advocated for a new law allowing people without legal status to get drivers' licenses. Lopez was scheduled to be deported on July 5. In 2011, Lopez was traveling in a friend’s car when a police officer pulled them over for speeding. Lopez was turned over to Border Patrol, detained and released. Since then, he’s helped Vermont’s migrant worker community get access to driver's licenses. Earlier this year, Lopez said that the campaign for driver's licenses is really...

Express your Christian Belief – Get Fined $30,000Ming Linsley, left, and Kate Baker smile after winning $30,000 from a Vermont Bed and Breakfast. The owners of the Bed-and-Breakfast made the mistake of expressing their religious beliefs to the couple. It cost them dearly. In Vermont – Gay rights trump Religious rights Yesterday, I spoke with Jim Campbell from the ADF about this recent case of Christian persecution. A Bed and Breakfast expressed their religious beliefs to a same-sex couple and ended up paying $30,000 in fines.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Townhall reported on the settlement last year. A Vermont bed and breakfast has settled a...

Israel is concerned that cutting US aid to Egypt because of a military coup could jeopardize the peace treaty. Israel is concerned that the Obama administration will suspend the $1.3 billion annual military aid to Egypt following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, and that suspension of aid could jeopardize the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Israel may ask the US to find a way to continue the aid program, even though US law bans financial aid to regimes that seized power in a coup, US sources told "Globes" yesterday. The sources familiar with the complicated three-way US-Egyptian-Israeli relationship said that keeping...

Good news from Arkansascarry.com: In July, 2013, Arkansas will become the fifth state in the United States to enact “Constitutional Carry” into law. Act 746 of the 2013 General Assembly was signed into law by Governor Mike Beebe on April 4th, 2013, after receiving only one “nay” vote from the legislature. Constitutional Carry occurs in a state when no laws exist that generally restrict the carry of handguns (open or concealed) for self-defense purposes. Arkansas law 5-73-120 currently prohibits the possession of a handgun if it is possessed “readily available for use with a purpose to employ the handgun… as...

Patient autonomy is fast becoming a one-way street. Choose to die by refusing life-sustaining treatment–sacrosanct! Want to live with life-sustaining treatment? Not your call. I recently helped successfully fight an attempt in Texas (SB 303) to legalize no consent DNRs. But they have been passed in VT and MD.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who helped draft the immigration reform bill currently being discussed in the Senate, says he will walk away from the negotiations if it includes a controversial amendment to provide immigration benefits for gay couples. "If this bill has in it something that gives gay couples immigration rights and so forth, it kills the bill. I'm done," said Rubio during an interview on the Andrea Tantaros Show on Thursday. "I'm off it, and I've said that repeatedly. I don't think that's going to happen and it shouldn't happen. This is already a difficult enough issue as it...

N.Y. 3 Feet of Snow: Reversed Global Warming Causes Unusual Amount of Snowfall on Memorial Day Weekend In New York [PHOTOS] 3 feet of snow had just fallen in New York over Memorial Day weekend, and the unusual amount of snowfall sparked speculations that say the extreme weather was caused by reversed global warming. **SNIP** Although during May of last year, the temperature had been going up due to global warming, this year's Memorial Day weekend experienced what some have called "reversed global warming," as the temperature is dropping much more than usual. Residents of New York were surprised to...

Memorial Day weekend is expected to feel more like “winter” for areas of the eastern U.S., according to forecasters at weather.com, with snow possible for parts of the Northeast.

American citizens can be ordered to decrypt their PGP-scrambled hard drives for police to peruse for incriminating files, a federal judge in Colorado ruled today in what could become a precedent-setting case. Judge Robert Blackburn ordered a Peyton, Colo., woman to decrypt the hard drive of a Toshiba laptop computer no later than February 21--or face the consequences including contempt of court. Blackburn, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that the Fifth Amendment posed no barrier to his decryption order. The Fifth Amendment says that nobody may be "compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself," which...

**SNIP** Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, one of Congress' most outspoken liberals and a vehement opponent of chained CPI, warned Obama on Friday morning not to renege on his promise to avoid cuts to entitlement programs and veterans benefits as a way to reduce the deficit. “Millions of working people, seniors, disabled veterans, those who have lost a loved one in combat, and women will be extremely disappointed if President Obama caves into the long standing Republican effort to cut Social Security and benefits for disabled veterans and their survivors through a so-called chained CPI,” he said in a...

Provo-Orem, Utah, is the most religious of 189 U.S. metropolitan areas Gallup surveyed in 2012, with 77% of its residents classified as very religious. Burlington, Vt., and Boulder, Colo., are the least religious, with 17% meeting that threshold. Most of the top religious cities are in the South -- the exceptions are Provo; Ogden-Clearfield, Utah; and Holland-Grand Haven, Mich. The least religious cities are clustered in the Northeast and on the Pacific Coast, with the exception of Boulder and Madison, Wis. The cities referred to in this article are based on the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) as defined by the...

There is a showdown over guns coming to the Senate Wednesday, but no firearms are allowed. In advance of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning, two of the committee’s Republican members sent a complaint that they were refused permission to bring guns to the hearing. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas sent a letter Tuesday night to Chairman Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat, that the purpose of bringing the firearms was to educate fellow Senators and “shatter the mistaken belief that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are a danger to society.” However,...