Free Republic

U.S. spies and cops are vacuuming up huge amounts of data about Americans from data brokers — a trend that puts us on a dangerous path already trodden out by authoritarian regimes such as China. In America, we curtail government powers and guarantee civil liberties by limiting the amount of information citizens provide to the state. Police need a warrant to strap a GPS device on your car or listen to your telephone calls. Intelligence agencies and military units are banned from targeting Americans for surveillance and are supposed to focus their attention overseas.

With hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed over the past year, both at the federal level and in state legislatures across the country, it’s a difficult time for the queer community. Republican politicians, far-right online personalities, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists have launched vicious attacks against the community, especially drag queens and transgender people. June is usually a celebration for the LGBTQ+ community, but this year many have found it challenging to enjoy Pride like in previous years. They’ve been traumatized by the nonstop vitriol and threats of violence. So how can you take care of yourself this year? The onslaught of...

The Biden administration's disinformation czar claimed in a book she authored this year she will not be "silenced" on social media as she pushed back against what she considered to be "harassment" from men whenever she shared opinions online. She claims the "infrastructure of the internet is built for men." In her recent book, "How to Be a Woman Online," Nina Jankowicz raises concerns on a number of subjects surrounding the backlash women face online, placing great focus on how men respond to what she has to say. "We accept that harassment of women is simply the cost of their...

Just take a second or two to think about successful people with disabilities. How many names from the fields of politics, sports, music, business, science or from movies – dead or alive – come to mind? It’s an interesting question and I was curious to find out what would happen when the American public are asked whether they can name any successful people with disabilities, so I commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct a representative survey in February 2021. The survey’s respondents were asked to name up to three people. The survey found that 51 percent of Americans could not name...

Victimhood is a currency on the left. In fact, it’s THE currency on the left, better than Bitcoin. The more you can claim for yourself the higher esteem you are held in among the intelligencia and elitists who seek to control the people of this country. That’s why there is this scramble, this desperate fight, even by wealthy leftists to claim they’re somehow a put-upon victim.The latest piece of performance art in the quest for the ultimate status on the left comes from Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post.Capehart has an estimated net worth between $1 and $5 million, which...

Having frequently driven by the Manzanar Internment Camp in California, I’m reminded of what fear of the “other” can do. Americans allowed the un-American incarceration of loyal Japanese citizens because of their ethnicity. At times, we have treated Jews and the Irish with contempt, distance, and ethnic racism. Slavery was terrible and a blot on American history. But while slavery is still alive and well in parts of the world even today, America found a way to end slavery and affirm our values of equality for all. Of course, there is no total equality of opportunity or results anywhere. You...

Embattled Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes is a victim who has been "totally attacked," venture capitalist Tim Draper told CNBC on Tuesday. Holmes has been under fire since a series of reports by The Wall Street Journal suggested the blood-testing start-up's testing devices were flawed. "Elizabeth Holmes is a great example of maybe why the women are so frustrated. She is a woman entrepreneur who built a fabulous company, did great things for consumers and she got attacked," the founding partner of Draper Associates and Draper Fisher Jurvetson said in an interview with "Closing Bell." "This is a great entrepreneur who...

This from the city of the Boston Marathon jihad bombing. Hugh Fitzgerald over at Jihad Watch explains: Hugh Fitzgerald: Boston Police Commissioner William Evans: “We’re All Muslims Deep Down” “Veterans, troubled by rhetoric, rally support of Muslims” reads the headline to a story in the print edition of today’s Boston Sunday Globe (online yesterday it was “Local veterans hold rally in support of Muslims.”) It described a group, Veterans for Peace, that felt it simply had to stand up on behalf of Muslims in Massachusetts whom, we were told, are feeling terribly put upon because of the “politics of...

Two Charged With Murdering Pastor's Wife Amanda Blackburn by Ali Gostanian, Alexander Smith and Tracy Connor

Though everything inside of me wants to hate, be angry, and slip into despair I choose the route of forgiveness, grace and hope, he said in a statement. If there is one thing Ive learned from Amanda in the 10 years we were together, its this Choosing to let my emotions drive my decisions is recipe for a hopeless and fruitless life. Today I am deciding to love, not hate.

DAYTON-- Identical women's and men's products are being sold at different price points in Ohio. The phenomenon is known as "pink tax," and we put some products to the test. One-a-day "Pro Edge" vitamins, 50 count, are packed in the same sized box just different colors; the women's vitamins cost $9.49, while the men's cost $7.99. Up&Up women's shave gel for dry skin relief costs $2.39, while the identical product for men, packaged in a blue cartridge rather than pink, costs $1.87. The Gillette Fusion men's razor with five blades and packaged with two extra cartridges costs $10.79, while the...

The White House has still refused to name the “American Muslim leaders” with whom President Obama met to “discuss a range of domestic and foreign policy issues.” According to a White House statement on the President’s meeting, the domestic issues discussed were the “Affordable Care Act, anti-Muslim violence and discrimination, the 21st Century Policing Task Force, and the upcoming White House Summit on Countering Violence Extremism.” On the foreign policy front, “the President discussed the need to continue countering ISIL and other groups that commit horrific acts of violence, purportedly in the name of Islam,” while also congratulating Muslims on...

According to the latest census data, African Americans make up just over 13% of the US population. That means out of the 317 million people living in the USA, there are about 41 million blacks -- just over the total population of California. However, looking at the popular culture you'd never know that. Black music dominates popular music. Black culture is how most people define "cool." And most of all, what might offend blacks dominates popular culture, media, education, and entertainment. Fred Reed writes:

Adults are awful. Is there anything adults don’t eventually ruin? The economy was ruined by adults, the national debt was rung up by adults. Wars, famine, you name anything and somewhere there’s an adult somewhere on the verge of ruining it. The ruining of things was generally reserved for adulthood, making things more expensive or illegal for adults to engage in. But kids, well, they’d been left largely alone to be kids. Over the last few decades the line of fun ruining has been creeping down, younger and younger, to the point now that kids have gone from being kids...

On Christmas morning, a man drove up to the Islamic Cultural Center in Fresno, threw rocks through the windows, and then entered the center and destroyed things inside. The local ABC outlet, KFSN, reported Friday that “Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer says it is clear the incident is a hate crime which is why the FBI is also investigating this case.” But on Saturday, it turned out that the incident was not an “anti-Muslim hate crime” at all: the vandal was Asif Mohammad Khan, a Muslim. The destruction at the Islamic Cultural Center in Fresno was yet another in a...

<p>On Tuesday, Slate and everyone else posted a video of a woman who is harassed more than 100 times by men as she walks around New York City for ten hours. More specifically, it’s a video of a young white woman who is harassed by mostly black and Latino men as she walks around New York City for ten hours. The one dude who turns around and says, “Nice,” is white, but the guys who do the most egregious things—like the one who harangues her, “Somebody’s acknowledging you for being beautiful! You should say thank you more,” or the one who follows her down the street too closely for five whole minutes—are not.</p>

Jennifer Garner delivered a fiery speech about sexism in Hollywood in which she noted how she and husband Ben Affleck are treated differently by the media. While being honored at Elle's 21st annual Women in Hollywood event Monday night, the "Daredevil" actress lamented the need for having an event dedicated to celebrating female actresses.

White voters are more likely to say they support voter ID laws if primed with a picture of an African American voting, versus a White person voting, or no picture at all, according to a recent study. In order to examine the way bias might play a role in support for voter ID laws, researchers with the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication conducted an online survey in 2012 of a nationally representative sample of 1,436 adults.

Earlier this month, two fan conventions came to London: Nine Worlds and the World Science Fiction Convention, commonly know as Worldcon. Worldcon is in its 72nd year, a huge old dinosaur (or perhaps an aging dragon) of science-fiction fandom. This year more than 10,000 people paid for memberships, which included entrance to the annual Hugo Awards. The official guests of honor were revered science-fiction and fantasy authors, editors, and illustrators, all of whom were in their 60s and 70s. Nine Worlds was smaller, younger, and catered to a more varied crowd including comics, TV, and fanfic followers. But since both...

“I can count the number of Latinos in this state in one hand, and most work in my restaurant,” he said jokingly of the Hispanic population in Maine. But the real cultural shock for Diaz, who lives with his wife and 12-year old daughter, wasn’t that he couldn’t find an eatery that carried his favorite delicacy when the craving hit. His big culture shock involved soccer, his favorite sport. “In my old neighborhood I could walk to almost any public park on any day of the week and pick up a game of futbol,” he explained. “Since moving here, I’ve...