Free Republic

After rumors circulated earlier in the week, BYU’s Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship confirmed today that Daniel C. Peterson and his associate editors would be removed from the staff of the Mormon Studies Review, previously the FARMS Review. The periodical, which publishes articles and reviews on LDS-related topics and books, was founded by Peterson 23 years ago. Along with Peterson were also dismissed his associate editors Louis C. Midgley, George L. Mitton, Gregory L. Smith and Robert White. In a brief, anonymous statement posted on the Maxwell Institute’s website today the Institute stated, “For many years the FARMS Review has...

The charge that the Obama administration coordinated with the health-care industry in 2009 during the Obamacare fight to send a good chunk of business to the consulting firm founded by presidential adviser David Axelrod has resurfaced in the news media. At issue is whether the White House worked with officials inside the industry to form the outside group, “Healthy Economy Now,” which ran pro-Obamacare ads with the help of Axelrod’s former political consulting firm, AKPD Message and Media. In 2009, the firm not only still employed Axelrod’s son, but it still owed the presidential adviser money as part of his...

The United States Supreme Court this week finally recognized the right of workers who are forced to pay agency fees to a union as a condition of employment to forgo paying for union activity they disagree with. Perhaps most importantly, the decision in the SEIU v. Knox case portends an end to the system that requires dissenters to opt out of union political activity. A long line of Supreme Court decisions have allowed provisions that favor unions that have a stranglehold in businesses in states that force every worker to pay dues to belong to the union, or be forced...

The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits fell last week, but the level of applications remains too high to signal a pickup in hiring. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications fell to a seasonally adjusted 386,000. That’s down from 392,000 the previous week, which was revised up. The four-week average, which smooths week-to-week fluctuations, was mostly unchanged at 386,750.

The verdict that the Supreme Court of the United States will release about ObamaCare is arguably their most important decision in decades. Can the government force people to buy a service that they do not necessarily want? Can the government force people to buy other things just because they deem it necessary? More than just questions about health care, the SCOTUS decision on ObamaCare has large implications on the 2012 elections. Democrats, including President Obama, have already started to attack the court, attempting to limit the damage that an unfavorable ruling will have. But will a confirmation of Mr. Obama's...

Back in my über liberal days, I had a mad love affair with the San Francisco Chronicle, our local daily. One of the greatest pleasures of my day was imbibing every news story and feature of our left-leaning paper. But when that paper started devoting way too much air time to slobbering over candidate Obama, my infatuation grew sour. It wasn't long before I permanently stopped my subscription and started looking for news in all the right places. I just happened on my old love interest the other day when I was relaxing in a cafe and spotted the Chron...

This is going to be difficult for soccer traditionalists to swallow, but here goes. Formations in soccer don't matter. Not anymore. Their chief function nowadays is to justify coaches' salaries and make TV commentators sound smart. For some reason, in the run-up to any big match—like Thursday's Euro 2012 semifinal between Italy and the favored Germans—the chatter always centers on the formations each team will employ. Through the first 28 games at this year's Euro, teams used five distinct formations, a greater spread than at any Euro since 1996, according to UEFA, European soccer's governing body. But for all practical...

“Either resign from the Scouts’ Executive Board or stop undermining the BSA with your pro-homosexual advocacy” Ernst & Young CEO Jim Turley is seeking to apply his corporation’s pro-homosexual ethos to the Boy Scouts. TAKE ACTION: 1) Contact the Boy Scouts of America [972-580-2000; 8:00 AM-4:30 PM Central Time] and commend them for not giving in to pro-homosexual activists by retaining their “morally straight” policy against open homosexuality in the Scouts; and 2) Contact Jim Turley through Ernst & Young [Contact Page HERE; or, through their global site HERE], and urge him to stop his campaign to turn the Boy...

But it comes at a price: Republicans had to drop their insistence that President Barack Obama approve the Keystone XL pipeline,

The Black Caucus Is Staging A Walkout During The Eric Holder Contempt Vote Grace Wyler Jun. 27, 2012, 9:33 PM The Congressional Black Caucus is planning to stage a walkout during tomorrow's House vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt over the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal, according to a letter that is being circulated among Democratic members of Congress. “We adamantly oppose this partisan attack and refuse to participate in any vote that would tarnish the image of Congress or of an attorney general who has done nothing but work tirelessly to protect the rights of the...

You know why I like the Democratic Party? I'll tell you: It's a big tent, and it always has been. It's a place for working people and the middle class. For women, veterans, and small business owners. And new Americans, too. Everyone belongs here. As we head into Saturday's important FEC fundraising deadline, you should be a part of it, too. Pitch in whatever you can, even as little as $3, to re-elect President Obama and help Democrats in tough local fights this year. Contribute to the Democratic Party today. Democrats represent a broad cross-section of Americans. It's our shared...

Microsoft's new programming model WinRT -- showcased by the new Windows 8 -- is designed to keep Microsoft relevant in the increasingly mobile world, analysts from research firm Gartner said in a statement today. "Windows 8 is the start of Microsoft's effort to respond to market demands and competitors, as it provides a common interface and programming API (application programing interface) set from phones to servers," Michael Silver, vice president and analyst at Gartner, said in a press release. Gartner's analysts, who recently released a report on the changes to Windows, said enterprises will take about 10 years to fully...

Throughout America's history, there have been people who denied threats from our enemies. During the Revolutionary War, significant numbers sided with the British monarchy. Enablers in politics, the media and even religion helped Communism remain in power for seven decades in the Soviet Union. German Nazis had their U.S. apologists. The presidential election in Egypt, won by the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi in a race where three-quarters of Egyptians voted for someone else, challenges contemporary deniers and enablers who refuse to acknowledge the threat advancing Islamism poses to Israel and the West. Enough Egyptians voted for Morsi to allow Islamists...

A wayward black bear’s amazing journey back and forth across Massachusetts was all about his quest for love, said wildlife experts, who tell suburban Bay Staters they’d better get used to backyard bruins ... because more will be coming. “He’s just a guy trying to make his way in the world,” Environmental Police spokesman Reginald Zimmerman said about the fine young specimen of Ursus americanus that was spotted up a tree in Brookline’s tony Chestnut Hill yesterday, after his travels took him all the way to Provincetown, out to the Worcester County woods, and now even deeper into the wilds...

WASHINGTON – The White House has kept its preparations for the Supreme Court’s decision on President Barack Obama’s health care law close to the vest. Mr. Obama, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday, the West Wing is merely “waiting for an opinion, a decision, and we’ll assess.” But Mr. Obama has been doing more than sitting back and waiting. The president has three separate speeches prepared in anticipation of the ruling on his signature legislative achievement, a person familiar with them said. One of the speeches addresses a complete overturn of the law, while another is crafted as...

It’s been a day and a half since the New York polls closed and there’s still some confusion over the exact outcome of Rep. Charlie Rangel’s Democratic primary. The Associated Press results came to a standstill early Wednesday morning with 84 percent of the 13th District’s 506 precincts reporting and Rangel owning a 45.2 percent to 39.8 percent advantage over state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, the second-place finisher. By late afternoon Wednesday, though, the results had narrowed considerably: With 94 percent of precincts in, Rangel’s lead was down to 44 percent to 41 percent, with 1,032 votes separating the candidates according...

Twin sisters who sparked outrage with pop band named after gas used on Jews claim they've grown up At the age of 11, blonde-haired, blue-eyed twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede formed a band and saw themselves as the new faces of pop music. But instead, the girls from Bakersfield, California, would soon be labelled the 'new faces of hate'. Not surprising when you consider the group they created in 2003 was a neo-Nazi outfit called Prussian Blue - named after a by-product of the poison used to gas millions of Jews in the Holocaust - at the suggestion of White...

"Rubio, Rubio, Rubio." You hear the chants all across the country. On talk shows, on cable TV, on blogs and in op-ed columns, everyone with a conservative bone in his body is urging presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney to choose the smart and dashing Marco Rubio as his vice president. The conservative crowd's clamor for Rubio is beginning to worry me. It could backfire. For one thing, it's setting up Romney for a disaster. If he doesn't choose Rubio -- and I would agree with that decision -- it's going to disappoint a lot of Republican voters who think Rubio...

Today is the day. SCOTUSblog live at 8:45 AM.

Just an internal poll, what will the market do at 10:05 this morning when the Obamacare decision is handed down? 1. If Obamacare is upheld? 2. If Obamacare is completely struck down? 3. Only the mandate is struck down?