Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO — After leaving Harvard’s doctorate program in systems biology to join Google as a software engineer in 2013, James Damore joked on his Facebook page that he knew he had made the right move as he enjoyed a morning smoothie with oats. It was the type of workplace perk that is standard for Google employees. That initial assessment of Google seemed far removed from the contentious memo written by the 28-year-old Mr. Damore last week that has enraged advocates of greater diversity in the technology industry. The memo has also served as a rallying cry for conservatives and...

To get protesters to leave the Local Butcher Shop alone, the Berkeley meat market’s owners agreed to promote an animal rights message. Now, in the upper left corner of one of the store’s front windows, there’s a 15-inch-by-15-inch sign. In white letters on a black background, it reads: “Attention: Animals’ lives are their right. Killing them is violent and unjust, no matter how it’s done.” In exchange for putting up the sign, Direct Action Everywhere, an animal rights group, agreed to protest at the store only twice a year.

Rufus Hessey is D Man with the sling shot back in the day. He's also known as the "D One – Bean Shooter", which translates to modern day "bad ass" with a sling shot. Watch what he can do with a sling shot. Accuracy is a big thing with sling shots, be amaze of where he can pinpoint better than most with a .22 rifle. It's a fact that he's been a bean shooter since the age of 10 years old. What funny is that he was the youngest from a poor family of 13, his oldest brother was allowed...

Inflation in Venezuela's crisis-hit economy quickened to 248.6 percent in the first seven months of the year, the opposition-led congress said on Wednesday in the absence of official data. Various factors underlay the seven-month price rise, including a lack of U.S. dollars in the country, a sharp weakening of the bolivar currency, and political uncertainty, opposition lawmaker Angel Alvarado said. The government says it is victim of an "economic war" led by opposition-linked businessmen.

While most Americans do not know the name of their local sheriff, they do know the name of Maricopa County, Arizona’s former sheriff – Joseph “Joe” Arpaio. He is known to millions across the country as “America’s toughest sheriff.” To be sure, “Sheriff Joe” is a controversial figure. In his 24 years as Sheriff, he implemented many unconventional, often punitive measures for making sure inmates knew they were serving “hard time.” For example, in 1993 he established a “Tent City” outside the prison to house inmates convicted of crimes, and would remind them when the hot Arizona sun bore down...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio treated his staffers poorly and often bullied them with harsh threats if they did not meet his demands, according to newly revealed emails. "What do I need to get you guys to follow a direct order? Do you need to experience consequences?" he threatened in one 2015 email, according to the New York Post. "I'm not raising this again: fix it, or I will [have] no choice but to find a way to penalize people. Not my preference, but I won't have my instructions ignored," he added. The emails show de Blasio blowing...

During 1966, paranoia gripped Mao Zedong; he felt he was losing his power and influence in the Communist Party of China. To reassert his political presence, he announced a new Cultural Revolution and unleashed a paramilitary force of teenagers on the country, known as the Red Guard. It was their mission to destroy all bourgeoisie and Western influences in China and to restore the purity of the party that he led during the revolution and World War II. Wearing red armbands, red neckerchiefs, and continuously reading and reciting from a little Red Book of Mao quotes, the groups were in...

Most people don't spend their free time imagining what it would be like to get on the subway and sit across from a 300,000-year-old person. But anthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin isn't most people. In June, Hublin published two papers in the highly-respected journal Nature suggesting that the first Homo sapiens — that is, the first members of our species — lived 100,000 years earlier than previously thought in a place that no one would have expected. They also had faces that looked surprisingly like ours. ”I’m not sure these people would stand out from a crowd today," said Hublin on a...

<p>CHAMPLAIN, N.Y. -- They have come from all over the United States, piling out of taxis, pushing strollers and pulling luggage, to the end of a country road in the north woods.</p> <p>Where the pavement stops, they pick up small children and lead older ones wearing Mickey Mouse backpacks around a "road closed" sign, threading bushes, crossing a ditch, and filing past another sign in French and English that says "No pedestrians." Then they are arrested.</p>

Five active-duty service members sued President Trump Wednesday over his intentions to ban transgender personnel from serving in the military. “The directive to reinstate a ban on open service by transgender people violates both the Equal Protection component of the Fifth Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” states the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington by five anonymous “Jane Does.” They are represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD).

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Niki Tsongas, who credited her late husband Paul as a political lodestar, announced Wednesday she would not seek re-election in her north Massachusetts district.

The former director of food services for the Los Angeles Unified School District has been charged with misappropriation of public funds and embezzlement for allegedly diverting $65,000 in district money to a culinary club he controlled, prosecutors said Tuesday. David Binkle, 55, is also accused of forging a district vendor application, failing to report his outside financial interests to the district and funneling public funds into his personal bank account, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. All told, he’s accused of 15 felony counts. Binkle resigned from the LAUSD in 2015 following a critical audit...

Canadians cannot count on the Conservative Party of Canada to do anything to secure Canada’s southern border Last week, the Canadian government released statistics on the number of illegal immigrants crossing into Canada from the United States at points other than official ports of entry. These numbers include only those who were intercepted by the RCMP while illegally entering the country. It has been estimated hundreds of illegals are walking into Canada every day. In June, the last month these statistics are available, 884 illegal border crossers were arrested coming into Canada. A whopping 781 of these “asylum seekers” crossed...

The movie “Apocalypse Now” came out in August 1979, it was Francis Ford Coppola’s film on the Vietnam War centered on the mission of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) to assassinate a US Army Colonel gone rogue, played by Marlon Brando. I was beginning my freshman year of college at the University of Tennessee, and as a student enrolled in ROTC, I went to see the movie. Of course, it took me three viewings to really come to grips with the film and understand it. However, everyone remembers the memorable character, and lines, of Robert Duvall who played an eccentric Air...

Two of the Senators who singlehandedly derailed the skinny repeal of Obamacare were awarded a sit down interview with the admiring Dana Bash Friday on CNN.

Should Kim Jong Un follow through on his threats (God forbid!) they will never be forgiven for making Russian conspiracies their priority while North Korea was getting ready to nuke America Any day now President Donald J. Trump will be pounced upon as ‘The World’s Biggest Warmonger of all Time’. To the progressives and their Mainstream Media running dogs, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un is not the enemy, the president of the United States is. They’ll come up out of the Russia-stole-the-election rabbit hole long enough to make the warmonger accusations stick and jump back into the hole as...

Republicans’ approval of Congress is at an all-time low for the year. It turns out skipping town after failing to follow through on a 7-year-old health care promise is not popular with voters.The climate makes Col. Allen West’s column today especially effective. “Who’s in charge?” he wondered, voicing the frustrations of so many Americans.“There is no justification” for being on recess right now, he said in a conversation with Townhall Wednesday. "At least that’s not how it works in the military." “When I think about how I was brought up in the military you don’t just pack up and go home...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday told North Korea it must stop any action that would "lead to the end of its regime" and "stand down" in its pursuit of nuclear weapons. These are some of strongest comments Mattis has made on North Korea. In the past he has said that the United States can respond to North Korea, but any military solution would be "tragic on an unbelievable scale." "The DPRK must choose to stop isolating itself and stand down its pursuit of nuclear weapons," Mattis said in a statement. DPRK is short for the...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Allstate Insurance Co. announced on Wednesday plans to more than double its North Carolina workforce by expanding in the Charlotte area, investing more than $22 million and creating 2,250 new jobs by 2020. Gov. Roy Cooper and leaders of the nation’s largest publicly-traded personal insurance company were joined by local leaders in announcing the expansion, beginning in 2018, at the Charlotte Chamber office. Allstate listed a wide range of jobs to be filled, but a company official said they were still working on specifics. “We’re still putting the final touches on them,’ said Harriet Harty, Allstate...

Affirmative action is once again in the news. This time because of a leaked Justice Department memo indicating possible action regarding complaints from Asian-American groups that Harvard University is discriminating against Asian-Americans in its admissions policies. As this story was breaking, Harvard released news that, for the first time in history, the majority of its incoming freshman class will not be white. Per the story, 50.8 percent of Harvard's class of 2021 will not be white. Here's Harvard's spokesperson: "To become leaders in our diverse society, students must have the ability to work with people from different backgrounds, life experiences,...