Free Republic

Since the overwhelming majority of Americans have proven time and time again that they prefer traditional architecture, why do government agencies force ugly buildings on the American people? A new study finds 72 percent of Americans prefer traditional architecture for U.S. courthouses and federal office buildings, including majorities across political, racial, sex, and socioeconomic categories. The survey was conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of National Civic Art Society and polled more than 2,000 U.S. adults. These findings come in light of the possibility of a Trump administration executive order, appropriately named Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again, that would...

And leaves academics stunned. "A study released Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports found that snowfall on the highest peak in the Alaska Range has more than doubled since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-19th century, which researchers attribute to climate change," Valerie Richardson reported in The Washington Times on December 19, 2017. "We were shocked when we first saw how much snowfall has increased," Erich Osterberg, an assistant professor of earth sciences who led the investigation with researchers from Dartmouth, the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire, stated.

The evidence piles up that in our largest city, charter schools can help the poor, even while the city's traditional public schools continue to pile up an abysmal record. Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that in New York City public schools: • "The new results for charter students represent an increase of 22 days of learning in reading compared to their results four years ago. Results for math have remained the same. • "For Black and Hispanic students, the analysis indicates a significant academic advantage from charter school enrollment. • "Hispanic charter school students perform at...

The Higher Education Establishment insists that its mission is just that. Academic insiders know better. "Activism in this broad sense rules the day in contemporary higher education," Zena Hitz, a tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis, writes in the summer 2017 issue of Modern Age. "The core purpose of the University of Texas, according to its mission statement, is 'to transform lives for the benefit of society.'" "Education is for the sake of 'social transformation,' says Harvard College--or 'the improvement of the world today,' according to Yale University." Yet and still, conservatives ready to high five each other and...

When Students for Free Thought, a group at Lawrence University, attempted to screen the documentary Can We Take a Joke? on their campus late in the Spring, they discovered that their classmates were not a particularly light-hearted , free thinking bunch. "Can We Take a Joke? includes footage of incidents where outraged college students shouted down speakers they disagree with," the film's director, Ted Balaker noted in a column distributed by the James C. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. "Ironically, that's pretty much what happened at the Lawrence screening. Some students shouted at the screen, then a dispute erupted; one...

The Nebraska Board of Education is debating whether to include climate change in public school science classes and you can probably guess who is weighing in on its behalf. "Climate change is happening," David Harwood, a geology professor with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, told the board. "It is caused by human activity." What's he going to do when his next global warming protest gets cancelled because of a snow storm, in the middle of April?

Liberals might yawn at the prospect of yet another study showing overwhelming media bias against a Republican president but this report does not come from a right-wing think tank. Instead, it comes from one of their favorite think tanks. Harvard University's Shorestein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy released a report last week that indicated there is anti-Trump liberal media bias. They analyzed the news media coverage in the U.S. and in Europe, and found that the U.S. liberal media did not publish positive coverage of President Trump by a large margin. How large? Eighty percent of news coverage...

The Left's long march through the academy may be nearing its penultimate battlesite—mathematics. Up until now, it has remained so neutral in the Culture Wars that a smattering of conservatives could even be found teaching it. "On a chilly evening in March, students in Cecilia Arias's mathematics course here at Rutgers University were learning about a concept called fair division," Shannon Najmabadi wrote in an article which appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education on April 21, 2017. "More specifically, they were considering the case of Jason, Kelly, and Lauren, three business owners who share a location in the mall."...

Donald J. Trump is labeled by CNN as a liar on a regular basis, while the dead communist tyrant Fidel Castro is lauded as a revolutionary hero. American reporters are in Havana, Cuba to film people crying on their way to honor a dictator who had recommended that the Soviets launch a nuclear attack on the United States. Our media never fail to demonstrate that there is no limit to how low they can sink. The sickness in the media is only matched by the pro-Castro sentiments in people like Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate working with Hillary...

Here's the key problem with women's studies: They ignore the women most worthy of study. Into this category falls the dear--and she was--departed author and activist Phyllis Schlafly. She crammed more achievements into one lifetime than any trio of the feminists she so implacably opposed crammed into three: a marriage that lasted more than half a century, nine children, 14 grandchildren, advanced degrees, more than a score of books--several of which we have signed copies of in the office, and numerous political victories. I remember when she opposed one of the Left's many Trojan horses--the so-called Equal Rights Amendment. In...

Who knew that the Trump campaign would be getting involved in higher education policy this year? Sam Clovis, a tenured economics professor and Trump campaign co-chair, recently noted that their objectives include getting the government out of student lending, requiring colleges to share in student loan risk, and discouraging borrowing by liberal arts majors. Clovis told Inside Ed that the mere mention of these policy proposals has sent some Washington graybeards into a swivet, and "he expects some higher education leaders to react the same way when Trump outlines these ideas during the fall campaign." Some of the ideas under...

Speaking on Fox News Channel’s The Five, pundit Greg Gutfeld said that “gay marriage, in my opinion, is a conservative idea.” He noted that the left “generally hates traditions” and is all about “breaking with traditions,” and that gay marriage offers conservatives an opportunity to “embrace a tradition” that strengthens families and communities. I should acknowledge that Gutfeld spoke without notes, unscripted, live and off-the-cuff. I often talk with inexactness when I’m speaking live. Live speaking is a perfect venue to make mistakes. It’s easier to type your thoughts and have the benefit of reflection, revision, and a word processor....

Patent law is not something most Americans are passionate about or have ever contemplated -- which is exactly why the Obama White House and Congress got away with making radical changes to our time-tested traditions of protecting the fruits of entrepreneurial inventors' labor. It's yet another progressive horror story of abandoning what works in the name of what's politically trendy. For left-wing saboteurs and their Big Business GOP enablers, this means throwing our unique patent system and its constitutional underpinnings under an 18-wheeler. So-called "patent reform" proposals continue to plague Capitol Hill. But like health care "reform" and education "reform,"...

Accuracy in Academia has proudly joined a distinguished cadre questioning the federal funding of biased Middle East studies programs in American universities and colleges, and academic elites in those programs don’t like it one bit. In addition to AIA, the other groups questioning whether Title VI grantees are living up to the federal mandate of education for defense and inclusion of diverse perspectives in Mid East courses include: The AMCHA Initiative,“a non-profit organization dedicated to investigating, documenting, educating about, and combating anti-Semitism at institutions of higher education in America.” American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists Endowment for Middle East...

Martin Luther King, Jr. modeled his famous “I Have a Dream” speech after President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Allen C. Guelzo, Director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College, said at the Heritage Foundation on the anniversary of the latter speech. Lincoln’s famous address was one of the shortest speeches that became famous, given at a dedication ceremony for the soldier’s cemetery in Gettysburg. Even though it barely spanned 200 words, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address has been the focus of multiple studies and critiques. The speech was praised by many, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Ralph Waldo Emerson, at the...

WASHINGTON, DC— Millions of Americans have received notifications from their insurance providers that their policies are being cancelled or altered due to the Affordable Care Act over the past four weeks. Reports on the number of cancellations nationwide vary and are still rolling in. Some project as many as 20 million will lose their current coverage under Obamacare. Young Americans for Liberty decided to look within its network of activists and supporters to see if they had been impacted. Sure enough, many had. YAL is currently collecting and posting images of insurance cancellation and alteration notices from within its network...

There is bipartisan opposition in Washington to sequestration, the automatic spending cuts mandated by last year's Budget Control Act — passed, inconveniently enough, by many of the same people who now rail against it. But the cuts are modest: over the next decade, the federal government will spend about $44 trillion with sequestration, $45 trillion without. And few people are considering the beneficial effects that even those modest cuts could have, both in reducing the nation's debt, and in stimulating economic activity. In truth, however, neither Democrats nor Republicans are committed to reducing government spending, and both sides have chosen...

The September 16, 2010 Accuracy in Academia author’s night has been cancelled due to complications. Allie Duzett, author of How To Save America: A Tactical Guide For Practical Patriots, will appear at the next AIA event. On October 14, 2010, AIA will host a 25th anniversary reception at Ebenezer’s on Capitol Hill which will feature: * M. Stanton Evans, author of Blacklisted By History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies; * Leslie Carbone, author of Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform; and * Cliff Kincaid , editor of the AIM report...

Van Jones @ Columbia U. Bethany Stotts, February 9, 2010 As Michelle Malkin mentioned earlier this afternoon, a Columbia University alumn sent her a tip that former green jobs czar Van Jones will be speaking at the Columbia’s Business School (CBS) this coming Monday, Feb. 15: A Columbia U. alum sends along info about a Van Jones performance at the business school next week. If you are a current student or alum and can get to the event, be sure to RSVP and let us know what he’s up to: The Green Collar Economy: /A discussion with Van Jones, President...

America’s Least Wanted 2009 Malcolm A. Kline, December 31, 2009 In the summary spirit of the season, Accuracy in Academia offers 10 reasons for ending tenure: 1) To not put the president’s favorite professor at the top of this roster would be a gross injustice. “At a press conference on August 20, America’s Survival, Inc. unveiled the results of several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests made regarding the curriculum and activities of University of Illinois at Chicago professor Bill Ayers,” AIA staff writer Bethany Stotts wrote on August 25, 2009. “Ayers has visited Germany, the Netherlands, and Venezuela to...