Free Republic

“In the mid-1970s, California Congresswoman Karen Bass, who is now under consideration to be Joe Biden’s running mate, was an organizer for the Venceremos Brigade… An event blurb in an October 1975 issue of the communist Daily World newspaper describes Bass, then 22, as “leader of the Venceremos Brigade in southern California….As a ‘brigadista’ and then organizer for the Venceremos Brigades, Karen visited Cuba every 6 months.” (Tablet magazine, 7/28.) In that heady Age of Aquarius hundreds of starry-eyed college kids were volunteering to “help build Cuban Socialism” and “fight U.S. Imperialism,” mostly by joyfully cutting Cuban sugar cane and...

Paint splattered on floors. Spray-painted messages and screeds covering walls. Furniture moved and overturned. Security cameras disabled. Fire extinguishers missing and entrances blocked by stacks of chairs. “We’ve got our work cut out for us,” a facilities manager at Portland State University said Thursday as he examined the destruction left behind after a three-day occupation by pro-Palestinian protesters in Millar Library.

The George W. Bush Institute executive who organized a joint statement by 13 presidential libraries pledging to unify to preserve democracy was previously revealed as the person who leaked the infamous Steele dossier to BuzzFeed after the 2016 election. David Kramer, the executive director of the George W. Bush Institute, spearheaded a statement Thursday signed by 13 presidential libraries dating back to Herbert Hoover. "By signing this statement, we reaffirm our commitment to the principles of democracy undergirding this great nation, protecting our freedom, and respecting our fellow citizens," the statement read, in part. "When united by these convictions, America...

President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, on Thursday. Hayden was informed of the president’s decision through an email from Trent Morse, the deputy director of presidential personnel. “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately,” the email said. Hayden was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2016 to serve a 10-year term, which was set to expire next year.

I was vilified for criticizing the Dewey Decimal system. We librarians need to stop perpetuating its systemic racism in our libraries. Almost a decade ago, my colleagues and I wrote an article for SLJ entitled “Are Dewey’s Days Numbered?” in which we made the argument that the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system had lost its relevance. We took a bold stance, and the backlash was swift. Fellow librarians would wait outside the rooms I was speaking in at conferences, backing me into corners to demand that I stop talking about alternative systems.

<p>Ever since I first learned to read, I have been fascinated with writing. I have always loved how talented writers can whisk us away to a time in history, worlds that exist only in our minds, or even to current events happening far away. It feels like magic.</p>

ATLANTA – Two years ago, the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed legislation letting parents petition school principals to ban from school libraries books they consider obscene. This year, the state Senate is considering two additional bills aimed at making it easier to ban books from school libraries. But a third bill before the Senate would take the push against material considered harmful to minors on a different front. Senate Bill 390 would prohibit city, county, and regional libraries from using either tax dollars or private funds on any materials offered by the American Library Association (ALA). “They have expanded beyond school...

proclaimed Marxist lesbian CUNY librarian who was elected president of the American Library Association? Remember, too, how the editor-in-chief of a Montana newspaper chided Drabinski’s critics, saying they assume her political beliefs will “guide her every action”? Well, last week an intrepid independent journalist attended “Socialism 2023,” the “largest socialist conference in the country,” and discovered that’s just what Drabinski wishes to do. She said so herself. According to Karlyn Borysenko at Actively Unwoke, Drabinski was scheduled to give a talk at the conference (pictured), but due to apparent ongoing controversies over her Marxist leanings it was “quietly canceled.” Nevertheless,...

The Communist head of the American Library Association (ALA) said that public schools and libraries need to be “sites of socialist organizing” at the Socialism 2023 conference in Chicago over the weekend. Self-avowed “Marxist Lesbian” Emily Drabinski was initially scheduled to be a featured speaker at the event, but her session was quietly canceled after conservative media publicized her Marxist leanings earlier this year, according to independent journalist Karlyn Borysenko, who infiltrated the event. The Socialist conference featured dozens of far-left speakers, including infamous communists Bill Ayers and Angela Davis. The schedule included panels on “Kids as Comrades”; “The Environmental...

The Idaho Freedom Caucus calls upon the Idaho Commission for Libraries to end its membership and cut all ties with the Marxist-led American Library Association (ALA). We call on local public and school libraries to do the same. We have significant concerns about the election of Emily Drabinski, a self-described “Marxist lesbian,” as the next president of the ALA. Her election raises issues about libraries’ involvement in exposing children to explicit materials and injecting hard-left politics and sexuality into publicly funded libraries. With her election, have concerns about libraries’ adherence to their educational purpose and their responsible use of taxpayer...

As you may or may not have heard, last week, the Montana State Library Commission elected to sever its relationship with the American Library Association: Montana State Library Commissioner Tamara Hall spoke out Tuesday after the Montana State Library Commission became the first state library commission to cut all ties with the American Library Association (ALA) this week because of its self-described "Marxist lesbian" president. Hall stated that ALA president-elect Emily Drabinski’s "avowed Marxist philosophy" is in "direct competition" to the commission's "oath of office" to uphold both the U.S. Constitution and Montana’s. The commissioner added that her board's vote...

At least one state, Montana, has had enough of ALA’s marxist ways. On Tuesday, a seven-member commission voted to immediately withdraw the Montana State Library from membership in the American Library Association. The commission citied ALA President Emily Drabinski’s public affirmation of her Marxist beliefs as one of the concerns with ALA. During the meeting, commissioner Tom Burnett requested a letter be sent to the ALA clarifying that “our oath of office and resulting duty to the Constitution forbids association with an organization led by a Marxist.”

Eating fatty fish decreased the lipophilic index in people with impaired glucose metabolism or coronary heart disease, according to a study. The lipophilic index is considered a marker of cell membrane fluidity, and a low lipophilic index indicates better membrane fluidity. A low lipophilic index was further associated with larger mean HDL particle size and higher concentration of large HDL particles, which suggests cardiovascular benefit. Previous studies have suggested that long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in fish have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular risk. Camelina oil is rich in alpha-linolenic acid, which is an essential omega-3 fatty acid whose associations with...

Eating walnuts on a regular basis could benefit the cognitive development of adolescents and contribute to their psychological maturation. These are some of the conclusions reached by a study. Walnuts are rich in alpha-linolenic fatty acid (ALA), a type of omega-3 that plays a fundamental role in brain development, especially at this life stage. In the words of Jordi Julvez, "adolescence is a time of great biological changes: Neurons that are well nourished with this type of fatty acids will be able to grow and form new, stronger synapses." In the study, 700 secondary school students between 11 and 16...

In a new study, researchers found that heart failure patients with lower alpha-linolenic acid levels (ALA, the main plant omega-3) had a worse prognosis during follow-up compared with individuals with higher levels. The benefits of dietary omega-3 fatty acids has been well-established in previous studies, but research into ALA levels and heart failure risk has been less explored. "We hope these findings can pave the way for future trials to test whether regular consumption of foods rich in ALA could serve as a preventive strategy to improve outcomes and promote quality of life in heart failure patients with low circulating...

When the frizzy-haired Marxists at my local library start ranting about seizing the means of production, they’re not talking about factories anymore. They’re talking about you, your womb, & its output. We have put childless despots like this in positions of authority over our kids. They have cleverly figured out that their great nihilistic cultural project requires your children to see it through to the end. And they are coming for them. You can hear the plains vibrating as the great galloping horde approacheth your elementary school. After all, their harebrained schemes will only work if they can fool a...

The Bluest Eye. To Kill A Mockingbird. The Hate U Give. Stamped. George. What do these books have in common? Yes, they’re classics—and future classics. But they’re also some of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020. Join One World on Wednesday, September 29 at 8:00 PM ET on Zoom for a special Ideas & Action virtual event where we investigate—and celebrate—Banned Books Week, the freedom of ideas, and the necessity and power of even the most discomforting truths. Hosted by Chris Jackson, publisher and editor-in-chief, and co-sponsored by the American Library Association, Ideas & Action: Banned Books will...

“Woke” culture is hardly even awake. It is a devouring force that means to eviscerate all excellence that has come before: The Greek classics. Chaucer. Milton. These authors are all white cisgender Western men -- enough said. A friend and I were wondering how long it would be before the Bard would also be cancelled. We did not have long to wait. In an article in the School Library Journal, librarian Amanda MacGregor conceded that Shakespeare was a “genius wordsmith” but that his work is full of “problematic, outdated ideas, with plenty of misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism, and misogynoir.”...

I got an email from my public library this morning, the Enoch Pratt library. They announced that they would have sidewalk service by appointment, and prominently displayed a link. I went to the link and was DISGUSTED to find the following statement. What does this have to do with libraries, books, or anything vaguely connected to learning? And, how can the library, a publicly funded entity, declare allegiance to an entity which is virulently anti-Israel, has ascribed to the the BDS movement? Link to their BLM statement

Drag Queen Story Hours started out as niche events on the West Coast, but these events—aimed at children as young as age 3—have spread to libraries and schools across the United States, dividing local communities. These story hours are “just what they sound like,” Drag Queen Story Hour’s official website states: drag queens reading to children. The events are designed to be about 45 minutes long for children aged 3 to 8 years old, intended to capture children’s imagination and help children explore their gender fluidity through “glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.” Books used during Drag Queen Story...