Free Republic

When Islamic State group militants invaded the Central Library of Mosul earlier this month, they were on a mission to destroy a familiar enemy: other people's ideas. Residents say the extremists smashed the locks that had protected the biggest repository of learning in the northern Iraq town, and loaded around 2,000 books — including children's stories, poetry, philosophy and tomes on sports, health, culture and science — into six pickup trucks. They left only Islamic texts. The rest? "These books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah. So they will be burned," a bearded militant in traditional Afghani two-piece clothing...

Unions will extort disabled people; MoveOn.org will support Boko Haram. Unions and liberals make our world a little less livable every time they get a chance. Here are two stories that remind us of the depths these people will sink to in order to have their way. In Michigan the Service Employees Internal Union (SEIU) has recently seen an 80% decrease in its membership which was triggered as much by its own greed as the terrible economy Barack Obama has given us. In 2006 the Michigan SEIU was successful in their drive to forcibly unionize family members of disabled people...

The violence in northern Nigeria is mistakenly viewed as a religious conflict rather than simply a tribal dispute over land, according to the Obama administration. Despite the ongoing Muslim destruction of churches and the slaughter of Christians – including many murdered during worship services – the U.S. Agency for International Development claims that the misunderstandings make it difficult to administer aid programs. USAID, therefore, has launched a program titled Project PEACE – an acronym for Programming Effectively Against Conflict and Extremism.

The U.S. Department of State must explain to Congress if it fails to designate Boko Haram, an Islamic jihadist group, as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization," or FTO, according to amended legislation a House panel approved Thursday. The House Appropriations Committee by unanimous voice vote supported the measure, which Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) offered as an amendment to the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill (FY 2013). The panel likewise approved the $40 billion State & Foreign Ops funding bill, which it sent to the full House for consideration. Boko Haram, which means ‘‘People Committed to the Propagation of...