Free Republic

Sometimes, events in the news become instant comedy without even trying. This is one of those times. A logo for the "Women's Network" feminist group in Australia has been yanked after being mercilessly mocked for its apparent likeness to male genitalia. "Some things you simply cannot make up," noted Hailey Sanibel at Blue State Conservative. "If the Babylon Bee had produced a logo for a dyed-in-the-wool feminist organization and meant to subvert it, it could not have a done a better job."

Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean, Blackadder) speaks in favor of the UK movement in favor of free(er) speech / less repression by authorities in the UK. An actor / writer of renown sarcasm and biting wit, this 9 year old speech is still quite effective and pertinent! It is a JOY to listen to but a burden when considering how much it has fallen upon deaf ears, there and here! Background: In 2003, the UK Parliament passed a 'communications law' that criminalized, in Section Five, ‘insulting words or behaviour. (Brit spelling). This "Reform Section Five" movement, kicked off in 2012, got...

Political correctness regarding free speech has gone too far. At first it took the form of just criticism. Feminists and diversity proponents lectured everyone on how they should speak. It was prevalent at universities, and spread next to corporations and K-12 education. Then it turned into civil infractions. Businesses that refused to accommodate same-sex marriage, based on their sincerely held religious beliefs, were held to have violated the law. After that, big tech took to censoring offenders. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube in particular banned those whose speech it disliked. Now, it’s becoming a crime in civilized countries to say politically...

“Ads that perpetuate gender stereotypes will be banned in UK, but not in the good ol’ USA!” reads a recent headline at the Web site Jezebel. Yay to the good ol’ USA for continuing to value the fundamental right of free expression, you might say. Or maybe not. Why would a feminist — or anyone, for that matter — celebrate the idea of empowering bureaucrats to decide how we talk about “gender stereotypes”? Because these days, foundational values mean increasingly little to those who believe hearing something disagreeable is the worst thing that could happen to them.

Members of a boys 4 X 100 meter relay high school track team in Texas were left in tears last weekend after the University Interscholastic League of Texas disqualified them from competing in the state championships because the team's anchor runner made a "religious gesture" as he crossed the finish line to win their regional title. The runner, Derrick Hayes reportedly lifted a finger to the sky in celebration, as he wrapped up the win for Columbus High School. According to his father, K.C. Hayes, he was simply pointing to God. But UIL officials disagreed and slapped the team with...

... Such is the surreal and increasingly irrational world we live in, where irate Muslims and groveling Westerners obsess over the destruction of one book while ignoring the destruction of many human lives; where a guaranteed and hard-earned American right -- freedom of expression — receives a lot of condemnatory huffing and puffing from those charged with protecting it, while murderous and barbarous — in a word, evil — behavior is devoutly ignored.

The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were there for the first time as full Council members and intent on making friends. President Obama chose to join the Council despite the fact that the Organization of the Islamic Conference holds the balance of power and human rights abusers are among its lead actors, including China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia....

NPR's Nina Totenburg redefining what Christmas is... "I want to say one thing about the budget that didn't get passed,...these agencies, including the Defense Department, don't know how much money they've got and for what. And I was at – forgive the expression – a Christmas party at the Department of Justice and people actually were really worried about this...See the video at Real Clear Politics Wait a second. Christmas is now an expression? Don't get me wrong, I'm kind of open to the idea because thinking of Christmas as the day the Son of God was born was...forgive...

Federal Reserve examiners come every four years to make sure banks are complying with a long list of regulations. The examiners came to Perkins last week. And the team from Kansas City deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller’s counter and buttons that say "Merry Christmas, God With Us." were inappropriate. The Bible verse of the day on the bank's Internet site also had to be taken down. “I don’t think there should be a problem with them displaying whatever religious symbols they want to display,” said Amy Weierman, a Perkins resident. Specifically, the feds believed,...

Students have vowed to protest or block North Carolina State University's Free Expression Tunnel until the university's chancellor gives guarantees that no hate speech will be allowed there. About 40 students painted the tunnel black overnight to protest racist and homophobic graffiti involving President Barack Obama painted there Sunday night. Slurs and the name "Obama" were painted over the picture of a black man. "It's not about the N-word. It's not about Obama. It's about racism, period,"

Japanese researchers have developed an android that mimics human expressions. Eventually, it could be used as a companion for disabled children or the elderly.

A new study gives new meaning to being blue — or red — in the face. People can pretty accurately discern whether someone is a Democrat or Republican just by looking at their mugs, according to research by two Tufts University social psychologists. In a series of experiments, college students were shown headshots of people and asked to guess their party affiliation. The students were correct 60% of the time, according to the study, greater than random chance would indicate. The researchers said students made their decisions based on their stereotypes of what Republicans and Democrats looked like.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider attempts to revive a 1998 law intended to protect children from Internet pornography, ending a legal conflict dating to the administration of President Bill Clinton. Without comment, the court handed down an order declining to take the case of Mukasey v. A.C.L.U., No. 08-565. The administration of former President George W. Bush, through Attorney General Michael Mukasey, had asked the justices to review the law. The American Civil Liberties Union has been a leading foe of the statute. The Child Online Protection Act has been the subject of court battles...

President of Mexico’s socialist Social Democratic Party (PSD), Jorge Carlos Diaz, has issued a demand that the Church stop opposing its initiatives or face legal action. Mexico City’s Cardinal Archbishop Norberto Rivera has criticized elements of the PSD’s program to legalize abortion, euthanasia and same sex marriage. “Abortion, euthanasia and marriage are political issues,” Carlos Diaz insisted. “The church must stop interfering. Ignorant peasants think that these priests speak for God. Well, there is no God. Rivera is lying to the people and confusing voters. He is sabotaging our right to craft the Party’s message as we see fit.” The...

Gene Expression Differences Between Europeans And Africans Affect Response To Drugs, Infections ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — Differences in gene expression levels between people of European versus African ancestry can affect how each group responds to certain drugs or fights off specific infections, report researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Expression Research Laboratory at Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, CA. Researchers used Affymetrix exon arrays to show that expression levels for nearly five percent of the 9,156 human genes they studied varied significantly between individuals of European and African ancestry. The research team took an unbiased...

TEHRAN, Iran: Iran has arrested more than 200 western music fans attending a rock concert on grounds they were breaking the country's strict Islamic Sharia law, local media and witnesses said Sunday. Calls to authorities were not immediately returned on Sunday, but the public prosecutor in Karaj, Ali Farhadi, said Saturday that about 230 people were arrested during the underground concert, which he described as "satanic." "Most of them were wealthy young people who were not aware of the satanic nature of the concert," Farhadi told state television. "A female singer, who was performing, and some rock and Rap...

With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act - H.R. 2679 - provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorneys fees. The bill has only one purpose: to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion. [snip] The attorneys' fees statute has worked well for almost 30 years. Lawyers receive attorneys' fees under the law only if their claim...

BEIJING - China welcomes foreign Internet companies working in China, but they must respect and abide by the country's laws, including those on expression, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday. The comments by ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao followed remarks Tuesday by Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledging the Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. Liu said China took a positive attitude toward working with companies such as Google, but any cooperation must exist "within a framework of law," and that Beijing hoped firms would abide by China's regulations. Google's Brin said the Internet company had...

Religious-liberty experts say that's not a proper role. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a 57-member Muslim voting block, has called for the United Nations to take measures against what it calls "Islamophobia." The move is part of the fallout after Danish cartoons portrayed Muhammad in a negative light. The OIC specifically asked for a U.N. declaration prohibiting the "defamation of all prophets and faiths." Thomas Jacobson, representative to the U.N. for Focus on the Family Action, said that's not a proper role for the U.N. "What the Arab nations are asking the U.N. to do is to protect...

On the surface, it was gratifying to note a peaceful protest by Muslims against the Mohammed caricatures today in London's Trafalgar Square. Peaceful assembly and free expression are the means by which civilized societies work out internal differences. But was today's demonstration truly a spontaneous, lawful expression of free speech, or carefully orchestrated public relations damage control for Islam? The BBC reports: Protests held in London last week sparked outrage when demonstrators carried placards with strong messages - the Metropolitan Police said some protesters could be charged with "incitement to murder". According to CNN.com, last week's Muslim "protestors" carried placards...