Free Republic

If you need an accurate update on some of the madness at the nation's institutions of higher learning, check out Minding the Campus, a nonprofit independent organization. John Leo, its editor in chief, says that the organization's prime mission is dedicated to the revival of intellectual pluralism and the best traditions of liberal education at America's colleges and universities. Leo's most recent compilation of campus madness leaves one nearly breathless. In a USA Today op-ed, Emily Walton, a sociology professor at Dartmouth University, said that all college students should take a mandatory course on black history and white privilege. She...

With all the rancor in politics these days, the CNN/New York Times Democratic debate on Tuesday night delivered a rare moment of comity: Twelve Democrats agreed, apparently without compensation, to appear in a Donald Trump ad. Other points on which the Democrats came together in peace and harmony: -- Trump should be impeached. -- Abortion is great. -- Obamacare sucks. At least we’re all finally agreed on Obamacare! Obamacare has given us a system -- to quote Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- “which is dysfunctional, which is cruel, 87 million uninsured, 30,000 people dying every single year, 500,000 people...

A question about Ellen DeGeneres and former President George W. Bush’s friendship drew the ire of Democratic presidential candidates and viewers alike following Tuesday night’s debate hosted by CNN and The New York Times. After the three-hour televised event, viewers and some Democratic hopefuls slammed debate moderator Anderson Cooper’s final question of the evening, which did not focus on what many thought could have been more important issues, like climate change. “Last week, Ellen DeGeneres was criticized after she and former President George W. Bush were seen laughing together at a football game. Ellen defended their friendship, saying, ‘We’re all...

The latest push by the Left-wing Communists in the Garbage Party to destabilize our cities and our country is to attack law enforcement on the local level. That means electing “progressives” to the position of mayor and prosecuting attorney while attempting to get similar people hired on as police chiefs. The effort is already paying dividends. Big cities from coast-to-coast are experiencing record disrespect for the law as well as the law enforcers — the men and women who occupy the thin blue line between civil society and total chaos.

The Democratic presidential candidates didn’t hold back in their debate on Tuesday night when it came to making sure everyone knew how much they’re in favor of killing preborn human beings. Twitter had quite the story to tell…

Massachusetts Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is being heavily criticized for failing to vet a high-profile campaign surrogate with a history of making homophobic, racist, misogynistic and xenophobic comments on social media. Activist Ashlee Marie Preston was featured in a Warren campaign video released October 10. In that video, Preston explains that she’s “a Warren Democrat because I am not afraid of the fight.” The video released by Twitter account @TeamWarren is captioned: 🙌@AshleeMPreston is a #WarrenDemocrat, and so are we. Together, we’re fighting so that all women of color have a voice in our democracy.

The issue of gay rights and recognition and acceptance of the LGBTQ community has moved at warp speed—in political terms anyway—this past decade. “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage,” said the candidate Barack Obama in 2008. At Thursday night’s nationally televised forum on LGBTQ rights, candidate Beto O’Rourke showed how far, and how quickly, the Democratic Party has moved. The former Texas congressman caused quite a stir when he said he would support revoking the tax-exempt status of religious institutions—colleges, churches, and charities—if they opposed same-sex marriage. (snip)...

Anyone wondering why religious people still support Donald Trump, despite his flaws, need only watch a recording of the Democrats’ fanatical LGBTQ town hall last week. From Elizabeth Warren mocking religious males as incapable of finding a wife to Beto O’Rourke’s promise to strip tax benefits from religious institutions, or Cory Booker’s assertion that Catholics use religion to justify discrimination, you see the ugly face of militant secularism and coercion. It is frightening that every one of the nine Democratic candidates who took part in the CNN event has signed up to extreme policies that attack religious liberty and radically...

Amazon took the extraordinary step of laying out its positions on nearly every hot-button topic in the world in a web page that unveiled Thursday, bringing new clarity to the tech company’s public policy agenda. The page, which is simply titled “Our Positions,” states where the Seattle tech giant stands on eleven issues -- several of which have a direct impact on business in America.

A Christian school governor with decades of service has been suspended after saying that she would not have wanted her two sons to read books with LGBT themes. Maureen Griffith, 73, who worked as an NHS nurse for 40 years, was a governor at Alperton Community School in Brent, northwest London, for more than 20 years. In May she received a letter telling her that she had been suspended from the governing body after two complaints alleging that she had made “homophobic comments at a public meeting”. She now fears she will be sacked. The row comes days before the...

He says this will include historically black colleges and mosques Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke doubled down on his proposal to revoke the tax-exempt status of religious institutions that do not support same-sex marriage. The former Texas congressman reiterated his support for punitive tax measures against churches or affiliated services that believe marriage is between a man and a woman, a position he introduced at CNN's Equality Town Hall on Thursday evening. NBC host Geoff Bennett asked O'Rourke how he would implement this plan given that the government "can't just dole out punishments on theological grounds." "You are free to...

CNN Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter brought on "Legendary Journalist" Sam Donaldson to unload the usual liberal mantras on Sunday. That's how CNN tagged Sam -- "Legendary Journalist" -- not only on screen, but even in the CNN transcript. Donaldson raised eyebrows much smaller than his by claiming that Trump fans are "fixated" on narrowing the country: "They want to return this country to the white Christian country that they believe it should be again. They don't want the diversity." DONALDSON: I'm telling you something, if public opinion is strongly for the impeachment and the conviction of President Trump, he...

Economist Paul Krugman, the longtime defender of global free trade and a member of the failed “Never Trump” movement, now admits that globalization has failed American workers. In a column for Bloomberg titled “What Economists (Including Me) Got Wrong About Globalization,” Krugman admits that the economic consensus for free trade that has prevailed for decades has failed to recognize how globalization has skyrocketed inequality for America’s working and middle class workers. Krugman, though, writes that he and his fellow free trade economists “had no way to know” that globalization of the American economy or a surge in trade deficits “were...

Three women and two men are dead in a shooting in a condominium building on Chicago’s Northwest Side by a neighbor who was known to have “anger management issues,” police said. A woman who had been in critical condition after a gunman opened fire in two units of a Dunning condo building died Sunday from her injuries, bringing the death toll to five from the Saturday night shooting rampage, police said. Authorities said the man left his condo in the 6700 block of West Irving Park Road in the Dunning neighborhood, went to a neighbor’s home in the same building...

I was 16 when I saw the news. Matthew Shepard’s murder taught me and many in this country that homophobia kills. Let us honor his life by channeling pain into purpose and striving to build a country where all belong. https://twitter.com/MattShepardFDN/status/1183008667672698881

[Catholic Caucus] The Evidence Suggests The Francis-Scalfari Connection is No Accident Since the news broke early this week that the nonegenarian atheist socialist editor of Italy’s La Repubblica, Eugenio Scalfari, claimed that Pope Francis told him during one of their many conversations that he did not believe Jesus was God, the Catholic commentariat has been engaged in a rhetorical battle to the death over who to believe, whether it’s true, and what it all means.For those willing to look objectively at the matter, it becomes clear that the confusion is the result of an intentional strategy on the part of the...

The controversial television host, who revealed earlier today that he’ll be debating whether or not he should be fired from his position on tomorrow’s show, has asked his 6.8million Twitter fanbase to show their support by adding their signatures to a Change.org appeal. ‘BREAKING: There is now a rival petition to save me on @GMB,’ Piers wrote. ‘Thank you Margaret Lowry! Please sign it if you wish to repel the snivelling snowflakes & keep me in my job.’ In another post, he added: ‘Spread the word, my people… Sign, RT, and save me as your voice against the shriekingly illiberal...

Exit polls show that independent law professor Kais Saied has won Tunisia's runoff presidential election against Nabil Karoui, a media tycoon recently freed from jail... Saied secured 72.53% of the vote while media mogul Nabil Karoui got 27.47%, the polling firm Emrhod Consulting says, citing exit polls... Karoui is a 56-year-old media tycoon, who up until Wednesday had been jailed on charges of tax evasion and money laundering, and Saied is a 61-year-old jurist and law professor with no political party but backed by the moderate Islamist party Ennahda. In the first round, Saied took 18.4% and Karoui 15.6% among...

Openly gay Tunisian lawyer and prominent LGBT rights advocate Mounir Baatour wants to become the next president of Muslim-majority Tunisia, where homosexuality is currently punishable by up to three years in prison, several news outlets reported over the weekend. Islam, which forbids homosexuality, is the official state religion in the North African country. Nearly 100 percent of the population is Muslim, according to the CIA World Factbook and other independent sources. The pro-Israel Baatour says he is determined to fight despite a nearly non-existent chance of winning. On Sunday, Deutsche Welle (DW) reported: There’s still quite a bit of time...

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, buoyed by its popular conservative platform and generous social spending, was widely expected to win Sunday’s election, which is regarded as one of the country’s most momentous since the fall of communism 30 years ago. More than 30 million voters were choosing lawmakers in the 460-seat lower house of parliament, the Sejm, and in the 100-seat Senate. Law and Justice is the first party since the fall of communism to break with the austerity of previous governments, whose free-market policies took a moribund communist economy and transformed it into one of Europe's most dynamic.