Free Republic

At Royal Oak Intermediate School in Covina, California, students in Len Cesene's seventh grade history class fasted last week to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Mr. Cesene's 12 and 13-year old students are the latest to become part of a growing Islamic indoctrination sweeping through America's schools. Mr. Cesene's letter to parents explained that, "in an attempt to promote a greater understanding and empathy towards the Muslim religion and toward other culture, I am encouraging students to participate in an extra credit assignment. Students may choose to fast for one, two or three days. During this time, students...

Of all the holidays in the year, Thanksgiving is perhaps most incompatible with the moral dispositions of Generation Y. It is not that we refuse to partake of the turkey and mashed potatoes, nor that we refrain from watching the football games on television. Rather, we are ungrateful for most everything we have. We are a thankless generation. I may sound like a pessimist, but my premise is basically positive. My generation is materially blessed beyond what any other generation before us has ever had. A typical, middle-class 18-year-old is endowed with a fairly new car with a fancy stereo...

Columnists' Corner "The College Slavery Tour" By Hans Zeiger Fresh from his failed California gubernatorial campaign, pornographer Larry Flynt recently lectured at college campuses around the country as part of an effort by the American Civil Liberties Union to recruit students to join their lethal cause. In the past few weeks, Flynt has made celebrity appearances at Harvard University, the University of Miami and the University of California at Berkeley. "Freedom of speech is not for the thought you love but for the thought you hate the most," Flynt declared to one audience. Hate speech is the appropriate label...

FRN Columnists' Corner "Clinton and Character " By Hans Zeiger When I was nine years old, I didn't consider Bill Clinton much of a role model. I saved an 18-point list I compiled in 1994 titled, "Bad Bill: Problems with the present President." In my unsophisticated list, I included: He secretly does uncalled-for things in the White House. He was supposed to act as a soldier in the Vietnam War. He even said he would. He then tricked officials to escape fighting for our country when he was needed. He eats too many hamburgers, which makes him fat. Clinton made...

FRN Columnists' Corner "Shutting down the Scouts " by Hans Zeiger"A Scout is trustworthy." But the City of Philadelphia isn't keeping a 75-year old promise to the Boy Scouts. In 1928, the Philadelphia City Council took note of the good turns that the Boy Scouts were doing throughout the city. The city council voted in favor of allowing the Cradle of Liberty Boy Scout Council to utilize a half-acre plot of public land at 22nd and Winter Streets "in perpetuity." By 1929, construction of the Boy Scout Resource Center was complete. Today, three quarters of a century later, Philadelphia's Cradle...

FRN Columnists' Corner "America Without Jesus " By Hans Zeiger By Hans Zeiger When administrators of Saint Edward State Park in Kenmore, Washington launched an engraved brick fundraiser to build a playground, Dan and Olga Buchanan put in $100 for a brick in their name. In August, the Buchanans received a letter from the playground coordinator telling them that the brick was unconstitutional because it contained the words, "Thank you Jesus." In her letter, the playground coordinator wrote, "Because the Saint Edward State Park Playground is located on public land, our intent and unwritten policy for all of the 511...

Pledge Allegiance to the ACLU By Hans Zeiger The Pledge of Allegiance is doing irreparable harm to the minds and hearts of America’s schoolchildren. So alleges an ACLU lawsuit against the State of Colorado for its new law requiring the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. This time, it isn’t just about “One Nation Under God.” Now, the American Civil Liberties Union wants to get rid of the whole pledge. On August 12, the ACLU filed suit in federal district court on behalf of “students and teachers throughout the state” who seem to be offended...

As hundreds of Boy Scouts were enjoying summer camp at Camp Balboa in San Diego last week, the ACLU was handed a U.S. District Court ruling condemning the Scouts for occupying the camp on leased public land. Soon, the Scouts could be kicked out of their historic 16-acre camp and council headquarters building. With "overwhelming and uncontradicted evidence," Judge Napoleon Jones found that the Boy Scouts are a religious organization and they were given preferential treatment when the City of San Diego first agreed to let the Boy Scouts utilize public land in Balboa Park nearly nine decades ago. In...