Free Republic

On Wednesday, March 14, eight days into a new job teaching biology at Sisters High School, Kris Helphinstine showed a class of freshman and sophomore students pictures of naked corpses, a Nazi swastika and Charles Darwin in a PowerPoint presentation. "What do these pictures have in common?" the 27-year-old part-time teacher asked the 30 students. They listened as Helphinstine gave a roughly hourlong presentation, explaining how the Third Reich perverted evolution and eugenics to slaughter Jews and Gypsies in death camps to protect the "superior race." On the Monday and Tuesday before giving the PowerPoint presentation, Helphinstine had given the...

The high cost of pomp and circumstance By Andrew Miga/ Online Exclusive Thursday, June 17, 2004 WASHINGTON – Back when the Democratic National Committee first awarded its 2004 convention to Boston nearly two years ago, local pundits gushed about how the event would showcase Boston’s new image as a city that works. There were lots of lofty predictions about boosting tourism and luring more conventions – recasting Boston’s old image of anti-busing violence from the 1970s and its reputation for petty, parochial political backfighting. There was a lot of self-congratulatory hugging and puffing about the “new Boston.” One prominent Hub...