Free Republic

It is unconscionable that the likes of Reza Aslan and Hussein Ibish, sly and slick advocates for Israel's destruction, get a platform and a respectful hearing at universities all over the country, while freedom fighters seldom get invited at all, and when we do, leftist brownshirts do all they can to shout us down and shut us down. Bin Laden apologist (Hussein Ibish) to debate Ahmadinejad apologist (Reza Aslan) on Israel at UCLA Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch In light of the jihad doctrine and the stated goals of jihad groups like Hamas, there is no difference between a one-state...

There are two ways to analyze the violent eruption of global terrorist attacks that have marked the past three decades: analyze the nature of the threat and the culture supporting it, or blame it all on the evils of Western colonialism and American militarism. The latter analysis is the choice of the "politically correct," who say that terrorism is as rampant in the West as it is in the Muslim world. A truth check, however, will tell us that for every Western terrorist (such as Timothy McVeigh), there are hundreds almost exclusively from the Muslim world. If colonialism is the...

Americans are getting informed about the dangers Islamists pose to civilized societies -- stealth infiltration of Sharia (Islamic "law") into our legal/social system, "honor" killings, homicide bombings, support for terrorism... There are too many apologists for Islamist outrages amongst our university academe, primary and secondary educators, media elite, government officials, etc. But the blogsphere, activist organizations, and concerned citizens have learned about Islam, and are fighting back against political correctness gone mad (though we still have a long way to go). Thanks to the efforts of the Florida Family Association, The Learning Channel has pulled its shameless whitewash of Islam,...

Last week the Center for American Progress released the latest in an increasingly desperate series of reports by far-left and Islamist groups attacking my colleagues and me at the Center for Security Policy and others for our work educating Americans about Islamist terrorist threats and exposing the underlying doctrine — Shariah — that motivates them. In what could be called a “Shariah Defense Lobby,” a growing number of far-left groups have joined ranks with Islamist groups to whitewash and protect the political, legal, military, and religious doctrines of Shariah from scrutiny. This latest report joins previous efforts by the Center...

Centuries after the Spanish Inquisition led to the forced conversion of Jews to Catholicism, an ultra-orthodox rabbinical court in Israel has issued a religious ruling that recognizes descendants from the insular island of Majorca as Jews. The opinion focused narrowly on the Majorcan community of about 20,000 people known as chuetas and did not apply to descendants of Sephardic Jewish converts in mainland Spain or the broader diaspora of thousands of others who scattered to the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish colonies in South and North America. The island, isolated until a tourist boom that began in the late 1960s,...

When 9-11 took place, Muslim spokesmen in America and elsewhere (as well as their non-Muslim apologists), assured us that Osama did not represent "real Islam". They told us that Osama's actions made him anti-Islamic and a non-Muslim. If the above is true, then why was Osama given a Muslim burial? America had every right to wrap his body in pig skins, accompanied by strips of bacon and pork chops. How could Muslims have complained, when they assured us that Osama does not represent Islam? In any case, doesn't giving Osama a Muslim funeral increase his chances of going to the...

What on earth was Sarah Palin thinking when she posed in a pair of teeny-tiny gym shorts for a photograph that ended up on the cover of Newsweek -- a cover she has called "sexist"? Perhaps she was thinking that her image would only appear in the magazine she was posing for, Runner's World, and nowhere else, at least not for months and months. If so, she had good reason -- since, as DailyFinance has learned, the photographer who shot the picture violated his contract by reselling them to Newsweek. That photographer, Brian Adams, could not immediately be reached, and...

What does the Liberal Left have against 13-year-old girls? Within the space of a month, the Left has been--well, not exactly--forced to defend both Roman Polanski and ACORN. While most politicians have remained mum, an assortment of liberal bloggers, pundits and Hollywood celebs have rushed to the defense of ACORN, Roman Polanski or both. ACORN, shown on hidden camera instructing how to facilitate the importation of underage girls into the United States for the sex trade, rallied the Left first. Roman Polanski, convicted of drugging and anally raping a 13-year-old girl, is the latest to cause the Left, especially Hollywood,...

The Obama rump-swab government-run media are so shaken by the persistence of those among the American electorate who would still like to see proof of Obama's Natural-Born American Citizenship that they have adopted the Nazi propaganda tactic of referring to such inquisitive individuals as "conspiracy theorists." In fact, the only true "conspiracy theorists" in the room are the ostrich-imitating media, who use such perjorative and insulting terminology to refer to patriotic Americans who merely request a modicum of assurance that our president is actually our president under the simple and unchallenged rules set forth in the United States Constitution. People...

I am as sick to death of RINO apologists as I am the RINOs themselves. Too many real conservatives took a lot of flack here on FR during the last mid term and presidential election cycles for expecting Republicans to actually legislate like Republicans rather voting for every Obama-lite candidate with an “R” after their names who just might be electable. To too many, elections are about partisan score keeping and not about the direction and future of the country. Many conservatives received a lot of undeserved criticism because they refused to vote straight party line or choose the lesser...

MONROE – At first glance, it’s an unlikely combination. A black family seated under a tent facing a line of Civil War re-enactors, proudly holding Confederate flags and gripping their weapons. But what lies between these two groups is what brought them together: An unmarked grave about to get its due, belonging to a slave who fought for the Confederacy. Weary Clyburn was best friends with his master’s son, Frank. When Frank left the plantation to fight in the Civil War, Clyburn followed him. He fought alongside Frank and even saved his life on two occasions. On July 18, the...

Terry Lynn Barton has been released from prison after serving a six-year term for starting the worst wildfire in Colorado's recorded history. Barton, 44, pleaded guilty to arson charges stemming from the 2002 Hayman Fire, which blackened 138,000 acres, destroyed 133 homes and forced more than 8,000 people to evacuate. She was a fire spotter for the U.S. Forest Service at the time

In an interview yesterday with the San Francisco Chronicle, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed the U.S. troop surge failed to accomplish its goal. She then partially credited the success of the troop surge to “the goodwill of the Iranians,” claiming that they were responsible for ending violence in the southern city of Basra. Asked if she saw any evidence of the surge’s positive impact on her May 17 trip to Iraq she responded: Well, the purpose of the surge was to provide a secure space, a time for the political change to occur to accomplish the reconciliation. That...

Scientists find a fingerprint of evolution across the human genome The Human Genome Project revealed that only a small fraction of the 3 billion “letter” DNA code actually instructs cells to manufacture proteins, the workhorses of most life processes. This has raised the question of what the remaining part of the human genome does. How much of the rest performs other biological functions, and how much is merely residue of prior genetic events? Scientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and the University of Chicago now report that one of the steps in turning genetic information into proteins leaves genetic...

Last August, during an appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists, Barack Obama was asked whether he'd lead the nation in a "conversation about race" if he were elected president. He demurred, suggesting that Americans were more interested in having a president who would fight terrorism and economic decline than one who acted as therapist-in-chief. It was a pragmatic response from the man trying to become the nation's first black president. He'd never win over substantial numbers of white or brown or even black voters if he seemed overly focused on America's racial divide. But the issue of race...

African slavery is so much the outstanding feature of the South, in the unthinking view of it, that people often forget there had been slaves in all the old colonies. Slaves were auctioned openly in the Market House of Philadelphia; in the shadow of Congregational churches in Rhode Island; in Boston taverns and warehouses; and weekly, sometimes daily, in Merchant's Coffee House of New York. Such Northern heroes of the American Revolution as John Hancock and Benjamin Franklin bought, sold, and owned black people. The family of Abraham Lincoln himself, when it lived in Pennsylvania in colonial times, owned slaves.[1]...

Last week, a reporter of the Kuwait News Agency accused Sen. John McCain and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee of “linking Islam with terrorism as a tool to scare up support among US voters, an election style experts describe as ‘shameful.” ... Shameful style? Yes, if measured by Islamic standards and not those of American politics and free speech. Last Monday it was reported that the British government has drawn up a new handbook for government officials that forbids them to use phrases like “Islamist extremism” or “jihadi-fundamentalist” -- instead, police and others must refer to “violent extremism” and “criminal...

Somebody created this to rebut all the stupid communist "tributes" on YouTube to expose the truth of the ideology that has killed tens of millions. This video is being heavily argued about on another forum I read (Fark). Reading the comments there and at YouTube it seems that Communism still has a TON of apologists and defenders willing to come to its rescue every time someone tries to put the truth out there about it. You may find this movie funny or sad but it is definitely worth watching.

This past Sunday, thanks to Mayor David Cohen, the city of Newton paid special tribute to Father Robert Drinan, who was our Congressman for ten years until the Pope asked him to retire from Congress and Barney Frank replaced him. He had been the Dean of the Boston College Law School and a well-known theologian, author and educator. Since his retirement from Congress, he had been teaching at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, and he passed away on January 28. He was a frequent visitor to his sister-in-law and nieces, who currently live in Newton. At the remembrance,...

The nation's journey to $3 per gallon gas has been more like a drag race than a meandering road trip. With the partial shutdown of Prudhoe Bay last week, motorists who have felt the pain at the pump had more to moan about as the simple dynamics of supply and demand kept the prices hovering at a level that seemed unfathomable a few years ago. "I complain when I can, if anybody will listen," Victor Gianotti said Monday in Raleigh, N.C. "As long as we're involved and we stay involved in the Mideast and we're not self-sufficient we're going to...

With 29 countries in favor, 12 opposed, Arab countries pass decision according to which Council’s inspectors will prepare special report on human rights violations committed by Israel in territories, issue will be discussed in all Council meetings.Diplomatic blow: The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday accepted a resolution according to which human rights violations committed by Israel in the territories will be discussed on a permanent basis in all of the Council’s meetings. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Yitzhak Levanon told Ynet in response: “I am very sorry that the Arab group took us back to the...

"Unfortunately, all too often "Islam" and "terrorism" are juxtaposed in news reports and editorials. A word search on news stories published in major newspapers over the past decade shows that reporters are hundred times more likely to associate Islam with terrorism or militancy than all other faiths combined. Such lopsided portrayal is indicative of deep-seated misunderstandings about Islam, and sometimes just plain prejudice. Surely all terrorists are not Muslim, neither are all Muslims terrorists."

Illegal immigration is recognized by many U.S. Citizens to be a threat to our nation. It's is a balkanizing process. It disrupts communities. It places financial strain on regions of our nation. It costs our nation tens of billions of dollars a year, if not hundreds. It is destroying our health care system. It disrupts the education system financially and in the teaching process due to language problems. It can place English speaking children at a disadvantage, in that spanish children receive elevated resources while English speaking kids take a back seat in the early years. There are problems of...

I thought I would insert a little perspective into the argument concerning border enforcement this morning? I though yesterday's conversation went so well, ya know? This one will probably be moved to chat, but even so, maybe today we can discuss what REAL border enforcement would mean, and if that is something you REALLY want to see happen in America?

A few words on the Dubai Ports World imbroglio, written without pause or editing, which is probably just as well. Short version: the administration may have thought it was helping a Valuable Ally and probably a pal, end of story. But it plays like Bush defending eminent domain to condemn a neighborhood to build a mosque. I don’t make predictions, because – well, who cares? You either repeat the conventional wisdom and hide with the herd when you’re wrong, or buck the prevailing opinions and get a reputation as a “maverick” when you’re wrong, again. Works for some. But if...

Austrian prosecutors have filed an appeal against the three-year prison sentence handed to the British historian David Irving, arguing that he escaped too lightly for the crime of Holocaust denial. Irving was left stunned and open-mouthed when the sentence was handed down after a one-day trial in a Vienna court yesterday. After entering a guilty plea and publicly accepting that he had made a mistake when denying existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz, Irving had clearly expected a more lenient punishment over two speeches made to Austrian neo-Nazis in 1989. Irving's defence lawyer, Elmar Kresbach, has already appealed against the...

Rome paid tribute to the barbarians clamoring at her gates. It didn't do any good. Paying ransom only postponed the inevitable sacking, burning, and looting of the empire's capital. The UK's Neville Chamberlain sought to pacify Hitler, only to see Brits hiding in basements from the blitzkrieg a few years later. Instead of remembering history's lessons, the Washington Post today indulges in feel-good, intellectual rationalization of Muslim intolerance and hatred. In a 5-page manifesto entitled, "Anatomy of the Cartoon Protest Movement," authors Anthony Shadid and Kevin Sullivan exercise unlimited poetic license, calling Islamist hooliganism "a rare moment of empowerment among...

Recently, despite the terrorist bombings in London and Egypt, much has been printed in columns or spoken on news shows against the Patriot Act in the United States and against the shooting of a potential terrorist in London. A young Brazilian man ran from the police who had tried to question him because he was wearing a heavy, bulky coat even though everyone one else was in shirtsleeves in the warm weather. He ran into, of all places, a subway entrance, jumping over a turnstile and into a subway train identical to the one that had killed over fifty people...

There are apologists amongst us The 'We told you so' lot have been bleating on about Iraq ever since the atrocities of 7/7 - it is time to fight back Norman Geras Thursday July 21, 2005 Guardian Within hours of the bombs going off two weeks ago, the voices that one could have predicted began to make themselves heard with their root-causes explanations for the murder and maiming of a random group of tube and bus passengers in London. It was due to Blair, Iraq, illegal war and the rest of it. The first voices, so far as I know,...

After the 7/7 London bombings many have raced to renounce the phrase “Islamic terrorism.” A London Anglican priest named Paul Hawkins said in a sermon: “We can name the people who did these things as criminals or terrorists. We must not name them as Muslims.” It may seem odd to deny to the likely perpetrators of the bombings the name that they themselves prize above all others, but such are the politically correct dogmas that prevail in most contemporary public discourse. No one is better versed in those dogmas, or more relentless in her pursuit of any dissenters from them...

From Norm Geras in the UK (with a hat tip to Glenn Reynolds for the reference), possibly the most coherent and powerful argument I have ever read regarding those among us who are apologists for our enemies. I rank this right up there with some of Bill Whittle's fine work: OK, it's more than time to nail this. Within hours of the bombs going off last Thursday the voices one could have predicted began to make themselves heard with their putative explanations for the murder and maiming of a random group of tube and bus passengers in London. It was...

CANTON, Texas -- The father of a high school football player shot and wounded the team's coach Thursday, then fled in a truck loaded with weapons and tried to kill himself by slashing his wrists, authorities said. Jeffrey Doyle Robertson, 45, went to the school just after classes started and shot coach Gary Joe Kinne in the chest, apparently with a .45-caliber pistol, police said. The coach, who also is the school's athletic director, was in critical condition Friday at Trinity Mother Frances Health System in Tyler, said Lisa Morgan, the hospital's clinical coordinator. Robertson's pickup was found about two...

American Friends? HardlyBy Gordon LambFrontPageMagazine.com | June 5, 2003 When the first Quakers arrived in America in the late 17th century, they were thought of as heretics, sometimes witches and routinely bizarre. Theirs was a religion based on the ideas the individual is supreme, that the relationship between God and man is a very private affair not to be regulated by government or society, that temperance ("all things in moderation") is a noble way to live one's life. Above all, it prized peace and stated that violence should be avoided if at all possible.The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has mastered...

JEDDAH, 16 January 2005 — Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the Kingdom’s grand mufti, said the people who attack Islam accusing it of encouraging terrorism and extremism and denying human rights are telling lies and know very well they are spreading falsehood. Speaking at a conference organized by the Makkah-based Muslim World League on inter-culture dialogue, Al-Asheikh said critics of Islam are driven by their enmity of the faith. He called upon Muslims to project the true face of Islam without any excesses or compromises. “The accusations directed against Islam by those who accuse it of terrorism, extremism and disrespect for...

Pop quiz: Who’s responsible for the attacks of 9-11? If you said the United States, you’re well qualified to teach American students about the defining historical event of their lives. That, at least, is the conclusion reached by Dickinson College. This September, in a bid to resolve the lingering dilemma over how best to broach with students the subject of the attacks, and terrorism generally, the Carlisle, Pa-based college sponsored a contest. Together with the Smithsonian Institution, the college invited educators across the country to submit lesson plans proposing creative ways to teach the subject of September 11. The four...

We can't tell if this is parody or self-parody, though we suspect the latter--and in either case, it's hilarious. Late last week a new Web site, SorryEverybody.com, appeared on the scene. Here's its manifesto:Some of us--hopefully most of us--are trying to understand and appreciate the effect our recent election will have on you, the citizens of the rest of the world. As our so-called leaders redouble their efforts to screw you over, please remember that some of us--hopefully most of us--are truly, truly sorry. And we'll say we're sorry, even on the behalf of the ones who aren't.The site features...

It was 6 a.m. when Russian soldiers hoisted themselves over the wall, crashed through the window, and broke down the front door......Altogether, an estimated 40 family members of senior Chechen rebel leaders were assembled at Khankala from Thursday, a day after the hostage seizure in Beslan, until Saturday, the day after it ended. Semiyev's daughter, Kusama, is the wife of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. Around him were suddenly assembled the entire extended families of Maskhadov, the former Chechen president, and of Chechen warlords Shamil Basayev and Doku Umarov. Maskhadov's brother was in the tent where the men were kept,...

CAIRO: Images of dead, wounded and traumatized Russian children being carried from the scene of a rebel school siege have horrified the Arab world, prompting forthright self-criticism and fresh concern about an international backlash against Islam and its followers. Arab leaders, Muslim clerics and ordinary parents across the Middle East denounced the school siege as unjustifiable. Some warned such actions damage Islam's image more than all its enemies could hope. Even some supporters of Islamic militancy condemned it, though at least one insisted Muslims were not behind it. ``Holy warriors'' from the Middle East have long supported fellow Muslims fighting...

Confusion at Colorado College Posted: September 4, 20021:00 a.m. Eastern © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com On Sept. 12, the second day of the second year of America's war on terror, Colorado College will host a symposium titled: "September 11: One Year Later." The symposium may not yield much insight into the war, but it tells us all a great deal about the moral confusion that dominates this campus and, I suspect, hundreds of others. As the first speaker on the first day of the conference – the "keynote speaker" according to the college – Colorado College has selected Hanan Ashrawi, a longtime spokeswoman for...

People, poor, rich, tall, short, American or South African - you choose the variety, it will still be true - are all capable of making better or worse choices. There are a few totally incapacitated ones of whom this is not the case, but the bulk of us are moral agents. But that is exactly what many on the political left deny to the poor. They attack their dignity by declaring them helpless, inept, in constant need of meddlesome intruders and the paternalist state.

Why do the Democrats like to talk about Vietnam so much? Because it's the only war they ever won.

OPERATION: "REMEMBER the ACHILLE LAURO" GOAL: Distract the pro-PLO goon squad DATE: Sunday, May 9th (Mothers Day) TIME: 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. LOCATION: Watertown Square (corner of Mount Auburn & Main Street/Route 20, accessible via Bus #71 from Harvard Square) The Arafat-huggers and terror-apologists are at it AGAIN! Tomorrow, they are planning to celebrate Mothers Day (May 9th) by picketing an event called "Shop Israel." This event, taking place at a Hebrew school in Watertown, is a mini-trade show in which vendors of products made in Israel display their wares for one day. The pro-PLO crowd is going to...

I am not so blinded by fear that I am going to blame my own government for the sins of Islamic fascism. It might be helpful right now to remember a few things as events in Washington and Iraq unfold. 1. We are at war. Anyone who thought it would be easy or painless has too quickly forgotten the lessons of 9/11. We are fighting fascists who would rather trample an American flag or kill an innocent civilian than do the hard work of building a free society. They are the enemy. Not the Bush Administration. Nor the Clinton administration....

Trevor is a junior at Westside High School in Omaha, Nebraska. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day Trevor, along with a couple of friends, decided to orchestrate a campaign that he be named the recipient of the "Distinguished African American Student Award" for next year. In the best American political tradition, they printed and plastered throughout the school about 150 posters showing a smiling Trevor giving a thumbs up and encouraging votes for him. The award has been given for eight years on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to a senior selected by teachers. There was only one slight problem....

<p>WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- As attorneys for Rush Limbaugh went to court Monday to try to keep his medical records out of the hands of Florida prosecutors, there have been negotiations on a possible plea bargain for the conservative talk show host, according to a spokeswoman for his radio network.</p>

WASHINGTON, 17 December 2003 — As the jubilation settles over the capture of Saddam Hussein, questions remain about the validity of the US presence in Iraq. “Saddam’s capture is further evidence that if a threat was posed by Iraq, and that certainly is debatable, the threat has been removed,” said Charles Pena, director of Defense Policy Studies at the Washington-based CATO Institute, in an interview yesterday. Because no weapons of mass destruction have been found, Pena said it is time for the US to remove its troops and “hand the government back to the Iraqi people and let them determine...

N.Y. Times Paints Hussein Capture as Bush Vendetta If you believe that the capture of Saddam Hussein was an important step forward in the war against terrorism you are wrong: it was just a case of the Bush family settling old scores, according to the New York Times. The "capture of Mr. Hussein in his earthen hiding place was the sweetest kind of vindication for a president who has earned worldwide skepticism and criticism — along with substantial praise — for his Iraq policy," wrote the Times' Todd S. Purdum. Note that the president "has earned" all that "worldwide skepticism...

What 'serious moral goal' justified the murder of British Consul Roger Short in Turkey? For two years now, it's been apparent that increasing numbers of us are living in entirely self-created realities. For example, when I switched on the TV last Thursday, I saw US President George W. Bush being warmly received at Thanksgiving dinner in Baghdad. By contrast, Wayne Madsen, coauthor of America's Nightmare: The Presidency Of George Bush II, saw a phony stunt that took place not at dinnertime but at the crack of dawn. "Our military men and women," he insisted, "were downing turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce,...

President Bush's message for Eid al-Fitr, which marks this week's end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan: I send greetings to Muslims celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the Festival of Breaking the Fast. This festival marks the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan, the holiest period of the Islamic year. Eid al-Fitr is a time to give thanks to God for the blessings of renewed faith, to perform acts of charity, and to share traditional food and good wishes with family and friends. Islam is a religion that inspires its followers to lead lives based on justice, compassion and personal...

Associated Press Walter Duranty, a New York Times correspondent, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. The 89 Pulitzer Prizes that The New York Times or its journalists have received are commemorated with framed citations on the 11th floor of the newspaper's headquarters. On one citation, an asterisk has been appended, followed by a disclaimer: "Other writers in The Times and elsewhere have discredited this coverage." For those who denounce the correspondent in question, Walter Duranty — who won his Pulitzer in 1932 for his coverage of Russia the previous year — the asterisk has never gone far enough. They argue...