Free Republic

Hmm, what's this? We noticed that overnight eight 5-star reviews for Stephen Meyer's book Darwin's Doubt were mysteriously erased. Just vanished. Since these were positive reviews, it is unlikely they were "abusive" which is the normal criterion that Amazon has for removing reviews. Interesting. These kinds of shenanigans always seem to happen when our critics are feeling maximally pressed because they can't answer our arguments on the merits. They thus see the need to resort to schemes and tricks. It's an admission of intellectual defeat. We've also heard claims about people trying to reshelf Meyer's book in the religion section...

INDIANAPOLIS (August 12, 2014)—Journalists and scientists are urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop banning leading national scientists from talking to media outlets and the public. The EPA is placing new restrictions on independent scientists who advise the agency, according to a memorandum from the EPA’s chief of staff. The memo instructs Science Advisory Board members to get permission before talking to the press, which inhibits their ability to speak freely to the public about important scientific issues, including air pollution, toxic chemicals and water quality. “The EPA wants to control what information the public receives about crucial issues...

A North Carolina diner that offered a 15 percent for those who prayed before their meal has stopped issuing the price cut due to a lawsuit threat. Mary’s Gourmet Diner has been quietly offering the 15 percent “praying in public” discount for four years and said that it was given to people from all religions.

A few days ago this writer went to his first Minnesotans Against Common Core meeting in Becker Minnesota. This writer was not surprised to hear various concerns the speakers mentioned during the course of this meeting. Establishing Child Career Pathways beginning in Second Grade; Recording of "Biometrics" of Children in data bases for future Government use; Dumbing Down of the masses; Indoctrination children to make them more compliant to authority; Conditioning Individuality out of Children; Extending the Length of the School Year. Understandably, the parents in the audience were upset, agitated and angry over children having their career paths set...

Some of the world’s top PR companies have for the first time publicly ruled out working with climate change deniers, marking a fundamental shift in the multi-billion dollar industry that has grown up around the issue of global warming. Public relations firms have played a critical role over the years in framing the debate on climate change and its solutions – as well as the extensive disinformation campaigns launched to block those initiatives. Now a number of the top 25 global PR firms have told the Guardian they will not represent clients who deny man-made climate change, or take campaigns...

Determined to overcome a recent 9-0 US Supreme Court ruling against the state’s “buffer zones” surrounding abortion clinics, the Massachusetts Legislature enacted a new, more severe buffer zone statute. The penalty for violating the new buffer zone is a fine of up to $50,000 and incarceration of up to three years in jail. Governor Deval Patrick (D) praised “the courage of our legislators who have stood up against judicial tyranny. The right to an abortion is a human right. Women seeking to exercise this right should not be impeded by the unwanted messages of its opponents assaulting their ears on...

Crossing the Wrong Kind of Activists Friday evening About an hour after I first notice the Business Insider article, I check my email again from my phone. I see that the once laudatory President of the NYYRC has lost his nerve. He noticed the Business Insider article, and asked me to immediately remove the post from the site. The problem, he says, is the sentence that questions Obama’s relationship with the Emir of Qatar. (Which, I may add, linked not to anything sexual, but purely policy/political.) I’m not home when I receive this email. The article on BI quoted mine...

Outraged by the surging popularity of anti-Clinton books overtaking sales of Hillary Clinton’s State Department memoir, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill offered his opinion that “in a just world such despicable nonsense would neither be allowed nor enabled.” The “despicable nonsense” books Merrill is saying ought to be censored include The First Family Detail by Ronald Kessler, Clinton, Inc. by Daniel Halper and Blood Feud by Ed Klein. “It is a travesty that books like these are outselling a historically important work by a major player in contemporary American history,” Merrill complained. “Their authors are comparative nobodies trying to get rich...

The IRS recently settled a case against it brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). As part of the settlement, the IRS has agreed to monitor church sermons for political content. The suit was filed because FFRF apparently did not like an event called Pulpit Freedom Sunday. Apparently once a year a number of pastors preach on political topics, presumably to rebel against the never enforced Federal prohibition on 501(c)(3) political activities. Technically it is illegal for tax exempt non-profits to engage in political activities, presumably this includes commenting on politics from the pulpit. To date there isn’t a...

Eric Holder, Attorney General, issued some stinging criticisms of Sarah Palin this weekend. Palin, a failed GOP vice presidential candidate and professional media provocateur, has recently been trying to garner the public’s attention again with a series of calls for the impeachment of President Barack Obama. “She wasn’t a particularly good vice presidential candidate,” Holder said. “She’s an even worse judge of who ought to be impeached and why.” The Attorney General’s comments are part of a larger assault on the stubborn gridlock caused by congressional republicans and their obstinate refusal to work with the president, even to the...

A High School in California has insisted that it has a right to ban the mention of God in a student’s graduation speech paradoxically claiming the Constitution gives them that power. In July 18-year-old Brooks Hamby refused to follow the schools ban order and thanked Jesus in his speech anyway sending the school into fits of apoplexy. A California school district says it will not apologize to a teenager who defied its orders and mentioned God in his graduation speech. Attorneys representing the Brawley Union High School District have written a 10-page letter defending the school’s right not only to...

Nevermind for the moment that I have been posting – for the last year or so – sourced, circumstantial evidence that the United States has a dirty deal with Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood, and by extension, IS[IS]. Nevermind that I provided sourced evidence that NATO contracts with heroin smugglers for the Taliban, through the Pakistani National Logistics Cell. I was asked by the President of this club to self-censor, and remove the article. I received an email requesting this, but was not near a computer. By the time I got home, at which point I could respond to the...

It was just another high school graduation in one more streamer-bedecked gym, with all the usual trappings, the procession, the band, the beach balls, the decorated caps, the parents, the dignitaries. Except it wasn’t ordinary at all: it was as powerful a statement of faith from both a student and from the crowd itself as you will ever see.

Representative Henry Cuellar (D., Texas) hasn’t been shy about speaking out against the Obama administration’s handling of the border crisis, and that apparently earned him a phone call from the someone at the White House. “Yes, I have,” Cuellar said on Fox & Friends on Wednesday when asked if he had received a talking-to. “But let me just say that I’m more concerned not about who gets angry at me at the White House; I’m more concerned about my constituents who want to find a practical solution to this question that we’re facing down there at the border.” “Who called...

BBC report: “Impartiality in science coverage does not simply lie in reflecting a wide range of views, but depends on the varying degree of prominence (due weight) such views should be given.” LONDON, July 7 (UPI) --In an internal report released today by the BBC trust addressing the broadcaster's impartiality in science reporting and the gender balance of its contributors and presenters, the BBC has officially taken the position that it will be giving climate change deniers less airtime in an effort to provide more accurate reporting that better reflects the weighted view of the scientific community. When they set...

Malia Obama went to a famous L.A. restaurant Monday night -- a restaurant regularly frequented by celebs and paparazzi -- and when the White House found out a photog took her pic, they went into DEFCON 1 to KILL the photos. The 16-year-old went to Gjelina in Venice, CA with some friends. The photog got the pic as Malia walked out and then sent it to the AKM-GSI agency to sell. The agency posted the pic on its website for media outlets to purchase, but several hours later The First Lady's Office called AKM-GSI and asked them to please take...

Wholesale retailer Costco announced Tuesday evening that they have reversed a decision to remove conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza’s bestselling book from stores, following an outcry from thousands of angry customers. “Costco is not a book store. Our book shelf space is very limited,” a statement posted on Facebook said. “We exercise discipline in the best utilization of that limited space based solely on what our members are buying. We can’t carry every title that our members are interested in reading. We are constantly monitoring book sales, and make decisions to pull books off the shelves frequently based on sales volume...

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<p>Back in the days when Vladimir Putin was first launching his crackdown on Russian mainstream media, killing and arresting reporters and publishers and seizing or shutting down publications, the Russia apologists rationalized his actions by claiming that the Russian Internet was free and always would be, and would counter any state propaganda.  It’s now clear that these statements were made simply ruse to induce the defenders of free speech to drop their guard and allow Putin to take over mainstream media unchallenged. It worked like a charm. And now we can clearly see how utterly false these statements were as Putin systematically exterminates the Runet.</p>

Facebook Flags Images of Pro-Life Father Loving Unborn Child as “Violent” by Carole Novielli | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 7/7/2014 A Black pro-life organization has had three Facebook images flagged as “graphic violence!”One of those images depicts a father loving his unborn child.Two of the three images are anything but violent. One is a 4th of July meme and the other says “We will not be silenced!”  LifeNews blogger Ryan Bomberger is an Emmy® Award-winning Creative Professional who founded The Radiance Foundation (TRF), a life-affirming 501(c)(3), along with his wife, Bethany. Working in conjunction with noted national civil rights...