Free Republic

Shock Jock Michael Savage is in hot water again this time for a stating his belief that 99% of Autism cases are fake. He has taken a beating from parents of autistic children and those who lobby for them. However, let us play devil's advocate for a moment... Are Savage's comments mean spirited or could there be some truth to it? Are children who are diagnosed with autism and Asperger's syndrome (Considered a high functioning form of Autism) being over diagnosed? Are the diagnostic criteria for Autism and Asperger's really too broad and too flawed that otherwise ordinary playful children...

That is, Ethiopia has effectively gained the entire population of the United Kingdom since the famine. But at least 80pc of Ethiopian girls are circumcised, meaning that no less than 24 million girls suffered this fate, usually without anaesthetics or antiseptic. The UN estimates that 12pc of girls die through septicaemia, spinal convulsions, trauma and blood-loss after circumcision which probably means that around three million little Ethiopian girls have been butchered since the famine -- roughly the same as the number of Jewish women who died in the Holocaust. So what is the moral justification for saving a baby from...

A friend of a friend produced this video, one of the best I’ve seen when it comes to documenting the anti-Americanism of the radical left. Complete with an upside down flag, spitting on an Iraq War veteran and calling him a rapist, it’s sure to make your blood boil. Good gosh, can we please rid our country of this kind of human garbage? You know, the Left would like to turn almost anything now into a hate crime. Do you think we could get the Dems in Congress to include US servicemen and women in their next piece of hate...

Of all the themes that recur in this column, one fills my inbox with angry e-mails like no other. It is the notion that you can and should take control of your own life and your economic destiny. It’s my deeply held conviction that if you learn how to do the right things and make good decisions, you will never need to participate in any “recession.” People hate this. Every time I say it, I get barraged with indignant feedback from people who tell me I don’t understand how tough it is. This was never more true than after my...

Karachi Kids by: Robin Beshear, July 21, 2008 California-born Muslim Imran Raza takes Americans behind the doors of the radical madrassa Jamia Binoria in his upcoming documentary, The Karachi Kids. The film focuses on the story of two American boys from Atlanta who were sent by their Islamic father to the Taliban-affiliated madrassa in Pakistan. The film takes place over a four-year time period, showing the progression of brainwashing that happens at these madrassas. At the beginning of the film, the boys are eager to go back to America and be with their families. By the end, they want to...

“We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline," Phil Gramm told the Washington Times in an interview last week. "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession." And then he walked away from the microphone. You know what else could be said? We also have a bunch of leaders who thrive on image and political correctness to guide their words and decision making. Since when is it not alright to say what you think or tell the truth? Since now! What was...

Probably gonna take some arrows for this one. But the following is a perfect example of an Affirmative Action trainwreck. And if people cannot debate the pervasive damage the program does to its "beneficiaries" then those "beneficiaries" will continue to exist in their uncomfortable purgatory. I ran across this opinion piece in the Washington Post entitled, "Michelle, Meritocracy and Me." Since Michelle Obama hasn't been a proud American until this year, and is therefore unfit to be anywhere near the levers of power, I have an interest in learning anything I can about her to see what we might be...

Great 15 minutes of inspiration. This guy truely gets what capitalism is all about.

NEA Family Feud by: Bethany Stotts, July 18, 2008 It’s that time again. The National Education Association teacher’s union met in Washington, D.C. over July 4th week for its annual convention and to endorse Barack Obama for president. Obama has drawn criticism from pro-life groups for his strongly pro-choice stance, having declared in 2007 that “the first thing I’d do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” which would overturn state restrictions on abortion. Following in this pro-choice vein, the NEA convention also once again upheld the original language of Resolution I-15, which “supports family planning, including the...

Historical Progress? by: Bethany Stotts, July 18, 2008 Despite what Americans have been hearing about the nation’s poor civics literacy, renowned education reformer Diane Ravitch suggests that, on historical subjects at least, civics education may have made “some headway.” She writes in the summer edition of Hoover Digest, “Yet compare [the results of two 1986 and 2007 surveys] I did, and it appears to me that those interviewed in the [Common Core] telephone sample of 2007 were somewhat better informed than their parent’s generation of 1986...On most questions of a factual nature, the proportion who answered correctly was either higher...

A Saudi-funded academy in Fairfax County used textbooks as recently as 2006 that compared Jews and Christians to apes and pigs, told eighth-graders that these groups are “the enemies of the believers” and diagrammed for high school students where to cut off the hands and feet of thieves, a Washington Post review of the books has found. It seems that some pretty smart kids go there. And the school's track record is pretty good, if you don't count the one kid who bypassed college, joined al-Qaeda, and tried to kill President Bush.

Truth For Muslims is educating Americans about the true nature of Islam through our seminars, publications, websites, and audio media. One of our specialties is conductiing training seminars in churches to help Christians understand Islam and how it compares to the teaching of the Bibles. This is called apologetics: understanding how to defend our faith. Tell us what you think is the best way for us to get the word out to more people. Take the online poll here. Poll is on the top right.

In a recent email discussion with Winfield Myers, Director of Democracy Project, I mentioned that rather than searching for topics, issues seem to find me. Recently the issue of immigration reform has been pursuing me, and it dovetails with the critical issue of the failure of American schools to prepare our students to compete in an international marketplace. The issue came up as a result of my firsthand empathy with the dilemma of a talented young colleague on a temporary visitor’s visa. He would love to build his future in America, but sadly for him and our company, the door...

> TEEN “TECHNO-VIRGINS” (PART ONE) Published in July 13th, 2008 Okay, I’m a tad too prudish when it comes to this topic so I’ll let the reader get the specifics from this Salon.com article. It directly relates to my previously-published posts on those Gloucester High Girls Gone Wild and to the promiscuous inclinations of today’s kids: http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/05/21/teens_oral_sex/. It’s tough to label them kids anymore since that designation brings to mind children playing with Barbies and watching Sesame Street. Then again, twelve-year olds haven’t engaged in those innocent activities for quite a while, if ever. And I’m certainly not referring to...

My wife just took up an interest in physics. What would be a good book for her to start with? I've never posted a vanity thread before, but I'm sure there is no better people to ask than my fine freeper friends. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!

KCRA - SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- More than 70,000 consumers complained about third-party debt collectors in 2007, but one Sacramento couple said they have good reason to bark about the bill they received. Steve Fanelli received a bill from AFNI collections claiming an Andy Fanelli owes Verizon Online $142.34. And although Steve Fanelli does indeed live with an Andy Fanelli, there is a small, furry problem with the bill. Andy Fanelli is Steve Fanelli's dog. more

He has been called "demonic," "barbaric," and has been compared to Nazi doctors. And when you read about his work, it is easy to see why Americans are so outraged. Dr. Norman Spack is a pediatric endocrinologist at Boston Children's Hospital. Not long ago, he opened a clinic for what he terms "transgendered" children. Incredibly, he is giving kids as young as seven drugs that delay the onset of puberty—the first step in sex-change surgery when they are older. Spack injects children with hormone-blocking drugs to prevent them from developing secondary sexual characteristics, like breasts or facial hair. The idea...

There is really no limit to what race hustlers will say. Here a British organization, the National Children's Bureau (NCB), has published a book by Jane Lane, who is identified as "an advocate worker for racial equality in the early years sector", titled Young Children and Racial Justice Breibart: Toddlers who say "yuck" when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says. The London-based National Children's Bureau released a 366-page guide counseling adults on recognizing racist behavior in young children, The Telegraph reported Monday. The guide, titled Young Children and Racial Justice, warns adults...

Michael was such a handsome fellow. I think he had the broadest, most sincere smile I have ever seen. I remember my teen friend working out at the “Y”. He was lifting weights. His T shirt was off. He looked down at his slender teen arms and complained, “They’re so skinny. I’ve got to get some muscle.” What he did not realize is that the arms were not skinny; they were trim, perfect. I thought, “Beauty is wasted on the young, for sure.” At school I helped him with his English — how to construct a paragraph that made sense....

Chuck Thacker is something of a hero in the world of technology yet outside of it, he remains a virtual unknown. Show people a photo of say Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and I bet quite a few people on the street will know who they are. Certainly they will have heard of them and probably have one or more of their products but Chuck Thacker is a different kettle of fish. And that's a shame given the influence he has had on so much of our lives. In short, Chuck is the man who essentially gave us the...

Fourth of July Fun: Declaration of Independence Quiz The Editors Click here to take the quiz. Good luck! Brought to you by the research staff and editors of FamilySecurityMatters.org

Palm Beach–In what could only have been deteremined as a yet another hit piece by the New York Times, Zev Chafets, delivered a masterpiece in his 8,000 words on Rush Limbaugh. There are certain times that many pieces of literary work should be written. I can think of no better time than the Fourth of July to publish this excellent piece. The piece is a study of Limbaugh, his lifestyle, an abbreviated life history, and his stance on many issues. It flashes back and forth throughout his life, but gives Americans a better understanding of what Rush LImbaugh does and...

<p>Red Skelton recites the Pledge of Allegiance - click to listen. As a schoolboy, one of Red Skelton's teachers explained the words and meaning of the Pledge ...</p>

While the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) has long dominated the field, its highly politicized leadership's inability to withstand criticism, inattention to radical Islam, and apologetic approach towards the West's foes has left many Middle East studies scholars feeling unwelcome by their umbrella professional organization. Enter the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA). Founded last year by Professors Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami, ASMEA offers an alternative to MESA's post-colonialist biases and a venue for studying those elements of Islam and the Middle East that MESA's leaders ignore or downplay.ASMEA's emergence is cause for optimism....

...Harvard's endowment posted returns of approximately 9 percent through the first 10 months of this fiscal year, according to data from the University. The increase puts the endowment's value at around $38 billion as of this April, up from $34.9 billion as of last June...During the same period the S&P 500 Index lost 8 percent. So how did Harvard do it? Heavy bets on inflation...a full 24 percent of Harvard's endowment was a bet on inflation...

TEEN SEX RING IN VERMONT There may be something about Mary but there is definitely something about judges. Perhaps the job, the power, the judicial robes go their heads? Who knows? The Supreme Court of the United States has made more than its share of screwy decisions, from the Dred Scott miscarriage of justice to the horror of Roe v. Wade and its subsequent result of 50,000,000 legal murders of the pre-born to its recent decision that child rapists can’t be executed. On my local scene, I still recall Judge “Cut ‘Em Loose Bruce” who was notorious for his years...

Dinesh D'Souza breaks out the red pen on Michelle Obama's thesis. "To wreak so much havoc on the English language in one sentence, without conveying anything of substance, is perhaps deserving of a prize. Is this what her professors were thinking when they granted her honors?"

Patriots live, breathe, and exude patriotism because it is part of their fiber. It becomes part of your fiber when you are taught, beginning as a child, that the root of America’s greatness is our freedom. You learn that America has freed millions of people from the grip of tyranny and oppression over our long and storied history. You learn that American freedom still serves as a beacon of hope for billions of people around the world. And while some people may not be proud of our country, Patriots are proud. Video. Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. (Proud to...

Patriots live, breathe, and exude patriotism because it is part of their fiber. It becomes part of your fiber when you are taught, beginning as a child, that the root of America’s greatness is our freedom. You learn that America has freed millions of people from the grip of tyranny and oppression over our long and storied history. You learn that American freedom still serves as a beacon of hope for billions of people around the world. And while some people may not be proud of our country, Patriots are proud. Video. Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. (Proud to...

High school students in the Wahhabi-led school learn that "the Jews conspired against Islam" and Sunni Muslims should shun all Shia Muslims. They also are taught that killing an apostate or an adulterer is acceptable under Islamic law. And polytheists (defined elsewhere as Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and even Shia and Sufi Muslims) likewise can be subject to death for their transgressions. It is troubling enough to consider such lessons being ingrained in the minds of teenagers in Riyadh and throughout the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But the same textbooks are in use in Alexandria, Va., at the Islamic Saudi...

One problem with one-issue activists, it seems, is that they often view matters from only one dimension. This has always been one of the characteristics of feminists. Men get blame for being history’s conquerors and killers, for instance, but no credit for being its innovators and healers. We will hear about how women “create life” while men only destroy it, but forgotten are the fruits of men’s labors. Were it not for male medical advances that virtually eliminated female death during childbirth, many feminists wouldn’t be around to crow about their fecundity. Given this misandrist atmosphere, it’s not surprising that...

One of the most insidious things about the disease of alcoholism–and it is a disease, despite the best efforts of thundering moralists to deny the science and the plain medical and biochemical facts–is that it plays on your character defects (which all people have) and, worse, it progresses slowly. Biochemically, it’s known to generally progress faster in women, for a variety of reasons that are understood (women are generally smaller, with consequent lower blood volume on average, and may also be able to conceal drinking better if they’re stay-at-home moms) and some of which undoubtedly are not currently understood. But...

The Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax, VA has been using text books which teach 12th graders that it's permissible for Muslims to kill those who convert out of Islam. The Academy is funded by the Government of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Ambassador sits on its board. The Academy's website states that their "Islamic Studies Program is unique and comprehensive" and leads of by stating that the students study Arabic (but I'm not sure what is so unique about Arabic language studies when it comes to Islamic studies). This report from the Washington Post about the June 9, 2008 arrest...

One dhimmi elementary school principal in Oregon has banned the Pledge of Allegiance, so as not to offend Muslims. Slowly they chip away at life as we know it. If this does not stop. Eventually Bibles and all non-Islamic religious symbols will be banned. All for a group of people who have never heard the expression "respect is a two-way street". When will this madness end? http://islaminaction08.blogspot.com/2008/06/oregon-school-bans-pledge-of-allegiance.html

Hot on the heels of my column yesterday, "Islam in America's Public Schools: Education or Indoctrination?," which included mention of the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Fairfax, Virginia, comes news that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has released its findings from a review of the school's textbooks and found that they promote hatred, intolerance, and violence. As reported by the Associated Press: -The authors of a 12th-grade text on Koranic interpretation state that apostates (those who convert from Islam), adulterers and people who murder Muslims can be permissibly killed. -The authors of a 12th-grade text on monotheism write...

The issue of whether parents ought to be allowed to home-school their children will be heard before the California Court of Appeals later this month. A lower court declared the practice illegal under California law earlier this year. The California Teachers Association filed an amicus brief urging the court to uphold the lower court’s decision. According to the brief, “allowing parents to teach their own children is educational anarchy. It would privatize a function that has long been held the prerogative of the state.” “These home-schoolers insert a barrier between the state and its young citizens,” the brief continued. “This...

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth ... a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, can long endure ... we here resolve that ... this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that this government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth." –Abraham Lincoln, from The Gettysburg Address "We are all just prisoners here of our...

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 Muslims are Attacking the Minds of our Children As I stated in a previous column, Muslims are attacking the minds of our children. They are doing this to brainwash them by putting a false positive spin on the religion of hate. This is an attempt to get our kids to accept Islam. Then unfortunately, one day in the future they will see they harsh reality of Islam. By then it just might be too late. This is also a violation of church and state, that is happening more and more. There CANNOT continue to be special...

The Return of the Primitive Andrew Klavan, the author of True Crime, adopted by Clint Eastwood for the big screen, albeit in a slightly bowdlerized form, visits an inner city fourth grade class, and comes away noting: Beating poverty in America nowadays is largely a matter of personal behavior. Get a high school diploma, don’t have kids until you’re married, don’t get married until you’re 21, and you probably won’t be poor. It also helps if you work hard, show up on time, act courteously, and avoid anything felonious. But where are these kids going to learn such things? It’s...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke ’75 spoke to Harvard College’s graduating class today in Tercentanary Theatre at Harvard. Bernanke spoke about the year 1975 to the class, the year he graduated from Harvard. He told the class: "Then as now, we were experiencing a serious oil price shock, sharply rising prices for food and other commodities, and subpar economic growth. But I see the differences between the economy of 1975 and the economy of 2008 as more telling than the similarities."...

He had a doctorate in education from UCLA, but his ideas were anything but "Piled higher and deeper." Max Rafferty had been elected twice (in 1962 and 1966) as California's Superintendent of Public Instruction. Dr. Max Rafferty wrote books with titles like "Suffer Little Children" and "What They Are Doing To Your Children." Rafferty blasted modern public education and its emphasis on "life adjustment." His conservative views on education appeared in a nationally syndicated newspaper column. Rafferty's conservative supporters put him up as an alternative in the June 4th, 1968 Republican U.S. Senate Primary. Rafferty faced incumbent liberal Republican U.S....

You guys have been awesome helping people out with rebuttals to "An Inconvenient Truth". Now I need help ... my 15-year-old daughter will be watching "The 11th Hour" in science class ... I guess they figured they'd get less protest from parents than they would with "An Inconvenient Truth" since it's not quite so well-known. I sent her the link to "Hannity's America" showing what a hypocrite diCaprio is ... but I have no idea what's in the movie. Can you guys help with this so she can get her rebuttal package ready before they watch the movie?

On June 15-16, a conference will take place at the University of Southern California titled, "How Free is the University?" Sponsored by the American Freedom Alliance, the conference features an impressive lineup of speakers, all addressing the subject of academic freedom in higher education. As Northern California Representative for Campus Watch - a conference co-sponsor - I will be speaking on a panel titled, "Middle East Studies Departments: Who influences and controls them?" In doing so, I hope to shed light on the crucial part played by Middle East studies in the ongoing politicization of the classroom. On a related...

The number of fatal firearms accidents for the last five years of record are: 2002 - 762; 2003 - 730; 2004 - 649; 2005 - 630; 2006 - 680. I had to hunt a bit for this information, which I think many are interested in. The accidental firearm death rate is down 94% since 1905. You have to scroll down a bit on the link to find the figures in the source.

New age philosophy! False gods! Violence on the walls! Slaves in the cotton fields! Scandalous, I tell you. “When she showed it to me, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ � said Hansell, who added that the mural presents a new age idea of peace and unity that could be confusing to Christian students. Hansell said she’d also like a more positive image of African Americans. “It doesn’t even represent even a fingernail of the faith here in Bastrop County and what (residents) believe.�Among the images on the mural are an Aztec sun, ancient Egypt’s King Tutankhamen, Buddha and Shiva,...

Have a few minutes to spare? Go to "Google," type in the phrase "highly educated voters," hit "Search News." Go ahead. We'll wait . . . OK, what do you get? All sorts of stories about Obama voters, and how he attracts the "highly educated." You will get the same from the pundits on network and cable news: lots of blather about how Obama appeals to "highly educated" Americans. That, of course, is just more MSM "spin doctor" nonsense and we conservatives let them get away with it. We heard the same song when John "Xmas in Cambodia" Kerry ran...

Good Afternoon! When I need advice, I turn to Freepers. I am interested in learning more about becoming a paralegal. I've done some research, but I was hoping to get some first hand accounts. As a career, how would you rate it? Is it challenging, interesting, etc. More importantly, are you in charge of fetching the coffee?

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis student Keith Sampson was charged with “racial harassment” when he was spotted reading Todd Tucker’s “Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan” while on break from his job as a janitor. The charge, since dropped after being widely criticized as “idiotic,” was filed by Affirmative Action Office of the university. The affirmative-action officer, who asked that her name be withheld, explained her action. “The fact that the book may have been anti-racist is not the point,” She said. “The fact that he was reading in itself is what is...

The British Empire relied on its military and economic strength to further its aim. This process largely began after the end of the English Civil War which pinned King against Parliament and ended with the dictatorship of a highly talented but authoritarian general Oliver Cromwell in 1649. At this time the navy began to develop, eventually it would become the most powerful in the world. It would rely on foreign trade by English merchants for its finance. And in return the navy would provide the English merchant class with access to foreign markets through war and coercion whenever needed. This...

I have been checking out various on-line IT courses for my college age home schooled son. I found this site for $149.00 that features a full menu of options for a flat one year membership, SECURITY+ CERTIFICATION A+ CERTIFICATION ACCOUNTANCY ADOBE CISCO CLAIT CONTACT MANAGEMENT COREL DATABASES DESKTOP DTP ECDL E-QUALS GRAPHICS I-NET+ CERTIFICATION INTERNET LOTUS MCSE MICROSOFT MOS NETWORK+ CERTIFICATION NOVELL PROGRAMMING SERVER+ CERTIFICATION SOFT SKILLS UNIX WEB DEVELOPMENT and the other one in the link--whose typos on their web page do not inspire me with confidence.(My typos I attribute to my Saturday ration od Sam Adams) Bottom Line:...