Free Republic

... Such is the surreal and increasingly irrational world we live in, where irate Muslims and groveling Westerners obsess over the destruction of one book while ignoring the destruction of many human lives; where a guaranteed and hard-earned American right -- freedom of expression — receives a lot of condemnatory huffing and puffing from those charged with protecting it, while murderous and barbarous — in a word, evil — behavior is devoutly ignored.

The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were there for the first time as full Council members and intent on making friends. President Obama chose to join the Council despite the fact that the Organization of the Islamic Conference holds the balance of power and human rights abusers are among its lead actors, including China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia....

NPR's Nina Totenburg redefining what Christmas is... "I want to say one thing about the budget that didn't get passed,...these agencies, including the Defense Department, don't know how much money they've got and for what. And I was at – forgive the expression – a Christmas party at the Department of Justice and people actually were really worried about this...See the video at Real Clear Politics Wait a second. Christmas is now an expression? Don't get me wrong, I'm kind of open to the idea because thinking of Christmas as the day the Son of God was born was...forgive...

Federal Reserve examiners come every four years to make sure banks are complying with a long list of regulations. The examiners came to Perkins last week. And the team from Kansas City deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller’s counter and buttons that say "Merry Christmas, God With Us." were inappropriate. The Bible verse of the day on the bank's Internet site also had to be taken down. “I don’t think there should be a problem with them displaying whatever religious symbols they want to display,” said Amy Weierman, a Perkins resident. Specifically, the feds believed,...

Students have vowed to protest or block North Carolina State University's Free Expression Tunnel until the university's chancellor gives guarantees that no hate speech will be allowed there. About 40 students painted the tunnel black overnight to protest racist and homophobic graffiti involving President Barack Obama painted there Sunday night. Slurs and the name "Obama" were painted over the picture of a black man. "It's not about the N-word. It's not about Obama. It's about racism, period,"

Japanese researchers have developed an android that mimics human expressions. Eventually, it could be used as a companion for disabled children or the elderly.

A new study gives new meaning to being blue — or red — in the face. People can pretty accurately discern whether someone is a Democrat or Republican just by looking at their mugs, according to research by two Tufts University social psychologists. In a series of experiments, college students were shown headshots of people and asked to guess their party affiliation. The students were correct 60% of the time, according to the study, greater than random chance would indicate. The researchers said students made their decisions based on their stereotypes of what Republicans and Democrats looked like.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider attempts to revive a 1998 law intended to protect children from Internet pornography, ending a legal conflict dating to the administration of President Bill Clinton. Without comment, the court handed down an order declining to take the case of Mukasey v. A.C.L.U., No. 08-565. The administration of former President George W. Bush, through Attorney General Michael Mukasey, had asked the justices to review the law. The American Civil Liberties Union has been a leading foe of the statute. The Child Online Protection Act has been the subject of court battles...

President of Mexico’s socialist Social Democratic Party (PSD), Jorge Carlos Diaz, has issued a demand that the Church stop opposing its initiatives or face legal action. Mexico City’s Cardinal Archbishop Norberto Rivera has criticized elements of the PSD’s program to legalize abortion, euthanasia and same sex marriage. “Abortion, euthanasia and marriage are political issues,” Carlos Diaz insisted. “The church must stop interfering. Ignorant peasants think that these priests speak for God. Well, there is no God. Rivera is lying to the people and confusing voters. He is sabotaging our right to craft the Party’s message as we see fit.” The...

Gene Expression Differences Between Europeans And Africans Affect Response To Drugs, Infections ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — Differences in gene expression levels between people of European versus African ancestry can affect how each group responds to certain drugs or fights off specific infections, report researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Expression Research Laboratory at Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, CA. Researchers used Affymetrix exon arrays to show that expression levels for nearly five percent of the 9,156 human genes they studied varied significantly between individuals of European and African ancestry. The research team took an unbiased...

TEHRAN, Iran: Iran has arrested more than 200 western music fans attending a rock concert on grounds they were breaking the country's strict Islamic Sharia law, local media and witnesses said Sunday. Calls to authorities were not immediately returned on Sunday, but the public prosecutor in Karaj, Ali Farhadi, said Saturday that about 230 people were arrested during the underground concert, which he described as "satanic." "Most of them were wealthy young people who were not aware of the satanic nature of the concert," Farhadi told state television. "A female singer, who was performing, and some rock and Rap...

With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act - H.R. 2679 - provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorneys fees. The bill has only one purpose: to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion. [snip] The attorneys' fees statute has worked well for almost 30 years. Lawyers receive attorneys' fees under the law only if their claim...

BEIJING - China welcomes foreign Internet companies working in China, but they must respect and abide by the country's laws, including those on expression, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday. The comments by ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao followed remarks Tuesday by Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledging the Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. Liu said China took a positive attitude toward working with companies such as Google, but any cooperation must exist "within a framework of law," and that Beijing hoped firms would abide by China's regulations. Google's Brin said the Internet company had...

Religious-liberty experts say that's not a proper role. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a 57-member Muslim voting block, has called for the United Nations to take measures against what it calls "Islamophobia." The move is part of the fallout after Danish cartoons portrayed Muhammad in a negative light. The OIC specifically asked for a U.N. declaration prohibiting the "defamation of all prophets and faiths." Thomas Jacobson, representative to the U.N. for Focus on the Family Action, said that's not a proper role for the U.N. "What the Arab nations are asking the U.N. to do is to protect...

On the surface, it was gratifying to note a peaceful protest by Muslims against the Mohammed caricatures today in London's Trafalgar Square. Peaceful assembly and free expression are the means by which civilized societies work out internal differences. But was today's demonstration truly a spontaneous, lawful expression of free speech, or carefully orchestrated public relations damage control for Islam? The BBC reports: Protests held in London last week sparked outrage when demonstrators carried placards with strong messages - the Metropolitan Police said some protesters could be charged with "incitement to murder". According to CNN.com, last week's Muslim "protestors" carried placards...

Roots of Dispute LONDON, Feb. 7 — As Islamic protests grew against the publication of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad, a small but vocal Muslim immigrant organization responded with a drawing on its Web site of Hitler in bed with Anne Frank. "Write this one in your diary, Anne," Hitler was shown as saying. The intent, said the group, the Arab European League, was "to use our right to artistic expression," just as the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten did last September when it published 12 cartoons showing Muhammad, several of them satiric. "Europe has its sacred cows, even if they're not...

Some of my leftist friends have one thing in common with the Muslims now sacking foreign embassies: a fundamental lack of understanding as to how democracy works, and how precious it is. The leftists have grown up knowing nothing but freedom and opulence, and take things like the Bill of Rights, Federalist Papers, and Constitution for granted (if they have even read these hallowed documents). The Muslim radicals (Islamists) are throwing lit jugs full of gasoline at Danish embassies because they have known nothing except Big Brother (One Newspaper, One Nation, One Religion, One World), and do not even know...

Every time I bring up the Holocaust, the same thing happens. Some of the people want Hitler's genocide to be the archetype of a people's suffering, denying others their right to bring similar atrocities to light. Some want to deny it (like current Iranian President Ahmadinejad). Some want to straddle the line or apologize: "There would have been no Hitler if not for the reparation payments put upon Germany after World War I." What are we to do, create a chart ranking peoples' suffering: "mine was worse than yours?" These were all horrors. Calling one a genocide while not allowing...

diplomatic and trade row is raging after two Nordic newspapers published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that were deemed insulting by many Muslims, especially in the Middle East. In Britain, meanwhile, parliamentarians are debating whether to extend laws against incitement to religious hatred. Western democracies are again struggling to reconcile the right to free expression with respect for religious belief

One of Europe's largest dairy producers, Danish company Arla, has placed advertisements in Middle Eastern newspapers to try to stop a boycott of Danish produce in Muslim countries. Arla acted after reporting a drop in sales in Saudi Arabia because of anger about a series of caricatures depicting the prophet Mohammed that appeared in the leading Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. The paper has apologised but said it was testing the boundaries of expression about Islam. The cartoons include a portrayal of the Muslim Prophet wearing a time-bomb shaped turban and show him as a wild-eyed, knife-wielding Bedouin flanked by two women...

from the September 22, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0922/p01s02-woap.html China's model for a censored Internet Some worry China's controls could be copied elsewhere. By Kathleen E. McLaughlin | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor SHANGHAI, CHINA - As China began to go online, observers made brash predictions that the Internet would pry the country open. Cyberspace, the thinking went, would prove too vast and wild for Beijing to keep under its thumb. Now these early assumptions are being sharply revised. Under an authoritarian government determined to control information, China has grown a new version of the Internet. As former US President...

WASHINGTON — Free speech advocates are frustrated with a host of American companies they say have been collaborating with oppressive regimes in countries like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to help them filter and monitor the Internet activity of their citizens. Big technology names like Microsoft, Yahoo! and Cisco have been criticized roundly in recent years for providing foreign governments with the tools they need to crack down on Internet use, but critics say they have not been able to do much more than complain. "These companies' lack of ethics is extremely worrisome," said Lucie Morillon, the Washington representative of...

Iranian dissidents appealed to the United Nations to support calls for freedom for Akbar Ganji, the brave writer who is being tortured in Tehran for the sin of exposing the murderous activities of the theocratic regime of the Islamic republic. The top dog at the U.N., Kofi Annan, declined to take a stand, claiming he did not know enough to have an opinion. The U.N.’s lapdog at the U.S. Senate, Indiana’s Richard Lugar, similarly declined comment, thereby relegating himself to the honor roll of appeasers of terrorists, murderers, and torturers. With the exception of the New York Sun, no major...

"My fallen face today exposes the true character of the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It has become a symbol of the just [struggle] against tyranny. My shattered face and frail body demonstrate the inherent contradictions of a regime in which the concepts of justice and tyranny have been transposed...” These are the words of Iranian political prisoner Akbar Ganji, from a letter he wrote to the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. Ganji has been arrested and imprisoned numerous times for agitating for freedom of the press and other civil rights in Iran. As he explains in his...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iran has among the strictest Internet censorship in the world, blocking access to sexual content, political websites, information on women's rights and "blogs," a study by Internet researchers showed. The OpenNet Initiative, a partnership of researchers from Harvard University, the University of Toronto and University of Cambridge, noted that Iran uses technology from the US company, Secure Computing, calling the firm "complicit" in the censorship. But they said that Internet content controls "have support at the highest levels of the Iranian state." The researchers found some 34 percent of tested websites blocked. "The Iranian state has effectively...

TEHRAN (AFP) - Whoever wins Iran's presidential elections next week, they will be facing a determined press that has survived a string of closures and arrests and which continues to push against the Islamic republic's "red lines" that confine freedom of expression. There will be no going back," Mashallah Shamsolvazin, the president of Iran's Association for a Free Press, told AFP. "Going back" means a return to the situation eight years ago, just before the first election victory of incumbent President Mohammad Khatami. There were a mere five national newspapers of which one, Salam, was pro-reformist. The clerical regime also...

IN 1913, THE ARRIVAL IN AMERICA of a simple idea drastically revolutionized the Art World. The occasion was the Armory Show in New York, the first exhibition of Modern Art in this country, and the simple idea was this: The proper role of the artist is to express himself. That was utterly new. It turned all the preceding centuries of Art History on their head. Fast-forward to the end of the same century: that same simple idea, that the proper role of the artist is to express himself or herself, was being taught as gospel in virtually every college...

Women Who Avoid Marital Fights May Be More Likely To Die POSTED: 11:14 am EST February 17, 2005 UPDATED: 11:36 am EST February 17, 2005 Married women who avoid conflict with their spouses have an increased risk of dying from any cause, according to a news release from the Second International Conference on Women, Heart Disease and Stroke.

In Bristol, England, a group of university students including myself put up a window display of pictures to show our support for Bush but are met with nothing but undemocractic resistance, including: Name calling when we leave the housePeople blocking our drivewayEgg throwingThreats of physical violence (which finally forced us to take it down) The lack of freedom of expression in this country is shocking.

London 28.01.05 | Venezuelan sources report that the house of journalist Patricia Poleo, located in La Floresta neighbourhood in Caracas, is being raided this morning by the police. It has been reported that Poleo is on her own in the house, her lawyers have not arrived yet.

Scalia Sounds Off on Religious Rulings ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Tuesday that judges should look to historical practices when ruling on religious issues. Speaking at the University of Michigan, Scalia criticized judges for using what he called "abstractions" to interpret religious issues when they should be looking to the text of the Constitution itself. "The Constitution says what it says and does not say what it does not say," he said. Scalia's appearance was sponsored by Ave Maria School of Law, a private school in Ann Arbor backed by Domino's Pizza founder...

What are the ground rules for religious expression in public schools? Secretary of Education Richard Riley, at the direction of President Clinton, issued guidelines in 1995 and updated them in 1998 to reflect recent court decisions. A synopsis of the guidelines: • Students have the same right to engage in individual or group prayer and religious discussion during the school day as they do to engage in other comparable activity. • Local school authorities have "substantial discretion" to impose rules of order but may not structure the rules to discriminate against religious activity or speech. • Students may attempt to...

Thomas Jefferson warned, “Whenever a man casts a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct." John Kerry has hungered for the White House since he was a student and even took a video camera with him to Vietnam. In 1823, Jefferson wrote: “History may distort truth, and will distort it for a time, by the superior efforts at justification of those who are conscious of needing it most." John Kerry wrote his own report and insists that his official naval records be taken at face value, while refusing to fulfill his promise to release his medical records....

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…” (Thomas Jefferson from The Declaration of Independence). Over two hundred years ago one of the wisest men in our country, Thomas Jefferson, laid out the foundation for what our grand nation should stand for. Adapting the theories of such influential enlightenment thinkers as Locke and Rousseau; Jefferson laid out the ideas that would shape our government for hundreds of years to come. From the ideas...

Where's Bubba? Hello Bubba Army. If you haven't noticed by now, btls.com and bubbathelovesponge.com are both down. Let me do my best to answer some questions that you may have about the show. Please understand that there are a number of things that I am not at liberty to discuss at the moment. However, with this being the only means of communication that we have with the public as of now, I'll do my best. The overwhelming question I've been getting is: Where is Bubba? Is he coming back? The official show position is No Comment. However, a check of...

<p>Shaun Chichester says he was just expressing his outrage when he wore a "Whaq Iraq" T-shirt to J.P. Stevens High School in Edison last spring.</p> <p>But when school officials asked him to remove the shirt, he really got mad.</p> <p>Chichester, then a sophomore, removed the shirt without incident but vowed to change the school district's dress code, saying it violated his First Amendment rights to free speech. He petitioned school authorities shortly after the March 21 incident, asking them to adopt rules "reflecting students' free speech rights."</p>

A Texas court has ruled that the use of the middle finger does not constitute a breach of peace, even when used in anger. The state's third Court of Appeals ruled recently that the signal was not an "immediate breach of the peace", as had been found in a lower court, The Houston Chronicle reported today. The case involved Robert Lee Coggin, an impatient Austin driver who tailgated another driver until he pulled into the slower lane. Coggin pulled around to pass and allegedly gestured with his "impudent finger", court documents said. The slower driver, John Pastrano, a county jailer,...

Using the hand signal rooted in ancient times and popularly known today as "shooting the bird" may be rude, but it's not necessarily disorderly conduct, a Texas appeals court has ruled. At issue for the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin was whether Robert Lee Coggin incited "an immediate breach of the peace" when he allegedly gestured at a motorist with his raised middle finger two years ago as the former Lockhart resident tailgated a slow-moving vehicle in the left lane of U.S. 183. Coggin was charged under an obscure state law that says "a person commits an offense if...

Dear Friend, Mr. Art Lemasters has just joined Grassfire's historic "Virtual Caravan" to save the Ten Commandments, and is inviting you to do the same. Click here to become part of this five-state "Save the Ten Commandments Caravan": http://www.grassfire.net/35/petition.asp?PID=4642658 Grassfire.net is taking the Ten Commandments battle from Montgomery, Alabama to Washington, D.C., and we want you to be a part of our "virtual caravan"! HELP US TAKE THE MESSAGE TO AMERICA Grassfire.net is sponsoring a five state "Save the Ten Commandments Caravan" urging the Supreme Court to reverse the lower court ruling banning the Ten Commandments from public display. This...

Less than two months ago, Prime Minister Jean Chretien was assuring Canadians that the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada would not lead to religious persecution. Various religious bodies in Canada would be permitted to continue holding and teaching their beliefs. My how things changed have changed over the summer. According to a recent article in the Globe and Mail, Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe of the Diocese of Sault Ste Marie is now under attack by some among Canada's political and social elite. Why? Because he had the audacity to take the Prime Minister at his word and clarify Catholic teaching...

This is Chapter 4 of Willmoore Kendall's "The Conservative Affirmation in America." I hope it's interesting. ---------------------- Chapter 4: Freedom of Speech in America I am often asked whether I am “for” or “against” freedom of speech, or what I understand to be the Conservative position on freedom of speech, or whether in my view freedom of speech is “defensible,” and should be defended, “on principle.” They are not “happy” questions, because I doubt whether the freedom of speech “issue,” as Mill for example stated it in the Essay, is a genuine, non-spurious, issue. Rather, it seems to me that...