Free Republic

New York Bars Must Serve Pregnant Women Policymakers in New York have released new guidance which compels bartenders to serve pregnant women alcohol if they ask for it. Published on Friday 6 May by mayor Bill de Blasio and human rights commissioner Carmelyn Malalis, the document aims to precisely state what actions constitute discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy. The purpose of the document is to ensure that pregnant women are not discriminated against by employers and are provided a safe environment to work in. The guidelines read: “Judgments and stereotypes about how pregnant individuals should behave, their physical capabilities...

NPR touts Muhammad’s example as means to counter “extremism” This article is more ridiculous than most. Muhammad loved dates, melons and cucumbers and that’s supposed to make Muslims less susceptible to “extremist propaganda”? His non-snoring blowing sound while sleeping is supposed to make Muslims “emphasize charity and respect for other faiths”? “Hassan argues that if Muslims had more knowledge of how the Prophet Muhammad actually lived and what he taught, they would be less vulnerable to extremist propaganda. Counterterrorism officials — who’ve focused largely on surveillance, sting operations and community policing — would have more success countering extremism, he says,...

Air Force apologizes for advertising a 'fun shoot' at range on Martin Luther King Day using image of murdered civil rights leader - The controversial poster advertised a skeet shoot at an Air Force base in Georgia - The flyer promised attendees would get 'two rounds and lunch' for $20 and featured a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. - Air Force officials issued a statement apologizing for the 'insensitive' flyer Officials at an Air Force base in Georgia drew criticism on Thursday after posting controversial flyers advertising a 'Martin Luther King, Jr. fun shoot' featuring a picture of the...

Dion Waiters informs Northeast Ohio Media Group that he is a Muslim and plans to skip national anthems • Update: Dion Waiters clarifies remarks about his pregame ritual, will be there for anthems DENVER, Colo. – Prior to the Cavaliers getting set to take on the Utah Jazz on Wednesday, one of their players was missing from the pregame opening events. Dion Waiters was nowhere to be found when the national anthem was being sung. He was absent when the starting lineups were introduced. It was the first game of the season that he was coming off the bench. He...

‘Negro’ is an acceptable term for black soldiers, U.S. Army says • Color it a confusing command update. One military official says using the word to describe ‘a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa’ might be for people who prefer to refer to themselves this way. But another calls it ‘the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. What year is it again? Army regulations still allow for black soldiers to be labeled Negro — a term that faded in the late 1960s. The archaic policy was spelled out as recently as Oct. 22, when the...

ROCHDALE, England — Shabir Ahmed, a delivery driver for two takeout places, did not have to go looking for young girls. Runaways and rebellious teenagers would show up at the restaurants, often hungry and cold. He slipped them free drinks and chicken tikka masala. “Call me Daddy,” he would say...

The 007 Movie Villains Disconnect with Reality During a recent visit to the Imperial War Museum in London, as I examined the Secret Service exhibits, I could not help but notice the sharp contrast between the villains depicted in James Bond 007 films and the real enemies of the Realm. • KGB Infiltrators Although MI5 and MI6 were riddled with high level KGB infiltrators, Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Harry Houghton, John Cairncross, George Blake, Donald Maclean, Geoffrey Prime, Anthony Blunt and Sir Roger Hollis, no 007 film has really tackled that reality. That M, at the time of the early...

Guinness pulls out of St. Patty’s parade over LGBT ban Guinness beer has pulled its sponsorship from New York’s famed St. Patrick’s day parade over a controversial policy that prohibits gays and lesbians from marching openly, according to reports. “Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all,” the company said in a statement on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation website. “We were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year’s parade. As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation. We will continue...

Sweden: Parliament official orders bare-breasted painting removed … for Muslims STOCKHOLM, Sweden, – A painting of a bare-breasted woman has been removed from the Swedish Riksdag’s guest dining room on orders from the legislature’s deputy speaker. Deputy Speaker Susanne Eberstein of the Social Democrat party ordered the painting, “Juno” by baroque artist G.E. Schroder, to be removed from the guest dining room, where it had hung since 1983, TheLocal.se reported Thursday. “We routinely change paintings from time to time,” a Riksdag representative said in response to an inquiry from news agency TT. A parliamentary source who asked to remain anonymous...

• Racism controversy dampens Holland's Sinterklaas tradition Children across Europe eagerly await the arrival of St. Nicholas on December 6. But in Holland, the tradition has racist implications that the Dutch aren't quite willing to give up. For the Dutch, Sinterklaasavond (St. Nicholas Eve) on December 5 is the biggest celebration of the year - bigger than Christmas. That evening, families gather and exchange presents, and children leave out their shoes in the hopes that Sinterklaas will have fill them with candy by the next morning. What seems like a harmless holiday devoted to gifts, candy, and children, has a...

White racists more likely to be gun owners: study Are gun ownership and racism linked? Researchers have found that the more racist beliefs held by a white person, the more likely the person is to own a gun — conclusions that have rankled gun rights advocates. A team led by Kerry O'Brien, of Monash University in Australia and The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, examined white Americans’ negative perceptions about blacks and compared the rates of both gun ownership and opposition to gun control to discover the correlations. Researchers based their conclusions on the results of a multiple-choice...

D.C. High School Will Consider Banning Redskins Clothing The principal of Wilson High School in Washington, D.C. will discuss with the school's students a potential ban on Redskins clothing. “I do plan on having a discussion with my student council officers and representative to get their take on this idea,” Wilson High School principal Pete Cahall said, according to WJLA.com.

HALLOWEEN: Is this Barack Obama vampire card offensive? While shopping for Halloween cards at Target in San Bernardino, JoAnn Nelson was appalled when her 5-year-old granddaughter showed her this card. Nelson said she finds the card tasteless and offensive. ”I was disturbed and did not want my grandbaby to see this,” she wrote in an email.

'Sexist' gorilla being kicked out of Dallas Zoo Patrick, a 23-year-old Western lowland gorilla who was born in the Bronx Zoo in 1990, has nipped at female apes he was to mate with and even bit one, and has belittled others. Patrick will be transferred to the Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia, S.C. A "sexist" male gorilla at Dallas Zoo is being evicted and sent for therapy after he bit one female companion and belittled others. Patrick — a 430-pound Western lowland born at New York's Bronx Zoo in 1990 — will be moved to Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens...

Former Territorial Army male soldier, 28, becomes Britain’s first transgender Muslim woman and is now MARRIED • Lucy Vallender had a sex change in 2010 and converted to Islam last year • Says she had been a TA private in Gloucestershire but gave up after a year • 'I tried to do macho things but I was trying to be someone I wasn't,' she says • Met already married Murad online but he didn't know she was once a man • They wed in April on first meeting and have met twice for sex since, she says • But her...

Tom and Jerry fans accuse Warner Brothers of censorship after episodes which show the cat and mouse 'blacked-up' are pulled from new collection • The Golden Collection Volume Two was supposed to be uncut • Two episodes have been taken out because they are deemed 'inappropriate' • Fans have accused Warner Brothers of omitting history Box-set was meant to go on sale two months ago but yet to reach shelves Fans of the classic cartoon Tom and Jerry are furious two episodes deemed 'inappropriate' because they feature the cat and mouse 'blacked-up' have been removed from a new collection. Warner...

The United Nations Says We Should All Be Eating Insects The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a part of the United Nations, has released a report saying that we should all get ready to start eating insects. There’s a certain amount of truth in the report but not all that much: “ World population is slated to top nine billion by 2050, and seeing as how arable land is being rapidly swallowed by towns and cities, oceans are increasingly overfished, and climate change is disrupting traditional farming, a new United Nations study proposes a twist on Marie Antoinette’s dietary advice:...

Syrian Rebel Bites Heart of Dead Soldier: Video BEIRUT (Reuters) - A video of a Syrian rebel commander cutting the heart out of a soldier and biting into is emblematic of a civil war that has rapidly descended into sectarian hatred and revenge killings, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. The New York-based group said an amateur video posted on the Internet on Sunday shows Abu Sakkar, a founder of the rebel Farouq Brigade who is well known to journalists as an insurgent from Homs, cutting into the torso of a dead soldier. The video has caused outrage among both...

The Washington Redskins will NEVER change their name, insists owner as he breaks silence on 'racist' term The owner of the Washington Redskins has insisted that the name of the team will never change despite growing controversy over its origins as a derogatory term for Native Americans. Daniel Snyder told USA Today : ‘We’ll never change the name. It’s simple. NEVER’. The team has been under fire from some critics who say the term is a racial slur because of its origins in bounties placed on the scalps of Native Americans by British settlers. The director of the National Museum...

According to voter registration records, Ariel Castro, the Cleveland kidnapper, is a registered Democrat. He was also the alleged leader among the three Castro brothers, who were arrested this week, and the owner of the house at 2207 Seymour Ave., where the three abducted local women had been kept in captivity for over a decade. Why is this important? Whenever a crime or a scandal captures national attention, the pattern in the mainstream media is to either identify the culprit as a Republican or hold silence -- in which case we can rest assured that the culprit is a Democrat....