Free Republic

It has been sixty years since George Orwell wrote his chilling dystopian classic, 1984, and it has been thirty years since we saw the creepiest example of educated and free people willingly walking into a living dystopia. November 18, 1978, three decades ago, 918 people drank Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. Jim Jones, the communist leader of Jonestown, Guyana, had become "Big Brother." Soviet and Communist Chinese propaganda films and condemnations of capitalist and imperialist America blared continually to the subjects of this island of Leftist Hell. Jonestown ended in mass suicide, but the real horror was that ordinary people, Americans...

It has been sixty years since George Orwell wrote his chilling dystopian classic, 1984, and it has been thirty years since we saw the creepiest example of educated and free people willingly walking into a living dystopia.  November 18, 1978, three decades ago, 918 people drank Kool-Aid laced with cyanide.  Jim Jones, the communist leader of Jonestown, Guyana, had become "Big Brother." Soviet and Communist Chinese propaganda films and condemnations of capitalist and imperialist America blared continually to the subjects of this island of Leftist Hell. Jonestown ended in mass suicide, but the real horror was that ordinary people, Americans...

N.C. State student leaders lobby for hate crime act RALEIGH, N.C. — There was a call for change Wednesday evening night at North Carolina State University. Student leaders came together to talk about passing the "Free Expression Tunnel Hate Crime Act" after classmates admitted to painting racist remarks about President-elect Barack Obama on the night of Nov. 4. Two of the messages in N.C. State's "Free Expression Tunnel" said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head" and "Hang Obama by a noose."

Arizona’s Supreme Court Justice has agreed to enforce the Hispanic Bar Association’s demands of banning the terms “illegal” and “aliens” in all of the state’s courtrooms. Claiming that the terms are inflammatory, the president of Arizona’s Hispanic Bar Association, (known as Los Abogados) has asked state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor to stop using them at trials or hearings because they create perceptions of judicial bias. In a strongly worded letter to the chief justice, Los Abogados’ president says attaching an illegal status to a person establishes a brand of contemptibility, creates the appearance of anti-immigrant prejudice and tarnishes...

“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” “Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” George Orwell, "1984" (1949) When George Orwell published his political satire "Animal Farm" in 1945, he wrote a preface to the book that was deleted and censored from the rest of the text. In the preface, Orwell criticized the censorship and suppression that were endemic in Western countries. The censored, deleted, and...

Barack Obama has a stunning lack of tolerance for free speech. And one thing Americans can expect from an Obama administration, and a Democratic-controlled Congress, is a legislative attempt to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which will limit free speech and diminish the conservative influence on talk radio. A new ATI-News/Zogby International poll released on Oct. 26 made it clear that those who intend to vote for Obama support re-establishing the Fairness Doctrine.

18, Norham Gardens Oxford, England 16. xii. 33. In response to the New York Times' request for his views on the American outlook, Keynes has written "An Open Letter to President Roosevelt," which is scheduled to appear in the Sunday issue of December 31st and is to be syndicated in other parts of the United States. So that you may see what he has to say before it is published, Keynes this morning sent me the enclosed copy of his article, which I hasten to get off directly to you through Miss LeHand (without forwarding it through the pouch) in...

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) plans to file a fundraising complaint Monday alleging that John McCain's campaign accepted contributions that exceeded the federal limits and took donations from anonymous backers. Democrats say in the complaint to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that Sen. McCain's (R-Ariz.) presidential campaign received 6,653 donations that each were at least $1,000 greater than the $2,300 donation limit. McCain also took 23 anonymous contributions that were greater than the $50 limit on donations from unnamed supporters, the complaint says. The complaint is based on records provided by the McCain campaign on its own website. The DNC...

Proposals for a central database of all mobile phone and internet traffic have been condemned as "Orwellian". Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the police and security services needed new powers to keep up with technology. And she promised that the content of conversations would not be stored, just times and dates of messages and calls. But the Lib Dems slammed the idea as "incompatible with a free country", while the Tories called on the government to justify its plans. Details of the times, dates, duration and locations of mobile phone calls, numbers called, website visited and addresses e-mailed are already...

A college has renamed the traditional Christmas and Easter breaks in a bid to avoid offending students from other religions. The college's new calendar shows that both of the traditional holiday periods have now been re-branded as 'end of term breaks'. Critics have complained that the decision by Yorkshire Coast College is nothing more than 'political correctness'. Tory MP Robert Goodwill said: 'I have heard that some people refer to the Christmas period as the Winterval, which is worse. This is absolutely barmy. 'We are a Christian country and, to be honest, religious tolerance in this country is about respecting...

MUMBAI, India: The new technology is, to its critics, Orwellian. Others view it as a silver bullet against terrorism that could render waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods obsolete. Some scientists predict the end of lying as we know it. Now, well before any consensus on the technology's readiness, India has become the first country to convict someone of a crime relying on evidence from this controversial machine: a brain scanner that produces images of the human mind in action and is said to reveal signs that a suspect remembers details of the crime in question. For years, scientists have...

The youngsters are among almost 5,000 residents who in some cases are being offered £500 rewards if they provide evidence of minor infractions. One in six councils contacted by the Telegraph said they had signed up teams of "environment volunteers" who are being encouraged to photograph or video neighbours guilty of dog fouling, littering or "bin crimes". The "covert human intelligence sources", as some local authorities describe them, are also being asked to pass on the names of neighbours they believe to be responsible, or take down their number-plates. Ealing Council in West London said: "There are hundreds of Junior...

BRUSSELS, August 21, 2008 (C-FAM) - A recent report from the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) of the European Union (EU) has called for binding EU regulations that would equalize the legal status of married heterosexual couples with that of same-sex and opposite-sex couples across Europe. It also recommends policies aimed at "promoting visibility of homosexuality and other gender identities" and criminalizing homophobia through "hate crime" legislation. FRA contracted writing of the report to a group called FRALEX. FRALEX is roughly the same group as the now defunct EU "network of independent fundamental rights experts," a group that was widely criticized...

Customers shopping for clothes at the Charli boutique watched in amazement when two uniformed men marched in and threatened staff with criminal prosecution. Their crime? Putting out rubbish in the wrong-coloured bin bags. Council officers announced that the shop in Muswell Hill, North London, would be fined £300 after using black bags because they had run out of the grey version issued by the local authority. The designer store had been waiting since July 1 for a delivery of new bags, but by the 17th staff decided they would have to put their rotting rubbish out in four standard black...

For painter and decorator Gordon Williams, his van is simply a means of getting from A to B. But council officials chose to give the vehicle a more lofty status. When they spotted him behind the wheel with a cigarette, they handed him an on-the-spot fine of £30 - for smoking in his place of work.

After being woken for the third time in one night by a group of drunken and noisy students, Jo Calvert-Mindell was at her wits' end. The former policewoman got dressed, went outside and shouted at them: 'Why can't you go back to where you come from and make some noise there? I bet your families and neighbours wouldn't put up with it. 'You don't care about us and do just as you like. What gives you the right to frighten my elderly neighbours, cause damage and keep us awake at night?' She also reported the incident to police, who came...

The best, the most pointed and comprehensive opinion on the award of the Order of Canada pin to Henry Morgentaler, in the course of this long grim week, was by Ian Hunter in the National Post: “In old Canada, Morgentaler was prosecuted and sent to jail for performing illegal abortions. But that was in another era and, as far as I'm concerned, another country -- a country as dead as any of the recipients of Morgentaler’s attentions.” I shall say something about that award tomorrow. For today I want to focus on the New Canada -- the one that is...

Father-of-three branded a 'pervert' - for photographing his own children in public park By David Wilkes Last updated at 1:46 AM on 16th July 2008 When Gary Crutchley started taking pictures of his children playing on an inflatable slide he thought they would be happy reminders of a family day out. But the innocent snaps of seven-year-old Cory, and Miles, five, led to him being called a ‘pervert’.

Students attending a youth leadership conference were reprimanded by capitol security on July 10 for singing the National Anthem and God Bless America in the state capitol rotunda. The patriotic expression was apparently so egregious that state troopers were called in to the rotunda to rebuke the students. As the students ended their singing, several armed troopers entered the rotunda along with capitol sergeants-at-arms. They confronted conference staff and informed them that such singing is prohibited in the state capitol without a permit from the Rules Committee. Undeterred by their shocking treatment at the hands of government officials, the students...

When Gary Crutchley started taking pictures of his children playing on an inflatable slide he thought they would be happy reminders of a family day out. But the innocent snaps of seven-year-old Cory, and Miles, five, led to him being called a ‘pervert’.snip

LONDON: One in five parliamentarians in Britain suffers from mental illness caused by the stress of their public lives, a confidential survey of MPs and peers has found. Those questioned said they feared disclosing their struggles because of stigma and discrimination. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health questionnaire was completed by 94 parliamentarians, 100 lords and 151 parliamentary staff. According to the survey, more than a quarter had a mental health issue, while 86 per cent of MPs said their job was stressful. The group's report is critical of the law forcing MPs to give up their seat for...

MORE British Insanity Mother Needs Criminal Record Check Before Accompanying Epileptic Son to SchoolThe Brits are entering the terminal stages of The Nanny State. While their streets are awash in criminals, the schools failing, the Health Care system on the respirator, and Islam on the verge of being the new royalty, the Brits have redoubled their efforts to make life more difficult for British families. From the Daily Mail. (How do they find this stuff? Hotline?) "Mother stopped from travelling with son in taxi to school - because she hasn't had a criminal record check" Yep. In Britain a mother...

An outraged father of three enjoying a day out with his young sons in a U.K. park was branded a "pervert" by other parkgoers after he snapped photos of his own kids, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday. (snip) "What is the world coming to when anybody seen with a camera is assumed to be doing things that they should not?" Crutchley asked in an interview with the Daily Mail. "This parental paranoia is getting completely out of hand. I was so shocked."

Police fury as bosses tell them to 'celebrate' gipsies By Stephen Wright Last updated at 9:19 AM on 12th July 2008 Denise Milani: The Metropolitan Police director urges officers to observe 'Gipsy Roma Traveller History Month'Their arrival in the capital is said to have led to a huge rise in thieving and prompted the creation of a specialist police squad to tackle their sinister activities. Yet in a move which has caused disbelief amongst rank and file officers, Scotland Yard has asked staff to 'celebrate' the contribution of Roma gipsies to 'London's culture and diversity.' In a notice posted on...

Dear Mr. Limbaugh, The Associated Press reports your new contract with Premiere Radio Networks will enrich you with at least $38 million a year over the next eight years. You are making this money on the public property of the American people for which you pay no rent. You, Rush Limbaugh, are on welfare. As you know, the public airwaves belong to the American people. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is supposed to be our trustee in managing this property. The people are the landlords and the radio and TV stations and affiliated companies are the tenants. The problem is...

DALLAS — What do "black hole," "angel food cake," and "devil's food cake" have in common? They're all racist terms, says a Dallas County, Texas, official. A county commissioners' meeting this week over traffic tickets turned into a tense discussion over race when one commissioner said the county's collections office was like a certain astronomical phenomenon. "It sounds like Central Collections has become a black hole," Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said during the Monday meeting. One black official demanded an apology, and Commissioner John Wiley Price, who also is black, said that type of language is unacceptable. At...

A teacher has been suspended amid claims she punished two children who refused to worship Allah during a Religious Education lesson. Alison Phillips, head of RE at Cheshire's respected Alsager High School, allegedly disciplined the Year 7 duo claiming they were disrespectful for refusing to kneel down and pray. After giving the two boys detention the school was believed to have received several complaints from parents about the long-standing teacher. Today, a school spokesman said she was suspended over the allegations - but also for "ongoing inquiries centred around other practical issues". Joan Feenan, director of Cheshire County Council's children's...

A columnist at the Washington Times has issued a warning that the U.S. government actually has considered having airline passengers wear electronic bracelets that could be triggered like Tasers to stun the victim into immobility. The alert comes from columnist Jeffrey Downing, who wrote that not only has a Canadian company proposed such a product and is advertising it, the U.S. government has put its interest in writing. "It is conceivable to envision a use to improve air security, on passenger planes," said the letter posted on the company's website. It was purported to come from Paul S. Ruwaldt, of...

Toddlers who turn their noses up at spicy food from overseas could be branded racists by a Government-sponsored agency. The National Children's Bureau, which receives £12 million a year, mainly from Government funded organisations, has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care. This could include a child of as young as three who says "yuk" in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food. The guidance by the NCB is designed to draw attention to potentially-racist attitudes in youngsters from a young age. It alerts playgroup leaders...

An education authority is investigating claims that two school pupils were punished for refusing to kneel down and pray to Allah during a religious education lesson. Parents complained after the boys, Year 7 pupils at Alsager High School in Cheshire, were given detention for being "disrespectful" to the prophet, the Congleton Chronicle reported. Parent Sharon Luinen told the paper: "This isn't right, it's taking things too far. "I understand that they have to learn about other religions, I can live with that, but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn't join in Muslim...

It turns out that the U.S., whose Supreme Court last month ruled that non-American prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay may challenge their detention, isn't the only country where judges are hampering the war on terror. Many people here are rubbing their eyes at the fact that Britain is letting out of jail some of al Qaeda's most dangerous members. In June, a British court released the notorious Islamist preacher Abu Qatada, who had spent the previous three years in jail pending deportation to Jordan to stand trial on terrorism charges. Now there are media reports that the U.K. government is...

Parents banned from ferrying children to sports matches By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs Editor Last updated: 11:40 PM BST 27/06/2008Hundreds of thousands of parents will be banned from ferrying children to sports matches next year unless they have had criminal records checks, under new rules. The clampdown is part of an escalation in child protection policies which will see 11 million adults vetted before they come into contact with children or vulnerable adults. Under new regulations, parents who are asked by the organisers of a children's sports team to take other children to sports fixtures like football or cricket matches...

<p>College girls who turned the tables on builders by wolf-whistling at them have been warned their behaviour is ‘harassment’.</p> <p>The students singled out contractors working on an extension to West Kent College for amorous comments and cheeky remarks.</p> <p>But the joke has become so persistent that the pupils have been threatened with disciplinary action.</p>

PARIS (AFP)--French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned Monday that Ireland would pay a high price if it rejects a new European treaty in a referendum this week. Kouchner said a 'no' vote from the Irish would be greeted with "gigantic incomprehension" from the rest of Europe. "The first victims would be the Irish. They have benefited more than others," Kouchner told RTL radio. European governments are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the referendum on Thursday as the latest opinion polls show the result could go either way. Kouchner argued that the "Irish would be penalizing themselves" by rejecting the Lisbon...

This Real ID stuff is really ominous. Are you sure that you can prove that you are who you are? Do you have all of your documents in order? If not, well, who knows? You may not be able to board a plane, you may not be able to get a driver's license or passport. You may not be able to leave the country. If you discover that Real ID is a bad idea, you may not be able to undo it, because you may not be able to vote! I have a friend who grew up in a communist...

Elitism has bedeviled American liberalism for the better part of four decades. It undermined the presidential campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry, and now it's making mischief in the Obama campaign every bit as much as the omnipresence of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The charge that liberal candidates don't connect with or understand the values and beliefs of regular Americans is embedded in old epithets like "limousine liberal," which I first heard aimed at New York Mayor John Lindsay in 1969. It was also at the core of "radical chic," the phrase made famous by Tom Wolfe in his...

PARIS (Reuters) - French former film star Brigitte Bardot went on trial on Tuesday for insulting Muslims, the fifth time she has faced the charge of "inciting racial hatred" over her controversial remarks about Islam and its followers. Prosecutors asked that the Paris court hand the 73-year-old former sex symbol a two-month suspended prison sentence and fine her 15,000 euros ($23,760) for saying the Muslim community was "destroying our country and imposing its acts." Since retiring from the film industry in the 1970s, Bardot has become a prominent animal rights activist but she has also courted controversy by denouncing Muslim...

I read this on another site. Somebody started a thread about homelessness - how she learned about how Reagan emptied the mental institutions and threw those people on to the street. I'm a post-Reagan immigrant. I don't know the argument, but I seem to recall hearing that the ACLU was responsible for people being released from mental institutions. If anybody is disposed to fill in the blanks for me, I'd like to hear it. Anyway, here is 1 response from 1 liberal jackass. Aptly, his screen name is Two Americas. Maybe in some ways we are all "homeless." Those who...

Senator Obama recently gave us a disturbing foretaste of the contradictory doublespeak we could expect under an Obama presidency. Last week, a deeply disturbed young man went on a criminal rampage at Northern Illinois University, murdering several innocent people before taking his own life. Mr. Obama spoke out last Friday about the tragic event, and exposed the crucial disconnect between his rhetoric and his politics. Speaking of his determination to do "whatever it takes" to end gun violence, Mr. Obama acknowledged that the Second Amendment secures an citizen's right to keep and bear arms. Noting that some argue that the...

As you probably already know Canada has instituted Thought Crimes legislation because the Canadian gub’ment has knuckled under the pressure of heterophobe and Islamo-nazi terrorists in their country. It is no longer acceptable to question another’s sexual behavior which has now spread to the crime of questioning, disagreeing, or flat out speaking out against one’s religion–oh! Except for Christianity! That’s a fair target. Anyway, an underground Canadian sent me the following for your reading horror! Is this coming to America soon? A so called Human Rights Commission? Who gets to haul your butt into their office, and interrogate and question...

My favorite headline of the year so far comes from The Daily Mail in Britain: "Government Renames Islamic Terrorism As 'Anti-Islamic Activity' To Woo Muslims." Her Majesty's Government is not alone in feeling it's not always helpful to link Islam and the, ah, various unpleasantnesses with suicide bombers and whatnot. Even in his cowboy Crusader heyday, President Bush liked to cool down the crowd with a lot of religion-of-peace stuff. But the British have now decided that kind of mealy-mouthed "respect" is no longer sufficient. So, henceforth, any terrorism perpetrated by persons of an Islamic persuasion will be designated "anti-Islamic...

STUNNED schoolkids were asked to design a politically-correct PIZZA which would not offend anyone. Pupils were told to discuss which toppings might upset religious groups, veggies or people with allergies. In response, The Sun’s culinary experts have cooked up the most unPC pizza in Britain, with ingredients to offend everyone. Greg McLaughlan, 40, whose daughter Chelsea, 12, was in the lesson, said: “It’s ridiculous to tell kids what they can put on pizza. It makes race relations more difficult.” But headteacher Jan Charters defended the lesson at Oakwood Technology College, Rotherham, South Yorks – where a fifth of pupils are...

Spychief Mike McConnell is drafting a plan to protect America’s cyberspace that will raise privacy issues and make the current debate over surveillance law look like “a walk in the park,” McConnell tells The New Yorker in the issue set to hit newsstands Monday. “This is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.” At issue, McConnell acknowledges, is that in order to accomplish his plan, the government must have the ability to read all the information crossing the Internet in the United States...

Training to remind staff about the importance of telling viewers the truth will cost the BBC more than £1 million in staff time and expenses. About 17,000 BBC staff have to attend a two-hour course, in which employees are invited to discuss where the line should be drawn between artifice and deception in the wake of a series of scandals. Vin Ray, the director of the BBC’s college of journalism, said that the direct cost of the course would be “a maximum of £500,000”, but the cost of taking each employee out for a half day more than doubled that...

WASHINGTON -- Since the Virginia Tech shootings last spring, the FBI has more than doubled the number of people nationwide who are prohibited from buying guns because of mental health problems, the Justice Department said Thursday. Justice officials said the FBI's Mental Defective File has ballooned from 175,000 names in June to nearly 400,000, primarily additions from California. The names are listed in a subset of a database that gun dealers are supposed to check before completing their sales. The surge in names underscores the vastness of the gap in FBI records that allowed Seung-hui Cho to purchase the handguns...

I've got this Uncle with a problem. He can't keep his nose out of my business. My email, my web surfing – for all I know he's into my Quicken files, my Netflix queue and my Amazon account. Worse, he thinks it's perfectly justified and I should just get over it. My Uncle is also your Uncle, and his name is Sam. In a speech last month [PDF], the nation's #2 spook -- Deputy Director of National Intelligence Donald M. Kerr -- staked a claim to all of your Internet records. Kerr's pedigree: He runs our nation's satellite spy program,...

FIRE Press Release NEWARK, Del., October 30, 2007—The University of Delaware subjects students in its residence halls to a shocking program of ideological reeducation that is referred to in the university’s own materials as a “treatment” for students’ incorrect attitudes and beliefs. The Orwellian program requires the approximately 7,000 students in Delaware’s residence halls to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy, and environmentalism. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is calling for the total dismantling of the program, which is a flagrant violation of students’ rights to freedom...

The American economy may be teetering on the brink of a recession, but there's an industry our hedge fund gurus believe has an almost limitless future: the Chinese police state. In a stunning report in the New York Times last week, correspondent Keith Bradsher documented the rise of China's electronic surveillance industry, whose leading companies have incorporated themselves in the United States and obtained the lion's share of their capital from U.S. hedge funds. Though ostensibly private, these companies are a for-profit adjunct of the Chinese government. Li Runsen, technology director of the government's ministry of public security and the...

The secret file that MI5 kept on the author from 1929 until his death in 1950 is being declassified Tuesday by the National Archives. It reveals that in contrast to the fictional "Big Brother," the cruel and all-seeing secret police of Orwell's classic "1984," MI5 took a surprisingly benign view of the writer. Orwell savaged the totalitarianism of Stalin's Russia in "Animal Farm" and "1984." But he was also a socialist who railed against inequality in earlier works such as "Down and Out in Paris and London" and "The Road to Wigan Pier." The documents show Orwell _ whose real...

Poland's Government Silences Witnesses In Polish Watergate Scandal - In a move that will prevent Poland's Former Interior Minister and Former Chief of Police from testifying before the Polish Parliamentary Secret Services Committee tomorrow, the Polish Internal Security Agency arrested both this morning.