Free Republic

Last week, Michelle Obama made headlines when she exhorted graduating high schoolers in a commencement address to monitor their families for politically incorrect thoughts and behaviors. To one journalist, this was more than an off-hand comment made by the first lady. In the opinion of Cheryl Chumley, a reporter for The Washington Times and the author of “Police State USA,” Michelle Obama’s remark reflects a growing trend in America to target and attack individuals for committing “thought crime.”

“There can be no aspect of your daily life that’s removed from politics,” Jim Treacher writes at the Daily Caller, “Now you will be monitored by your own children for expressing unapproved opinions. You’d better watch what you say at the dinner table, Mom and Dad.” Jim links to this post at The Blaze: First lady Michelle Obama is encouraging students to monitor their older relatives, friends and co-workers for any racially insensitive comments they might make, and to challenge those comments whenever they’re made. The first lady spoke on Friday to graduating high school students in Topeka, Kansas,...

He's a pioneer in the realm of clinical infectious diseases in the Caribbean. And now he's under fire for testifying that homosexual intercourse is dangerous to those who practice it—and to public health in general. Professor Brendan Bain, a practicing Christian who serves to treat AIDS patients, was the director of the regional coordinating unit of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Network (CHART) at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, until his anti-gay sex comments caught up with him. Bain was fired in the wake of fallout related to his testimony on behalf of a group of churches...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Cars could be driving themselves down the world's streets far sooner than expected, thanks to a change in a global treaty backed by European countries. A little-noticed amendment to the United Nations Convention on Road Traffic agreed last month would let drivers take their hands off the wheel of self-driving cars. It was pushed by Germany, Italy and France, whose high-end carmakers believe they are ready to zoom past American tech pioneers and bring the first "autonomous vehicles" to market.

First lady Michelle Obama is encouraging students to monitor their older relatives, friends and co-workers for any racially insensitive comments they might make, and to challenge those comments whenever they’re made. The first lady spoke on Friday to graduating high school students in Topeka, Kansas, and in remarks released over the weekend, Obama said students need to police family and friends because federal laws can only go so far in stopping racism. -SNIP- [O]ur laws may no longer separate us based on our skin color, but nothing in the Constitution says we have to eat together in the lunchroom, or...

In 13 short years, killer drones have gone from being exotic military technology featured primarily in the pages of specialized aviation magazines to a phenomenon of popular culture, splashed across daily newspapers and fictionalized in film and television, including the new season of “24.” What has not changed all that much — at least superficially — is the basic aircraft that most people associate with drone warfare: the armed Predator. The Predator, with its distinctive bubble near the nose and sensor ball underneath, is the iconic image of drone warfare, an aircraft that grew out of 1980s work supported by...

It was called by some the ouroboros — a serpent that swallows its own tail. For some it was an early emblem of utter futility. And I think about it when I hear some of the strange, absurd and utterly self-contradictory reports from North American campuses, particularly those that come filed under the “anti-racism” banner. For if there is one movement, that by its humourlessness, its obsessive mania and its blindness to its failings, chokes on its own goals, it is the so-called anti-racism movement. And you will find its most feverish exemplars in the very citadels of reason, the...

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog, Have you ever given food to a homeless person? Well, if you do it again in the future it might be a criminal act depending on where you live. Right now, there are dozens of major U.S. cities that have already passed laws against feeding the homeless. As you will read about below, in some areas of the country you can actually be fined hundreds of dollars for just trying to give food to a hungry person. I know that sounds absolutely insane, but this is what America is turning into....

by Gina Cassini | Top Right NewsDo you remember playing “hangman” as a child? Me too. But apparently no one among the staff of Beaverton Junior High School in Oreon ever has. Or they are so hysterical as a result of politically correct indoctrination that they have lost their collective minds: The school suspended a 13-year-old student and turned him over to police because of a “doodle” he drew showing a person being hanged, as part of the game 'Hangman', his father claims in court.

New school food requirements are going into effect next year, attempting to make school meals healthier. The changes will affect four major areas. First, The Smart Snacks program requires that all sides must be served with something healthy. Second, the school will be required to meet the first target of reducing sodium. Third, all whole foods served must be whole-grain. This year, the requirements are half-and-half. Finally, breakfast must include fruit. This year, students are allowed to choose to refuse two items at lunch if they do not want it, and one at breakfast. New requirements say that they have...