Free Republic

Commenting on Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating President Trump for alleged "collusion" with Russia, Judicial Watch said that, as FBI director under President Obama, Mueller purged the Bureau of all anti-terrorism training material that was deemed "offensive" to Muslims. This was done, said Judicial Watch, "after secret meetings between Islamic organizations and the FBI chief." Judicial Watch obtained the documents on Mueller and the Muslim groups after filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the FBI in July 2012. Mueller had met with the Muslims groups on Feb. 8, 2012, after which the curricula purge took...

November 17, 2017 was literally a Black Friday. Reinhard Fellner, a card-carrying Social Democrat as well as chief of “Initiative Social Austria,” was sentenced in provincial court to three months (three years on probation) for denigration of Islam (§ 283 StGb). Any ever-so-small criticism of Islam in the next three years will lead to the completion of the sentence. This is so much more shocking, since he made a very mild criticism, which is far below the level of criticism which would be possible and necessary in a free and open society, to call attention to the dangers endemic to...

After three years of waiting, the University of North Dakota's sports programs have a nickname again. UND president Robert Kelley announced Wednesday that the former "Fighting Sioux" will now be known as the "Fighting Hawks," the nickname chosen by UND voters in an online voting runoff over runner-up "Roughriders." The "Fighting Sioux" moniker was controversially dropped at the NCAA's behest in 2012, sparking years of debate and discussion over what the university's athletics programs -- perhaps most notably, its powerhouse men's hockey program -- should be called instead.

Donald J. Trump continues to overheat the Republican Party’s speech on immigration. What is his latest protest against political correctness? “Anchor babies.” [Snip] The phrase is as offensive as the word “illegals” for many immigrants who come to America.

History is not static and it does not progress linearly. There was more free speech and unimpeded expression in 5th-century Athens than in Western Europe between 1934-45, or in Eastern Europe during 1946-1989. An American could speak his mind more freely in 1970 than now. Many in the United States had naively believed that the Enlightenment, the U.S. Constitution, and over two centuries of American customs and traditions had guaranteed that Americans could always take for granted free speech and unfettered inquiry That is an ahistorical assumption. The wish to silence, censor, and impede thought is just as strong a...

Gaffing all the wayMona Charen (archive) January 9, 2004 | Print | Send Need I say it? If a Republican had made the sort of joke Sen. Hillary Clinton made at a Missouri fund-raiser, it would have been front page news for days. Introducing a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, Sen. Clinton said, "He ran a gas station down in St. Louis." After the laughter subsided, she added, "No, Mahatma Gandhi was a great leader of the 20th century." There was a minor league little dust up, and Clinton later apologized. But for some reason, the sensitivity police were remarkably quiescent...

<p>America’s campuses are supposed to be places where ideas can be discussed openly and freely.</p> <p>Most Americans by now realize that the key word in the previous sentence is "supposed." But a recent event at San Francisco State University — and the way the university responds to it — may be pivotal in determining whether it will remain possible to take the academic claim to foster a diversity of ideas seriously any more.</p>