Free Republic

JournalTimes.com No danger to students, authorities say as investigation continues Deputies: Parkside student confesses to creating list CHRISTINE WON and MICHAEL BURKE christine.won@journaltimes.com, mburke@journaltimes.com | Posted: Friday, February 3, 2012 4:16 pm SOMERS — Following days of reported hate crimes and heightened security at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, a student has confessed to creating the list threatening black students because she wanted greater attention to the issue, according to authorities Friday night. The suspect, whose identity was being withheld for her protection, reportedly told authorities she created the fliers — which listed 13 black students by name and threatened they...

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Washington state officials on Monday released copies of signature petitions that forced a vote on a 2009 domestic partnership law, disclosing the names of signers after a judge rejected arguments that supporters could be harassed. The Washington State Archives provided a DVD to The Associated Press showing the 138,000 signatures for Referendum 71. The release came despite an attorney's vow to appeal the ruling and seek temporary protection from the disclosure of names.

Hank Williams Jr. won't be ready for some football this Monday night. ESPN bounced Williams' trademark opening "Are you ready for some football?" after the longtime voice of Monday Night Football's theme song, after he compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler. "While Hank Williams, Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football," an ESPN spokesman wrote in an email to the Daily News. "We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight's telecast." The...

A long-time educator recently named his district's 'Teacher of the Year' is under fire after he likened same-sex unions to a 'cesspool' on Facebook. Jerry Buell, a teacher at Mount Dora High School, said he 'almost threw up' in a post about the legalisation of same-sex unions in New York. Mr Buell, who teaches social studies, told the Orlando Sentinel: 'It wasn't out of hatred. It was about the way I interpret things.' A teacher for 25 years, Mr Buell has been at Mount Dora High since 2006. He was named 'Teacher of the Year' for 2010. His teacher profile...

Conservapedia is not the best written site on the web and it can be a tad strident but they try. And it certainly is not a source of virii, spam and pornography. If you have a plug-in, however, for the popular website rating system, MyWOT, it will indicate, however, Conservapedia is untrustworthy, unsafe for vendors and unsafe for children. Which is a pretty good indication of the trustworthiness of MyWOT

Straight out of Minority Report a new Homeland Security program would subject Americans to pre-crime interrogations and physiological scans to detect people who are intending to commit a terrorist act at sports stadiums, malls, airports and other public places has moved closer to being implemented after the FAST program passed its first round of testing at an undisclosed location in northeast US. The system uses a computer program that studies physiological indicators of a person, such as heart rate and the steadiness of a person’s gaze, and then uses the data to make a judgment on whether that individual has...

A PUB singer is set to be quizzed by cops tonight after he was accused of "racism" for belting out the chart hit Kung Fu Fighting as two Chinese people walked past. Simon Ledger was arrested in a Chinese restaurant after a complaint was made to police. The singer is set to be interviewed by cops at 8pm tonight after his bail comes to an end. Simon, 34, often performs the song in Sandown, Isle of Wight. He said: "I hadn't even seen these two." Now he fears he could get a criminal record. Cops sprang into action and arrested...

I went to breakfast this morning at Eat 'N Park in PIttsburgh. When I pulled into the parking lot, the spaces next to the handicapped spots were open so I thought, "Sweet! I"m gonna get a rock star parking spot" but as I pulled in, I noticed a sign posted in this spot that said "Reserved for Those Driving Hybrid Vehicles". I was PISSED! Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a new trend? Am I that out of the loop?

A female juror in a high-profile American mafia murder trial was sentenced to indefinite jury duty after giving racist answers to a court questionnaire. The Asian woman in her 20s was asked along with hundreds of others to provide answers to the survey prior to serving on the jury for the trial of crime boss Vincent Basciano. But the woman enraged a Federal Court judge in New York by answering the question, 'Name three people you least admire', with the answer: 'African-Americans, Hispanics and Haitians.' When asked by a judge at Brooklyn Federal Court to explain her answer, she replied:...

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) says it will not back down from its decision to label the Family Research Council and other socially conservative groups as hate groups, on par with the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations, for their views about homosexuality. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins recently asked SPLC to retract the hate group designation, but SPLC Intelligence Project Director Mark Potok told The Daily Caller that will never happen. SPLC’s Winter 2010 edition of its “Intelligence Report” magazine lists the Family Research Council as a hate group alongside the American Family Association, the Traditional...

No matter what one thinks of the homosexuality-affirming "It Gets Better" project, do we really want the president of the United States to be associated with radical sex columnist Dan Savage, the creator of this campaign? "It Gets Better" is the online video project that Chicago native Dan Savage created in which he seeks to end bullying by affirming homosexuality. Joining him in this effort are Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kathleen Sebelius, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton. Savage--the even more offensive doppelganger of our Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings--celebrates homosexuality in general and his own in particular. He has chosen...

EPSOM – He admits he could have communicated his message in a more sensitive way. But a school board member who told young children at a Veterans Day assembly that "liberalism" and "progressivism" were among five "isms" he considered to be "enemies of the Constitution" is standing by his remarks. "People are way too politically correct, to the point of foolishness," said Gordon Ellis, who resigned Wednesday as chairman of the Epsom School Board after an outcry from teachers over his remarks. "I'm a very blunt person," he said, adding that if he gave another speech to young students, "I'd...

The Huffington Post reported Tuesday that 16-year-old Willow Palin “unloaded on [a] student” and “lashed out at multiple others” during a Facebook wall post war. But Palin was not the only Facebook user to throw out scathing insults.Willow Palin is under immense media scrutiny and being dubbed “homophobic” by Gawker, a website that has made clear its unfavorable view of the Palin family, for describing one former schoolmate as “so gay” and a “faggot.” TMZ obtained screenshots yesterday of the Facebook debate, which began when a Facebook user and former classmate of the Palin girls named Tre posted a status update...

<p>Something 10th graders at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle did was so upsetting to a student and her mom that it's resulted in a curriculum change at the school, and apologies from the principal.</p> <p>What were they doing? Reading. Reading Aldous Huxley's Brave New World as part of their language arts curriculum.</p>

The firing of Juan Williams by National Public Radio (NPR), alleging that he was guilty of bigotry during a recent appearance on Bill O’Reilly’s FoxNews Channel television program, is another case of political correctness mixed with demagoguery run amuck. Here are the “horrific” words that did him in:

Officials on college campuses across the nation are alarmed at a wave of recent suicides involving Christians who have been harassed by homosexual activists. The main stream media isn’t covering the story so, as usual, I have taken it upon myself to do their jobs for them. None of the following eight cases have been covered by any of the three major news networks. Jonathan was a community college student in California. He was giving a speech on the impact Jesus Christ has had in his life and in the lives of others he knows. During the speech, he quoted...

Sorry, but I can't allow Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' statement that "we have a lot of re-education to do" slip by without comment. It's amusing when avowed leftists don't even recognize the Marxist buzzwords they're sputtering. Sebelius is attributing the public's vehement opposition to Obamacare to "misinformation given on a 24/7 basis. ... Unfortunately," she said, "there still is a great deal of confusion about what is in (the Obamacare law) and what isn't." She is especially peeved about the vulnerability of seniors, who "have been a target of a lot of the misinformation." (The target of...

Nancy Pelosi had some choice words for the American public yesterday: Shut up. If you’ve got an opinion about the N.Y. mosque controversy, better keep it to yourself or you could end up under investigation in the House Star Chamber. Pelosi says she wants to know how opposition to the mosque is being “ginned up.” She wants to know who’s funding this anger. She wants to know what the hell is wrong with the 61 percent of Americans who evidently disagree with her views. (Her disingenuous view being that this is a “zoning issue” only and all the national controversy...

One may think that someone as well connected as long-time Washington correspondent and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell might also connect the dots. After an unseasonably rough DC winter occurring right in the midst of the ClimateGate scandal, she would be aware of doubt being cast over the idea of manmade global warming. But if you want evidence her mind is made up regardless of any of this, you could detect from her reaction to a report from Politco's Jim VandeHei that some Republican candidates are using the climate change debate to advance their campaigns. (Snip) ''"It just seems that I

Just because the Mile High Music Festival this weekend in Denver hasn't happened yet, and just because the bootleggers haven't yet set up shop, doesn't mean that hundreds of individuals haven't already been sued. AEG Live has jumped on a growing legal trend in the concert world by filing a trademark infringement claim against hundreds of John Does and Jane Does. According to AEG's new complaint, "only the plaintiff has the right to sell merchandise bearing the Festival Trademarks at and near the Festival." AEG is asking a federal court in Colorado to order the US Marshal, local and state...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Connecticut police say they arrested a man at a management company after he mentioned the shooting rampage across the state that killed nine people and said he understood the killer's mindset. Fifty-eight-year-old Francis Laskowski of Derby was charged with breach of peace Wednesday after making the comments while working at Fusco Management Co. in New Haven.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Target Corp. is apologizing for a political donation to a conservative group that angered some employees and sparked talk of a customer boycott. Chairman and Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel wrote to employees on Thursday to say the company was "genuinely sorry" that the donation upset some employees. Steinhafel also said Target would set up a review process for future political donations. Target gave $150,000 to MN Forward, a group that is running ads for a Republican gubernatorial candidate who opposes gay marriage. Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/05/2939535/apnewsbreak-target-apologizes.html#ixzz0vkyEBVGN

What will it take for the media to acknowledge that the Tea Party is not a racist movement, and that liberals have smeared it as such in a naked politicization of race relations? How about a lefty activist admitting just that. UPenn professor Mary Frances Berry, a leader of the "far-left black political scene," as NB Executive Editor Matt Sheffield wrote,  penned this astonishing email to Politico, published on July 20: Tainting the tea party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats. There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any...

CNN has an interesting roundtable on the case of Jennifer Keeton, who has sued Augusta State University to keep from getting expelled for not repudiating her statements about homosexuality. Keeton expressed her biblical perspective on the subject in and out of class while working toward a degree in counseling, and the school mandated a “remediation plan� that appears to have required her to renounce her Christian doctrine in order to gain a diploma from the school. The school has responded that a bias against homosexuality would disqualify Keeton from certification, a position that would put most Christians in Keeton’s position.Does...

Will Obama, like U.K.’s Tony Blair, usher in ‘gay’ tyranny in the United States? Former British P.M. Tony Blair used state power to promote the acceptance of homosexuality in the U.K. He is now working to make Christianity "gay"-affirming. By Peter LaBarbera I was sent this must-watch CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) video by my friend Gary Glenn, head of the American Family Association of Michigan. Glenn is backing a civil rights lawsuit by the Thomas More Law Center against Attorney Gen. Eric Holder over the new homosexuality/transsexuality–inclusive “hate crimes” law. This video deserves wide circulation as a warning to America....

Think you know what a hate crime is? Think again. According to a June 22 report in the New York Times, if someone defrauds elderly people in Queens, N.Y., he may very well be brought up on hate crime charges in addition to fraud charges simply because he committed his crimes under the belief that old folks are easy marks. Furthermore, this novel use of hate crime law has proved so successful in obtaining stiffer sentences for convicted criminals that it is likely to be adopted across the state of New York, and from there, no doubt, to other states...

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has disappointed many social and cultural conservatives with his call for a "truce on the so-called [sic] social issues. We're going to just have to agree to get along for a little while," until the economic issues are resolved, Daniels told the Weekly Standard's Andrew Ferguson. But as the American Spectator's Joseph Lawler has observed, it's doubtful that Daniels' truce would change anything. After all, Lawler rightly asks: "What typical Republican policies would he [Daniels] have to suspend and they [social and cultural conservatives] have to sacrifice? It's not clear to me that it would be...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is being urged to monitor "hate speech" on talk radio and cable broadcast networks. A coalition of more than 30 organizations argue in a letter to the FCC that the Internet has made it harder for the public to separate the facts from bigotry masquerading as news. The groups also charge that syndicated radio and cable television programs "masquerading as news" use hate as a profit model.

Live Oak — An assistant state attorney for the Live Oak-based Third Judicial Circuit was fired Monday for speaking at Tea Party rallies and to other groups, according to Third Judicial Circuit State Attorney Skip Jarvis. Jarvis said he revoked KrisAnne Hall's appointment as an assistant state attorney at 2:30 p.m. Monday. Hall, a Suwannee County resident, worked out of Hamilton County. He said he felt bad for letting her go since she was "the only breadwinner in her household" but had "no other choice." "She was speaking at some political events, some things were anti-state and anti-government," Jarvis said...

Santa Barbara is about as far from Greenville, S.C., as you can get in the continental United States, but Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) cares more about principle than geography. He is leading a conservative insurgency across America. Speaking at the David Horowitz Freedom Center's annual retreat here late last month, DeMint told the faithful that if they want to return to the principles of limited government, they need to elect people who believe in limited government: "I came into the Senate with 55 Republicans, George W. Bush in the White House and large majorities of Republicans in the House, and...

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, New Jersey — An arrest has been made in the case of a racial comment being made over the public-address system at a Walmart store in southern New Jersey, police said. The Washington Township Police Department said on its Web site early today that an arrest has been made in a "bias incident" at the retail store. The posting said police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office will announce the arrest at a midday news conference.

Concerns about an Oregon Department of Transportation employee who purchased several guns after being placed on leave prompted law enforcement across Southern Oregon to step in. Negotiators and a SWAT team from Medford police safely took a man — whose name wasn't released — into protective custody Monday morning in the 500 block of Effie Street, Medford police said in a news release. He was taken to Rogue Valley Medical Center for a mental-health evaluation. The man recently had been placed on administrative leave from his job and was "very disgruntled," the news release said. ODOT Communications Director Patrick Cooney...

Heads will be forced to list children as young as five on school 'hate registers' over everyday playground insults.  Even minor incidents must be recorded as examples of serious bullying and details kept on a database until the pupil leaves secondary school.  Teachers are to be told that even if a primary school child uses homophobic or racist words without knowing their meaning, simply teaching them such words are hurtful and inappropriate is not enough.  Instead the incident has to be recorded and his or her behaviour monitored for future signs of 'hate' bullying.  The accusations will also be...

In a lengthy academic paper , President Obama's regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein, argued the U.S. government should ban "conspiracy theorizing." Among the beliefs Sunstein would ban is advocating that the theory of global warming is a deliberate fraud. Sunstein also recommended the government send agents to infiltrate "extremists who supply conspiracy theories" to disrupt the efforts of the "extremists" to propagate their theories. In a 2008 Harvard law paper, "Conspiracy Theories," Sunstein and co-author Adrian Vermeule, a Harvard law professor, ask, "What can government do about conspiracy theories?" "We can readily imagine a series of possible responses. (1) Government might...

The lawyer who handled the years-long battle by Pastor Stephen Boissoin over "hate speech" charges for a letter he wrote to the editor of a local newspaper that cited the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality is forecasting a nationwide "witch hunt" in the U.S. prompted by an expanded "hate crimes" law signed by President Obama. Gerald Chipeur,  who supervises law offices across Canada, worked from his Calgary headquarters on the defense of Boissoin, who was accused by a university professor of instigating hate against homosexuals with his letter to the editor. As WND reported, an appellate court in Canada recently reversed...

A Canadian administrative judge's demand for a $5,000 penalty and a written apology from a man who criticized homosexuality in a letter to his local newspaper has been overturned on appeal, but experts on such "hate speech" disputes say the case is not a complete victory for free speech. The judgment was announced this week by the Alliance Defense Fund in the case of Stephen Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition, which had been determined by the Alberta, Canada, Human Rights Commission to have violated a "hate speech" law. Alberta had adopted the law with promises that it never would...

CHRISTMAS IN JAPAN can be a little lonely and isolated for the Westerner here. What with the distance from “home” and cultural differences. Little things, here and there. Missing some of the usual things from back home, especially for people like one particular 'American in Tokyo'. This year 2009 is again no different. However, in many respects I must say there is nevertheless one little thing that is so refreshing about being stuck in Japan during Christmas—after a few years—and for the occasions one cannot make it back "home". It is almost like the clock has been refreshingly and...

Websites should be obliged to remove "false rumors" while libel laws should be altered to make it easier to sue for spreading such "rumors," argued Cass Sunstein, Obama's regulatory czar. In his recently released book, "On Rumors," Sunstein specifically cited as a primary example of "absurd" and "hateful" remarks, reports by "right-wing websites" alleging an association between President Obama and Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers. He also singled out radio talker Sean Hannity for "attacking" Obama regarding the president's "alleged associations."

The left has said that the right creates an environment that inspires violence. Actually, the Daily Kos is the one that has inspired violence, including shots fired, against Lou Dobbs and his family. Will the NY Times investigate how the Kosters HATE SPEECH creates an atmosphere of hate and violence? This is my opinion.

Halloween trends are telling. Just ask Robert Thompson, a pop-culture expert and the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. Here's an interesting trend: Halloween has fast become the second-most-decorated holiday. Jack-o-lanterns and goblins and lighted trees are all over the place now. Halloween spending has risen to nearly $5 billion annually -- not bad for a non-gift-giving, non-government-sanctioned holiday. And more adults than ever are dressing up. "The post-World War II years were the golden age of Halloween for kids," says Thompson, "a trend that continued into the 1980s. But in the...

The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously Thursday to begin crafting rules to prevent Internet providers from acting as gatekeepers over which services and content are delivered to their customers, the agency's surest step yet toward regulating the rules of the road online. The federal government previously had taken a largely hands-off approach to Web regulation but decided to act as concerns grew that telecommunications giants such as Comcast, AT&T and Verizon could begin to favor their products and services over others. "It's hard to imagine anything more important to the future of the success of our economy than a healthy...

News reporting that holds accountable those with power and influence has been a vital part of American democratic life, especially in places with daily newspapers profitable enough...to maintain substantial reporting staffs. That journalism is now at risk...American society must now take some collective responsibility for supporting news reportings....In a comprehensive report commissioned by the Columbia University Journalism School, we suggest a number of public sources of support for this news reporting: - The Internal Revenue Service or Congress should clarify tax regulations to explicitly allow new or existing local news organizations to operate as nonprofit or low-profit entities, allowing them...

The more things change, the more they stay the same. When political times get tough for liberal Democrats in Washington, conservative conspiracies are the bogeymen of choice. Back in 1998 when things got tough for Bill Clinton, Hillary declared that there was a “vast right-wing conspiracy” looking to bring her husband down. Other Democrats where quick to pick up the mantra and do anything they could to discredit those who criticized Clinton. Now here we are eleven years later and, (although there are no chubby interns involved), we have another liberal President facing hard times. So out pop the conspiracy...

SNIPPET: "The president has nominated Chai Feldblum, a lesbian activist, to be commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her appointment is awaiting Senate confirmation." SNIPPET: "Feldblum, a law professor at Georgetown University, has signed an online petition titled, "Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision for All Our Families and Relationships."" SNIPPET: ""Chai Feldblum is on record saying that the battle between our religious freedoms and homosexual so-called rights is a zero sum game," says Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality." SNIPPET: ""She says she can't think of a case where the religious rights -- in...

'Hate' Crimes: The House has voted to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation. Aside from violating the Constitution's equal-protection clause, just what does this have to do with national defense? The House voted 281 to 146 Thursday to make it a crime to attack homosexuals and others. The measure was attached to a must-pass $680 billion defense bill. We think the amendment itself is a crime against common sense and the law. Saying "it's a very exciting day for us here in the Capitol," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the passage of the...

Klingenschmitt said, "Please call 202-456-1111 today, and tell White House comment line operators: 'Mr. President, please keep your promise and veto the F-35 second engine in the Pentagon Budget, 2010 Defense Authorization Act.'" "Several months ago, President Obama promised to veto the Pentagon budget if it contained funding for the F-22 or a second engine for the F-35. The Senate killed the F-22, but after receiving nearly 22,000 faxes from us in the last 48 hours, the House ignored Obama's veto threat and voted Thursday to fully fund a second engine for F-35s. The House also sadly attached the pro-homosexual...

A Christian activist says it's vital for believers to push back against those promoting the homosexual agenda. Peter LaBarbera is president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, an Illinois-based group dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda. He says many people -- even in conservative, evangelical Christian circles -- do not know about the true agenda of homosexual groups such as the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Peter LaBarbera"They're undermining the Word of God by trying to say that the Bible does not teach that homosexual behavior is sinful," he says. "On the other side, they're pushing policies that promote gay...

I was actually planning on doing a DUFU about either the DUmmies or KOmmies biting their fingernails over the survival of public option in ObamaCare. Right now they are acting as if their very existence depends on public option remaining. However, I find the constant micro-analysis of each little nuance and twitch of the various Senators and Congress folks to be highly annoying. Like their self-absorbed neurosis was making me neurotic reading about it. Therefore I decided to go with the FUn THREAD, "Actors you were bummed to find out were Republican..." At least one of the actors mentioned...

Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric targeted at President Obama, especially as the debate over health care intensifies and a pattern of threats emerges. The Secret Service is investigating a Maryland man who held a sign reading "Death to Obama" and "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids" outside a town hall meeting this week. And in New Hampshire, another man stood across the street from a Presidential town hall with his gun on full display. Los Angeles police officers apprehended a man Thursday after a standoff with him inside...

HAGERSTOWN, Md. – A man is in custody after authorities said he held a sign reading "Death to Obama" outside a town hall meeting on health care reform in western Maryland. Washington County Sheriff's Capt. Peter Lazich (LAWZ'-itch) says the sign also read, "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids." He says U.S. Secret Service agents took the unidentified 51-year-old man into custody Wednesday afternoon after deputies detained him.