Free Republic

A California Islamic school wanted to keep an open mind before Donald Trump took office. But less than a month into Trump’s presidency, the school rejected $800,000 in federal funds aimed at combating violent extremism. The decision made late Friday night by the Bayan Claremont graduate school’s board to turn down the money — an amount that would cover more than half its yearly budget — capped weeks of sleepless nights and debate. Many there felt Trump’s rhetoric singling out Islamic extremism and his travel ban affecting predominantly Muslim countries had gone too far. It also marked the fourth organization...

2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die. You may die anyway. You—or the leader of your party—may make it into the cockpit and not know how to fly or land the plane. There are no guarantees. Except one: if you don’t try, death is certain. To compound the metaphor: a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto. With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances. To ordinary conservative ears, this sounds histrionic. The stakes can’t be that high because they are never that high—except perhaps in the pages...

A political party that allows 17 candidates to compete for its presidential nomination is not a serious political party. A political party that allows its would-be presidents to debate one another silly—and I mean that in every sense of the term—is failing in its job, too..... Despite the Republican Party’s fatuous and grueling process, however, the voters learned some valuable things. The vast field contained many accomplished politicians, few truly distinguished ones; the senators (Cruz, Graham, Paul, Rubio, Santorum) were young or implausible, the governors (Bush, Christie, Jindal, Gilmore, Huckabee, Kasich, Pataki, Perry, Walker) successful but too numerous, stale, or...

Presidential candidate Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally in Claremont, NH at Stevens High School beginning at 7:00 PM EST. Can't wait to hear him talk about the big news of today... http://rsbn.tv/watch-live-donald-trump-holds-rally-in-claremont-nh/ shift.msnbc.com abcnews.go.com

At 12:02 p.m. on Thursday, November 12, Mary Spellman resigned as Dean of Students following calls for her resignation after students of color articulated concerns about the Dean of Students office being unsupportive towards students of marginalized identities, and two students yesterday began hunger strikes calling for her resignation. Additional coverage coming later — find Spellman’s email to the CMC community below. Dear CMC Community: Since 2010 I have been privileged to serve as Dean of Students at Claremont McKenna College. Today I am submitting my letter of resignation, effective immediately. I do so with sadness beyond words, because these...

An atheist professor said Tuesday that it's acceptable to criticize Christians but not Muslims, because he does not "fear" retaliation from Christians. "I know what keeps me from critiquing Islam on my blog is just fear," Phil Zuckerman said at a discussion on religious liberty at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "I've got three kids. "So I know I can say anything about Christianity or Mormonism, and I'm not living in fear, which is a testament to Christianity and Mormonism, and that's wonderful. Thank you," said Zuckerman, who is a self-described atheist and professor of secular studies at Pitzer College...

The New Hampshire Republican Party amended its platform this weekend with stricter abortion provisions, including support for "personhood," which defines life as beginning at conception.Personhood has become a hot-button issue in Senate races across the country this year, such as Colorado, where Democrats have successfully attacked Rep. Cory Gardner for having supported such a measure in the past.Now, the issue could spread to New Hampshire, following the state party's decision at its convention.The platform now states: "Support the pre-born child's fundamental right to life and personhood under the Fourteenth Amendment, and implement all Constitutional and legal protections."It added: "Support a...

An unusual nativity display at a Claremont church that portrayed gay couples was vandalized over the weekend in an incident authorities are investigating as a hate crime.

...But there was never anything silly, nor light-hearted, nor casual, about Barack Obama's efforts to keep the public's eyes from the basic facts of his life, from birth to his candidacy for president. On the contrary, this opacity is a deliberate policy. Why? The presumptive answer, absent testimony from those involved, is to ensure that real facts interfere as little as possible with the image and narrative that he and his associates have carefully crafted for him. Distinguishing between reality and that narrative would require above all a skeptical attitude, sure to be characterized by Democrats and the media in...

Bassam Frangieh, Claremont McKenna College’s resident Hamas, Hezbollah and Saddam Hussein-supporting head of Arabic and Middle East Studies, trains the next generation of Arabic diplomats at one of America’s top colleges. We’ve already exposed his anti-Israel views, but today, we’ll expose his anti-American ones. Bassam Frangieh, Claremont McKenna College’s resident Hamas, Hezbollah and Saddam Hussein-supporting head of Arabic and Middle East Studies, trains the next generation of Arabic diplomats at one of America’s top colleges. We’ve already exposed his anti-Israel views, but today, we’ll expose his anti-American ones.

The denunciation of Palin took place 45 years after William F. Buckley, Jr., wrote: "I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University." From Richard Nixon's invoking the "silent majority" to Palin's campaigning as a devout, plain-spoken hockey mom, conservatives have claimed that they share the common sense of the common man. Liberals—from Adlai Stevenson to Barack Obama to innumerable writers, artists, and academics—have often been willing foils in this drama, unable to stop themselves from...

The Long Detour A review of Richard Nixon and the Quest for a New Majority, by Robert Mason By William A. Rusher Posted July 13, 2005 This article appeared in the Summer 2005 issue of the Claremont Review of Books. Click here to send a comment. In 1964 the American conservative movement made its first bid for national political power, by seizing control of the Republican Party and nominating Senator Barry Goldwater as its candidate for president. The attempt failed disastrously: Goldwater carried only six states and won just 38% of the popular vote. But far from disappearing, the conservative...

About a decade ago, when he was vice president, Al Gore explained that our national motto, e pluribus unum, means "from one, many." This was a sad day for knowledge of Latin among our political elite—and after all those expensive private schools that Gore had been packed off to by his paterfamilias. It was the kind of flagrant mistranslation that, had it been committed by a Republican, say George W. Bush or Dan Quayle, would have been a gaffe heard round the world. But the media didn't play up the slip, perhaps because they had seen Gore's Harvard grades and...

Protesters descended Tuesday on Condit Elementary School in Claremont, tersely arguing over the construction-paper pilgrim and Native American costumes worn by kindergartners at a decades-old Thanksgiving tradition. Police were called to the school when tensions rose. Officers also were monitoring Claremont Unified Supt. David Cash's home after he received hate mail and told police that he feared for his safety. "It's been wild," said one woman who worked at the school. She declined to give her name because she wasn't authorized to speak on behalf of the school. Cash and Condit Principal Tim Northrop did not return phone calls or...

Anything in these remarks that does not stray from the truth is indebted to the American Founders, who bequeathed these ideas to us, to Abraham Lincoln, who preserved and ennobled them in the country's greatest crisis, to Harry V. Jaffa, who has done more than anyone since Lincoln to recover them, and to the late Tom Silver, the wisest and best of those who founded the Claremont Institute for the sake of these ideas. American children are not born understanding the principles of their country, and most American college students—if reports can be believed—are still largely unfamiliar with them...

Rumsfeld Remarks at Churchill Dinner PATH TO VICTORY Refashioning Institutions for the 21st Century Remarks by Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Claremont Institute's 20th Annual Dinner in Honor of Sir Winston Churchill, November 17, 2007.This past year has certainly provided ample entertainment for those interested in politics. The activities of Congress and the unexpected blessing of an extra year of presidential campaigning fill our newspapers, televisions, and blogs. The problem is that this entertainment tends to focus on the petty and the personal, and seems to avoid a serious discussion of the emerging challenges our country and the next...

'Sleeper cell' had S.D. ties, jury told Clairemont resident is on trial in Miami Years before three of the Sept. 11 hijackers set up shop in this corner of the country, a group of Muslim extremists in San Diego was raising money and recruiting fighters for a worldwide holy war, according to federal records and testimony that unfolded last week in a Miami courtroom. Kifah Jayyousi As early as 1993, the FBI was wiretapping at least two San Diego men who agents suspected were members of a “sleeper cell” plotting terror strikes across the globe. The government also was tracking...

A Merry Claremont Christmas Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays. While you're there, curl up with one of these fine books...   Tom Karako Director of Programs, the Claremont Institute  The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style, by Nicholas Antongiavanni  Few books may be called original. The Suit is a rare exception. Rarer still, because it has the virtue of being read on many levels, providing bona fide instruction for men's dress, a careful commentary on Machiavelli by one who knows him well, and, finally, managing to be extraordinarily funny. This little work allows the...

Losing the Enlightenment Remarks at the Claremont Institute's annual Churchill Dinner By Victor Davis HansonPosted November 20, 2006These remarks were delivered on November 10, 2006 at the Claremont Institute's annual dinner in honor of Sir Winston Churchill. (To applause.) Good evening, and thank you very much for the honor of the Statesmanship Award at this annual Claremont Institute dinner in memory of Sir Winston Churchill—a tribute conceived in the name of a great man, bestowed by a great institute, and honored by great past recipients. Tonight I would like to talk of our current crisis—not yet a catastrophe, but...

The Right Stuff By Elihu GrantPosted November 9, 2006 A review of American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia edited by Bruce Frohnen, Jeremy Beer, and Jeffrey O. NelsonIf you need to find out in a hurry?and who knows when such a need might arise??what year Walter Berns was born (1919) or how many condensed editions of The Road to Serfdom were distributed by the Book-of-the-Month Club at the end of World War II (600,000), you will readily find the answers in this indispensable new collection of data about the American conservative movement, published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and edited by...