Free Republic

RESOLUTION Condemning violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United States. Whereas the victims of anti-Muslim hate crimes and rhetoric have faced physical, verbal, and emotional abuse because they were Muslim or believed to be Muslim; Whereas the constitutional right to freedom of religious practice is a cherished United States value and violence or hate speech towards any United States community based on faith is in contravention of the Nation’s founding principles; Whereas there are millions of Muslims in the United States, a community made up of many diverse beliefs and cultures, and both immigrants and native-born citizens;...

A majority of Americans have a negative view of Islam after the terrorist attacks in Paris and California, including a majority of Democrats. Fifty-eight percent of Americans now have an unfavorable opinion of Islam, according to the latest YouGov/Huffpost poll of Americans. That number includes 45 percent of Democrats, 58 percent of Independents and 75 percent of Republicans. Only 27 percent of Democrats have a favorable opinion of Islam while 45 percent, nearly twice as many have an unfavorable view. Only 11 percent of Republicans and 15 percent of Independents have a favorable view of the religion. Only 23 percent...

Tuesday at a press conference with French President Francois Hollande, President Barack Obama declared it “our humanitarian duty” to help out with refugees fleeing the Middle East. Obama said, “Americans will not be terrorized. I say all this because another part of being vigilant, another part of defeating terrorists like ISIL is upholding the rights and freedoms that define our two great republics. That includes freedom of religion.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden must have misspoken when he told Al Jazeera last month that one of his top priorities is to reach out to Muslim countries. "That was not his task and that's not the task of NASA," Gibbs said. Bolden, though, said last month in the interview that it was President Obama who gave him that task. He made a similar claim in February. But Gibbs on Monday appeared to deny that Bolden was asked to focus on Muslim outreach at all. He said he wasn't aware of Obama...

Vancouver, Washington. Beware the Beckies Dear Editor; I’m not quite old enough to be a hippie, but I have two older brothers who were; both went to Woodstock. It looks like we have a new anti-establishment movement, the Tea Party “Beckies.” Once they’ve smoked some Glenn Beck, had a dose of Rush Limbaugh, and gotten Sarah Palin-ized, they’re ready to tune-in (to Fox), turn-off (their brain), and reload. We’ve gone from Woodstock to Weirdstock, communes to militias, free love to open carry, long hairs to cross hairs, peace signs to the bird, from gurus to guns. We don’t sit-in; we...

American children are being indoctrinated with anti-Democratic ideologies in American colleges, universities, and K-12 public schools with socialism, communism, and Islam. While parents believe traditional societal values are upheld, some schools are intentionally breaching customary positions of trust by providing a failing quality of education as compared to generations past. The widespread violation of standards infringe on family orientation, political and social identity, and religious persuasion . . . .

U.S. atrocities are unworthy of our heritage. Put the fireworks in storage. Cancel the parade. Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time. This year, America doesn't deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement. For we have sinned. We have failed to pay attention. We've settled for lame excuses. We've spit on the memory of those who did that brave, brave thing in Philadelphia 232 years ago. The America those men founded should never torture a prisoner. The America they founded should never imprison people for years without...

The heavy knock on the front door came about 12:45 p.m. Vicki Bergeron opened it to find a camouflage-wearing law officer, assault rifle slung over his shoulder, face smeared in green paint, ordering an evacuation. That would be due to us. Columbian photographer Mike Salsbury and I had just spent the past 90 minutes scuffling around the Cascade Highlands neighborhood. We were trying to gain a better vantage point, any vantage point, near a home where police surrounded someone who had taken hostages and fired shots. We'd found it - in the backyard and a small, bathroom window in the...

FREQUENT FLYER Word out of the House Democrat leadership is that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is not only having her staff make plans for a trip to Venezuela to meet there with dictator Hugo Chavez, she has also asked staff to apply for a visa to travel to Tehran. "She is getting bad advice from people back home in San Francisco," says a leadership aide, who is working for one Pelosi's colleagues. "She is not getting it from members of her leadership team. That's all anyone here is willing to say."

Suppose the United States followed the ideas of the Left and took the French approach to Iranian nukes: Ignore the threat and just try to buy into Iran’s oil and gas fields. As for Israel, it is only “un petit pays pissant,” in the famous words of the French diplomat in London: It’s only a sh**ty little country. Who needs it? Let them go to hell in their own way. Or, as Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy genius Zbigniew Brzezinsky told us last week, “Time is on our side” with the Mullahs. He said the same thing in 1979, when Carter...