Free Republic

The Cloud Cuckoo Landers who 30 years ago may have been living under lock and key in some insane asylum are now taking their place in positions of authority and are dictating how the rest of us should view reality. It would be amusing if there weren’t real-life victims of this nonsense. A British woman reported to police that she had been raped during a stay in a hospital. But the police were told that simply wasn’t possible because the ward where the woman claims she was raped was for “females only.” And since there “was no male in the...

A Dutch teenager completely forgot his native tongue after waking up from surgery and could only speak English, doctors have revealed. The unidentified 17-year-old boy, thought to be from Maastricht, was in hospital for a knee operation following an injury during a football match. But after he awoke from the anesthesia, he was unable to speak or understand any of the medics, who were speaking in Dutch. Instead, he was only able to talk in English — a language he had only been learning at school and never used outside of the classroom. The boy also failed to recognise his...

"Do you miss President Trump and I?"

Thirsty punters, spendthrift shoppers and jubilant clubbers toasted England’s “freedom day” easing of Covid restrictions on Monday, even as many others saw little to celebrate. The end to limits on social mixing came as a relief to the hospitality, retail and events industries after more than a year of meagre takings The government says a mass vaccination campaign justifies the move, but a resurgence in virus cases has prompted widespread concern among scientists both at home and abroad. Nightclubs had been shut since March 2020, and many reopened at the stroke of midnight. For those filling Bar Fibre in the...

Zaila Avant-garde is the new national spelling bee champion, but it's not the first time she's been on top of the world at something. The 14-year-old from New Orleans was named the winner of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, spelling words such as "querimonious," "ancistroid," "solidungulate." It was "Murraya," a genus of flowering citrus plants in Asia, that won Avant-garde the competition after runner-up Chaitra Thummala misspelled "neroli oil" in the 17th round. 13-year-old Zaila Avant-garde of Louisiana is your 93rd Scripps National #SpellingBee champion ‼️ The first African-American winner of the competition 👏 pic.twitter.com/y2Y5dAGcVN — ESPN...

The young nation of South Sudan has chosen English as its official language but after decades of civil war, the widespread learning of English presents a big challenge for a country brought up speaking a form of Arabic.I knew there might be problems as soon as I arrived at Juba International airport - and was asked to fill in my own visa form, as the immigration officer could not write English. The colourful banners and billboards hung out to celebrate South Sudan's independence back in July, and still adorning the streets now, are all in English. As are the names...

Best touted as the beacon of democracy, Canadian values are supposed to be emulated by the rest of the world. Its good governance practices and rich Human Development Index are categorised as a cornucopia of an ideal modern society. However, the way it is dealing with its persecuted indigenous people reflects the legacy of its dark colonial past. Behind its glittering facade of social justice and equality lies the legal discrimination and violence against the natives. Racial discrimination and violence towards the indigenous people is not new to North America. The history, culture and society of countries in the region...

In a society of victims, knowledge and facts and reason no longer apply. When the prescient George Orwell observed that “There is no swifter route to the corruption of thought than through the corruption of language” he may not have been anticipating what is taking place with educators who have allowed their obsession with racial justice to influence how they maintain standards in their teaching methods and pedagogy. Last July, for example, as the country was embroiled in race-motivated riots and social unrest over the death of George Floyd and others, The Conference on College Composition and Communication (an affiliate...

Words matter. I work in words – be it in writing, on my podcast, or my radio show – words are how I make my living. Whether you realize it or not, so do you. From roofing to selling TVs, and I’ve done both, the ability to communicate is what binds society together. That’s why Democrats are working so feverishly to control what words we can use and are actively redefining them on a regular basis, and why they can’t be allowed to do it. If you’ve ever been overseas, you’ve likely been in a situation where you found yourself...

Testifying in 1996 before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on bilingual ballot requirements, Boston University's president John Silber opened with an anecdote about his father, who had immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1903 to work as a sculptor at the St. Louis World's Fair. Looking for a job after the fair ended, Silber's father spotted a sign that said "Undertaker," which he assumed meant the same thing as Unternehmer, the German word for "contractor." So he walked in to apply for work," Silber told the committee, "and was surprised to find himself in a room full of...

Chinese students recently rushed to snap up spots to take an English-language test, suggesting a heightened interest in studying in the United States and other English-speaking countries. This comes despite the deteriorating relationship between Beijing and Washington.The Educational Testing Service (ETS), the U.S. organization that administers the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), on Oct. 14 opened registration for 2021 TOEFL tests in China. Within five minutes of opening, all test spots in Beijing and Shanghai for the first eight months of 2021 had booked out.Test places in other Chinese cities, such as Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Xi’an,...

NAEP's changes might cause better test results, but they fundamentally alter the meaning of reading comprehension, which would hurt students. Much like the SAT adding an adversity score and the ACT allowing specific subject retakes, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the “nation’s report card,” is easing its standards to improve its numbers. As with the SAT and ACT, these changes carry significant implications for the way English is taught in American schools. This year, the NAEP’s governing board plans to change testing to “optimize the performance of the widest possible population of students in the...

The English Department at Rutgers University recently announced a list of “anti-racist” directives and initiatives for the upcoming fall and spring semesters, including an effort to deemphasize traditional grammar rules. The initiatives were spelled out by Rebecca Walkowitz, the English Department chair at Rutgers University, and sent to faculty, staff and students in an email, a copy of which was obtained by The College Fix.

BRITISH HUMOR IS DIFFERENT These are classified ads, which were actually placed in U.K. Newspapers: FREE YORKSHIRE TERRIER. 8 years old, Hateful little bastard. Bites! FREE PUPPIES 1/2 Cocker Spaniel, 1/2 sneaky neighbor's dog. FREE PUPPIES. Mother is a Kennel Club registered German Shepherd. Father is a Super Dog, able to leap tall fences in a single bound. COWS, CALVES: NEVER BRED. Also 1 gay bull for sale. JOINING NUDIST COLONY ! Must sell washer and dryer £100. WEDDING DRESS FOR SALE . Worn once by mistake. Call Stephanie. **** And the WINNER is... **** FOR SALE BY OWNER. Complete...

In 1985, Michelle Obama presented her senior thesis in the sociology department of Princeton University. Although Michelle drew no such conclusion, the thesis is a stunning indictment of affirmative action. Those who benefited from it, Michelle most notably, may never recover from its sting. Her thesis reads like a cry for help. "I have found that at Princeton no matter how matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me," she writes, "I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as I really don't belong." She didn't. Michelle should never have been...

My dilema: A good friend,brought up in Korea but who became a US citizen about 10 years ago,has what can be said to be,at best,a fair command of spoken English.He's very well educated (in Korea) and very intelligent.My question...does anyone have any experience,first or second hand,with an intelligent middle age person developing a good command of English? I've read that the human brain is wired to acquire language *when young* but that that ability fades as one gets older. I ask here because I know that Freepers are skilled and experienced in every imaginable human endeavor!

Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said at a recent campaign stop that English should not be the official language of the United States, even though she voted for a pro-English language bill during her time in the Senate. Klobuchar said at the campaign event in Las Vegas on Friday that she has “taken a strong position against” the English-language amendment, which she voted in support of in 2007, the Associated Press reported. “I think that when you look at a state like this state, and a country like ours that is so diverse, you don’t want to have...

SNIP Klobuchar was one of 17 Democrats to support a 2007 amendment that would have reversed President Bill Clinton’s executive order requiring federal agencies to provide materials in languages other than English. It passed 64-33, but the larger immigration bill died. The amendment’s sponsor, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe, said after the June 2007 vote that the amendment was about “preserving our culture and heritage” and would “send a message to all those who have come to our country and all those who will immigrate here in the future that English is the language of our land.” Klobuchar joined other...

LAS VEGAS -- Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar says she no longer believes English should be the national language of the U.S., disavowing a vote she took more than a decade ago as she tries to build support in a state where Hispanics make up a critical constituency. Campaigning in Las Vegas, the three-term Minnesota senator said Friday that she has changed her stance since voting for an English-language amendment in 2007 and has “taken a strong position against” it. She also blasted President Donald Trump for using immigrants as “wedges” and said as president she would work with Republicans...

A "Happy Brexit Day" poster telling residents of a block of flats "we do not tolerate" people speaking other languages has been reported to the police. Copies of the sign were reportedly found stuck to fire doors on all 15 floors of Winchester Tower in Norwich on Friday morning. The discovery came hours before the UK officially left the European Union at 11pm on Friday. A photo of the poster, which was shared on social media, shows that it reads: "As we finally have our great country back we feel there is one that needs to be made clear to...