Free Republic

Fifty-seven years ago, Ayn Rand predicted the red wave sweeping America today. The Left Cashes In On The Real Red Wave By Eileen F. Toplansky Indeed, there was a red wave but not the one conservatives had hoped for. It was, however, the continuation of the leftists’, Marxists’, and communists’ eternal obsession to destroy America and obliterate her values—and Ayn Rand predicted it in her 1965 seminal book titled The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution. Frighteningly prescient, Rand understood the beginnings of the “intellectual disintegration” that is now front and center in most colleges. Fifty-seven years later, the Left is...

The voting result at Cambridge showed that the majority of people, regardless of their political and ideological affiliations, value free speech. College campuses have recently become a major battleground for free speech. For a while, however, it seemed advocates for censoring speeches and canceling speakers were winning.Just last week, professor Joseph Epstein, currently a lecturer at Northwestern University, was effectively canceled by the university after he wrote an op-ed criticizing Jill Biden, wife of Joe Biden, for insisting on using the honorific “Dr.” in front of her name because she has a Ph.D. in education.Still, all is not lost for...

Oklahoma voters will decide in November whether to abolish an article of the state constitution so that a Ten Commandments monument can be returned to the Capitol grounds. The House voted 65-7 late Thursday for a resolution calling for a statewide vote on whether to remove a constitutional prohibition on the use of state funds to support a religion. The state Supreme Court relied on that section of the constitution in June when it ordered a 6-foot-tall granite Ten Commandments monument moved from the Capitol grounds. The monument’s removal angered many Oklahomans, particularly Republican lawmakers who vowed to return the...

A woman in Massachusetts is causing a stir on the Internet after a photograph of her wearing a colander on her head in her driver’s license photo have been circulating the web — all in the name of freedom of religion. On Friday, Nov. 13, Lindsay Miller of Lowell, Mass., told the Associated Press that she “absolutely loves the history and the story” of Pastafarians, a religious group that is otherwise known as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. She opted to wear a strainer on her head as part of her religious observance, she added, much the same...

Even in his official license photo Newser) – A Czech Republic court has struck a blow for religious freedom—ridiculous, ridiculous religious freedom. Lukás Novy, 29, successfully argued that he should be allowed to wear a pasta strainer on his head in his official, government-issued ID photo, because he was required to do so by his "Pastafarian" faith, the Daily Mail reports. Novy belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a parody religion whose followers "believe" that a giant invisible monstrosity made of spaghetti and meatballs created the universe after "drinking heavily." Novy said the faith required him...

An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear". Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons. Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism. Later a police spokesman explained that the licence was issued because Mr Alm's face was fully visible in the photo. "The photo was not approved on religious grounds. The only criterion for photos in driving licence applications is that the whole face must be...

Predation Did Not Come from Evolution by Daniel Criswell, Ph.D.* Although the origin of predation is poorly understood, it is incorrect to attribute to young-earth creation the assertion that predatory animals quickly and recently evolved the physical features necessary for predation. It is a common fallacy that carnivores evolved from a change in form and function. No physical evolution was required to change herbivores to predators--it was merely a change in behavior. The view that an alteration of genomes and phenotypes, such as sharp teeth and claws, would have been required to supply the physical features for predation from herbivorous...

...Near the end of the silly new anti-evolution film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed—in which fellow panelist Steve Meyer appeared—host Ben Stein asks Richard Dawkins, who is arguably the best-known living evolutionary biologist on the planet, if he could think of any circumstances under which intelligent design might have occurred. Incautiously, Dawkins brings up the idea that aliens might have seeded life on earth; so-called directed panspermia. This idea was suggested by biologists Francis Crick and Leslie Orgel back in the 1970s. In the film, Stein acts like this is a great "gotcha," like it's the silliest thing he's ever heard....

E-mails offer Polk school officials a view of the origin of life they say is just as valid as intelligent design. LAKELAND | The Flying Spaghetti Monster has stretched its noodles to Polk County. The Flying Spaghetti Monster, or FSM, is a satirical group that pokes fun at intelligent design. It first emerged in 2005 during the debate in Kansas over whether the belief should be taught in science classes. The group has sent dozens of e-mails to Polk County School Board members demanding that the idea of a Flying Spaghetti Monster creating the world receive classroom equal time with...

Vienna - A row erupted on Thursday over plans by animal protectionists to symbolically "crucify" three activists with animal masks in a Good Friday protest outside Vienna's St Stephan's Cathedral. The militant pro-animal group PETA said the activists would be suspended from crosses with crowns of thorns on their heads. The slogan of the protest action would be "We suffer and die for your sins of nourishment." PETA said its aim was to catch the attention of consumers who ignored the suffering of animals. Head of Vienna's central 1st district, conservative People's Party (VP) politician Ursula Stenzel, condemned the plan....

(AgapePress) -- Anyone know where we can find some Etruscans? You know, members of the Etruscan civilization that existed in ancient Italy, predating even Rome? Well, there aren't any. The Etruscans were absorbed by the Roman civilization and ceased to exist as a distinct people. Ominously, if a growing number of experts and cultural observers are right, it's entirely possible that the same question may be asked 100 years from now -- only about Italians or Spaniards or Russians. As writer Mark Steyn glumly put it in The New Criterion, "Much of what we loosely call the Western world will...

State Board of Education member Connie Morris took exception Wednesday to a picture of a made-up creature that satirizes the state's new science standards hanging on a Stucky Middle School teacher's door. Fellow board member Sue Gamble told The Eagle that Morris asked for the picture to be removed. The creature, called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, is the creation of Bobby Henderson of Corvallis, Ore. It looks like a clump of spaghetti with two eyes sticking out of the top and two meatballs flanking the eyes.

See for example this thread first. A man says that his Darwin Fish Was stolen, and now his wish to repay: should it be Flying Spaghetti...? Revenge, best served cold, as a Dish!

Is God a flying ball of pasta? It's one theory -- just like intelligent design KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE HACKENSACK, N.J. - Unlike a certain other religion in the news, the First United Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster doesn't object to cartoon depictions of the supreme being. For one thing, he's easy to draw: a tangle of pasta strands with a meatball body. In some pictures, he is shown reaching out to confer the blessings of life and happiness with what church members like to refer to as his "noodly appendage." Flying Spaghetti Monster could be the next big...

PARIS (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Church has restated its support for evolution with an article praising a U.S. court decision that rejects the "intelligent design" theory as non-scientific. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said that teaching intelligent design -- which argues that life is so complex that it needed a supernatural creator -- alongside Darwin's theory of evolution would only cause confusion... A court in the state of Pennsylvania last month barred a school from teaching intelligent design (ID), a blow to Christian conservatives who want it to be taught in biology classes along with the Darwinism they oppose.

Synthetic Biologists String Genes into Living Machines. Enjoy bacteria that make a picture of the Flying Spaghetti Monster! See some visions of the future via Biotechnology.

NAIROBI, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The Somali government has signed a two-year contract with an American marine security company in a bid to end an upsurge of piracy off the lawless Horn of Africa country, officials said on Friday. Waters off the coast of Somalia are considered among the most dangerous in the world. Pirates firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns earlier this month tried to board a U.S.-owned cruise liner about 100 miles (160 km) off the Somali coast. New York-based Topcat Marine Security Inc. signed a deal worth more than $50 million with the Somali Transitional Federal Government...

Pirates have hijacked a Thai-registered merchant ship off Somalia, kidnapping its 26 crew at gunpoint. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) says the vessel was carrying a cargo of sugar from Brazil to Yemen when it was seized close to the coast, north east of Mogadishu, early on Monday. The IMB says the crew are mostly Thais and a ransom has been demanded for their release. It is the fourth such attack in as many days off the Somali coast, including one where rocket propelled grenades were used against a luxury cruise ship. Earlier this week, the United Nations Security Council...

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali pirates attacked five ships in the past week in a sharp rise of banditry apparently directed from a mysterious "mother ship" prowling the busy Indian Ocean corridor, shipping experts said on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT ZIP code where you park at night: Do you currently have auto insurance? Yes No Have you had a U.S. driver's license for more than 3 years? Yes No Has any driver in your household had 2 or more accidents or moving violations in the last 3 years? Yes No Most vessels escaped, but one was commandeered, bringing to seven the number of...

'Mother ship' behind pirate raids Pirate attacks off Somalia's coast are being organised from command vessels, or "mother ships", the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has said. It says speedboats are being launched from ships that prowl the routes of the Indian Ocean, searching for targets. Last week, a luxury cruise liner off Somalia's coast was attacked by pirates with rocket-propelled grenades. The IMB says pirates are still holding seven ships and their crews, seized in the world's most dangerous waters. In the past few days, at least four other vessels are reported to have been attacked. 'Out of control' Captain...