Free Republic

Yet another student has been suspended for having something that represents a gun, but isn’t actually anything like a real gun. This time, Daniel McClaine, Jr., a freshman at Poston Butte High School in Tan Valley, Arizona, made the mistake of setting a picture of a gun as the desktop background on his school-issued computer. The picture shows an AK-47 lying on a flag, reports KNXV-TV. The gun isn’t his, McClaine assured the ABC affiliate in Phoenix. He found it on the Internet and liked it, partly because he is interested in serving in the military after graduation. A teacher...

<p>A Washington, D.C. deaf college has suspended its “Chief Diversity Officer” after another faculty member complained the woman signed a petition supporting the reversal of Maryland’s same-sex marriage law.</p> <p>The woman claims the incident is a misunderstanding and groups on both sides of the issue are calling for her to be reinstated.</p>

The Boy Scouts of America has lost one of it's biggest corporate donors, Intel, who announced Sunday they will no longer fund the organization until gay Scouts and leaders are welcome within the organization. Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, founder of Scouts for Equality, launched a campaign urging Intel to pull funding from the Boy Scouts after a report revealed the company gave nearly $700,000 to the Boy Scouts in 2010. "Intel made the right decision here, in order to live up to their corporate values of diversity, equality and individual liberty," said Wahls. "Companies that support the LGBT community simply...

Littoral ship named for Gabby ---

The Spirit Lake tribe Tuesday sued the NCAA for blocking its attempt to let the University of North Dakota use the sports nickname Fighting Sioux. Tribal attorney Reed Soderstrom said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court challenges the NCAA's policy banning the use of Native American names and imagery by collegiate athletic teams. He said the suit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association was brought on behalf of more than 1,004 members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe "in direct response to their attempt to take away and prevent the North Dakota Sioux Indians from giving their name forever...

The Boston Globe is all aflutter that Harvard University is adding "diversity" to its portraits of celebrated professors, teachers, and associates. The paper is pleased to report that instead of only having upon its walls all those boring, evil, dead white men, now Harvard will be adding black men, black women, and Asians to the display. Boston Globe clucks disapprovingly that of the some 750 oil portraits in Harvard’s collection of celebrated alumnus only two are of "minorities," and only just over 50 are of white women. The Globe thinks that Harvard needs some "diversity" and these terrible portraits of...

Before we begin today's lesson, let us review the purpose of a library, shall we? Are libraries not a compilation of knowledge in the form of books and visual aids brought together for the edification of students of humanity to be used a s a tool for their growth and enrichment? If it is, the earnest curators of the Oxford Library have somehow missed that definition. Apparently, the librarians at Oxford, however, have been misled to believe that a library is more like a static piece of art. They must think that a "library" is a permanent arrangement of book-like...

Looks like it is just starting to dawn on some lefties that Obama is ushering in an era of oppression of free speech. So it seems for Laura Varon Brown of the Detroit Free Press, at least. Oh, she isn't saying that Obama himself is trampling on free speech, but she is starting to understand that the left's penchant for political correctness is serving the function as a sort of self-imposed oppression no matter what Obama says. It's getting so bad, according to Brown, that any criticism of Obama is treated as akin to treason... at least it is in...

SAN DIEGO – A jury found four San Diego firefighters who sued the city were sexually harassed after being ordered to participate in a gay pride parade. ---snip--- The firemen said they were subjected to sexually charged conduct and lewd comments while riding a fire engine in the July 2007 parade. ---snip--- The firemen said they were subjected to cat-calls and saw barely clothed men simulate sex acts along the route on University Avenue in Hillcrest.

NewsWorld NewsNorth AmericaUSA Barack Obama Barack Obama 'kidnaps' 24 hero Jack Bauer US conservatives claim that the 24 character Jack Bauer has been 'kidnapped' by the new liberal agenda of President-Elect Barack Obama. By Tim Shipman in Washington 11 Jan 2009 US conservatives say Jack Bauer from 24 has been 'kidnapped' by the new liberal agenda of President-Elect Barack Obama. As the hero of the television action series, Bauer became a modern icon of rugged American values and a fictional flag waver for the Bush administration's determination to defeat terrorists. The intelligence agent, played by Keifer Sutherland, has never been...

A BRISBANE radio station may have to explain why it should keep its licence after an announcer was accused of making anti-Islamic comments. Former Victorian police officer, now 4BC drive-time announcer, Michael Smith called for Muslim women who wear an Islamic hijab in public to be fined for offensive behaviour, The Courier-Mail reports. He made the remarks on-air and on the 4BC website, saying: "Any reasonable person would find this offensive." Islamic Council of Queensland president Suliman Sabdia said Mr Smith's remarks amounted to "a clear case of intolerance".

Once again Muslims in Europe take to the streets to riot. This time they were supposed to be celebrating the Islamic holiday of Eid. The celebrating done by 300 Muslims included throwing bicycles on the train tracks and rocks at the police. Over the last few years this type of behaviour has occurred several times in Europe.

The Football Association have vowed to "take the strongest possible action'' against anyone found guilty of Islamophobic or racist chanting against Middlesbrough striker Mido. The Egyptian striker was targeted by Newcastle fans as he warmed up in the Tees-Tyne derby at the Riverside Stadium last weekend, and has called on the game's governing body to take stern measures. Mido suffered similar abuse during Newcastle's last visit to Boro a year ago, but an FA investigation then did not result in any banning orders due to difficulties in identifying culprits. However, two men, aged 49 and 23, have been arrested and...

FORT DRUM, N.Y., Nov. 24, 2008 – Having non-lethal capabilities is a valuable asset to soldiers in combat, because even the most hostile situation can be resolved without lethal measures, Army Staff Sgt. Eric Johnson said during non-lethal capabilities training and equipment fielding here last week. Soldiers of the10th Mountain Division feel the effects of a Taser during non-lethal weapons training Nov. 19, 2008, at Fort Drum, N.Y. DoD photo by Army Staff Sgt. Michael J. Carden  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “We definitely could’ve used this equipment and training on my previous deployments,” said Johnson, an infantryman...

FORT DRUM, N.Y., Nov. 24, 2008 – U.S. soldiers are trained to use non-lethal force as much as possible. But until recently, not every soldier had “the right mix” of tools and capabilities to meet those goals, an officer said during exercises here last week. Tom Martins, non-lethal munitions specialist, teaches 10th Mountain Division soldiers uses and techniques of a spike-strip net during non-lethal capabilities training Nov. 20, 2008, at Fort Drum, N.Y. DoD photo by Army Staff Sgt. Michael J. Carden  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “The more capabilities we give the soldiers to operate in the...

A Federal judge said that it was OK for a Poway, California school teacher to sue his school district for forcing him to remove a banner that featured well known, patriotic American references to God in an early September ruling. Math teacher Brad Johnson who teachers at Westview High in San Diego County, California, had the banner on his classroom wall for the last 20 years but only last year was told by school administrators that the banner was supposedly an affront to the principles of separation of Church and State. After two decades without complaint, Johnson was told his...

At the end of September the school district in Oak Lawn, Illinois announced it was considering eliminating holiday celebrations like Christmas in its schools. Oak Lawn has seen increasing numbers of residents that identify with the Muslim faith who are naturally sending their children to the public schools there and school board members are afraid that Christian holidays are "offensive" to Muslim students. This move follows a recent decision to eliminate pork products from the school menu. Unsurprisingly, these cultural clashing decisions by the school board have caused acrimony among parents of the district. Stating the painfully obvious, Columbus Manor...

How long do you think it will be that we must stay under the thumb of the kind of PCism that posits that all white people are evil, wrong, losers, stupid or otherwise weak and bad? Apparently Cisco Systems hasn't seen the end of it and that is why, in their TV commercial for their new TelePresence video conferencing system, the white kid loses. The commercial starts off with a white boy in an obviously American class room staring at the camera. Then cuts to an obvious foreign class room with a little Asian boy doing the same. As the...

ROTTERDAM - Police in Rotterdam removed this Wednesday a commandment from the Bible, 'Thou shalt not kill', from a wall in Rotterdam-North. A 52 year old man who tried to stop the police and the cleaners, was arrested. He was given a fine. A police-spokesman claimed Thursdag that the removal of the texts fits in the national instructions given to police-officers to be on alert on all possible signals of unrests or provocation. "On Wednesday evening we were told there was a text on a wall right next to a mosque in the Insulindestreet. There was already an attempt to...

"Unfortunately, all too often "Islam" and "terrorism" are juxtaposed in news reports and editorials. A word search on news stories published in major newspapers over the past decade shows that reporters are hundred times more likely to associate Islam with terrorism or militancy than all other faiths combined. Such lopsided portrayal is indicative of deep-seated misunderstandings about Islam, and sometimes just plain prejudice. Surely all terrorists are not Muslim, neither are all Muslims terrorists."