Free Republic

A statue to Thomas Jefferson on the lawn of the University of Virginia was defaced with the words 'racist' and 'rapist' early on Friday morning, just before the start of celebrations marking the 275th anniversary of his birth. A UVA spokesman said: 'The university is disappointed that individuals vandalized the statue of Thomas Jefferson on the Lawn on the day that we honor his contributions to our University and to our democracy. 'UVA welcomes open and civil discourse on such important issues. However, acts of vandalism do not contribute to meaningful discussion. 'Crews from Facilities Management are removing the vandalism,...

UMBC made sports history on Friday night by becoming the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The America East champions pulled off a shocking 74-54 upset over No. 1 seed Virginia in the South Region.

Before Friday, a No. 16 seed had never beaten a No. 1 seed, much less a No. 1 overall seed. They were 0-135. But the University of Maryland-Baltimore County -- yes, the little-known UMBC Retrievers -- proved even the longest of odds aren't totally insurmountable.

It’s been a rough year for the Pittsburgh basketball program. In its second year with Kevin Stallings as head coach, the Panthers have not won a single game in conference play and entered Saturday’s home game against No. 1 Virginia with an 8-21 (0-16 ACC) record. With its first half performance against the Cavaliers, Pitt may have finally hit rock bottom. The Panthers went into the half trailing 30-7. Yes, Pitt scored only seven points in 20 minutes of action.

The University of Virginia says it will not recognize a conservative club because the organization limits its membership to those who affirm conservative principles. In a letter on Friday, lawyers for Young America’s Foundation said the university’s policy is both “unconstitutional” and a violation of Virginia state law. “A pro-choice club may deny leadership positions to pro-life students, and a gun control group may determine that it does not wish to extend membership to NRA members,” Casey Mattox, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, wrote in the letter. “Yet, by the terms of this policy — and its application...

President Trump hosted the National Collegiate Athletic Association champion sports teams at the White House on Friday - or most of them, that is. The event began with the student athletes meeting President Trump in the Rose Garden for photos. "A lot of great athletes," Trump told the press pool. The Marine Corps Marching Band played nearby from the South Lawn, as President Trump joked with athletes, meeting them in groups. When talking with the Ohio State men's volleyball team, the president was seen jokingly smacking a volleyball in the air. While interacting with the West Virginia rifle team in...

On Nov. 9, Rolling Stone magazine celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first issue, published in the hippie Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco. True to form, liberal journalists -- who claim to care so deeply about the menace of fake reporting -- honored founder Jann Wenner and dismissed as insignificant the magazine's 2015 "A Rape on Campus" story scandal. On Nov. 5, CBS "Sunday Morning" host Jane Pauley gushed over Wenner as "the rock star of publishing." Minutes later, she upgraded the flattery by calling him "perhaps the most influential rock star on the planet." Out of nearly nine minutes,...

Students will pair students of different political persuasions for lunch or coffee dates for a University of Virginia student initiative announced Friday. . . . While students split on whether the school should facilitate compulsory white supremacy training, UVA’s student council unanimously endorsed a list of demands including a call for the school to institute a black student quota and install a plaque on a statue of Thomas Jefferson detailing the monument’s history as “an emblem of white supremacy.”

A member of the University of Virginia Black Student Alliance Political Action Committee has offered a cornucopia of suggestions on how white people can fight racism and be effective BSA “allies.”

An estimated 100 protesters littered the grounds surrounding the Thomas Jefferson statue at the University of Virginia (UVA) Tuesday night to show strength behind a list of demands the Black Student Alliance gave to the university in August in response to the now infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. More than 100 students, residents, and faculty members joined the protest, chanting, “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist UVA!” as they circled the statue which they adorned with a sign, reading, “TJ is a racist and rapist” and covered the university founder’s statue with a black tarp. “Black Lives Matter”...

A group has now covered the statue of Thomas Jefferson that sits in front of the University of Virginia Rotunda. Dozens turned out with Black Lives Matter signs around 8 p.m. Tuesday. Three people were on the statue that is covered in black.

snip - Adam Kimelman, a third-year College student and chair of the College Republicans, said he supported the sentiment of the demands, but took issue with some aspects of the list. “I agree we should have more black students here, but we can’t put a quota on it, that’s literally unconstitutional,” he said. He also took issue with calling Thomas Jefferson a symbol of white supremacy, and claimed the University wouldn’t take some of the demands seriously. “We could definitely use an amendment to make these things more reasonable,” Kimelman said. One of the demands on the list specifically references...

University of Virginia students have issued a list of demands regarding a statue of Thomas Jefferson on campus because his visage allegedly serves as “an emblem of white supremacy.” President Trump asked reporters on Aug. 15 if violence in Charlottesville over historical monuments would inspire campaigns against the nation’s third present. A coalition of minority student groups answered his call less than one week later with a list of demands for administrators. The Minority Rights Coalition hosted a “March to Reclaim Our Grounds” on Aug. 21, at which point they revealed a ten-point ultimatum obtained by Campus Reform on Wednesday....

Twitter had a field day after news broke Tuesday that ESPN removed an announcer named Robert Lee from broadcasting an upcoming Virginia Cavalier football game because of the similarity of his name to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The story was broken by Outkick The Coverage's Clay Travis, who has coined the term "MSESPN" to suggest ESPN has a liberal slant, combining the news network and MSNBC. ESPN ultimately confirmed the seemingly unbelievable story, saying it collectively made the decision along with Lee as the tragedy in Charlottesville, Va. unfolded,

I waited to write about this story because at first it seemed too insane to be true, but alas, it's come to this. ESPN pulled Asian-American sports announcer Robert Lee from this weekend's University of Virginia vs. William & Mary football game because they were afraid he might offend people. Why? His name is too similar to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. For the record, Robert E. Lee is white and has been dead for over 100 years. Fox Sports radio host Clay Travis broke the story earlier tonight. From Outkick The Coverage:  In a story that seems made for The Onion,...

ESPN broadcaster Robert Lee will not work Virginia’s season opener because of recent violence in Charlottesville sparked by the decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Apparently, even being Asian doesn’t mean people won’t take you for being a white nationalist. According to the popular college-football blog Outkick the Coverage, ESPN pulled an Asian announcer from calling a University of Virginia football game. The announcer’s name is Robert Lee. “Did I mention that Robert Lee is Asian?” blogger Clay Travis asked rhetorically in a post that poured scorn over the popular sports network for political correctness, calling it “MSESPN.” Citing “multiple Outkick fans inside ESPN,” Mr. Travis said Mr. Lee was pulled from the Cavaliers Sept. 2 game in Charlottesville against William and Mary “because they...

<p>In a story that seems made for The Onion, but is actually true, according to multiple Outkick fans inside ESPN MSESPN decided to pull an Asian college football announcer named Robert Lee off the William and Mary at University of Virginia college football game because they were concerned that having an ASIAN FOOTBALL ANNOUNCER NAMED ROBERT LEE would be offensive to some viewers.</p>

Officials in Charlottesville in the US state of Virginia have declared a state of emergency ahead of a large march by white nationalists...... Violent clashes between far-right groups and counter-protestors have left at least two injured, police say. President Donald Trump has condemned the violence..... Earlier police fired tear gas against demonstrators and said that arrests had been made after a declaration of unlawful assembly....................

University of Virginia police dispersed a gathering of far-right protesters on the Charlottesville, Va. campus Friday night ahead of a planned demonstration by white nationalists, white supremacists and alt-right groups on Saturday. Police arriving on the scene declared the protest on Friday an "unlawful assembly" and told demonstrators to disperse, video footage of the gathering shows. Unlawful assembly declared at @UVA pic.twitter.com/y3UvphNYH3 — Allison Wrabel (@craftypanda) August 12, 2017 Protesters holding torches clustered on the campus in an apparent lead-up to a Saturday demonstration protesting Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.