Free Republic

<p>GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As he courts Republicans across the country, Jeb Bush boasts that an executive order he signed that ended race-based college admissions in Florida upheld conservative principles while helping minorities.</p> <p>“We ended up having a system where there were more African American and Hispanic kids attending our university system than prior to the system that was discriminatory,” the former governor and likely presidential contender said recently at a conference of conservative activists.</p>

Officials within the UN are pushing the notion that the human population should be reduced in order to effectively combat climate change. The long standing notion has been continually pushed by Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). In 2013, Figueres had a conversation with Climate One founder Greg Dalton regarding “fertility rates in population,” as a contributor to climate change. The comments are made at 4.20 into the following video: Climate One Interview

Opposition to the Common Core education reforms embraced by the Obama Administration is growing, and not just on the political right. The latest issue of the decidedly left-wing journal Rethinking Schools carries two items on Common Core protests in, respectively, Long Island and New Mexico. “Beth Dimino is an 8th-grade teacher and president of the Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association in New York,” RT reported in Spring 2015. “She announced in February that she would not administer the Common Core tests to her students.” “Dimino is one of the leaders of a growing opt-out movement in the area and throughout...

Voters in Ferguson, Mo., head to the polls Tuesday for the first municipal election since a fatal police shooting last year led to weeks of unrest in the St. Louis suburb and exposed deep divisions between the city’s largely white police and government and its majority-black population. The election for half of the city council’s six seats could shift the body’s racial makeup. About 67% of the city’s 21,111 residents are black, according to 2013 Census estimates, but the council has just one African-American member. Ferguson’s mayor, who is a council member at large, is also white. [..]

Embattled news anchor Brian Williams couldn’t bring himself to admit he lied about coming under fire on a chopper in Iraq — so he instead wondered aloud if he had a brain tumor, a new report claims. Several NBC News insiders told Vanity Fair that the fact-challenged Williams — who was suspended without pay for six months from his “Nightly News” gig — had trouble explaining what had happened. “(He said,) ‘Did something happen to (my) head? Maybe I had a brain tumor, or something in my head,’” a source told the magazine in its upcoming piece. “He just didn’t...

He has a name (sort of)! Environmental activist and billionaire Tom Steyer served notice on Monday that he will use his wealth to try to bring climate change into the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, vowing to target Republican hopefuls who deny the connection between burning fossil fuels and rising global temperatures.Steyer’s NextGen Climate political action committee launched what it calls the Hot Seat campaign aimed at calling out Republican candidates for taking money from the billionaire Koch brothers. The group will target Senator Rand Paul, who is expected to launch his presidential campaign on Tuesday.Steyer’s PAC found limited success...

You may have heard that the government is forcing businesses not to discriminate. It isn’t. If you chose to run a business, you have to follow the laws. If you don’t, that’s a choice—and you choose to suffer the consequences. Still, in the wake of the controversy surrounding Indiana’s law, conservatives don’t see it that way. Even potential Republican presidential candidates are getting in on the assertions. Rick Santorum recently said: If you’re a print shop and you are a gay man, should you be forced to print ‘God Hates Fags’ for the Westboro Baptist Church because they hold those...

Atheists should drop their easily dismissed scientific, philosophical or historical arguments against Christianity, and instead quiz believers about Old Testament violence and hell, writes John Dickson.

"The Black Book of Carmarthen," dating to 1250, contains texts from the ninth through 12th centuries, including some of the earliest references to Arthur and Merlin. "It's easy to think we know all we can know about a manuscript like the 'Black Book,' but to see these ghosts from the past brought back to life in front of our eyes has been incredibly exciting," Myriah Williams, a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge, said in a statement. "The drawings and verse that we're in the process of recovering demonstrate the value of giving these books another look." ... "The...

President Barack Obama will ask Americans to think of climate change as a threat not just to the environment, but also to their health. Obama on Tuesday was to announce a series of steps that private entities like Google and Microsoft are taking to better prepare the nation's health systems for the inevitable effects of a warmer, more erratic climate. He was to be joined at Howard University Medical School by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy.

Yes, the entire conservative wing of the Republican Party just made a huge eyeroll. Mr. Maverick made his long-awaited announcement official last night; he’s going to run for re-election next year (via NBC News):Click above link for the video “I have decided to run for re-election,” the Arizona senator told NBC News in an exclusive interview revealing his plans to pursue a sixth term on Capitol Hill. “I’m ready. I am more than ready. In some ways, I am eager.”McCain is currently 78 years old but will be 80 by Election Day in 2016. He defended his vitality, saying...

No Evolution Is Proof of Evolution? by Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Ph.D., Tim Clarey, Ph.D., and Jason Lisle, Ph.D.* Scientists recently discovered a community of fossilized sulfur-metabolizing bacteria that are alleged to be 1.8 billion years old.1 Surprisingly, the microbes are virtually identical to their modern counterparts, yet the study authors claim that the microbes are proof of evolution.

Al Sharpton’s National Action Network has released the schedule for its annual convention in New York City this week, and some of the panel titles may raise eyebrows. On Thursday, attendees can attend a panel titled: “Corporate America: Shake Down or Shake Up.” A day later, there’s also an “economic development panel” called “Redistribution of Wealth: How Do We Get It & How Do We Keep It.”

Illinois inmates who will soon get out of jail won't pass "Go" and get $200, but they may collect their Medicaid card. A new plan working its way through the Illinois statehouse would start the enrollment, or re-enrollment, process for inmates 30 days before their release through the state's ObamaCare office. State Rep. Camille Lilly, D-Chicago, is sponsoring the legislation that would have Illinois' Department of Health Care and Family Services enroll inmates automatically upon their release. Illinois' prison system released 30,083 people last year, more than 27,000 men and nearly 2,500 women.

Much of today's Morning Joe was devoted to a discussion of Rolling Stone's failed journalism on the UVa story. Maybe Mika Brzezinski should look in the mirror: she began her interview of Wendy Sherman, the chief US negotiator on the Iran deal, by offering her "congratulations." Even Sherman herself had the sense to suggest that congratulations were not yet in order. In contrast, Joe Scarborough actually tried to get Sherman to answer an important question: how much advance notice of inspections does the deal give Iran? Sherman skated away faster than Apolo Ohno, refusing to answer other than to claim...

Environmental activist and billionaire Tom Steyer served notice on Monday that he will use his wealth to try to bring climate change into the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, vowing to target Republican hopefuls who deny the connection between burning fossil fuels and rising global temperatures. Steyer’s NextGen Climate political action committee launched what it calls the Hot Seat campaign aimed at calling out Republican candidates for taking money from the billionaire Koch brothers. The group will target Senator Rand Paul, who is expected to launch his presidential campaign on Tuesday.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) suggested Thursday that he may call it quits after his current term. McCain was giving an interview to the entertainment website The Wrap at a launch party for Pivot, the television channel that carries his daughter Meghan's series, "Raising McCain." At one point during the conversation, McCain was evidently interrupted by two supporters of President Barack Obama who thanked the senator for siding with his 2008 rival as of late. "The president and I, he's in his last term, I'm probably in mine, the relationship we have had over the past three years is quite good....

Immigration officials are saying that with the weather improving, another surge of unaccompanied illegal alien children from Central America is expected at the border. While the numbers are nowhere near the crisis numbers seen last year, the surge is once again overloading facilities. From Washington Times: The second wave of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children has begun, with more than 3,000 of them surging across the Mexican border into the U.S. last month — the highest rate since the peak of last summer’s crisis and a warning that another rough season could be ahead. Immigration officials warned that they expected another...

Politics has become more democratized and that’s a great thing. Sen. Rand Paul's announcement today that he will seek the Republican Party's nomination for president punctuates a very real paradigm shift in the way the Grand Old Party will select its candidates for higher office. For most of my adult life, Republican poobahs have decided for the rest of us, typically favoring the dusty candidate that has been standing in queue the longest. Think John McCain or Mitt Romney. Like a nightmare reinterpretation of the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, it seems that the GOP keeps nominating Bob Dole again...

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, CNN’s Chris Cuomo, and MSNBC’s Ed Schultz will soon be in the dock (below, figuratively speaking), but first, let’s make this clear: The battle over various Religious Freedom Restoration Acts has nothing to do with a dislike of, or desire to discriminate against, homosexuals. Let this also be clear: The organized Left and its media mouthpieces have won this week’s skirmishes, largely because the Right’s would-be champions proved to be invertebrate; but advocates of religious freedom have not lost the war, and cannot, must not, and will not retreat — and we have every chance of ultimately...