Category: Culture

Court Rejects Massachusetts Middle-Schooler’s Free Speech Request to Wear ‘Two Genders’ Shirt at School

Susan Berry, PhD

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston denied 12-year-old Liam Morrison’s request this week for a temporary injunction or restraining order to block his school from prohibiting expression of his view that “there are only two genders” before the court issues its final decision. “MFI [Massachusetts Family Institute] recently filed suit to vindicate the rights of this brave Middleborough 7th-grader to wear a shirt to school that simply stated ‘There Are Only Two Genders,’” the pro-family organization said in a press statement sent to The Star News Network. “After being censored by his school, Liam’s case went viral. MFI has partnered with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to file a federal lawsuit against the school.”

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University of Colorado Boulder Website Declares Misgendering an ‘Act of Violence’

Susan Berry, PhD

In his report Wednesday that the University of Colorado (CU Boulder) is facing backlash for a statement on its “Pride Office” website that claims misgendering people can be considered an “act of violence,” legal scholar Jonathan Turley observed that when schools declare opposing views to be “violence,” they allow professors and students to “rationalize their own acts of violence or censorship.”

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Commentary: Boycotts Aren’t Enough

Admin

Department store superchain Target has lost over $10 billion in value since conservatives across the U.S. started boycotting the woke corporation for pushing “pride” merchandise on children, including pro-trans “tucking” and binding” clothes designed for toddlers. This follows Anheuser-Busch’s reaching a six-month low after consumers started boycotting Bud Light, which the beer manufacturing giant decided to brand with the face of biological male Dylan Mulvaney, who now dresses and acts as a grotesque caricature of a woman. Although these are, from an authentic conservative perspective, positive results, boycotts aren’t enough.

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Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz Declares ‘Huge Victory’ as Pentagon Cancels ‘Child-Friendly’ Drag Show at Nevada Air Base

Susan Berry, PhD

The Department of Defense has put a stop to a “child-friendly” drag show event slated for Thursday at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) declared the decision to cancel the drag show a “huge victory” in the wake of his demands for answers on why such shows on military installations are continuing despite statements to Gaetz during a House Armed Services Committee hearing by Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley that they were not aware such events were occurring and that they agree they should not be held.

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Nashville Pride Sponsors Include Tennessee Titans, Vanderbilt, Other Huge Name Brands

Peter D'Abrosca

Nashville Pride, which has several events upcoming during the month of June, is sponsored by big name brands including the Tennessee Titans, Vanderbilt Health and others, according to its website. 

Both Bridgestone and Nissan, who have huge presences in Tennessee, are listed on the site as “presenting partners” of this year’s pride activities. Nissan also sponsors the Tennessee Titans football stadium. 

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Los Angeles Dodgers Pitcher Blake Treinen Condemns Team’s Decision to Honor Anti-Catholic Hate Group

Susan Berry, PhD

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen released a statement Tuesday in which he expressed his “disappointment” that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group that engages in obscene performances that are “blasphemous,” are being “honored as heroes at Dodger Stadium.”

The “sisters,” an organization that openly ridicules Christian beliefs and desecrates Jesus Christ, Treinen said, “display hate and mockery of Catholics and the Christian faith.”

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Commentary: Combating the Censorship Industrial Complex

RealClearWire

It’s been nearly six months since the first installment of the Twitter Files — the journalistic effort by Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and many others to expose the myriad channels by which the U.S government cooperated with Twitter on content moderation and censorship — was first published. Twitter Files One, perhaps the mildest of more than 20 unique reports, details the social media company’s internal deliberations in the days before the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop was removed from the site. Later reports have exposed the tendrils of a governmental apparatus that influenced some of the most significant media distortions in recent American history, from the fraudulent Hamilton 68 misinformation tracking dashboard to the FBI’s intimate involvement with Twitter’s content-moderation practices.

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Private Americans Patrol the Smuggler-Blighted Border Badlands of Arizona

RealClearWire

As blazing sunlight ebbs to a star-studded sky along the U.S.-Mexico border, members of the Arizona Border Recon group peer through field glasses at a trio of men on the southern side in camouflage fatigues and carrying pistols and AK-47s.

The men, almost certainly members of Sinaloa cartel factions, are using their own binoculars to scan random gaps in a roughly 30-foot-high wall of thick metal bars that stretches for miles along a flatland carved by arroyos and dotted with rocks, saguaro cactus and high grasses. At times, a solo gunshot echoes on the Mexican side, a sound the AZBR knows from experience is a signal to people to start moving north.

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Catholic Major League Pitcher Trevor Williams Rebukes Dodgers for Honoring Anti-Catholic Hate Group

Susan Berry, PhD

Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams said Tuesday in a statement posted to Twitter the move by the Los Angeles Dodgers to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an anti-Catholic hate group, “makes a blatant and deeply offensive mockery of my religion.”

“As a devout Catholic, I am deeply troubled by the Dodgers’ decision to re-invite and honor the group ‘The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’ at their Pride Night this year,” Williams began his message, explaining to his followers that a “Major League Baseball game is a place where people from all walks of life should feel welcomed, something I greatly respect and support.”

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Jack Miller Center Unveils ‘ContextUS,’ a New, Online Civics Library

RealClearWire

ContextUS is the Jack Miller Center’s newly published, free online library that provides citizens with the content to gain that necessary civic knowledge. This state-of-the-art resource gives teachers, students, and scholars access to more than 700 core texts of the American political tradition, paired with the most up-to-date technology in library science, to transmit a civic education in self-government to the next generation of Americans.

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Kohl’s Faces Backlash After Pitching LGBTQ ‘Pride’ Merchandise for Babies

Susan Berry, PhD

Kohl’s has now joined Target, The North Face, Anheuser-Busch, and others in marketing LGBTQ merchandise, with Kohl’s releasing its “Baby Sonoma Community Pride” onesie in sizes for babies aged three, six, and nine months.

The Twitter account for End Wokeness and TPUSA’s Benny Johnson shared Kohl’s online sales pitches for the baby clothing items that feature what appears to be gay parents and rainbow banners with the slogan, “Be Proud.”

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Graduates Required to Pass ‘Anti-Black Racism’ Course at University of Connecticut

Admin

The University of Connecticut (UConn) will officially make its “Anti-Black Racism” (ABR) course mandatory for all undergraduate students as part of the core curriculum’s new social justice requirement.

Provost Anne D’Alleva announced on May 17 that the requirement will go into effect during the 2024-2025 academic year with a course that will be similar to the one-credit ABR elective that has been offered since 2021.

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Maricopa County Republican Committee Censored on Facebook for Sharing Post Regarding Liberal Bias on the Internet

Neil Jones

Facebook parent company Meta took down a post relating to research on the liberal bias on the internet shared by the Maricopa County Republican Committee on Friday.

According to the county, the post shared support for Dr. Robert Epstein’s research on Google’s liberal bias and linked to mygoogleresearch.com, a website featuring his works and requesting donations. The post also related to the American Institute of Behavioral Research and Technology (AIBRT), founded by Epstein. However, Facebook claimed the link violates community standards.

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Commentary: As It Always Has Been, the Only True Cause of the Left Is Power

Admin

Why do so many liberal climate-activist grandees fly on private jets? Or why do those who profited from Black Lives Matter have a propensity for estate living? Or why do the community-activist Obamas prefer to live in not one, but three mansions?

The answer is that calls for radical equity, “power for the people,” and mandated equality are usually mostly sloganeering for those who enjoy power and the lucre it brings, and their wish is to augment both for themselves. The result is that the issue du jour of mandated equality often becomes secondary if not irrelevant. There is neither fear of inconstancy nor hypocrisy, given the central theme that governs a leftist party line is political utility — or the ends of power always more than justify the hypocritical means used to obtain it.

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University of Michigan’s Botanical Garden Employs DEI Manager, Hosts ‘Confronting Racism’ Training

Admin

University of Michigan’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum is committed to diversity – but not simply the diversity of the plants and animals that call the facility home.

It also employs a DEI manager and actively works to combat racism within its 700 acres of gardens and natural preserves to make up for its “participation in systemic injustices.”

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Ohio State Board Passes Guidelines Affirming Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity

Admin

The Ohio State University’s (OSU) Board of Trustees voted in mid-May to adopt a new campus free speech policy and a resolution affirming the school’s commitment to preserving intellectual diversity. 

The free speech policy is an updated version of one that OSU passed last August and creates a system through which students can submit complaints of free speech infringements, a requirement set forth under Ohio’s S.B. 135.

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As Space Runs Out, Iconic Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery Future Uncertain

The Center Square

by Sarah Roderick-Fitch   Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery, one of America’s most notable symbolic memorials to freedom, will soon run out of room. Despite two extensions in progress meant to expand capacity until 2060, the 639-acre cemetery’s eligibility requirements and geographical footprint must change to preserve space for future generations of American heroes, officials say. “It’s absolutely critical that we plan for the expansion of the Arlington National Cemetery,” said Mario Marquez, director of national security for the American Legion. “It serves as a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by generations of service members and must continue to provide space for future generations to honor their loved ones in this revered place.” Since the first burial and designation as a national cemetery in 1864, the site has become synonymous with presidents, famous military and political leaders, and astronauts. It’s also the final resting place of more than 400,000 service members and their families. Marquez said the prospect of burial at the cemetery “carries profound significance” and “symbolizes the nation’s deep gratitude for their service and sacrifices.” Initially, the burial ground was established to ensure the families of service members killed in action – who could not afford to transport…

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Catholic Advocacy Group Launches $1 Million Ad Campaign to Boycott Los Angeles Dodgers for Honoring Anti-Catholic Hate Group

Susan Berry, PhD

A leading national Catholic advocacy group has responded further to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ announcement that the organization will move ahead with honoring an anti-Catholic hate group of self-described “queer and trans nuns” during its “pride night” game event in June.

Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote told Fox & Friends Weekend Sunday the Dodgers “have decided to honor and celebrate a detestable, vile, and perverse anti-Catholic organization.”

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Commentary: Protecting Our Forgotten Rights

RealClearWire

Robbing a bank is a crime everywhere. But in some places and times you could become a criminal just by growing vegetables, feeding the homeless, playing poker or working without a government-mandated license.

African immigrant Tedy Okech risked arrest when she started working as a hair braider. She learned the craft in her youth by practicing on her mother and sisters. When she settled in Idaho in 2005, she found neighbors willing to pay for her skills. Soon she had a thriving side gig, which supplemented her income as a part-time insurance agent.

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Minnesota State Lawmaker Promoting Child Sex Changes Gets ‘Children’s Health’ Award

Admin

The Children’s Minnesota Hospital system gave Democratic Minnesota State Rep. Leigh Finke an award Tuesday for her work in children’s health after she authored a bill designed to protect child sex changes.

Finke, who is transgender, was the chief author of HF146, Minnesota’s “trans refuge” legislation, which would prevent the enforcement of out-of-state laws that would remove a child from their parent’s home for receiving transgender medical interventions, such as hormones or puberty blockers. Finke received the “Children’s Health Hero” award from the Minnesota hospital system for her work on the bill, according to a release from Children’s Minnesota.

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Commentary: What a Difference a Real District Attorney Makes

Admin

Chesa Boudin, named after cop-killer Joanne Chesimard, and son of Weather Underground terrorists Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, was elected district attorney of San Francisco in November 2020. Criminals were happy with the outcome.

“Chesa Boudin threw a monkey wrench into the city’s criminal justice system,” recalls Richie Greenberg, San Francisco resident and business consultant. “Amid a series of high-profile cases, his promise to release repeat criminals and to allow quality of life crimes to go unpunished, San Francisco descended into a scofflaw paradise.”

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‘Boycott Target’ Song Climbs iTunes Charts, Garners Millions of Views

Just the News

The song “Boycott Target” has garnered millions of views online and climbed to No. 3 on iTunes Hip-Hop charts within days of being released. 

“Attention all shoppers: There’s a clean-up on every aisle. Target is targeting your kids,” the song by Forgiato Blow and Jimmy Levy featuring Nick Nittoli and Stoney Dudebro opens up. The music video, which has more than 3.6 million views on Twitter, features the rappers walking through what appears to be Target as they hold up Pride-themed merchandise.

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Texas Professor Alleges College Axed His Contract, Banned Him from Campus Over Conservative Beliefs

Admin

A professor told the Daily Caller News Foundation that he was fired and banned from a small college in Texas because of complaints from students and colleagues regarding his conservative beliefs.

St. Philip’s College (SPC), located in San Antonio, Texas, as part of the Alamo College District, declined to renew political science professor Will Moravits’ contract on March 27 after a Title IX investigation was launched in February regarding a student complaint that he made disparaging comments about the LGBTQ community during class, according to a documents obtained by the DCNF.

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Louisiana Republican State Senator Joins Democrats to Kill Bill to Protect Minors from Gender Transition Hormone Drugs and Surgeries

Susan Berry, PhD

Louisiana State Sen. Fred Mills (R-Acadiana), a former Democrat and a pharmacy owner backed by the pharmaceutical industry, joined with Democrats of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee to kill a bill, already passed by the state House, that would have protected minors from life-altering gender transition procedures.

HB648, a bill that would “prohibit certain procedures to alter the sex of a minor child,” including providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries such as elective double mastectomies and castrations, was killed in committee, by a vote of 5-4, with Mills, the GOP chair of the committee, breaking the tie to side with the Democrats.

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House Ethics Committee Holds First Meeting on Ethics Complaint Against Representative Stahl Hamilton

Neil Jones

The Arizona House Ethics Committee met Thursday morning to discuss an ethics complaint filed against Democrat Representative Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (Flagstaff), an ordained minister, after being caught on camera hiding Bibles kept in the House’s members-only lounge.

“The House Ethics Committee is responsible for considering complaints that are submitted by a House member accusing another member of behavior that violates House Rules,” said Committee Chair Joseph Chaplik (R-Scottsdale). “Today’s hearing was not a trial, but the Committee made every effort to provide Representative Stahl Hamilton the due process to which she is entitled as a member of the House.”

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Commentary: The Clear and Present AI Danger

RealClearWire

Does artificial intelligence threaten to conquer humanity? In recent months, the question has leaped from the pages of science fiction novels to the forefront of media and government attention. It’s unclear, however, how many of the discussants understand the implication of that leap.

In the public mind, the threat either focuses narrowly on the inherent confusion of ever-better deep fakes and its consequences for the job market, or points in directions that would make a great movie: What if AI systems decide that they’re superior to humans, seize control, and put genocidal plans into practice? That latter focus is obviously the more compelling of the two.

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‘Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria’ Paper to be Retracted for Bogus ‘Informed Consent’ Violation: Author

Just the News

An academic paper based on a parental survey of suspected rapid-onset gender dysphoria in nearly 1,700 children, which drew criticism from transgender activists and allies, could soon be retracted by its publisher over a pretextual dispute about informed consent, according to its corresponding author.

Springer Nature is currently investigating “concerns” about the paper’s methodology following threats by academics to boycott the Archives of Sexual Behavior until its longtime editor, pioneering gender dysphoria researcher Kenneth Zucker, is replaced for accepting the ROGD paper among others questioning common LGBTQ narratives.

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Michigan State University Revises Language Guide to Remove ‘Bunnies,’ ‘Christmas Trees’ from List of Offensive Terms

Admin

Michigan State University (MSU) appears to have revised an inclusive language guide to remove words such as “bunnies,” “chicks” and “America” from its list of potentially offensive terms following a string of backlash, the New Guard reported.

MSU’s language guide originally warned readers to refrain from using specific words, such as “bunnies,” “chicks,” “Christmas trees” and “reindeer,”  that could be affiliated with religious holidays. The guide currently posted on the university’s website was revised in April and removes the section as well as one that listed “America” as an avoidable term.

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Commentary: The Mind Virus of the Affluent Woke Left

Admin

Those who belong to the woke Left are held together by overlapping interests and shared passions. Not all wokesters support the same causes and certainly not with equal intensity. Thus, warriors against climate change like Karl Schwab and Bill Gates don’t often speak up for the sexual transitioning of children or call for allowing biological males claiming to be women to compete in female sports events. One can likewise read the racialist diatribes of Corey Bush, Ibram X. Kendi, or Al Sharpton without likely running into attacks on fossil fuels or gas stoves. The point is not that these allies never agree on anything. It is that their alliance is looser than some might imagine.

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Commentary: Rally Round the … Flag?

Admin

On June 1, 2023, Lower Gwynedd Township, Pennsylvania will raise the Pride Flag. In what sounds like a solemn ceremony, students will speak about the Pride Flag’s personal significance to them. Politicians, civic leaders and religious leaders will also show their support for the LGBTQ+ community.

So Lower Gwynedd Township, one of the oldest townships in Montgomery County wants to celebrate a certain lifestyle. They will permit the LGBTQ community to display a flag that represents the pride a group of people has for their sexual orientation: homosexual, bisexual, transexual and others. So what is sexual orientation? According to the website of Planned Parenthood, sexual orientation is defined as: “who you’re attracted to and want to have relationships with.”

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Leftist Media Celebrate Teens Traveling to Washington, D.C. for ‘Trans Youth Prom’ on Capitol Lawn

Susan Berry, PhD

The leftist media celebrated a “Trans Youth Prom” on the Capitol lawn this week in Washington, D.C., an event that reportedly drew not only young gender dysphoric teens, but transgender children as young as age five, from 16 states, with the backing of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney and transgender activist Chase Strangio.

The New Republic described Monday’s “Trans Prom” as an event that “brought around 50 trans youth to Washington, D.C., in a two-for-one party and statement in the face of an unprecedented legislative, political, and cultural attack on young trans folks.”

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Target Loses $9 Billion in Market Value in a Week Following Boycott over LGBT Merchandise

Admin

Target’s market value plunged $9 billion in one week after anger erupted over the store’s new “PRIDE” collection, which features clothing for children and babies as well as a chest-binding swim top and a “tuck-friendly” women’s bathing suit.

Social media users and conservative activists began calling for boycotts of Target following the release of their PRIDE line last week. The company was valued at $160.96 per share on May 17, at a market value of $74.3 billion; as of Thursday morning each share was valued at $139.84, the lowest in over a year, at a market value of $64.54 billion, according to MarketWatch data.

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Radical Anti-Life Gender Justice Group Backing Ohio Ballot Initiative Revealed to Be Pushing End to ‘Unethical’ Parental Involvement Laws

Susan Berry, PhD

Tweets by a key leftist organization pushing the Ohio abortion ballot initiative that could end parental involvement in minors’ medical decisions reveal that the goal of Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity’s (URGE) is to cut parents out of their children’s lives.

Protect Women Ohio (PWO), a self-described “coalition of concerned family and life leaders, parents, health and medical experts, and faith leaders in Ohio,” posted a thread to Twitter Tuesday showing URGE has been “working to abolish parental consent and notification laws for years.”

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South Carolina Becomes 23rd State to Protect Babies with Heartbeat

Susan Berry, PhD

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act Thursday morning, legislation that protects babies in the state from abortion from the time a heartbeat is detected.

McMaster’s signature on the bill now makes South Carolina the 23rd state to protect babies with a heartbeat, and marks that half of the United States is now protecting babies from abortion at or before 12 weeks.

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