The Freedom Report

The Freedom Report podcast takes on the difficult issue of circumcision between girls and boys. A new NBC story is reporting that female genital mutilation (FGM) is on the rise and that somewhere around 150,000 to 200,000 girls in the United States may be at risk. The debate over whether it should be legal for girls to be circumcised in the U.S. is over, it's against the law. But should it be the same for boys? The issue lies in the difference between the health issues involved and the moral issues of consent as well as the right of religious freedom. This podcast takes on both in a show that's sure to get you talking about whether it's ever OK to cut a child. 

TRIGGER WARNING: THIS SHOW PRODUCED BY TWO WHITE MALES WITH OPINIONS Liberal race warriors are eating their own after comedian Stephen Colbert's team tweeted a satirical joke making fun of racial stereotypes. Now racial activists are engaged in a great civil war online over the meaning of satire and whether white males are allowed to have opinions.  The controversy began when someone at Stephen Colbert's team tweeted a joke that was a satirical poke at Redskin's owner Dan Snyder, who is fighting to keep the name of a team that's become the latest target of the politically correct police. Making fun of Snyder's attempt at downplaying the name of the team, Colbert said on his show that he was going to make amends for his own character he played called Ching Chong Ding Dong by setting up the Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever. Hashtag activist Suey Park, who is an outspoken feminist and anticapitalist, immediately began a campaign on Twitter called #cancelcolbert, which was aimed at sparking a conversation about liberal racism and asian stereotypes. In an interview on the Huffington Post Live last Friday, Park responded to criticism from her fellow liberals over the fact that she's seemingly unable to understand the point of satire, which prompted her to discount their opinions seeing as how the hosts were both white males.  RELATED: A Brief History of Racist Democrats Are white males even allowed to have opinions about race? Well the hosts of the Freedom Report podcast do, so listen in and send us an email with your thoughts. But before you do, (WARNING :THE FOLLOWING IS SATIRE) don't forget to check your privilege you cisgendered, capitalist white-male scum!  All that and more on the Freedom Report Podcast!

A new study published in the journal Psychology of Men and Masculinity reports that forty-three percent of U.S. high school boys and young college men report they had an unwanted sexual experience and 95 percent of them were with a woman. The Freedom Report podcast takes on the difficult issue of whether it's possible for a woman to rape a man, and according to this study, it appears that the answer is yes. At least 18% of the encounters in the study were the result of violent coercion on behalf of the female to the male, and 7% of the young men in the cases reported being drugged or given alcohol. Is it harder for young men to talk about these kinds of issues? Also in this episode we deal with the issue of rejection. Men are often the subject of rejection when they make advances, but it's not very often that the shoe is on the other foot. Do the different genders have different responses to refusing unwanted sexual advances? Is is because men aren't allowed to express their sexual preferences without being labeled shallow? All that and more on the Freedom Report Podcast.

Jack Hunter rejoins the Freedom Report podcast to discuss the issues of foreign policy and philosophy.  In this episode we discuss neoconservative columnist Jennifer Rubin and her constant attacks on Rand Paul in the Washington Post. Apparently the only person she attacks more than Paul is Barack Obama, what kind of conservative is she anyway?  Hunter also answers questions about the public feud between Ron Paul and Students for Liberty President Alexander McCobin that erupted over the issue of Russia and Crimea. Is everyone who disagrees with Ron Paul a neocon?  All that and more on the Freedom Report podcast! 

Liz Wahl, the former Russia Today anchor who resigned live on air, joins the Freedom Report to talk about working at RT. She says that she was heavily censored prior to her resignation, that fellow RT anchor Abby Martin is a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, and that there are other dissenters still working at the network. Wahl also responds to her critics, discussing her own political views. Wahl says that she is not a neoconservative and didn’t resign in order to promote a neoconservative foreign policy agenda. She says she isn’t sure Edward Snowden did the right thing and describes herself as a political independent.    All that and more on the Freedom Report podcast!

Bright Girding For Battle Against Big Government Graham South Carolina state Senator Lee Bright joins the Freedom Report podcast to discuss his challenge to Lindsey Graham. Bright believes that his influence amongst social conservatives and libertarians can help give him the edge in the fight to unseat the most disliked Republican amongst those who consider themselves true limited-government republicans.  Bright argues that Graham's defense of big government programs such as the NSA's spying, and his stance on immigration has hurt him amongst the GOP base, and it's time to usher in someone who can better represent Republican's views on these issues.  All that and more on the Freedom Report podcast. 

Pro-Life Humanists Speak Out Secular humanist Kristine Kruszelnicki wrote a very controversial article recently titled "Yes, there are pro-life atheists out there. Here's why." In it, she argues that human rights belong to all human beings, including those who have yet to be born. She believes that being pro-life isn't just the territory of the religious, but that there is a secular argument for being pro-life as well.  In this episode of the Freedom Report podcast, Kruszelnicki speaks about the arguments related to abortion and why she thinks that the only moral and ethical position is to be pro-life. 

Libertarian Foreign Policy Problems On Full Display Over Crimea Conflict The Freedom Report podcast today takes on the difficult issue of the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea in the Ukraine, specifically the differing responses from Senator Rand Paul and former congressman Ron Paul. Whose response was technically more libertarian?   Follow TLR on Google+ Congressman Ron Paul issued a statement that Crimea "seceded" from Ukraine, cited U.N. international law and said it's none of our business, while Senator Paul took a different tack, chastising Vladimir Putin and calling for America to flood the market with cheap oil and work to undermine Russia economically.  The divide between the two approaches has polarized the liberty community, forcing a foreign policy debate that has exposed the deep fissures in the movement. Isolationist sentiment has reared it's ugly head with some people saying explicitly they don't care what happens in Europe, while others have claimed non-intervention with an overt message of support to libertarian activists who opposed the Russian invasion and sham elections.  Meanwhile, Neoconservative interventionists such as Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post are pouncing on the opportunity to paint the entire movement as ignorant on foreign policy. Can a small band of freedom fighters get their act together to present a coherent foreign policy to the American people? All that and more on the Freedom Report podcast!

Duke University freshman and pornstar Belle Knox has been all over the news defending herself from liberal feminists, and to a lesser extent some men, who have been harassing her for her career in pornography. Belle has claimed that more women are slut shaming her than men over her rough sex scenes. Knox believes her scenes are empowering, and on a recent appearance on The View, she revealed that she's watched porn since she was 12 years old. One of the hosts was scandalized, claiming that she must have rehearsed her lines about feeling empowered by porn. The audience applauded, but why should they feel sorry for her if she's doing what she wants and makes her happy? Is it because liberal feminists are just as scandalized by pornography as social conservatives? And is rough sex pornography, or even porn in general really a bad thing? All that and more on this VERY NSFW episode of The Freedom Report! 

Sowell Questions Why Conservatives Are Attacking McConnell Conservative columnist and economist Thomas Sowell penned an op-ed in the New York Post today criticizing some Republicans in their battle against people in their own party. Sowell has previously written a similar piece denouncing Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his tactics that have made fellow Republicans look bad in a year when the party has a legitimate chance to win both houses of congress. Sowell writes that it is more important for conservatives to take power in order to block Obama's agenda in his final years as president than it is to fight Mitch McConnell, who arguable has a more conservative record than most of the Republicans in the legislature today.  The article reflects a deep seated frustration in general with Republicans against Senator Cruz, which forces one to consider the alternative strategy being played by one Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Although Paul is generally seen as an anti-establishment outsider, he has endorsed Mitch McConnell and criticized the FreedomWorks endorsed Matt Bevin, who is an unknown primary challenger and was not endorsed by other outlets such as the Club For Growth.  Rand Paul's strategy has differed from Cruz in that he has managed to stake more heterodox policy positions on foreign policy (earning him ire from Cruz) and drug sentences, while not upsetting the Republican establishment so much as the Texas senator has. Cruz and Paul have been trading jabs in recent weeks, leading some to question just exactly what would be the outcome in a potential Rand Paul vs. Ted Cruz scenario for president in 2016.  All that and more on the Freedom Report podcast!

Columnist Katie Kieffer joins The Freedom Report at CPAC 2014. Kieffer discusses her controversial call to arm young women as well as her recent search for a free market solution to our healthcare woes.   Kieffer is the author of the forthcoming book Let Me Be Clear, which is available for presale through iTunes, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.   All this and more on The Freedom Report podcast!

By 2020, Texas will be a majority Hispanic state. Likewise, many people are moving to Texas from other states like California, FreedomWorks’ Whitney Neal tells The Freedom Report. Yet while newcomers are often drawn to Texas by it business environment, they may not understand that “if you come to Texas and elect the same type of people, you will find yourself in the same situation down the road.” Neal explains how FreedomWorks’ “Come and Take It” campaign is working to promote small government values in Texas and stop the state from crossing the isle. Austin Petersen also asks Neal, a Texan, whether she’ll be campaigning for Ted Cruz or Rand Paul in the 2016 election. All this and more on The Freedom Report podcast!

Economist John Lott joins The Freedom Report at CPAC 2014 to discuss the empirical weight behind gun rights advocacy. Lott is the author of More Guns, Less Crime. Lott discusses the threat posed by gun registries, as well as the progressive talking point that stand-your-ground laws are somehow racist. In fact, Lott points out, “blacks are much more likely to avail themselves of the stand your ground defense than whites are.” All this and more on The Freedom Report podcast!

Austin Petersen and David Silverman, president of the American Atheists, sit down to discuss atheism and conservatism at CPAC 2014. Petersen and Silverman, who are both secular, discuss the very different strategies they use in interacting with theists. The American Atheists are known for their confrontational style; Andrew Stuttaford, a writer for Secular Right, has called them “the Wahhabis of atheism.” The group was initially granted a booth at CPAC 2014. That booth was rescinded after Silverman remarked in an interview that “The Christian right should be angry that we are going in to enlighten conservatives. The Christian right should be threatened by us.” The organizers of CPAC said that American Atheists had misrepresented their willingness to engage in a productive dialogue. On this episode of The Freedom Report, Silverman stands by his comments, saying “We were not here to make friends. We were here to make a point.” Silverman says that, though he supports economic freedom and gun rights, he does not self-identify as a conservative because the word connotes Christian baggage. He warns that Christianity will be a political hindrance to conservatism, and predicts that there will be an atheist president in his lifetime. All that and more on The Freedom Report podcast!

Friendly rivals Austin Petersen and Adam Kokesh sit down to discuss a variety of topics during this first of many interviews that The Freedom Report conducted at CPAC 2014. Their conversation covers Kremlin-funded news network Russia Today, Kokesh’s controversial decision to load a shotgun in Washington D.C., and why libertarianism is said to attract white men. Kokesh discusses how his imprisonment affected his worldview, as well as the new book that he began writing while in jail. The two explore the philosophy behind the Non-Aggression Principle and even talk about the conflict that developed between them last year. All that and more on the Freedom Report podcast!