Free Republic

More Americans want to see Republicans maintain control of the House — and they want the GOP to take over the Senate — in November's midterm elections, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll. According to those responding, 43 percent want to see Republicans running both houses of Congress, with 41 percent in favor of Democrats running both chambers. The results fall within the poll's margin of error of 3.9 percentage points. Those polled also were asked whether they thought Congress had been productive or unproductive in its current session. Almost three-quarters said Congress had been unproductive, with...

This week we learned that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the elected choice of the wealthy denizens of San Francisco, believes that Hamas is a humanitarian organization. Qatar, Hamas’ principle supporter, told her so. From former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton we learned that the reason Hamas’ weapons are found stored in civilian sites -- schools, mosques, hospitals, and UNWRA buildings -- is because the area is so small there’s nowhere else to hide them. And from the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, the viciously anti-Israeli Navi Pillay, we learned that the Israel may have committed war...

A Washington Examiner article asks “Can the IRS be fixed, or should it just be abolished?” The answer is clear to anybody who has followed the IRS scandal or filed a federal tax return. Washington’s individual income tax and its enforcement agency, the IRS, cannot be fixed, repaired, reformed or rehabilitated. They are a cancer eating away at this nation, her taxpayers and our economic engine. Congress created the income tax in 1913, and for 100 years the IRS has operated exactly as intended, as an agent of control with total impunity, even down to the political targeting of individuals...

The United States said Sunday it is “appalled” by the “disgraceful” shelling by Israel of a United Nations school sheltering some 3,000 displaced people in southern Gaza. In language that was rare in its directness and severity, the U.S. denounced in a statement issued Sunday the attack earlier in the day that killed 10 people, noting that the school had been designated a protected location. “The coordinates of the school, like all UN facilities in Gaza, have been repeatedly communicated to the Israel Defense Forces,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in the statement. “We once again stress that Israel...

China has said 96 people were killed in last week's deadly violence in the country's Xinjiang province after a mob armed with axes and knives attacked government offices and burnt vehicles in the remote southern part of the region. ... The province has been rocked by what many call ethnic violence in the recent past but last week's incident, as it emerged, has been one of the worst in terms of the death toll. Quoting local government sources, official news agency Xinhua said investigations showed that it was an attack jointly "organised and premeditated" by terrorists both in and outside...

At least 367 people have been killed and some 1,300 injured by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck in south-west China, state news agency Xinhua says. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck about 11km (7 miles) north-west of Wenping in Yunnan province at 16:30 local time (08:30 GMT).

There is widespread agreement that Putin stumbled badly with his plans for “Novorossiya”—the archaic, Tsarist-era term for Eastern Ukraine that he and his propagandists have dusted off. After the quick success in Crimea, met with toothless and fairly muted outrage from the West, Putin apparently hoped to use the same modus operandi in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions: having a motley crew of disaffected locals and Russian “volunteers” seize power by taking over city and regional government buildings, hold referendums and declare independence. His goal may not have been annexation—a bit too much even for the accommodating international community to...

The political fight over Common Core academic standards reached an absurd level last week when Gov. Bobby Jindal filed a lawsuit arguing that an agreement he signed four years ago "threatens Louisiana's sovereignty as a state." In a way, he is suing himself. The governor signed the memorandum of understanding in 2010 for Louisiana to take part in Common Core and the development of a multi-state test to measure student achievement. His administration even pushed in 2012 for legislation to strengthen the state's commitment to the new standards. The effort, which originated with the National Governors Association, wasn't controversial then....

President Obama thumped Mitt Romney in the 2012 election, but now their political standings seem reversed. During a summer in which Democratic candidates are keeping their distance from an unpopular president, Romney is emerging as one of the Republican Party’s most in-demand campaign surrogates. Over three days in mid-August, Romney will campaign for GOP Senate and gubernatorial candidates in West Virginia, North Carolina and Arkansas, aides said. In September, he is planning visits to the presidential swing states of Colorado and Virginia. Romney is filling up his October schedule, as well. Senate hopefuls in Iowa and New Hampshire are eager...

A reporter for France 24, Gallagher Fenwick, was reporting from Gaza Friday and explaining how its residents' “food security” has been affected by the fighting there, when something unexpected happened. "This was a rocket,”, a rattled Fenwick told his audience, “this was a rocket, rockets were just shot right next to where we are standing, so I'm not going to stand here very long because usually there's a strike just moments after this occurs.” The occurrence proves Israel's contention that Hamas fires rockets from among civilians, using them as human shields and manipulating any civilian casualties that are thus incurred,...

Hunters may be hired to kill 2,800 deer on Civil War battlefields By Dante D'Orazio on August 2, 2014 04:47 pm   (Scott Bauer, US Department of Agriculture / Flickr)  7inShare Civil War battlefields may soon light up with gunfire once again if a new plan to "reduce" deer populations gets approved. The US National Parks Service has proposed a $1.8 million plan to hire sharpshooters to hunt and kill white-tailed deer at three Civil War battlefields over the next five years.Deer populations at the Antietam and Monocacy battlefields, located in Maryland, as well as the Manassas battlefield in Virginia, are far...

So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.” (Acts 6:2, NIV) It is interesting how fast our emerging, organic, non-institutional forms of life sprout institutions. The apostles went from a group of 12 leaders of a communistic society in which everyone shared everything and few distinctions were made, to the executive committee of an institution. Here we have differeniated ministry, modes of conferring authority, and even standards of selection. By Acts 15, we will have full...

A Fox News Sunday panel that began skeptically of the GOP chatter about impeaching President Barack Obama erupted with charges of racism and lawlessness, as Fox contributor Juan Williams and Heritage Action leader Michael Needham went at it over the motivations behind the calls for impeachment. Both National Journal editor Ron Fournier and Williams called out Needham for calling Obama “lawless.” “You listen to Michael and you understand why lots of Republicans think [Obama's] a demon,” Williams said. “Lots of people in the minority community see it as an attack against the first black President. They think it’s unfair, and...

The chief-of-staff of Britain’s biggest trade union has launched a group supporting pro-Putin separatists in Ukraine. Andrew Murray, who is one of the most powerful figures in the Unite union, spoke at the inaugural meeting of campaign group Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine (SARU), in which he branded the Western-backed Kiev government as "fascist" and derided Prince Charles for comparing Putin to Hitler. The Mail on Sunday reports that Mr Murray, who was introduced as representing the Communist Party of Britain, rather than the Unite union, added: "We have to take a stand here in Britain, which is...

A new installation by artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper commemorates all British deaths from World War I with 888, 246 red ceramic poppies creatively arranged around the tower. The human toll of war is hard to appreciate or understand in cold, hard statistics. Probably because nobody wants to think about what they truly mean. Sometimes, it actually takes seeing the number fleshed out in a meaningful way to realize each one of those digits is a person.

On Face the Nation Sunday morning, senior White House advisor Valerie Jarrett said that Israeli attacks on Gaza schools and hospitals were “indefensible.” “This is why the ceasefire is so important,” Jarrett said. “It’s a devastating situation. Israel absolutely has the right to defend itself, and we are Israel’s staunchest ally. But you also can’t condone the killing of all of these innocent children.” “I think everyone involved is frustrated,” Jarrett said. “But you can’t let your frustration get in the way of trying to be a constructive player here, and that’s what [Obama's] determined to do.”

Senior lawmakers say it's too early to say if the U.S. should withdraw from a historic arms control deal that has allegedly been breached by Russia. President Obama spoke with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday about Moscow’s compliance with the 1987 nuclear missile treaty. The U.S. charges Russia violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty when it tested a banned cruise missile. The call came one day after the Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the administration’s accusations as “unfounded,” adding to the deepening rift that between Washington and Moscow. The U.S. imposed a new round of sanctions on Russia this...

In a surprise move, HP has granted OpenVMS a new lease on life, effectively reversing last year's decision to mothball the venerable server OS. HP hasn't changed its mind about its latest OpenVMS roadmap, which has it ending standard support for some versions of the OS next year and pulling the plug completely by 2020. Rather, it has granted an exclusive license to another company, VMS Software Inc. (VSI), to take over after its own support ends. That doesn't just mean providing hospice care for geriatric servers, either. VSI says it plans to produce new builds of OpenVMS for newer...

The government on Thursday warned Americans to stay away from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the West African countries recently hit by the largest outbreak of Ebola since the deadly virus surfaced almost 40 years ago. Since it began in March, the outbreak has sickened more than 1,300 people and killed more than 700. The head of the World Health Organization said the virus is moving faster than efforts to control it. As presidents from the affected countries gathered Friday in Guinea's capital, Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, said the meeting "must be a turning point"...

Tiger Woods withdrew from the Bridgestone Invitational during his fourth round on Sunday with an apparently bad back. Woods hit his drive on the 9th hole and then walked off the course.

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif) says she is “tired of hearing pathetic stories from people who have been forced to find new insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. The ACA has eliminated substandard insurance policies and guaranteed that every American will obtain superior coverage.” “Rather than be grateful that the Government is looking out for their best interests a cadre of complainers are whining that the new plans cost more than their old plans,” Eshoo complained. “Well, duh. These new plans cover more stuff. A lot of the old plans didn’t cover a number of birth control options. Virtually none...

Recent discussions of the millennial issue in theology have crystallized the problem of the relation of millennialism to the doctrine of salvation. The growing realization that premillennial doctrine affects theology as a whole has inspired an attempt to prove that premillennialism teaches or implies an heretical view of salvation. Allis writes, for instance, “The Dispensational interpretation of prophecy minimizes the Cross! The traditional interpretation magnifies it!”1 Philip Mauro goes a step farther in his pamphlet, “Dispensationalism Justifies the Crucifixion.” Having made their accusation with one broad statement, they sometimes withdraw it with another, as in the case of Allis, “Dispensationalists...

The largest recorded Ebola outbreak in history has led the U.S. Peace Corps to evacuate hundreds of volunteers from three affected West African countries, and a State Department official on Wednesday said two volunteers were under isolation after having contact with a person who later died of the virus. Meanwhile, Liberia's president ordered the nation's schools to shut down and most civil servants to stay home as fears deepened over the virus that already has killed more than 670 people in West Africa. The Peace Corps said it was evacuating 340 volunteers from Liberia as well as neighboring Guinea and...

Former President Bill Clinton is a “classic narcissist” who is “always faithful [only] to himself” and who may not want his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary, to realize her ambitions for the White House in 2016, Daniel Halper, author of the book Clinton, Inc., suggested today. When speaking to Clinton confidantes, Halper said he was initially skeptical of these rumors, but found that many sources independently confirmed each other, and, “All of a sudden it begins to make sense. [When] you start hearing [this] from multiple people, from multiple good sources, and you start to realize—this is a man...

Alicia did not seek to leave Las Isletas, her little hamlet near El Salvador's coast. Not in the 1980s, when guerrillas battled the military and her brother and so many others fled to California. Not when earthquakes and hurricanes ravaged the region and her husband helped organize relief efforts.

The four-peg hardwood coat rack doesn’t call attention to itself. But if you know which peg to remove and how to use that peg as a magnetic key, a hidden drawer drops down, giving you quick access to whatever you’ve hidden there, be it a pair of mittens or a loaded 9mm semi-automatic pistol. This item, designed and built by Dan Ingram, 39, of Perryville is one of about a dozen products offered by his company, New Jersey Concealment Furniture. His furniture is good for hiding jewelry and other valuables, too, but for the gun owner, a hidden compartment is...

The reviews aren't yet in for Scarlett Johansson's new movie Lucy, but a single viewing of the trailer is enough to give the film a resounding "two thumbs down" on science... The idea that humans only use 10% of their brains is a complete, utter, and total myth. Lucy is entirely premised on neuroscientific BS...

The U.S. military acknowledged Sunday that an Air Force spy plane slipped into Swedish airspace without permission last month to avoid a possible encounter with a Russian aircraft. The incident occurred one day after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was brought down by a missile over eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border. The craft, in which all 298 onboard were killed, was allegedly downed by Russian separatists in Ukraine who were supplied and trained by Moscow.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28:19-20

e American doctor who contracted Ebola while working with an aid organization in Liberia appears to be improving, a top U.S. health official said Sunday, less than 24 hours after the doctor was admitted to an isolation unit at an Atlanta hospital for treatment. Dr. Kent Brantly "seems to be improved from the reports we got earlier," Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Authorities and doctors are still closely monitoring Brantly, who is being treated at Emory University Hospital. Ebola has no known cure and can be...

After the 2011 redistricting of the Illinois congressional map, two of the state’s districts were featured on Slate’s list for the 20 most gerrymandered in the country--Illinois’s fourth, and seventeenth districts. After redistricting, the seventeenth became more compact and rational. The fourth is now even crazier. The fourth, known as the Latin "earmuffs,” for obvious reasons (look at it), ranks among the top five most gerrymandered with Roll Call and the National Journal as well. --snip-- Democrats who redrew the Illinois congressional map in 2011, left the super-majority Hispanic fourth district intact, reducing Hispanic influence elsewhere in order to roll...

The two are helping encourage others to do the same during Minority Donor Awareness WeekJeff Monis and Ivan Sablan turned out to be the perfect match. Monis is a San Diego Police dispatcher, Sablan is a San Diego Police officer, and both have an O-Positive blood type. So when Monis found out he needed a new kidney, Sablan stepped up. “We worked together, but we didn’t even know each other, and he expressed that he wanted to offer me his kidney,” said Monis. Once the two found out they were a perfect blood match, they set a surgery date. “There’s...

For all the wonder that comets evoke, we on Earth never see directly what whips up the coma and tail. Even professional telescopes can’t burrow through the dust and vapor cloaking the nucleus to distinguish the clear outline of a comet’s heart. The only way to see one is to fly a camera there. Rosetta took 10 years to reach 67P/C-G, a craggy, boot-shaped body that resembles an asteroid in appearance but with key differences. Asteroids shown in close up photos often display typical bowl-shaped impact craters. From the photos to date, 67P/C-G’s ‘craters’ look shallow and flat in comparison...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The mother of an 8-year-old Pennsylvania boy whose decomposing body was found on the third floor of their home said Saturday she didn't know he had died until noticing the smell. Kimberly Tutko said her husband was the primary caretaker of their mentally disabled son, and he waited several days to tell her the boy had died, Pennlive.com (http://bit.ly/1rXiJbV ) reported. Police were called to the home Friday and found the boy's body.

In order to remain true to the Democrat Party, Black Americans have had to eat a lot of dirt. Barack Obama forced their religious leaders to put their bibles aside and tell their congregations that homosexuality is perfectly acceptable. Blacks have endured high crime, low living standards and drug infested neighborhoods because the Democrat Party has ignored their pleas for help. They are suffering the highest unemployment rates and poorest academic achievement by their young people. Their dreams have been reduced to pictures hung on greasy walls in public housing projects showing John Kennedy and Martin Luther King walking up...

'.... Trends in American capitalism are creating more frustration and cynicism. Income equality is worsening; children, growing numbers of poor children, are disproportionately bearing the brunt of this shift of wealth. How many of their lives will be taken by the street, by prison? ...'

Unemployment in the United States is finally below the WORST unemployment rate during the George W Bush Administration. That is like saying you are the smartest person at a Village Idiot convention. Not only has unemployment been slow to recover, but real median household income has fallen to 1995/1996 levels. unenrmincsentnon According to Sentier Research, real median household income is recovering, but VERY slowly. sentierrres Then we have average hourly wage earnings growth Year-over-year (YoY) that is nearly 50% lower than before the recession in 2007. u3averegehr And labor share (as opposed to capital share) is near the all-time low...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k9Si28k0Fk&app=desktop A remarkable young American remembers D-Day. Please watch!!

Last summer, long before he traveled to Liberia, worked to combat the largest outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in history, or fell ill with the incurable virus and became the first infected person to come into the U.S., Dr. Kent Brantly returned to his hometown church and delivered a sermon.Dr. Kent Brantly is shown in this 2013 photo provided by JPS Health Network. (AP Photo/JPS Health Network) “In October, [my wife] Amber and the kids and I are moving to Monrovia, Liberia, to work as medical missionaries at ELWA Hospital,” Brantly told the congregation at Southeastern Church of Christ...

Dear FRiends, We need your support to keep FR going strong. FR is funded solely by contributions made by liberty loving people who enjoy and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers, no government subsidies, no outside influences. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy our freedom to speak openly and plainly in the support of liberty. But we cannot exist without you. If you have not yet made your donation, today would be an excellent day to do so. Every donation counts no matter how big or small....

The student organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is prominent on many college campuses, preaching a mantra of “Freeing Palestine.” It masquerades as though it were a civil rights group when it is not. Indeed, as an African-American, I am highly insulted that my people’s legacy is being pilfered for such a repugnant agenda. It is thus high time to expose its agenda and lay bare some of the fallacies they peddle. • If you seek to promulgate the legacy of early Islamic colonialists who raped and pillaged the Middle East, subjugated the indigenous peoples living in the region,...

The nation’s law enforcement agencies, from local cops all the way to the Department of Homeland Security, are always on the lookout for terrorist threats, and that includes at home as well as in far flung deserts and mountains. And they’re collecting data on all sorts of groups. What may come as a surprise is that, if you’re a regular reader of Hot Air or many other similar outlets, you might be one of the people they are watching! A new report this summer from a group of university analysts has identified the chief concerns of law enforcement agents...

<p>Dr Kent Brantly, a 33-year-old father of two young children, was able to walk, with help, from an ambulance after he was flown on Saturday to Atlanta, where he was being treated by infectious disease specialists at Emory University Hospital.</p>

World champion sells gold medal to support the army The world champion is selling the gold medal to support army Bidding has already begun Ukrainian rhythmic gymnast Natalia Godunko sells his gold medal to support the Ukrainian army. Bellamy Polozhinsky musician tells about it in Facebook. The medal was received for winning the World Cup team competition in rhythmic gymnastics in 2001 in Madrid and is now exhibited at the auction. "Ukrainian athletes support Ukrainian army. Rare gift set ... put on an online auction site. Lots of vintage souvenirs ... shown on the Internet auction site. Nataliia GOdunko my...

United Nations warns medical facilities are 'on the verge of collapse' as almost half of medics are unable to get to work It says a third of all hospitals in Gaza have been damaged and 270,000 people are crammed into 90 UN shelters Officials said missile struck at gates of one such shelter today in Rafah, killing 10 people inside and out and injuring 35 As 27th day of conflict began the death toll stood at more than 1,700 Palestinians and 67 Israelis including 64 soldiers Many tanks withdrew from Gaza Strip amid reports tunnel destruction was complete - but...

Do Americans have a right to oppose unjust authority? Given our history, this right goes without saying. You see, our country was founded by men resisting the unjust rule of Great Britain. More precisely, in one of history’s most famous recitations of the Right of Resistance, the American Declaration of Independence itself says,

Namibia’s Ministry of Health and Social Services has dispatched a team of health experts to the Hosea Kutako International Airport in the capital Windhoek after one of the passengers on a plane reportedly fell sick with the suspected Ebola virus, APA learnt Friday.An Air Namibia plane that landed at the airport 40km east of Windhoek on Friday morning from Johannesburg, South Africa, had to be quarantined after the passenger showed symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus. Health ministry of officials could not be reached for comment over the incident but sources at the airport confirmed that passengers from the plane...

But not all of Zionism's critics are bigoted, and not a few of them are Jewish. For a growing number of progressive Jews, Zionism is too militantly nationalist, while for many ultra-Orthodox Jews, the movement is insufficiently pious—even heretical. How can an idea so universally reviled retain its legitimacy, much less lay claim to success? The answer is simple: Zionism worked. The chances were infinitesimal that a scattered national group could be assembled from some 70 countries into a sliver-sized territory shorn of resources and rich in adversaries and somehow survive, much less prosper. The odds that those immigrants would...

In only six days from now the mainstream media will deluge us with the trite eye candy of Obama’s 16-day Martha’s Vineyard vacation. Pictures will depict Obama playing the game he likes best after the one called Dismantling the USA, golf; slurping a shaved ice or two with his girls or noshing on the shellfish for which Massachusetts is famous. His motorcade will cause upheaval in the lives of the good people of Martha’s Vineyard—just for show.

Relying On Online Listings, Young Americans Struggle To Find Jobs Dealing with higher unemployment rates, young Americans find job search can take months at a time 3 August 2014 Jana Kasperkevic. For policy wonks and economists, the first Friday of every month is a jobs day – a day when the US department of labour releases its latest employment numbers and unemployment rate. For 24-year-old Miriam Braverman, pounding the pavements to answer Craigslist ads, every day is a jobs day – until she finds a job. It’s a task that many young college graduates are used to: the job search....