Free Republic

When the tragic story of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin consumed the nation over the past few months, a number of questions were raised about racism, vigilantism, and self defense laws. However, the most important question was always the first one; what exactly happened that fateful night? The shooter, George Zimmerman, has always claimed that he fired his gun in self defense, something many found hard to believe considering the young boy he killed was unarmed. However, tonight, ABC World News broke information about the injuries Zimmerman received that may shed more light on just how that night went...

Don’t worry about Iran, Israel will take care of it, former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin as telling him years ago. Aznar, speaking Wednesday at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on a meeting he had with the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in 2002, said Putin’s comments came after he entreated him not to sell S300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote a story about a family that discovered a diamond as big as the Ritz-Carlton Hotel sitting beneath a mountain in a remote corner of Montana. The big rock presented a great dilemma. Selling off tiny pieces could yield a massive fortune. But if the world uncovered its existence, diamond prices would plummet. To maintain their secret -- and an artificial scarcity in diamonds -- the family became tyrants, imposing absolute control over five square miles of Montana. Involuntary servitude, extrajudicial incarceration and old-fashioned homicide were just some of the tools they used the keep their...

Sean Combs, the 18-year-old Troy High School senior who was arrested by Birmingham Police last month while walking through downtown Birmingham with a rifle slung over his shoulder, is set to attend an evidentiary hearing in three weeks after attending a pre-trial hearing Tuesday afternoon in front of Judge Marc Barron in 48th District Court in Bloomfield Hills. Combs pleaded not guilty May 1 on charges of brandishing a firearm, disorderly conduct and obstructing an officer – all misdemeanor offenses that each carry a maximum 93-day sentence and $500 fine. Combs' attorney, Jim Makowski, said he plans to file a...

The fiscal watchdog organization Club for Growth is calling the Congressional primary race in Arizona’s newly redistricted CD6 the most watched Republican congressional primary race in the country. Due to Arizona gaining a new House seat and redistricting, incumbent House Republicans David Schweikert and Ben Quayle saw their districts overlap. The redistricting committee, which is controlled by the left, did this to Republicans purposely. Quayle’s house ended up barely inside of Arizona’s new CD9. Since the new CD9 contains Tempe, which is not as conservative as CD6 in the Northeast Valley, Quayle announced shortly after the redistricting that he would...

DNC head: ‘Awesome’ that many voters see pro-gay marriage stance as political winner By Geneva Sands - 05/15/12 11:50 AM ET Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) called it "awesome" Tuesday that favoring same-sex marriage could be viewed as politically expedient, saying it shows advancement in people's perspective on the issue. "As someone that represents one of the largest LGBT communities in the country, I think it's actually awesome that we've come so far in advancing the rights of the LGBT community that people would question that it's a good thing politically for the president of the United...

A man in his 20s was shot in the buttocks by a neighbor after a dispute over squatting in a vacant home. The incident happened about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday night in the 3100 block of South 144th Street in SeaTac. The neighbor, 66, heard noises next door in the vacant house and went to investigate. “One of the doors looked like it was forced open,” Sgt. Cindi West said. “He found a guy in his 20s.” That man refused to leave and the neighbor went back to his house and armed himself with a shotgun, then returned to again tell...

A simmering controversy surrounding the "Ground Zero Cross" exposes the intolerance and absolutism behind ongoing battles over religious symbols on public property. Contrary to popular belief, it's not Christian conservatives who normally start these bitter disputes. It's more often atheist activists who seek to alter the long-standing status quo by scrubbing the landscape of the most visible signs of the nation's religious heritage. American Atheists, an organization representing the civil liberties of agnostics, filed suit in 2011 to block display of the Ground Zero Cross anywhere on the grounds of the new memorial museum planned for the World Trade...

BRYAN COUNTY, OK -- Come November, Oklahomans with a permit will be able to carry their guns out in the open in most places. Governor Mary Fallin signed the open carry measure into law Tuesday. The open carry law not only allows people to have their guns out in plain sight, but it also allows property owners without a permit to carry openly on their lawn for self defense. We talked to several people who all had strong and very different opinions about open carry. Raymond Coats has his concealed weapon's license and says he is excited about the new...

An Iranian newspaper tied to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently boasted that United States has “rejected” Israel within recent months. “It can be said that within the last 60 years, this is the first time that the Zionist regime, since its illegal inception, has had to endure rejection by the West over its vision and interest in the region,” wrote Sadollah Zarei, according to a translation by Reza Kahlili. The author writes that the only “obstacle” remaining is the Saudi Royal Family and once it falls, Israel can be destroyed. “With diminishing support for Israel and with the (upcoming) collapse...

Putting illegal entrants in jail would be “undemocratic,” MK Dov Henin of the extreme-left Hadash party said Wednesday. “I was very sorry to hear what the Minister of the Interior said… We need to deal harshly with criminals, but we also need to provide solutions for those who aren’t criminals,” he said. Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai proposed putting all illegal entrants in detention facilities or prisons to await deportation after being giving a monetary grant. Refugees who fear persecution should be allowed to remain in Israel...

Ever since the 2008 campaign, many voters, and some journalists, too, have felt they know Barack Obama's life story. In fact, the story they know is the one Obama told them. Obama's first memoir, "Dreams From My Father," published in 1995, has become the semiofficial record of his life. But it is not the complete record of his life. It's partially fictionalized, with composite characters who Obama has always acknowledged were created to make the story read better. It focuses on a few themes Obama wanted to present to the public about himself. And, as with any memoir, it is...

Switch Over Today's Scripture Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines…yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation Habakkuk 3:17-18, NKJV. Today's Word from Joel and Victoria We all face challenges and obstacles in this life. We all have dreams in our hearts, and at times, it looks like they’re not going to come to pass. During these difficult seasons, we have a choice. We can get negative and discouraged and talk about how things are not going to work out, or we can switch...

House Speaker John A. Boehner on Tuesday set the stage for an end-of-year debt showdown, saying he will once again insist any increase in the federal borrowing limit be matched dollar-for-dollar with spending cuts elsewhere. The last time he made that vow — ahead of last August’s debt deadline — the government teetered on the brink of a partial shutdown before he and President Obama agreed to a deal that matched an immediate debt boost to possible future spending cuts. Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said he considers that deal a precedent, and from now on every request for more debt...

The Habit of Recognizing God’s Provision ". . . you may be partakers of the divine nature . . ." —2 Peter 1:4 We are made “partakers of the divine nature,� receiving and sharing God’s own nature through His promises. Then we have to work that divine nature into our human nature by developing godly habits. The first habit to develop is the habit of recognizing God’s provision for us. We say, however, “Oh, I can’t afford it.� One of the worst lies is wrapped up in that statement. We talk as if our heavenly Father has cut us...

Carlos Fuentes, Mexico’s elegant public intellectual and grand man of letters, whose panoramic novels captured the complicated essence of his country’s history for readers around the world, died on Tuesday in Mexico City. He was 83. His death was confirmed by Julio Ortega, his biographer and a professor of Hispanic studies at Brown University, where Mr. Fuentes taught for several years. He died at the Angeles del Pedregal hospital after his doctor, Arturo Ballesteros, found him in shock in his Mexico City home, The Associated Press reported. The doctor told reporters that Mr. Fuentes had had an internal hemorrhage. Mr....

The Yuma Police Department confirms two people who were shot Friday night have died. It happened at 10:20 p.m. on the 2600 block of Donna Avenue. According to YPD Jason Snelling, 27, and Glenn Curry, 26, were shot and killed after a confrontation with another man. YPD has now released the identity of the shooter as Daniel Dillman, 23. The initial information suggests that Dillman's life had been threatened by Snelling and Curry immediately before the shooting. Curry was armed with a knife which had been utilized to break out windows on the vehicle that Dillman was seated in at...

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The hard copy periodical industry is dying and about the only way they can boost sales is with incredibly controversial magazine covers. We saw a good example of this during the past week with Time featuring a mother breast feeding her son on the cover versus Newsweek declaring Obama, wearing a rainbow halo, as "The First Gay President." Have these magazines gone too far in their desperation for sales? This situation is analyzed in an incredibly humorous manner by the notorious Taiwanese animators who have developed quite a cult following with their funny take on the news. They have produced...

The Air Force wants its B-52s to keep flying until 2040, but the airplanes of that era won’t look like the ones we all remember from “Dr. Strangelove” — or even the bombers flying today. According to an official story from the weekend, Lt. Gen. Jim Kowalski, the head of Global Strike Command, says the B-52 is set to receive a round of upgrades that will help both the airmen inside each one and also the top-level commanders moving them around on their maps. Even if that commander’s suit is a darker shade of blue: These upgrades are integral to...

t was May 10, 1970, in Se San, Cambodia. Spc. Leslie H. Sabo Jr. and his platoon were ambushed by a large enemy force. The 22-year-old riflemen from Ellwood City, Pa., charged the enemy position, killing several soldiers, and then attacked an enemy flanking force, drawing fire away from his comrades. As the enemy retreated, a grenade landed near Sabo and a wounded American soldier. Sabo picked it up and threw it, while shielding his comrade with his own body. The grenade blast badly injured Sabo, but he continued to charge the bunker. Crawling towards the enemy stronghold he was...

The NBC Investigative Unit has raised questions about two grants totaling nearly $1.5 million dollars distributed to the University of California San Francisco. The money was part of the federal stimulus program and went to studies into the erectile dysfunction of overweight middle aged men and the accurate reporting of someone's sexual history. This is part of our ongoing series of investigations by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit into who got federal stimulus dollars, and why some projects did not break ground more than two years after receiving the grant. The Investigative Unit looked closely at the federal government's...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Psalm 40 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. 1. I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. 2. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. 3. He has put a new song in my mouth— Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD. 4. Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, And does not...

Perhaps Mitt Romney played it right when he was meek and contrite in response to the Washington Post's front-page allegations that he bullied a kid half a century ago in high school. Romney no doubt feels embarrassed by the charges, even if most of us struggle to understand their relevance or gauge their veracity. But the time is coming for Romney to get angry, very angry, with what is increasingly, quaintly called "the mainstream media." The Post's decision to play up the story as if it were major news -- front page, thousands of drably dull self-serious words piled high...

A medical report compiled by the family physician of accused Trayvon Martin murderer George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a "closed fracture" of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation.

If you thought JP Morgan traders goofed when they made bad bets that resulted in $2 billion in losses for what Obama says is the best managed bank in America, well you obviously don’t hang out with the One-Percent-Occupy Wall Street group that met last night on Park Avenue in New York. 60 Wall Street-types, says Politico, paid close to $40,000 a pop to hear Obama, Man of the People, tell them whatever their guilt-ridden consciences wanted to hear. Why guilt-ridden? Who knows?Perhaps they weren’t held enough as a baby; perhaps they seek atonement in politics for the rapacity they...

When it comes to opposition research, there is often only one difference between a candidate's vicious negative ad and an "investigative" news report: the undeserved patina of media "objectivity" and respectability. Take the Washington Post's Jason Horowitz's 5,400-word "expose" on how Mitt Romney may have pinned a boy down and cut his hair in 1965. 1965? That's almost a half century ago. Even if every detail were accurate -- and they weren't -- a journalist could pull a muscle in the hyper-aggressive attempt to make it somehow relevant to the present moment or even the recent past. The family of...

Just about every objective indicator foreshadows a huge re-election defeat for President Obama. With every day that passes, Mr. Obama looks more like a loser. That’s because there is doom and gloom everywhere you look. When government mathematical fudging is stripped away, unemployment is stuck over 10 percent. Economic growth is practically nonexistent and promises to slide downhill even more in the coming months with Europe and its banks rapidly collapsing. Due to Mr. Obama’s out-of-control deficit spending, the national debt is at a heart-stopping $15.7 trillion, which erases a whole year of economic output by our entire country. With...

Let's think about whether all acts of Congress deserve our respect and obedience. Suppose Congress enacted a law -- and the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional -- requiring American families to attend church services at least three times a month. Should we obey such a law? Suppose Congress, acting under the Constitution's commerce clause, enacted a law requiring motorists to get eight hours of sleep before driving on interstate highways. Its justification might be that drowsy motorists risk highway accidents and accidents affect interstate commerce. Suppose you were a jury member during the 1850s and a free person were...

Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus Traditional True Holy Mass Propers † Dominica Quinta Post Pascha ~ Fifth Sunday After Easter † Anno Dómini 13 May 2012 Commemorating † The Ascension of Our Lord, Christ Jesus † † The Presence of The Blessed Virgin Mary at Fátima, Portugal † † Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament † Color : Albus/White Vestments II Classis ~ Second Class Semi-Double Observance Vocem jucunditátis annuntiáte, et audiátur, allelúja: annuntiáte usque ad extrémum terræ: liberávit, Dóminus pópulum suum. Allelúja, allelúja.... ( Declare it with the voice of joy, and make it known, alleluia: declare it...

When my wife was a liberal, she complained that libertarian reasoning is coldhearted. Since markets produce winners and losers -- and many losers did nothing wrong -- market competition is cruel. It must seem so. President Obama used the word "fair" in his last State of the Union address nine times. We are imprinted to prefer a world that is "fair." Our close relatives the chimpanzees freak out when one chimp gets more than his fair share, so zookeepers are careful about food portions. Chimps are hardwired to get angry when they think they've been cheated -- and so are...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized President Obama‘s experience before he became president in an interview Tuesday, and defended Mitt Romney, who has recently come under attack by Obama’s campaign for his record at Bain Capital. “President Obama hasn’t run anything before he was elected President of the United States. Never ran a state, never ran a business, never ran a lemonade stand. This job’s too important for on the job training,” Jindal said during an interview on FOX News’ “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday. Jindal contrasted Romney’s experience with Obama’s record, arguing that, “In contrast, Mitt Romney’s been a successful governor, a...

After months of trading blame and criticism from afar, President Obama and GOPcongressional leaders will meet Wednesday to discuss the economy — and, presumably, trade blame and criticism in person, more politely. The bipartisan gathering at the White House, the first since late February, is billed as a discussion of legislative solutions to the sluggish economy. The White House says President Obama will push House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to embrace his congressional to-do list, a short list of relatively small initiatives the president has said will spur growth. Obama unveiled the...

Kay Allen had just started work, and everything seemed quiet at the Cornerstone Care community health clinic in Burgettstown, Pa. But things didn't stay quiet for long. "All the girls, they were yelling at me in the back, 'You gotta come out here quick. You gotta come out here quick,' " said Allen, 59, a nurse from Weirton, W.Va. Allen rushed out front and knew right away what all the yelling was about. The whole place reeked — like someone had spilled a giant bottle of nail polish remover. "I told everybody to get outside and get fresh air. So...

Dem: House will ride on healthcareBy Mike Lillis and Bob Cusack - 05/16/12 05:00 AM ET A senior Democrat said Tuesday that the key to winning back the House in 2012 is selling the party’s signature healthcare reform law. In an interview with The Hill, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Democrats have “a fighting chance” of grabbing control of the lower chamber. He added, however, that Democrats “can’t run from [healthcare reform]. You have to go out and say, ‘This is what we did and this is why we did it.’ And I think that you win like that.” Democrats...

The Franciscan University of Steubenville has announced it will drop health insurance coverage for students because the cost of the plan is expected to double under Obamacare. [...]The plan currently costs approximately $600 per year. However, Hernon said their health care provider informed them that under Obamacare, the policy would double in price to $1,200 and the following year it would triple. “We couldn’t believe the price (increase),” he told Fox News. “We had them go back and reconfirm it. They said it was dictated by coverage limits that were released by the Obama administration.” “At the end of the...

Before yunz head dahntahn to work, or start to red up the house n‘at, join us every morning for coffee (or whatever gets yinz started) and maybe some serious discussion of the issues (or not!) Listen to the Quinn & Rose Morning Show at: www.wpgb.com (104.7 Pittsburgh, Pa) http://wysl1040.com/ (Rochester, NY) http://www.640whlo.com/main.html (Akron, OH) (airs later from 9-12) http://www.wncoam.com/main.html (Ashland, OH) http://www.talkradio560.com/ (Frostburg, MD) http://wicofm.com/ (Salisbury/Ocean City, MD WOBX - Outer banks NC http://tunein.com/radio/The-War-Room-with-Quinn--Rose-p34761/ for archived shows And now on 166 XM

When friends suggest that the election in November will be close, I half-agree, with a twinkle. Because I don't think it will be close. That's because this lot, as the Brits say, don't have it sorted -- unlike Bill Clinton in the 1990s, who knew how to seduce the middle class. It's a point of pride among urban liberals around the president not to understand the ordinary American. It's been this way ever since John Kenneth Galbraith's bestsellers like The Affluent Society taught liberals how to sneer at the ordinary middle class rather than understand it. Of course, you can...

The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in a House defense authorization bill that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains from negative repercussions for refusing to perform ceremonies that conflict with their beliefs, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In a policy statement released Wednesday, the OMB outlined numerous objections to aspects of the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 4310). The bill was reported out of the House Armed Services Committee last week and is set to be debated in the House, beginning...

Aspiring apparatchiks of the coming world dictatorship, tiring of the hopeless race against facts in their anti-industrial carbon dioxide hoax, have finally given up the pretense of science in favor of pure, old-fashioned doomsday preaching. Having been outlasted by reality in the pseudo-science of "global cooling," undone once again in the pseudo-science of "global warming," and ultimately laughed off the stage in the unfalsifiable quackery of "global climate change," it is apparently time at last for the advocates of tyranny in the name of Gaia to play their last card: global mass hysteria. Consider a recent New York Times editorial...

Kayla Allen, the 10-year-old who was the lone survivor of the April 12 shooting at the Cracker Barrel restaurant in Brooklyn, died Tuesday afternoon at her home in Strongsville. Jane Van Bergen, spokeswoman for Hospice of the Western Reserve, said Kayla died in the arms of an aunt at 3:40 p.m. surrounded by her family and friends. In a statement released Tuesday, the family said, "(We are) appreciative and grateful for the support and prayers of so many during this journey. Kayla has died peacefully at home. She has been surrounded by family and friends for the past few days,...

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Joseph Curl's analysis in Sunday's Washington Times on Barack Obama's gay marriage flip-flop nicely sums up the president's motive. Actually, the headline sums it up: "Team Obama panics, and it's only May." That's right. President Barack Obama -- that Everest of integrity -- and his paid hacks are in full panic mode. As Curl observes, it's mid-May, and the president is focusing on shoring up what should be a base constituency -- gays. Previously, Mr. Obama was trying to drive wedges between the GOP and women, Hispanics, and young voters to shore up support from these cohorts. A president up...

Documents obtained by The Daily Caller show that President Barack Obama’s close friend Eric Whitaker, who runs the University of Chicago Medical Center’s Urban Health Initiative, spoke at Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Chicago-area church in 2006. Whitaker was a speaker at Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ during a Sept. 17, 2006 “Health Care Justice Forum,” according to a church bulletin TheDC obtained. The bulletin is no longer on the church’s website. Whitaker made headline news Monday when New York Times bestselling author Edward Klein alleged during a radio interview with Sean Hannity that Whitaker offered Wright $150,000 to stay silent...

On a balmy night in early June of 1986, a successful business executive and two-term Congressman named Ed Zschau won the GOP nomination for US Senate in California. Seen by professionals as the rising star of California Republican politics, Zschau defeated a divided primary field of more conservative candidates. It was widely expected in political circles that he would go on to defeat incumbent Sen. Alan Cranston in the general election. The very next night, the Cranston campaign unleashed a sustained, weeks-long negative campaign advertising attack on Mr. Zschau. The idea being that if Zschau was given time to regroup...

A hang-gliding instructor has apologized to the family of a young woman who fell to her death in an accident in Canada admitting he 'failed in a major way.' William 'Jon' Orders also said he was sorry for swallowing a camera memory card that contained footage of the young woman's last moments. He has appeared in a Vancouver court charged with obstructing the course of justice after he admitted swallowing the memory card of 27-year-old Lenami Godinez-Avila plummeting to her death. Digital Daily – subscribe to our daily newsletter Orders, 50, has vowed to give up hang gliding after saying...

Police were called to a Chicago home during the early morning hours of Tuesday in response to complaints of an animal bite — only to find the animal was not the one who instigated the biting. 19-year old Analise J. Garner stumbled home drunk after a night of drinking. It’s unclear what exactly happened, but somehow the inebriated teen managed to pick a fight with both her 37-year old mother and, apparently, the family’s 80-pound English bulldog. Her mother emerged from the altercation with scratches on her face and bite marks on her hands, and, according to the Chicago Tribune,...

The New York Times believes the most interesting data coming out of the latest CBS News/New York Times poll is that the vast majority of Americans think President Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage last week was a cynical ploy to gain a political advantage. That’s the lede in their story about the poll. Considering that the mainstream media — including the Times — gave the statement laudatory coverage, it is surprising to learn that 67 percent of Americans think he did it “mostly for political reasons” rather than believing his story about him evolving and doing what was right. But...

He thought it was a stick, but an Eastern Washington man painfully discovered it was actually a rattlesnake in the gardening aisle of the Wal-Mart in Clarkston when it bit his hand. Mica Craig said he was looking for mulch for his medical marijuana growing operation when he reached down. Suddenly, the snake latched on to his hand and wouldn't let go. "It's the most scared I've ever been in my life. When I shook it and heard the rattles, I knew it was a rattlesnake and then I freaked. I was screaming bloody murder through the parking lot," he...

The Kleberg County Sheriff's Department believes robbery was the motive for 20-year-old Michael Lerma to allegedly beat to death 34-year-old Frank Wearden Jr. early Monday. The victim and the suspect are both from Riviera. David Rosse says his nephew was a military veteran who was working to better himself by attending classes at Texas A&M Kingsville. "He was always the life of the party, having fun, enjoying family and friends," said Rosse. Investigators say Wearden was last seen leaving a Kingsville nightclub in his Toyota pickup just after closing time. Investigators say someone living near County Road 1080 and County...