Free Republic

Did China Help North Korea Hack Sony? A “senior administration official” told CNN yesterday that Washington had asked Beijing for assistance in connection with the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corporation. “We have discussed this issue with the Chinese to share information, express our concerns about this attack, and to ask for their cooperation,” the official told the network. To enlist the Chinese to its side, the White House has avoided the ticklish issue of Beijing’s assistance to the Kim regime. So at the moment the Obama administration is blaming North Korea—and only North Korea—for the...

It is set to be one of the toughest US presidential races and certainly its most expensive. With 687 days to go to election day, the 2016 campaign is already rich with storylines as candidates hone their messages and handshakes for the gruelling primary schedule ahead. Will voters warm to another contest between America’s two modern political dynasties in Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush? Or will other, less well-known candidates capitalise on unrest in the US over its widening economic and social fault lines and growing disquiet over its role as the world’s policeman? For Republicans, the field will be...

Liberals powerless to stop the Clinton-Wall Street gravy train.Despite her best efforts and most passionate gesticulations, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) failed to shut down the government on Thursday, thus proving her political clout is vastly inferior to that of GOP colleague Ted Cruz. Warren had urged House Democrats to block a controversial spending package, which included a provision to roll back a portion of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill known as the “swaps pushout” rule. Warren, for the record, does not like Wall Street. “It is time for all of us to stand up and fight,” she said on...

It's shameful that a company like Sony would go groveling to a deceitful, tyrannical, un-American thug, but this column is not about Sony’s sucking up to Al Sharpton. This column is about a tort system that is dedicated not to justice but to making lawyers richer, and it comes not only at the price of American prosperity but at the cost of our liberty as well. Certainly, Sony has a yellow streak as wide as Seth Rogen’s gut. Its creepy supplication to that race-hustling, MSNBC troll shows its true cowardly character, since Sharpton – unlike North Korea – doesn’t have...

Formerly the "Fans of Quinn and Rose Discussion" thread, our group been meeting here since 2008. We still hold out hope that our favorite talk show hosts will come back on the air but, whether they do or not, our friendly group will still meet to start the day. So if you are preparing to go to work, are getting home from work - or happily retired - stop in and say mornin' and share the latest news, discuss the weather, share a recipe, or whatever!

The climate of hate in Dallas was real,and it had real consequences,”wrote former New York Times columnist Frank Rich in response to a letter to the editor criticizing his 2011 New York Magazine essay titled “What Killed JFK.” So the obvious question:New York City’s current police commissioner Bill Bratton said this past Saturday night of the cold-blooded murder of NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos:“They were, quite simply,assassinated—targeted for their uniform,and for the responsibility they embraced.”.................Whether it’s inviting the infamous race agitator Al Sharpton to the White House dozens upon dozens of times(Obama)or giving speeches in which the message...

Exodus 15:18 ~The LORD Shall Reign Forever and Ever~

VIDEO: Turning the tide against ISIS on the Kurdish frontier

When the U.S. launched an airstrike campaign in Syria to “degrade and destroy” the so-called Islamic State, some were concerned that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad would indirectly benefit from the destruction rained down on its enemies by America and its allies. Now, nearly three months later, Assad is desperate for manpower to maintain control in areas where pro-regime support is dwindling. U.S. airstrikes, concentrated in areas with a heavy Islamic State presence, have allowed Assad to reallocate some resources, but his army is facing a huge problem: It's running out of soldiers. Ground forces have shrunk from...

Iraqi Kurd Fighters Take Sinjar Back From ISIS (Photo: Reuters/Azad Lashkari) A convoy of Kurdish peshmerga fighters drive through Arbil after leaving a base in northern Iraq, on their way to the Syrian town of Kobani, October 28, 2014. By Anugrah Kumar December 21, 2014|9:38 am Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have announced that they've taken the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar back from Islamic State militants in a battle months after tens of thousands of minority Yazidis had to flee their homes while others remained trapped after the town's capture by the terrorists.The Kurd soldiers, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, Saturday reached...

Germany is planning to send troops to Iraq in a major break with the military policy it has followed since the end of the Second World War, and one that may even require the country’s constitution to be changed, according to reports. Angela Merkel’s government wants to send troops to northern Iraq to help train Kurdish forces fighting in the struggle against Islamic State (ISIL). German troops were have served with international forces in Afghanistan, Bosnia and elsewhere, but until now they have only taken part in missions with an international mandate from the UN, or as part of the...

In leiu of the folowwing recent story1,500 Jews Find Vandalism at Joseph’s Tomb for Hanukkah out of Nablus Israel, An Arutz Sheva article about Jewish pilgrims coming to pray at Joseph’s tomb and finding that Muslims had badly vandalized it, I thought I would rerun this article from 2011- enjoy and happy Channukah! By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.(Hebrews 11:22)And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which...

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell met with “faith organizations from across the country” last week to ask them to help people enroll in federal health care insurance plans created through the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. […] While addressing reporters, Burwell was flanked by two people who attended the meeting: Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, National Catholic Social Justice Lobby and Amy Cotton, senior policy manager at the National Council of Jewish Women. Campbell supported liberal causes, including the reelection of President Barack Obama. In September, Campbell and other nun activists did their third tour to...

After more than a month with no Jewish visitors allowed, over 1,500 Jews on Sunday night went to Kever Yosef (Joseph’s Tomb) in Shechem (Nablus) located in Samaria to pray at the grave of the Jewish patriarch from the Torah—only to find it vandalized. The Jewish visitors discovered that the electric system of the tomb compound was destroyed, with light bulbs and fluorescent light fixtures smashed, leaving the Tomb in utter darkness. In an almost symbolic act hearkening to the Hanukkah story in which the Maccabees rededicated the Second Temple with light after the Greek occupiers desecrated it, the visitors...

December 22, 2014Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent    Reading 1 1 Sm 1:24-28 In those days,Hannah brought Samuel with her,along with a three-year-old bull,an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine,and presented him at the temple of the LORD in Shiloh. After the boy’s father had sacrificed the young bull,Hannah, his mother, approached Eli and said:“Pardon, my lord!As you live, my lord,I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD granted my request. Now I, in turn, give him to the LORD;as long as...

Russian strategic bombers conducted a third circumnavigation of the U.S. Pacific island of Guam last week as other bombers flew close to Alaska and Europe, defense officials said. Two Tu-95 Bear H bombers made the flight around Guam, a key U.S. military hub in the western Pacific, on Dec. 13. No U.S. interceptor jets were dispatched to shadow the bombers. Separately, two Canadian F-18s intercepted two Bear bombers that intruded into the Alaska air defense identification zone on Dec. 8 that a military spokesman called “unwanted, provocative, and potentially destabilizing.” Around the same time in Europe, NATO jets intercepted Russian...

Yes, Virginia, there is a God Posted on December 19, 2014 by Guest WriterWritten by Norman FulkersonIt is has become a custom for practically every newspaper in America to reprint, during the Christmas season, the marvelous editorial, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” Since it first appeared in 1897, it has become an indelible part of Christmas tradition in our country. It is no secret why.Virginia’s Letter: A Priceless RelicThe central figure in the story is an innocent girl named Virginia O’Hanlon who is told by her “little friends” that Santa does not exist. She writes a letter...

Tiller the Killerî George Richard Tiller, 65, owns and operates Womenís Health Care Services, located at 5101-5107 E. Kellogg Avenue, Wichita, KS 67218, the largest outpatient late-term abortion facility outside of Communist China. He and his wife (and clinic co-owner), Jeanne , make their home in an exclusive gated community Tiller built the 18-room, 8,500 square-foot house in Wichita, once assessed at $732,000 but now worth over $1 million, after years of persistent picketing drove him from his previous home in nearby Andover, Kansas. The Tillers have four natural children, now adults, and raised a nephew, the son of one...

Jeb Bush’s Ties to Donors Put Rivals in a Bind Network of GOP Contributors Could Hamper Other Republicans’ Fund-Raising By PATRICK O’CONNOR and BETH REINHARD Jeb Bush’s announcement that he will explore a White House bid threatens years of painstaking spadework by other Republicans who have cultivated many of the wealthy donors loyal to the former Florida governor’s family. Mr. Bush is heir to a vaunted network of Republican contributors built over his family’s two presidencies, his own governorship and other campaigns. It is one of the most formidable assets in GOP politics and could...

Global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from Oct. 1 through Nov. 11, as recorded by NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2. Carbon dioxide concentrations are highest above northern Australia, southern Africa and eastern Brazil. Preliminary analysis of the African data shows the high levels there are largely driven by the burning of savannas and forests. Elevated carbon dioxide can also be seen above industrialized Northern Hemisphere regions in China, Europe and South America and Africa. Image credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe first global maps of atmospheric carbon dioxide from NASA’s new Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission demonstrate its performance and promise, showing elevated carbon dioxide concentrations across...