Free Republic

A lynch mob is all fun and games until someone actually gets lynched. At first everyone has a good time marching around and shouting “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe.” The police are accused of being racist killers by the defenders of actual racist killers like Mumia Abu Jamal. Every community organizer within a thousand miles shows up to brandish signs claiming cops are randomly killing innocent black men even as he spits and throws bottles at any cop within reach. Not to mention engaging in the occasional act of convenience store redistribution. The Mayor of New York City...

Homeless American veterans shiver in the bitter cold while illegal immigrants receive subsidized four-year degrees. At midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold, Christ was born in a stable after his parents were turned away by every innkeeper. Joseph and Mary did not respond with entitlement: “If you don’t shelter us, then you’re racist.” Rather, they used their ingenuity to find an alternative birthplace for their son among friends—farm animals, shepherds, kings, and angels—beneath the light of an extraordinary star. “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because...

Just about every year at this time, "A Christmas Carol' shows up somewhere on TV, as do headlines about how one Republican or another is the modern equivalent of the tale's greedy miser, Ebenezer Scrooge. "The GOP's sad Scrooge agenda." "GOP Protecting Ebenezer Scrooge." "Maher Likens Republicans to Ebenezer Scrooge." "Republicans play the role of the stingy Scrooge." You have to wonder if these folks have actually read "A Christmas Carol" or spent any time pondering what Scrooge actually says and does. Because if you do, you come to realize that Scrooge more closely resembles a modern liberal than a...

Amid an outpouring of condemnation of the slaying of two NYPD officers, the city's highest-profile police union official focused his outrage on the mayor. Following a somber press conference during which de Blasio and NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton recounted the facts of the execution-style death of the two police officers, Patrolmen's Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch blamed City Hall for the double murder. "There is blood on many hands tonight. Those that incited violence on the street under the guise of protests that tried to tear down what New York City police officers did every day," Lynch said during a...

Workers stand near the newly uncovered monumental entryway to the Herodian Palace in Herodium National Park, outside of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The entry, at right, is a corridor with a complex system of arches on three separate levels. The arches buttressed the corridor's massive side walls, allowing the king and his entourage direct passage into the palace courtyard. Israeli archaeologists are showing off the monumental, many-arched corridor that led to Herod the Great's hilltop palace near Jerusalem in the first century. The corridor in the ancient fortress of Herodium, about 7 miles (12 kilometers) south of Jerusalem,...

New implant improves vision for older people struggling with cataracts, astigmatism, or long and short-sightedness. For many people getting older brings a catalogue of vision problems which make everyday tasks like reading and driving a major challenge. But a new lens implant which mimics the working of a youthful eye is giving sight back to people struggling with cataracts, astigmatism, or long and short-sightedness. It is the first lens that corrects for all types of vision problems at once and can be inserted in just a simple operation. It works at any distance and in any light condition, acting more...

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies opened to a massive $90.6 million in North America, while Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Annie both suffered soft starts as the crucial year-end holidays got underway. Overseas, the final Hobbit entry also dominated, grossing another $105.5 million for a 12-day international total of $265 million and early world haul of $355.6 million. Five Armies soared in its five-day domestic debut after earning an A- CinemaScore, including a weekend tally of $56.2 million. Box-office comparisons to the previous Hobbit films aren't exactly parallel as the first...

I was intrigued by an article posted by Dan Mitchell from Cato here over the weekend that in part said that how Republicans treat reform at the Joint Committee on Taxation (and the CBO) as a kind of an IQ test. As Mitchell notes “when JCT does revenue estimates, the bureaucrats grease the skids for anti-growth tax policy by overstating revenue losses from lower tax rates and overstating revenue gains from higher tax rates.”And indeed they do. In fact, both the CBO and the JTC act as giant Ways and Means committees for higher taxes and bigger government. But that’s...

Facebook blocked a page calling for a demonstration in support of one of President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critics after being pressured to do so by Russian Internet regulators.

“Shout out the homie who shot those cops in Brooklyn.”“What do we want?” came the shouted question from the marchers in New York City on Dec. 13. “Dead cops!” came the reply. “When do we want it?” “Now!” It took seven days, perhaps too long to satisfy the mob’s impatience, but now that they have two dead police officers, how many more will they want? I have for years instructed young police officers placed in my charge that they cannot go about their duties thinking everyone they meet will try to kill them. But, I warn them, nor can they...

Our reader Sam King made a StopFake Review in English with some added comments. There are top 75 cases that provide evidence of Russia’s Kremlin attempts to lie about their invasion of Ukraine. Most cases show Kremlin Backed Media companies using old photos to create false reports.

AFTER FIVE YEARS in a Cuban dungeon, American aid contractor Alan Gross was finally freed Wednesday, his release part of a deal to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. But there will be no freedom for the many thousands of Cuban citizens locked in the Castros' prisons — not even after a US embassy is reopened in Havana. The United States has always had diplomatic ties with nasty regimes. In that sense, President Obama's announcement last week that he intends to normalize relations with Cuba merely adds another to the list. But Cuba isn't just another...

Swedish defense officials have said a Russian military aircraft nearly collided south of Sweden with a commercial passenger plane shortly after takeoff from Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 12. Sweden's air force chief, Major General Micael Byden, said the Russian warplane's transponders -- which make the plane detectable to commercial radar -- were shut off. Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist called the incident "serious" and "inappropriate," although he added the Russian plane had not violated Swedish air space. "This is outright dangerous when you turn off the transponder," Hultqvist told Swedish radio. Hultqvist said both Danish and Swedish jet fighters were...

At a peaceful gathering of the Justice League, they condemned the killings of Officers Liu and Ramos, but also wondered why the slaying of citizens by cops doesn’t spark as much outrage.A modest crowd moved East on 110th Street in New York City on Sunday evening. They walked silently, some carrying Anthora cups illuminated by candlesticks, others holding plastic tea lights handed out by protest organizers. A few carried signs: "IMAGINE JUSTICE," "BLACK LIVES MATTER," "CLAIM HUMANITY." But mostly they just walked, their faces somber, their hands shaking as the snow began to fall. The peaceful vigil was somewhat unexpected,...

Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov has told Interfax that France must decide by the end of the year if it will deliver two mistral class warships or give Moscow a refund. He also reportedly said that the second option of a refund "might even be preferable."

As cops were being threatened and assaulted and the city reeled over the execution of two officers, Mayor de Blasio prayed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral Sunday — then went into hiding. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton visited the scene of the horrific attack in Brooklyn and Gov. Cuomo paid a wrenching condolence call to the home of one of the slain cops, but de Blasio ran from reporters and was nowhere to be found after the church service. [Snip] In other developments while de Blasio was AWOL: The NYPD said it is investigating more than a dozen threatened copycat attacks after Officers...

Police officers turned their backs on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as he walked into his press conference about the two NYPD officers shot and killed ambush-style in Brooklyn.

A lynch mob is all fun and games until someone actually gets lynched. At first everyone has a good time marching around and shouting “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe.” The police are accused of being racist killers by the defenders of actual racist killers like Mumia Abu Jamal.

Time Magazine warned of a growing threat to cops nationwide in September 2010. The nationally renowned publication argued that sinister individuals would launch targeted attacks against police officers and even ambush them in their patrol cars. Time alerted readers that these groups and individuals have a disturbing hatred of cops and that there was a real threat of “lone-wolf” attacks. Who are these groups that present such a threat to police? Right-wing militias, according to Time. [Snip] “Scores of armed antigovernment groups, some of them far more radical, have formed or been revived during the Obama years, according to law-enforcement...

Rafael Ramos and Wenjin Liu died because of the campaign to vilify police. Even as the events of Ferguson begin to fade, the campaign it helped engender rolls on, with new reports of demonstrations and protests appearing almost daily. Last week Carol Jackson, a federal judge, restricted police tactics against protestors. (This is kind of odd in and of itself. The last thing people want to hear about during the holidays is some hood getting his comeuppance. The same can be said about Sen. Feinstein’s “torture report” -- waterboarding is not likely to play well during the sleigh bell season....