Free Republic

A military appeals court has overturned the conviction of a former Marine Corps scout sniper involved in desecrating the bodies of enemy fighters in Afghanistan in 2011, finding that the actions of the service's top officer at the time tainted the case.The decision, by the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, was handed down Wednesday, five years after the original conviction.In December 2012, Staff Sgt. Joseph Chamblin was sentenced to 30 days' confinement, docked in pay, and demoted to sergeant for participating in an incident in which multiple Marine snipers attached to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, urinated on enemy corpses...

Nov. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department is offering buyouts of up to $25,000 in an effort to trim 641 employees from its ranks, department officials said Saturday. A state official told ABC News the voluntary buyouts would be in addition to the normal attrition expected within the department by the end of 2018. Multiple officials told The New York Times that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's goal is to reduce the department by 8 percent, or 1,982 people. The department already has instituted hiring and promotion freezes, left a number of ambassadorships and senior leadership positions fulfilled and...

Touting itself as "by teens, for teens," the magazine Sex, Etc. has created a stir at a middle school in New Jersey. Parents concerned about the magazine's explicit content are demanding that it be removed from the middle school's media center. The group of over sixty parents has the support of at least one school board member. According to wusa9, "school board member Stephen Kubricki urged the board on Monday to vote to remove the material from the junior high. Kubricki said the magazine contained 'a level of graphic and explicit images and text which goes beyond valuable information.'" The...

"I brought him from Honduras here thinking everything would be better, here, like we would be safe, but I guess it wasn't," she told News12 Long Island. On Friday, Nassau County prosecutors quietly arraigned a 26-year-old Wyandanch man, David Sosa-Guevara, on a charge that he and "others not yet arrested" hacked Soler to death with a machete. In a joint statement, the county district attorney, Madeline Singas, and acting police commissioner, Patrick Ryder, declined to comment further, citing "a sensitive and ongoing investigation." Authorities have not said whether any of the homicides are linked, although Soler's mother says he was...

Sunday on Full Measure, we have an incredible cover story from The Philippines where President Duterte is drawing international attention for his radical tactics in fighting drug crimes and Islamic extremist terrorism: he has given the green light for police and ordinary citizens to shoot down drug dealers–and users–in the streets without trial. And he’s installed martial law in the troubled southern region where ISIS is said to be moving in. We’ll talk to President Duterte’s vocal opponents and also some of his supporters as he enjoys popularity ratings that are the envy of any national leader.

The word casuistry has two meanings: “(1) a resolving of specific cases of conscience, duty, or conduct through interpretation of ethical principles or religious doctrine, (2) specious argument.” It is very easy for the first meaning to collapse into the second, especially when one is dealing with an ethical principle that is a negative precept of the natural law respecting intrinsically evil actions that are always and everywhere wrong, regardless of the situation in which they occur.  Such is the case with the dogged defenders of Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia (AL), which opens the door to absolution and Holy...

A cargo resupply mission scheduled to launch to the International Space Station this morning (Nov. 11) was aborted at the last minute due to aircraft flying in the restricted airspace over the launch site at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility here in Wallops Island, Virginia. Orbital ATK's Antares rocket was one minute away from liftoff when flight controllers abruptly aborted the launch at 7:36 a.m. EST (1236 GMT), when the aircraft entered the restricted area.  With the five-minute launch window closed for the day, Orbital ATK rescheduled the Antares launch for no earlier than 7:14 a.m. EST (1214 GMT) on Sunday...

Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore on Saturday again adamantly denied sexual misconduct allegations and promised that "revelations about the motivations" behind the news report of his alleged behavior will come out in a few days. His Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, meanwhile said Moore needs "to answer to the people of Alabama" about the "very serious allegations." And the lawyer for a woman who says Moore dated her when she was 18 and he was in his 30s and supplied her with alcohol before she was of legal drinking age responded later Saturday to the candidate's comments. Paula Cobia, lawyer for...

I am the Infantry! I am the Infantry–Queen of Battle! For two centuries I have kept our Nation safe, Purchasing freedom with my blood. To tyrants, I am the day of reckoning; to the suppressed, the hope for the future. Where the fighting is thick, there am I… I am the Infantry! FOLLOW ME! I was there from the beginning, meeting the enemy face to face, will to will. My bleeding feet stained the snow at Valley Forge; my frozen hands pulled Washington across the Delaware. At Yorktown, the sunlight glinted from the sword and I, begrimed… Saw a Nation...

“Hypocrites!” That’s what Bishop Mark Seitz called Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last summer when Paxton led a group of officials defending the Constitution. Meanwhile the bishop admitted that he had never publicly corrected, much less condemned, Catholic Cong. Beto O’Rourke, his 100 percent pro-abortion U.S. representative. Well. While El Paso’s petulant prelate maintains his right to remain silent, let’s take a look at what his alleged “hypocrite,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, has been up to. Last week, Paxton went into federal court to defend SB 8, a Texas law prohibiting “dismemberment abortion.” “I will always fight to protect...

Citing toxic smog that one official said has turned India’s capital city into a “gas chamber,” United Airlines has canceled flights to New Delhi until the air gets better. At least in United’s eyes, the Indian capital’s smog concerns are on par with environmental disasters such as hurricanes and volcanoes — a risk to be avoided. The company said it was letting passengers switch flights without charge or helping them find seats on other carriers. It was unclear if other airlines would follow suit. Virgin Atlantic, KLM and Etihad Airlines all compete for business to New Delhi, according to CNN Money. An...

I do not believe I ever posted this I use to include it in goody boxes I sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. A Warrior’s Blessing May your sword be ever sharp and your arm strong. May your eyes be keen and arrows flight true. May your lance never break and your body endure. May your knife be ever at hand in need and your mind ever vigilant and alert as to the enemy's intent. And I pray that GOD would watch over you and keep you, so that you may return home in valor, to enjoy that which you have...

Trump spoke after a brief meeting with Putin on the margins of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Vietnam. As he did so, he launched a tirade against special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin. The investigation could cost “millions and millions of lives”, Trump claimed, by hindering agreement with Moscow over conflicts in Syria and Ukraine and a looming confrontation with North Korea. The president’s remarks, made to reporters as Air Force One flew to Hanoi from Da Nang, represented his open disregard for the views of US intelligence agencies which...

The towers are in a backstage area near the New Orleans Square Train Station, each more than 100 feet from areas accessible to guests, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman said Friday. A Disneyland employee is among those who fell ill with the disease. “On Oct. 27, we learned from the Orange County Health Care Agency of increased Legionnaires’ disease cases in Anaheim. We conducted a review and learned that two cooling towers had elevated levels of Legionella bacteria,” Dr. Pamela Hymel, chief medical officer for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said in a statement Friday. “These towers were treated with chemicals...

George Lopez wanted to shout it out loud on stage with KISS, but the problem was band members were just trying to answer questions from fans ... so George got the boot. Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and the fellas were doing a Q&A Thursday on their annual KISS Kruise when Lopez got disruptive, which you see from the video. Check it out ... the crowd begins to boo and yell to take his mic away. We're told George was very drunk. At one point, KISS manager Doc McGhee leaves the stage because he's so annoyed, and we're told security escorted...

Bitcoin, along with many other cryptocurrencies, has recently taken the world by storm. Bitcoin’s devoted investors believe that the blockchain technology behind the currency will usher in an era where currencies are free from government manipulation. However, large governments of the past and present have not taken kindly to competitors of any sort. A competitor to the government’s greatest mechanism of power (currency issuance) is a threat the government will not ignore. There are numerous examples of the US government going to great lengths to make sure the US dollar is the most used currency in the world. If the...

In the weeks before Donald J. Trump took office, lawyers joining his administration gathered at a law firm near the Capitol, where Donald F. McGahn II, the soon-to-be White House counsel, filled a white board with a secret battle plan to fill the federal appeals courts with young and deeply conservative judges.

Lamborghini has created the world's first self-healing sports car. The Terzo Millennio, which translates as third millennium in Italian, has the ability to detect and repair cracks in its body work. Using sensors the car can conduct its own health check to detect any damages and self-repair itself by filling the crack with nanotubes to prevent it spreading. The super car was created in collaboration with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston. ... The all-electric car is powered by supercapacitors rather than conventional batteries. ... Each of the car's wheels includes its own integrated electric engine...

Breitbart News Executive Chairman and former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon says the United States is a “nation of citizens” and “not a nation of immigrants” in Keith Koffler’s new book titled Bannon: Always the Rebel. In the book, Bannon shoots down a generational campaign by Washington, D.C. politicians and the open borders and cheap labor lobby that describes the founding of America as one based on a “melting pot” of immigrants. Bannon says the U.S. is founded on its citizens, and therefore the needs of its citizens should come before those of foreign nations and foreign nationals....

December 2017 Foreign Service Journal President’s Views By AFSA President Ambassador Barbara Stephenson I begin with a reminder that we, the members of the career Foreign Service, have an obligation as stewards of our institution to be effective advocates for why diplomacy matters. That requires some skill in explaining how diplomacy works. While raising awareness of and appreciation for the Foreign Service is a longstanding goal, one AFSA has pursued with renewed vigor and impact over the past couple years, the need to make the case for the Foreign Service with fellow Americans and our elected representatives has taken on...