Free Republic

As the avalanche of sexual harassment and assault accusations continues unabated, men who are almost certain that they’ve never shown any woman their penis at work are wondering if they’ve nonetheless crossed boundaries. Perhaps they’ve made a comment or touched a woman inappropriately without realizing it? An Associated Press piece from Monday, titled “In Wake Of Weinstein, Men Wonder If Hugging Women Still OK,” is a perfect example of the sudden confusion plaguing non-predatory men.

U.S. immigration officials have revealed that they face a deportation backlog of 550,000 illegal immigrants who were given temporary amnesty by former President Obama or simply let off the hook by liberal judges. The massive backlog is being tackled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but the sheer numbers — bigger than the populations of Atlanta or Sacramento -- is overwhelming the agency’s enforcement and removal department. This week as ICE and other immigration officials reviewed successes under President Trump, a reporter asked Matthew T. Albence, executive associate director for enforcement and removal operations, if he knew the number of outstanding...

The United States House of Representatives has passed H.R. 38, the national concealed carry reciprocity act. The vote was 321 to 198 on Wednesday, 6 December. The fate of the bill now goes to the United States Senate. The official results will show up at congress.gov in a few hours. In the Senate, it is uncertain if enough Democrats will vote for the bill to overcome the 60 vote fillibuster barrier. Eight Democrat Senators are from states with either Shall Issue or Constitutional Carry law in their states. Six of the Democrat Senators  are from Shall Issue concealed carry...

Many believe that Trump is a type of Cyrus. Chosen by God for this time in our history to do His bidding. For those who have no clue as to who Cyrus was, he became King of the Persian empire in 559 BC. About 150 years before he became king, the prophet Isaiah wrote that a man named Cyrus would come along and assist God's people in rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple. Mind you, this was about 70 years before the Temple and the city would be destroyed and the citizens taken away in captivity. I can imagine that...

The European Union (EU) has warned Poland not to pass any legislation banning abortion in cases where unborn children are living with severe congenital disabilities. On November 15, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution initiating the formal process for rebuking an EU Member State found to be in “serious breach” of their obligations under the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The EP alleges that Poland may be in violation of core EU principles with respect to human rights and democratic values. While the EP’s resolution primarily addresses the independence of the judiciary, it also condemns Poland for considering pro-life...

More than two dozen people were arrested in DC, Maryland and Virginia Wednesday as the ATF, the FBI and local agencies teamed up for a gang-related sting operation, according to authorities. Officials say the arrests stemmed from an investigation into Blood gang-related crimes throughout the area, particularly in Northern Virginia.The ATF announced earlier Wednesday they were engaged in "ongoing law enforcement activity" from Woodbridge to Alexandria. According to authorities, "Operation Tin Panda" started this past Spring, as they investigated Blood-related crimes over the course of the year.Officials say utilizing search warrants today, officers found guns, heroin and other drugs. Before...

Embattled Sen. Al Franken’s office on Wednesday disputed a Minnestota Public Radio report that he had decided to resign on Thursday. “No final decision has been made and the Senator is still talking with his family,” said a tweet on his official Senate Twitter account.

Justice Department officials are reading through “over 10,000 texts” between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, Fox News has learned, after it emerged Strzok was removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe following the discovery of anti-Trump messages between them. Department of Justice officials told Fox News they are in the process of going through the texts so they can hand them over to the House Intelligence Committee. Strzok, who was an FBI counterintelligence agent, had worked on the Mueller probe, but was reassigned to the FBI’s human resources department after the discovery of anti-Trump text messages with...

This is what I wrote: The location of Israel’s capital is a question of fact, not opinion, and it is up to Israel. The Arabs may not like it, but Jerusalem is Israel’s capital: the Knesset is in Jerusalem, the Supreme Court is in Jerusalem, the Prime Minister’s office and official residence are in Jerusalem, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and most other government offices are in Jerusalem. Trump is right: not to acknowledge this basic reality is to perpetuate the vicious presumption that Israel, somehow, is not entitled to be treated like any other country. Moving our embassy to...

California cops just found an audio recording of the 1993 interview in which Corey Feldman has said he identified alleged sexual predators — after police previously claimed the former child actor never named names, according to a report. SNIP Feldman claimed in October that he had provided names of sexual predators in Hollywood to Santa Barbara County police in 1993 during their probe into Michael Jackson’s molestation charges. The Sheriff’s Office at the time denied having any records of Feldman revealing such information — but now says it has unearthed recordings of the interview.

Fire crews continued working Wednesday on an out-of-control brush fire that erupted in the Angeles National Forest about 4 miles east of Sylmar early Tuesday morning and eventually prompted the closure of the 210 Freeway . ... The fire has burned 11,377 acres – or about 18 square miles – as of Wednesday morning, the InciWeb incident information website posted just before 9 a.m. ... Nearly 600 firefighters have been called to battle the blaze, which was being pushed by wind gusts between 50 and 65 mph, the website stated. The fire crossed the 210 Freeway between Sunland Boulevard and...

The Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon appears to have endorsed giving the sacrament of Holy Communion to some divorced and remarried couples, claiming that in most cases their previous marriages were invalid. Cardinal Manuel Clemente, who is also the president of Portugal’s bishops’ conference, is urging the clergy to take a “fundamental attitude of ‘welcoming,’ of ‘accompaniment’ and ‘discernment’ of those who are divorced and remarried, stating that ‘in the greatest number of cases’ the marriage was null,” according to Agencia Ecclesia, the official news service of the Portuguese bishops. The cardinal told Agencia Ecclesia that divorced and remarried Catholics who...

Amid the charred landscape of Little Tujunga Canyon Road in Sylmar on Wednesday stood the remains of Rancho Padilla and the carcasses of nearly 30 horses who died in the fast-moving Creek fire. The Padilla family was there Wednesday morning, surveying the smoldering ranch that their father built more than 20 years ago. They somberly counted up the dead horses, whose charred bodies lined dozens of stalls. The family, who lives up the hill from the ranch, had awakened Tuesday to flames. One firetruck came and told them to leave. “All I could think about was the horses, the horses,...

Joseph Obregon, who turned 31 on Tuesday, was revving the engine and spinning the tires of his 2012 Dodge Ram pickup about 10:40 a.m. while driving west on Sligh, police said. Another pickup, positioned alongside Obregon, was doing the same thing, witnesses told police. At the intersection of Florida Avenue and Sligh, Obregon and the other pickup rapidly accelerated from a stop, according to investigators. They each hit about 70 mph, witnesses told investigators, before Obregon’s truck struck a 2008 Toyota RAV4 that was crossing Sligh from north to south along Highland Avenue, police said. The Toyota hit a power...

LOS ANGELES — John Conyers III, a Detroit hedge fund manager named as a possible successor to his scandal-rocked father, Rep. John Conyers, was arrested in Los Angeles this year on suspicion of domestic violence, but prosecutors declined to charge him, according to documents obtained by NBC News. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office cited a "lack of independent witnesses" and their conclusion that it "could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim’s injury was not accidentally sustained" while he was disarming her, according to case paperwork. The 17th Annual Ford Freedom Awards John Conyers at...

House Republicans on Wednesday voted in favor of making concealed-carry permits valid across state lines, scoring a major victory for gun-rights supporters. But similar Senate legislation still faces an uncertain future, with top Democrats and other gun-control advocates rallying in opposition on Capitol Hill. The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act passed 231-198 in the GOP-controlled House, with six Democrats voting in support. “For the millions of law-abiding citizens who lawfully carry concealed to protect themselves, for conservatives who want to strengthen our Second Amendment rights, and for the overwhelming majority of Americans who support concealed carry reciprocity, Christmas came early,” Rep....

RUSH: Cookie has this 60 Minutes thing that she says is hilarious that we’ve had for two or three days that I haven’t used. Let me go ahead and do it. I found that. Apparently, 60 Minutes just celebrated their 50th anniversary. You know, I went to their… What was it? It was at the 25th. I went to the 25th. It was at the Temple of Bindar, Temple of Dundar, Temple of Whatever exhibit at a museum. That’s where they sat me with Camille Paglia and thought there were gonna be fireworks. Steve Kroft and Morley Safer kept circling...

On Saturday, Francis made the return flight from Bangladesh to Rome, and as is his custom, he answered questions from a number of journalists while en route. As Bergoglian in-flight press conferences go, this one isn’t especially noteworthy overall, but it does contain at least one exchange that merits our attention.A reporter named Etienne from France, asked:What is the priority: to evangelize or to dialogue for peace? Because to evangelize means to arouse conversions, that provokes tensions and at times conflicts among believers. So, what is your priority: to evangelize or to dialogue?Here we have the quintessential pitch tossed directly over...

Comedian and talk show host Chelsea Handler appeared to blame President Donald Trump for the wildfires ripping through parts of southern California this week. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes, as the fires have already destroyed 180 separate structures and burnt through over 50,000 acres of land. “Just evacuated my house,” Handler tweeted on Wednesday. “It’s like Donald Trump is setting the world on fire. Literally and figuratively. Stay safe everyone. Dark times.”

Ever since he announced his candidacy, conservative critics of Donald Trump have been put off by his willingness — at times, eagerness -- to smash norms. But us critics also should acknowledge that there are cases in which norms need to be smashed. President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is one of those cases and he deserves praise for his decision. For decades, the United States has perpetuated the fiction that there is some vagueness over the location of the capital of Israel. The U.S. Congress, in 1995, voted overwhelmingly to declare that Jerusalem is...