Free Republic

The U.S. military could have prevented one wave of the deadly attack on American personnel in Benghazi if fighter jets had been promptly deployed, a top diplomatic official who was in Benghazi during the Sept. 11 assault told congressional investigators.

As travellers nationwide are learning, the White House has decided to express its dislike of the sequester—otherwise known as modestly smaller government—by choosing to cut basic air traffic control services. We wrote about this human- rights violation on Tuesday in "Flight Delays as Political Strategy," but the story gets worse the closer we look. Start with the Federal Aviation Administration, better known as the Postal Service without the modern technology. Flyers directly fund two-thirds of the FAA's budget through 17 airline taxes and fees—about 20% of the cost of a $300 domestic ticket, up from 7% in the 1970s. Yet...

A West Virginia teen arrested and accused of nearly inciting a riot after a confrontation with a teacher over his National Rifle Association t-shirt has inspired dozens of students across his county to wear similar apparel in solidarity. Jared Marcum, 14, had a confrontation Thursday with a Logan Middle School teacher over his NRA t-shirt, which bears the organization's logo, along with an image of a hunting rifle and the phrase, "Protect your right."

That was not unusual: Tsarnaev often brought in cars for wealthy friends from Boston University and MIT, Junior said, and always paid in cash. What was strange was that the man showed up Tuesday wanting the car back early, clearly agitated. "He was very nervous, biting his nails, agitated," Junior said. "I thought he was on drugs, medication." Junior didn't report it to police. Tsarnaev took the Mercedes without having it fixed. Tsarnaev's visit to Junior's Auto Body took on a new significance Friday after officials linked him to the Boston bombings. Tsarnaev was taken into custody Friday night after...

Actor and comedian Jay Mohr waded into the gun debate on Twitter after Monday’s deadly terrorist attacks at the Boston Marathon. “What bothers me most about today is that we’re getting used 2 it. ENOUGH. 2nd amendment must go. Violence has 2 stop. Culture MUST change,” the Jerry Maguire actor tweeted Monday night. What bothers me most about today is that we’re getting used 2 it. ENOUGH. 2nd amendment must go. Violence has 2 stop. Culture MUST change. — Jay Mohr (@jaymohr37) April 15, 2013

There’s never a good time or place to go on an anti-gay tirade, but onstage at a club in San Francisco owned by a gay man, in front of many gay fans, is probably near the bottom of the list. Michelle Shocked, a singer-songwriter whose sexuality was once fairly ambiguous, stunned fans Sunday night at Yoshi’s Jazz Club with a homophobic rant, according to USA Today. The 51-year-old singer reportedly said that if California’s Proposition 8, which effectively bans gay marriage, is overturned, “it will be the downfall of civilization, and Jesus will come back.” As her rant went on,...

...as a cashier. In Massachusetts. Thanks, Democrats. Nice country you’ve developed here. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO

The internet is alight today with stories of faith, confections, and one very famous egg roll, but the biggest web destination of them all has opted to honor a leftist labor activist instead of the Easter holiday. Several times per year, and sometimes per month, internet search behemoth Google shakes things up on its incredibly high-traffic homepage by changing its logo to celebrate a memorable day in history like a famous person’s birthday or world-changing event.

WASHINGTON -- I have one question about the way Majority Leader Harry Reid has been conducting the Senate. Has he committed a felony or a mere misdemeanor? The wags will say that a politician from Nevada does not commit misdemeanors, but I am in earnest. The difference between whether Dingy Harry -- as he is known by the eminent political scientist Dr. Rush Limbaugh -- shuffles off to a federal prison or merely pays a hefty fine is significant. I suppose we can leave it to the federal prosecutors to decide, but if he gets off on a misdemeanor I...

WASHINGTON — The Washington National Cathedral, where the nation gathers to mourn tragedies and celebrate new presidents, will soon begin hosting same-sex marriages. Cathedral officials say the church will be among the first Episcopal congregations to implement a new rite of marriage for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members. The church announced its new policy Wednesday. As the nation’s most prominent church, the decision carries huge symbolism. The 106-year-old cathedral has long been a spiritual center for the nation, hosting presidential inaugural services and funerals for Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his last...

Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report for 2011-2012, released Monday, reveals that the abortion and women’s health provider received $542.4 million from taxpayers in government grants and reimbursements — constituting 45 percent of the organization’s revenue. Abortions constituted 3 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provided from October 2010 to September 2011. According to the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, the 333,964 abortions the organization performed in that timeframe represented a record high for Planned Parenthood. The group noted that from 2009 through 2011, Planned Parenthood performed 995,687 abortions.

Since Ed and I have each written about the latest round of Obamacare-exacerbated premium hikes, let’s check in on Britain’s single-payer system, which many American liberals fetishize: An official inquiry into failings at [Stafford] hospital, where between 400 and 1,200 patients died needlessly due to a catalogue of failings and appalling standards of care, is due to be published later this month. The report is expected to blame managers who cut costs and reduced staffing levels in an attempt to hit "efficiency" targets and win foundation status. Before taking control of the health service, Sir David ran the health authority...

t hasn’t been a great 24 hours for Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. The rookie captain wasn’t able to finish Sunday’s playoff loss to the Seahawks after his knee buckled midway through the fourth quarter. The Redskins were eliminated, 24-14 and questions of whether or not head coach Mike Shanahan should have pulled Griffin dominated sports pages and media Monday. And then Rob Parker re-emerged. Sunday morning, hours before the Redskins playoff game, the suspended ESPN host talked exclusively with WDIV-TV’s Devin Scillian on the station’s weekly community affairs program ‘Flashpoint.’ Parker said his ‘cornball brother’ comments were taken out...

Following Pope Benedict XVI's repeated messages denouncing same-sex marriage, more Dutch Catholics are seeking ways to leave the Catholic Church. And one website is helping people to "de-baptize" themselves. According to Reuters, the website ontdopen.nl ("de-baptize.nl") has gained significant traffic this month after the pope took the time in his Christmas speech to the Vatican bureaucracy to condemn gay marriage. "They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves," he said. "The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man's...

Two weeks ago, Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx made national headlines when he called President Obama "Our lord and savior." While hosting NBC's Saturday Night Live this weekend, Foxx joked about how in his new film "Django Unchained," "I kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO JAMIE FOXX: My name is Jamie Foxx. Give it up, give it up, New York City, Saturday Night Live. Come on, make some noise, man. New York City, New York City, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, it’s crazy. I'm...

Sick and tired of a burglar stealing packages from homes in her neighborhood, a San Francisco woman took matters into her own hands on Tuesday, according to the Daily Mail. Luring the thief with a dummy package, Sonya Yu sprayed him with bear repellent and threatened him with a wooden sword, chasing him away. Minutes later, the alleged burglar, Andy Anduha, 51, was apprehended by law enforcement. Protect your home from theft this holiday season Yu, a photographer, recounted the entire incident on her Twitter account as events unfolded. Yu informed her followers that several items had been stolen by...

Throughout his perpetual campaigning, President Obama has made a big point about being the champion of students and young people in helping to make college more accessible and affordable and helping out with student debt --- and yet, miraculously, here we are with student-loan debt and college tuition prices both quickly ballooning, and no end in sight. Could it be that perhaps the government trying to do more to "help" prospective-and-past students is actually what's dramatically worsening the student-debt problem? From the WSJ: Nearly all student loans—93% of them last year—are made directly by the government, which asks little or...

'The U.S. had planned to blow up the moon with a nuclear bomb in the 1950s. At the height of the space race, the U.S. considered detonating an atom bomb on the moon as a display of America's Cold War muscle. The secret project, named 'A Study of Lunar Research Flights' and nicknamed 'Project A119,' however was never carried out. America's planning included calculations by astronomer Carl Sagan, then a young graduate student, of the behavior of dust and gas generated by the blast, the Daily Mail reports.'

A GUNMAN who tried to rob a hairdressers came a cropper when he was beaten and tied up naked by the female owner – who then fed him Viagra and used him as a sex slave. Viktor Jasinski, 32, had gone to the salon with the intention of robbing it. But after demanding the day’s takings he instead found himself overcome by the owner – karate black belt Olga Zajac, 28, – who floored him with a kick and tied him up with a hair dryer cable. She then took him into a back room at the salon at Meshchovsk,...

Hostess employees in Nash County, North Carolina on Friday were relieved that they would lose their jobs because union workers would not agree to an 8-percent pay cut, which was approved by a bankruptcy judge, and end their strike, which crippled the company's factories across the United States. Their reactions were surprising, because Nash County has an unemployment rate of 11.1 percent. Lamont Phillips, an employee, said the company had been, “holding this over our head for a long time,” and he was relieved he did not “have to deal with that anymore.” “They always hold that over our heads,...