Free Republic

Within hours of the gunfire falling silent on the campus of Umpqua Community College in Oregon Thursday, President Obama stepped up to a podium and declared that America should follow the path of our Anglosphere cousins to reduce gun violence. “We know that other countries, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings,” the president said. “Friends of ours, allies of ours — Great Britain, Australia, countries like ours. So we know there are ways to prevent it.” “Australia” is Obama’s preferred euphemism for that most cherished of gun-control ideals:...

The shooter at the centre of the Parramatta police HQ terror attack was a 15-year-old boy from Iran. The 'radicalised' youth gunned down police finance department employee and father-of-two Curtis Cheng at close range before being killed by a police officer. In a press conference with New South Wales premiere Mike Baird, Police commissioner Andrew Scipione confirmed the teens actions were 'politically motivated and therefore linked to terrorism'. En route to the killing the youth, originally from Iran, had visited Parramatta Mosque, The Daily Telegraph reported. Witnesses of the attack on Friday afternoon said after the killing, the teen paraded...

Controversial anti-abortion activist Troy Newman has been detained at Melbourne Airport after he travelled to Australia despite his visa being cancelled. Mr Newman, who has questioned why doctors who perform abortions were not sentenced to death, had previously been stopped in Denver in the US en route to Australia. He had his visa cancelled by the Department of Immigration on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton confirmed to Daily Mail Australia Mr Newman had been detained on Thursday morning. 'Despite having no visa to enter Australia Mr Newman-Mariotti boarded a flight and arrived in Melbourne,' she...

Two men have reportedly been shot dead outside a police headquarters in a Sydney suburb. Multiple shots were fired just 700m from the main station in Parramatta after two armed men allegedly stormed the headquarters, according to reports. Witnesses have reported seeing two bodies lying on the ground covered in white sheets. A NSW police spokeswoman said a major operation was underway and 'something's definitely going on out there'.

A prominent politician in the Australian state of Tasmania has lodged a formal complaint against a pamphlet on marriage produced by the Catholic Church, saying that it causes “immeasurable harm” by arguing against acceptance of same-sex unions. Martine Delaney, the anti-discrimination commissioner of Tasmania’s state government, called for an investigation of the Australian bishops’ conference which issued Don’t Mess with Marriage. The pamphlet was distributed to 12,000 families with children in the state’s Catholic schools. Delaney charged that the publication denigrated the rights of homosexuals.

A rare white humpback whale has been spotted off the coast of Queensland on Monday, and whale watchers are hoping it is Australia's famous whale Migaloo.

As if life wasn't hard enough during the last Ice Age, a new study has found Australia's first human inhabitants had to contend with giant killer lizards. Researchers working in Central Queensland were amazed when they unearthed the first evidence that Australia's early human inhabitants and giant apex predator lizards had overlapped

To some he was an Islamist extremist, to others a radical feminist, to others a neo-Nazi. These are all online identities that seem to have belonged to Joshua Goldberg - but in reality he was none of these things. They were simply online aliases used to whip up ideological hatred, with seemingly dangerous and even violent real-world consequences. In reality he lives in Florida, spent huge amounts of time online - and has now been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). SNIP It seems Goldberg wasn't just posing as a racist neo-Nazi. Earlier this year an Australian journalist,...

On September 17, the Bisbane Times published a video interview with Richard Dean Anderson—star of the hit 1980’s show MacGyver—in which Anderson talked about how he is not proud of the USA when it comes to the country’s gun culture. He also criticized the “despicable attitudes” he sees in the NRA. Anderson told the Bisbane Times, “[There is] too much injury and death happening, especially in the states, I’m not so proud of that aspect of my country.” Ironically, the day before this video interview was posted, Breitbart News reported that Panama plans to loosen gun restrictions because of the...

OF the five prime ministers we have had since the 2007 election, Australians have elected only two in their own right — Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott. They have voted out but one — Kevin Rudd, in favour of Tony Abbott. ..... But it is my view that, just like Kim Beazley was perhaps the best prime minister we never had, Tony Abbott was potentially the best prime minister we had but never knew it. ..... He espouses a set of values, principles and personal ethics that speak to community values that many of us could probably only aspire to....

Australia’s “Christian heritage’’ will be taught in schools in a slimmed-down national curriculum that focuses on phonics to ­improve children’s reading. ..... Indigenous issues have been cut from parts of the curriculum, and students will no longer be taught about Harmony Week, ­National Reconciliation Week, or NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) week. Students will continue to learn about Australia Day, Anzac Day and National Sorry Day. The Year 6 study of the contribution of “individua­ls and groups” to Australian society will no longer ­include a reference to indigenous people or migrants, and will be confined to the...

FROM the loneliness of political exile, Tony Abbott is urging conservative members of the Liberal Party not to walk away from the party he led into government two years ago. Aware of the tsunami of anger created by his ousting among party stalwarts, the former prime minister is telling friends that the Liberal Party will always be a better organisation with good people working within it than against it from the outside. ..... It is noteworthy that it took Malcolm Turnbull and his accomplice Julie Bishop two years to achieve what Labor could not do — remove Tony Abbott from...

The knifing of Tony Abbott will go down as one of the most destructive and arrogant acts of political bastardry this nation has yet seen. In many ways, it surpasses Labor’s two similarly bloody coups, so forensically explored in Sarah Ferguson’s superb Killing Season documentary, for the simple reason that Mr Turnbull’s treachery was done despite the knowledge that the electorate genuinely deplore such brutality. If there was, indeed, one clear lesson to come from the Rudd/Gillard danse macabre, it is that the voters prefer to do the knifings in the sanctity of the ballot box, and have little time...

"I mean Islam is an ancient religion of great scholarship" - said Mr. Malcolm Turnbull. He argued on the eyes of millions television viewers that " It is important for us that we promote and encourage Islam" (...) Mr. Turnbull statements seem to be misinformed and confusing which promote and communicate, at best, incomplete view of complex political reality. Because Islam has never been perceived by its proponents in Eastern world, as Christianity is being seen in Western civilization.

It is being described as "front stabbing" - a brutal attack on his leader by Malcolm Turnbull, who has long coveted the job of prime minister of Australia.

Watching the ceremony now.

MALCOLM Turnbull has replaced Tony Abbott as Prime Minister because the Liberals let his bull weaken their nerve and bury their judgment. Here’s Turnbull’s challenge in a nutshell: he stole the prime ministership he could not have won in an election. He stole it by boasting of superior communication skills he does not have. He will now campaign on successes by Abbott he could not have achieved himself. And he will now be the leader of a party he cannot unite. What have the Liberals done? Many of their members will be distraught and disgusted. Whether Turnbull wins the next...

Just announced live on Australian TV.

On the digital pages of National Review, Jonah Goldberg responded at length to the many criticism/rebuttals he received in response to a G-File published last week where he sank his teeth into Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and his supporters. Like everything Jonah writes, you should read the whole thing. This is a good debate; healthy for the Party and the movement. Unlike many who share his point of view, Goldberg is engaging in a spirited, not mean-spirited, discussion. One party Goldberg responds to is yours truly. Goldberg takes “particular exception” to what I wrote here… To his credit, Goldberg doesn’t...

Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the terrible ultra liberal “news” sites Daily Kos and Vox, took to Twitter on Saturday morning to criticize Breitbart for employing Joshua Ryne Goldberg who was arrested for allegedly plotting to commit a terrorist attack on Friday’s anniversary of 9/11. -snip Only one problem Goldberg didn’t actually write for Breitbart.  Not only that, he was a contributor for many left wing sites including the Daily Kos, Moulitsas’ own site.