Free Republic

For years the Progressive left has made the case that the United States should be more like Europe. From the way we consume oil, to our healthcare system, the Progressives are convinced that Europe does it better. But I wonder what the American left would say about a recent article on the National Post, which reports that some on the European left are saying that a video, targeting children, consisting of dancing genitalia, isn’t quite Progressive enough: “STOCKHOLM — In socially liberal Sweden, an educational video for children featuring dancing genitals has become an online hit — and even drawn criticism...

I know there are many angered by the title of this post, but the truth hurts. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been to political events where a politician kisses babies and talks Jesus so the pro-lifers in the crowd get thigh sweats and send the politician to Washington. When the politician takes up with his mistress or pays for an abortion or, as Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC)51% did, undermines the pro-life cause, they are just horrified. But still they return predictable to the GOP for more abuse and disappointment. Maybe it is time for a...

Emily Letts of Cherry Hill Women’s Center had an abortion, which she filmed to show that abortion was easy and positive. She wanted to portray abortion in a good light. She only showed herself in the video, smiling as she aborted the pregnancy. The camera never panned down to see the operation itself. This video shows the WHOLE story. Please watch it to the end, to get the full impact. VIDEO ON LINK

During a Per-RICO hearing on VA construction Cabal, “This is a FUBAR on steroids if I’ve ever seen one. …I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone when I listen to this,” Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) In the latest "construction mismanagement" cost the department hundreds of millions of dollars, delayed major projects by years (a gift that keeps on giving). could end up costing more than $1 billion -- more than the lavish U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Speaking in front of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said the department is overhauling the way they...

Just a general question - There seems to be a meme among lefties that Al Jazeera is an exceptionally "objective" news source. I haven't read Al Jazeera, but I wondered how the hell it has this reputation, even among the addled Left? I had an argument with my (college-aged) daughter over Christmas break about this. She insisted that it, along with the BBC, is very factual. I find this hard to believe, and suppose I should read it myself, but just wondered what you guys thought. I'm SURE there is no objectivity about Israel, for example.

Black people are too intent on holding on to wrongdoings from the past. Therefore, they keep blaming someone else for their problems.The list of wrongs done to Black people throughout their history in the U.S. that are still resonating in their lives today is extensive and extremely disturbing. As a result of hundreds of years of subjugation in an oppressive, racist system, Black households have one-tenth the wealth of white households in this country. While the Civil Rights Era enabled African-Americans to make great advances in the past 40 years — achieving high school, college and post-graduate degrees at accelerating...

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors make a mockery of the attempts of the Task Force and its Subcommittees to initiate change in response to the killing of Andy Lopez by Deputy Erick Gelhaus... Now they make plans to move forward with a park for Moorland, on the site where Andy was killed, with no mention of Andy Lopez.

The finale of the Miss Universe pageant is a week from Sunday. It will be televised on NBC at 8 Eastern, 7 Central. We wrote about the pageant and previewed some of the contestants here. Miss Universe now easily eclipses Miss World as the leading international beauty pageant. It is on television, for one thing; it still has a swimsuit competition, for another. Also, Miss Universe promotes itself far more skillfully, perhaps because it is owned by Donald Trump. The main Miss Universe web site is here; the pageant’s YouTube feed is here; its Facebook page is here; its excellent...

One of you is going to watch this, and comment: This is 3 minutes and 44 seconds of my life I’ll never get back. There is so much wrong there, it’s hard to know where to start. Please, don’t hate me for posting this. (VIDEO-AT-LINK)

As we face the new year, the biggest concern for peace lovers is Republican control of the U.S. Senate. While Republican votes don’t reach the key number 60, members of the GOP will still be in a strong position to push their belligerent global agenda. I don’t mean to overstate the danger. After all, the Democrats were hardly better. But those who abhor war will awaken each day knowing that hawkish Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and their ilk are in control. Peacemongers haven’t had much to cheer about during the Obama years. Barack Obama has gone back...

This video shows an abortion and the bodies of aborted babies. It is extremely graphic and disturbing. There are millions of abortions done every day in the world, and over 3500 in the United States. The first baby in this video appears to be in the second trimester. There are hundreds of abortions a day done at this stage in the US alone. An abortion clinic worker also appears in the video. Her speech on how abortion is a loving and sacred act is contrasted with the reality shown in the abortion video. Here is the video: Viewer discretion is...

ime running short, Republicans and Democrats agreed Tuesday on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to avoid a government shutdown and delay a politically-charged struggle over President Barack Obama's new immigration policy until the new year. The compromise will permit virtually the entire government to operate normally through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year, with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security. Funds for that one agency will run out again in late winter. That will give Republicans an opportunity to try to use the expiration as leverage to force Obama to roll back a decision that will...

A RECENT United Nations report says that nearly half a million Ukrainians have fled the country since April. The fact that families run from a war zone is heartbreaking but hardly unexpected. The disturbing part lies in the details — of the roughly 454,000 people who had fled Ukraine by the end of October, more than 387,000 went to Russia. Most of those who fled were Russian speakers from the east, but this still raises a sobering question: If this is a conflict between Ukraine and Russia, why did so many Ukrainians choose to cast their lot with the enemy?...

There has been no dearth of news stories, reports, and commentary over the past few months on the epidemic of racists, whether in law enforcement or the general population, either inflicting or attempting to inflict, punishment on African Americans for being African Americans. As noted here on Tuesday, “there are certain groups who are adamant that as superior human beings they have authority to mete out punishment for violations of their beliefs that are usually borne of religion.” Despite protections in the U.S. Constitution and federal and state laws, the past six years have seen an increase in religious fundamentalists...

Quick question for you gun aficionados.

Where, outside of a marginalized left, are today’s equivalent of the antebellum radical Republicans, “ready and willing to destroy” the coercive deportation regime? Where are the absolutists, who would brook no compromise, who would rather see the republic ripped apart than tolerate an immigration system that denies equal rights to millions upon millions of people; that brutalizes families, generates thousands upon thousands of desert deaths, and breeds sexual terror, be it on the journey here, in the factory and field, or in the closed quarters of the home, where women workers have limited protections and where fear trumps whatever slim...

Jenny McCarthy, easily the finest female specimen ever to appear on estrogen-addled daytime-TV squawkfest The View, recently upset the eternally offended Gay Lobby by insinuating what most of the Western world has insinuated for decades—that Hillary Clinton has a taste for female flesh. Even though being gay is supposed to be cool, Clinton supporters balked and blanched and belched at the allegation not because being a Daughter of Sappho is a matter of shame, but because Clinton is on record denying it, which would make her a liar in the grand tradition of her husband. Assuming that Clinton does not...

AGBOR—THE number of people turning to dog meat (flesh and other palatable parts derived from dogs) for its undocumented health and spiritual benefits is snowballing, compelling sellers to open road side joints where they butcher and sell the meat, fresh or cooked. From Ibusa to Agbor, Ubuluku and Umunede in Delta State, you see men mostly in hidden or open kiosks demolishing plates of dog meat pepper soup, which they claim stands out from any other meats Dog meat joint Dogs butcher at work Dogs butcher at work As a group of people gathered round a giant size cooking pot...

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson, officer safety is the number one issue, after two of his officers fired nine rounds into a shoplifter. Is a police officer's number one job really to protect himself and his partner? Really?

Thomas Miguel Guerra may be using the alias Ashton Chavez on dating sites A San Diego man accused of knowingly spreading HIV to unwitting partners is still active on the dating app Grindr and may be using an alias, an ex-boyfriend tells NBC 7. Thomas Miguel Guerra, 29, has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge in connection with what San Diego City Attorney officials say was an ongoing plan to knowingly spread HIV. An ex-boyfriend who spoke with NBC 7 shared a text message in which Guerra appeared to gloat about a person becoming HIV-positive. "Yay lol… Someone getting...

A group of women have been accused of hiding two stolen Rolex watches in their vaginas. Charmella Triggs, Bryanna Warren and Trinity Kennard, both 23, were detained by Las Vegas police after CCTV images reportedly showed them stuffing the expensive watches down their dresses. The three women had reportedly stolen the items worth £9,600 ($16,000) from two men at the Encore Hotel. According to police they lured the victims to a room and had sex with them before taking the Rolexes. The women were reportedly pursuit by one of the men who quickly stopped when one of them produced a...

SNIP “Morals don’t come into it,” Navai writes. “Lying in Tehran is about survival . . . when the truth is shared in Tehran, it is an act of extreme trust or absolute desperation.” SNIP

I have sometimes imagined that because of my time in prison I can understand what it is like to be black in the United States. I lived for nearly 25 years under conditions of control, viewed with suspicion and presumed dangerous. The law enforcement that ran the prisons were taught to view prisoners as an enemy, and that things could go wrong at any moment and they often responded with preemptive or excessive force. It was also a world full of black prisoners, who far outnumbered the other races, so I lived as a minority and sometimes suffered because...

In a recent column in the Philadelphia Inquirer, a German native discussed how his country has dealt with the guilt over the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust. He provided a lesson all Americans should learn. Franziska Holzschuh is a reporter for the German daily newspaper Nurnberger Nachrichten and is on assignment with The Inquirer as part of the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship Program. His hometown is Nuremberg, where the initial laws singling out the Jews for persecution were passed and where the war crimes trials were held at the conclusion of World War II. Mr. Holzschuh said...

The VA Inspector has been investigating the deaths for months and has now shared draft of his findings with Top Officials. The new VA Secretary McDonald said: "It is important to note" that while the report documents deficiencies in quality and substantial delays in care, OIG was unable to conclusively assert that the absence of quality or care directly caused the death of any these victims. This May, the inspector found that 1,700 veterans, waiting for primary care appointments at the Phoenix VA, did not show up on the wait list. An additional 1,800 will have to wait at three...

Henry Rollins slams Robin Williams for committing suicide: 'How in the heck could you possibly do that to your children?' The hardcore rocker and spoken word artist doesn't mince his words when it comes to Williams' Aug. 11 suicide, suggesting that the 40,000 people who commit suicide each year in this country 'are 40,000 people who blew it.'Hardcore rocker Henry Rollins is being branded as a punk for criticizing Robin Williams in his weekly newspaper column. The former Black Flag frontman and self-proclaimed Williams fan slammed the late comic actor for committing suicide and "traumatizing" his three children in the...

More than ten thousand people have been killed in Kiev’s punitive operation in southeastern Ukraine since April, said a Ukrainian parliamentary group. The MPs addressed the president urging to declassify information on citizens killed. The Ukrainian parliamentary group “For peace and stability” said on Friday that the figure was given by volunteer groups working in the east of the country, ITAR-TASS reported. “We have estimated that just in the first two weeks of July nearly 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the area of the ‘anti-terrorist operation’,” the group said in a statement in the Verhovnaya Rada (Ukraine’s parliament). “The...

Bergdahl, 28, "sent back" after years held by Suni Dominants. Obama agenda of the moment ordered Bergdahl's release from Haqqani in trade for five Taliban, some of the deadliest against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The federal government has awarded the University of California Los Angeles $193,989 in taxpayer funds to study skill-building as HIV prevention for male sex workers in Peru. The grant was issued by the National Institute of Mental Health, a part of the National Institutes of Health, and proposes “a pilot study for a group that has been neglected in the Peruvian HIV epidemic, namely male sex workers (fletes).” Men having sex with men in Peru have a “high burden of HIV” at 10 to 15 percent, compared to male sex workers, who have a 23 percent prevalence, researchers found. …

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged his government to come up with countermeasures to Western sanctions imposed against Russia over the Ukrainian conflict. Putin stressed that Moscow’s response should be “cautious.” “Obviously we need to do it cautiously in order to support domestic manufacturers, but not hurt consumers,” he said on Tuesday. The president expects the government to present a response to the sanctions as soon as possible. Putin said that the political tools of pressure being used against the Russian economy are unacceptable, stressing that they go against international rules and norms. Putin’s comments come on the same day...

I am new here and I hope my comments are not taken out of context or I'm thought to be a horrible person if my words lean in a racist direction. I in no way pretend to be some political science student or preacher, but sometimes an old man just has to vent! I am a Viet Nam Vet Discharged in 1975 and then as now, it seems that the USA can never really have a clear perception of "who our friends are and who are the Devils on the world stage". And ever since that experience I have been...

A Florida judge has denied an imprisoned sex offender's request that he be castrated at the expense of the state. The Ocala Star-Banner reports that the man is serving 10-year sentence after pleading no contest to second-degree felony sexual battery. In a hand-written motion, the 35-year-old inmate asked a circuit court judge to modify his sentence to include castration. The motion did not explain why the inmate wanted to be castrated. The court denied the motion saying it did not have jurisdiction in the case.

LuAyne Brown, who goes by the stage name Lulu, claims to be the world’s heaviest pole dancer, at 18 stone. While the 29-year-old mum-of-two from Maryland might be twice the size of her fellow female pole dancers, she reckons she boasts double the tricks. She’s got a whole repertoire of lifts, splits, knee-holds and spins in her arsenal and regularly competes on the pole dancing circuit. As she puts it, she’s got ‘it all in her locker’ and ‘there’s no move she can’t perform’. Go Lulu. She may be twice the size of other women but LuAyne Brown boasts double...

The Baltic Sea is not known for its flesh-stripping tropical fish, but this season, a close relative of the piranha reputed to have a fondness for nibbling on men's testicles has appeared in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic. A local fisher nabbed several South American pacu in a city pond and handed them over to marine biologists for identification, Interfax reported Friday. The pacu is a cousin of the omnivorous piranha. Unlike its fearsome relative, it mostly subsists on a pacific diet of nuts and algae, but last summer media dubbed the pacu the "ball cutter" when...

Unfortunately, competition is under attack in my beloved Wisconsin when it comes to energy choice. For the state where I grew up watching my father decry and fight like hell against the ruinous policies of Robert LaFollette Jr., who turned the state into a progressive “paradise” of which only Karl Marx and Gus Hall could be proud, I want nothing more than a vibrant competitive market. While Gov. Scott Walker has done more than any other Wisconsin governor in recent memory to undo policies that threaten competition, he’s missing the boat on energy choice in the state.

A 44-year-old married Zhejiang man went to the doctor after experiencing stomach aches and blood in his urine, only to discover he was on his period. Not only that, but he had a full set of female reproductive organs. Man-strual cramps Chen knew something was wrong when he found himself constantly feeling fatigued and having a swollen face and legs. Even worse, he found blood in his urine. However, he never expected the CT scan to reveal that he had a uterus and ovaries. Results from chromosome examination also showed that Chen had a pair of XX sex chromosomes, meaning...

According to insiders, NBC political director and chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd is the rightful heir to Gregory, but he has not been officially offered the job. Other names said to be in the frame include “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie, who comes from a political background but is unlikely to be released from the flagship morning show where she’s hugely popular. Guthrie is also due to give birth to her first child next month and will return to “Today” after maternity leave. MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” team of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have also been said to be angling...

Russia has released military monitoring data, which shows Kiev military jets tracking the MH17 plane shortly before the crash - and posed yet another set of questions to Ukraine and the US over the circumstances of the tragedy. Military officials – chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Andrey Kartopolov and chief of the Air Force Main Staff Lt. Gen. Igor Makushev - posed a number of questions to Kiev and Washington concerning the possible causes of the catastrophe in Eastern Ukraine that killed almost 300 people last Thursday. 1. Why did the MH17 plane leave the...

The Libyan charged over the deadly attack on the US mission in Benghazi pleaded not guilty in a US court on Saturday. Ahmed Khatallah has been indicted on a charge of conspiracy to provide material support... FBI Director James Comey hailed Khatallah's capture as a "major step forward", US officials suggest that the suspect was "hiding in plain sight"...

Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford urged to back off plans to cut funding ($550 million contract for Rosoboronexport, Russian supplier of the Mi-17), claiming it would have a “catastrophic” effect on Afghanistan’s ability to conduct operations. By the end this year, U.S. will abandon its position in Afghanistan. Russian forces who will replace US are flight ready with the Mi-17, though many would prefer American class equipment.

The U.S. military has grounded all its new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters following an incident on June 23, when one of the high-tech warplanes caught fire on the runway of a Florida air base. The no-fly order — which affects at least 50 F-35s at training and test bases in Florida, Arizona, California and Maryland. F-35 is on track to become by far the military’s most numerous warplane. It was designed to replace almost all current fighters in the Air Force and Marine Corps and complement the Navy’s existing F/A-18s.

Every year since 2001, the Sonoma County grand jury has reviewed what police call “critical incidents” – officer-involved shootings and the deaths of suspects or criminal defendants in custody. Until this year. The 2013-14 grand jury, whose term ended June 30, declined to examine such cases. That includes the October fatal shooting of teenager Andy Lopez by Sonoma County Sheriff's Deputy Erick Gelhaus, among other deaths involving law enforcement in the past year. Citing a lack of expertise, financial support and public misconceptions about their role, Sonoma County grand jurors decided to diverge from the longstanding custom.

BAGHDAD — Kurdish security forces took over two major oil fields outside the disputed northern city of Kirkuk before dawn Friday and said they would use some of the production for domestic purposes, further widening a split with the central government of Prime Minister Maliki. The president of the Kurdish (prior, no fly) zone has said the areas won't be returned — including the highly disputed, flashpoint city of Kirkuk — and he called for Kurdish lawmakers to prepare to hold an independence referendum in the area, a move strongly opposed by Baghdad, Turkey and the United States. //Snip// http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/11/iraq-parliament-dysfunction.html,...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a decision to reinterpret the Japanese constitution, allowing Tokyo to militarily support partners that are under attack.

Middleweight Championship Chris Weidman (c) (11-0) vs Lyoto Machida (21-4) Women Bantamweight Championship Ronda Rousey (c) (9-0) vs Alexis Davis (16-5) Heavyweight Stefan Struve (29-6) vs Matt Mitrione (7-3) Middleweight Uriah Hall (9-4) vs Thiago Santos (9-2) Bantamweight Marcus Brimage (6-2) vs Russell Doane (13-3)

SOCCER: PART DEUXANN COULTER July 2, 2014 PARIS -- Soccer fans have decided to prove me wrong about soccer being a fruity sport by spending the last week throwing hissy fits. This, in defense of a "sport" where the losing players cry on camera. The massive and hysterical response to my jovial sports piece proves how right I was. Nothing explains the uniform, Borg-like caterwauling, but that soccer is a game for beret-wearers. Most of the articles attacking me are verbless strings of obscenities, their subject matter identified only in the title. Consequently, I've decided to emulate The New York...

One-time Wu-Tang Clan-affiliated rapper Christ Bearer says that, despite the fact that he cut his penis off in a much-written about incident in April, his member has reunited with his body and is now fully functioning. In fact, he hopes to prove both points by doing a porno film. -snip- TMZ’s crack interviewer asked the rapper if any drugs were involved in his self-castrating incident, which led to a series of bleeped-out expletives; however he does say, “PCP was involved!” and adds, “Kids, say no to drugs!”

The owners of a chain of stores called Hobby Lobby don't like Obamacare. In particular, they really don't like the part that requires insurance companies to cover contraceptives. Normally, people who don't like a law petition the government to change that law. That's how a nation of laws works. But these men are Christians. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Christian business owners are special. Their deeply held religious belief that some particular form of contraception is immoral carries more weight than the force of law, five conservative Christian justices ruled. The court -- in a fairly bald admission that...

A gang threw excrement at the office of a gay organization in Rome, while shouting death threats against people inside, Italian media reported on Friday. \Di Gay Project (DGP) in southern Rome was attacked on Wednesday night, with the crime being reported to police on Friday, Corriere della Sera said. A mob threw excrement and other items, such as wooden boxes and vegetables, at the organization’s office, as people were rehearsing a theatre performance inside. Members of the gang, estimated to be aged between 15 and 40, also shouted threats such as “We’ll set you alight” and “you deserve to...

Feels like this soccer crap is being forced on us on ESPN, etc. Yes, just change the channel but why is there this effort to make believe that Americans love soccer and love the WNBA? They are two artificially created.