Free Republic

  An American drone strike in January killed four people in Afghanistan: An American and an Italian held hostage by al-Qaida, as well as two Americans working with the terror group, were inadvertently killed in U.S. counterterrorism operations earlier this year, the White House said Thursday. The White House said that Warren Weinstein, an American held by al-Qaida since 2011, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian held since 2012, were killed in a January operation in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The operation targeted an al-Qaida-associated compound and there was no reason to believe either hostage was present,...

  In 2014 China made a round trip to the moon with robotic explorers. The Chinese intend to launch a mission to the moon that will return samples back to Earth. They have outlined their ambitious plans for outer space here. IEEE/Spectrum calls China the "Next Space Superpower."“The Chinese have said repeatedly that they are not going to go into space, land on the moon, look around, say, Been there, done that,’ and consider themselves done,” says Johnson-Freese. “They’re going to do stepping-stone infrastructure, and in those terms their space station makes sense.” Where else might Chinese astronauts go? Their...

During an undergraduate Political Science class a few decades ago one of my professors discussed the difference between Stalin and Hitler. While both were indeed power hungry and responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, they were distinctly different in motivation. Stalin, he suggested, was completely focused on power. He didn’t care how he got it or who he had to work with or betray in order to get it or keep it. If you were in his way, he would crush you and not think twice about it. If however you got out of his way...

  Who knew? It's is the darndest thing. I've just learned that I am a victim of white supremacy. The country has warmly embraced the actions of Toya Graham, who upon seeing her son participating in the Baltimore riots, let him know in no uncertain terms that he did the wrong thing. BALTIMORE — A mother who was caught on video smacking her 16-year-old son around after he threw objects at police said when they made eye contact, he knew he was in trouble. "I'm a no-tolerant mother. Everybody that knows me, know I don't play that," Toya Graham, a...

  It was surreal. Fox News reporter Leland Vittert was trying to get answers from Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and she was being shielded by race hustler Al Sharpton. Rawlings-Blake has been considered to be a rising political star in the democrat party. Then as Baltimore spiraled out of control, Rawlings-Blake found herself way over her head and she was unwilling to take the heat. As Rawlings-Blake headed for a speaking engagement for Sharpton's National Action Network , Sharpton promised that Rawlings-Blake would answer all Vittert's questions, but Rawlings-Blake ducked out the back door and dodged all questions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=287VGwjcmPoRawlings-Blake also...

Tim McGraw doubled-down on his planned July benefit concert for gun control group Sandy Hook Promise several weeks ago, asserting that he was supporting the “Sandy Hook community” with the concert, despite the fact that the benefit only supports Sandy Hook Promise.

illegal because it was based on finding a knife on Freddie Gray. Mosby asserted that the knife was legal under Maryland law. However, as Branca points out, there are often differences between city and state regulations: Indeed, the City of Baltimore has adopted as an ordinance its City Code §59-22, which states in relevant part: Switch-blade knives. (a) Possession or sale, etc., prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, carry, or possess any knife with an automatic spring. Thus (and again assuming Gray’s knife was spring-assisted, as widely reported), even if Mosby is correct (unlikely) that the...

  Brian Moore is dead. He was shot in the face two days ago. Moore was 25 at the time of his death. Since joining the NYPD five years ago he made 150 arrests and was awarded two exceptional police service medals and two meritorious police service medals. Here is the ABC News account of the story. Go read it. I'll wait. Notice anything missing? Here are the accounts of the Michael Brown shooting. CNN: Monday was supposed to be Michael Brown's first day at technical college. Instead, his parents were planning his funeral. The 18-year-old was shot by a...

Last year the United States celebrated the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty begun by LBJ in 1964. Over that time the country has spent approximately $40 trillion on welfare and redistribution programs of one sort or another – and that number doesn’t include expenditures for Social Security or Medicare. The program started out slow, but has steadily picked up steam so that today the United States spends over a trillion dollars on welfare programs every year. To put that $1 trillion in perspective, that is more than the GDP of every country on the planet except for the...

Sometimes the Drug War is so absurd we have to laugh. We live in a world where legal medical marijuana patients are criminalized, and men with badges trample the US Constitution. Can you tell the patches worn by Deadheads from the uniform patches of drug agents? Below are thumbnail images cropped from photos of patches. Some are worn by Deadheads, and others are worn by drug cops.

Dutch lawmaker brings truth to our nation’s capital. After two Muslim lawmakers tried to block world-renowned activist Geert Wilders from entering the country, he defiantly vowed his warnings about the existential threat Islam poses to Western civilization would never cease. “I know one thing,” Wilders told the audience April 29 at a Capitol Hill reception co-sponsored by Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). “They are very ineffective because I’m here,” he said to laughter and applause.

Forget Elizabeth Warren, it's Tom Brady who should be running for president. Well, president might prove a bit of a stretch right now, given that Brady's appeal might not extend beyond New England, where he works, Michigan, where he went to college, and Southern California, where he grew up.

More than half the public says Hillary Clinton is not trustworthy, one of several problems that could hamper her bid for the presidency, the May IBD/TIPP poll finds.

Everyone in Moscow tells you that if you want to understand Russia's foreign policy and its view of its place the world, the person you need to talk to is Fyodor Lukyanov. Lukyanov is the chair of Russia's Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, as well as the editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, which are something like the Russian equivalents of America's Council on Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs — though the Russian versions are considered much closer to the state and its worldview.

The long-term viability of Israel and its economy is also reflected by its economic indicators, which refute conventional "wisdom." Irrespective of a cynical and gullible “elite” media, independent of diplomatic pressure, political correctness and conventional wisdom, in defiance of the global economic slowdown, in the face of war and terrorism, and despite ill-advised threats of boycott, divestment and sanctions—but, due to principle-driven tenacity, inherent optimism, human capital/brain power, creativity, cutting edge ingenuity and breakthrough, game-changing innovations—Israel’s economy is expanding beyond expectations, reacting constructively to pressures/challenges, and developing unique commercial and security niches in response to local and global needs. For...

The difference between enlightened self-interest and nihilistic narcissism is the difference between the conservative and liberal viewpoints The difference between enlightened self-interest and nihilistic narcissism is the difference between the conservative and liberal viewpoints or weltanschauung. Using political jargon you could say that it is the difference between Right and Left. More to the point, the difference between the Right and Left is chiefly one of personal responsibility. The Right believes in self-responsibility, while the Left favors the “blame game” and adopting a victim status. The Left points fingers everywhere but at themselves—whatever the problem is it is everyone’s fault...

On April 29th the Washington Post ran an explosive article highlighting information from a passenger who was inside the transport vehicle at the same time Freddie Gray was driven toward central booking. According to the Washington Post source: Freddie Gray was intentionally “trying to injure himself“. On April 30th local Baltimore media outlet WBAL-TV introduced Donta Allen, a person they claimed was the passenger in the transport vehicle. However, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME PERSON. Our research indicates the office of Baltimore State Attorney, Marilyn Mosby, used or allowed one of her deputy State Attorneys, Janice Bledsoe (who was in...

May 1 marks what is known as May Day, a celebration of international workers chosen by the socialists and Communists of the Second International to recognize the Haymarket affair in Chicago’s Haymarket Square of May 1886. In order to ring in the holiday, we thought it apt to share 10 books on socialism and Communism and their impact on mankind. 1) The Marx-Engels Reader by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels This book contains the core works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which provide the intellectual basis for socialism and Communism. 2) The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek One...

An open letter to Al Sharpton. "Hey Al! Looks like you’ve finally made your way down to Baltimore. I don’t blame you. Gotta make them dollar, dollar bills! All those unpaid back-taxes really add up. So I want to make it clear that I don’t begrudge you one bit for trying to make a living. Heck, I don’t even mind your show at MSNBC. The mere blooper-reel has gotten more play in the Crowder household than anything else on Cablenews in the last decade. For that, I have to thank you. Matter of fact, I actually use your reel to...

Obama directing the racial riot movie Mayors and city councils—in office largely courtesy of public apathy—are President Barack Obama’s boots on the ground in the ongoing, carefully orchestrated racial riots coming soon to a city near you. In their bid to rescue America from total Marxist eclipse, patriots, as it turns out, have been knocking on the wrong door. Republicans, who surrendered to the Democrats even after taking over House and Senate in last Midterm elections, have no dog in the racial riots in Ferguson, Baltimore and other cities, but Mayor Stephanie Rowlings-Blake, who ordered a police stand down in...