Free Republic

This was the flag of slave holding states in the United States that seceded in 1861, causing Civil War. Today the symbol is used by the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi groups, and other organizations who are hostile to African-Americans. For the last several decades, protests have continued, demanding that this flag not be displayed in public places. Many people were greatly disturbed to see that the Confederate Flag is now being displayed, not in the United States, but in Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine. Larry Holmes, a civil rights activist in New York City, explained why the flag is...

“Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.”—Psalms 60:4 From the earliest periods nations seem to have gone forth to war under some banner. Sometimes it has been merely the pennon of a leader, and was only a rallying signal. So, doubtless, began the habit of carrying banners, to direct men in the confusion of conflict, that the leader might gather his followers around him when he himself was liable to be lost out of their sight. Later in the history of nations the banner acquired other uses and...

Friends and Fellow Citizens: Tarry here for a moment. My words shall be few and simple. The solemn rites of this hour and place call for no lengthened speech. There is in the very air of this resting ground of the unknown dead a silent, subtle, and an all-pervading eloquence, far more touching, impressive, and thrilling, than living lips have ever uttered. Into the measureless depths of every loyal soul it is now whispering lessons of all that is precious, priceless, holiest, and most enduring in human existence. Dark and sad will be the hour to this nation when it...

A little known battle and massacre happened in the Texas Hill Country during the Civil War 150 years ago. The date was Aug. 10, 1862. On or around Aug. 1, 68 mostly German immigrants gathered at Turtle Creek near Kerrville and began what they thought was going to be a straight-forward trail to Mexico, where they could join the ranks of the Union army just across the Rio Grande. As fate would have it, they were intersected by Confederate troops on the banks of the Nueces River in Kinney County. Just after midnight on Aug. 10,, a short, fierce battle...

President Obama will make his first trip to Israel as president if he wins a second term, his campaign said Monday. The Obama campaign set that expectation during a conference call intended to undercut GOP rival Mitt Romney’s trip to Israel on Saturday. “We can expect him to visit Israel in a second term should he be elected,” Colin Kahl, the former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for the Middle East, said of Obama.

Friends and Fellow Citizens: Tarry here for a moment. My words shall be few and simple. The solemn rites of this hour and place call for no lengthened speech. There is in the very air of this resting ground of the unknown dead a silent, subtle, and an all-pervading eloquence, far more touching, impressive, and thrilling, than living lips have ever uttered. Into the measureless depths of every loyal soul it is now whispering lessons of all that is precious, priceless, holiest, and most enduring in human existence. Dark and sad will be the hour to this nation when it...

The Marysville, Wash., police officer whose daughter was fatally shot by a sibling last weekend has been placed on administrative leave for an investigation. [...] The 7-year-old girl was shot Saturday by a sibling who found a loaded gun in the family's van as it was parked near the Stanwood City Hall. The parents were out of the vehicle at the time, but nearby. The girl died Sunday at a Seattle hospital.

The Hall of Famous Missourians will soon add a bust of Rush Limbaugh to its ranks, according to reports. Along with a bust of Dred Scott, the slave who sued for his own freedom in a famous 1857 case Dred Scott v. Sandford, the embattled talk radio personality will soon be added to the Hall. Continue Reading The sculpture is currently being made by sculptor E. Spencer Shubert, and, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is being paid for by private funds raised by the Speaker of the Missouri House. Limbaugh, a native of Cape Girardeau, Missouri,will be inducted into...

[...] These are just a few samples from the arsenal of degrading language Limbaugh deploys on women, people of color, lesbians and gays, immigrants, the disabled, the elderly, Muslims, Jews, veterans, environmentalists and so forth. Limbaugh doesn't just call people names. He promotes language that deliberately dehumanizes his targets. Like the sophisticated propagandist Josef Goebbels, he creates rhetorical frames -- and the bigger the lie the more effective -- inciting listeners to view people they disagree with as sub-humans. His longtime favorite term for women, "femi-nazi," doesn't even raise eyebrows anymore, an example of how rhetoric spreads when unchallenged by...

Ahlam Tamimi, the Palestinian woman who helped plan and launch the Sbarro suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 2001, claimed over the weekend that Israel asked the “Russian mafia” to kill her and other Palestinian prisoners who were released in the Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange agreement. Tamimi, who was released in October 2011 together with over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Schalit, told Al-Jazeera that the Mossad was planning to assassinate her and 40 other prisoners who were deported to Arab and Islamic countries. She did not provide further details of what she described as a “filthy plot.” Israel has...

The renegade Republican has piqued Muslim interest with promises to extract America from foreign wars, cut aid to Israel, and protect civil liberties. There are at least four "Muslims for Ron Paul" Facebook pages, and a scan of Paul's political donors shows many common Muslim names, like Mohammed, Ali and Ahmed. Paul's position on civil liberties resonates with many younger Muslims, including Zahra Siddiqui, an 18-year-old political science major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "These laws are obviously directed at policing Muslims," Siddiqui said. "Ron Paul knows how to differentiate between Muslims and terrorists, and he would never...

Appearing on Fox News' America Live Friday, GOP Presidential candidate Ron Paul said America should have empathy for Iran after one of their nuclear scientists was killed in a car bomb. Paul said that "obviously" the Iranian government wouldn't kill their own scientists. "This is an act of terrorism and we should empathize with them," Paul said. “If we haven’t done it, we should prove to them or give them all the reassurance that we have not done it … and if we are doing it, we ought to quit,” he added. Although both Israel and the United States have...

In an apparent change of heart, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said he would “seriously consider” serving under Ron Paul after previously saying that Paul’s foreign policy is worse than President Obama’s. On Fox Business Channel’s Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano, Bolton said “I would seriously consider serving in a Department of Defense under Ron Paul, if asked,” according to Napolitano’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. Just two weeks ago, Bolton said on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show that Ron Paul’s foreign policy is “worse than the Obama administration.” “That’s why I think the debate on...

Maybe Grandpa should stick to sports predictions. The psychic spider monkey at the Staten Island Zoo picked Newt Gingrich as the top banana in New Hampshire’s Republican primary, even though he’s languishing in the polls. And the soothsaying simian completely rejected front-runner Mitt Romney in Monday’s electoral challenge set up by the Daily News. Even the zoo’s curator, Peter Laline, admitted it was unlikely Grandpa’s longshot would pay off in the Granite State. “Perhaps Grandpa has other plans we’re not aware of. Maybe Grandpa started vetting the vice presidential candidates early,” Laline said. The 40-year-old monkey has a good record...

At a campaign event that drew more than 300 people here late Sunday afternoon, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) defended his Israel policy in response to a question from an undecided voter, an answer that included, in part, the suggestion that Israel “should be the Hong Kong of the Middle East.” “I would want to maintain very close relations with Israel,” Paul said. “I’d want to be a good friend of Israel. And I also want to respect them in many ways that I do not think the United States should undermine their sovereignty in any way.” He went on to...

Those organizing the 50th anniversary event — many of whom, like Longford, are not from Dallas or were born after 1963 — say they are not capitalizing on memories of Camelot. They want to show the world how far "Big D," the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country, has come from its days as a conservative outpost of big-haired socialites, oil tycoons and cowboys. "People arrive and expect to see people walking down the street in cowboy hats," said Phillip Jones, head of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Instead, they find a city with the sixth-largest gay and lesbian...

Aside from debating whether or not to vote for a prisoner exchange deal that would set Gilad Shalit free, several members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet offered several lines of action Israel could take following the deal's execution. Standing head and shoulders above most were Interior Minister Eli Yishai of Shas and his party member Meshulam Nahari, who said Israel should consider releasing Jewish terrorists who carried out attacks against Palestinians. "It's the right thing to do as part of the balances in Israel's society," Yishai said, adding that such a move would not "undo the releasing of hundreds...

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said that the capitalist system has reached an impasse and the protests on Wall Street have set a crisis in motion in the West. The Leader made the remarks in an address to thousands of well-wishers in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah on Wednesday. “The U.S. government may be able to put down this protest movement through taking tough actions, but it will not be able to eliminate its roots,” he stated. “The roots of this movement will grow in such a way that will knock the U.S....

A federal appeals court in Cincinnati on Friday struck down Michigan's Proposal 2, the ban on the consideration of race and gender when hiring public employees or enrolling students at public colleges. The voter-approved constitutional amendments burdens minorities and violates the U.S. Constitution, the court said in its 2-1 decision. The court said it violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell, who had suggested the city challenge the amendment after it was passed, was exultant Friday upon hearing the news of the reversal. “Wow! Wow! Wow!” Heartwell said. “It confirms the belief that many of...

A coalition of more than 600 mayors has launched a national TV ad campaign calling attention to a recent Al Qaeda propaganda video that urges the terrorist group’s followers to exploit loopholes to purchase firearms without background checks. The mayors’ ad is running on national cable news programs this week. It urges Congress to pass the Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011 and the Denying Firearms to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2011, bills pending that would close the loopholes Al Qaeda publicized.