Free Republic

Take note Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith: Getting political has its risks. After the actress declared Monday that she will be boycotting the Oscars after her husband was snubbed, Alexis Arquette took a major swing at the pair for what she alleges is hypocrisy. The transgender actress and gender-rights activist "outed" the married couple with a Facebook post that argued that Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s comments on race and the Oscars were invalid because they won't ’fess up about their alleged homosexuality. "When Jada comes out as Gay and her beard husband admits his first marriage ended when she...

A hefty majority of Americans - including a majority of those who consider themselves pro-choice - support "substantial abortion restrictions," says a new Marist Poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus and released Tuesday. The survey found that 81 percent of Americans and 66 percent of those who identify as pro-choice would restrict abortion to - at most - the first three months of pregnancy. Eighty two percent of women agree with that. The pollster says these findings have been consistent for the last eight years. In addition, 55 percent of American overall agree that “abortion ultimately does a woman...

GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Tuesday that when voters reflect on the policy proposals from Donald Trump there's going to be a "reality check." "Crazy talk isn't going to get us out of the mess we're in," Bush told CNBC's "Squawk Box." He said he has a "more credible message" than Trump, who's leading the Republican primary race by a wide margin, according to an aggregation of national polls. "Either Trump will change his mind on these subjects, which I doubt, or he's going to pay a price," Bush said, citing as an example the recent controversy over what...

The tumultuous race for the Republican nomination is taking a toll on the GOP's image, with more than four-in-ten voters saying that the primary contest has soured their perceptions of the Republican Party -- more so than impressions of the Democrats, according to the latest NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll. In the poll, 42 percent of registered voters said the primary race has made them feel less favorable about the GOP, compared to just 19 percent who said they feel more favorable. Thirty-eight percent said the brawl for the Republican nomination hasn't changed their view of the party as...

It was, perhaps, the day the media died. Next week marks the fifth anniversary of the bitter night-January 21, 2011-when progressive Americans, and indeed Americans of all political persuasions who value honor, truth, respect, intelligence and decency, were shocked to learn that MSNBC had decided to end Countdown with Keith Olbermann, perhaps the single best news program ever to air on cable television in the United States. The abrupt cancellation of Countdown was a victory for the dishonest political forces Olbermann had forcefully condemned during his nearly eight-year run-and a demoralizing defeat for democracy. Things just haven't been the same...

Chelsea Handler said political correctness isn't working for Americans. In a op-ed written for The Daily Beast, the 40-year-old comedian said she sat down with representatives from the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, American Indians in Film & Television and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We had an honest discussion about whether or not it's funny, appropriate, helpful, or hurtful to traffic in ethnic, racial, and religious stereotypes," Handler said. Handler said they all "ended up smiling and laughing about examples of politically incorrect humor because they could see...

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Due to "exceptional circumstances" the Islamic State (ISIS) has cut the salaries of its forces in half, a document from the terror groups Treasury Ministry (Bayt al-Mal), released in December, reveals. The document does not elaborate what it means by "exceptional circumstances" but wagers a guess that the intensified air strikes leveled against the group are beginning to take their toll. Especially since the American-led coalition and the Russians began bombing targets connected to that group’s oil smuggling operation and other economic targets. The coalition has since afflicted an even graver toll on the group's financial operation when...

The Democrats who are pushing Bernie Sanders are dangerously naïve. Because Sanders has a shot at beating Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, and because some polls show him running better against the GOP candidates than she does, they imagine he could actually win the White House. He can't. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and others who predict that the Republicans would win at least 40 states against Sanders, are right. Let's remember that Bill Clinton didn't win in Iowa or New Hampshire in 1992.* And that the Republicans haven't laid a glove on Sanders (because they...

Bill Clinton may not be the "secret weapon" that Hillary Clinton needs in the U.S. presidential race. And the former Democratic president may not become the albatross that Republican candidate Donald Trump expects, either. Bill Clinton simply is not wielding that kind of influence-good or bad-over voters so far this year, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. A majority of Americans, including 73 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans, said Bill Clinton does not factor into their opinion of Hillary for president. The poll, conducted January 7 to 13, found that 12 percent of Americans are more likely to...

More than 100 supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton turned out in Davenport on Saturday for a conversation with her daughter. Chelsea Clinton, 35, the former "first daughter," answered questions from a supportive audience at Modern Woodmen Park. Clinton, in turn, said she was charmed by the local residents and "grateful" to be back in Iowa. She also took note of two children who asked the expectant mother weighty questions on gun control and the impact of Wall Street on the economy. Xion Owens-Holst, 9, of Davenport, started the gun control discussion. When Clinton gets a question on that...

A breed of sea snake thought to be extinct for years was recently discovered off the west coast of Australia, another in a string of similar findings among species scientists believed were lost forever. It was the first time the species of snakes was seen in more than 15 years since disappearing from the Timor Sea, according to researchers at Australia's James Cook University who identified the snakes. The discovery of the Short Nose sea snake was confirmed after an Australia Parks and Wildlife officer sent a photo to researchers for identification, the university said. The study's lead author, Blanche...

In "Star Trek," a transporter can teleport a person from one location to a remote location without actually making the journey along the way. Such a transporter has fascinated many people. Quantum teleportation shares several features of the transporter and is one of the most important protocols in quantum information. In a recent study, Prof. Tongcang Li at Purdue University and Dr. Zhang-qi Yin at Tsinghua University proposed the first scheme to use electromechanical oscillators and superconducting circuits to teleport the internal quantum state (memory) and center-of-mass motion state of a microorganism. They also proposed a scheme to create a...

The sixth Republican debate on Thursday showed off a smaller top tier of candidates, who also showed that they’re getting better the more they debate. All of the contenders had their moments, but the main event was Donald Trump versus Ted Cruz, and Mr. Trump won handily with an big assist from "New York values," of all things. The Texas Senator this week said Mr. Trump "embodies New York values" as a way to suggest that the Manhattan businessman isn’t really a conservative. The two are fighting it out to finish first in the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, and...

At a police training academy on the outskirts of Brussels, new recruits are wrestling one another to the ground - practising techniques of unarmed restraint. There are about 40 of them - fresh-faced young people in their 20s, men and women - but what's immediately noticeable is that with one exception, they're all white. Watching them is Paul Jacobs. For 20 years he dealt with discrimination complaints in the Belgian police - and he's just finished a session teaching this class "inter-cultural communication". They discussed why so many Belgian youngsters go to fight in Syria - a higher proportion, relative...

Donald Trump may not have to win the White House for the Senate to start voting on his agenda. Senate Democrats plan to force their Republican colleagues to take sides on the GOP presidential frontrunner's most controversial proposals by offering them as amendments to other bills this year. "Since Republican leaders in the House and Senate have pledged loyalty to Trump, the obvious next step is to vote on his policies, including his unconstitutional plan to bar people from entering the United States based on their religion," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a Thursday statement, referencing Trump’s...

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina slammed Hillary Clinton -- and her marriage -- this morning on MSNBC. "If my husband had done some of the things Bill Clinton had done, I would have left him long ago," Fiorina said, when asked why she was making Clinton's marriage a campaign issue. "I think if you're running for the presidency of the United States, everything is an issue. You know why? Because leaders need to be trusted. And

<p>Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Thursday against the anti-abortion activists who secretly taped the group's officials talking about the sale of fetal tissue and released the heavily edited videos last year.</p> <p>The videos sparked a political firestorm in Washington, with Republican lawmakers accusing Planned Parenthood of profiting from the sale and trying unsuccessfully to strip the group of federal funding.</p>

This one is a bit surreal. Footage from a Donald Trump rally has gone massively viral, but not because of yet another bombastic and inflammatory comment from the Republican candidate. This time, the center of attention is a song and dance routine put on by the so-called "USA Freedom Kids" during a rally that's as frightening as it is unintentionally hilarious. A casual look at the lyrics, which are set against a MIDI-quality remix to the jingoistic "Over There" that was employed for recruitment in the early 20th century, show a tin ear for lyrics and a bizarrely confrontational worldview...

Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Iranian counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, at least five times Tuesday while U.S. Navy sailors were in Iranian custody, a senior State Department official told reporters Wednesday. In the course of his conversations, the official said Kerry told Zarif: "If we are able to do this the right way, we can make this into what will be a good story for both of us" and would be a way for Iran to prove it can act in a responsible manner in this type of situation. The calls, which took place over...

Mama needs a brand-new bag! According to a recent study by Baghunter, the legendary Hermès Birkin bag is a better investment than both gold and stocks. The luxury site compared the returns on the three investments over a 35-year period, and, as it turns out, the value of the Birkin, which starts at $11,000 on Baghunter, has never decreased. In fact, while the values of gold and the stocks have fluctuated, the top-handle tote's value has steadily increased more than 500 percent in the last three and a half decades. That makes for an average annual increase of 14.2 percent,...