Free Republic

Watch a rare peak into PJTV’s Member series, Hot Seat w/ Bill Whittle. Is freedom of speech a thing of the past, now that N. Korea shut down Sony’s movie?

Lt. Colonel Tony Shaffer, author of The Last Line, and Ret. Col. David Hunt joined Bill O’Reilly to give an update on the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap. Lt. Colonel Shaffer told Bill the Obama administration paid $5 billion and released five top Taliban Gitmo detainees in exchange for deserter Bowe Bergdahl. Obama celebrated the release of deserter Bowe Bergdahl with a White House press conference in the Rose Garden in May 2014.Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, who was part of the negotiations, told Bill O’Reilly the US paid out $5 billion and traded five top Taliban detainees for Bergdahl. Bill O’Reilly:...

After a rough day at work, it's hard to beat coming home to people a happy household. Baby Isaiah can barely stand up, but patiently waits at the window for his daddy to come home. When he sees his car, he waves and then speed-crawls his way to greet his hero. That's a worthwhile homecoming.

We are in the midst of a war on rape. From American campuses to British courthouses, from newspaper op-ed pages to the weird world of online petitions, ‘zero tolerance’ of rape has been declared. And who could possibly be against it? No one is ‘pro-rape’. So surely everyone will cheer a war on rape. Not so fast. Wars on rape have been declared before, and often for deeply reactionary reasons, having the effect of harming society rather than helping women. Consider the ‘war on rape’ declared in America’s Deep South in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the KKK...

It's shameful that a company like Sony would go groveling to a deceitful, tyrannical, un-American thug, but this column is not about Sony’s sucking up to Al Sharpton. This column is about a tort system that is dedicated not to justice but to making lawyers richer, and it comes not only at the price of American prosperity but at the cost of our liberty as well. Certainly, Sony has a yellow streak as wide as Seth Rogen’s gut. Its creepy supplication to that race-hustling, MSNBC troll shows its true cowardly character, since Sharpton – unlike North Korea – doesn’t have...

Video posted by WPIX shows two rows of New York City police officers with their backs turned as Mayor Bill de Blasio walked down a hallway to his press conference Saturday night about the execution of two New York City police officers on Saturday afternoon.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKueC2o0mkI

RUSH: Yesterday we made mention of the fact that Barack Obama was running around talking about the fact that one time, that time long ago, he was insulted that somebody thought he was a valet. Not when he was president. Over seven years ago, somebody thought he was a valet, and that meant the United States was racist. That meant that he had a legitimate chip on his shoulder, and his wife was running around saying (summarized), "Yeah, I went into Target, and I was first lady. Now, I was in disguise, but I went into Target and somebody asked...

RUSH: I was just asked a question, ladies and gentlemen. Does this mean that you can now go to Canada and buy a Cuban cigar and bring it back home? I don't think it means that yet. We are still here trying to figure out what happened. And, by the way, I need to remind you all of something. This is chump change compared to what's gonna happen the next two years. I have warned all of you people, I have warned you that these last two years of the Obama administration are gonna actually be what he would have...

A Texas plumber is receiving threatening calls after his old pickup truck appeared in a jihadist video in Syria. The Ansar Al-Deen terrorist group used his truck in a propaganda video in Syria. Texas City plumber Mark Oberholtzer has been bombarded with calls, some hostile, since a truck he traded in at AutoNation was shown being used as a gun platform in Syria. (Galveston Daily Times)The Ansar Al-Deen Front, an independent Islamist group operating near Aleppo, Syria, posted video of the truck used in fighting.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLSN0pDqABMFOX News reported: A Texas plumber has been receiving threats after a photo emerged of Islamic...

On Wednesday Barack Obama thanked Pope Francis for playing a key role finalizing a deal between the US and Cuba.Pope Francis is now set on closing Gitmo.World Net Daily reported: Having helped broker the agreement to normalize relations between the United States and communist Cuba, Pope Francis plans next to turn his attention to closing the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, a goal he shares with President Obama.In a meeting last week at the Vatican with Secretary of State John Kerry, the Vatican secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, second in authority to the pope, offered to assist U.S. efforts to...

Today Barack Obama normalized relations with Communist Cuba. The president said the current policies were not working.Castro already is making demands from the US. Castro: "The blockade…must cease" #Cuba— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) December 17, 2014 The blockade must cease. Raúl Castro: Diplomatic relations will be restored, but the economic blockade should be stopped.— Sjamme van de Voort (@SjammevndVoort) December 17, 2014 Castro also gave a speech today in response to the announcement. LIVE: Pres. Obama, Pres. Castro holding news conferences to announce changes in relations: http://t.co/YoGbFPNqdI pic.twitter.com/iuKHaBbYWd— ABC News (@ABC) December 17, 2014

VICTORIA, TX -- A Victoria police officer has been placed on administrative duty after his dashboard camera caught him Tasering an elderly man. In the video obtained by the Victoria Advocate, Officer Nathanial Robinson is seen arresting 76-year-old Pete Vasquez, when he suddenly throws Vasquez onto the hood of the car, pulls him to the ground and Tasers him. Vasquez said the cop acted more like a pit bull than a police officer. "I turn around and he pulled that Taser and he shot me with it, and you know it looked like he's enjoying that," Vasquez said.

RUSH: I just got a note. "Hey, you know, this is a good thing that you're talking about here, the loss of honest media, targeting anything conservative. Do you do you take any hope in people seeing what you're talking about more and more?" Yeah, I do. Look at the last two midterm elections. I think the American people see clearly what's happening here and they don't like it. I think the American people are totally -- those voting, anyway -- are very aware of all of this. And they're voting to stop all of this stuff. All of this...

Last week, Robby wrote here about how "students are so coddled by the feelings-protection regime at university campuses that they now believe disheartening national news developments—such as the grand jury decisions in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases—entitle them to final exam extensions." Columbia Law School delayed final exams for students who felt unable to take them in the wake these developments. Students at Harvard and Georgetown began demanding their universities follow suit.One might think that Oberlin College, known for it's ultra-crunchy reputation, would be all about this. At least one professor at Oberlin, however, is having none of...

When students at Columbia and other law schools around the country demanded that exams be postponed because they were traumatized by the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, we and many others responded with ridicule. In today’s National Law Journal, a third-year law student at Harvard named William Desmond says that we got it all wrong: the request for extra time for exams was a sign of the students’ strength. For entertainment value, you should read the whole thing, but here are some excerpts: [O]pponents of exam extensions have declared that to grant these requests would be a disservice to...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q15xhG6pVUw Pundits on different sides of he aisle, brothers Brad (Democrat) and Dallas (Republican) Woodhouse were just beginning to go after each other on CSPAN's Washington Journal when host Steve Scully took a call from Joy in North Carolina. It wasn't until she started to speak that the two brothers realized it was their mother calling to tell them their arguments were ruining the holidays. As soon as host Scully announced the call, the brothers exclaimed how happy they were getting a call from the South. Until they heard the voice. "You’re right, I’m from down south. And I’m your...

Earlier tonight, Curtis Houck at NewsBusters observed that the Tuesday evening network news shows failed to report on an opinion issued today by a federal judge in Western Pennsylvania in connection with President Obama's illegal immigration-related executive actions last month. Several blogs and center-right outlets noted Judge Arthur Schwab's 38-page "Memorandum Opinion" this afternoon. Not that this excuses the networks, but a search at the Associated Press's national site just before 8 p.m. on Schwab's last name (unfortunately not saved) returned nothing relevant. But shortly after 8 p.m. a story with a time stamp of 5:08 p.m. with Schwab's name...

Allow me to unite America's left, right and center in just three words: No, Jeb, No. Former GOP Florida governor Jeb Bush made the obvious official this week when he announced on Facebook that he's "actively exploring" a 2016 White House run. Of course, he's running. That's what inveterate politicians do. Well, I hate to break it to Jeb Inc. There's no popular groundswell for Bush Part III. None, zip, nada. Independents, progressives and conservatives are all weary of the entrenched bipartisan dynasties that rule Washington and ruin America. Only in the hallowed bubble of D.C. and New York City...

In the most shocking development yet, the Sony attackers have threatened a 9/11-like attack on movie theaters that screen Seth Rogen and James Franco’s North Korean comedy “The Interview.” They also released the promised “Christmas gift” of files. The contents of the files are unknown but it’s called “Michael Lynton,” who is the CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. “The world will be full of fear,” the message reads. “Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.) Whatever comes in the coming...

Most everyone in the United States has at some point encountered Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. One short story, “Silver Blaze,” involves a dog that didn’t bark. Spoiler alert: Detective Sherlock Holmes solves the case by realizing a dog didn’t bark because the dog recognized the murderer.Holmes’s legwork is profoundly applicable to disgraced journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s whopper of a Rolling Stone story claiming at least five members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity chapter at the University of Virginia gang-raped — and punched in celebration — a freshman named Jackie at a party at their frat house on Sept. 28,...