Free Republic

Our country is in a crap sling of gastronomical proportions. I was going to say astronomical but this thing is more gassy than it is interplanetary. You wanna know how messed up weÂ’ve become? Well, for one, Kim Kardashian has 43 million followers on Instagram just waiting for her to post a pic of her ample ass-ets. Secondly, social media dipsticks think Cecil The LionÂ’s plight was/is more important than Planned Parenthood's dealing aborted baby body parts. Thirdly, there are actually people in this country, who call themselves Americans, whoÂ’re contemplating making Hillary Clinton president. Look, as far as IÂ’m...

The progressive movement that has overtaken the Democratic Party gains its moral authority in a morally relativistic world in part based on its support of the “oppressed” over the “oppressor.” As Joshua Muravchik ably argues in his Making David Into Goliath, in this construct, Israel has morphed into the oppressor, swapping roles with the Muslim countries that have wished to destroy her from the time of her founding. The Leftist-Jihadist nexus of which Andy McCarthy writes, on display from elite college campuses to the president’s cabinet, is perhaps stronger than it has ever been. It believes in punishing the ultimate...

One of Cecil the lion's cubs has reportedly been killed by a rival male who was trying to mate with his mother. Cecil, a 13-year-old lion who was beloved by visitors and park rangers at his home in Zimbabwe, was killed last month by an American dentist on a hunting trip. The death of one of Cecil's eight cubs has raised fears for his remaining offspring, which could also be targeted by the large predatory male lion.

Walter Palmer the hunter is now the hunted, with worldwide reprobation making him a social pariah and social-media threats driving him into hiding. And now a federal investigation into the Minnesota dentist who allegedly poached famed Cecil the Zimbabwean lion has been launched. Yet Planned Parenthood, revealed on video to have been selling the body parts of murdered babies, is receiving relatively little scrutiny. [] Planned Parenthood (PP) — which has been blithely murdering babies and tearing them to pieces so their body parts can be sold for profit — is not receiving nearly the press the lion has. And...

What could capture your mourning over the senseless killing of a proud African lion like a $3,200 commemorative cellphone? Or how about a commemorative Beanie Baby? Those are just a couple of the dozens of commercial spinoffs following the death of Cecil the lion, reportedly lured out of a protected area so an American safari hunter could shoot it with an arrow. While Walter James Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who now faces charges for the hunt, has been vilified worldwide, his prey has been elevated to commemorative T-shirt status. Charities and businesses are cashing in with a variety of products...

Animal lovers should not wait for Barack Obama to avenge Cecil the Lion's death. Obama knows that it is not only the Walter Palmers of this world who get to go off on safaris Any serious attempts by the Obama administration to extradite Cecil the Lion killer Walter Palmer would be more far more laughable than laudable. When Michelle Obama took herself off on safari at the Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa in June of 2011—with her personal hairdresser and makeup artist in tow—she was hunting publicity rather than big game. But Michelle went off on safari all the...

Winston-Salem, N.C. — MY mind was absorbed by the biochemistry of gene editing when the text messages and Facebook posts distracted me. So sorry about Cecil. Did Cecil live near your place in Zimbabwe? Cecil who? I wondered. When I turned on the news and discovered that the messages were about a lion killed by an American dentist, the village boy inside me instinctively cheered: One lion fewer to menace families like mine. My excitement was doused when I realized that the lion killer was being painted as the villain. I faced the starkest cultural contradiction I’d experienced during my...

For reasons I still don’t understand, America has lost its damn mind about a dead lion. You see, recently some dentist from Minnesota went on a lion-hunting trip to Zimbabwe — which is apparently a thing — and he killed a lion that wasn’t in the designated hunting area. This is, of course, the most important thing in the world. People are freaking out. Americans whose only experience with lions comes from zoos and nature shows and Disney cartoons are calling for this dentist’s extradition and/or death. They’re hounding the guy. They’re wailing and gnashing their teeth. Hell, before last...

You know what? I get it. I really do get the outrage over a Minnesota dentist’s $50,000 vanity kill of Cecil the Lion. With elaborate measures in place for his protection, the dentist finished Cecil off with a rifle after ineptly wounding him with a compound bow, which left the animal bleeding for days as the intrepid hunter and his professional guides tracked it down. Then he hacked off the beast’s head so he could take it home and mount it in his study. A fair fight, if you please! A man-versus-beast, put-your-life-on-the line, kill-or-be-killed sort of encounter with the...

Until a few days ago, Dr. Walter Palmer was just a successful dentist from Minnesota who had a passion for trophy hunting; a highly regulated and extremely expensive sport. His most recent hunt took him to Zimbabwe, where he shot a male lion during a hunt with a licensed hunting guide. It was only when word of Palmer’s hunting success spread that the dentist discovered just how quickly and completely the Internet can be used to destroy a person. Overnight, Palmer’s prey, a lion dubbed “Cecil” by local Zimbabweans, became the latest Internet celebrity victim and Palmer the most recent...

Angry vandals defaced the vacation home of lion killer Walter J Palmer overnight on Monday, while also littering the American dentist's driveway with pig's feet in a show of outrage over the death of a beloved lion named Cecil. Pictures taken Tuesday morning outside the 55-year-old's $1million vacation home in Marco Island, Florida show the garage door spray painted with the words 'Lion killer!' and a handful of orange pig's feet scattered across the front of the house. Palmer has been in hiding ever since he was identified last month as the big game hunter behind the cruel killing of...

Plush toy manufacturer Ty Inc. announced Monday that it’s making a Beanie Baby to commemorate Cecil the Lion, a Southwest African Lion killed last month by American tourist Walter Palmer. The company says it will donate all profits from the new toy to the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit of University of Oxford, the organization that had been tracking Cecil since 2008.

With the ABC and CBS preoccupied with continuing coverage of Cecil the Lion and NBC harping on Jeb Bush’s comments about women’s health, the major broadcast networks found zero time on Tuesday night to mention the fact that arguably the most disturbing video yet in the Planned Parenthood scandal was released hours earlier by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). Despite multiple mentions on cable networks CNN, the Fox News Channel (FNC), and MSNBC, the “big three” networks reverted back to their old ways of censoring the CMP videos as they did in the case of the third video (plus...

Amid the anti-trophy hunting hysteria sweeping certain parts of the country following the death of Cecil the Lion, Democrat senators have introduced the Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large (CECIL) Animal Trophies Act.

The uproar over the killing of a lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe by an American dentist, Dr. Walter Palmer, is further proof that secular society inevitably produces moral confusion. In saying that, I do not in any way defend the killing of a protected animal. First, I do not hunt for sport (among other reasons, my religion, Judaism, opposes it). Second, if the lion suffered for a prolonged period, that would add to my condemnation. Third, if Palmer knowingly killed a protected animal, he should be prosecuted. Having said that, most of the reactions to what he did are more...

<p>An environmental advocacy group is suing Florida’s wildlife-protection commission, demanding a stop to a planned bear hunting season in the fall. Speak Up Wekiva filed the lawsuit Friday in Tallahassee. The lawsuit claims the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission violated the state constitution by lifting a two-decade ban on bear hunting. Amendment 5 was passed in 1998 and requires the state to make adequate provision to protect its natural resources. A commission spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a call for comment. Florida outlawed all bear hunting in 1994. But a bear rebound, as well as an increase in the number of nuisance calls and bears killed by cars, were cited as reasons for allowing a new one-week hunt in the fall. There would be a limit of 200 bears total. The lawsuit was first reported by WMFE-FM in Orlando.</p>

“American, single-handedly, saves 600 African antelopes and 12 baby elephants — by killing a lion.” As you read the first part of the previous sentence, you most likely are thinking “this is a good guy.” But when you read the last part of the sentence — particularly if you are a cat lover — you may be thinking “this is a bad guy.” Adult lions on average eat about 15 pounds of meat a day. In the wild, they feed primarily on medium-size animals, such as antelopes and occasional baby elephants. The late Cecil the lion, killed by the American...

he Empire State Building’s projection of Cecil the lion and other endangered animals is being criticized for ignoring the “Black Lives Matter” movement. Along with Cecil, whose illegal killing sparked an international uproar, a snow leopard, tigers, lemurs and various snakes, birds and sea creatures were projected onto the building using 40 projectors, CNN reported.

NEW YORK -- Three U.S. airlines have banned the transport of lion, leopard, elephant, rhino or buffalo killed by trophy hunters, in the latest fallout from the killing of Zimbabwe's Cecil the lion last month. American Airlines said today it would join Delta Airlines and United Airlines in banning the transport of animals known in Africa as the “big five," coined by hunters because they are the hardest to kill on foot. There has been an international outcry against trophy hunting among animal lovers since it emerged that American dentist Walter Palmer killed Cecil, a rare black-maned lion that was...