Free Republic

The ongoing military operation in the Northeast, Operation No Mercy, recorded a major suc­cess when a large number of Boko Haram insurgents were killed in a coordinated ambush laid by troops in the Maiduguri-Damboa axis last Friday. It was gathered that the insurgents had massed up in the area preparatory to attacking electrical engineers work­ing to restore power supply to parts of Borno State. Sunday Sun learnt from reliable sources that sophisticat­ed weapons were recovered from the insurgents even as a Hilux light truck laden with improvised explosive devic­es was destroyed. A source told Sunday Sun that the number of...

The chance to own a U.S. military Humvee helped drive a record number of visitors and bidders to an online auction of Department of Defense equipment. GovPlanet, an online auction company contracted to sell U.S. military surplus, said more than 110,000 were attracted to its auction Wednesday of 25 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles and other equipment, such as cargo trucks and crawler tractors. The Humvees – in cargo and troop-carry configurations – were unarmored and the first surplus Humvees made available to the general public by the Department of Defense.

Until we have some actual progress involving an NFL team moving to Los Angeles, maybe it's best to stop the breathless speculation about which teams will move there. There won't be a team moving to Los Angeles in 2015. ESPN.com's Adam Schefter said commissioner Roger Goodell told the Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers and St. Louis Rams – the three hottest candidates to move to L.A. if that ever happened – that there will be no team in Los Angeles next season.

Whether you agree with his politics or not, and despite being vilified by the left for the better part of eight years, there’s no doubting that George W. Bush is a class act. The former president, dressed as Santa, visited the Dallas’ Children’s Medical Center recently to spread a little Christmas cheer with the young patients. And just as he does in his many activities with wounded veterans, Bush did so sans media.

A woman who had a baby on welfare describes her social worker’s attitude when she became pregnant a second time: “After having our baby in May, a caseworker at the Department of Social Services made us feel like we’d been irresponsible for having a second child. She lectured Jim [her husband], telling him, “You can’t keep your wife barefoot and pregnant the rest of your life. You’d better do something about it.” She wanted to stop us having children and insisted on making an appointment for us to go to Planned Parenthood for counseling and birth-control supplies – conveniently located...

Recently, an old friend asked Camille Cosby how she was holding up. The comedian’s wife, married 51 years, was silent for a moment. “You know, everyone has their limits,” she confided. But the glimpse into her pain was fleeting, and Mrs. Bill Cosby was instantly back in the character of the loyal defender. “I think his problem is that he’s far too trusting and he lets things go too far and people can get the wrong idea,” the 69-year-old said. Friends talked to The Post last week about the marriage of Bill and Camille, and why she has not lost...

In a decision issued this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the police in a case arising from an officer’s “mistake of law.” At issue in Heien v. North Carolina was a 2009 traffic stop for a single busted brake light that led to the discovery of illegal drugs inside the vehicle. According to state law at the time, however, motor vehicles were required only to have “a stop lamp,” meaning that the officer did not have a lawful reason for the initial traffic stop because it was not a crime to drive around with a single busted brake...

My early 1980′s abortion left me sterile, traumatized and heartbroken. Allow me to elaborate…. WARNING: free of euphemisms and candy-coating. So much flowery rhetoric to describe the most sinister of acts… So I will go there, penetrate the 10 feet thick wall of lies and denial that I lived in, and go to the truth. George Orwell said : “Speaking truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.” As a young woman, I got pregnant after sleeping around two times. I came to believe my virginity made me a pollyanna or uncool. Most of my college-aged peers were...

A website that serves as a platform for former and active duty-military called Warrior Lodge recently translated an op-ed from a French newspaper titled “A Nos Freres D’Armes Americains,” which means “Our American Brothers in Arms.” It details a French ISAF soldier’s personal account of what it’s like to be stationed with U.S. Warfighters in Afghanistan. The French soldier’s account is brimming with emotion and humor. The Frenchman described the solid build of American military personnel: [T]hey are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them – we are wimps, even the strongest...

Several states are using their agreement with E-Z Pass to monitor and punish speeders, adding to the increasing number of electronic speed-monitoring devices facing motorists.

Pope Benedict XVI Denounces Gay Marriage In His Christmas Message Saying 'Manipulation of Nature' Will Put Future Of Mankind At Stake His Holiness says idea destroys the very 'essence of the human creature' He made comments in one of his most important speeches of the year By LEON WATSON 21 December 2012 The Pope has pressed his opposition to gay marriage today saying the future of mankind is at stake. Pope Benedict XVI denounced what he described as people manipulating their God-given identities to suit their sexual choices - and destroying the very 'essence of the human creature' in the...

DISH FAQS Posted: Dec 19, 2014 1:50 PM CST 1. What is happening? By law, WBOC and FOX21 must negotiate carriage agreements with satellite companies like DISH. Usually, these deals are reached without any disruption to your service. In fact, our company has negotiated dozens of agreements. Unfortunately, so far, DISH has refused to reach a fair, market-based deal to carry WBOC and FOX21. Our existing agreement with DISH expires at midnight on Dec. 31, 2014. If no deal is reached before that date, you will lose live access to the shows, sports and local news on WBOC and FOX21,...

Looks like DISH just axed the FOX News Channel. Liberals everywhere are probably ecstatic. I saw the logo and hear the crazy annoying music. They've been threatening on the air for days .. . so I guess it happened tonight at close to 11:00 p.m. Central Time.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Megan Courtney and Aiyana Whitney each had 11 kills, and Penn State defeated Brigham Young 25-21, 26-24, 25-14 Saturday to win their second consecutive NCAA women’s volleyball championship. Micha Hancock had 36 assists and five digs for the Nittany Lions. The senior from nearby Edmond won in front of family and friends in her final college match. Her expert setting helped the Nittany Lions neutralize the nation’s No. 1 blocking team. Penn State (36-3) won its sixth title in eight years and No. 7 overall to break a tie with Stanford for the most titles. Jennifer Hamson...

NASA and Handel hook up.

There has only been one other time in history when the price of oil has crashed by more than 40 dollars in less than 6 months. The last time this happened was during the second half of 2008, and the beginning of that oil price crash preceded the great financial collapse that happened later that year by several months. Well, now it is happening again, but this time the stakes are even higher. When the price of oil falls dramatically, that is a sign that economic activity is slowing down. It can also have a tremendously destabilizing affect on financial...

Union: NYPD Now a 'Wartime' Police Dept. The New York Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the NYPD's union, has issued this statement following the deaths of two police officers in an ambush: "Starting IMMEDIATELY: At least two units are to respond to EVERY call, no matter the condition or severity, no matter what type of job is pending, or what the opinion of the patrol supervisor happens to be. “IN ADDITION: Absolutely NO enforcement action in the form of arrests and or summonses is to be taken unless absolutely necessary and an individual MUST be placed under arrest. “These are precautions that...

Detroit News survey asking women if they would have an abortion if the baby had down syndrome. One respondent said yes: “Let’s be practical. I am not giving up 80% or more of my life to care for a Down Syndrome baby that will be depend on me through his/her adult life. “Corkey” was lucky and probably the only cast to get ratings to play on the hearts of others. Let me be as upfront as possible……This is the ‘Me’ generation, and with health costs increasing endlessly, who has the money?” Quoted in the blog JivinJehosephat Over 95% of all...

When Albert Einstein’s good friend Michele Besso died in 1955, just a few weeks before Einstein’s own death, Einstein wrote a letter to Besso’s family in which he put forward a scientist’s consolation: “This is not important. For us who are convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent.” The idea that time is an illusion is an old one, predating any Times Square ball drop or champagne celebrations. It reaches back to the days of Heraclitus and Parmenides, pre-Socratic thinkers who are staples of introductory philosophy courses. Heraclitus argued that the primary...

Many people don’t know that the early feminists (those who fought for a woman’s right to vote in the 1800s) were mostly pro-life. Mattie H Brinckerhoff was a popular lecturer in the Midwest on women’s suffrage and other women’s rights topics. Here is some of her writing on abortion. Her use of the term “voluntary motherhood” dealt with the choice women should have to refuse to have sex in order to avoid childbearing. It’s hard to believe, but at the time, women had no right to refuse sex with their husbands- they could not prosecute him for rape, and culture...