Free Republic

Europe's leaders were in last-ditch talks to broker a peace deal in Ukraine on Thursday night, as threats by America to send arms to Kiev raised fears of a direct confrontation between Russia and the West. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and François Hollande, the French president, began a two-day visit to Kiev and Moscow in an attempt to get both governments to sign a new ceasefire deal. The talks, which come amid an escalation in the fighting in eastern Ukraine, were an attempt by European capitals to head off moves by Washington to begin arming Ukrainian forces, who have...

So here’s Obama’s opinion: Ukraine should not get military aid from the West because even with American help, Russia would still mop the floor with them. And this, according to the Times, is what Obama thinks will intimidate Putin into signing a peace treaty. I’ll offer the president some free advice: telling Putin the world is too weak to stop him isn’t very intimidating. Yet even if the West got Putin to sign on to a new agreement, nothing will have been accomplished. Putin has been violating the last ceasefire agreement, because there’s no one to enforce it. What Obama,...

Some 150 years since Abraham Lincoln outlawed slavery in the U.S., a collection of rare Civil War-era photographs have been brought to life through painstaking colorization. February 1 marks National Freedom Day, honoring the signing by President Lincoln of a resolution which became the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and abolished slavery.

On January 31, 1865, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery in the United States. On the 150th anniversary of the vote, look back at the evolution of President Abraham Lincoln’s support for the 13th Amendment and his behind-the-scenes dealings to ensure its continued path to ratification. Although he believed slavery to be immoral, Abraham Lincoln was not an abolitionist when the Civil War broke out in 1861. The president’s stated goal in the early years of the war was strictly the preservation of the Union. Granting freedom from bondage to the nearly 4 million...

After 15 years of painstaking restoration, scientists say they are on the brink of solving what sank the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley - the first sub in history to wreck an enemy warship. Considered the Confederacy's stealth weapon during the Civil War, the hand-cranked Hunley sank the Union warship Housatonic in winter 1864 and then disappeared with all eight Confederate sailors inside. Its remains were discovered in 1995 in waters off South Carolina and five later it was raised to a conservation lab. Now with about 70per cent of the hull cleaned of heavy rust, Paul Mardikian, a senior conservator...

A century and a half after it sank and a decade and a half after it was raised, scientists are finally getting a look at the hull of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship. What they find may finally solve the mystery of why the hand-cranked submarine sank during the Civil War. "It's like unwrapping a Christmas gift after 15 years. We have been wanting to do this for many years now," said Paul Mardikian, senior conservator on the Hunley project.

Russia has suspended work in the PACE for a year following the adoption of a resolution depriving the Russian delegation of its voting rights in the organization until the April session. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted on Wednesday a resolution depriving the Russian delegation of its voting rights in the organization until at least the April session. The resolution stresses that the revision of the decision and other sanctions against Russia could be held during opening meetings of the April session if Moscow demonstrates substantial progress in meeting the PACE demands over Russia's alleged role...

RALEIGH, N.C. – Luke Martin Jr., whose father was an ex-slave and Civil War Union soldier, has died — 179 years after his father was born. Martin was 97 when he died Sunday at his home in New Bern, North Carolina.. ..lived in the house where he was born — a house his father built in the 1890s. Martin had little memory of his father, Luke Martin Sr., who died at age 84 in 1920 when the son was just a few years old, according to Martin-Williams. The elder Martin, who was born in 1836, was married twice, the second...

At the moment, this is AP Breaking News.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine is fiercer than ever in some locations, NATO's top commander in Europe said Thursday - adding that the weapons systems seen now in the region have in the past heralded a fresh incursion by Russian troops. "Violence has intensified and changed character in Ukraine," U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove told a news conference at NATO headquarters. He said the fighting has re-escalated to levels seen before the Sept. 5 Minsk cease-fire agreement "and in some cases beyond." Questioned by reporters, Breedlove, the alliance's chief commander in Europe, said he couldn't confirm Ukrainian authorities' statements that...

For the third time, the cops of the NYPD have turned their backs on the mayor of New York. The first time was when Mayor Bill de Blasio arrived at Woodhull Hospital where mortally wounded officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu had been taken on Dec. 20. The second was when the mayor spoke at Ramos’ funeral. The third was at Liu’s service on Sunday. Detestation of de Blasio among the NYPD and the cops who came from across the country to stand in solidarity with their slain brothers is broad and deep. And, in a way, de Blasio served...

On weekends, activists dressed in black are entering restaurant after restaurant, chanting and singing. The idea behind #BlackBrunch is to disrupt business as usual at upscale locations.A half century after Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panthers in Oakland, Calif., to carry guns and follow police around to record brutality, a new activism tactic has been launched in the same city to address racial injustice – albeit the weapons are different. On Sunday, activists dressed in black entered restaurant after restaurant in Oakland. Drawing out megaphones, 36 African-Americans chanted, sang, and filed out. Known as #BlackBrunch, the idea...

WASHINGTON, December 24, 2014 — For tens of millions of southerners the December 6 runoff loss of Louisiana U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu to Rep. Bill Cassidy represented the epic opening of a new age in America. This region is now a solid conservative south for the first time since Democrats seized control just after the end of the Civil War. For a region of the nation that stretches from the Carolinas to Texas, this is massive and so is the impact of this new Red, White and Blue American Wave. Here a New South Rises. How the new south...

In the 20th century, we dealt with the disgrace of human abortion becoming sanctified by national law, and this continues today. But abortion has for ages been a dark struggle for humanity, especially deep in the hearts of women. The correspondence of a Civil War Army wife sheds some light on this. In December 1871, Alice Kirk Grierson wrote to her husband, Colonel Benjamin Henry Grierson, a letter in which she reflected upon the challenges of childbearing during the war years. “I think it is desirable that the parents of every unborn human being, should, from the first hour of...

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. Isaiah 9:7 While the world was caught up in a cheesy movie and the race war, there was a major event happening in Salt Lake City. No it was not the declaration of Romney's 10th run at the presidency, there was a convention of Western States discussing how to finally get their land turned...

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS-TV) - At this time in December 150 years ago, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman and his army were advancing on Savannah, leaving a wake of destruction behind. But the true wrath of Sherman's army was being reserved for South Carolina. "He wanted to cripple the Confederacy," said retired University of South Carolina journalism professor Patricia McNeely. Since the campus survived the burning of Columbia, the Horseshoe was an appropriate place for our interview. "He wanted them to give up fighting. He wanted them to lose faith in their leadership in the Confederacy. But most people have overlooked...

Old habits die hard. The media are so enamored of the continuing (and largely contrived) story about the great Republican civil war that they fail to appreciate that the real internecine fight is being waged on the other side of the aisle. I grant that there’s a lot of shouting today among Republicans. But it’s a ritual skirmish over whether a government shutdown would force the president to withdraw a signature measure — last time, Obamacare; this time, executive amnesty. And it will likely be resolved with the obvious expedient of funding the government through next year, except for a...

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — At the heart of this well-preserved antebellum city, sunbeams stream through the arched windows of a grand public meeting room that mirrors the whole Civil War — including its death throes, unfolding 150 years ago this week when Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman launched his scorching March to the Sea. The first major objective along Sherman's route, Milledgeville was Georgia's capital at the time, and this room was the legislative chamber. Crossing its gleaming floor, Amy Wright couldn't help recalling family stories of the hated "foragers" who swept through then. "They were just called 'Sherman's men,'"...

If our country were a marriage, there’d be a lot of people asking for a divorce right now. And we know how messy those can be. When irreconcilable differences go unresolved between spouses, one or both parties may seek to dissolve the marriage. On a national level, history has shown us that unresolved differences can lead to war. Which is a little bit like divorce. In either case, this doesn’t necessarily imply a military conflict. There can be such a thing as a non-shooting “cold war” just as once existed between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. To be sure,...

If bammy is going to act on his own, is it time for freedom loving Americans to take up arms and protect the southern border? Imagine 100-500 thousand armed citizens deployed along the border. That would send a message. Or maybe redeploy this citizens group to a more northeasterly location..... It could happen. Question is, is it time?