Free Republic

....Hanks and Wilson will host the ceremony Dec. 4...Obama and his family also will help light the tree... ...This year’s performers will include Ne-Yo, Steve Miller, country star Chely Wright, Patti Labelle, and the groups Fifth Harmony, Nico and Vinz and The Tenors.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves wrote in his ruling, “The Fourteenth Amendment operates to remove the blinders of inequality from our eyes. Though we cherish our traditional values, they must give way to constitutional wisdom. Mississippi’s traditional beliefs about gay and lesbian citizens led it to defy that wisdom by taking away fundamental rights owed to every citizen. It is time to restore those rights."

Back in August during the first round of riots in Ferguson a strip mall was saved from looting and destruction by a brave group of men (pictured above) armed with guns: Nobody is robbing St. Louis Ink Tattoo Studio anytime soon. Or County Guns, for that matter. The two north county businesses share a storefront in a Florissant strip mall less than ten minute drive from the epicenter of last night’s riots in Ferguson. After nightfall, what began as a community’s peaceful demonstration against the Ferguson Police Department’s shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown turned increasingly violent. Crowds plundered...

Body-worn cameras are poised to become standard for police around the U.S. after the tragedy in Ferguson In the fevered moments after the grand jury’s decision not to charge Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, the family of the slain 18-year-old released a statement pleading for peace — and urging people to join their campaign to get police around the nation to wear cameras. “We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen,” the statement read. “Join with us in our campaign to ensure that every police officer...

MILFORD, Conn. (Reuters) - Connecticut said on Wednesday that it will provide special driver's licenses for illegal immigrants starting next week to help stop them from driving the state's roads unregistered and uninsured. The move comes days after President Barack Obama issued an executive order protecting millions of undocumented immigrants across the country from deportation, which state officials said could boost participation in their drivers' license program. "There are many undocumented immigrants driving without a driver's license who aren’t insured or registered, and we believe making that possible is very important," said Mike Lawlor, Connecticut's undersecretary for criminal justice policy...

Former Massachusetts Governor and failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney believes Republicans should "swallow hard" and pass a permanent amnesty bill in the wake of President Barack Obama's executive amnesty that even Romney conceded would encourage more illegal immigrants to enter the country.

....Obama pardoned the national Thanksgiving turkey with a smile on Wednesday, but he admitted before saving the bird from it's likely demise that he found the decades-old tradition somewhat "puzzling." "It is a little puzzling that I do this every year, but I will say that I enjoy it because with all the tough stuff that swirls around in this office it's nice once in a while just to say, 'Happy Thanksgiving,'" he said.

Every year at this time, Time magazine starts teasing their “Person Of The Year” issue by releasing the “short list” of finalists. They allow readers to vote on their website for who they think should win, but much like President Obama’s reaction to the midterm shellacking he just took, the votes don’t matter – the editors decide. So who gets nominated doesn’t matter, who readers pick doesn’t matter, and ultimately who wins doesn’t matter because who cares what the editors of Time think outside of the New York/Washington, DC bubble? No one. But who makes the short list is interesting...

VENICE, Fla. — Students at a Southwest Florida high school told administrators that two teens tried to recruit them into a "prostitution ring" and that one 15-year-old boy had been "pimping out girls," according to an arrest affidavit. By Tuesday, detectives in Venice, a small community in Sarasota County, had charged three people in connection with the case. A 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl were charged with human trafficking and a 21-year-old man was charged with sexual battery on a victim older than 12. Police said he paid a 15-year-old girl from Riverview High School $40 and a bottle...

More consumers report lower intended holiday spending in 2014 compared to 2013, according to the 15th annual holiday spending survey conducted by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and the Credit Union National Association (CUNA). This year, 10 percent said they would spend more while 33 percent said they would spend less. In 2013, 13 percent said they would spend more while 32 percent said they would spend less. The proportion who said they would spend less declined steadily from 55 percent in 2008 to 32 percent last year before rising slightly this year. (Consumers almost always spend more than...

A Gregg County grand jury declined to return indictments against three officers involved in the shooting of Justin Aguilar on March 9, 2014. The grand jury's decision means that under Texas law no criminal charges will be filed. Aguilar died from wounds sustained after he was shot by Longview police following a gun battle with officers.

Do you like internal combustion engines? Thank a few white men. (Jean Lenoir, Nikolaus Otto, Karl Benz, Rudolf Diesel, Gottlieb Daimler, Emil Jellinek, Henry Ford among others.) Are you a fan of flush toilets and indoor plumbing? Thank white males Alexander Cumming, Thomas Twyford, and Isaiah Rogers Toilet paper? Thank Joseph Gayetty, W.M. How about washing machines and dryers? Thank white males Alva Fisher and J. Ross Moore. “When you’ve got your health, you’ve got just about everything” ran the tag-line in a famous Geritol commercial from the 1970s, and the guys we most have reason to be grateful for...

There is a humane, transparent, truthful -- and constitutional -- way to address illegal immigration. Unfortunately, President Obama's unilateral plan to exempt millions of residents from federal immigration law is none of those things. Obama said he had to move now because of a dawdling Congress. He forgot to mention that there were Democratic majorities in Congress in 2009 and 2010, yet he did nothing, in fear of punishment at the polls. Nor did Obama push amnesty in 2011 or 2012, afraid of hurting his own re-election chances. Worries over sabotaging Democratic chances in the 2014 midterms explain his inaction...

This Sunday marks the beginning of Advent. It is the season that marks the expectation, the waiting and the preparation for Christmas, the celebration of Christ's birth. It also marks the beginning of the church year, when the readings and the rituals observed throughout the year start anew. However, what I like most about this season is the repetition of things past. Our family traditions include decorating the Christmas tree, making cookies and chocolate treats, cooking a breakfast strata for Christmas morning and Southern dressing for Christmas Day. It's also the time for family Christmas parties, Advent wreath making and...

Hollywood Police have arrested a pair of robbers who they believe stormed into a Sunoco gas station last night armed with a machete to take money from a game full of spare change. Police said they arrested Kevon Michael-Dean Mowatt, 21, and Jeremy Daye Gordon Toylor, 24, on charges for the robbery. Mowatt was charged with robbery with a deadly weapon while Toylor faces charges of robbery with a deadly weapon, resisting without violence, and probation violation. The robber armed with the machete slammed it into the glass case of the machine twice to break it open. As his accomplice...

“As a black man, I was disappointed in the grand jury’s decision.” This was one of the first sentences I heard from talk radio callers Tuesday morning, less than twelve hours after the announcement that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted. The gentleman’s first four words are a perfect indicator of the worst racial problems we face in 2014. He observed the story not through facts or evidence, but through the lens of his own blackness. His ethnicity, not testimony heard by the grand jury, guided his opinion on a case that cried out for objectivity and...

At some point while I was playing or preparing to play Monday Night Football, the news broke about the Ferguson Decision. After trying to figure out how I felt, I decided to write it down. Here are my thoughts: I'M ANGRY because the stories of injustice that have been passed down for generations seem to be continuing before our very eyes. I'M FRUSTRATED, because pop culture, music and movies glorify these types of police citizen altercations and promote an invincible attitude that continues to get young men killed in real life, away from safety movie sets and music studios. I'M...

An experimental Ebola vaccine appears safe and triggered signs of immune protection in the first 20 volunteers to test it, U.S. researchers reported Wednesday. The vaccine is designed to spur the immune system's production of anti-Ebola antibodies, and people developed them within four weeks of getting the shots at the National Institutes of Health. Half of the test group received a higher-dose shot, and those people produced more antibodies, said the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Some people also developed a different set of virus-fighting immune cells, named T cells, the study found.

When Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson left the scene of the fatal shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, the officer returned to the police station unescorted, washed blood off his hands and placed his recently fired pistol into an evidence bag himself. Those actions, described in grand jury testimony, violated protocols for handling a crime scene and securing evidence, according to experts in policing procedures and Justice Department documents. Wilson’s movements after the shooting were among a number of police actions in the aftermath of Brown’s death that experts said were unusual.

It is a sure sign that we are sinners that we tend to be more concerned about what we do than what we are. That is, our guilt or peace oftentimes is the fruit of our own judgment of how often we commit a known sin, less often grounded in what we think and how we feel. I may hate my brother, but if I can keep myself from killing him, well, how bad could I be?In Romans 1 Paul is setting about the business of explaining the universal guilt of men before God. There he answers the telling question,...