Free Republic

UNBELIEVABLE Class on the Scroll of Ruth and its Jewish commentaries-- from the simple meaning to the poetic, to the mystical/esoteric. Did you know that Arpah (Ruth's sister) was the mother of Goliath? That Ruth was a reincarnation of the daughter of Lot (of Sodom fame or infamy) Learn about the incredible tapestry of this scroll. Don't fear, non-Hebrew speakers, the rabbi translates everything and only the actual verse is read in Hebrew. The class is given in English...

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli archaeologist says he has found the legendary citadel captured by King David in his conquest of Jerusalem, rekindling a longstanding debate about using the Bible as a field guide to identifying ancient ruins. The claim by Eli Shukron, like many such claims in the field of biblical archaeology, has run into criticism. It joins a string of announcements by Israeli archaeologists saying they have unearthed palaces of the legendary biblical king, who is revered in Jewish religious tradition for establishing Jerusalem as its central holy city — but who has long eluded historians looking for...

A new television ad in the lieutenant governors race has a charity demanding an apology. The ad from the David Dewhurst campaign show a series of pictures of Dan Patrick with a tie but no shirt looking as if he’s at a wild party, but a written statement from the Be an Angel Fund reveals that Patrick was literally selling the shirt off his back at a fundraiser to help special needs children.

Life is short. Stay awake for it. So goes the tagline for the second largest coffee franchise in America. It’s catchy and practical. Drink our coffee, it suggests, not merely for its taste, but for its benefits, that is, to be awake to life. And the reason being — here comes the resonating connection — life is short. The clock is ticking. Our days are numbered. And we Christians agree (Psalm 90:10; 103:15–16; James 4:14). Life is too short to sleep all the time. But life is also too short not to sleep a large part of the time. The...

Despite the government shutdown, Vice President Joe Biden is vacationing at Camp David this long weekend. He's joined at the Maryland retreat by his family, including his wife (Jill Biden), children, and grandchildren. The vice president is also there with "essential" government workers, who must work despite the government shutdown. That includes his Secret Service detail, as well as the Secret Service details assigned to the rest of his family, and other support staff. They are protecting the Bidens as they vacation -- but aren't getting paid because of the federal shutdown. The vice president's public schedule simply reads: WEEKEND...

On PBS’s “NewsHour” on Friday night, New York Times columnist David Brooks warned that Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and similar legislators’ rise to prominence threatens the traditional Republican Party. (Snip) “What’s going on in the House, and a bit in the Senate, too, is what you might call the rise of Ted Cruz-ism,” Brooks said. “And Ted Cruz, the senator from Canada through Texas, is basically not a legislator in the normal sense, doesn’t have an idea that he’s going to Congress to create coalitions, make alliances, and he is going to pass a lot of legislation. He’s going...

President Barack Obama will host Cabinet members and their families on Friday for a rare retreat at Camp David, a White House official said. Obama uses the facility far less often than many of his predecessors have, only occasionally holding meetings there or heading there for a weekend of rest and relaxation. The president has hosted Cabinet members and their families there just once before, weeks before Democrats' big losses in the 2010 midterm elections.

Archaeologists in Jerusalem claim to have uncovered two large buildings fit for a king -- Biblical King David, that is. But not all historians agree; one group even argues that King David was no king at all. Over the past year, archaeologists have excavated a site that they believe to be the fortified Judean city of Shaarayim, where David smote Goliath as described in the Bible. "The ruins are the best example to date of the uncovered fortress city of King David," said professors Yossi Garfinkel of Hebrew University and Saar Ganor, who led the excavations. "This is indisputable proof...

Should Texas legislators get another bill to ban late-term abortions to the floor of the state Senate, pro-abortion lawmaker Wendy Davis says she will not filibuster the bill a second time.The bill was filed yesterday in the Texas legislature and legislators hold the first hearing on the measure today in the state House. A representative of Davis tells U.S. News and World Report that a second special session filibuster is not forthcoming.A spokesman for Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis, who stood and spoke for more than 12 hours to help kill the bill last week, says she won’t filibuster the...

Lori Brasnahan was trying to save her daughter’s life when she was stabbed to death in March, prosecutors say. Branashan and her daughter were abducted from the parking lot of Great Northern Mall near Syracuse by a man who brutally raped the 10-year-old girl before murdering Brasnahan, a 47-year-old school librarian. Prosecutors in Onondaga County, N.Y., say the man responsible for that atrocity, David Renz, 29, had been released from federal custody in January, two days after the FBI arrested Renz on a child pornography charge...Nevertheless, U.S. Magistrate Andrew T. Baxter released Renz, ordering him to wear a GPS tracking...

Shuster tries to tell Jackson, that the Tea Party is Racist. Jackson points out that it's all hype and that Democrats have a very racist history.

The second episode of the History Channel's Bible series is likely to have as many viewers as the first episode, which broke all 2013 records for cable programs with 13.1 million viewers. The second segment covers the "tribes of Israel" returning to the "homeland" under the leadership of Joshua (Yeshua/Jesus). These Israelites were Horites and they were fighting other Horites to gain control of important cities in Canaan. The Horites (Horim in Hebrew) were a caste of ruler-priests who were in charge of the shrines in Canaan. These shrines were in the important cities that the warriors of Joshua attacked....

President Obama says he regularly skeet shoots at Camp David and called on gun-control proponents to “do a little more listening” to gun owners in the national debate over firearms. In an interview with The New Republic posted on Sunday Obama said that he and guests “do skeet shooting all the time” at the presidential retreat and said he understood why many rural voters were protective of their gun-ownership rights. “Not the girls, but oftentimes guests of mine go up there. And I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations,”...

Sunday morning on Meet the Press NBC host David Gregory grilled NRA leader Wayne LaPierre in a heated exchange over the gun control debate.

This is a story of great men behaving despicably. It’s a fascinating story for several reasons, but one of them is that it's such a modern story. It could be told of men and women today. It’s the story of a hero who achieves fame and power. He finds an attractive woman who just happens to be married to someone else and seduces her. 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone...

SNIPPET: "They are: Soheil Omar Kabir, 34, a Pomona man who is an American citizen from Afghanistan; Ralph Deleon, 23, an Ontario man who was born in the Philippines; Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales, 21, an Upland man who was born in Mexico and whose was U.S. citizenship was pending; and Arifeen David Gojali, 21, of Riverside." SNIPPET: "The three men followed the essays of the now-deceased al-Qaida leader Anwar Al-Awlaqi, who led terrorist operations in the Arabian Peninsula." SNIPPET: "Santana and Deleon told the plot to a confidential informant working for the FBI, according to the complaint." SNIPPET: "In order...

I don't want to be insensitive but depending on what he is willing to share with nothing left to lose - talking about his potential vulnerability to becoming a victim of sudden suicide could help inoculate him....

A man charged in connection with the choking death of a fellow patron at a Dunkin' Donuts in Davie was ordered held without bond Thursday.

David Axelrod, senior adviser for Barack Obama‘s re-election campaign, spoke with New York magazine reporter and frequent Morning Joe panelist John Heilemann at 92Y, telling Heilemann that he had a “big cry” over the passage of President Obama’s health care law. RELATED: Poll: Most Americans Want Health Care Law Declared Unconstitutional “I have a child with a chronic illness,” he shared. “I was one of those people who almost went bankrupt. She was seven months old and she started having seizures. I was making 35, 38 thousand dollars a year and her medications weren’t covered by her insurance and we...

As I wrote yesterday, the media loves being lied to by Barack Obama. As we all know, the furor over a sitting President caught telling 38 falsehoods in his self-penned biography would be unquenchable were we talking about a president with an R after his name. Not to mention the lies Obama told the media about his relationship with Bill Ayers and his membership in the socialist New Party. But as you'll see in the clip below, Obama biographer David Maraniss, who found no less than 38 falsehoods in Obama's bio, is determined to downplay Obama's lying: