Free Republic

Newly empowered Republicans in states across the country are pushing to kill public contracts with Planned Parenthood, only to find their efforts blocked by the Obama administration and federal courts. In New Hampshire, the administration circumvented officials by awarding a $1 million grant directly to the nation’s largest provider of abortion services after state officials blocked a grant to the organization. Every federal district court that has ruled so far has sided with Planned Parenthood. That has helped the administration, which has threatened to cut off states’ Medicaid funding if they refuse to work with the organization. The clashes have...

Jim Jones’ sinister grip on San Francisco How the Peoples Temple cult leader ensnared Harvey Milk and other progressive icons “Season of the Witch,” the new book by Salon founder David Talbot, tells the story of the wild and bloody birth of “San Francisco values.” The following excerpt – Part 1 in a three-part series -- recounts one of the darker dramas before the ultimate triumph of those values. Jim Jones, the strange and charismatic leader of Peoples Temple, proved a master at politically wiring San Francisco in the mid-1970s. The driven preacher had begun his climb up the political...

An elderly woman was left on the floor at a care home for up to ten minutes because a nurse was praying, an inquest heard. Alzheimer's sufferer Dorothy Griffiths, 87, was found sitting down after staff heard a bang and a carer went to the office for help to lift her. But agency nurse Abdul Bhutto, who was in charge, said they would have to wait. Carer Zoe Shaw told the Sheffield hearing: "It took between five and ten minutes because he was praying upstairs in the office on his prayer mat. A staff member told me we had to...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – How strongly does Barack Obama believe in unlimited abortions? Strongly enough that the only article he wrote for the Harvard Law Review while he was a law school student talked about how fervently believed in legalized abortion. Obama’s name wasn’t attached to any other legal scholarship during the time. In an article unearthed by the Politico web site, Obama, as the president of the Harvard Law Review, wrote an unsigned article touting abortion. The web site says the article comes in at six pages and is contained in the third volume of the 1990 Harvard Law...

The debate over abortion comes down to one essential issue — the moral status of the unborn child. Those making the case for the legalization of abortion argue that the developing fetus lacks a moral status that would trump a woman’s desire to abort the child. Those arguing against abortion do so by making the opposite claim; that the unborn child, precisely because it is a developing human being, possesses a moral status by the very fact of its human existence that would clearly trump any rationale offered for its willful destruction. This central issue is often obscured in both...

A new UN atomic watchdog agency report raises concerns about Iran's rapid expansion of enrichment activities, as well as its continued foot-dragging in refusing to answer questions about suspected military dimensions of its nuclear program. But the new assessment also hinted at possible technical problems Iran is experiencing, nuclear experts said

President Barack Obama said on Sunday there were important risks to consider before any military strike against Iran and made clear he does not want to see more conflict in the oil-producing Gulf region. In a television interview, Obama also said he did not believe Tehran had the "intentions or capabilities" to attack the United States, playing down the threats from Tehran and saying he wanted a diplomatic end to the nuclear standoff. "Any kind of additional military activity inside the Gulf is disruptive and has a big effect on us. It could have a big effect on oil prices....

Yukiya Amano says Iran has failed to clarify its atomic development activities to the satisfaction of the United Nations nuclear watchdog body -- and now it's his job to warn the world about its possible military intentions. Amano, chief of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, said Thursday in an interview with the German-language Financial Times Deutschland an IAEA delegation will press Iran for "full cooperation" in meetings with officials in Tehran. "What we know suggests the development of nuclear weapons," FTD quoted the IAEA chief as saying "We want to check over everything that could have a military...

"All-American Muslim," a new program on The Learning Channel that is being touted as a "powerful series" that carries viewers "inside the rarely seen world of American Muslims," is being dropped by advertisers. Critics say the program is nothing more than video jihad propaganda, and the Florida Family Association says it is contacting companies whose advertising appears on the show to ask them to quit. So far, 18 of 20 companies contacted have done so, the group said. The organization said that among the companies that initially supported the program, but later did not have any advertising aired, were Airborne...

Members of the group 'Muslims against Crusades' hold placards as they gather during an anti-U.S. rally, held close to the memorial ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11 U.S. attacks at the Memorial Garden, adjacent to the U.S. Embassy in central London, Sunday Sept. 11, 2011.

I've never been more convinced that Israel is the axis on which Islamic jihad turns than after reading four, clarifying pages of Bat Ye'or's new book, "Europe, Globalization, and the Coming Universal Caliphate" (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 212 pp.). Ye'or asks. "Given the immense territories conquered and Islamized over thirteen centuries of expansion and war," she writes, "why would Muslim countries keep plotting to destroy Israel? ... Why is Israel considered so alarming?" ...........hide the age-old reason. "What Israel possesses," Ye'or explains, "is the Bible." To appreciate this explanation, it's essential to realize that Jewish and Christian Bible characters, from...

A MUSLIM actress has caused a storm by posing naked for Playboy. Sila Sahin has been branded a "whore" and a "western slut" after appearing topless on the cover of the German edition of the men's magazine. And Islamic fanatics have posted threatening internet messages. Sila, raised in Germany by conservative Turkish parents, says she fears being "spat at" and "shamed". Her parents are said to have reacted with "horror" at the 12-page coverage, and her mother has apparently cut off all contact. Sila, 25 - star of German soap Good Times, Bad Times - claimed the shoot was a...

This confrontation is particularly acute in Dagestan. Here, Salafis, who believe in a return to the teachings of early leaders of the Muslim faith, face off against Sufis, who are supported by the official Spiritual Board of Muslims. There is intolerance on both sides. In Makhachkala, the Dagestani capital, a Salafi woman dressed in a hijab and floor-length tunic showed me a recording on her cell phone of Sheikh Said-Afandi, one of the republic's most revered Sufi leaders. "Disgusting," she said, as she watched scores of the sheikh's murids (followers) lining up to kiss his hands. "No man should make...

A "Black Widow" suicide bomber planned a terrorist attack in central Moscow on New Year's Eve but was killed when an unexpected text message set off her bomb too early, according to Russian security sources. The unnamed woman, who is thought to be part of the same group that struck Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Monday, intended to detonate a suicide belt on a busy square near Red Square on New Year's Eve in an attack that could have killed hundreds. Security sources believe a spam message from her mobile phone operator wishing her a happy new year received just hours...

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first former Guantánamo Bay camp detainee to be tried in the civilian court system, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for his role in the 1998 bombings of two United States Embassies in East Africa. The nearly simultaneous attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people and wounded thousands. Mr. Ghailani, 36, was convicted on Nov. 17 of a single count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property, while being acquitted of more than 280 charges of murder and conspiracy. But the many acquittals seemed to carry little weight...

That’s the president’s best Approval Index rating since February 1, 2010, nearly a full year ago. Strong Disapproval among Republicans is down to 55%. Among all voters, Strong Disapproval of the president has been consistently lower since mid-December… Overall, 52% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president’s performance. That’s his highest level of total approval in fifteen months, since October 2009. The president earns approval from 84% of Democrats and 48% of unaffiliated voters. Among all voters, 47% disapprove.

(CNN) -- The trial of a New York television executive accused of beheading his wife starts Tuesday. Authorities learned about the incident in February 2009 when Muzzammil Hassan went to a police station in the Buffalo, New York, suburb of Orchard Park and told officers his wife was dead, police have said. Hassan, who founded a TV network aimed at countering Muslim stereotypes, took officers to the network's office where officers found the decapitated body of his wife, Aasiya Hassan. Hassan has pleaded not guilty to the charge of second-degree murder in the case. Opening arguments in the case are...

British anti-terrorism police said Monday they arrested 12 men in early morning raids on three cities to protect the public amid fears of a holiday season terrorism plot. Assistant Commissioner John Yates, the U.K. 's lead police officer for counterterrorism, said the suspects were detained in London, in the central English city of Stoke-on-Trent and in Cardiff, Wales. The arrests follow several weeks of surveillance and are not believed to be linked to other recent plots against Europe or the recent bombing in Sweden.

Muslims accuse GOP congresswoman of equating Muslims with terrorists and disregarding them. In North Carolina’s 2nd congressional district, many Muslims are, apparently, downright angry with newly elected GOP congresswoman Renee Ellmers for what they allege is her disrespect towards them. The anger that the Muslim community in the state apparently has for the congresswoman is based on an election ad she used that involved the planned Ground Zero mosque. Even though she only used the term "victory mosque" in said ad, she was slandered by the Muslims for equating them with terrorists. The ad didn’t hurt Ellmers at all since...