Free Republic

This blistering editorial at the Washington Post carries the headline, “Obama’s Syria Achievement,” which is not complimentary, to say the least. Fred Hiatt, the editor of the editorial page, excoriates Barack Obama not just for the humanitarian disaster — genocides, really — in Syria, but for fundamentally transforming America into a defeatist nation. We used to care when genocides occurred, Hiatt argues, sometimes inconsistently and with unintended consequences for our interventions. But Obama offered the nation a new course — despair: Obama — who ran for president on the promise of restoring the United States’ moral stature — has...

Kim Davis, the Democrat Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses because of religious objections, was ordered to jail for contempt of court last Thursday. She suggested a compromise of removing her name from the licenses, but Federal District Court Judge David Bunning wouldn’t even grant that reasonable compromise. Contrast this with Cathy Lanier, chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, refusing to issue concealed weapons permits to people unless they can arbitrarily show a “good reason,” nothing required by law. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in May stopping her from...

The TV anchor boyfriend of the late broadcast journalist Alison Parker, who was slain Aug. 26 on live TV alongside her cameraman, has vowed to honor her memory by covering issues of gun violence and mental illness. Anything, he says, to spare another family. "I pledged to her father," Chris Hurst, the 28-year-old evening anchor at WDBJ, tells PEOPLE. "Her father wants me to help him do whatever it takes to make sure not one more family has to go through this kind of unspeakable violence."

Andy Parker–father of slain Virginia reporter Alison Parker–will be joining Everytown for Gun Safety and Shannon Watts for a gun control rally in Washington DC on September 10. Richard Martinez–father of Santa Barbara victim Christopher Martinez–will also be at the rally, which was organized by Bloomberg-sponsored Everytown with the goal of convincing Congress to pass “common sense gun legislation.” Universal background checks have been the central fixture of Everytown’s “common sense gun legislation” for nearly three years, and they were also one of the first things Andy Parker called for after his daughter’s death. However, Christopher Martinez’s gunman–Elliot Rodger–passed a...

Mike Pompeo and David B. Rivkin Washington Post ..... "But the president has not given Congress a key side agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This document describes how key questions about the past military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program will be resolved, as well as the precise operational parameters of the verification regime to which Tehran will be subject."

Can your religion legally excuse you from doing part of your job? This is one of the questions in the Kentucky County Clerk marriage certificate case. But it also arises in lots of other cases — for instance, the Muslim flight attendant who doesn’t want to serve alcohol and who filed a complaint on Tuesday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over the airline’s denial of an exemption. The question has also arisen before with regard to: * Nurses who had religious objections to being involved in abortions (even just to washing instruments that would be used in abortions); *...

What Kim Davis did was troubling. What Ted Cruz did was downright alarming. Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, refused to issue marriage certificates to gay couples. She said she was operating “under God’s authority,” but she now sits in jail for ignoring federal authority. Davis, at least, is facing the consequences of her actions. Not so Cruz, senator from Texas and Republican presidential candidate. “Today, judicial lawlessness crossed into judicial tyranny,” he said. “Today, for the first time ever, the government arrested a Christian woman for living according to her faith. . . . I stand with Kim Davis. Unequivocally.” Tyranny?...

The paper ... noted that a number of large, very remote objects share a similar orbital angle. That's suspicious if you're an astronomer expecting to see a random distribution of objects. The key orbital feature is known, rather obtusely, as the “argument of perihelion.” We're not shy of complicated orbital concepts (we try to toss around the phrase "obliquity of the ecliptic" whenever possible), but this one is not very easy to explain. "The argument of perihelion is the angle at which an object comes to perihelion with respect to the ecliptic plane," Sheppard said in an e-mail. Mike Brown,...

“He attacks me every day. With barbarities! This must stop. We must unite as a party and direct barbarities such as Willie Horton ads at the OTHER party. I hope Trump doesn’t try to deport me for speaking in Spanish! Our party needs to be responsible about xenophobia and confine its efforts to things like questioning Obama’s birth certificate. And we surely must not let Trump get away with claiming to be smart at economics. I have claimed that I can deliver a 4% growth rate, so I know an economic charlatan when I see one. There isn’t room in...

On Wednesday, recent Islamic convert and former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote a column for The Washington Post in which he referred to 2016 GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump as “[t]he biggest enemy to the principles of the Constitution.” His proof? Trump’s alleged “vendetta against the press,” i.e., Trump’s willingness to take Fox News host Megyn Kelly to task for asking unfair questions AND Univision political activist Jorge Ramos to task for rudely interrupting his press conference. The proud Islamist also excoriated Trump for the “absurd, uninformed or just plain incorrect” statements — all of them in fact correct —...

Syria’s civil war seems unstoppable. In four years, it has killed 250,000, displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, and given birth to the Islamic State, which promises to conquer the region and inspire lone-wolf terrorist attacks throughout the Western world. The Obama administration has managed to keep the United States from a third major conflict in the broader Middle East, but its Syria policy has otherwise struggled. President Bashar al-Assad did not, as expected, tumble from power as his money ran out and his army collapsed. Efforts to create a moderate military opposition have generally failed. The...

The upcoming rally at the U.S. Capitol against the U.S. nuclear agreement with Iran is still on - and has gained much momentum despite the fact that President Obama has secured enough support in the Senate to prevent Republican forces from blocking it. Some star power is involved. The speaker’s roster for the event on Wednesday afternoon now includes Republicans Sen. Ted Cruz, Reps. Jim Bridenstine, Louie Gohmert, Steve King, Mike Pompeo, Ted Yolo; Donald Trump, broadcasters Glenn Beck and Mark Levin, American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, Citizens United founder David Bossie, Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization...

In a bow to the huge U.S. Hispanic population and the Catholic Church's advocacy of immigration, Pope Francis plans to give his Washington Mass Sept. 23 in Spanish, according to Cardinal Donald William Wuerl. "The Mass is going to be in Spanish," Wuerl said Wednesday while previewing the pope's trip to reporters. "It's a recognition of how large the Hispanic population in the United States is," said Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington. "And he's coming as the first pope from the New World and the predominant language in this hemisphere is Spanish," added Wuerl of the Argentine-born pope. Francis, meanwhile, will...

When we talk about growing violence in America’s larger cities we frequently focus on New York and Baltimore. (And for good reason, to be honest.) But the nation’s capital has been experiencing its own problems along those lines lately. A rather chilling recounting of some of these “local stories” provides the backdrop for a recent op-ed column in the WaPo by Colbert I. King. I’ll confess that some of the stories of violence and mayhem King is talking about were completely unknown to me, leading the author to compare Washington to “the wild west.” One example is the case where...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump released a chilling video Monday attacking opponent Jeb Bush for once suggesting that undocumented immigrants entered the United States as "an act of love." The 15-second video, which Trump posted to Instagram and Twitter, begins with the text: "Jeb Bush's Thoughts on Illegal Immigration." It plays sound of Bush, a former Florida governor, saying of undocumented immigrants, "Yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony. It's an act of love." Over the sound of Bush talking, with harrowing music playing, the Trump video flashes mug shots of Francisco Sanchez, who was charged in...

How Huma Abedin Operated At The Center Of The Clinton Universe By Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger August 27 As Hillary Rodham Clinton was preparing for her farewell international trip as secretary of state, her close aide and confidante Huma Abedin e-mailed a small number of longtime political allies to help arrange an intimate get-together at a private club in Dublin. “Maybe we can all gather for drinks/dinner and HRC can come join for as long as she can?” Abedin wrote. The December 2012 event showcased the unique position that Abedin occupied at the apex of the Clintons’ public...

The Washington Post published a column Thursday night by David Ignatius that purports to clear leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of wrongdoing in exclusively using a home brew server kept in her home that held top secret classified information during her four year tenure as secretary of state. The column is entitled The Hillary Clinton e-mail ‘scandal’ that isn’t. Ignatius’ lead defense witness for Clinton is one Jeffrey Smith who is given four paragraphs of quotes defending Clinton. Ignatius identifies Smith as “a former CIA general counsel who’s now a partner at Arnold & Porter, where he often represents...

GREENVILLE, S.C.—As Donald Trump studied the crosstabs of a recent poll, his favorite hobby since he started leading in all of them, he was pleased, he said, to see that GOP primary voters perceive him as better equipped than his rivals to handle the economy, national security and even social issues. But one nugget in the survey nagged at the New York billionaire. “The only thing I did badly on was: Is he a nice person? I was last in terms of niceness,” he said. Campaigning deep in the Bible Belt yesterday, the businessman spun this as an asset, not...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Clashes erupted between Indian and Pakistani security forces Friday, killing at least 11 civilians and wounding scores more on both sides of the contested border, according to officials in both countries. The exchange of fire came as Indian and Pakistani leaders continued to bicker over the prospect of face-to-face talks. Indian and Pakistani security forces traded small-arms, artillery and mortar fire, which damaged several villages on both sides of the border, officials said. The violence coincided with the kickoff of India’s golden jubilee celebration marking the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, one of three major conflicts...

After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, for a while it seemed like border fences and barriers were a thing of the past in Europe. Many on the continent hoped for a new era of integration and receptivity. It didn't happen. Instead, a variety of pressures have led Europe to adopt wall-building projects that would make Donald Trump proud. Right now, in Hungary, for example, the government is rushing to complete a 109-mile-long barbed wire border fence along its southern frontier with Serbia – a project made bitterly ironic by Hungary's 1989 decision to cut its border fence with Austria...