Free Republic

Recently an 18-year-old University of South Alabama student, Gil Collar, was shot and killed by a campus police officer. At the time of the shooting, the student was under the influence of LSD and exhibiting erratic behavior around the campus police station.

Last year, Philadelphia abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell stood trial in Philadelphia for the deaths of one woman and seven babies who had their throats slit, but national reporters didn't want to cover it. It's a "local crime story," they said. Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple said that when he asked national reporters about avoiding the Gosnell story, the typical response was "Get out of my face with this agenda-driven stuff, and come back when you have a real story." Ferguson, Missouri, is merely the latest proof that a "local crime story" can be elevated to national news -- when...

Juanita Broaddrick told her story to a national television audience last night, saying she did not tell authorities 21 years ago of her contention that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted her because "I just don't think anyone would have believed me." In a gripping account punctuated by sobs, the Arkansas woman told "Dateline NBC" that in her Little Rock hotel room, Clinton suddenly "turned me around and started kissing me, and that was a real shock. I first pushed him away. I just told him 'no.' . . . He tries to kiss me again. He starts biting on my lip....

Matt Taylor, who's a great scientist and seems to also be a pretty cool dude, gave a teary, heartfelt apology for his choice of attire on the day of Rosetta's probe landing. "I made a big mistake, and I offended many people," Taylor said at Friday's media briefing, his voice trembling, "and I'm very sorry about this." With that, the briefing moved onto the science (as it should -- Philae's days are numbered, and we want to find out as much as we can from the little probe that could). Taylor seemed to have trouble speaking for a few minutes,...

Can Ted Cruz run for president if he was born in Canada? The Republican senator from Texas says he can. And just to be sure, he’s taking the extra step of renouncing the Canadian citizenship he says he didn’t even know he had. Cruz -- full name: Rafael Edward Cruz --was born in Canada in 1970 because his father was working for the oil industry there. The senator’s recently released birth certificate shows his mother was born in Delaware and his father was born in Cuba. The Cruz family left Canada a few years later. Cruz grew up in Texas...

I see that Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced that he is gay and thanks God for this gift. In a separate story, I see that he is widely quoted in the business press as anticipating an "iPad Christmas". I also notice a picture of a Christmas tree at Apple Headquarters in an insider newsletter. Recall earlier this year that Brenden Eich was forced to resign as CEO of Mozilla because it was revealed that he had donated to a ballot initiative that opposed same-sex marriage. It was claimed that his donation showed that he deserved to lose his job...

Lena Dunham has blasted a right-wing website’s “upsetting and disgusting” claims that she molested her little sister when they were kids. Truth Revolt’s article, “Lena Dunham Describes Sexually Abusing Her Little Sister,” points to a section of the “Girls” creator and star’s new book of essays, “Not That Kind Of Girl,” in which she describes examining her then-one-year-old sister Grace’s vagina when she was 7 to see if it looked the same as her own. The piece also mentions a National Review article that calls the essay “especially suspicious” and says “there is no non-horrific interpretation of this episode.” Dunham...

As I’ve noted elsewhere, the most amusing aspect of the whole #GamerGate phenomenon (background here and here and here) has been the angry progressive media types confusedly looking around trying to figure out how we got to a point where they would be targeted for boycotts and the like for casual comments they have made. As Varad Mehta noted, Crazy, right? They don’t quite understand the world they’ve created. They think it’s the worst thing in the whole world for Internet Tough Guys to make death and rape threats* and also that it’s cool to joke about Bristol Palin actually...

Former Secretary of Labor Bob Reich, on behalf of MoveOn, warns Democrats what will happen if Republicans take control of the Senate: they may use a “tricky, little-known maneuver” to “ram through” their “right-wing policies” with only 51 votes, instead of the 60 votes “usually required” in the Senate. Here he is:Reconciliation

REVERE, Mass. (WHDH) - Some parents in Revere were angry when they learned students were being taught about Islam and the Muslim religion. "No religion should be taught at school. In their paper it says Allah is their only God. That's insulting to me as a Christian who believes in just Jesus only," said Anthony Giannino. A section of the textbook describing the beliefs of Muslims says, "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah." Giannino immediately pulled his son out of the classroom. "We don't believe in Allah. I don't believe in my son learning about this...

I’m a cop. A few weeks ago, two of my beat partners and I were called to an apartment in a fairly nice complex to help a mother and father with their 16-year-old son. The son had no criminal history, and by all accounts was a decent kid. But he was having some problems at home — breaking things and making threats with a knife — and the parents needed our help. When we finally located the son, who is of mixed ethnicity (dad is white, mom is Hispanic), he instantly began cussing and yelling at us. He took a...

To prove my point, I have compiled a list of yummy quotes from a website called What Liberals Say, highlighting the extreme intolerance of the “tolerant” left, beginning with Vice President Joe Biden. Do Biden’s racist remarks represent intolerance? Yes, considering what would happen if a Republican had said anything similar. Joe Biden’s racist statement about Obama: “I mean you’ve got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean that’s a storybook, man.”

Angelo Carusone is probably one of the most famous people you’ve never heard of. A prolific warrior for disaffected minorities and the underserved liberal masses, Carusone is the founder of Stop Rush. (As in Limbaugh.) He was also a guiding force behind the parallel Stop Beck effort. The recipient of massive financial support from George Soros, Carusone went on to become the Executive Vice President of Media Matters, acting as a tireless champion of both racial minorities and LGBT citizens and fighting the regressive, hateful conservative movement.In light of all this, it may turn out to be rather curious...

TUESDAY, Oct. 7, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Every American over the age of 45 should be screened for both type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, a U.S. task force has recommended. "For people with abnormal blood sugar, changes in their lifestyle, such as eating healthier and exercising more often, can help prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. The best way to do that is to participate in a program that supports these behaviors. That's why we're recommending that people who are at increased risk be screened," Dr. Michael Pignone, a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force,...

"...I was victimized all over again," she said. "I had my ID set as Tina Si at the time. Luckily I went in and changed my name to Tina IsSavedByGrace and blocked them and it stopped." But her problems weren't over. A short time later, Facebook demanded she provide photo identification to prove she is a real person. Their goal, she added, was to silence her. "They didn't care that I was a rape victim," she said..." [mandatory excerpting sux pls read the whole article]

A recent announcement from the Islamic Society of Baltimore (ISB) / Masjid Al-Rahmah advised that it will be receiving a grant from the Nonprofit Security Grant Program administered through the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA): ISB will be receiving $74,675.00 which will go towards upgrading, enhancing and adding to our security infrastructure. Over the next several months you will see contractors on-site conducting these security enhancements. The Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) is nationwide and overseen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Part of DHS’s Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI), it has been in effect since 2005. To...

Women have been warned in a Planned Parenthood Action Fund email [1] that Alaska Republican Dan Sullivan, who is running for the U.S. Senate, and three other GOPs could “affect their sex lives.”The warning came from Lena Dunham, the creator and start of the HBO series Girls. In the email Dunham urged women to remember Thom Tillis, who’s challenging Sen. Kay Hagan (D) in North Carolina, “stuck a bunch of abortion restrictions into a bill that was supposed to be about motorcycle safety.”She also wrote that Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa running for the Senate who made hog...

It’s been 48 hours since Jah’Keem Yisrael — AKA Alton Noel — perpetrated a horrific terrorist attack on 54 year old co-worker Colleen Hufford, stabbing her repeatedly and then sawing her head off with a knife, and we have yet to hear any acknowledgment from President Obama of this worrisome incident. Why not? All the elements of an Islamic act of terror are present: the savagery,the shouting of Islamic verses during the act, the stated determination to carry out jihad, and a fanatical belief in Islam that, in his mind, justified everything. From a political standpoint, it’s a bad idea...

....Palin flubbed the address of the White House when she was insulting the Obama administration. She said "truth is an endangered species" at "1400 Pennsylvania Avenue." But the White House is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Our famously gaffe-prone vice president, Joe Biden, has outdone himself. He stumbled through not one, not two, but three gaffes in less than 24 hours. For him, that's a personal best or, more accurately, a personal worst.. Yet if it is better to be criticized than ignored in politics, he can take little comfort from the way that hardly anyone outside of the Republican National Committee, whose website called it "Gaffetastic," seemed to care.