Free Republic

The Democrats' best shot at destroying the GOP in the short/medium-term would clearly lay in mass amnesties of illegal immigrants... forget smokescreen BS about green cards and phony half-measures that pretend to do something short of what the Dems really want: once they're here legally, most 3rd-world immigrants will be made citizens and voting (Democrat) soon enough, and anyone who purports otherwise is being intellectually dishonest... Luckily for left, Republican 'leadership' in the House and Senate are more than willing to help them do that, as the US Chamber of Commerce just loves them a bottomless labor market-- and John Boehner's too stupid to see any farther...

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Pumice as a Time Witness Technische Universität WienJune 23,2008 Three different pumice samples A chemist of Vienna University of Technology demonstrates how chemical fingerprints of volcanic eruptions and numerous pumice lump finds from archaeological excavations illustrate relations between individual advanced civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean. Thanks to his tests and to the provenancing of the respective pumice samples to partially far-reaching volcanic eruptions, it became possible to redefine a piece of cultural history from the second millenium B.C. Vienna (TU). During the Bronze Age, between the years 3000 and 1000 B.C., the Mediterranean was already intensely populated. Each individual culture,...

A court in Egypt has sentenced to death 528 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. They were convicted of charges including murdering a policeman and attacks on people and property. The group is among some 1,200 Muslim Brotherhood supporters on trial, including senior members. Authorities have cracked down harshly on Islamists since Mr Morsi was removed by the military in July. Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested.

CT scans and the use of infra-red technology on the naturally mummified remains of a woman who lived in in a Christian community in the Sudan 1,300 years ago have revealed a tattoo on her inner thigh. The tattoo is a symbol of the Archangel Michael, assembled from ancient Greek letters. “She is the first evidence of a tattoo from the period. This is a very rare find,” Daniel Antoin, curator of physical anthropology at the British Museum, told The Telegraph. The woman’s remains are part of a special exhibition of eight mummies and what technology has revealed about their...

If you weren't careful, you might end up beaten by grape thieves skulking in the darkness. A University of Cincinnati graduate student writes about the contractual obligations of vineyard guards and researchers from around the world contribute more stories from ancient times in the most recent volumes of the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists (BASP)... The latest volume of BASP is the 50th in the series and the eighth to have been edited at UC. The recently published journal features 35 contributions from 26 writers from 11 countries. The previous year's volume features 44 contributions from 41 writers...

In collaboration with the Ministry of Antiquities, a Czech mission working in the area of Abu Seer in Giza discovered a skeleton of a senior statesman called Nefer who lived under rule of the King Nefer-ir-ka-Re of the fifth dynasty from ancient Egypt’s Pharaonic era. The team team was resuming studies on his tomb, which was discovered last year, when Nefer's skeleton was found inside the coffin, according to Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim. Ali al-Asfar, head of the Egyptian antiquities sector, Nefer’s tomb was rocky and unfinished, located within mortuary complex for burial that consists of four corridors. The...

A court in Egypt has sentenced to death 528 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. They were convicted of charges including murdering a policeman and attacks on people and property. The group is among some 1,200 Muslim Brotherhood supporters on trial, including senior members. Authorities have cracked down harshly on Islamists since Mr Morsi was removed by the military in July. Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested. They are expected to appeal. The verdict now goes to Egypt's supreme religious authority, the Grand Mufti (a senior Islamic scholar), for approval or rejection, says the BBC's Orla Guerin in...

William Hague has warned Russia that it faces long-term "isolation and stagnation" over the crisis in Ukraine. The foreign secretary said it was time to consider a "new state of relations" different to that of the past 20 years. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said the UK and its European allies would not "run scared".

<p>Those convicted are part of a group of 545 defendants on trial for the killing of a police officer, attempted killing of two others, attacking a police station and other acts of violence.</p> <p>More than 150 suspects stood trial, the others were tried in absentia. Sixteen were acquitted.</p>

A court in Egypt has sentenced to death 529 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. They were convicted of charges including murdering a policeman and attacks on people and property. The group, members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, are part of a larger trial of more than 1,200 Morsi supporters. Authorities have cracked down harshly on Islamists since Mr Morsi was removed by the military in July. Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested. The Muslim Brotherhood's general guide Mohammed Badie was among those convicted.

Recent events in Turkey, and prior events in Egypt and Libya got me thinking about the amazing power of social media. On Thursday, Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to eradicate twitter, adding “The international community can say this or that – I don’t care. They will see the power of the Turkish Republic.” The next day a "digital coup" occurred and Twitter Use in Turkey Jumped to New High. With the above in mind, I propose ... The Law of Social Media: Arrogant fools who think they can control social media quickly discover social media controls them. The...

Many major discoveries in Egypt have occurred entirely accidentally, just as in the case of our Valley of the Golden Mummies... Of course, the most recent discovery made by a donkey was the amazing Valley of the Golden Mummies at Bahariaya Oasis... When in 1940 the archaeologist Ahmed Fakhry began to conduct a cursory excavation of the ancient settlement known as El Haiz, he found only a few artifacts, but concluded that "Undoubtedly, the larger oasis fifty kilometers north of El Haiz was also thriving during the new Kingdom and will reap much new information about this time in our...

President Barack Obama's policies “have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization,” Cardinal Raymond Burke,head of the highest court at the Vatican, said in a recent interview. Cardinal Burke added that Obama wants to restrict religious freedom and force the individuals, outside of his or her place of worship,“to act against his rightly-formed conscience,even in the most serious of moral questions.”… “It is true that the policies of the president of the United States of America have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization. He appears to be a totally secularized man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.” “Now...

Obama administration hasn't ruled out releasing Pollard in exchange for Israel’s agreement to free Israeli Arabs convicted of terrorist acts. With Israeli-Palestinian peace talks teetering on the brink of collapse, US officials are mulling a desperate bid to resuscitate the negotiations by making a significant move that would win the approval of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition, one that may perhaps include the release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, Israel Radio reported on Sunday. Citing Western diplomatic sources, Israel Radio reported that Obama administration officials have not ruled out Netanyahu’s proposal that Pollard be released in exchange for Israel’s agreement...

While Vladimir Putin's actions in Crimea are worthy of international censure, a more imminent threat to world peace is impasse over Iran. There has been a sense in recent days that this was no ordinary week in the life of the planet. Our already bloodstained 21st-century history — unfolding once again in uncertain and threatening ways — seemed to be opening a new chapter. Two events last Tuesday in world capitals more than 2,000 kilometres apart best symbolized this. But which of these events do you think poses the greatest potential danger to world peace? In Moscow, a preening, self-satisfied...

On this blog, over the last few days – and we will be providing more evidence over the weeks and months ahead – we have documented sick levels of genocide against Christians and Shia Muslims in Syria. The even bigger scandal is the deafening silence of the media, the church, the Jewish Organizations, the Obama administration, and leaders from both political parties. Obama: Stay silent on Christian persecution. Why is it that our government and the leaders of both parties are saying and doing nothing about these atrocities? The answer is simple. We as a country are allies of the...

Egypt has not invited Qatar and Turkey for a major Islamic conference due in Cairo later this week, according to a report published on March 22. “We are not having a crisis with the Qatari or Turkish people … The issue lies in the policy of the Turkish and Qatari governments,” Egyptian Minister of Waqfs (religious endowments) Mohammad Jumaa told at a press conference, gulfnews.com has reported. Cairo will host a conference on March 25 on religious extremism, as Egypt continues a crackdown on Islamists in what the military-backed government portrays as a “war on terrorism”. Around 80 scholars from...

An anniversary passed this week that went almost completely unremarked — and for good reason. March 17th marked the three-year anniversary of the UN Security Council resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya to stop the Moammar Qaddafi regime from attacking rebel-held Benghazi and Ajdabiya, and the three-year anniversary on the 19th of the NATO war on Libya. French, British, and American planes began bombarding the Qaddafi regime, an air war that would continue for months — while Barack Obama refused to request Congressional approval for it. Later, Obama would claim that Libya represented the smart model of Western intervention....

i>This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. The former President of Lebanon, Amine Gemayel, is a Maronite Christian. He recently warned of “an exodus approaching biblical proportions.” Gemayel told a gathering in Zurich of Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and other human rights activists that the current wave of church burnings, murders, and riots against Christians in the Mideast is the work of radical Islamists. The former Lebanese leader’s own brother had been assassinated in Beirut by these same jihadists. President Gemayel’s warnings echo those issued two years ago by Vienna’s Catholic prelate. Christoph Cardinal Schönborn in 2012 told a religious...