Free Republic

Charlie Hebdo, the French weekly known for publishing satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and enraging much of the Muslim world, said Sunday that it plans to release a comic book biography of Islam’s founder that will be strictly educational. The weekly often depicts Islam’s prophet using caricatures and parodies in an effort to defend free speech and defy the anger of Muslims who believe depicting Mohammed visually is sacrilegious. The series, entitled "Muhammad's Life," will be “an Islamically authorized biography because it is being written by Muslim commentators,” said the weekly's publisher, known only as Charb. “The only thing...

French and Israeli intelligence sources affirmed Saturday, Dec. 29, that, contrary to reports appearing in the United States Friday, Iran has accelerated rather than slowed down its 20-percent grade enrichment of uranium and is racing toward a nuclear weapons capacity. Furthermore, for the moment, there is not the slightest indication that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has any intention of accepting the Obama administration’s latest plan for a nuclear deal. This plan would require Iran to discontinue production of 20-percent enriched uranium (which can be quickly converted to weapons grade material), and confine itself to producing low 5 percent uranium...

French president François Hollande suffered a damaging setback yesterday when France’s highest court ruled his proposed 75% “supertax” rate unconstitutional. The measure, which is blamed for an exodus of wealthy French abroad, was a pillar of the Socialist leader’s successful Spring election campaign. But in an unexpected blow, France’s Constitutional Council ruled that the tax band did not guarantee equality for taxpayers because two households with the same total revenue could end up with different tax bills. Although the tax would have hit only around 1,500 people, it was seen as the totem in Hollande’s political manifesto, which said it...

(Reuters) - France's Constitutional Council on Saturday rejected a 75 percent upper income tax rate to be introduced in 2013 in a setback to Socialist President Francois Hollande's push to make the rich contribute more to cutting the public deficit.

If people like Paul Krugman get their way, we will be having this debate in America too.And actually, it’s not much of a debate. One of the benefits of being free is you get to go wherever you want without government interference. Evidently in France, this freedom may be in jeopardy as some wealthy citizens, refusing to give the government 75% of their income, have fled France for friendlier climes. Actor Gerard Depardieu is only the most visible individual to choose to leave. The mini-exodus has sparked a fierce debate involving “greed,” “patriotism,” and “solidarity.” Some have even questioned...

Paris, France, Dec 13, 2012 / 04:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A French cabinet member announced that the government will monitor certain groups for "religious pathology," including a traditionalist Catholic organization, and will shut them down if it is discovered. “The objective is to identify when it's suitable to intervene to treat what has become a religious pathology,” Interior Minister Manuel Valls told a conference on the official policy of secularism, according to Reuters. “The aim is not to combat opinions by force, but to detect and understand when an opinion turns into a potentially violent and criminal excess,” he said...

How long is this show going to go on in Washington, and must it? They say closing time for its costars is midnight, December 31. That's when the president and the speaker of the House need to agree on the federal budget Or Else, but politicians never met a deadline they couldn't postpone, as in Can, Kick Down the Road. This year's burlesque is turning into a melodrama (working title: Meltdown) as both sides steer the country right over the dreaded (cue scary music) Fiscal Cliff! Thelma and Louise, here we come. The Mayans couldn't have written a scarier doomsday...

A study by the UK-based biotech company Lycotec found that blue cheese may have anti-inflammatory properties that protect against many diseases. Blue cheeses like Roquefort and Bleu d'Auvergne are being credited with helping reduce cardiovascular disease in France. A studyby the UK-based biotech company Lycotec found that blue cheese may have anti-inflammatory properties that protect against many diseases. The anti-inflammatory properties increased the longer the cheese was ripened, said the Globe and Mail. AFP reported that the benefits of the cheese work best in the gut and just underneath the skin, which may help slow signs of aging. The researchers...

France's attractiveness as a place to do business has plummeted in the eyes of US businesses active in the country after the change to a Socialist government, according to a survey released Thursday. The survey among the heads of the French units of US companies found that only 22 percent saw France as an attractive place to do business, down from 56 percent in 2011. Conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris and consulting firm Bain and Company, the survey questioned 52 leaders of French operations of US companies that had 39,000 employees and generated €32 billion ($42...

Veteran French actress Catherine Deneuve launched a strong defence of Gérard Depardieu on Friday, calling a virulent critic of her fellow thespian's bid for tax exile a petty-minded pygmy. Deneuve's defence came after the reclusive French film legend Brigitte Bardot castigated attacks on a man who is arguably France's leading actor with roles in nearly 170 films. The hulking 64-year-old star's move to Belgium has been derided as "pathetic" by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault while another top French actor, Philippe Torreton, publicly accused him of sulking like a playground creep. Deneuve, a chiselled blonde actress whose career spans nearly a...

France’s parliament has passed a contentious budget for next year that includes a raft of new taxes aimed slashing the country’s deficit and putting it on the path to economic recovery. …

Even though he is 92, Howard Hensleigh remembers 1944 like it was yesterday. Even though he is 92, Howard Hensleigh of Menlo Park remembers 1944 like it was yesterday. That was the year the Army World War II veteran killed a German soldier during a gun battle in Southern France. “The sergeant that I chose to fire the first shot fired and of course they hit the dirt. Firing going back and forth all the time," Hensleigh said. Hensleigh, who was an intelligence officer and assistant platoon leader, says he knew the German soldiers were not going to give up...

Israel's spate of settlement expansion around Jerusalem has increased again with the approval of 2,612 homes in a move likely to further inflame international criticism of Binyamin Netanyahu's government. Givat Hamatos, across the pre-1967 Green Line between southern Jerusalem and Bethlehem, will be the first new discrete settlement created since 1997. Critics say it will become part of a chain of settlements in the area, further impeding access between the two biblical cities. European diplomats in Jerusalem have warned that the construction of Givat Hamatos is a "game-changer" which could destroy the chance of a viable Palestinian state with East...

A report commissioned by French President François Hollande has started the ball rolling towards possible legislation that would allow for medically-assisted suicide in France.A government-commissioned report released on Tuesday has recommended that France allow doctors to “accelerate death” for terminally-ill patients who want to end their lives. French people overwhelmingly support medically-assisted suicide, with an October poll showing 89% in favour. Examining the case for medically-assisted suicide was a campaign pledge made by French President François Hollande ahead of his election in May 2012. Hollande pledged to act on the recommendations of the government-commissioned report, which will be referred to...

The fiscal frenzy that has seized French socialists is not only grinding France’s economy to a halt; it is also attacking the very foundations of French society by destroying entrepreneurship and responsibility. Taxes are raining down on French citizens, and the promised shelters often disappear before they have even been introduced. The French government’s 2013 finance bill has announced confiscatory tax rates on incomes and capital gains, and payroll taxes will be increased as well. But the socialists are shooting themselves in the foot, as such tax rates will destroy wealth and drive out entrepreneurs, capital, businesses, and young people....

Religious freedom experts are decrying a recent announcement by the French government that it will deport and dissolve groups that are labeled extreme and appear to suffer from “religious pathology.” … At a Dec. 11 conference, French interior minister Manuel Valls announced that new government surveillance policies will be aimed at shutting down religious groups including traditionalist Catholics if they show signs of a “religious pathology” that could lead to violence, reported Reuters. The conference was held two days after French president François Hollande announced the creation of a new agency, the “National Observatory of Secularism,” to observe and promote...

Gérard Depardieu has said he is handing back his French passport and social security card, lambasting the French government for punishing "success, creation, talent" in his homeland. A popular and colourful figure in France, the 63-year-old actor is the latest wealthy Frenchman to seek shelter outside his native country by buying a house just over the border in Belgium in response to tax increases by the Socialist president, François Hollande. The prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, described Depardieu's behaviour as pathetic and unpatriotic at a time when the French are being asked to pay higher taxes to reduce a bloated national...

French actor Gerard Depardieu says he is handing back his French passport after the prime minister criticised him for moving to Belgium to avoid taxes. In a letter to a newspaper he lambasted the French government for punishing "success, creation and talent". Last week the 63-year-old actor announced he was moving to the small Belgian town of Nechin just over the French border. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault described the decision as "shabby". Next year, the top rate of income tax in France is due to become 75% on earnings above 1m euros. It is currently 50% in Belgium. "I...

Will this village be the only place to survive the end of the world next Friday? French village Bugarach said to be only place that will survive Armageddon Mayan calendar suggests world will end on December 21 Pic de Bugarach mountain overlooking village said to be an alien lair Prophecy suggests aliens will emerge to pluck 'future survivors' to safety The village of Bugarach in southern France doesn’t feel as if it’s braced for the end of the world. Christmas decorations are twinkling, the birds are singing and an alarming number of garden gnomes are gleaming in the December sun....

Germany’s Angela Merkel and other center-right leaders have indicated they would like to see Mario Monti to keep on running Italy instead of Silvio Berlusconi. The center-right leaders—as well as the two Italian political adversaries—met in Brussels ahead of an EU summit on Thursday (13 December) in an event designed to prevent Italy’s political turmoil from stirring up the euro crisis once again. The center-right European People’s Party (EPP) chief Hans Martens admitted to journalists he stage-managed the whole thing so that neither Monti nor Berlusconi knew the other would be there until the last minute to make sure that...