Free Republic

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for being in the country illegally, you live in a country run by idiots. If you have to get your parent’s permission to go on a field trip or to take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion, you live in a country run by idiots. If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor or check out a library book, but not to vote who runs the government, you live in a country run by idiots.idiots...

What do you do when you want something more and different than you’re getting in your home country? For an increasing number of 60+ women, the answer is to move overseas. According to the data we collected through our website, Best Places in the World to Retire, there can be a better life out there, if you are willing to uproot and reinvent yourself as an expat in Belize, Nicaragua or Panama. In addition to the over 5,000 answers and 200 stories on our website, in early July, we released Expats: Expectations & Reality, the first in a series of...

“Now the people who were just clocking in and out were making the same as me,” he told the paper. “It shackles high performers to less motivated team members.”

Sen. Bob Menendez has introduced legislation to curb trophy hunting of endangered and threatened species after the demise of Cecil, an African lion whose death at the hands of an American hunter touched off a social media firestorm. The Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large Animal Trophies Act would extend restrictions on the import and export of animals that are being considered for inclusion under the Endangered Species Act. Currently, the restrictions apply only to animals already on the list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had suggested the African lion be listed as “threatened” in October, but...

Secretary of State John Kerry sat down with Matt Lauer for an interview on Today earlier, defending the deal with Iran — and telling Israel to cool their jets, almost literally. In doing so, Kerry managed to turn Israel into the aggressor and Iran into a passive actor who might somehow decide they need a bomb only if Israel attacked them. It’s a strange reversal, and one that confirms the impression that the Obama administration has become the lawyers for the mullahs (via Jeff Dunetz): Lauer points out to Kerry that opposition to the Iran deal encompasses practically the whole...

A group of anti-Confederate protesters aren’t happy enough with the declaration by the city of Memphis that it wants to dig up and move the remains of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest. They want it done now. A group surrounded a shovel Wednesday and ceremoniously removed a chunk of grass and soil.

This can’t be true, can it? Most interesting news of #Iran hearing: IAEA will have to rely on #Iran to take samples at Parchin and other sites for its PMD investigation— Jackson Diehl (@JacksonDiehl) July 23, 2015

California regulators on Monday proposed a first-of-its-kind, $1.5 million fine for a group of Central Valley farmers accused of illegally taking water during the drought. It would be the first such fine against an individual or district with claims to water that are more than a century-old, known as senior water rights holders. The action reflects the rising severity of California’s four-year drought that has prompted the state to demand cutbacks from those historically sheltered from mandatory conservation. …

Dear Muslim brothers and sisters, 1. I am pleased to send you, in the name of all the Catholics around the world and in my name as well, best wishes for a peaceful and joyful celebration of ‘Id al-Fitr. You exercise during the month of Ramadan many religious and social practices, like fasting, prayer, almsgiving, help to the poor, visits to family members and to friends. I hope and pray that the fruits of these good deeds may enrich your life. 2. For some of you and also for others from other religious communities, the joy of the feast is...

Several House Democrats are coming to the defense of Planned Parenthood in the wake of a now-viral video that shows its chief medical director graphically detailing the uses for organs of aborted fetuses. “Planned Parenthood is actually allowed, is my understanding, for scientific research, to use fetal tissue and that is not illegal,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus and sponsor of numerous abortion-rights bills. “Having talked to the leadership at Planned Parenthood, this was a sting operation,” she added. She said she had not watched the nearly nine-minute video, which was released Tuesday...

2016 By Laura McClellan Published June 18, 2015 Taste of Country Facebook6 Twitter30 Email Print Now Playing Dixie Chick Wins Lawsuit Never autoplay videos The Dixie Chicks one of the best-selling U.S. female groups of all time are back and ready to take the stage again for a proper tour, nearly a decade after the release of their last all-original album, "Take the Long Way (2006)." Outspoken frontwoman Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison have announced that they will embark on a European tour in 2016, following up on their recent six-date spring European tour, which began...

On Thursday, KTLA-5 reported on hidden camera footage that showed some objectionable behavior from police officers during a raid on an unlicensed marijuana dispensary. The cops were recorded playing darts on the job, eating pot-laced baked goods, and even joking about assaulting a woman with an amputated leg. The footage shows that eight officers had masks on and their guns drawn when they entered Sky High Holistic, shouting “everybody on the ground” to customers and workers. After clearing the building of everyone present, the police began to remove the store’s mounted surveillance cameras, though they did not get the ones...

Plastic bags will soon be free again in Dallas. In a vote of 10 to 4, Dallas City Council members voted to repeal the bag fee passed in 2014. Grocery Bag Makers File Lawsuit Over Dallas Fee Last year's resolution added a $.05 fee for each single-use plastic bag used by shoppers to encourage people to use reusable bags and to reduce litter. The ban went into effect Jan. 1. "We're gonna take this nick on the chin," said Dallas City Councilman Dwaine Caraway, who originally pushed for the ban, after Wednesday's vote. "Y'all celebrate. Just celebrate. But when it's...

We have followed the performance of Marie Harf as a spokesman for the Obama administration foreign policy at the State Department. Harf gives the catastrophic foreign policy of the Obama administration a lighter than air, Valley Girl kind of feel. She is a walking self-parody. As such, she presents a novel use of expressive form. Now comes word that Harf is being promoted to Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications to Secretary of State John Kerry. Like a helium filled balloon, Harf ascends. In her new position Harf will focus on negotiations between the U.S. and Iran on nuclear weapons. It...

A group of international women activists crossed the heavily-fortified Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea on Sunday in what they said was a symbolic act for peace. North and South Korea are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Despite its name the DMZ is one of the most heavily militarized and fortified borders in the world. "We feel very celebratory and positive that we have created a voyage across the DMZ in peace and reconciliation," said U.S. activist and feminist Gloria Steinem, honorary co-chair of the WomanCrossDMZ...

Via Life Site News come some frankly bizarre statements from the Vatican official who put together last month's Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity conference. Two major speakers at the conference were Jeffrey Sachs, widely criticized for the abject failure of his Millennium Villages initiative, and Ban-Ki moon, current secretary general of the United Nations—both of whom are extremely pro-abortion. Which the Catholic Church is not. Stefano Gennarini asks Archbishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Science and Social Sciences, whether he knew about the pro-abortion and population control chops of his two big guests and whether that...

A civil-liberties group is demanding a two-star Air Force general be court-martialed for mentioning God at a National Day of Prayer Task Force speech on May 7. Despite the religious nature of the event, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has called for Olson to be “aggressively and very visibly brought to justice for his unforgivable crimes and transgressions,” adding that any other service members who helped him should be investigated and punished “to the full extent of military law.”

I can't help but notice that the nitwits on the left have adopted of late two ridiculous terms to blather against the sane. These terms are "White Privilege" and "Micro Aggression". Both of course are meaningless in any rational way but serve to tickle the pseudointellectual BB brains that like to think that a college education means anything these days. What I would like to do is have a competition of sorts to try and predict what the next popular nitwhittery from the left will be so we can get out ahead of it and begin the mocking of it...

Noting that he’s “perhaps the most progressive member of the United States Senate,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) described today how, as president, he would do socialism in America. “When we talk about Democratic socialism, I think it is important to realize that there are countries around the world, like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, who have had social democratic governments on and off for many, many years. And we can learn a whole lot from some of those countries,” the 2016 Democratic presidential contender said on CBS this morning. “For example, the United States is the only major country on earth...

Hercules has been crushed — because of a selfie! A couple of tourists are in hot water after climbing onto a priceless marble statue of the mythical Greek hero in the northern city of Cremona, Italy, the Daily Mail reported. The miscreants put too much weight on the statue at the Loggia dei Militi palace during their boneheaded bid to snap a photo of themselves — shattering the crown of the Statue of the Two Hercules.