Free Republic

The deal just struck between the U.S., world powers, and Iran is an historic achievement that decreases the likelihood of an Iranian nuclear weapon and forestalls the risk of another costly U.S. war in the Middle East.But while the diplomats in Vienna are finished wrangling over the final details, the Obama administration is by no means finished fighting for the agreement’s survival. Congress has 60 days with which to review the deal for final approval, and while Republicans may not have a veto-proof majority, they — along with some Democrats — remain vehemently opposed to any plausible peaceful resolution.The debate...

Police said this week's investigation began when they were called about 2:26 a.m. Monday to the intersection of Hillen and Forrest streets, just south of East Monument Street, where a man said he was just robbed at gunpoint by two men in a gray SUV. Soon after, an officer spotted the vehicle parked in the 2300 block of E. Monument and saw men dart inside the Safe Streets office. When officers eventually raided the office, they found guns, heroin, cocaine, and other items used in the manufacturing and sale of drugs, including cutting agents and scales, police said.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige has signed a bill that outlines the state’s first licensing system for medical marijuana dispensaries, officials announced Wednesday. The governor had until midnight Tuesday to sign or veto bills passed by the state Legislature this year. “I support the establishment of dispensaries to ensure that qualified patients can legally and safely access medical marijuana,” Ige said in a statement. “We know that our challenge going forward will be to adopt rules that are fair, cost effective and easy to monitor. We will make a good faith effort to create a fair process that will help the...

I listened during a television news show to a spokesman for the homosexual cause failing miserably to make the case that they (homosexuals) are not against religious freedom. He claimed they oppose “discrimination” against homosexuals when Christian businesses choose not to involve themselves in homosexual activities. As so many leftists do, the spokesman compared the perceived discrimination to refusing service to a patron because the patron is black. What that spokesman conveniently avoided is the immutability of being black. As such, laws against discrimination based on race are equitable laws (in man’s and in God’s eyes). As a black person,...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich's campaign has hired a member of one of the nation's leading same-sex marriage advocacy groups as a strategist for his "independent" campaign committee. Matt David of Los Angeles is part of Young Conservatives for Freedom to Marry, part of the national Freedom to Marry organization that for years helped lead the effort to make gay marriage legal in America. (A Freedom to Marry spokeswoman confirmed today he is still part of the group.) David will now work for Kasich's "527" group, New Day for America, a campaign spokesman confirmed. Whether the hiring will lead to any...

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s standing is falling among Democrats, and voters view her as less decisive and inspiring than when she launched her presidential campaign just three months ago, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. The survey offers a series of warning signs for the leading Democratic candidate. Most troubling, perhaps, for her prospects are questions about her compassion for average Americans, a quality that fueled President Barack Obama’s two White House victories. Just 39 percent of all Americans have a favorable view of Clinton, compared to nearly half who say they have a negative opinion of her. That’s an...

Scott Walker stumbled over his own prior comments Wednesday, saying that when he called on the Boy Scouts to reinstate a ban on gay leaders because it “protected children,” he meant the ban protected them from media scrutiny. “The protection was not a physical protection,” Walker said Wednesday at an event in South Carolina, according to The New York Times. Rather, the Wisconsin governor continued, he was referring to “protecting them from being involved in the very thing you’re talking about right now, the political and media discussion about it, instead of just focusing on what Scouts is about, which...

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay — His speeches can blend biblical fury with apocalyptic doom. Pope Francis does not just criticize the excesses of global capitalism. He compares them to the “dung of the devil.” He does not simply argue that systemic “greed for money” is a bad thing. He calls it a “subtle dictatorship” that “condemns and enslaves men and women.” Having returned to his native Latin America, Francis has renewed his left-leaning critiques on the inequalities of capitalism, describing it as an underlying cause of global injustice, and a prime cause of climate change. Francis escalated that line last week when...

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) warned Monday that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s dissonance with his wife on same-sex marriage could cause him to be less “active” in his opposition. “Spouses matter,” Santorum said in an editorial meeting with The Daily Caller. “When your spouse is not in-sync with you — particularly on cultural issues, moral issues — [you] tend not to be as active on those issues." Walker panned last month’s Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide as a “grave mistake” where “five unelected judges [took] it upon themselves to redefine the institution of marriage.” But while those views...

So I've learned Democrats are pretty scared of Walker Scott Walker is a Health Care-Denying, Anti-Worker, Economy-Dragging, Education-Slashing, Marriage Equality-Opposing, Teacher-Disrespecting, Trickle-Down-Believing Anti-Choice Republican, and he's running for President. Finished laughing hysterically yet? No? We’ll give you a moment. OK, so now that you’ve had a chance to catch your breath, can we please talk about the horrific stench of desperation that’s emanating from the Dems? Because seriously. They’re flinging every last bit of poo they can squeeze out at the Walker wall, hoping something will stick. It’s truly a sickening spectacle — and par for the course with these...

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has unanimously approved a resolution to end the organisation's ban on gay adults working as leaders. The group's National Executive Board will meet to ratify the resolution on 27 July, the Boy Scouts said in a statement. It is a major step towards ending a policy that has caused deep rifts in the group, which was set up in 1910. The BSA voted to end a ban on allowing open gay boys to become scouts in 2013. Earlier this year, former US defence secretary Robert Gates, who is BSA president, told the group's national...

The Dent County Commission voted unanimously Monday to observe one year of "mourning” over the Supreme Court’s June 26 decision that gay couples have the constitutional right to marriage. The observance will come in the form of lowering the flags at the Dent County Courthouse and Judicial Building to below half-staff on the 26th day of the month from July 2015 to June 2016. The vote came after Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles filed a letter into the public record protesting, “the U.S. high court’s stamp of approval of what God speaks of as an abomination.” The letter details Skiles’ opposition...

Live Aid celebrates its official 30th anniversary today, but there’s only one star from the famous Wembley show that stands out in our minds. That’s Freddie Mercury who performed the most epic of epic sets with Queen on July 13th 1985. For a solid 25 minutes Freddie had the entire Wembley stadium on their feet, as well as 1.5 billion viewers at home, and it has gone down in history as arguably his greatest ever performance. So whether you wait until your lunch break, or stick your headphones on now, you won’t regret the time you spent watching Freddie Mercury...

WASHINGTON — A key leadership panel of the Boy Scouts of America voted unanimously last week to end the ban on gay leaders in scouting, the organization told local leaders on Monday. The move — raised as a necessary step by the organization’s head in May — came from the executive committee of the Boy Scouts on July 10. A vote of the full executive board is scheduled for July 27, at which point the change is immediately effective. The resolution passed by the committee does not require councils or troops to allow out gay leaders, but lifts the prior...

County clerks across the country are resigning after the June 29 Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. Just a few days after the monumental ruling, an entire county clerk office in Tennessee resigned. Decatur County Clerk Gwen Pope and both of her deputy assistants, Sharon Bell and Mickey Butler, resigned, saying the order clashed with their religious beliefs. All three were long-time employees of the clerk’s office. Pope told The Jackson Sun they didn’t want to make the news. "It's kind of sort of like you don't want to draw attention to yourself for any reason," she said. "That's...

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said the Mercy Sisters who run Waldron Mercy Academy showed "character and common sense" in firing a lesbian teacher who has been married since 2007 after parents of two students found out and complained. In his first direct comment since the firing became public last week, Chaput said, "Schools describing themselves as Catholic take on the responsibility of teaching and witnessing the Catholic faith in a manner true to Catholic belief. There's nothing complicated or controversial in this. It's a simple matter of honesty," he said in a statement issued Monday." "I'm very grateful to the...

I confess that I do not begin to understand homosexual or transgender issues. As life would have it, this matter has found its way into the lives of my own circle of friends and family members, people whom I love and respect most dearly. While I acknowledge that I do not fully understand the issues which formed the basis of the case before the Supreme Court, I am comfortable with the decision and fully believe the Court is right in its ruling that laws forbidding same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. Frankly, I don’t have to understand anything other than that I...

The Boy Scouts of America is one step closer to lifting the ban on gay leadership in the organization. On Friday, the Boy Scouts of America Executive Committee adopted a resolution to amend the group's adult leadership standards policy, which was unanimously adopted. The BSA policy change will allow scoutmasters and other adult leaders to serve regardless of their sexual orientation. According to the Boy Scouts, the resolution "will allow chartered organizations to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation, continuing Scouting’s longstanding policy of chartered organizations selecting their leaders." The Boy Scouts said that the change will leave...

Last week, Pope Francis released his long awaited—and preemptively leaked—encyclical, acknowledging climate change as mostly human-induced and cause for drastic transformation on both individual and nationwide levels. It was an unprecedented move by the leader of the Catholic Church, as religiosity has long been linked to lower levels of climate concern. Fortunately, however, the Pope's message will fall on receptive ears. Researchers at the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication have found that, among religious Republicans—and Republicans are more likely to be religious than Democrats—Catholic Republicans are "more convinced that global warming is happening and human-caused, and are more worried...

The archbishop of Philadelphia said Monday that Roman Catholic school officials who fired a married gay teacher showed uncommon “character and common sense.” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said the nuns and board members who run Waldron Mercy Academy are not seeking controversy, but simply following the church’s teaching. Chaput, in a statement, thanked school leaders “for taking the steps to ensure that the Catholic faith is presented … in accord with the teaching of the church. They’ve shown character and common sense at a moment when both seem to be uncommon.” …