Free Republic

There might not be too many malls in Florida that ban permitted concealed handguns, but the Melbourne Square Mall where there was an attack that left one victim dead and one wounded was another gun-free zone. The Melbourne Square Mall is “a Simon Mall.” Yet, none of the news media have mentioned this point.

CORONADO, Calif. (AP) — Republican presidential prospect Ben Carson on Thursday compared the Islamic State group to American patriots willing to die for freedom.In a speech to the Republican National Committee's winter meeting outside San Diego, the former neurosurgeon and conservative favorite praised American patriots for their willingness to give their lives for their beliefs. Then he mentioned the Islamic State group.

GOP ignores veto threats, presses attacks on Obama on immigration, pipeline, Wall StreetWASHINGTON (AP) -- Defiant congressional Republicans attacked President Barack Obama's agenda from all sides Tuesday, ignoring veto threats and pushing bills to uproot his policies on immigration and Wall Street, force approval of energy pipeline legislation he opposes and make him justify any new federal rules before he makes them. Obama invited his antagonists to the White House for their first face-to-face meeting since the new Republican-controlled Congress convened. But their show of cordiality for the cameras did little to mask the partisan hostilities between Capitol Hill and...

...anti-immigrant protests have been growing by the week, drawing international attention and fears that xenophobia is on the rise again in Germany - whose Nazi past has long made such sentiments taboo...

Whether Muhammad is a prophet is a matter of faith, not fact.In all the coverage of the barbaric terror attacks in Paris Wednesday, one fact of the story kept getting repeated in a curious way on network news, cable news, and in most mainstream publications. They kept saying, “Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.” Do you see it? You probably have become so used to it you don’t even notice anymore. But it’s strange, isn’t it? Why on earth do the news media continue to proclaim Muhammad as a prophet? Isn’t “prophet,” in this context, a subjective modifier?...

Not long after Mayor Bill de Blasio sat beside the Rev. Al Sharpton at a July summit meeting on police reform, a political adviser gave the mayor a blunt assessment: You have a problem with the cops. Rank-and-file officers felt disrespected by the mayor, the adviser explained, and were dismayed to see Mr. Sharpton, a longtime critic of the New York Police Department, embraced at City Hall. But Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, rejected the notion that officers disliked him. His message, the adviser later recalled, was clear: Everything was under control. That confidence would last until late last month,...

The site took another big hit Friday morning when it lost Maggie Haberman, who is going to the NYT and taking her unmatched Hillary Clinton coverage with her. NYT Executive Editor Dean Baquet did warn in a recent memo that they’d carefully make a few outside hires after a recent spate of layoffs and buyouts. In recent months, Politico has made a lot of serious changes, including positioning Susan Glasser in the suburban Virginia bureau as editor. John Harris, meanwhile, is still editor-in-chief in title, but has fled to Brussels to start up Politico Europe — taking a page out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SQE9tToyGw

Yemen: Another Failure The Obama Administration Touted As a Success Katie Pavlich | Jan 09, 2015 As law enforcement officials hone in on two Islamic terrorists who carried out an attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier this week, we're learning more about where the terrorists came from, what their backgrounds are and where they received their training. There are three suspects total. Two brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi, are still on the run but officials know where they are and have been in contact with them throughout the morning. The youngest of the terror suspects turned himself in earlier...

Just two days before New Year’s, a 2-year-old accidentally shot and killed his mother at a Wal-Mart in rural Idaho. The victim was Veronica Rutledge, a 29-year-old concealed handgun permit holder. The child had reached into his mother’s purse. Massive news coverage ensued. Tragedies like these make headlines. That’s understandable. But where was the news media on the previous day, when concealed handgun permit holders likely saved multiple lives? — In Fargo, N.D., four people robbed a 36-year-old man and beat him unconscious. Fortunately, a permit holder stopped the attack. “The passer-by, who has a license to carry a concealed...

The New York Times, which has already faced criticism for its decision not to publish images of the controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoons that may have provoked the attack on that magazine’s Paris offices Wednesday, is now under fire for apparently removing a quote from an article about reactions from survivors of the attack. Earlier today, the website Ace of Spades posted this excerpt from a story by reporter Liz Alderman about the shooting as experienced by those who survived it: Sigolène Vinson, a freelancer who had decided to come in that morning to take part in the meeting, thought she...

I switched cable providers, and the new one inexplicably lacks Fox News. Although Fox isn’t perfect, I’m suffering.

Editor's Note: Timothy Stanley is a historian and columnist for Britain's Daily Telegraph. He is the author of the new book "Citizen Hollywood: How the Collaboration Between L.A. and D.C. Revolutionized American Politics." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.(CNN)—Mike Huckabee is thinking about running for the presidency a second time. He's super serious about it. You can tell because not only has he quit his TV show to spend time thinking about it, and written a book ("God, Guns, Grits and Gravy," due out on January 20), but he's also booked a tour of...

Doctors who perform abortions would be required to have privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the location where the abortion is performed under the first anti-abortion billed filed in the 2015 legislative session. HB 147 is sponsored by two Republicans, Pensacola Rep. Walter Bryan “Mike” Hill, former president of the Northwest Florida Tea Party, and Rep. Scott Plakon of Longwood, who pushed a bill in 2012 that would have required doctors to sign an affidavit stating the abortion is not being performed because of the sex or race of the fetus. The bill is patterned after laws in...

One council member in Maryland not only didn’t want to comment on a story, but he also doesn’t want his name in any news articles about him. The issue stems from an article Frederick News-Post reporter Bethany Rodgers wrote about concerns Kirby Delauter, a Frederick County Councilman, and fellow Councilman Billy Shreve had over County Council parking spaces. Delauter declined to comment for the article, which isn’t out of the ordinary for a public official. But what he did next, is. “Shame on Bethany Rodgers for unauthorized use of my name and my reference in her article today,” Delauter posted...

Moving to quash a conservative GOP insurrection, Assembly Speaker-designee John Hambrick on Saturday harshly rebuked Assemblywoman Michelle Fiore, telling her to stop playing “childish games” and undermining him by insisting she’s still Republican majority leader. Hambrick said in an email to Fiore that he had full authority as the elected leader of the Assembly Republican Caucus to remove her as majority leader and as chair of the Assembly Taxation Committee. He said he removed her last month for insubordination and for how she’s handling a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over unpaid payroll taxes for her home health care...

As 2014 comes to an end, and the new year begins, we want to highlight some of the worst abuses by America’s news media in the past year. We have picked 10 stories for which there were general narratives presented by the mainstream media, which either ignored the larger truths to be gleaned from these stories, or, in some cases, the media missed the story altogether. We easily could have picked 15 topics that met those criteria, but arbitrarily chose to look at 10, and in no particular order. ... The ongoing IRS scandal, involving the targeting of conservative organizations...

He was a victim! The man who cold-bloodedly shot Officers Ramos and Liu gets a shocking amount of sympathy and understanding from the New York Times today. The three (!) writers assigned to the story, Kim Barker, Mosi Secret and Richard Fausset present us empathy as: In reality, Mr. Brinsley’s short life was a series of disappointments. He was the difficult teenager who was passed around from home to home, the adult who could make nothing work, not a T-shirt company, not even an attempt on his own life at a former girlfriend’s house. Everyone seemed to betray him. The...

‘Unbroken’ and Billy Graham The movie and the book about Louis Zamperini’s life skimp on the pivotal role of a certain preacher. By Grant Wacker Jan. 1, 2015 Newspaper headlines agreed. Billy Graham —“heaven’s super salesman,” “the Lord’s top salesman”—knew how to close the deal. If he just read from a telephone book, one associate quipped, people would stand up and commit their lives to Christ. Louis Zamperini, who died July 2 at age 97, was a case in point. The Olympic distance runner and World War II hero is the subject of Laura Hillenbrand ’s acclaimed 2010 biography, “Unbroken,”...

Which offense is more serious? Denying a lesbian communion at a Catholic funeral? Or a female Episcopalian bishop hitting and killing a bicyclist? The Washington Post has picked (A). In 2012, they splashed across the front page (with a picture) that lesbian activist Barbara Johnson was denied communion at her mother's funeral. On December 30, the Post buried a hit-and-run-bishop story on page B5 with the headline “Bishop put on leave after fatal crash: Episcopal diocese says Heather Cook drove car that killed bicyclist.” .......