Free Republic

It's a national mystery that has left both the social media world and the Secret Service scratching their heads. On Sunday night, a photo of what appears to be Malia Obama wearing a Pro Era shirt surfaced on Instagram. It quickly went viral after the Brooklyn-based hip-hop collective posted the pic to advertise its online store. A rep for the group told Gawker on Monday that the photo was from "a mutual friend of Malia and the pro era member," but White House officials aren't so sure. Fox News reports that government officials are looking into the photo's origins. Michelle...

Fighters for the Islamic State terrorist groups are desperately seeking male-enhancement medication in an effort to fuel their desire for “brutal and abnormal” sexual behaviors, according to a report from activists in the Syrian city of Raqqa. The report from the group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently reveals that usually ultra-conservative Islamic extremists spend part of their salary on “kinky underwear” for their wives and for hundreds of young women and children that are kidnapped and sold as sex slaves. Anonymous doctors told the website that a “large section of ISIS members suffer from sexual anomalies and brutal instinctive desire...

The European Union’s executive has unveiled a vast plan to boost coordination between the EU’s 28 national energy markets to wean Europe off unstable Russian gas supplies and provide cheaper energy for consumers. European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič on Wednesday called it “undoubtedly the most ambitious energy project” since the inception of the EU over half a century ago. He believes that improving links across borders in Europe’s energy grid could save businesses and consumers up to €40 billion ($45.4 billion) a year. A more energy-independent Europe will also increase the EU’s political options in eastern Europe. […] “Our...

I've been watching the news on Bibi Netanyahu's visit to Congress and have noticed an old demon raising it's ugly head again. If you are a Christian, you have but one response to all things Jewish. They are your family. If you are an atheist or some other pagan being, you can think what you want, but a Christian cannot be an anti-Semite. God's covenant was with Abraham and Moses, both Hebrew. The Jews were chosen to reveal Jesus to the world, even if they didn't believe. Jesus came as a Jew and taught the Torah in the Synagogue. We...

Gerbils are cute and furry creatures. They may also, according to scientists, have been responsible for killing millions of people across Europe by spreading the plague. Researchers now believe that gerbils from Asia, rather than native black rats, were behind the repeated outbreaks of the bubonic plague in Europe.

LONDON - In research that contradicts years of health advice, scientists said on Monday that babies at risk of developing a childhood peanut allergy can avoid it if they are given peanuts regularly during their first 11 months.

In an article chock full of "could" and computer model projections, the San Jose Mercury News speculates in the headline, "Climate change may flatten Santa Cruz's famed surfing waves." Key word is "may" since it also may not. However, this doesn't prevent reporter James Urton from engaging in extreme conjecture about surf conditions in a century while computer model projections are often unable to correctly project the weather for the next day. Let us now join Urton in the midst of his Chicken Little mode concerning the future of Santa Cruz surfing:

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald apologized today for mistakenly saying in a videotaped exchange with a homeless man that he had served in the special forces, though his service was entirely with the 82nd Airborne Division. "Secretary McDonald has apologized for the misstatement and noted that he never intended to misrepresent his military service," a White House officials told ABC News. "We take him at his word and expect that this will not impact the important work he's doing to promote the health and well-being of our nation's veterans." The exchange with the homeless man was part of a report...

Seven times on Monday, the Obama White House assured Americans that there is no "specific, credible plot against the Mall of America or any other domestic commercial shopping center here in the United States." In response to multiple questions, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was just reminding Americans to "remain vigilant," when Johnson told the Sunday news shows that an al Qaeda-linked terror group, Al-Shabaab, is publicly calling for attacks on shopping malls in the United States, specifically the Mall of America in Minneapolis.

Robert Luther "Bob" Sales Sr. enlisted in the National Guard at the age of 15, lying his way into the service. It was 1941, before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. “My father told my mother, ‘don’t worry, because he won't last a week,’ but I lasted five and a half years, won many decorations, killed a lot of Germans, done a lot of things,” he had said in a 2011 interview with The News & Advance recorded in his Madison Heights home. Sales, an Amherst County native who landed in France on D-Day at the age of 18 and then...

Two former CBS reporters have strongly disputed Bill O’Reilly‘s accounts of what happened one night when they covered a riot in Buenos Aires, but on The Factor tonight, O’Reilly brought on a former NBC News bureau chief who backed up his story. Don Browne was the NBC News Miami bureau chief at the time, and he oversaw the network’s Falklands coverage. And Browne told O’Reilly his account was accurate. As opposed to some of the other accounts, which have to some extent downplayed the danger, Browne said the situation “got progressively more intense” and there were demonstrations in Buenos Aires...

Reuters) - Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc have been sued for $20 billion for allegedly discriminating against African American-owned media and employing advocates such as the NAACP and the Rev. Al Sharpton to advance their bias. The lawsuit was filed on Friday in Los Angeles federal court by the National Association of African-American Owned Media as U.S. regulators review the proposed $45 billion merger between the two biggest U.S. cable operators.

Two more very cold arctic blasts are going to hit Michigan this week. Conditions may be right late in the week for rapid ice making on the Great Lakes. This makes me think we could make a run at record ice cover on the Great Lakes by this coming weekend. As of Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015, the total Great Lakes ice cover was 84.4 percent. Record total ice cover on the Great Lakes is 94.7 percent, set in 1979.

In 2001, [Pelosi] took to the pages of the Congressional Record to effuse her sentiments on the hundredth anniversary of Harry Bridges's birth, an occasion celebrated only by a gnostic few. Here is what she said: "Harry Bridges [was] arguably the most significant labor leader of the twentieth century," who was "beloved by the workers of this Nation, and recognized as one of the most important labor leaders in the world." She added: "The International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union [was] the most progressive union of the time." In other words, this Communist-run union was more admirable than all of the...

Police are investigating a body found on a Jupiter beach naked with a gunshot wound early Monday. A person found the man, who appeared to be in his late 50's, at about 6:50 a.m. in the 200 block of Ocean Trail Way, according to a Jupiter Police news release. Police examined the body and discovered a gunshot wound. appeared to be on the beach for a "significant amount of time," Jupiter police spokesman Sgt. Scott Pascarella said. The identity of the man is currently unknown. "This investigation is currently being considered a suspicious death until further investigation can be conducted,"...

One in five Germans believe that a revolution would be the only way to truly reform society, a study released by the Free University of Berlin on Monday shows. Anti-capitalism, anti-fascism and anti-racism were all are prominent positions according to the study entitled “Against state and capital—for the revolution”, which has revealed a public much further to the left than previously thought. In the report, 20% of the people surveyed agreed with the statement that “Living conditions won’t be improved by reforms—we need a revolution”. A similar percentage of people said they saw the rise of a new fascism in...

The Brian Williams suspension has caused a shake-up at MSNBC. The Daily Beast is reporting that Rev. Al Sharpton may lose his nightly time slot. “Politics Nation with Al Sharpton,” has aired since 2011 and has had a successful run. At issue is a steady slide in viewership....Chris Hayes is to be replaced by the “Rachel Maddow Show.” Maddow moves from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m., while a search is underway for a new host for the vacant time slot. Sharpton’s show is rumored to be moving from nightly 6 p.m. to weekend-only. Sharpton attracts a solid 35 percent Black...

Need prayers for a miracle. My daughter is overseas and lost her phone. She's going to retrace her path in the morning to try and find it. She needs a miracle, not just to find the phone, but to help increase/renew her faith in God and in miracles. I believe there is power in numbers and hope you would pray in her behalf today. Her name is Hayley. Thanks.

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign in waiting, “Ready for Hillary,” has gone to the dogs — literally. Once again showing how quick it can glom on to a trend to raise money, the group is piggybacking off the winner of last week’s The Westminster Kennel Club 139th Annual Dog Show to pitch some trinkets like dog collars and bowls.

A planned protest over the lack of diversity in the film industry by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) has been canceled. The group will instead seek direct dialogue with Hollywood’s central authority, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.