Free Republic

“Is the Left anti-Semitic? Sadly, it is heading that way,” Brendan O’Neill writes in theLondon Telegraph. Of course, the obvious rejoinder is, “Heading…?”This is a recurring theme in anti-Israel sentiment today: the idea that a powerful, sinister lobby of Israel lovers has warped our otherwise respectable leaders here in the West, basically winning control of Western foreign policy. You see it in cartoons depicting Israeli leaders as the puppet masters of politicians like William Hague and Tony Blair. You can hear it in Alexi Sayle’s much-tweeted claim that the “Western powers” kowtow to Israel because they are “frightened of it…...

Anti-feminist blogs have been getting a lot of attention recently, as all manner of people take to the internet to explain why they just don’t need it. But right now it’s not people who are leading the debate – it’s cats SNIP Women Against Feminism was set up last summer and has gained a lot of attention in the past few weeks. On the Tumblr site [sample content: “The very name ‘feminism’ is discriminatory … To say that only through women can equal rights be claimed is like saying that only through black people can people have rights”], there are...

China gets wooden spoon for right-angled running track Sports officials in northeast China build a rectangular running track – with right angle corners – in order to ensure their stadium is ready for the visit of Communist Party leaders Sports officials in northeast China have claimed the gold medal for incompetence after authorising the construction of a running track with right-angled corners. The track was completed recently as part of a major refurbishment of a 100,000 sq ft stadium in Heilongjiang province’s Tonghe County. The stadium itself appears to have been impressively built and features an immaculately laid artificial grass...

In Michigan, GOP Senate candidate leads Democrat by +1. In Alaska, Democrat leads both Republicans, +2 and +12. Alaska Republican primary on 19 August.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, facing his first significant test in trying to improve relations between police and minority communities, said Monday that he believes the troubles stem from racial tension that defined his predecessor’s 12 years in office.He did not specifically say he thought race played a role in the recent death of a black asthmatic father of six who died after being put in apparent chokehold by a white officer, an encounter that was caught on video. He did say that more trust was needed between police and residents. “If you talk about the last decade or so in...

July 28, 2014 Kentucky Senate Race Remains Tight, But McConnell Takes Small Lead By WKU PUBLIC RADIO NEWS With just over three months to go until Election Day, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell has a slim, two percentage-point lead over Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. The figure comes from a new Bluegrass Poll released Monday evening, showing the five-term Senator leading 47 percent to 45 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.7 percentage points and was conducted between July 18th and 23rd. In previous polls, Grimes had a four-point lead over McConnell in February. That lead shrank to...

A federal appeals court on Monday struck down Virginia’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, saying that withholding the fundamental right to marry from gay couples is a new form of “segregation” that the Constitution cannot abide.The 2-to-1 decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, upheld a lower court’s decision and extended an extraordinary winning streak in the federal courts for proponents of same-sex marriage. Legal challenges to state bans filed systematically nationwide have prevailed in every test since the Supreme Court in June 2013 struck down part of the federal...

When it comes to finding a job after graduation, business students are throwing their sexual orientation into the mix as well. Reaching Out MBA, an annual conference of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender graduate business students, completes its three-day lineup of speakers and workshops with a job fair—a job fair that is becoming increasingly exclusive. According to Matt Kidd, executive director of Reaching Out MBA, 10 percent of the 1,100 attendees at last year’s conference identified as straight. Because of that, this year's attendees are now required to submit an essay on why they wish to attend the conference or...

Keyla Calix, a 25-year-old Honduran living in downtown Miami, didn’t think her friend’s gift of a Quran would lead her to reject her Catholic upbringing. But two years later, after a serious evaluation of Islam sparked by the holy book, she will head to a mosque Monday morning for Eid al-Fitr, a celebration that marks the end of Ramadan. “My family thought that Islam was just for Arabs,” Calix said, “but Islam is for everyone, not just for Arabs or Pakistani.” Miami’s Islamic community will celebrate the end of Islam’s holy month alongside a series of new beginnings, like Calix’s....

Liberia, along with neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone, is struggling to contain an epidemic that has infected some 1,200 people and left at least 670 dead across the region since the start of the year. Last week authorities in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown and Lagos in Nigeria announced their first cases, marking an alarming new front in the fight against a disease mainly confined to remote villages and rural outposts. "All borders of Liberia will be closed with the exception of major entry points," Sirleaf said in a statement late Sunday. Monrovia's international airport, a provincial airport and three major...

Boulder County is moving forward with plans to refund $5.6 million in assessments paid by homeowners after officials announced they won't appeal a judge's ruling that the county exceeded its authority in forming a local improvement district to pay for the repaving of roads in rural subdivisions. ...

Audio at link.

When international pressure starts to bear on this administration, their true motivation and agenda becomes all too clear. This phenomenon was on display late last week as Israel continued to drive into the Gaza Strip militarily in order to rid the territory of the scores of tunnels that Hamas had dug under Israeli schools and daycare centers, with the intention of murdering children. Thousands of rockets have been launched into Israel with the intention of killing Jewish civilians. Hamas infiltrators have been captured with tranquilizers and handcuffs confirming their desire to kidnap and kill as many Jews as possible, just...

FREETOWN — Sierra Leone officials appealed for help on Friday to trace the first known resident in the capital with Ebola whose family forcibly removed her from a Freetown hospital after testing positive for the deadly disease.

Despite a history of rocky relations between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Obama administration could largely be counted on to watch Israel's back in the U.N. Security Council, where it succeeded for more than five years in blocking successive efforts by the Palestinians to gain more of the trappings of an independent state and to get the world body to formally censure Israeli settlement policies. That changed after the stroke of midnight Sunday when, in the early minutes of Monday, July 28, the U.N. Security Council, with the backing of the United States, issued...

Despite a history of rocky relations between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Obama administration could largely be counted on to watch Israel’s back in the U.N. Security Council, where it succeeded for more than five years in blocking successive efforts by the Palestinians to gain more of the trappings of an independent state and to get the world body to formally censure Israeli settlement policies. That changed after the stroke of midnight Sunday when, in the early minutes of Monday, July 28, the U.N. Security Council, with the backing of the United States, issued...

AMERICAN FORK — A Democratic candidate for the Utah Legislature was charged Monday with aggravated kidnapping. Mark Byrge — a candidate for House District 56 — is also being investigated for allegedly selling pain medications out of his house. Byrge, 33, of American Fork, was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony; aggravated assault, a third-degree felony; and obstructing justice, a second-degree felony. His wife, Tina Byrge, 32, is charged with obstructing justice, a second-degree felony. On June 1, a man went to Byrge's front door and an argument ensued. The fight escalated to the point...

The Obama administration is accusing Russia of violating a 1987 nuclear missile treaty, calling the breach a, quote, 'very serious matter.' An administration official says the United States has notified Russia of its determination that it broke the agreement by testing a new ground-launched cruise missile. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

During a town hall meeting at a summit with the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, President Obama explained to a young African student that to succeed, a burgeoning country required a system of laws. He explained: Regardless of the resources a country possesses, regardless of how talented the people are, if you do not have a basic system of rule of law, of respect for civil rights and human rights, if you do not give people a credible, legitimate way to work through the political process to express their aspirations, if you don't respect basic freedom of speech and...

MCALLEN - Rio Grande Valley Emergency Management officials are concerned that the large amount of people here illegally may pose a dangerous situation in the event severe weather like a hurricane threatens the Valley. People who cross the border illegally have long been part of conversation in law enforcement circles. But now, emergency managers in McAllen have questions of their own, in the event of a hurricane. "You have extra sheltering areas and detention centers right here," said Barry Goldsmith, Brownsville National Weather Service Coordinator. "And are they able to withstand the wind, are they able to withstand flood waters...