Free Republic

Because Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz doesn’t properly crease his pants or favor the infanticide of partial-birth abortion, on the pages of The New York Times, columnist David Brooks (who identifies as a conservative) openly questions Cruz’s Christian faith, and does so for the sin of Cruz doing his job as solicitor general for the state of Texas. The case reveals something interesting about Cruz's character. Ted Cruz is now running strongly among evangelical voters, especially in Iowa. But in his career and public presentation Cruz is a stranger to most of what would generally be considered the Christian...

SLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Tuesday took notice of a "search operation" conducted by Rangers at the house of Salman Masood, who is the New York Times Pakistan correspondent living in Islamabad. The interior minister ordered an inquiry into "how, why and on whose orders a raid was conducted at Salman Masood's house," read a statement issued from his ministry, adding that an explanation has been sought from police and relevant security agencies. "Such operations and raids are not acceptable at any cost," said Nisar. Earlier, Salman Masood had posted pictures on Twitter, showing several Rangers personnel...

When my wife was a student at Hillsdale College __ years ago (Nope! Not telling!), some student friends worked in a sausage factory nearby. They literally waded in hip boots in vast vats of various parts of cattle and pig carcasses headed for massive grinders. "I'll never eat sausage again!" was their common reaction. That's not to say (properly cooked) sausage isn't really safe, but it gives some idea how the saying arose that you never want to watch legislation being crafted because it's a lot like watching sausage being made. Well, it's increasingly clear that you don't want to...

That’s odd. What could Democrats possibly see in a lifelong true conservative like Donald Trump? There’s something for everyone in Nate Cohn’s new post. If you’re a Trump fan, here’s the smoking gun that he really is a new Reagan, the guy who’s going to broaden the tent and sweep to victory in November by bringing centrist Democrats into the GOP. If you’re a Trump critic, here’s further proof that he’s the RINO of RINOs, a man who’s blended nationalism, center-left economics, and Jacksonian foreign policy into something that tastes better to members of the other party than it does...

Under rule by oligarchical collectivists, the progressive future is certain; it is the past that keeps changing. For example, on Thursday night Obama had said that the reason he didn't appreciate that people were upset by the Muslim atrocity in San Bernardino is that he hadn't been watching enough cable TV. But within a few hours, he had no longer said it:

Another day, another series of embarrassing errors and obfuscations by gun controllers who are ignorant of how guns, and the laws that seek to control them, actually work. In its quest to drive up gun sales even further and make gun control even less popular, the New York Times published yet another overwrought editorial on Friday demanding more gun control. Here's how the editorial, given the very measured and objective title of "Gunmakers' War Profiteering on the Homefront," began:

In his Thursday front-page New York Times profile of "gruff" Sen. Ted Cruz on the trail in Iowa political reporter Matt Flegenheimer took pains to portray the Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate as an unlikeable, socially awkward “bomb-thrower” ideologue (“appraised as grating and pompous as a matter of bipartisan consensus”) in “Cruz the Gruff Taking a Turn At Being Nice.” The online headline was no less hostile: "After Making Enemies, Ted Cruz Tries to Make Friends.” Never mind that his poll numbers show he's gaining a lot of supporters in Iowa.Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders suffer heavy deficits...

Ted Cruz said a New York Times report claiming that he criticized Donald Trump is "misleading." The Texas senator's presidential campaign eagerly pushed back against the suggestion that Cruz spoke ill of The Donald at a private fundraiser in New York City. A Times report citing two anonymous sources at a Madison Avenue luncheon with Cruz said the senator questioned Trump's "judgment." In response, the Cruz campaign sent out a statement blasting the story. "In the course of a presidential election, the voters are going to make a decision about every candidate," Cruz said. "And ultimately the decision is, who...

Senator Ted Cruz raised questions on Wednesday at a private fund-raiser about whether Donald J. Trump, his bombastic rival for the Republican presidential nomination, has the "judgment" to be president and mused about "strength," according to two people who attended the event in Manhattan The remarks from Mr. Cruz came as he has studiously avoided public criticism of Mr. Trump, who is handily beating the rest of the Republican field in opinion polls. Mr. Cruz has positioned himself to be the beneficiary of any erosion of support for Mr. Trump. While he has said he doesn't agree with Mr. Trump's...

New York’s most notorious revolutionary tourist — “sandalista” Lori Berenson — is back in Manhattan from Peru, where she served 15 years in prison for terrorism. Forgive us if we don’t put out a welcome mat. The LaGuardia HS grad and MIT dropout has been stuck in Peru by law until her full 20-year sentence expired. Now that it has, she’s heading home to her parents’ Kips Bay apartment. Though lionized by the left and worshiped by The New York Times, Berenson, now 46, was no naive idealist. She spent years traveling Central America with Marxist groups until she hooked...

**SNIP** "This is by far the most aggressive assault on the inspector general concept since the beginning," said Light, and Peace Corps inspector general Kathy Buller said it "runs against transparency." The new rules come from a dispute within the Justice Department after its former inspector general, Glenn Fine, gave a series of reports on FBI abuses. After that, FBI attorneys said that he could no longer have access to their confidential records. A Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion, though, said a law passed in 1978 did not mean the inspector general did not have all access in...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Saturday blasted the New York Daily News for "prayer shaming" and scoffed at The New York Times for a front page editorial on gun control. During a speech in Iowa, the GOP presidential candidate called out the newspapers for their front pages following the shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., that left 14 dead and dozens wounded, and which is now being investigated as terrorism. "The left's immediate reaction to radical Islamic terrorists, like kittens with their eyes closed, is not to go after the bad guys, but immediately to try to seize the guns of...

We don’t have a Jihadi problem, we’ve got a gun problem. I know, because the New York Times tells me so ("The Gun Epidemic" )For the first time since 1920 the NYT has seen fit to publish its own opinion of what life in America should be like on their front page. Apparently they’ve relinquished their role as a member of the (previously) venerable Fourth Estate  to serve as a community organizer for the new Ministry of Truth.So here is the latest position of the But at least those countries are trying. The United States is not. Worse, politicians abet...

**SNIP** It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency. These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection. America's elected leaders offer prayers for gun victims and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing, as they did on Thursday. They distract us with arguments about the word terrorism. Let's be clear: These spree killings are all, in their own ways, acts of terrorism. **SNIP**...

Political endorsements don’t matter like they used to. In the age of twitter, cable news, and the blogs, people depend less and less on other so-called thought leaders to tell them what to think. Less and less does anyone really care what leading figures – even those with huge and recent impacts on GOP history like George W. Bush – think about who they should vote for.There’s a different kind of endorsement that matters quite a lot, however, and that is the kind of unintentional endorsement that Congressional leaders have given Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Republican voters are angry...

Kudos to the New York Times News Service for revealing to its readers that long time Cuba “source” and college lecturer Arturo Lopez Levy “used to work for the Cuban intelligence services.” Previously, the Times appears to have used biographic snippets provided by the long-time graduate student. Let us hope that in the near future, the esteemed newspaper will address Lopez-Levy’s close familial ties to Cuban President Raul Castro. After all, readers deserve to be told when a source has such vested interests.

This seems to be a Trump habit. Check out the video at 16:40 as he talks about Rubio sweating: Donald Trump Funny Moments --Talking About Rubio Sweating

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump is demanding an apology from The New York Times, after denying that he mocked the physical disability of one of its reporters. "Donald J. Trump today demanded an apology from the failing New York Times which accused him (during a major speech before 10,000 people in Myrtle Beach, SC) of mocking a reporter's physical disability when in fact, Mr. Trump does not know anything about the reporter or anything about what the reporter looks like," the Trump campaign said in a statement on Thursday. Trump had cited a 2001 article by Times reporter Serge Kovaleski...

Donald Trump, leading Republican candidate for president, took his spat with the New York Times to the next level, doubling down on his denial of mocking a handicapped reporter and then demanding the newspaper apologize for accusing him of doing so. In tweets sent out Thanksgiving Day, Trump said once again he didn't poke fun of Serge Kovaleski, a New York Times journalist who suffers from arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that restricts the movements of his arms. His campaign first opened with this clarification: "Donald J. Trump today demanded an apology fro the failing New York Times which accused him...