Free Republic

Michael Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, was on Good Morning America Monday to discuss the violence in Ferguson, Missouri. She said there can be no peace until Officer Darren Wilson is arrested for shooting her son. Robin Roberts: How can peace be restored, Maam? Lesley McSpadden: Justice. Robin Roberts: And, what is justice to you? Lesley McSpadden: Being fair. Arresting this man and making him accountable for his actions.

The family of the black teenager shot dead by a policeman in St Louis are haunted by the image of him holding his hands up at the moment he was killed, a family member claimed today. Ty Pruitt said that the mental picture of Michael Brown surrendering was stuck in his relatives’ minds as it showed he was ‘killed like an animal’. Pruitt spoke out at an emotional Sunday church service during which Brown’s mother Lesley McSpadden sobbed and wiped the tears away from her eyes with a tissue. His father Michael Brown Sr stood grim faced whilst wearing a...

County police in riot gear and armored tanks gave way to state troopers walking side-by-side with thousands of protesters as the St. Louis suburb where an unarmed black teen was shot by a city police officer overwhelmingly avoided violence Thursday after nearly a week of unrest and mounting public tension.

Obama "And this is the future we need for our military. We cannot tolerate this strain on our forces to fight a war that hasn’t made us safer. I will restore our strength by ending this war, completing the increase of our ground forces by 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 marines, and investing in the capabilities we need to defeat conventional foes and meet the unconventional challenges of our time. " "So let’s be clear. Senator McCain would have our troops continue to fight tour after tour of duty, and our taxpayers keep spending $10 billion a month indefinitely; I want...

John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, flew to the Middle East to press for a ceasefire between the democratic country of Israel, and the terrorist group Hamas. Of course, Kerry cannot put pressure on a terrorist group. They’re terrorists. So he presses the democracy to make concessions. The chief concession being, of course, to stop fighting a terrorist group. Would the United States sign an immediate ceasefire against al-Qaida? A great, liberal democracy, signing an agreement not to shoot or bomb or drone nihilistic terrorists who murdered nearly 3,000 U.S. civilians on 9/11, and who have killed as many...

Secretary of State John Kerry is the latest to think the power of his personal diplomacy can bring "peace to the Middle East." But, once again, when one side publicly calls for the destruction of the other, what is there to discuss? Hamas, designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., has governed the Palestinian territory of Gaza since they defeated rival Fatah, the group that governs the West Bank. Hamas, along with Hezbollah, Palestine Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, Iraqi militant Shiite groups and other terror organizations, is funded in part by Iran,...

A “peace conference” sponsored by the leftist Israeli newspaper Haaretz devolved into violence on Tuesday when an Israeli government official was heckled and then punched in the back by an attendee, according to reports. Attendees at the Israel Conference on Peace—which was kicked off with an endorsement by President Barack Obama and features a who’s who of liberal speakers—began shouting hateful slogans and then accosted Knesset member Naftali Bennett after he defended the government’s military action, which was undertaken to stop Hamas terrorists from bombarding civilians with rockets. Left-leaning government officials who spoke at the conference condemned Hamas’ aggression and...

The Israel-Palestinian Authority (PA) peace process is dead, according to Martin Indyk, formerly the U.S. special Middle East envoy who resigned from his post last week. Speaking to The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg in his first interview since stepping down, Indyk said that there is strong dislike between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. "There is a deep loathing of each leader for the other that has built up over the years," Indyk said in the interview, which was published Thursday. "'Loathing' may be too strong [a word] for how Netanyahu feels about Abu Mazen (Abbas -ed.),"...

CAROLINE GLICK: It’s really great to be here in Texas. I already managed to buy cowboy boots for my son, so I’m pretty much set. (Applause.) Anybody have any idea where we can get cowboy hats? I’d love to know. Then we’ll be done and can come back here when they’re 15. But it is a pleasure to be here, and thank you. And so now that I’ve gotten all the pleasantries and happiness in being in Texas out of the way, let’s talk about what’s really depressing. It’s amazing. You know, the Peace Process fell apart over the past...

Historians commonly date the birth of Western civilization from the Greek development of mathematics. Greek mathematics was the first point of view able to regard the world as potentially comprehensible. While computational methods to solve practical problems existed as far back as the Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations they were always ad hoc; a way of solving problems rather than of understanding the universe. The Western revolution was based on the semi (and often frankly) religious goal of understanding the universe. From that world view flowed the ‘how’ as a byproduct — the technology we often mistake for the spirit of...

Praying for peace in the Holy Land alongside leaders of long-antagonistic nations, Pope Francis called on God to act where human efforts had failed, to end what he described as violence inspired by the devil. “More than once we have been on the verge of peace, but the evil one, employing a variety of means, has succeeded in blocking it,” the pope said June 8 at an evening ceremony in the Vatican Gardens. “That is why we are here, because we know and we believe that we need the help of God.” The pope addressed his remarks to Israeli President...

One might hope that the past five years had changed His mind. His views seem to remain the same.Remember President Obama's 2009 Cairo speech? I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. [Emphasis added.]. . . . I consider it part of my responsibility as...

Well, I will do it if no one else will. Beck is imploring us to drop the hate and anger. First, I don't believe it was anger in my heart that made me want to rush to Bundy's side upon learning SWAT teams were terrorizing him and his family. I do believe it was love for my grandchildren and their posterity than made me consider putting my life on the line. I do believe that nonviolence requires several things to work. Ghandi knew his "audience" was the folks back in England who would find violence against him and his abhorrent....

On New Year’s Day, 48-year-old Frank Turner and his son, Anthony, 21, were shot and killed on a street in Southwest Baltimore. The murders struck at the heart of Sharon Rock, a parishioner of St. Bernardine in West Baltimore. The victims were her relatives. “I just pray every day that things and times will change,” said Rock, 55, who suspects that the Turners were murdered as retaliation over an alleged physical altercation. Nineteen days after her family members died, Rock turned her pain into action and attended a prayer walk at St. Bernardine Church. Prayer walks, which are held across...

TOKYO — President Obama encountered setbacks to two of his most cherished foreign-policy projects on Thursday, as he failed to achieve a trade deal that undergirds his strategic pivot to Asia and the Middle East peace process suffered a potentially irreparable breakdown.

During a six-hour security cabinet meeting on Thursday, ministers decided to respond to the Palestinian Authority's (PA) unity deal with Hamas, reached on Wednesday, by suspending the peace talks ahead of their April 29 deadline. Further, it was decided to implement various sanctions on the PA, such as financial sanctions, and the cutting of diplomatic contact including that of the peace talks. Sanctions were taken against the PA earlier in the month in response to its breach of talk conditions by applying to join 15 international conventions. Those sanctions put a near end to diplomatic contact, but not concerning the...

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by my (imaginary) friend, the Very Honorable Ima Librul, Senator from the great State of Confusion Utopia. He is a founding member of CCCEB (Climate Change Causes Everything Bad), a charter member of President Obama’s Go For it Team, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the Meretricious Relations Subcommittee. He is also justly proud of his expertise in the care and breeding of unicorns, for which his Save the Unicorns Foundation received substantial Federal grants after President Obama's approval.  We are honored to have a post of this caliber by a quintessential...

The Easter Miracle of Slovyansk today, Soldiers sent for war end up laying down their weapons, eating with the people and enjoying the spring day in the sun. The Alternative? Bombs and Massacre on an empty stomach. If all armies acted like this, World Peace would be the order of the day.

hen Frazier Glenn Cross is convicted of murder for gunning down physician William Corporon, his 14-year-old grandson Reat Griffin, and occupational therapist Terry LaManno, at the Jewish community facilities of Kansas City on Sunday, he will, at the very least, be jailed for life with no possibility of parole. The capital murder charge with which he has been indicted also carries the possibility of the death penalty. When the gunman who opened fire indiscriminately on Israeli vehicles outside Hebron on Passover eve a day later, killing Baruch Mizrahi, is tracked down and arrested [...]he will face a very different set...

Rather than make bold decisions conducive to peace, the government continues to “give the US the finger” with regard to talks with the Palestinians, Meretz MK Zahava Gal-on charged on Tuesday, reacting to statements by Secretary of State John Kerry that ascribed much of the blame for the present impasse to Israel. Kerry’s statements “are further proof that the extreme rightist… coalition has no interests in reaching an agreement, but rather is dragging out the negotiations and endangering Israel’s existential interests,” she said. “Instead of making courageous decisions, this bad government continued to give the US the finger,” she added....