Free Republic

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Two state lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require Pennsylvania’s high school students to have a basic understanding of American history and civics before graduating. House Bill 1858 would require that students pass a test on 100 basic facts from the United States Citizenship Civics Test, the test all immigrants must pass when applying for U.S. citizenship.

WHAT IF we stopped trying to get guns off the streets and instead started licensing young men in Philly to legally pack heat? Do I have your attention? Yeah, Maj Toure got mine, too, when he suggested the idea, which he's pitching through a campaign he's calling Black Guns Matter. Catchy, right? And provocative. Toure, 29, is a local activist and artist. In many ways, he's also a walking, talking contradiction of what turns out to be an increasingly stereotypical idea of gun owners. Toure is a young African American man who grew up in North Philadelphia watching the destruction...

On Thursday evening, a 40-year-old man — with dark, curly hair, olive skin and an exotic foreign accent — boarded a plane. It was a regional jet making a short, uneventful hop from Philadelphia to nearby Syracuse. Or so dozens of unsuspecting passengers thought. The curly-haired man tried to keep to himself, intently if inscrutably scribbling on a notepad he’d brought aboard. His seatmate, a blond-haired, 30-something woman sporting flip-flops and a red tote bag, looked him over. He was wearing navy Diesel jeans and a red Lacoste sweater – a look he would later describe as “simple elegance” –...

My FRiends, congratulations to Mr. Trump on his pending Republican nomination!  And what better way to celebrate than to compare Trump with the so-called "First American" and Founding Father, Ben Franklin. On Google Images, I ran across an amusing New York Magazine portrait of Trump wearing an 18th century hair style.  Then, shortly thereafter I found the splendid painting of Ben Franklin by David Martin.  I said: "Hey, wouldn't it be fun to GIMP those images together?" so Trump and Old Ben could sit together at the same table and shoot the breeze. For the story, I searched Wikipedia...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, lives along so many fault lines of American politics that he is especially sensitive to Trump tremors, which he fears could become an earthquake by November. “I’m concerned,” he said. “Beating Donald Trump won’t be as easy as it might look.” Casey is a pro-life, pro-gun Roman Catholic in a state that Democratic consultant James Carville once described as “Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama in between.” He is also an old-school Democrat and a new-school one: He's pro-union and wary of global trade; he defends Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare and same-sex...

Jewish comedian Jackie Mason has strong words for Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, calling him a “self-hating Jew” in a radio interview. The segment, which aired Sunday, was previewed exclusively by Breitbart Friday. Mason spoke during his his regular segment on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” a popular talk radio program broadcast weekends in New York and Philadelphia. Klein is also Breitbart’s senior investigative reporter and Jerusalem bureau chief. Mason, who considers himself “the ultimate Jew”, took Sanders to task for repeated exaggerations and accusations levelled against Israel. When asked whether Sanders’s comments would be taken differently if they were made...

The Philadelphia Eagles have been informed that quarterback Sam Bradford wants to be traded and will not be showing up for their offseason program any longer, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

In an appearance on CNN in March, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Will Bunch said that "too much of our, at least, mainstream elite media news coverage is driven by columnists and pundits who aren't out in the field. They're talking to the consultant class at places like the Capital Grill and [with] consultants who are fighting the last war, who expected Trump to collapse. Bunch chided the media for having a blindspot to the places where Trump was receiving support. "The truth is if they'd gone out to places like Kentucky … these people are happy to talk, and what...

Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970. Seven years later, police raided his closet and found the "composted" body of his ex-girlfriend inside a trunk.

More and more Americans are opting out of Earth Day in favor of a holiday that offers a chance to fight back against Marxism and political correctness. The holiday, which is called “Holly Maddux Day,” is named after the young woman murdered by Ira Einhorn, a 1960s antiwar activist. Einhorn, who was a friend of Jerry Rubin and Abby Hoffman, is regarded by many as the founder of Earth Day. Einhorn emceed the first Earth Day celebration in Philadelphia in April 1970, at which Sen. Edmund Muskie gave the highlight address. Einhorn, an advocate of free love and drug use,...

The Cleveland Browns are trading the No. 2 pick in this year's NFL draft to the Philadelphia Eagles for five selections over the next two years. The Browns get the 2016 first-round pick (No. 8 overall), the Eagles' third-round and fourth-round picks in 2016. They also get the Eagles' 2017 first-round pick and the Eagles' 2018 second-rounder.

A federal employee of the National Park Service who offers guided tours of Independence Hall in Philadelphia -- the birthplace of the Constitution -- stunned a group of tourists this week by telling them the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were the product of "class elites who were just out to protect their privileged status." Mary A. Hogan, a federal employee making in excess of $95,000 per year in salary and benefits, provided a tour Monday afternoon at Independence Hall laced with factual inaccuracies and disparaging comments about the Founders and the Constitution. Hogan, who goes by the...

Presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz had a full apoplectic meltdown today. During a radio appearance an unhinged Senator Cruz began lashing out and screaming at Sean Hannity. (Full Audio) The internet lit up as people discussed the on-air meltdown wondering what could have possibly triggered such grossly unstable behavior.Apparently the answer is found in this picture from Senator Cruz’s rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Only a few dozen people showed up to hear candidate Cruz – in a city home to over 1.6 million people.Apparently not much support for Lyin’ Ted Cruz in the city of brotherly love.Here’s the audio...

It wasn’t a good night for Ted Cruz, who finished third in New York amid a landslide for Donald Trump in his home state. There was some talk, which turned out to be more hopeful than realistic, that because of the fact New York was a closed primary with registration rules so restrictive that you had to be registered as a Republican back in October of last year in order to vote in it the circumstances would serve to hold down his vote – perhaps even keep him under 50 percent. That didn’t happen; with 70 percent of the vote...

Why Trump may be costing Democrats millions for their convention The GOP is struggling to raise cash from corporate donors, and now Democrats are feeling the pinch. By Anna Palmer and Brianna Gurciullo 04/18/16 05:34 AM EDT Republicans have been struggling for months in the shadow of Donald Trump to get corporate sponsors to pony up for their convention. Now Democratic fundraisers are feeling their pain, too. Several Fortune 500 companies — including Bank of America, Duke Energy and Time Warner —are taking a pass on chipping in for the Democratic convention in Philadelphia or, with just 100 days to...

A father confessed to shooting and killing his 4-year-old daughter inside their Philadelphia home on Saturday afternoon, police said. The girl’s father, who has not been named, was allegedly playing with a gun when it fired, striking the girl in the face, CBS Philly reported. The girl died inside the house. The man fled after the shooting, but he was later taken into custody. Police originally believed the girl’s 5-year-old brother shot his sister, using the man’s weapon. A gun was recovered inside the house.

As the evening rush of motorists descended upon Center City on Thursday evening, protesters from varying movements joined together for a large-scale "Day of Action" march to bring attention to their many causes. The marchers - including a few hundred activists seeking a national $15-an-hour minimum wage, a halt to a proposed stadium for Temple University, and an end to racial injustice - snaked down North Broad Street all the way to City Hall, where they stopped traffic for more than an hour. Bishop Dwayne Royster, executive director of POWER (Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild), said the goal...

PHILADELPHIA – Thursday marked the start of “The 17th Annual White Privilege Conference” and this year’s theme is "Let Freedom Ring, Re-Imagining Equality & Social Justice in the United States." The annual event is aimed at promoting the theory of White Privilege – that American society is hopelessly stacked against minorities and the only way to fix the system is for white people to acknowledge their immense "privilege" and repent. "Our vision is to build a community committed to dismantling white privilege, white supremacy and oppression, every day, everywhere," wrote Eddie Moore Jr., founder and president of “The Privilege Institute,”...

Washington -- Over the last few days, former President Bill Clinton displayed one of the salient weaknesses of our contemporary politicians. He did this even while reminding Americans of, some would say, his rare lapses in true leadership: his 1994 bipartisan legislation to lower crimes rates in cities. When confronted by low-information Black Lives Matter activists during his speech in Philadelphia last week, he wilted. It took him 24 hours, but eventually, after an eloquent defense of his 1994 leadership, he groveled, whimpering, "I almost want to apologize." Why apologize, Mr. President? The incarceration of criminals that followed that 1994...

Many of the exact same groups that participated in Occupy Wall Street and helped organize protest rallies in Ferguson and Baltimore are now promising to bring us “the largest civil disobedience actions in a generation”. I recently wrote about the trouble that radical leftists have caused by attempting to disrupt Trump campaign events, but now there is a very organized effort to turn this into a national movement. On March 19th, thousands of angry protesters will descend on Trump Tower in New York City to denounce Donald Trump’s “fascist policies”, and on April 2nd dozens of leftist organizations will join...