Free Republic

Filmmaker Spike Lee sees parallels between GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. “He wants to close down the mosques now,” Lee said Monday in an interview with The Daily Beast, referring to Trump. “That’s like the Nazis,” Lee continued. "That’s Hitler, [Italian fascist leader Benito] Mussolini, the Axis powers. “You can’t do that,” he added. Trump is pushing for closer scrutiny of America’s Islamic communities following last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris. About 130 people died and more than 300 others were wounded during coordinated violence across the French capital on Nov. 13. Trump has responded...

PREFACE Thousands of books, documents and articles have been researched over several years in preparation for this book. You will be fascinated by this fast-paced history of the world from a perspective you have never imagined. Current events will come into focus in the back drop of 1,400 years of inconceivable yet true events and conflicts. Every effort has been made to present this information objectively. It is hoped this work is received that way. You will not be the same after you have read what every American needs to know about the Qur'an. Click the source ebook link above...

In a comment elsewhere, someone wondered about differences between Catholics and Lutherans.  HEREI cannot go into deep detail about these differences.  Books can be written about each point, and have been.Here are my lunch break reflections while the US Bishops are having lunch during their annual meeting.Keep in mind that I am a former Lutheran convert to the Catholic Church.  I was validly baptized as a Lutheran.  I rejected the Lutheran catechism and instruction when I was 7 years old because I couldn’t square their message about corruption with the beauty of the music of Mozart.  After a vaguely Christian time and a...

I almost never made it to this world due to China's notorious one-child policy. For thousands of years, China didn't have a population policy. Traditional Chinese culture believes that having many children is a blessing from heaven. Even after Communists took over China in 1949, Chairman Mao continued to encourage Chinese women to have as many babies as possible, because more babies meant more future foot-soldiers for Communist China. Under his rule, China's population grew from 660 million in 1961(after the Chinese famine) to 930 million in 1976. When Mao passed away in 1976, he left China in such economic...

Engineering and Technology Magazine reported this week that BP — the company that once wanted to be known as "Beyond Petroleum" rather than "British Petroleum" — is saying "the world is no longer at risk of running out of resources." "[A]ccessible oil and gas reserves will almost double by 2050," Engineering and Technology said. A BP official told the magazine that "energy resources are plentiful. Concerns over running out of oil and gas have disappeared." Things are so good, in fact, that Engineering and Technology says "with the use of the innovative technologies, available fossil fuel resources could increase from...

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, October 29, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy told a Harvard Law School audience that government employees with religious convictions about marriage should resign. The Ronald Reagan appointee said on Wednesday that if a public official has a moral objection to homosexuality, he must either follow the law or quit public service. The judge's comment came in answer to a question a student asked about government officials who disagree with the Supreme Court's decisions on gay marriage, or abortion, and if those citizens have the constitutional right to act according to their sincerely held moral...

The Justice Department is seeking to draw more attention and resources to what it sees as a growing threat posed by domestic extremists, with officials noting that more Americans have been killed in such attacks than by international terrorists since Sept. 11, 2001. It is creating a new position to coordinate investigations, identify trends and analyze legal gaps to be able to better combat the domestic threat while keeping the pedal on international terrorism probes. “As someone whose job it is to prevent terrorism, I take them equally seriously,” Assistant Attorney General John P. Carlin said in an interview Thursday....

Just two weeks after it announced a plan to globalize local police departments through the “Strong Cities Network,” the Obama administration has added a new tool in its fight against “violent extremism.” A new position within the Justice Department – yet to be filled – will focus on investigating lone-wolf domestic terrorists or “extremists.” The person who heads this new effort will target extremists who plan mass shootings, hold racist, bigoted or anti-government views or see themselves as “sovereign citizens.” The new position at the Justice Department, dubbed the “domestic terrorism counsel,” will serve as the main point of contact...

Galina Timchenko recalls how proud she felt when the Russian news website she edited reached 3 million users per day. When she reported the figures to the website’s owner, he was horrified. “At that moment something snapped inside and I understood that this is the end, because there cannot be such an influential resource that is not controlled by the Kremlin,” Timchenko said. A month later, she was fired and a more Kremlin-friendly editor was brought in to run the website, Lenta.ru. The shakeup at Lenta.ru last year came as the government was pushing through a slew of new laws...

The euro’s founding father has warned that Europe’s latest plan for an EMU-wide finance ministry is a dangerous attempt to smuggle through political union, and breaches the basic tenets of modern democracy. Professor Otmar Issing, the chief architect of monetary union through its early years, said it would be “dangerous” to transfer control over tax and spending to the EU federal level before full political union has been established first on democratic foundations. Such a quantum leap in the constitutional structure of Europe—effectively the creation of an EU superstate, with a parliament comparable in power to the US Congress—is unthinkable...

A Lithuanian mother living in Norway who had her two children taken into care has speculated that social services intervened because of her daughter was dressed too prettily. Airida Pettersen, who moved to Norway in 2008 after marrying a Norwegian man, is one of several hundred immigrants to have had their children taken into care by Norway's Child Protection Service, or Barnevernet. "I dress my daughter in a pretty dress and make her comb her hair," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Lithuania. "They look at me like I'm from a Third World country. In my...

Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron of Agana, Guam has posted a message on his archdiocesean website stating that the “true intention” behind the push for same-sex marriage “has always been about the destruction of the family and the imposition of a totalitarian system.” The archbishop also predicted the next step in the process would be to use the education system so “that our children, your children, will be forced to assimilate to this pattern of non-gender.” “It is important to understand that the political pressure to push the agenda for same sex ‘marriage’ has never been about gay rights; the true...

Freedom to travel is a fundamental and internationally recognized human right. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states: Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Congress ratified the UDHR on April 2, 1992. But it’s now having second thoughts. The “right to travel” makes some politicians very nervous. Consider the issue from their viewpoint. Leaving the country makes it more difficult to detain you if the Feds suspect you of...

“Animal rights come before religion” Editor’s note: This story was published in error; it incorrectly suggested that Denmark’s ban is new. See correction appended Denmark enacted a sweeping ban on the religious slaughter of animals in 2014, prompting a furious backlash from Jewish and Muslim community representatives.

For years, the cities have been robbing the suburbs but they now have a scheme that will quickly end in a takeover of the suburbs by a leftist federal government. HUD announced enforcement of its new 377-page rule called the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule which will allow them to move people from poor crime-ridden areas into “wealthy” suburbs. It was announced by leftist Julian Castro Monday. The rule has force behind it. Federal monies will be withheld and lawsuits accusing residents of racism will be filed. Any town that takes federal funds will be transformed. It is not only...

There’s a basic difference in the traditions of political science between “authoritarians” and “totalitaritarians.” People throw both of these words around, but as is so often the case, they’re using words they may not always understand. They have real meaning, however, and the difference between them is important.Simply put, authoritarians merely want obedience, while totalitarians, whose rule is rooted in an ideology, want obedience and conversion. Authoritarians are a dime a dozen; totalitarians are rare. The authoritarians are the guys in charge who want to stay in charge, and don’t much care about you, or what you’re doing, so long...

California regulators on Monday proposed a first-of-its-kind, $1.5 million fine for a group of Central Valley farmers accused of illegally taking water during the drought. It would be the first such fine against an individual or district with claims to water that are more than a century-old, known as senior water rights holders. The action reflects the rising severity of California’s four-year drought that has prompted the state to demand cutbacks from those historically sheltered from mandatory conservation. …

Writing at the website of Time magazine, New York Times columnist Mark Oppenheimer called for abolishing the tax exemptions for nonprofits and instead turning over those funds to government to spend in the interests of the community. “We’d have fewer church soup kitchens — but countries that truly care about poverty don’t rely on churches to run soup kitchens”, he rationalizes. Take that, Salvation Army. Oppenheimer’s view takes the idea of “government as simply a word for the things we decide to do together” to an unsustainable extreme – suggesting that if we do not do things via government, they...

President Obama will announce Wednesday that the U.S. and Cuba have reached an agreement to open embassies in Havana and Washington, an administration official confirmed to Fox News. The announcement marks a major step in ending hostilities between the longtime foes and an opportunity to re-establish formal diplomatic relations. The U.S. and Cuba have been negotiating the reestablishment of embassies in each other’s capitals following the Dec. 17 announcement that they would move to restore ties. …

It is not too many centurions, particularly 100-year-old-plus writers, whose vision of the world is as relevant today as it was when first shared with the public over half a century ago. It is this vision of Orwell, the X-ray view through the cant, platitudes and lies to that ugliest of human drives, the lust for powers absolute, that still distinguishes the British writer, born 112 years ago this week on June 25, 1903. He was only 46 when he died on January 21, 1950. It is his frightening acuity that keeps him not only in the pantheon but even...