Free Republic

With its much trumpeted “framework deal” with Iran coming under increasing criticism, the White House is on the defensive. Almost immediately after it was signed late last week, the deal has come under attack for missing key details such as how and when sanctions on Iran would be lifted, while Washington and Tehran have reportedly been “irritating” each other over their competing interpretations of the deal itself. As if that wasn’t enough, in an interview Tuesday President Barack Obama made an astonishing admission, telling NPR the agreement he lauded as a “good deal” would enable Iran to easily acquire a...

The White House appeared to mock Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on social media Wednesday, employing a cartoon bomb similar to an illustration used by Israel's leader to warn against a nuclear Iran.The image of the bomb, complete with a red line near the top, is virtually identical to that used by Netanyahu during a 2012 United Nations speech on the dangers of Tehran acquiring such a weapon."At this late hour there is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran from getting atomic bombs," Netanyahu said in his address at the time. "And that is by placing a clear red...

Trolling for Dummies A dummy's guide to trolling — from picking lures to setting up your trolling spread. By Erik Landesfeind In last week's So Cal Scene, I touched upon the subject of trolling while discussing fishing kelp paddies. Apparently I should've spent a little more time on the subject as I've received several emails from readers with questions like, “What colors and brands of lures should I use?” “How exactly should I set up my trolling spread?” and “How do I go about trolling that spread?” My honest answer to most of them was, “I don't know, but I'm...

Papacy built on pious fiction and forgery 2 The right way to understand history is to start from the beginning. What was it like to be a Christian in the earliest church in Rome? We have a marvellous picture of this earliest church, provided by the New Testament scholar Peter Lampe, author of the work "From Paul to Valentinus: Christians in Rome in the First Two Centuries."The Catholic historian Eamon Duffy writes in his work, "Sinners and Saints": "All modern discussion of the issues must now start from [this] exhaustive and persuasive analysis by Peter Lampe.” Lampe seemingly searched...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told reporters Tuesday that the vaccination issue "is largely silliness stirred up by the media. Nobody reasonably thinks Chris Christie is opposed to vaccinating kids other than a bunch of reporters who want to write headlines." CBS News' John Nolen reports that Cruz went on to say, "This question has historically been decided at the state level. And most states choose to do what the state of Texas does which is to mandate vaccines for children to prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases." A statement he released noted that most states make exceptions for good-faith religious...

DENVER — If bakeries can be compelled to make wedding cakes for same-sex marriages, can they also be forced to create anti-gay cakes? That’s the question before the Colorado Civil Rights Division after a customer filed a complaint against Azucar Bakery in Denver for refusing to write anti-gay messages on a Bible-shaped cake.

I don't know too much about Jim Rickards, just found this to be an interesting video about the overall economy and some tidbits about what our government agencies are up to. The video is a 45 minutes long interview of sorts and discussion. Just posting in the event other are interested.

For those who don't know, in Internet parlance, trolling is an effort to elicit outrage from a specific group or the public generally. As the always useful -- but not always G-rated, or spell-checked -- Urban Dictionary explains, "Trolling requires deceiving [sic]; any trolling that doesn't involve decieving [sic] someone isn't trolling at all; it's just stupid." (Pro tip: When spelling "deceiving," remember it's "i before e except after c.") The definition continues: "As such, your victim must not know that you are trolling; if he does, you are an unsuccesful [sic] troll. I don't like the president's executive action...

A couple have gained thousands of fans after they 'counter-protested' anti-abortion pickets with bizarre slogans like 'Bring back Crystal Pepsi' and 'Who farted?'.Grayson and Tina Haver Currin came up with the idea in March to break the ice with pro-lifers outside an abortion clinic near their home in Raleigh, North Carolina.Since then the photographs of their surreal placards have gone viral - prompting dozens of other pro-choice activists to join them every Saturday morning.

Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida, has a plan to become Republicans' "worst nightmare" if he is indeed appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the select committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. (clip) Grayson said he would use the Benghazi hearings as an opportunity to draw attention to other issues important to "ordinary Americans" that have not received as much attention. (clip) Following DeLauro's proposal, liberal groups hatched another idea: send Grayson. A petition on the CREDO group's website has already garnered more than 65,000 signatures. (clip) Grayson said it's up to Pelosi to determine...

In the poorest state in the nation, where supper is fried, bars allow smoking, chronic disease is rampant and doctors are hard to come by, Obamacare rolls into town in a lime green bus. It took some real convincing by the Obama administration and a leap of faith by one state Republican official to get one of the nation’s largest insurance companies — Humana — to set up shop across Mississippi. Virtually no other insurer was willing to do so, discouraged by the acute health needs here and most elected officials’ outright hostility to the law....

Do you ever find yourself arguing with liberals on the internet? Are you tired of people telling you about how awesome free healthcare is for the economy? Or how you should just shut up and pay your fair share because crack whores need iPhones too? Or how we should ban the super ultra-deadly assault rifle AR-15 shotgun Glock? Or been asked why do you hate old people, you cismale gendernormative fascist, hatey-McHaterton-hatey-hate-hatemongering racist? Have you grown frustrated because arguing with the willfully ignorant is like repeatedly punching a really dumb cactus? Well, I’ve prepared a handy checklist so you can...

On Thursday, Democrat tool Chad Henderson claimed to have enrolled in ObamaCare while most others' attempts failed. News organizations eagerly lapped up his story. Apparently, though, the story was "too good to check," because when someone finally did, it fell apart, discrediting Big Media, the Democrats, and ObamaCare. Conservative and libertarian websites now are reporting the corrected story, and even some Big Media outlets reluctantly are reporting it. But almost as devastating to the left is Mr. Henderson's confession that he is being paid to post pro-Democrat propaganda on the internet: Secondly, I work for an organization that pays me...

Establishing a bond with a pocket pistol is similar to marriage—in one way: You have to be willing to accept compromise. To make any compromise worth the effort, there must be a clear objective. In this case preserving your life is the goal, and pocket pistols, whether diminutive semi-automatics or small-frame revolvers, do their part and offer a solution that is easy to carry concealed. Merely slipping one into the front pocket of your jacket, however, will not prevent a determined threat from causing you bodily harm. To stop a violent attack, you must be prepared to counter with force...

Today the Prenda Law enterprise encountered an extinction-level event. Faced with a federal judge's demand that they explain their litigation conduct, Prenda Law's attorney principals — and one paralegal — invoked their right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. As a matter of individual prudence, that may have been the right decision. But for the nationwide Prenda Law enterprise, under whatever name or guise or glamour, it spelled doom. -Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here- The crowd gathered early outside of the courtroom of United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II. As before,...

During a Saturday fundraiser in Beverly Hills, Calif., which took in $6 million, Mitt Romney expressed his concerns over Ann Romney’s emergency landing on Friday. The candidate cast doubt on the mechanical design of airplane windows, in a general sense. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous....” he said.

In blogosphere slang, a ‘Moby‘ is a particular kind of troll, namely a left-winger who posts right-wing extremist material on right-wing sites in order to discredit them. (This is somewhat distinct from a ‘concern troll‘, who seeks to sow dissension by posing as a concerned supporter.) The ‘Moby’ species of troll is named after the eponymous electronic music producer, who in February 2004 proposed this tactic and is supposed to have invented it. James Taranto, however, reminds us the tactic is anything but original. Food for thought comes from this passage from a Saul Alinsky biography, quoted by David Horowitz:”...

Perry's announcement speech got positive coverage, but the media's approach has been growing increasingly negative. Perry has been very visible, voluble, and controversial, and the media have been portraying him as something verging on a loose cannon. One example was his response to a question about whether President Obama loves his country. Perry said the questioner would have to ask Obama--which left the impression that Perry has doubts about the president's patriotism. Another example came yesterday, when Perry called global warming "a scientific theory that has not been proven and from my perspective is more and more being put into...

There appears to be a growing epidemic of cranky creative types taking to the Internet to defend themselves from amateur critics. Some are shameless in their self-promotion; others operate under the veil of anonymity. Until they get busted, that is. This is what happened to Dilbert creator Scott Adams last week, in a public humiliation storyline that would suit a certain workplace drone comic strip character of his own creation. Adams was revealed to have been using an online pseudonym to bash message board users who did not have nice things to say about him. ...The backstory: An individual posting...

Trump's anti-Bush, pro-Hillary comments on video. He also speaks well of Obama.