Free Republic

Exclusive: Greg Laurie sees U.S. going way of Israel, punished by God with takeover. I think that our culture in the United States seems to be turned upside down. It seems that, in the perception of many, what was once considered good is now perceived as bad. What was once perceived as bad is now thought of as good. We even see this reflected in our use of words. A long time ago, people used expressions like “holy smoke” or “hunky dory.” My generation said things like “Far out, man!” and “Whoa, that is really heavy!” And one word that...

Going into the shopping season, any ideas for Christmas gifts that inspire patriotism -- for kids 6-12 years?

An Iran secure in relations with US could have a positive impact on a number of regional issues, but the Sunni world could fall out of Washington's orbit. Washington feels triumphant but has a superpower ever struck a deal like this, in defiance of its most closely affected allies? The United States is still, despite recent debacles, the global hegemon. Ignoring the pleas of allies like Israel and Saudi Arabia is just one of those things a superpower can do if a president wants to put a diplomatic achievement in the White House column marked "legacy". But for Sunni Arab...

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Today, the United States -- together with our close allies and partners -- took an important first step toward a comprehensive solution that addresses our concerns with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program.

Even as the first Indian spacecraft to Mars hovers around Earth to zip off into space this month-end, scientists are agog about the latest Mars-bound visitor; an object that could be our orbiter’s companion of sorts there next year. NASA on Monday shot off MAVEN, its 21st Mars venture, directly towards the planet from Florida. Assuming that controllers at ISRO put their Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) also on that track by December 1, MOM is due to arrive around Mars on September 24, 2014, two days after MAVEN would have. It could arguably be a rare tango of two separate,...

And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?(Daniel 4:34-35)I believe that the God of...

An internet security specialist says that Stuxnet, the computer malware that targeted Iran's nuclear facilities in 2010 and widely attributed to Israel and the US, has spiraled out of control and attacked a Russian nuclear plant and the International Space Station.

IRGC and the spiritual vacuum of Latin American leftists The following is a glimpse of the kind of thing I often see while researching the activities of the IRGC (writ large) in Latin America. Communism fails to provide for the spiritual needs of leftwing political activists, and the Islamic Republic of Iran seems to have done a pretty good job of inserting themselves and the Khomeinist version of Shiism into that void. (Either that or the IRI is throwing lots of money around and the leftists are whores, which is certainly possible, but for the moment I'll take the more...

The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is an ongoing annual cycle in tropical cyclogenesis. It is the first Atlantic hurricane season since 2002 to feature no hurricanes through the month of August. The season officially began on June 1 and will end on November 30. The first tropical cyclone of the year, Andrea, developed on June 7 in the Gulf of Mexico. This season continued a pattern of unusually early starting hurricane seasons – the first named storm of a season typically forms around July 9. Below average activity continued afterwards into October. The strongest tropical cyclone of the season thus...

Those old enough to remember the 1929 crash on Wall Street and the US exit from the Gold Standard under Franklin Roosevelt – thin in numbers these days – will recall the pervading sense that America had already peaked, its capitalist model overtaken by history. The Russian trade agency Amtorg in New York famously advertised for 6,000 skilled plumbers, chemists, electricians, and dentists, and suchlike, to work in the Soviet Union, then deemed the El Dorado of mankind, or the "moral top of the world where the light never really goes out", in the words of Edmund Wilson. It is...

Governor Rick Perry was once alleged to have stated that Texas could secede in the future. But he now states he opposes succession: http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2012/11/13/rick-perry-texas-secession-petition/1702359/ If the different states were to become different nations, the federal government would cease to exist. That means that the federal debt would be reduced to Zero. But the price that Americans would pay, would be the loss of super power status. Would Americans be better off or worse off, if the states were to become different countries?

Unidentified foreign forces have launched a night-time raid on a militant base in the south Somali town of Barawe from the sea, reports say. A spokesman for the al-Shabab Islamist group told Reuters news agency that one of its fighters had been killed during the raid....... Al-Shabab claimed responsibility last month for the deadly attack on a Kenyan shopping mall..... According to the Somali news website Midnimo, two helicopters were also involved in the raid..... "Westerners in boats attacked our base as Barawe beach and one was martyred from our side," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Masab, described as al-Shabab's spokesman for...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday brought home a 2,700-year-old Persian artifact the US administration gave him as ?a special gift" to Iranians, media reports said. ?The Americans contacted us on Thursday and said 'we have a gift for you',? Rouhani told reporters upon arrival at the airport in Tehran, the ILNA news agency reported. ?They gave it back as a special gift to the Iranian nation.? Rouhani was speaking of a 7th century BC silver Persian drinking cup in the shape of a winged Griffin, a legendary creature with the head of an eagle and body of a lion....

Skipper Jimmy Spithill and Oracle Team USA won the 34th America's Cup today in one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. Spithill steered Oracle's space-age, 72-foot catamaran to its eighth straight victory, speeding past Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand in the winner-take-all Race 19 on San Francisco Bay to keep the oldest trophy in international sports in the United States. All but defeated a week ago, the 34-year-old Australian and his international crew twice rallied from seven-point deficits to win 9-8 Wednesday.

Muslims block traffic in midtown Manhattan so they can pray for the coming Islamic Caliphate to destroy the USA as we know it

The U.S. Air Force has a message for Iran: Don’t mess with our drones.

In an audio message released yesterday, Zawahiri laid out a plan of attack, saying he wanted a "few of the brothers" to commit small-scale strikes to trigger big spending by Washington on security, while awaiting the opportunity for a major onsalught later.

Exactly 30 years ago, when early warning systems indicated the Soviet Union was under nuclear attack by the United States, air defence officer Stanislav Petrov went by gut instinct and decided the alarm was false. It was a decision that saved the human race – and ended his career. Place: Serpukhov-15, a ballistic missile early warning command and control post south of Moscow. Time: Just after midnight, September 26, 1983. Officers of the elite Soviet Air Defence Force are about to begin their night shift at the top secret installation. Their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, 44, pushes back in...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad insisted that the U.S. give up its "policy of threats" and halt arms shipments to rebels before his government turns over its chemical weapons, as U.S. and Russian delegations began talks in Geneva aimed at forging a road map for the shutdown of the weapons program. Mr. Assad's comments, in his first public statement on the Russian proposal that Syria hand over its chemical weapons to an international monitors, underlined the distance between Syria and its backers in Moscow on one side and the U.S. and its allies on the other. Before starting their discussions, Secretary...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Needing a victory over Mexico and a little help from Honduras to punch its ticket to next summer's World Cup, the U.S. took care of business Tuesday, riding second-half goals by Eddie Johnson and Landon Donovan to a 2-0 victory in front of a raucous 24,584 at Columbus Crew Stadium. Then the Americans retired to their locker room, where they watched Honduras and Panama play to a 2-2 tie, assuring the U.S. one of CONCACAF's three berths in Brazil. So when the dressing room opened again an hour later, it smelled of champagne.