Free Republic

Travesti parties, Vladimir Lenin advocating sexual freedom, nudist anarchists aboard trams, a nude beach near the cathedral of Christ the Savior… such was Russian life at the beginning of the Soviet state. What could possibly go wrong?“Stark naked people wearing armbands reading “Down With Shame!” have recently appeared in Moscow. A group was seen boarding a tram. The tram stopped, the public was outraged,” Mikhail Bulgakov, the famous Russian writer, wrote in his diary in 1924. Just 15 years prior to that, women could not think of going out in a knee-long dress. But did these changes happen overnight?Pre-revolutionary Russian...

Spending Valentine's Day alone after losing a loved one can be hard - which is why a North Carolina woman is dedicating her Valentine's Day to delivering hundreds of flowers to widows. Ashley Manning, a florist from Charlotte, won't be celebrating the day of love by having a romantic date night with her husband, but will instead be offering comfort to those who no longer have a husband with whom to celebrate. With the help of 300 volunteers and thousands of donations, the mother-of-four plans to deliver more than 400 bouquets to women who will be without their significant other...

It was Christmas Eve 1942. I was fifteen years old and feeling like the world had caved in on me because there just hadn't been enough money to buy me the rifle that I'd wanted for Christmas.

Michelle Rodriguez attested that her “Widows” co-star Liam Neeson is not a racist because of how he kissed Viola Davis during the movie. The actress came to Neeson’s defense Wednesday night at the amfAR gala in the wake of Neeson’s racially charged comments that he wanted to kill a “black bastard” to avenge a friend who had been raped. The actor later apologized and contended that his comments were taken out of context. “It’s all f—in’ bulls—. Liam Neeson is not a racist,” Rodriguez told Vanity Fair at the New York event. “Dude, have you watched ‘Widows’? His tongue was...

47 women have been elected or appointed to fill congressional vacancies created by the deaths of their husbands, 8 to the U.S. Senate and 39 to the U. S. House of Representatives.

<p>Many liberals, including Bill Maher and Michael Moore, have blasted President Donald Trump for what they argued was his use of a Navy SEAL's widow as a political "prop."</p> <p>In his address to Congress, Trump saluted Carryn Owens, whose husband, Ryan, was killed in a raid in Yemen last month.</p>

In a hopeful sign for 60,000 military widows and widowers who lost spouses to service-connected illnesses or injuries, a key House subcommittee is taking a fresh look at how Congress might allow a further easing the “SBP-DIC offset” to provide heartier and fairer survivor benefit packages. Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.), chairman of the House armed services subcommittee on military personnel, isn’t promising yet specific relief from the offset, which surviving spouses prefer to call the military widows’ tax. But Heck and colleagues did gather anew complaints about the offset during a special December hearing, and vowed to look for ways...

In a statement her own campaign Tweeted out as her marquee comment, Clinton declared: "Let's be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism." The UK Daily Mail describes Clinton as "reading her speech at a brisk clip from a teleprompter at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City," but slowing down to mock Republicans over the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism," which "Republicans often accuse President Barack Obama of purposefully avoiding."

Obama's veto tested

London - Almost two years after the suicide bomb attacks in London, British police Wednesday arrested the widow of the alleged ringleader, along with three men, on suspicion of supporting terrorism. The 29-year-old woman, named as Hasina Patel, was the wife of Sidique Khan, the suspected ringleader of the four-men suicide cell which blew itself up in the attacks on July 7, 2005. A total of 52 passengers died and more than 700 were injured in the bombings of three Underground trains and a London bus. Patel was arrested with two men in the West Yorkshire region, in northern Britain,...

Two federal agents operating under the umbrella of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are claiming that eight Syrian illegal aliens attempted to enter Texas from Mexico in the Laredo Sector. The federal agents spoke with Breitbart Texas on the condition of anonymity, however, a local president of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) confirmed that Laredo Border Patrol agents have been officially contacting the organization with concerns over reports from other federal agents about Syrians illegally entering the country in the Laredo Sector.

Two bomb attacks in 24 hours -- one of them involving an 11-year-old female suicide bomber -- killed dozens of people and wounded more than 120 others in the Nigerian cities of Yola and Kano, authorities said. At least 31 people were killed and 72 others injured in a bomb blast Tuesday evening in the northeastern city of Yola, Aliyu Maikano, a local Red Cross official, said. -excerpt- The two bombers, who Katsina said were females ages 11 and 18, blew themselves up at about 4 p.m. local time, during the peak of trading, he said. A minivan carrying four...

Original title too long - BREAKING: Honduras Arrests Five Syrians With Fake Greek Passports Heading To U.S.A. – Three More Arrested In St. Maarten Two separate incidents with common attributes. Two independent groups of Syrian males traveling on fake Greek passports trying to gain entry into the U.S. The first group of three was identified/captured in Saint Maarten after a flight from Haiti. The second group of five were identified/captured in Honduras. Group #2 – Honduran authorities have detained five Syrian nationals who were trying to reach the United States using stolen Greek passports, but there are no signs of...

The widow of a Florida police officer killed while escorting President Barack Obama's motorcade has sued the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, saying it was negligent in her husband's death. Jupiter Police Officer Bruce St. Laurent died Sept. 9, 2012, after being struck by a pickup truck while he prepared to shut down a stretch of Interstate 95 ahead of the motorcade as Obama campaigned in Florida. His wife, Brenda St. Laurent, sued the sheriff's office for unspecified damages, claiming it "negligently allowed" the driver of the truck to enter the highway.

Jesse Ventura’s lawsuit against “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle -- purportedly the deadliest-ever American servicemen -- can proceed with the war hero’s widow as a substitute defendant, a judge has ruled.

CBS News confirms Pakistan has informed the United States that the ISI will allow access to Osama bin Laden's three widows who were left behind in the raid that killed the terrorist near Islamabad. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports it will be "direct access," meaning U.S. agents will be able to interview them, and not just submit questions. The relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. has seen ups and downs since the CIA-coordinated raid that killed bin Laden near Islamabad. Despite the back-and-forth relationship in the wake of the bin Laden raid, in his interview with "60...

Brooksville, Florida (CNN) -- Freda Green thought the battle was over when her husband returned from the Vietnam War. But more than seven years after his death in 2003, she says the U.S. Defense Department is demanding she repay more than $41,000 in benefits the government shelled out as part of an insurance policy he paid into.

A House panel has voted to give the military a 1.9 percent pay raise next January. That would be a half percentage point higher than what the Obama administration wanted simply to match private sector wage growth. The House armed services subcommittee on military personnel panel also endorsed increases next year in hostile fire pay and family separation allowance, enough to restore the relative value of these payments to what they were in 2004 when they last were adjusted. But the same panel said the money tap is off for expanding entitlements to reserve personnel, disabled retirees or widows. “The...

Soldiers, civilian workers and visiting actors Jeffrey Donovan (left) and Bruce Campbell (far right), of the USA show Burn Notice, enjoy a charity bazaar hosted by the Daughters of Iraq at Combat Outpost Meade, Nov. 13. Photo by Sgt. Robert Jordan, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team. BAGHDAD — The Daughters of Iraq, a national womens' organization here, held a bazaar on Combat Outpost Meade to raise money for local widows and orphans, Nov. 13. Soldiers of the 113th Field Artillery Battalion's Civil Affairs Team, based at the COP, hosted the bazaar that featured the work of several female Baghdad-area artists...

After the bombing of Samarra's famed Shiite Askariya shrine in February 2006, a spate of sectarian-based attacks claimed the lives of many Iraqis. The victims were mostly male, leading to a surge in the number of widows in the country. Indeed, more than 1 million Iraqi women have become widows in the past three years, according to Samira Al Musawi, the head of the Women and Child Committee in the Iraqi parliament. So, in 2006, Iraq's Al Ethar NGO, a nonprofit organization that provides women and their children with money and free health care, began a controversial new program to...