Free Republic

Except when we want to know the content of your prayers. Mary Katherine Ham: A pro-life legal group, Alliance Defending Freedom, released audio today of a 2012 phone call between an IRS agent and the head of a Texas pregnancy counseling group. During the phone call, IRS agent Sherry Wan is heard lecturing Ania Joseph about how she can't have a tax exemption and also push her religious beliefs-- a bit of advice that would be quite interesting to every church in America.Via The Blaze, here's part of the exchange. The group in question, Pro-Life Revolution, waited more than...

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday defended the Obama administration's domestic spying programs, arguing that, unlike the secret surveillance under President George W. Bush, the current programs appear legal.

Washington high school senior Brittany Minder was hoping for a memorable prom night, and that's exactly what she got ... just not for the reasons she anticipated. School officials at the dance told Minder that she had one choice: she could either cover up her cleavage, or go home, telling her that her dress was in violation of their dress code. The code allows for strapless dresses, but cleavage and midriffs must be covered. Minder argues that she was unfairly targeted because of her size and that she's limited as to what she can do to 'cover up.' "I feel...

An al Qaeda terrorist stated in a recent online posting that U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens was killed by lethal injection after plans to kidnap him during the Sept. 11, 2012 terror attack in Benghazi went bad. The veracity of the claim made by Abdallah Dhu-al-Bajadin, who was identified by U.S. officials as a known weapons experts for al Qaeda, could not be determined. However, U.S. officials have not dismissed the terrorist’s assertion. An FBI spokeswoman indicated the bureau was aware of the claim but declined to comment because of the bureau’s ongoing investigation into the Benghazi attack. “While...

The video appears to suggest that the Paris attack could be inspired by the Islamist murder of a British serviceman in London.

According to a survey of George Washington University professors, some 30 percent generally endorse the eventual addition of President Barack Obama’s face to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. The survey, conducted and reported by The College Fix, is hampered by an extremely limited sample size. Nonetheless, the results are fascinating. Of the 10 history and political science profs queried, three suggested that Obama may eventually be added to the huge sculpture of four enormous presidential heads carved into the granite face of a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Professor Paul Wahlbeck, who chairs the political science department...

Ibragim Todashev, who died during the interview with authorities, not only confessed to his direct role in slashing the throats of three people in Waltham, Massachusetts, but also fingered Tsarnaev in the deaths, the official said Wednesday.

“A Queens man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly firing a lifelike weapon and handing it over to his toddler-age son…. Jack Pawlowski was led out of his Queens home in handcuffs Wednesday, with his stunned wife and three young kids looking on. He said nothing as detectives put him into a squad car.

Former Vice President Gore on Tuesday said "there's no such thing as ethical oil," slamming the notion that importing oil from U.S. ally Canada was better than doing so from unfriendly nations. “There’s no such thing as ethical oil. There’s only dirty oil and dirtier oil,” Gore told Canada’s The Globe and Mail during a Tuesday event in Toronto. Gore was responding to Globe and Mail Editor in Chief John Stackhouse on whether it made a difference that oil sands from the proposed Keystone XL pipeline would come from a democratic nation. U.S. backers of the Canada-to-Texas pipeline have pointed...

Women are embracing with open arms the chance to look like Michelle Obama in a sleeveless dress. Upper-arm lift procedures have shot up 4,378 percent over the past decade, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported yesterday. Last year, 15,000 Americans — 98 percent of them women — had liposuction to get rid of excess fat, or a surgical procedure called brachioplasty to remove flabby, loose skin hanging from the back of the upper arms. In 2000, just over 300 had the procedures. The trend’s popularity is partly because people who have lost huge amounts of weight through diet and...

The body of a young man found in the Providence River on Tuesday may be that of Sunil Tripathi, a student at Brown University who disappeared March 16, police told CNN. A Brown rowing coach reported a body in the river near India Point Park, Lindsay Lague, a spokeswoman for the Providence Police Department, said Wednesday. Lague said authorities may be able to identify the body as soon as Thursday morning. When asked if it might be Tripathi, Detective Mark Sacco said it was "likely" but was cautious to say they won't know who it is until the medical examiner...

BALTIMORE CITY, MD — A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people — including 13 women working as corrections officers — who face racketeering, drug and money laundering charges. It alleges that Tavon White, an inmate known as “Bulldog,” took control of the prison gang soon after his arrival in 2009 on an attempted murder charge.

Rep. Charles Rangel filed suit in federal court Monday against seven fellow lawmakers to demand that his 2010 censure by the House of Representatives be stricken from its records. The maneuver is the 82-year-old Harlem Democrat’s latest bid to clear his name and legacy after his colleagues voted 333-79 to censure him for a series of ethical lapses, including failure to pay taxes on rental income from a villa in the Dominican Republic. Legal experts called the 34-page complaint almost unprecedented.

Actor and comedian Jay Mohr waded into the gun debate on Twitter after Monday’s deadly terrorist attacks at the Boston Marathon. “What bothers me most about today is that we’re getting used 2 it. ENOUGH. 2nd amendment must go. Violence has 2 stop. Culture MUST change,” the Jerry Maguire actor tweeted Monday night. What bothers me most about today is that we’re getting used 2 it. ENOUGH. 2nd amendment must go. Violence has 2 stop. Culture MUST change. — Jay Mohr (@jaymohr37) April 15, 2013

Let's hope this is a trend. Washington Examiner: The United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers is reportedly the first union to officially call for repeal of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The health care law is prompting some serious buyer's remorse in Big Labor, which worked hard on behalf of the administration to pass it: Here are some excerpts from the union's statement: ______________________________ "Our Union and its members have supported President Obama and his Administration for both of his terms in office. But regrettably, our concerns over certain provisions in the ACA have not been addressed,...

Most people in our recent debate over the future of Windows 8 thought that the operating system could be saved. I'm sure many people in 1491 thought that the Earth was flat, too. The very day the debate came to an end, this headline appeared: IDC: Global PC shipments plunge in worst drop in a generation. Sure, a lot of that was due to the growth of tablets and smartphones and the rise of the cloud, but Windows 8 gets to take a lot of the blame too. After all, the debate wasn't whether or not Windows 8 was any...

(CNSNews.com) – If you sell a gun to your son, “there’s something wrong with your family," says New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In a radio appearance on Friday, Bloomberg, a gun control activist and co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, praised the legislation that is now moving forward in the Senate. The bill would require universal background checks for most sales of firearms, including those online and at gun shows.

FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents on Monday locked down the headquarters of Pilot Flying J, the truck stop business owned by the family of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and his brother, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam. FBI spokesman Marshall Stone told The Associated Press that the move was part of an ongoing investigation, but he would not provide additional details. FBI and IRS agents were expected to remain in the building into the evening, he said. The FBI was keeping all traffic away from the company property, and Knoxville police patrol cars and officers could be seen outside the...

The sibling conflict teased on the cover of Batgirl #19 may be the hook that pulls readers in, but it will be another reveal in the issue that will occupy a spot in comics history, as one of the book's characters will reveal she is transgender, the first time a character has done so in a mainstream superhero comic. Wired reports that writer Gail Simone was inspired to create a transgender character by a conversation with Batwoman co-creator Greg Rucka at Wondercon a few years ago. Simone asked why there seem to be fewer gay male comics characters than lesbian...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has claimed that agents do not need warrants to read people's emails, text messages and other private electronic communications, according to internal agency documents. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request, released the information on Wednesday. In a 2009 handbook, the IRS said the Fourth Amendment does not protect emails because Internet users "do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications." A 2010 presentation by the IRS Office of General Counsel reiterated the policy. Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of...

Lynda Williams told a jury Tuesday that her boss, Kermit Gosnell, was aware she suffered from bi-polar disorder and depression when he hired her to work at his “House of Horrors” abortion clinic in West Philadelphia assisting with late-term abortions. In fact, she was being treated by Gosnell for the mental health illnesses. Another clinic worker, Elizabeth Hampton, previously testified she suffered from depression and anxiety in addition to alcohol abuse, and that she once had a “nervous breakdown.” Yet another former Gosnell employee who testified, Sherry West, also admitted to being treated for mental health disorders. Williams told the...

NORFOLK, Va.— A top general says federal budget cuts that will ground one-third of the U.S. Air Force´s active-duty force of combat planes including fighters and bombers means "accepting the risk that combat airpower may not be ready to respond immediately to new contingencies as they occur."Gen. Mike Hostage, commander of Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, issued the warning Tuesday as the Pentagon braces for more effects of the automatic spending cuts triggered by the lack of a budget agreement in Washington. Hostage said that only the units preparing to deploy to major operations,

Last week we reported on the Army EEO briefing that described evangelical Christians and Catholics as “extremists” alongside the likes of the KKK and al Qaeda. That incident occurred in Pennsylvania. Today, Todd Starnes reports that an Army officer at Ft. Campbell, KY sent an email to subordinates using similar descriptions and epithets. “Just want to ensure everyone is somewhat educated on some of the groups out there that do not share our Army Values,” read an email from LTC Jack Rich to three dozen subordinates at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. “When we see behaviors that are inconsistent with Army...

At least 14 people were injured, four of them seriously, in stabbing attacks at a community college campus in a Houston suburb on Tuesday, the authorities said.

Richard Ahlstrand told WBZ-TV he was stocking his bird feeder Friday night when a bear about seven feet tall and 300-to-400 pounds started chasing him. That’s when he turned his shotgun on the bear. “I didn’t have time to aim through the sights, but I aimed in the direction of the head on this thing and I pulled the trigger before it got to me. It just dropped,” he said. Ahlstrand said he was carrying the shotgun Friday night because he thought he saw the bear in his yard Thursday. “If that ever jumped on me, I wouldn’t even be...

Monday, 08 April 2013 09:48 Christians Are Extremists Like al-Qaeda, U.S. Army Taught Troops Written by Alex Newman The Obama administration’s Department of Defense was caught training U.S. troops that Catholics, orthodox Jews, and evangelical Christians are to be considered “religious extremists,” even equating the major religions representing more than half of Americans with truly violent groups such as al-Qaeda, the Ku Klux Klan, and Hamas. After the explosive revelations hit the headlines, outrage promptly ensued. Now, critics are calling for an immediate public apology to the soldiers exposed to the hateful propaganda, as well as to the Christian and...

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is actively shopping for a drone that would "stalk hunters," the organization said Monday. [READ: Drones to Monitor Endangered Animals in Africa] The group says it will "soon have some impressive new weapons at its disposal to combat those who gun down deer and doves" and that it is "shopping for one or more drone aircraft with which to monitor those who are out in the woods with death on their minds." The group says it will not weaponize the drones, but will use them to film potentially illegal hunting activity and turn...

Tim Ralston, Survival Expert Founder of Gear Up and International Spokesman for NatGeo's Doomsday Preppers, reveals the ultimate survival rifle system...the X-Caliber. WHAT IS X CALIBER?: X Caliber is the most versatile Gauge Adapter system in the world. It allows you to shoot 11 different caliber rounds from one shooting platform: a single-shot 12 gauge shotgun. Each X Caliber adapter is made from 7 inches of 4140 chromoly steel. Each adapter is also rifled to increase accuracy. WHAT GAUGES X CALIBER FIRES: The calibers of ammunition that the X Caliber can fire include: .22LR / 38 special / .357 /...

MANASSAS, Va. (CBSDC) — A server at Buffalo Wild Wings refused to serve Prince William County police officers because they had their guns displayed. The Manassas Park Patch reports that the employee wouldn’t serve them despite the plain-clothes officers showing him their badges. The server reportedly told the officers that it was a gun-free establishment. Scott Lupton, general manager of the Manassas Buffalo Wild Wings, apologized for what happened

Actress Ashley Judd's next role will not be as a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky. Judd said on Wednesday she has decided not to run in 2014 to try to unseat Republican Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, after considering such a candidacy for months. "After serious and thorough contemplation, I realize that my responsibilities and energy at this time need to be focused on my family," she wrote on Twitter. Judd and her husband, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti, announced in January that they had decided to end their 11-year marriage. Judd, 44, considers Kentucky...

Yesterday we reported on the case of United Loan and Firearm versus Comcast. The owner of that shop, Ray Reynolds, says that Comcast is censoring his TV ads that run on Comcast Cable. The cable giant is demanding that he truncate “United Loan and Firearm” to remove the reference to guns, and that he remove any imagery of guns from his ad. If he does not comply, his ad will not run. Comcast’s new policy extends beyond Georgia. Bob Viden, owner of Bob’s Little Sport Shop in Glassboro, New Jersey, told the Conservative Commando radio show on Wednesday that Comcast...

BURRELL TOWNSHIP, Pa. A Pennsylvania man is facing several charges after wildlife officials say he went deer hunting in a Wal-Mart parking lot, according to CBS Pittsburgh station KDKA-TV. The Indiana Gazette reports 40-year-old Arcangelo Bianco Jr. fired several rounds from a handgun at a 10-point white-tailed deer from within the Burrell Township store's parking lot, and then bagged the animal. The alleged shooting happened last November, while Bianco was shopping at the store and then saw the buck in the parking lot. The deer ran around a corner of the store, and Bianco hopped out of his truck, gun...

CHELSEA Clinton is planning to adopt a baby from Africa. The former First Daughter, 33, de­cided on the surprising maternity plan after watching both parents — Bill and Hillary Clinton — battle potentially deadly health problems while she’s struggled to get pregnant. “After years of worrying that she’d lose her dad Bill to a heart attack, Chelsea flipped out when her mom Hillary was hospitalized with a blood clot near her brain,” a source told American tabloid the National Enquirer. “The clot was successfully treated and Hillary is out of the woods, but the incident made Chelsea realize that life...

Just hours after an explosion killed seven Marines in his home state, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid used the fatal training accident as an opportunity to talk about the potential impact of the sequester on military readiness. The Senate Democratic leader initially took to the floor Tuesday to mourn the deaths of the seven Marines, killed during a training exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada. “My thoughts are with those who are injured and of course the families of those who lost loved ones,” Reid said. But then, after explaining that the Marines were at the depot for training, Reid...

A phallus-shaped worm that lived 505 million years ago is heads above the rest—it’s a “missing link” between two lineages of acorn worms, a new study says. Dubbed Spartobranchus tenuis, the odd creature is a type of soft-bodied marine animal that’s rarely preserved in the fossil record. The new specimen was first discovered in the early 1900s in an area called the Burgess Shale, a fossil-rich area in Canada‘s Yoho National Park.But the fossil went mostly unnoticed until a few years ago, when evolutionary biologist Jean-Bernard Caron of the University of Toronto “stumbled on drawers full of these worms” at...

In response to Rand Paul Filibuster Inspires HuffPo to Blister Obama Over Drone Policy: This morning, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was able to get Attorney General Eric Holder to admit, (after much hemming and hawing about "appropriateness") that it was unconstitutional to kill a US citizen on US soil with a drone strike, providing that American terror suspect does not pose an “imminent threat.” Via Sean Higgins of The Washington Examiner: Cruz took the opportunity of Holder’s appearance this morning before the senate Judiciary Committee to ask about the government stance. “If an individual is sitting quietly in a cafe...

(TSA to Spend $50 Million on Uniforms) (CNSNews.com) - The impending sequester did not prevent the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from acting in late February to seal a $50-million deal to purchase new uniforms for its agents--uniforms that will be partly manufactured in Mexico. Soon after this new investment in TSA uniforms, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned Americans that the lines are already lengthening at airports due to the sequester. "We are already seeing the effect on the ports of entry, the big airports for example," Napolitano told Politico on Monday. "Some of them had very long lines...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said Tuesday that he would endorse a pathway to citizenship that does not incentivize illegal immigration. It's a stance that differs from the immigration reform plan that he laid out in his new book. Bush, a well-known pro-immigration reform Republican, raised eyebrows on Monday when he said on the "Today" show and in his book that he opposes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, arguing that it would violate the rule of law and encourage future illegal immigration. In his new book, "Immigration Wars," Bush offers up a plan that would provide a...

A Florida teenager was suspended from his high school last week along with two others after forcibly disarming a fellow student who allegedly pointed a loaded gun and threatened to shoot another pupil on a school bus, according to news reports. One of the suspended students, who has not been publicly identified due to safety concerns, said he had “no doubt” that the gunman he helped disarm was planning to kill the intended target. The event, which occurred in Fort Meyers, has already triggered nationwide and even international press coverage. It has also sparked debate about statutes purporting to create...

An official with the Federal Aviation Administration reassured the public Wednesday that no armed drones will be permitted in U.S. airspace, but he acknowledged the agency can do little about privacy fears associated with the unmanned craft.

     Q.What’s the difference between the Michigan Legislature and the U.S. Legislature?      A.The Michigan legislators read their bills before they pass them. So they were aware that by passing the Right to Work bill they were granting employees the choice to opt out of union membership.Since that makes the payment of union dues likewise optional,they realized that it would likely upset some of Michigan’s unions. Proud member of the Michigan Teachers’ Union poses in front of a giant rat…whoops!Somebody spelled Governor SNyder’s name wrong!Thank a teacher. (snip)The pro-union forces gathered in the pre-dawn hours to prepare their chants:"Hey hey,...

On CNN contributor Roland Martin’s podcast posted to his website Monday, Jason Whitlock, the columnist who inspired Bob Costas’ commentary on gun control during halftime of Sunday’s Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game on NBC, revealed his peculiar take on the National Rifle Association (NRA).Whitlock spoke out against the NFL’s handling of the aftermath of Jovan Belcher’s suicide and gun issues in his Sunday FoxSports.com column. During Martin’s podcast, he likened the NRA to the Ku Klux Klan and tied the group to the dangerous street culture that unfortunately dominates “so many black youths.�“Sports gets so much attention, and people tune out...

BEIJING - China's top newspaper went to town yesterday with a 55-page online picture spread of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un being named The Onion's "Sexiest Man Alive for 2012", appearing to fall for a spoof by the United States satirical website. Seemingly clueless as to the real nature of The Onion's tongue-in-cheek award for Mr Kim, the People's Daily splashed full-page photographs of the portly young leader riding horses, clapping his hands, waving and clasping children's cheeks on his tours around North Korea. "With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred...

It's a White House tradition with a century and a half of history behind it, but PETA is asking the White House to skip it this year. Today President Obama is set to pardon two turkeys - Cobbler and Gobbler - just as every president since George H. W. Bush has. The tradition finds its roots in a moment of sympathy Abe Lincoln's son, Tad, had for their table's turkey back in the 1860s. Now Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, says the turkey pardon has got to go. "It makes light of the mass...

Just released, a Marine Veteran, Brandon Raub who served in Iraq and Afghanistan was taken by FBI and Secret Service agents around 7 p.m. on August 15, 2012 for his patriotic non-violent Facebook postings. According to his mother on a radio talk show hosted by Josh Tolley, she said, “He was handcuffed, was not read his rights…I want that to be heard very clear. He was not read his rights…he was handcuffed, put in the back seat in Chesterfield County, Virginia police department vehicle. And um, he was taken to…directly to John Randall Psychiatric Hospital in Hopewell, Virginia and that...

In stark contrast to the Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day events on Wednesday, malicious graffiti, bomb threats and miscellaneous mischief marred the retaliatory "National Same Sex Kiss Day" events that were staged at Chick-fil-A restaurants across the country by homosexual activists on Friday.

Mitt Romney got some celebrity love when Clint Eastwood showed up at his high-dollar fundraiser this evening in Idaho to offer his endorsement of the presumptive GOP nominee. When the Oscar-winning director was asked why he was supporting Romney, Eastwood responded, “Because I think the country needs a boost somewhere.” Eastwood, who has a home near the Sun Valley Resort where the fundraiser was held, was wearing grey sneakers, beige slacks, a green blazer and a pair of sunglasses, when reporters spotted him.

A bill promising the most significant expansion of national gun rights since the current gun control regime began with the Handgun Control Act of 1968, passed the House 272 to 154 November 16 at 5:50 p.m. after two days of debate. “The right to defend yourself and your loved ones from criminals is fundamental, and it should not be extinguished when you cross a state border,” said Rep. Clifford B. Stearns (R.-FL), who lead the fight with his co-sponsor Rep. J. Heath Shuler (D.-N.C.), a leader of the caucus of moderate Democrats known as the Blue Dogs. “H.R. 822, the...

"...Obama is "very romantic." "He remembers dates, birthdays," Mrs. Obama said last week on "Live! With Regis and Kelly." "He doesn't forget a thing, even when I think he is. I'll have a little attitude. I give him a little attitude, but he always comes through." "Got to keep the romance alive, even in the White House," she said. As for Valentine's Day on Monday, the first lady said her husband would do right by giving her jewelry.

President George W. Bush allegedly snubbed “No Strings Attached” actor Ashton Kutcher at last week’s Super Bowl, reports BBC. Kutcher sat directly behind Bush in a luxury suite at last Sunday’s Super Bowl, but two had minimal interaction with each other. “I don’t think he’s very happy with me,” Kutcher said of Bush. “He just was not very nice to me. He just kind of snubbed me a little bit … [He was] kind of more than [ just ignoring me] … [He was], well, just curt. He just said, ‘eh’ … almost like a burp.” Kutcher said Bush turned...