Free Republic

BAGHDAD — If there were such a thing, it would probably be rule No. 1 in the teaching manual for instructors of aspiring suicide bombers: Don’t give lessons with live explosives. In what represented a cautionary tale for terrorist teachers, and a cause of dark humor for ordinary Iraqis, a commander at a secluded terrorist training camp north of Baghdad unwittingly used a belt packed with explosives while conducting a demonstration early Monday for a group of militants, killing himself and 21 other members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, army and police officials said. Iraqi citizens have...

It’s hard to figure out what to make of the people in this story. Should these people be laughed at or pitied? Recently a group of 25 self-described “Students of Color” held a sit-in to support poor English writing skills. They whined about the “racism” of being offered constructive criticism of their lack of grammar, spelling and punctuation abilities. As products of dysfunctional government schools, many if not all of them have little or no writing skill. Many of them don’t know they have no writing skills. They have been lied to and had their heads patted so often by...

The 44th President of the United States is, of course, Barack Hussein Obama II. Barack Hussein Obama II has also been known by names such as Barry Soetoro, Barry Obama, and Barack Hussein Obama (Soebarkah). To be sure, only supposed madmen note that the name "Soebarkah" originated in very tight spatiotemporal proximity to the operations of a cult called "Subud" that was founded by a Muslim named Mohammad Subuh -- a cult wherein personal name changes were the order of the day.

A scam that repeats itself in modified forms every few years is once again spreading throughout the United Sates. Don’t be a victim! Criminals target people simply by calling them. Intended victims receive a call on their phones from area code 473 which rings once and then disconnects, thereby arousing the call-recipient’s natural curiosity – “who just called me and from where?” Sometimes the caller actually allows the phone to ring long enough for the victim to answer -- after which the caller (or the caller’s robocaller system) makes groaning sounds or otherwise indicates that he or she is in...

The parents of a 6-year-old girl said their daughter was humiliated when a teacher interrupted the child’s one-minute speech and told her to sit down because she’s “not allowed to talk about the Bible in school,” attorneys for the California family allege. The incident occurred Dec. 19 inside a first grade classroom at Helen Hunt-Jackson Elementary School in Temecula, Calif. The previous day the teacher instructed boys and girls to find something at home that represented a family Christmas tradition. They were supposed to bring the item to school and share the item in a classroom presentation. Brynn Williams decided...

"The United States is deeply concerned by Nigeria’s enactment of the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement issued Monday. "Beyond even prohibiting same sex marriage, this law dangerously restricts freedom of assembly, association, and expression for all Nigerians," the statement said.

Gunmen shot dead a former Miss Venezuela and her British-born partner in front of their five-year-old daughter, who was wounded in an attack that dismayed the crime-plagued nation, authorities said Tuesday. Monica Spear, a 29-year-old soap opera star, and Thomas Henry Berry, 39, were killed in what appears to have been a botched robbery after their car broke down on a highway in northwestern Venezuela late Monday, police and prosecutors said.

Parents are threatening legal action against a Southern California school district after their six-year-old son was told he could not pass out candy canes with religious messages taped to them because "Jesus is not allowed in school." Isaiah Martinez, a six-year-old student at Merced Elementary School in West Covina, Calif., arrived to school on Dec. 13, planning to pass out candy canes with religious messages to his fellow students in celebration of the upcoming Christmas season. After the boy's teacher consulted with the school principal, he reportedly told the student that he could not pass out the religious messages because...

Pope Francis Named “Person of the Year” by World’s Biggest Gay Magazine By Julio Severo Praises keep knocking at the door of Pope Francis, who was named “Person of the Year” by The Advocate, the world’s biggest homosexual magazine. It is the second tribute that the pope has received in a week. On December 11, he was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.” In its headline, The Advocate highlighted Francis’ statement, made during a June interview: “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?” “Pope Francis’ stark change in rhetoric...

It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but a guy walked into a Miami-area convenience store with quite a surprise in the box. A clerk at the Santa Ana Market in Allapattah was approached by customer Fernando Caignet Aguilera, 64, to buy some beer recently. “I just picked it up here,” Aguilera said of the alligator. “I seen it here in the grass and I tied it up.” When the subject of payment was brought up, the customer offered up a live alligator. “I went into the store to try to exchange it for a beer,” Aguilera told CBS4′s...

U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, Utah’s only Democrat in Congress, announced Tuesday that he will not seek re-election, easing the way for Republicans to pick up another House seat in a solidly red state. Matheson was expected to face a tough repeat challenge in 2014 from Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love, a Republican he narrowly defeated in 2012. While Utah Democrats admitted Matheson’s decision not to run for an eighth term is a blow, they’re hoping it will set him up to challenge U.S. Sen. Mike Lee or Gov. Gary Herbert, both Republicans who are up for re-election in 2016. …

Whitechapel is on the outskirts of London, but it is an area where Muslims enforce Sharia law without any interference from British officials. On Saturday, they took it a step further and told shop owners in the area they will face 40 lashes if they continue to sell alcohol. The protesters, including Anjem Choudary, the former leader of the Al-Muhajiroun group which was banned under terrorism laws, delivered warning letters to Muslim-owned businesses. “The shops are run by Muslims and they know they are selling alcohol and they know the sale and consumption of alcohol is completely prohibited,” he said....

<p>John Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and a trusted Democratic operative, will join the White House staff as a senior counselor to President Barack Obama, two persons familiar with the move said late Monday.</p> <p>Podesta will take his place at the White House at a critical time for Obama as his health care law tries to shake itself off from a disastrous enrollment rollout and as the president seeks to re-establish his agenda going into a midterm election year.</p>

One of the biggest public supporters of the Affordable Care Act has reportedly decided that some of his staff should be exempted from the new law. CNN reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is the only top congressional leader to exempt some of his staff from having to buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. That’s right, even House Majority Leader John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who have voted against the healthcare law dozens of times, have told their staff to sign up for insurance plans through the federal exchange. The news will likely provide...

The Rev. Billy Graham, 95, was admitted to a hospital in Asheville, N.C., Tuesday after experiencing respiratory problems, a family spokesman has confirmed. "Mr. Graham is in the hospital with a respiratory congestion issue, similar to what he had a few weeks ago," said spokesman Mark DeMoss. "As was the case then, we expect he will be able to return home in a day or two." The Christian evangelist and world-renowned preacher, who has battled several health issues in the past, was expected to be released from Mission Hospital and return to his mountain home on Thursday. Graham's admirers, concerned...

The most wrenching stories always begin the same way: it was just a normal day. Oct. 18 was just a normal day when Darnell Barton, a school bus driver in Buffalo, N.Y., was carrying a full load of high school students and approaching the Scajaquada Expressway overpass. There, he saw a woman on the opposite side of the rail, standing where no person ought to be, leaning out over the traffic below. Barton stopped the bus and, according to the Buffalo News, tried to assess the truth of what his eyes were telling him.

Benjamin Franklin famously quipped, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Franklin evidently failed to envisage today’s postmodern left. For the conservative, there exists at least one other certainty, and it is this: The degree to which “progressives” attack you corresponds precisely to the degree with which you challenge any among their assorted, distorted and sordid sacred cows. What would you call a 33-year-old man who both had and axiomatically acted upon a deviant sexual appetite for underage, drug-addicted, runaway boys? (No, not Jerry Sandusky.) What would you call a man of whom,...

JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) - As soon as the sun came up Monday, Jackson Police Detectives were searching for clues in the parking lot and the woods behind the Motel 6 on the I-55 Frontage Road that is just south of County Line Road. Just hours before, on Sunday evening about 7:30, James "Jimmy" Johnson, 56, was shot in the face. He died at the scene. "Jimmy is a great guy. You know, he was just a real friendly guy...always willing to help. Just one of those special people, you know, that loved bass fishing just like the rest...

Wal-Mart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, La., saw a stampede and a shelf-clearing rush Saturday after a computer glitch for food stamp recipients led to benefit cards allowing unlimited purchases.

Eight Democrat members of US Congress courted arrest in a show of civil disobedience at a rally here calling for comprehensive immigration reform to legalise America's 11 million undocumented workers, including 300,000 Indians. "I've been arrested a few times, and I don't mind getting arrested again for something that is right and fair and just," said House member John Lewis the civil rights icon known for his speech during the March on Washington a half-century ago.