Free Republic

BALTIMORE —Authorities have made an arrest in connection with a hit-and-run in west Baltimore on Tuesday that killed a woman and a toddler and injured a 7-year-old girl. Baltimore police said late Wednesday night that they arrested 28-year-old Lucresha Mints in connection with the case. Detectives said the intentional hit-and-run happened at Franklin and Monroe streets just after 9 p.m. Tuesday following an argument between Mints and 25-year-old Latoya Skipwith. Police said the fight got so heated that Mints got into her car, aimed it at Skipwith and floored it, driving down the sidewalk and striking Skipwith, 2-year-old Joshua Carter...

<p>One of the oldest distilleries in the country is warning of what some observers are calling a “whiskey apocalypse.”</p> <p>“Despite the increase in distillation over the past few years,” says Buffalo Trace, “bourbon demand still outpaces supply.”</p> <p>The apocalypse is looming, explains Esquire, because whiskey has become trendy overnight.</p>

Psychiatrists (and Charlie Brooker) offer insightful perspective on news coverage's perpetuation of mass shootings in schools. The bit with the psychiatrist is so perfect, shame is that the media is never ever going to stop covering shootings in this manner because it gets them so many viewers.

Detroit women are turning to abortion at a staggering rate as poverty and crime grip the city, with more than one-third of pregnancies being terminated. According to 2012 figures, the most recent year for which data are available, 31 percent of pregnancies among Detroit residents ended in abortion — compared to about 14 percent for all of Michigan, The Detroit News reported. (Snip) Dr. Susan Schooley, chairwoman of the Department of Family Medicine at Henry Ford Hospital, said the statistics make Detroit look “more like some Third-World country than someplace in the United States.”

I like Putin. I think he is doing a good job. I like him much better than I like Obama. Funny, ain't it - an old anticommunist admiring the former head of the KGB?

An immense explosion has been heard throughout the northern Iranian city of Qazvin, semi-official Fars news agency reported, and many casualties are expected from the blast. Around 1.1 million people live in the city, which is located about 100 miles north of Tehran. The blast may be related to nuclear development in Iran, according to the Los Angeles Times. Iranian officials in the past have strongly denied claims by Mujahedin Khalq Organization, or MKO, a cult-like Iranian exile group, that it has a secret nuclear enrichment facility in Abyek, near the major city, according to the daily. The source of...

Throughout history, religion has sanctioned and fueled the persecution of homosexuality. That dynamic may be drawing to an end. Polls, clerics, and denominations are shifting. Theology is adapting. Resistance to same-sex marriage is dwindling, and there’s no end in sight. For 15 years, the Ethics and Public Policy Center has hosted the Faith Angle Forum, a regular conference on religion and public life. Several weeks ago, the group met again to discuss current issues. Transcripts of the conference have just been posted on EPPC’s website. They underscore the extent of the anti-gay collapse. The first session, led by papal biographer...

New images of cattle rancher Cliven Bundy’s tense standoff with the Federal Bureau of Land Mangement (BLM) on Saturday afternoon reveal how the armed agency’s military operation configured to forcefully engage Bundy cowboys and their supporters who sought to liberate federally confiscated cattle over the weekend. These exclusive images were taken by a GMN photographer positioned right above the action on the Southbound side of Interstate 15 near Bunkerville, Nevada. Despite the BLM being instructed to leave the Bundy Ranch and Gold Butte area earlier that morning, the agency still insisted had a legal right to be there and that...

SteynOnline celebrated Doris Day's 90th birthday on Thursday, and several readers wrote to point out that April 3rd 1924 was also the late Marlon Brando's birthday. You could hardly ask for two more dissimilar stars, so I thought it would be appropriate to make Brando the subject of this week's Saturday film feature: A few years back, The New Yorker published a cartoon in which two ladies discussed the appeal of Marlon Brando: "He plays galoots really well," suggested the first woman. "No, he's not a galoot," says the second. "Like in On The Waterfront, he's much more sensitive than...

Evolve, adapt or die. That is the fate of our current Republican party. We must evolve as a party and find a way to attract millennials to the conservative movement or we will never succeed in realizing our ideals of individual freedom and freedom from government interference. Initially, I received criticism from political pundits for speaking to non-traditional audiences. I was told it was a waste of time to reach out to these audiences, specifically students from both Howard University and University of California, Berkeley. My response is this: I have never been one to watch the world go by...

Wow, I have never seen an UnZot before, it was awesome! 2nd Division Vet, welcome home! BTW, Vet, you out there?

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) may have won the straw poll, but runner-up Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) won the biggest endorsement on the final night of the Conservative Political Action Conference. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the closing speaker at the three-day gathering of activists, touted Cruz and urged conservatives to challenge the GOP’s inside-the-beltway establishment. “Thank you Texas because liberty needs a Congress on Cruz control,” Palin told an audience that erupted into raucous cheers. Cruz, who was elected to the Senate after beating Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — the candidate favored in 2012 by the GOP establishment —...

Last night, I watched the second episode of "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" (the reboot of the 1980 series). It was entitled, "Some of the Things That Molecules Do." One of the things Tyson dealt with in this episode was evolution. Now, I myself do subscribe to the theory of evolution, but I found Tyson's treatment to be offensive, condescending, and smarmy. I thought it was an in-your-face chip-on-the-shoulder response against skeptics of evolution. I thought this was supposed to be a science show, not a political show. But this is just my opinion. What is your opinion? If you missed...

Within a few days, a federal district judge in my home-state of Virginia will likely rule on the constitutionality of the commonwealth’s Marshall-Newman Amendment, which only permits marriage between one man and one woman. Frankly, as a conservative Republican and as a Christian, I hope that the amendment is struck down. Republicans value marriage so highly because it encourages people to live according to conservative values. For instance, by enabling two people to share resources, marriage makes couples more financially secure, thereby reducing their dependence on government. In addition, marriage binds people into permanent, monogamous relationships, enabling couples to more...

“Make Jobs, Not Propaganda” President Obama’s income inequality campaign – the centerpiece of his effort to save vulnerable Democrats from the Obamacare disaster – is fast losing steam in the face of raw facts and political reality. The President wandered up to Connecticut the other day to sing the praises of a minimum wage increase with friendly Democratic governors who have moved to raise the minimum wage in their states. His refrain was familiar. “It’s time to give America a raise,” Obama said. “It’s not bad business to do right by your workers; it’s good business.” As usual, the president...

Last weekend, I reported on Connecticut John Cinque's 2013 warning to lawmakers that he would not comply with their attempts to force the citizens of Connecticut to register their semi-automatic weapons and high capacity magazines. Since that time, the video, though a year old, has gone viral. However, in a recent video between Mr. Cinque and Connecticut gubernatorial candidate Joe Viconti, Cinque reveals that a Branford, Connecticut police officer told him, "I Cannot Wait to Get the Order to Kick Your Door In."

Less than 24 hours after Arizona’s governor vetoed a bill that had been criticized as anti-gay, similar legislation in Georgia and Mississippi are hitting new roadblocks. Georgia state senator Josh McKoon conceded on Thursday that support for his religious-freedom bill is evaporating, 11Alive Atlanta reports. He told the Huffington Post that a committee vote on his legislation, previously scheduled for next Monday, has been taken off the calendar. McKoon said his bill merely protects religious rights of Georgia residents, but critics argued it would allow business owners to refuse services to gays based on religious beliefs. In Mississippi, the state...

The Born “Gay” Hoax By 1985, the pro-sodomy movement The born “gay” hoax was invented in 1985 by Marshall Kirk and Dr. Hunter Madsen. Marshall Kirk graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1980 majoring in psychology and went on to become a writer and researcher in neuropsychiatry. Dr. Hunter Madsen earned a PhD in politics from Harvard University in 1985, then went on to become an expert on public persuasion tactics, social marketing, and has designed commercial marketing on Madison Avenue. He has also served as a consultant to pro-sodomy media campaigns across America. In 1985, Marshall Kirk...

Yesterday, in response to one of the many brouhahas that CPAC seems always to invite, Brent Bozell issued the following statement: The invitation extended by the ACU, Al Cardenas and CPAC to American Atheists to have a booth is more than an attack on conservative principles. It is an attack on God Himself. American Atheists is an organization devoted to the hatred of God. How on earth could CPAC, or the ACU and its board of directors, and Al Cardenas condone such an atrocity? The particular merits of the American Atheists group to one side, this is a rather astounding...

So, I lurk on Free Republic quite a bit. Usually it's to read some of the outrageous comments some post here and some of it is to see what your opinions are on certain articles that also get posted elsewhere. So, a little bit about myself. I'm in my 20s and of Hispanic origin. I was born in New York but moved to Florida when I was three years old. I'm what you guys would consider a "socialist". I don't consider myself a socialist, I'm a supporter of the free market economy except I favor strong government regulations. While on...