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When outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that he had lifted the Pentagon’s ban on allowing women to serve in front-line combat roles, one of several questions it raised was: Is that unusual? Do a lot of countries allow women to serve in combat? The answer is that many Western, developed countries have women on their front-line forces. But outside of the West, it’s rare. The map at the top of this page shows in red which countries formally permit women in combat positions. Shown in orange are countries that allow women to serve in military roles that involve...

Today, approximately 400,000 pro-life activists are gathering in Washington D.C. to protest the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which legalized abortion throughout the nation. The march is usually held on January 22, but was moved to January 25 because of the presidential inauguration. In contrast, the pro-abortion rallies assembled by the National Organization of Women always attract a much smaller crowd.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — San Francisco city officials preparing for the 49ers’ Super Bowl game against the Baltimore Ravens are hoping to avoid a repeat of the violence and vandalism that marred World Series celebrations last year. A total of 36 people were arrested during post-game celebrations in October after the San Francisco Giants’ World Series victory against the Detroit Tigers, 23 of them for felonies. Celebrants lit a number of bonfires in the middle of Mission Street, broke windows and, in one notorious incident, set a Muni 8X-Bayshore Express bus on fire at Market and Kearny streets.

Vice President Biden says a mental health check on gun sales may have averted the 2007 mass shooting on Virginia Tech‘s campus. Biden’s comments came after a roundtable discussion in Richmond today that included experts involved with the gun control commission convened after the university tragedy.

Conservative writers and academics gather for the National Review Institute Summit, beginning on Friday in Washington, D.C. The summit focuses on addressing the challenges facing conservatism and finding solutions that will strengthen the movement. First, political newcomer Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AK) sits down for an interview with Jay Nordlinger of National Review. Next, a panel of experts examine the topic "Can politics be hospitable to life?" Panelists include: Chuck Donovan of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, Jeanne Monahan of March for Life and Carter Snead of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. National Review Editor Rich Lowry interviews American...

A wayward dolphin that meandered into a polluted urban canal, riveting onlookers as it splashed around in the filthy water and shook black gunk from its snout, died Friday evening, marine experts said. The deep-freeze weather hadn’t seemed to faze the dolphin as it swam in the Gowanus Canal, which runs 1.5 miles through a narrow industrial zone near some of Brooklyn’s wealthiest neighborhoods. … The filthy canal was named a Superfund site in 2010, meaning the government can force polluters to pay for its restoration. For more than a century before, coal yards, chemical factories and fuel refineries on...

In case you missed it... Finally a good day for America, it's been a while.

State Sen. Richard J. Codey would rather focus on his family-owned funeral business than run in November against Gov. Christie, the Essex County Democrat said Friday. Despite weeks of speculation and a trip to Washington to woo big donors, Codey decided to scrap a campaign after his youngest son, Chris, said he would like to go into the family business and asked Codey to forgo the gubernatorial race. … With less than nine months before the election, Democrats have yet to rally around a gubernatorial candidate. Christie, meanwhile, becomes ever more the juggernaut: The Republican has raised more than $2...

A draft of the much-anticipated "assault weapon" ban bill authored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein was posted online this afternoon in advance of it's posting on the Library of Congress THOMAS legislative database site. Gun Rights Examiner has received a copy and posted it on the SCRIBD document archive site. That is necessary because at this writing, searching for the bill on the THOMAS site retrieves a message that "The text of S.150 has not yet been received from GPO Bills are generally sent to the Library of Congress from the Government Printing Office a day or two after they are...

Sen. Chuck Hagel backed down this week from previously held positions on nuclear arms cuts during meetings with senators who are considering his nomination to be defense secretary in an apparent effort to sway those concerned about his liberal anti-nuclear views. Hagel has told senators he is no longer a staunch supporter of the nuclear weapons views of retired Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, who authored an anti-nuclear weapons report sponsored by the international disarmament group Global Zero. “Hagel has thrown Cartwright under the bus about the Global Zero [report] in his meetings with senators,” said a congressional aide familiar...

WASHINGTON — They seem right out of a Hollywood fantasy, and they are: Cars that drive themselves have appeared in movies like “I, Robot” and the television show “Knight Rider.” Now, three years after Google invented one, automated cars could be on their way to a freeway near you. In the U.S., California and other states are rewriting the rules of the road to make way for driverless cars. Just one problem: What happens to the millions of people who make a living driving cars and trucks — jobs that always have seemed sheltered from the onslaught of technology? “All...

On Monday, Dr. Jim Garrow, a renowned author and humanitarian who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, sparked a firestorm of controversy when he wrote on Facebook that President Obama wants military leaders who will fire on U.S. citizens. In an exclusive interview with Examiner.com, Dr. Garrow said the man who told him this is a military hero who is known by everybody in the country. "I have just been informed by a former senior military leader that Obama is using a new 'litmus test' in determining who will stay and who must go in his military...

Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army officer who is facing 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, now wants to avoid the death penalty, according to The Associated Press.

(CNN) -- Actor Burt Reynolds is in intensive care in a Florida hospital, where he went for treatment of flu symptoms, one of his representatives said Friday. Reynolds was dehydrated when he went to the hospital, and was eventually transferred to its intensive care unit, his representative Erik Kritzer told CNN. Kritzer declined to divulge what hospital the actor was in, saying, "He would like that (kept) private." "He is doing better at this time," Kritzer said late Friday afternoon of the 76-year-old actor. "We expect, as soon as he gets more fluids, he will be back in a regular...

The state agency revealed Friday that the employee who improperly accessed thousands of drivers license records, and ignited calls for stiffer laws, was an officer responsible for training his colleagues in proper data usage. The Department of Natural Resources said Captain John Hunt, who was administrative manager of the agency's enforcement division, viewed drivers license data on 5,000 people while off-duty and without a work-related purpose. Altogether, Hunt made about 19,000 queries of the driver and vehicle services (DVS) database over nearly five years -- 11,800 of them while off duty. The DVS database, which contains photographs, addresses and driving...

PHOENIX -- Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that would give Arizona high school seniors the option to recite a loyalty oath before they graduate. Originally, House Bill 2467 would have made the oath a prerequisite for graduation from any public high school in the state. The Arizona Capitol Times reported the change Tuesday. "To me it's not a Republican bill, it's not a Democrat bill, it's an American bill," said Rep. Steve Smith of Maricopa, one of the bill's sponsors. "People feel that our high school kids that will be adults should understand their role as an American citizen."

Hi, I'm interested in reading about American politics and for a while I've been reading through Henry Kissinger's memoirs. I have to say they're a bloody good read, there are 3 volumes of them and well over a thousand pages each. They're pretty well written, rich in detail and he does defend himself well. So they made me want to look for more books with regards to republican policy throughout American history,thinking maybe there are some that could rival Kissinger. So basically I'm asking if anyone can recommend any decent books by republicans. I don't care if they're from the...

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Thursday outlined a slate of climate change actions that President Obama could execute with his own authority. The lawmakers conveyed a bleak outlook for climate legislation this Congress, noting considerable Republican opposition in the House. But they said Obama’s climate comments during his Monday inaugural address raised the prospects for administrative action to address the issue. “Congress has not been interested in acting, especially in the House, in the last two years. So we’re calling on the president to develop a plan for the administration to take action without action...

This week, two students at the Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York used an “assault rifle” that may soon be banned by law to frighten away armed burglars who had broken into their home. Local station ABC 13 reports that the students, Christopher Boise and Raymond (no last name given) were awakened in the wee hours Tuesday morning to noises coming from the basement. Boise got up to investigate and found two men, one with a gun pointed at him, at the bottom of the stairs in the lower level of his apartment. Hearing Boise’s cry of alarm,...

Why New Zealand is right to consider banning them in order to save its wildlife. You know what animal makes a good pet? No animal. Dogs will bite you to death and then eat your corpse. Snakes will asphyxiate you, escape, infest the Everglades, and eat all its mammals. Pet parrots perpetuate a trade that upends ecosystems, and hamsters pass you dangerous zoonotic diseases. But perhaps the worst pet of all, environmentally speaking, is a cat. Domesticated cats started out as parasites on human civilization. Unlike other species, and admittedly to their credit, they domesticated themselves. When humans started growing...