Free Republic

Moscow pundits gave a warm welcome to John Kerry on Tuesday, as U.S. senators were expected to confirm their veteran colleague as secretary of state. But they warned that U.S.-Russian relations were set for a potentially bumpy ride during President Barack Obama's second term, contrasting with the "reset" in relations that marked the first. Kerry, who has been Democratic senator for Massachusetts since 1985, ran for president in 2004, and has chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 2009, is widely seen as a preferred candidate for both Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin. "He is a...

Saudi Arabia has set new limitations on the powers of its notorious religious police, charged with ensuring compliance with Islamic morality but often accused of abuses, its chief said on Tuesday. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice “once had much expanded powers, but with the new system... some of these powers, such as interrogating suspects and pressing charges,” will be restricted to the police and public prosecution, Shaikh Abdul Latif Abdel Aziz Al Shaikh told AFP. The religious police may still arrest those carrying out “flagrant offences such as harassing women, consuming alcohol and drugs,...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday declined to voice support for Democratic legislation that would ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips. Reid said he would bring gun-violence legislation to the floor and open it to a lengthy amendment process. But he declined to endorse the assault weapons ban introduced last week by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), which has the support of the 2nd- and 3rd-ranking Senate Democratic leaders. “She’s talked to me about her assault weapons. The new one. She believes in it fervently and I admire her for that. I’ll take a look at that,” he...

Mexico’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.7% of the working age population in September 2012, according to the Financial Times, October 19, 2012. Yet misguided sympathy is causing the loss of U.S. jobs. The emotional appeal that illegal aliens would suffer if sent home is the central driving force of the illegal immigration debate. Make no mistake: Illegal aliens will go home. The only question is whether they will go home only after the United States Government has gone bankrupt, the economy has collapsed, and there are no more jobs or whether the U.S. will come to its senses. In fact,...

A lot has changed since 1995. Our best candidate for President was only the First Lady. O.J. Simpson was not in jail. No one was using DVDs. Saddam Hussein was in power. “Friends” and “ER” ruled the airwaves. Seinfeld was funny. The NHL was in the middle of a full season. Hootie and the Blowfish had the best-selling album. People were still buying albums. And Windows 95 was released. Back then Windows mattered, both to consumers and small business people. We relied on it heavily to run our computers. So each release of Windows was a big event. And the...

Clashes broke out in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Tuesday evening, Reshet Bet reports. Twelve people were arrested, including a young man and woman accused of trying to ignite a government building. Protesters and police have clashed several times in recent days, leading to over 40 deaths and several hundred injuries. The demonstrations were sparked by a court’s decision to hand down death penalties to 21 people convicted of sparking a stampede ...

A Dallas judge has halted the scheduled Tuesday night execution of a Texas woman who would have been the first woman put to death in the U.S. in three years. The order from state District Judge Larry Mitchell moves the execution of Kimberly McCarthy, 51, to April 3. McCarthy faced lethal injection for the 1997 beating, stabbing and robbery of a 71-year-old neighbor in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas.

Pakistan's electronic entertainment association has ordered merchants to pull the video games Call of Duty and Medal of Honor as the games "unfairly depict the country as a breeding ground for excessive violence, and where security forces have ties to al Qaeda," Al Jazeera reports. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why the makers of Call of Duty and Medal of Honor would portray Pakistan in such a light. After all, Pakistan is the country where Osama bin Laden lived for 10 years after 9/11, the last six of them in a massive complex just outside of...

Bahlsen is one of Germany's most famous food companies and its Leibniz line of cookies are enjoyed by millions. Last week, the company's emblem golden biscuit was stolen in Hanover. A ransom letter for the hostage has now been sent -- by a character claiming to be Cookie Monster. "I have the cookie! And you want it," the letter read, according to the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. The letter is reportedly signed by a "Cookie Monster," and includes an accompanying photo of a person wearing a Cookie Monster costume sticking the golden cookie in its mouth. 'Cookie Will Wind up...

Reports of an explosion at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility have surfaced and are being both confirmed and denied by multiple sources. The Jerusalem Post cites a report by Reza Kahlili that says: “The blast shook facilities within a radius of three miles. Security forces have enforced a no-traffic radius of 15 miles, and the Tehran- Qom highway was shut down for several hours after the blast.” Kahlili's report says the Fordow nuclear facility was severely damaged in an explosion and up to 240 workers trapped inside. The explosion was reportedly confined to the plant, suggesting that if it were an...

A Florida reporter is the 'butt' of a few jokes after she was knocked

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tells Newsmax that Republicans need to be the “party of ideas,” offering real solutions instead of playing “bumper sticker politics.” Gingrich also says the GOP’s stance on immigration during the presidential campaign was “devastatingly destructive,” but he’s hopeful that reform can be implemented thanks to Sen. Marco Rubio’s “very important leadership” on the immigration issue. … In an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV, Gingrich discloses how he reacted to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s recent pronouncement that the GOP should “stop being the stupid party.” “I broke out laughing because when I was first running for...

The White House provides summaries of four key principles that President Obama wants included in comprehensive immigration reform: ~~SNIP~~ • Streamlining Legal Immigration: Our immigration system should reward anyone who is willing to work hard and play by the rules. For the sake of our economy and our security, legal immigration should be simple and efficient. The President’s proposal attracts the best minds to America by providing visas to foreign entrepreneurs looking to start businesses here and helping the most promising foreign graduate students in science and math stay in this country after graduation, rather than take their skills to...

<p>Shrillary McEvil: “Kosovo a personal matter, this cannot be discussed…” by SHEIKYERMAMI on JANUARY 29, 2013 How evil is Hillary Clinton? THIS evil!</p> <p>Julia Gorin: Hillary’s Halloween: “We Will Not Allow Anyone to Question Kosovo’s Independence. This Cannot be Discussed”</p>

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) - A 75-year-old retired barber was jailed Tuesday for investigation of killing a urologist in his exam room, but police have not yet released a motive. Stanwood Fred Elkus of Lake Elsinore was arrested following the Monday afternoon attack and held on $1 million bail, according to the county jail website. .

The historic December 2012 passage of a right-to-work law in Michigan was filled with drama, not least of which was unions behaving badly outside the state Capitol on the day of the vote. Media reports were filled with images of the vandalism and violence in front of the building, but less attention was paid to the histrionics and bad economics displayed by anti-right-to-work politicians on the inside. The House and Senate chambers resounded with economically faulty and/or misleading claims about the economic effects of right-to-work laws, some of which warrant rebuttal. For example, Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing,...

If there are truthers and birthers, should there now be a new term for those who are doubting President Obama’s claim that he goes skeet shooting “all the time”? And should that term be “skeeters”? If so, count CNN’s rising young star Erin Burnett among the gadflies. During a segment on Monday night, Burnett took over two minutes to dissect the president’s shooting claim — and she found it wanting. “Obama the skeet shooter,” she began. “Yeah, I’m not making this up. I mean, if someone is, it isn’t me.” She then played the clip of CNN’s Jessica Yellin confronting...

Dear Friends, I have been in contact with Senator McCain regarding the now released immigration reform ideas presented by his working group of Senators. I am pleased that there is expressed recognition of what we have been saying in Arizona: immigration reform will not succeed unless and until we have achieved effective border security. If this occurs, it would be a triumph for the rule of law and a testament to the united voices of Americans from across our country who have been clear in their call for the federal government to uphold its duty to secure the border. Our...

Mayor Bloomberg was more focused on buns than guns at a recent holiday party, a new magazine report claims. While Hizzoner has been all over the airways pushing gun control, a New York magazine reporter says the mayor was far more interested in ogling a woman’s behind than discussing the issue at a recent holiday party. Scribe Jonathan Van Meter says a friend who accompanied him to the party made a point of thanking the mayor for his work on gun control. “Without even acknowledging the comment, Bloomberg gestured toward a woman in a very tight floor-length gown standing nearby...

Slow waves are generated by the middle frontal lobe, and as this region deteriorates with age, the elderly tend to lose the ability to experience long REM sleep University of California, Berkeley, scientists have found a connection between the amount of sleep one gets in their old age and the quality of their memory. The UC Berkeley team, led by Matthew Walker, believes that forgetfulness in old age may be attributed to a lack of deep, non-rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. According to the study, the slow brain waves produced during deep REM sleep help move memories from the hippocampus (short-term memory storage...