Free Republic

This is the same Britain that banned Pamela Geller and me from the country for opposing jihad terror, while admitting Mohammed al-Arefe, who advocated jihad terror. This is the strong and courageous Britannia that is striding confidently toward surrender and Sharia in the 21st century. "Burka suspect Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed flees - so police nick reporter," by Charlie Catchpole in the Mirror, November 10 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur): Police hunting a runaway terror suspect swooped on a mosque in West London and nabbed… a tabloid newspaper reporter. The journalist had been distributing posters in the area around the mosque...

Flash-forward a few seasons in the NHL from now. A fight breaks out, the linesmen immediately jump in the middle and break it up, and one or both players are ejected. Later, depending on the severity, the players are either fined, suspended for one or more games, or both. And, when this all happens, it will be because of the NFL. Thank them or blame them (I would advocate the former), but Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr have to either be having the discussion internally, or reached out and discussing this proactively. If Fehr is smart,...

EXCLUSIVE: While Ridley Scott is taking on the massive Moses movie Exodus with Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton, he and producing partner Giannina Facio have been meeting with A-list writers for what he hopes will be the next film he directs. Scott wants to create a drama focusing on the debilitating effects that concussions are having on our sports heroes, and the role that league owners play in allowing it to happen. His plan is to create a morality tale on that issue, much the way that Michael Mann’s The Insider took on the tobacco industry’s complicity in covering up...

‘My husband tied us together but still we got separated among the debris. I saw many people drowning, screaming and going under... I haven’t found my husband.’ Despite mass burials, the dead remain piled by roads and trapped under wreckage. Families clawing at the ruins to find survivors or food were overpowered by the reek of rotting bodies. Village councillor and father-of-four Edward Gualberto said he stepped on corpses as he took food from the remains of their homes. He added: ‘I am a decent person. But if you have not eaten in three days, you do shameful things to...

SEOUL : North Korea publicly executed around 80 people earlier this month, many for watching smuggled South Korean TV shows, a South Korean newspaper reported. The conservative JoongAng Ilbo cited a single, unidentified source, but at least one North Korean defector group said it had heard rumours that lent credibility to the front-page report. The source, said to be “familiar” with the North’s internal affairs and recently returned from the country, said the executions were carried out in seven cities on November 3. In the eastern port of Wonsan, the authorities gathered 10,000 people in a sports stadium to watch...

BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — More than a thousand people picketed ABC’s Burbank headquarters over the weekend to protest a “Jimmy Kimmel Live” show in which a youngster said the United States could resolve its debt to China by killing everyone in the Asian country. The Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/17hwOWJ) reports that Saturday’s demonstration was peaceful and no one was arrested. Kimmel and ABC have apologized for the Oct. 16 “Kids Table” segment and the network says it will not air again. Kimmel began by asking a panel of children how the United States should resolve its $1.3 trillion debt to...

NISQUALLY RESERVATION, Wash. - The search is on for more human remains after a dog dragged a human leg home to her owner on Tuesday. The gruesome discovery was made on the Nisqually Reservation, and on Sunday, investigators found even more body parts after one day of searching. 93-year-old Bill Flowers found the leg after his dog Liberty dragged it home, and was standing over it. "I examined it," Flowers said. "I picked it up, and looked at the toes and nothing. None of the leg or foot was damaged - from the knee down it wasn't damaged at all."...

…Not a campus crusade, but a true crusade, in which the saints carry their cross to fight with the forces of darkness. Christians in the Middle East have for a long time been accustomed to staying away from the fray with Muslims. This has come as a result of both comfort and suppression, but the persecution against the saints has reached an intensity almost unheard of in our times, and the apex of this oppression is at hand. With this diabolical torment and violence becoming more fierce and cruel, Christians are now being confronted with the choice to fight or...

BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- China‘s new leadership is poised to tolerate slower growth as it tries to shake off its long-term GDP mania and put social progress and environmental welfare at the top of the nation’s agenda. Under the existing "GDP growth is the king" performance evaluation plan, local government leaders have strong incentives to push investment, without any regard for the quality of peoples' lives or environmental capacity. An encouraging message from China's leadership was President Xi Jinping's call for putting an end to the performance evaluation system based on GDP growth during a recent field trip to...

 H/T Tish "This is a picture I took this evening on a wall just down the hall from my office. It's new and put up today. While it may look innocent enough, those in the know realize the paranoia this poster represents. It's part of this year's campaign against insider threats which included a mandatory online program where you 'vet' other workers based on 'suspicious' evidence. In other words, the suspects were primarily conservative males who were outspoken against current US policies and adhering to constitutionality. Females were present but the focus was on white males. Let that sink in...

Li Keqiang, in a speech released last week, said a 7.2% annual increase in China’s gross domestic product creates 10 million new jobs a year. The premier, therefore, believes each percentage point of growth produces 1.4 million jobs. Morgan Stanley’s Ruchir Sharma, writing in the Wall Street Journal just before the release of Li’s speech, told us that each percentage point of growth results in 1.6 million to 1.7 million new jobs. Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that last year China’s GDP jumped 7.7%. Applying Sharma’s formula, the economy should have created 12.3 to 13.1 million new jobs in...

Russia is playing all sides as it expands ties with both China and many of the countries along its periphery, including Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Vietnam and India. The moves appear to be aimed at giving Russia the ability to hedge against Chinese influence. The Diplomat has closely followed the growing ties between Russia and China over the past year or so. This most recent example of this expansion of ties was Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s trip to Beijing last month to meet with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang as part of an annual meeting between the two heads...

Despite failing a required FDNY running test five times, Wendy Tapia was allowed to graduate from the Fire Academy and become a firefighter. On Dec. 2, she is taking the test for an unprecedented sixth time. Tapia was one of only five women among 285 new firefighters who graduated from the FDNY’s Randall’s Island training academy on May 17. The class was hailed as the most diverse group of rookies ever, all of them EMTs or paramedics seeking promotion to firefighter. She joined a group of just 35 women among the 11,000 Bravest.

Calling all CREATIVE FReepers: I need YOUR help! I'm working on the "after action" thread for our recent "Tonight Show" FReep, andwhat I'm looking for is the "perfect" METAPHOR to describe what happened to the generally affable Jay Leno to cause him to transform into such a PARTISAN HACK. Here's SOME of what I have been brainstorming: Dr. Jekyll becomes Mr. Hyde Anakin Skywalker goes to the Dark Side Stepford WivesZOMBIES demon-possessed"They got to him." assimilated by the BORG black-mailInvasion of the Body SnatchersManchurian CandidateRobert the Bruce betrays William Wallace Charlie Gibson condescends to Sarah Palin Candy Crowley sandbags Mitt...

Our stories are changing. Wonder and Beauty slowly eke from our world, unnoticed and unmourned. I used to think it was a natural cessation from the Neverland of youth; a necessary immigration from the immature trappings of youthful imagination to the logical constraints of a moribund maturity. However I've found that this is not just my perspective, draining of imagination and wonder as I age. Our stories, our heroes are changing. Our children seem less prone to idealism, more immune to wonder; and this points to a tidal shift in the culture itself. If you watch or read any contemporary...

November 11, 2013 Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop    Reading 1 Wis 1:1-7 Love justice, you who judge the earth;think of the Lord in goodness,and seek him in integrity of heart;Because he is found by those who test him not, and he manifests himself to those who do not disbelieve him.For perverse counsels separate a man from God,and his power, put to the proof, rebukes the foolhardy;Because into a soul that plots evil, wisdom enters not,nor dwells she in a body under debt of sin.For the holy Spirit of discipline flees deceitand withdraws from senseless counsels;and when injustice...

Tennessee’s second poorest county will suffer even more if the federal government buys 120,000 acres of land in that area, near Memphis, all for the stated purpose of wildlife preservation, said that county’s mayor. Lauderdale County Mayor Rod Schuh told Tennessee Watchdog Friday that his county, while poor, relies on farming and agriculture as the primary drivers of its economy. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s plan to expand the Lower Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge, assuming it buys out as many properties as it can, will rob the county of its most valuable commodity, Schuh said. Primarily, almost 60 percent of...

On Saturday, police in Denver arrested Juventino Hernandez-Vazquez, 36, after he crashed head-on into another vehicle, killing one person and critically injuring two others. The wreck occurred around 4:30 a.m. on South Federal Boulevard, according to police. Police have not released the name of the deceased at this time. Hernandez-Vazquez has been charged with vehicular homicide and vehicular assault, and is being held without bail. View this suspect's booking info... This is not Hernandez-Vazquez's first run-in with the law... ABC News 7 reported: According to public court records examined by 7NEWS, Hernandez-Vazquez has had other aliases, and had a previous...

Wild boars look more or less the same in Israel as they do anywhere else: stalky and hairy with big heads, long snouts, and beady eyes. So scientists had no reason to suspect Israeli wild boars were any different than their brothers and sisters roaming the Middle East, from Egypt to Iran... unlike the Near Eastern wild boars in surrounding countries, Israel's wild boars originated in Europe. After a genetic and archaeological analysis, the researchers suggest the wild boars living in Israel are descendants of domesticated pigs brought to Israel starting almost 3,000 years ago by the Philistines and other...

* Divers spent two years recovering the haul from the bed of the Caribbean * The unnamed galleon is thought to have sunk around 1540 * It held 1,200 top quality items, bound for Spanish ambassador's mansion Specialist divers spent two years extracting the pewter plates and bowls from beneath the waves off the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. More than 1,200 items of the finest quality English pewter were recovered from the wreck of the unnamed galleon which is thought to have sunk around 1540... It is believed the ship was transporting the incoming Spanish ambassador from Seville to...