Free Republic

To hell with the independents. That’s not usually the animating principle of a presidential campaign, but for Ted Cruz’s, it just might be. His strategists aren’t planning to make a big play for so-called independent voters in the general election if Cruz wins the Republican nomination. According to several of the senator’s top advisers, Cruz sees a path to victory that relies instead on increasing conservative turnout; attracting votes from groups — including Jews, Hispanics, and Millennials — that have tended to favor Democrats; and, in the words of one Cruz strategist, “not getting killed with independents.” Twenty-three months from...

... Carpool lanes are so clogged in California, the state could lose federal funding and approval for projects if it doesn’t fix the problem. Under federal law, carpool lane drivers in California must be able to go an average of 45 miles per hour or faster during peak hours. Additionally, over a six-month period, traffic has to go that fast 90 percent of the time. Caltrans explains that means the lane’s average speed can drop below 45 no more than two days a month ...

Feminists demand that men learn not to rape so that suggestive attire can be worn safely. Hispanics in California demanded that high school students not be permitted to wear patriotic attire so that Hispanics wouldn't feel offended and perhaps become violent. The school complied. A Federal District Court and a majority of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Hispanics.According to this Rutherford Institute press release, it has asked the Supreme Court to reject a lower court ruling that declared it unsafe for California public school students to wear American flag t-shirts to school. In asking the Supreme Court to hear the case of...

Fed up with the passage of an 18½-page incoherent, rambling, unconstitutional gun control initiative that was bankrolled by billionaires, gun owners across Washington state held the largest felony civil disobedience rally in the nation’s history, brazenly titled “I Will Not Comply.” No one was hurt and no stores were looted. Between 1,000 and 3,000 lawful gun owners showed up openly armed at the state capitol in Olympia, Wash., on Saturday to defy the newly passed gun control law, I-594. Organizer Gavin Seim made the extraordinary nature of the rally very clear, "This isn’t just a protest. We are here to...

French police launched raids across the country early on Monday, dismantling a network sending jihadist fighters to Syria ... anti-terror police units descended on around a dozen targets, mostly in the southern region of Toulouse, but also around Paris and in the northern region of Normandy. ... In recent months France, which has Europe's largest Muslim population, has been facing the fact that hundreds of its citizens have openly joined jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria and have even called for attacks on their homeland. The new reality was driven home in a video from the Islamic State group released...

In 1783, with the Revolutionary War nearly over, the American dream of an independent republic almost died at the hands of the army that fought for it. While Continental Army officers waited in camp at Newburgh, New York, for negotiators to end the conflict, their long-simmering frustration with Congress finally boiled over. Anger swept through the corps from the lieutenants to the generals. These men had had enough—enough of inedible rations, inadequate clothing and supplies, and, most important, years of foregoing pay. A coup was in the making. Even the British knew it. As one of their spies reported, military...

It gets pretty cold this time of year in Tibet. For centuries, the solution to this problem was a win-win: just burn that huge pile of yak dung that’s been accumulating all summer. For millions of nomadic Tibetans, it’s a system that works. But that system comes at a hefty cost. Tibetan homes have some of the worst indoor air pollution in the world, and the soot the dung fires release is a big contributor to climate change. Yak dung, when used as fuel, is arguably dirtier than coal but is definitely much cheaper. Particulate pollution from burning animal dung...

The principal argument against taking strong action to curtail the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change has long been that it will be economically costly. By putting a price on carbon, goes the logic, people will spend more for gas, more for home heating -- more for many things in the economy, given the dominance of fossil energy in our lives.

Apparently, Elf on the Shelf is evil... No, not that kind of evil (are "fun-loving" antics from inanimate dolls "evil"?) This kind of evil. Could there be something more sinister behind the little elf sitting on the shelf who returns to the North Pole each night?Yes, says Laura Pinto, a digital technology professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.She recently published a paper titled “Who’s the Boss” on the doll, saying the idea of it reporting back to Santa each night on the child’s behavior “sets up children for dangerous, uncritical acceptance of power structures,” according toinsideHalton.com.From her...

In the Spirit of the Christmas, we remember that answers sometimes come in seemingly insignificant beginnings. Two centuries ago, in the midst of the all-powerful Roman Empire, a savior was born in a humble manger. Today, in a world preoccupied with deteriorating race relations, demonstrations turned into riots, and name-calling, some individuals are doing their part to reach across our racial divide and make a difference. In this season calling for hope, peace and new beginnings, letÂ’s celebrate some Americans who deserve far more attention.With race hustlers, looters and rioters taking advantage of peaceful demonstrations over the death of Michael...

Despite the Sydney, Australia hostage-taker displaying a flag reading in Arabic, ”There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God,” despite his being a self-proclaimed sheikh and despite his demand that police give him an ISIS flag, MSNBC “The Rundown” host José Diaz-Balart wondered if Iranian-born Man Haron Monis is motivated by Islam at all.

DECEMBER 15, 2014 4:00 AM Remembering Glenn Miller Big-band giant, down-to-earth guy, devoted patriot — and he might have some new albums on the way. By Spencer CaseOn the stormy day of December 15, 1944, a military plane transporting big-band superstar Major Glenn Miller to Paris for a Christmas broadcast disappeared over the English Channel. It’s worth taking a moment, on the 70th anniversary of that event, to consider whom America lost. What Miller accomplished in his 40-year lifetime is astonishing. During the 1930s, Miller was among a handful of innovators, along with Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, who brought...

HEIEN v. NORTH CAROLINA Syllabus HEIEN v. NORTH CAROLINA ( ) 367 N. C. 163, 749 S. E. 2d 278, affirmed. Syllabus [HTML] [PDF] Opinion, Roberts [HTML] [PDF] Concurrence, Kagan [HTML] [PDF] Dissent, Sotomayor [HTML] [PDF] NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321. SUPREME COURT...

Lena Dunham and the federal government ain’t volunteering to advocate for rape victims; they would like compensation—in millions, please. Faceless and nameless men and women volunteer every day, all across the country, to counsel, shelter and heal sexual assault victims. Hollywood darling Lena Dunham is advocating for women too. But Dunham is neither offering women practical tools to deter rape nor taking a six-month sabbatical to volunteer at a woman’s shelter. She is offering a book, that women may purchase, containing her tale of rape. So, after contributing to Dunham’s coffer, a rape victim may read Dunham’s story in commiseration...

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid pulled out one of his most familiar threats during perhaps his last week as majority leader, pledging to keep the Senate in session through the weekend to get 23 of President Barack Obama’s nominations confirmed and pass bills extending billions in tax breaks and providing terrorism risk insurance to commercial buildings. The Senate already worked one Saturday this month, so why not another? While the Nevada Democrat is not yet warning senators that the chamber could work on Christmas, his remarks on Monday morning were clearly aimed at getting Republicans to relent on procedurally fighting...

Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria and allied rebel groups have taken control of two key army bases in the northern province of Idlib, activists say. Members of al-Nusra Front, supported by those from Jund al-Aqsa, captured Wadi al-Deif base on Monday after launching a fierce offensive on Sunday morning. Ahrar al-Sham later joined their assault on the nearby Hamidiya base. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had until now managed to repel a number of assaults on the facilities. Situated outside the town of Maarat al-Numan and next to the country's main north-south motorway, they have been surrounded since 2012. A...

U.S. Army Chaplain’s Constitutional Rights Violated By Timothy W. Linzey Contact: lavonjusa@aol.com FORT BENNING, Ga., Dec. 14, 2014 -- In the United States Armed Forces, there are three types of special staff officers: 1) the Judge Advocate (JAG), 2) the medical doctor, and 3) the chaplain. These three officers enter the military with advanced degrees, and so come in at a higher rank than all other officers. No commander would dare tell a JAG how to do his job. No commander would dare tell a medical doctor how to do his job. Likewise, no commander has the authority to tell...

A few minutes ago SWAT found out that the PTSD gunman who killed four in Souderton and Lansdale, Pa was not in home in Souderton, PA. Escaped. Whereabouts of gunman unknown, more deaths expected. New crime scene in Pennsburg, Pa with police investigating.....unknown.

One of the BBC’s top presenters has admitted that the corporation ignored mass immigration because it feared critics would say it was racist. Radio 4’s Today interviewer John Humphrys accused his employer of being ‘soft’, ‘complacent’ and ‘institutionally nervous’ when it came to tackling the story or questioning multiculturalism. And he said that BBC employees are unable to understand the concerns of ordinary people because they typically lead ‘sheltered’ middle-class lives and are overwhelmingly ‘liberal Oxbridge males’. The criticism, which is the latest in a string of admissions of Left-wing bias by senior BBC figures, comes weeks after the Government...

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad has said it many times recently. But each time he says it, he likely makes it more apparent the Republican Party of Iowa has held its final Straw Poll. “We’ve had discussions,” Branstad said Monday morning of his talks with top party leaders about what could replace the straw poll in 2015. Branstad several times said it will be up to his party’s state central committee to make the final decision on whether to end the straw poll, a much-watched event his party has held since 1979. The party holds the straw poll in August in...