Free Republic

Ali Alsanai went to the Panola County Sheriff’s office Monday to try to get an order of protection. “They came to the store, they asked for the surveillance video. I showed them the surveillance video. The next day, they came and asked for the camera, so I gave them the camera system. What else can I do?” he said. There has been online speculation Alsanai was not telling the truth and might be involved, but there is no proof of that. Hear from him on WREG at 5 p.m. Monday, the Panola County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the FBI is now...

“Think of how stupid the average person is — and realize half of them are stupider than that.” — George Carlin Congress has gone full stupid. Late Tuesday night, lawmakers released a 1,603-page bill that would dole out more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money (the federal government, by the way, has collected a record amount in taxes this year, but still can’t stop overspending). Rollcall.com calculated that the massive omnibus bill came in at 289,861 words. Then the reporter dove into the math: “If members averaged 200 words per minute to read the dense legislative text, they would need...

The incredibly resourceful and brilliant unpaid blogger known only as “sundance” at TheConservativeTreehouse.com is doing it again. Just as she (or he) did in the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases, sundance is putting the professional media journalists to shame by methodically analyzing and exposing key details of the recent, still-smoldering Jessica Chambers murder caper in rural Panola County, Mississippi, apparently well before ordinary reporters or even police investigators have even begun to rub the sleep from their eyes. This time, probing deeply into the very disturbing mystery surrounding the gruesome torture and burning death last week of the blonde,...

(Reuters) Oakland, CA — A software update for Apple Inc's iPod music player was not a product improvement, but was intended to improperly raise costs for consumers who wanted to switch to newer devices, an attorney for Apple customers said in court. Closing arguments were delivered on Monday in an Oakland, California, federal courtroom in an antitrust trial that has cast fresh scrutiny on Apple's onetime virtual domination of the digital music market. The plaintiffs, a group of individuals and businesses who purchased iPods from 2006 to 2009, are seeking about $350 million in damages from Apple for unfairly blocking...

One of the most significant ongoing tributes to the Prophet Joseph Smith is the annual Joseph Smith Memorial Firesides...These...began in 1944 and have been held each year since, as close as possible to December 23, Joseph Smith’s birthday...Brother Chase...published a ...volume titled Joseph the Prophet, As He Lives in the Hearts of His People. SNIP ...William E. Berrett...“It is an appropriate thing to remember the birthday of...Joseph...This is the birthday of our greatest countryman. Joseph Smith is the only American whose birthday is heralded around the world...People of every land and of every race are coming to honor the birthday...

CICERO, N.Y. -- The Onondaga County sheriff's deputy who ran a red light and crashed head-on into a car this weekend in Cicero likely will not be ticketed, Detective Jon Seeber said, speaking for the sheriff's office. Deputy Michael Ciciriello was on patrol, driving a 2010 Ford Crown Victoria east on Guy Young Road about 6:55 p.m. Saturday when he ran the red light and struck a 2012 Toyota Prius heading south on Brewerton Road, Seeber said. Ciciriello and the driver of the car, 59-year-old David Lekki, of Baldwinsville, were treated at local hospitals for minor injuries and released. Both...

VANSANT, Va. -- Some 175 miners at three SunCoke Energy facilities were laid off today after their mines were idled, company officials announced this afternoon. The Dominion No. 36 mine and parts of the Dominion No. 7 and Dominion No. 30 mines have been idled, said Steve Carlson, spokesman for SunCoke. He said those mines are all in far Southwest Virginia. The move is a step in SunCoke's ultimate plan to exit the coal-production business, Carlson said. The announcement also included plans to reduce production at the Jewell Coke plant in Vansant. "At this point, the plan is to look...

A former USC professor once on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted fugitives list was sentenced to five years in federal prison Monday for flying to the Philippines and sexually assaulting underage boys he had met online. In addition to the sentence, Walter Lee Williams, 66, of Palm Springs, will be required upon release to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and will be on 10 years of supervision Williams, previously known as a well-respected academic, had pleaded guilty and admitted engaging in illegal sexual contact with minors in foreign places. As part of a plea...

India’s first indigenous ballistic missile nuclear submarine (SSBN) began its maiden sea trials today, a senior Indian defense official announced. On Monday, Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar announced that INS Arihant--which roughly translates to “annihilator of enemies”-- pulled out of Visakhapatnam Harbor this morning to begin its long awaited first sea trials. The Hindu described in the scene in unusually poetic language, writing, “INS Arihant, with a helicopter flying over it, emerged from the breakwaters into the Bay of Bengal even as low hanging mist made it difficult to view the submarine. The submarine glided in [the] Bay partially submerged...

We have been betrayed. Again. Just like in 2010, the outgoing GOP class compromised a referendum election before the new Congress even had a chance to take their seats. In this case, the GOPe "leadership" essentially funded everything the new members were specifically elected to stop. What can the incoming Congressmen do? 1. Vote for new leadership 2. Remember that no Congress can be bound by a prior Congress. What if... we had a GOP president and owned both houses of Congress. After losing a wave election where Congress is going to fully flip sides in January, the outgoing Congress...

Pro-choice author Magda Denes witnessed abortions for her book In Necessity and Sorrow: Life and Death Inside an Abortion Hospital. Her book was published decades ago, but is still relevant today and is one of the most detailed and poignant books by an observer at an abortion clinic. Here she describes viewing the bodies of aborted babies killed in the second trimester: I am drawn to the unit, irresistable, by my reactions of disbelief, sorrow, horror, compassion, guilt. The place depresses me, yet I hang around after working hours. When I leave, I behave outside with the expansiveness of one...

Fifteen thousand people marched in the eastern German city of Dresden on Monday (15 December) in protest against "asylum cheaters" and the rising "Islamisation" of the West. Marking a 50% rise in attendance since the demonstration last Monday, the founder of the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident (PEGIDA), Lutz Bachmann, addressed the protestors saying: "The people are with us! Everywhere now, in every news rag, on every senseless talk show, they are debating, and the most important thing is: the politicians can no longer ignore us!"We have shown by taking another 'little stroll', and by growing in...

In the midst of the debate over a mammoth government spending bill, Republicans and Democrats found something to agree on: their dislike for Sen. Ted Cruz, who forced a rare weekend session for the Senate. But rather than back down, Cruz opted to call out Washington politicians during on Sean Hannity’s radio show Monday. “Enough is enough,” he told Hannity. The outspoken Texas Republican joined with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to force the Senate to take a vote related to President Obama’s recent immigration actions. The measure was defeated, 22-74, after Cruz said Republican leaders urged senators to vote against...

Long Island correction officers will mass outside the Nassau County Jail on Monday morning to protest anti-white Facebook posts made by the county’s $80,000-a-year affirmative-action specialist, The Post has learned. The Nassau County correction officers union has already filed a federal EEOC complaint against Andreaus Guilty, who works for the county sheriff, over social-network posts with titles such as, “Racist NYPD CRACKERS,” “Police are protected by a system of white supremacy” and “Dis not your country pale face.” The correction officers union says hundreds of their members will mass outside the jail to call for the firing of Guilty, who...

Just two weeks ago a sole gas station in Oklahoma swept headlines for dropping gas prices below $2 a gallon. Today, 13 states have joined that list and the trend is expanding. Gas for less than $1.90 a gallon can be found in at least one station in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Ohio, according to CNN. CNN cites ten additional states– Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas and Virginia– that now have gas below $2 a gallon. “What we’re seeing is markets at work,” Heritage Foundation economist Nick Loris said. “Significant increases in supply and a relatively...

(Reuters) - Sliding oil prices and a downbeat China factory survey weighed on Asian shares on Tuesday, while the ruble jumped against the dollar after Russia sharply increased its benchmark interest rate in a bid to halt a collapse in its currency. Activity in China's factory sector shrank in December for the first time in seven months as new orders declined, adding to a spate of data showing more fatigue in the world's second-largest economy and heightening expectations that more stimulus will be needed to avert a sharper economic slowdown. "Concerns about the Russian economy and a slowdown in the...

PENNSBURG, Pa. -- A man killed six people as he weaved across the Philadelphia suburbs in a predawn rampage Monday, authorities said. Bradley William Stone, 35, started at his ex-wife's Harleysville apartment, breaking in through a glass door around 4 a.m., firing multiple rounds and fleeing with their two children, the woman's neighbors said. Stone was believed to be holed up in his home in Pennsburg, but police said late Monday they are uncertain of his whereabouts.

AUSTRALIANS who support sharia law should “pack up their bags and get out of here” or else be stripped of their vote and welfare entitlements, Jacqui Lambie says. The Tasmanian Palmer United Party senator today said Australians who support Islamic law held “allegiance to a foreign power”, but refused repeated opportunities to define what she meant by sharia law. “I just say anyone who supports sharia law in Australia should not have the right to vote, should not be given government handouts and should probably pack up their bags and get out of here — that’s what I’m saying,” Senator...

A new poll from the Pew Research Center is the first to gauge reactions to last week's big CIA report on "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- what agency critics call torture. And the reaction is pretty muted. The poll shows people says 51-29 percent than the CIA's methods were justified and 56-28 percent that the information gleaned helped prevent terror attacks.

December 16, 2014Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent    Reading 1 Zep 3:1-2, 9-13 Thus says the LORD:Woe to the city, rebellious and polluted,to the tyrannical city!She hears no voice,accepts no correction;In the LORD she has not trusted,to her God she has not drawn near. For then I will change and purifythe lips of the peoples,That they all may call upon the name of the LORD,to serve him with one accord;From beyond the rivers of Ethiopiaand as far as the recesses of the North,they shall bring me offerings. On that dayYou need not be ashamed of all your...