Free Republic

The threat of a 9/11-style attack has caused Sony to cancel the New York premiere of its new film, “The Interview.” "Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made. The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time," a note from hackers warned. The premiere was supposed to be held tomorrow night at the Sunshine Cinema in Manhattan. Sony is telling other theaters they don’t have to show the movie when it opens. “It’s actually not...

In a few hours, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is going to publish -- and blast out to all its supporters -- a rare document never before seen and intercepted on its way to the North Pole: The Christmas letter Hillary Clinton "wrote" to Santa Claus this year. Townhall, we’re pleased to announce, got our hands on it first. For those interested, the entire (satirical) missive is below, which among other things not-so-subtly touches on Hillary Clinton’s greatly diminished heir apparent status, her breathtakingly absurd demands and requests on the speaking circuit, and her refusal to state her positions clearly...

ENGLEWOOD — A federal lawsuit challenging protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics and other health-care facilities in Englewood has been withdrawn. The plaintiffs, two anti-abortion advocates known for counseling women outside an Engle Street clinic, voluntarily dismissed the suit last month, according to City Attorney William Bailey. The reason for the dismissal was not clear. The attorney who filed the suit, Edward Gilhooly of the Legal Center for Defense of Life in Morristown, died in August. His co-counsel, Francis Manion of the American Center for Law and Justice in Kentucky, did not return calls for comment. Rosemary Garrett, one of...

Israel suffered back-to-back diplomatic setbacks in Europe on Wednesday as Palestinians headed to the United Nations to try to set a two-year deadline for an Israeli withdrawal. In Geneva, the international community delivered a stinging rebuke to Israel’s settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, saying the practice violates Israel’s responsibilities as an occupying power. The declaration adopted by the conference of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which governs the rules of war and military occupation, emphasized a prohibition on colonizing occupied land and insisted that international humanitarian law be obeyed in areas affected by the conflict between Israel...

President Obama still has two years left as president, but that’s not stopping some of his biggest fans from thinking about his legacy. Here’s Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic: 10 years world will long for "pragmatic" Obama. 25 years--will be considered one of America's "greatest presidents." 50 yrs on the $20 bill.

President Barack Obama isn’t the only powerful man in Washington who was once confused for a waiter when wearing his evening best. So was a top general in the U.S. Army — by Valerie Jarrett!

KEARNS, Utah – Authorities have released the 911 call a Kearns neighbor made after finding a newborn in her garbage can. The caller shouted to the 911 dispatcher, “There’s a baby in our garbage can!” She told the operator the baby appeared to be a newborn with umbilical cord still attached and was breathing.

John Kerry’s going to Cuba. The Secretary of State praised President Barack Obama’s announcement of the normalization of relations with Cuba, the neighboring country under an embargo for over fifty years, in a statement Wednesday. As Obama did in his noon remarks, Kerry likened the thaw of relations to those that followed with Vietnam after the Vietnam War, in which Kerry served. “This new course will not be without challenges,” Kerry said, “but it is based not on a leap of faith but on a conviction that it’s the best way to help bring freedom and opportunity to the Cuban...

The average price of a pound of ground beef climbed to another record high -- $4.201 per pound -- in the United States in November, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In August 2014, the average price for a pound of all types of ground beef topped $4 for the first time, hitting $4.013, according to the BLS. In September, the average price jumped to $4.096 per pound, and in October, the average price climbed to $4.154 per pound. In November, the average price hit the highest price ever recorded -- $4.201 per pound.

Methane, a gas that on Earth comes mainly from living organisms, spikes regularly on Mars but scientists have not been able to pinpoint the source, according to new research out Tuesday.

You know those ubiquitous web links at the bottom of the page on sites like Fox News or CNN?  They’re usually titled “from around the web” or “more promoted stories”.  They have catchy titles like “The 10 Best Resorts in South America” or “14 Things Surprising Things Your Cat is Telling You”.  Everybody says they hate them, but we do click on them. I admit, I’ve clicked on them. You end up on a site filled with weirdly useless but addictive content, or you are directed there by a company called Outbrain.  I always thought this kind of thing was...

Cuban President Raul Castro said in a nationally broadcast speech that he welcomes the restoration of relations with the United States. He said differences remain between Cuba and the U.S. in areas such as human rights, foreign policy and questions of sovereignty, but he says the countries have to learn to live with their differences "in a civilized manner."

December 17, 2014 John Rubino To say that gold is in a bear market is to misunderstand both gold and markets. Gold isn't an investment that goes up and down. It is money in the most basic store-of-value sense. Most of the time it just sits there, and when its price changes in local currency terms that says more about the local currency than about gold. But when currencies collapse, gold shines. Consider the above from the point of view of a typical Russian. The ruble is tanking (no need to understand why -- all fiat currencies go this way...

The President and Mrs. Obama took to People Magazine to whine about alleged racist slights they’ve received over the years. The President complains that he used to have trouble hailing a cab and was mistaken for a valet. The First Lady whines that at Target someone asked for help getting something off a shelf. The Obama’s apparently believe this constitutes racism, likely of the mythical white privilege variety. In reality none of these events constitute racism, they only constitute common mistakes people make. In the cast of the lady at Target, she made the mistake of asking someone as arrogant...

LAFAYETTE -- Acalanes Union High School District is once again under fire for its sex education course taught by Planned Parenthood instructors -- this time for material from that course and what some parents see as a failure to involve parents appropriately. At issue are two handouts parents say violate the California Education Code. One is a checklist entitled "Sex check! Are you ready for sex," which lists physical, emotional and relationship questions to consider before having sex. Included are phrases like, "I know when my body is sexually aroused," and "I can tell my partner what feels good." Some...

No matter how many bombs Americans drop on ISIS forces, Iraqi troops are losing ground. If al-Anbar is lost, the entire Iraqi front dynamic will shift to favor ISIS again, and months of the U.S.-led air campaign will have been wasted. Maybe that’s why we had reports from an Iraqi field commander on Tuesday that U.S. forces had their first ground clash with ISIS terrorists at midnight on Monday, Baghdad time. ISIS fighters were forced to withdraw after U.S. air force fighters bombed enemy positions The minor victory was well timed. After six weeks of defeats in Iraq, ISIS made...

In a new Washington Post poll released today, American Latinos have a more favorable view of the GOP, besting the Democratic Party among the nations fastest growing demographic group. In a survey conducted between December 11-14, 52 percent of Hispanic Americans view the Republican Party favorably, while 37 percent have an unfavorable view of the Party of Lincoln. In contrast, 40 percent of Latinos have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, while 48 percent rate them favorable. The poll suggests that large numbers of Americans, of all demographic groups, are moving toward the right, as the GOP holds a...

Un frickin’ believable! Copies of ‘torture’ report hand delivered to terror suspects, blocked from CIA officials: Full disclosure took a back seat to the CIA’s green movement last week when agency big shots blocked officials from printing out hard copies of the Senate Democratic report on terrorist interrogations, fearing it was “killing too many trees.” Meanwhile, paper copies of the report from Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein were hand-delivered to terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay — though not the rebuttals from the CIA or Republicans on her committee. Oh, the Hillarity: NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she’s...

The only question is why stop there? Can’t we just appointed a politician, whose only qualification for every job she has gotten in the last two decades has been her last name, Supreme Overlord of the Universe?Mike McCurry, Bill Clinton’s press secretary and a guy you happily forgot even existed until now, returns with a proposal so insane that even Obama might shake his head.What if a vacancy now appeared on our nation’s highest court? Given the bitterness and polarization that exists in Washington today, it is hard to imagine any nominee offered by Barack Obama having a less than...

There’s always that super-powerful person who prefers to stay out of the spotlight…(and I don’t mean Valerie Jarrett, even though the resemblance may be striking ;-P)