Free Republic

Fresh off his 2012 re-election victory, President Barack Obama summoned senior advisers to a series of meetings, asking them to “think big” about a second-term agenda, including the possibilities of new starts with long-standing U.S. foes such as Iran and Cuba. Two years later, after painstaking secret diplomacy on separate but surprisingly similar tracks, efforts with Tehran and Havana are in full swing. The nuclear negotiations with Iran continue and are far from a guaranteed success. But Wednesday’s announcement that the U.S. and Cuba will normalize relations after more than 50 years of hostility suggests one of the last chapters...

The lander is sleeping in a shady spot on the comet’s surface after the dramatic touchdown — actually, three touchdowns — on Nov. 12, when it flew for more than two hours across the surface and bounced as high as two miles (3.2 kilometers). This was partly because harpoons expected to secure it to the surface failed to deploy, and also because the comet crust was icier than expected, according to Gizmodo.

Some officials in the Indiana city of South Bend have called on a police officer to stop selling T-shirts that make light of the “I can’t breathe” refrain used in recent protests of the police killing of a New York City man. Mishawaka police officer Jason Barthel this week began selling T-shirts with the message “Breathe easy, don't break the law” at a South Bend store he owns in response to a weekend protest at the University of Notre Dame. …

A petition urging TLC to cancel “19 Kids and Counting” over the political views of the Duggar family “won’t succeed,” according to family patriarch Jim Bob Duggar. In fact, he said recently, all of the attention around the effort is working in the family’s favor, giving the Duggars even more exposure. The petition, which currently has more than 180,000 signatures, began as a response to the family’s recent comments against LGBT rights. It gained traction quickly and drew a lot of attention to some of the family’s recent activism. But Jim Bob Duggar probably has good reason not to be...

No matter how many common sense pro-life bills Ken Cuccinelli introduced in the Virginia State Senate, he found absolutely no compromise from his Democratic colleagues. Year after year, liberal legislators routinely rejected bills that would have ensured necessary regulations in the state’s abortion clinics. Now, they are left with what they call an ‘extreme’ law named TRAP, the Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers. I spoke to former Attorney General and 2013 Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli (R-VA) about his experience in the Virginia State Senate, where he says Democrats have no right to cry foul over the current law, when...

I'm European (Swedish) and won't interfer with whom you Americans elect for president, but I can tell you Obama doesn't enjoy the same degree of appreciation over here he did during the months that followed his famous act of Builder Bob-plagiarism. Okay, that was perhaps trifle disrespectful as he is your elected president, but I mean no harm. Just like the Swedish Chef never has offended anyone in my country I sincerely hope foreigners are allowed to make fun of Obama. At least on a site like this. Anyhow, recently, Obama has been expressing warm feelings towards Castro's idyllic little...

Liberal comedian Bill Maher is “all for” a Jeb Bush run at the White House for one simple reason — He’s not Ted Cruz. Maher published a blog post Tuesday after Bush’s “actively explore” presidential announcement declaring this sentiment. “Jeb Bush is openly talking about a presidential run, and I, for one, am all for it. Because he’s not Ted Cruz,” Maher wrote. “If we had to have a Republican president, I’d prefer that it be someone who eats with a fork and a knife. As for the prospect of another Clinton-Bush race, and the rise of dynastic politics in...

Matt Johnston December 17, 2014The US government is planning to announce Thursday that North Korea is directly to blame for the devastating and unprecedented attack on Sony, according to multiple reports. Now we wait and see how the US Government may respond to that attack now that they've placed their blame. That threat is likely retaliation for the controversial comedy "The Interview," which depicts the assassination of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un. US Investigators have been able to parse through enough evidence now to claim that North Korea is "centrally involved." On Tuesday, an online threat was posted against theaters...

The decision of a St. Louis grand jury to not indict a police officer there of shooting and killing an unarmed man has raised new interest in an officer involved fatal shooting in Salt Lake City. Dillon Taylor, a white male, was shot and killed in August. Officer Bron Cruz, who was described as non-white, shot Taylor once in the chest and once in the stomach after he refused to obey police.

U.S. Air Force Col. William Pitts stands in front of an unmanned aerostat that is part of a new U.S. military cruise-missile defense system during a media preview on Dec. 17, 2014, in Middle River, Md. Patrick Semansky/AP************************************ MIDDLE RIVER, Md. -- The Army showed off a blimp-like airship Wednesday that is designed to help the military detect and destroy cruise missiles speeding toward the nation's capital or other major East Coast cities. The radar-toting vehicle will be launched next week as part of a three-year test of the system at Aberdeen Proving Ground, about 25 miles northeast of Baltimore....

FULL TITLE: Polish retailer caught off guard by pro-life protests after Christmas ads feature Satanist and pro-abort The slogan for retail giant Empik claims the company “inspires everybody differently.” The ads inspired one pro-life group to boycott its stores. Polish pro-lifers organized a boycott of Empik, whose 200 stores sell books, magazines, DVDs, video games and other products. Empik’s Christmas ad campaign seems a better fit for Halloween, featuring a famous Satanist and an author who has boasted of her own abortions. Empik’s controversial campaign consisted of TV spots and posters with famous entertainers advertising various Christmas gifts. Among the...

Yesterday at a lunch attended by members of the Senate’s Republican caucus, Ted Cruz reportedly made an unsolicited apology to his colleagues for ruining their weekend. It’s not clear whether most of his fellow GOP senators accepted the apology. As mad as some of them were for having to cancel their plans in order to stay in the Senate over the weekend, many were also furious about the way Cruz’s decision to oppose a deal that would have passed the Cromnibus on Friday led to weekend sessions that also gave Democratic leader Harry Reid the opening that he used to...

H.R.927 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (Enrolled Bill [Final as Passed Both House and Senate] - ENR) [....] SEC. 3. PURPOSES. The purposes of this Act are-- (1) to assist the Cuban people in regaining their freedom and prosperity, as well as in joining the community of democratic countries that are flourishing in the Western Hemisphere; (2) to strengthen international sanctions against the Castro government; (3) to provide for the continued national security of the United States in the face of continuing threats from the Castro government of terrorism, theft of property from United States nationals...

MICHELLE OBAMA ONCE GOT ASKED FOR HELP AT TARGET, THINKS IT WAS PROBABLY RACIST By Emily Zanotti 12.17.14 Look. I honestly believe that yes, there are lingering vestiges of racism in our society. You don't exorcise something that pervasive in modern culture in less than a century. Occasionally - not regularly, but occasionally - we've all been known to make varying assumptions about other people based on existing stereotypes. I have no doubt that, in their lifetimes, the Obamas have experienced lots of instances of discrimination based on skin color, and I think that's a tragedy. However, I do not...

George Weigel About a year ago, I suggested to one of the top editors of a major American newspaper that his journal’s coverage of things papal left something to be desired, as it seemed based on the assumption that Pope Francis was some kind of radical wild-man, eager to toss into the garbage bin of history all those aspects of Catholic faith and practice that mainstream western culture finds distasteful. My friend replied, in so many words, look, you know how these media narratives are: they’re like bamboo. Once they get started, there’s no stopping them. They just keep...

Calling it the biggest disappointment of his career, Gov. Peter Shumlin said Wednesday he was abandoning plans to make Vermont the first state in the country with a universal, publicly funded health care system. Going forward with a project four years in the making would require tax increases too big for the state to absorb, Shumlin said. The measure had been the centerpiece of the Democratic governor's agenda and was watched and rooted for by single-payer health care supporters around the country. "I am not going (to) undermine the hope of achieving critically important health care reforms for this state...

What follows is an account from a French ISAF soldier that was stationed with American Warfighters in Afghanistan sometime in the past 4 years. This was copied and translated from an editorial French newspaper. A NOS FRERES D’ARMES AMERICAINS "We have shared our daily life with two US units for quite a while - they are the first and fourth companies of a prestigious infantry battalion whose name I will withhold for the sake of military secrecy. To the common man it is a unit just like any other. But we live with them and got to know them, and...

Internet polls measure the ratio of people who have enough interest to participate in the given poll.  PBS.org has put up an Internet poll with the responses noted above.   You can see that the poll is getting hammered by second amendment supporters.   The message, loud and clear, is that of people who are interested enough to answer the poll, second amendment supporters outnumber disarmists by  24 to 1.   This is one of largest differentials that I have seen in second amendment related Internet polls.  A couple of weeks ago, we had one in Florida that was 15 to 1. ...

Palestinians Get Backing From EU Court Ruling, Proposed U.N. Measure By BATSHEVA SOBELMAN, CAROL J. WILLIAMS A European Union court Wednesday ordered the removal of Hamas from the European Union's list of terrorist organizations, based on a procedural technicality, a ruling that provoked anger from Israel as well as satisfaction from the militant Palestinian movement. A statement from the General Court of the European Union said it annuls the “measures maintaining Hamas on the European list of terrorist organizations.” However, the court said assets seized from Hamas would continue to be frozen pending an appeal. The court ruling coincided with...

Stanford to host 100-year study on artificial intelligence Stanford University will lead a 100-year effort to study the long-term implications of artificial intelligence in all aspects of life. By Chris Cesare Russ Altman, a professor of bioengineering and of computer science at Stanford, will serve as faculty director of the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence. Stanford University has invited leading thinkers from several institutions to begin a 100-year effort to study and anticipate how the effects of artificial intelligence will ripple through every aspect of how people work, live and play. This effort, called the One Hundred Year...