Free Republic

In 2012, according to the CDC, 140 blacks were killed by police. That same year 386 whites were killed by police. Over the 13-year period from 1999 to 2011, the CDC reports that 2,151 whites were killed by cops -- and 1,130 blacks were killed by cops. Police shootings, nationwide, are down dramatically from what they were 20 or 30 years ago. The CDC reported that in 1968, shootings by law enforcement -- called "legal intervention" by the CDC -- was the cause of death for 8.6 out of every million blacks. For whites the rate was was .9 deaths...

President Barack Obama’s decision to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba may lead to more commercial opportunities for Americans within the island nation. But don’t expect U.S. oil producers to move swiftly to take advantage of them. Although geologists believe billions of barrels of crude may be lurking off Cuba’s coast in the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies have had a hard time finding that black gold. When Repsol, Petronas and other oil companies bored exploratory wells in 2012 and 2013, they turned up dry. In some cases, oil wasn’t found, and in others, the discovery was not...

U.S. wildlife officials will decide next year whether a wide-ranging Western bird species needs protections even though Congress has blocked such protections from taking effect, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Wednesday. They could determine the greater sage grouse is heading toward possible extinction, but they would be unable to intervene under the Endangered Species Act. The bird’s fate instead remains largely in the hands of the 11 individual states where they are found. President Barack Obama signed a $1.1 trillion spending bill late Tuesday with a provision that barred money from being spent on rules to protect the chicken-sized bird...

Sometimes Youtube comes up with very "All your base belong to us" quips via their captioning function. Being a hobbyist musician I often watch videos on new equipment. This one made me wake the dog up laughing. He is SUPPOSED TO be saying "Now I'm gonna show you a cool feature". Didn't quite work out that way though... https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3hSWl3kaHA8#t=487

Senator Ted Cruz just gave a major foreign-policy speech at the Heritage Foundation critiquing the disastrous nature of what he labeled as the “Obama-Clinton” approach to the subject. His desire to lay out his foreign-policy views in detail at such a venue as well as his focus on Clinton was a clear indication of something that is not exactly a secret: he’s planning on running for president in 2016. Members of his party’s establishment, which generally despises him as much as his fellow senators and the liberal media, do not take Cruz’s ambition too seriously. But as much as it...

A friend sent me a recent news article showing that Planned Parenthood had decided to join in the protest of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. He was curious to know why Planned Parenthood was interested in the case. After all, they provide abortions. What is their interest in preventing the death of people like Michael Brown? Before I answered his question, I told him to take a couple of hours to watch Maafa 21 – a documentary on the roots of Planned Parenthood in the eugenics movement. Some interesting statistics are revealed in the film. For example:...

The ruble weakened against the dollar and euro on Thursday with traders saying President Vladimir Putin had so far offered no concrete measures to pull Russia out of a crisis at his end-of-year news conference. At 0954 GMT (04:54 a.m. EST), the ruble was around 3 percent weaker against the dollar at 62.04 RUBUTSTN=MCX after opening more than 1 percent higher. The rouble was also around 2 percent weaker versus the euro at 76.50 EURRUBTN=MCX on the Moscow Exchange.

Government Waste: The good news is the National Institutes of Health pulled the plug on a national children's health study because it was fatally flawed. The bad news is they wasted 10 years and $1.3 billion before they admitted it. Congress mandated the National Children's Study as part of the Children's Health Act of 2000. The idea was to follow 100,000 newborns across the nation — in places ranging from urban California to the Florida swamps — until they turned 21, and measure how environmental and other factors affected their health. Yet for the past 14 years, all the NIH...

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Few things upset progressives like a terrorist attack by Islamo-fascists. Not the act of terror itself, mind you, but the perceived “backlash” against Muslims that follows. The progressive activist site Huffington Post was quick to cite an increase in “hate crimes” against Muslims in September “linked” to a public transit ad campaign it deemed “Islamophobic.” It wrote, “The rise of the Islamic State this summer, as well as the conflict in Gaza, Sarsour said, have contributed to the recent spate of violence against Muslims in New York City. Since July 1, there have been at least 14 hate crimes against...

Here's more evidence of just how successful President Obama has been at "spreading the wealth around" since he took office. A Pew Research Center report released on Wednesday found that the gap in net worth between the country's wealthy and the middle class reached record highs in 2013 -- the last year for which it has data. According to Pew, which used data from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, upper-income median net worth in 2013 was 6.6 times greater than the median net worth of middle-income families ($639,400 vs. $96,500).

Marco Rubio calls out pope on Cuba By Lauren French and Seung Min Kim | 12/17/14 2:14 PM EST | Updated 12/17/14 4:23 PM EST Sen. Marco Rubio, a Catholic, criticized Pope Francis on Wednesday after the pontiff played a key role in helping the United States and Cuba forge an agreement that resulted in the release of American Alan Gross from Cuba. Rubio said he would “ask His Holiness to take up the cause of freedom and democracy.” The Florida Republican said he didn’t criticize Francis’ personal appeals to help facilitate Gross’ release, but was speaking in response to...

This is my second Christmas season without my mother, and so far it's been harder than the first. I had known that the first year would be hard, and all I really cared about was surviving it. Activity was my friend: My sister Kathy and I spent the fall wrapping up her estate, selling her house, sharing her prized possessions with family and friends. We talked every day. Much of our connection was activity-based: Was her account closed? Were the papers signed? It was hard, but I had known that it was going to be hard -- so I accepted...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Take nothing away from Texas and BYU, ThursdayÂ’s first semifinal at the 2014 NCAA WomenÂ’s Volleyball Championships, but the feature presentation, the Hollywood extravaganza, the matchup everyone wants to see, is scheduled to begin at 9:30 p.m. Mention Penn State and Stanford in regards to volleyball and you get a history lesson in championships. The story will continue when the 33-1 Cardinal face the 34-3 Nittany Lions with a trip to the finals on the line. The Nittany Lions won the 2013 NCAA championship and four consecutive from 2007 to 2010. Head coach Russ Rose, in his...

It's been six months since a prisoner swap led to the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The Army's investigation into the circumstances under which the Hailey native left his Afghanistan base wrapped up in October, yet no new information has been released. Bergdahl's fellow soldiers say he deserted the base, which is a crime under military law. A military defense councilman speculated Wednesday that the delay could mean no charges will be filed. The question remains a mystery. What events led up to the disappearance of Bergdahl and his capture by the Taliban in 2009? He was held captive for...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police in Charlotte, North Carolina, said the second man involved in a home break-in that turned deadly near the Charlotte/Mint Hill border has been arrested. Another suspected intruder was killed when a 14-year-old inside the house shot and killed him Tuesday night, police said.The two intruders, who police identified as 18-year-old Isai Delcid and his 22-year-old brother Carlos Delcid, attempted to break into the home on Rolling Fields Lane just after 5 p.m., according to investigators. Isai was shot and died at the scene while police said Carlos fled. Officers arrested Carlos late Tuesday night and charged...

Celebrity homeowner Hillary Clinton is a terrible politician, a Free Beacon analysis has found. This is one of many reasons why some observers have concluded she will never be president. [Snip] Clinton’s favorability numbers are trending down. She can’t sell books. She can’t sell magazines. She can’t draw crowds at universities. Most worrisome for the professional public speaker is the finding that 71 percent of registered voters want the next president to “take a different approach than Barack Obama has,” compared to just 23 percent who want a similar approach. ... (Context: Hillary Clinton was a member of the Obama...

A rogue nation targeted a multinational corporation and won.  North Korea has almost certainly ordered the massive cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, stealing and publicly dumping enough data to make a dent in the company’s stock price. North Korea cannot challenge the United States militarily, despite what movies have portrayed.  Regardless of their saber-rattling, and America’s reduced presence on the Korean peninsula, a real attack of any substance against our ally South Korea (or Japan for that matter) would bring a suicidal level of retribution on the North, and they know it.  But they’ve found a vein where they can draw...

American troops in Iraq had their first actual battle with ISIS troops after the Islamist militants tried to overrun a base, an encounter that left the ISIS troops decimated and in retreat. The attack took place near the Ein al-Asad base, which includes close to 100 U.S. military advisers. The U.S. troops, armed with “light and medium weapons,” and were able to inflict casualties against the ISIS fighters, forcing them to retreat, Shafaq News reported. The American troops were also aided by fighter jets, which directed air strikes against the ISIS troops that “silenced their heavy sources of fire.” “US forces intervened...

As Newt Gingrich noted yesterday, the surrender by Sony Pictures to a shadowy group of North Korean hackers has set a chilling precedent... just wait 'til they grab hold of one of our nuclear plants(like the Israelis already did  to Iran)... BIG defeat for the US and Japan here, and a terrifying incident, to be sure (that's why they call it 'terrorism')- so now this little tinpot-nothing-of-a-country has substantial unchecked power/influence right inside the United States of America? Can you imagine Ronald Reagan/Cap Weinberger letting this go down without KJU being made to seriously regret it? Of course, Obama...