Free Republic

Iranian Interior Minister Abdul Reza Rahimi Fazli on Tuesday proposed launching a trilateral counter-insurgency operation inside Afghanistan and Pakistan territories in order to halt the expansion of Daesh, which has increasingly collaborated with other insurgent groups in the region to wage a campaign of indiscriminate violence that threatens stability in all three nations. The Iranian official's proposal comes just a few days after a terrorist group known as Jaishuladl killed eight Iranian border police in the region between Iran and Pakistan. "Tehran doesn't face a critical security threat right now, and the recent events inside Iranian territory happened because of...

Pope Francis makes a visit to the Parish of St. Michael the Archangel in Rome on Feb. 8, 2015. Credit: Lauren Cater/CNA. Vatican City, Apr 15, 2015 / 09:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has warned against gender theories which seek to eradicate differences between man and woman, saying they perpetuate the very problems they are trying to solve. “Experience teaches us: to know each other well and grow in harmony, the human being requires the reciprocity of man and woman,” the pontiff said Wednesday to participants in his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square. In his Apr. 15...

There are those who will try to make us believe that the United States is in a serious state of decline and that the only way to stop it is to turn everything over to the government. Healthcare? We are one step away from single payer. If you want to know how well that works, take a look at England’s Public Health. Infrastructure? That was part of the billion dollar stimulus Obama just had to have. I haven’t seen any benefit from that in my area, have you? Solar Energy? A full posting could not list all the money thrown...

If you listen to the news on the economy or financial markets, you have probably heard statements like “consumption drives the American economy,” or “consumption is 70% of the economy.” But in a new book out that follows in the footsteps of Henry Hazlitt’s classic “Economics in One Lesson” — though in a much more fun package — titled “Popular Economics: What the Rolling Stones, Downton Abbey, and LeBron James Can Teach You about Economics,” Forbes and RealClearMarkets Editor, and senior economic advisor to Toreador Research and Trading John Tamny challenges this and much other “conventional wisdom” on taxes, regulations,...

Hillary Clinton's van parked in a handicap spot, RNC deputy communications director Raj Shah points out in a recent tweet. "Woman of the people!! @HillaryClinton Scooby Doo Van parks in handicap spot," Shah tweets.

Responding to Judicial Watch’s report earlier this week of ISIS activity along the Mexican border, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) supervisors called a “special” meeting at the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez. A high-level intelligence source, who must remain anonymous for safety reasons, confirmed that the meeting was convened specifically to address a press strategy to deny Judicial Watch’s accurate reporting and identify who is providing information to JW. FBI supervisory personnel met with Mexican Army officers and Mexican Federal Police officials, according to JW’s intelligence source. The FBI liaison officers regularly assigned to Mexico were not present at the...

In an op-ed piece run by the New York Times, columnist Charles Blow, a self-described “social justice” advocate, accused “white men” of having their “egos goosed” by the declaration from Hillary Clinton that she is running for President. The article, titled “Woe of White Men, Again,” is poorly argued and nearly incomprehensible to anyone without a tremendous political bias. Mr. Blow begins his piece by writing about conservative commentators who he believes are upset at Hillary Clinton for running. “Hillary Clinton’s entry into the race for the presidency has goosed the egos of some conservative ganders,” he writes. He then...

The Vatican has abruptly ended its standoff with American nuns, announcing that the investigation and oversight of the nuns’ main leadership group has been finished two years earlier than expected, without instituting any major changes that would affect the group’s practices or direction. Four of the leaders of the American nuns’ group, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, were called in to an unexpected meeting on Thursday with Pope Francis in the Vatican that lasted 50 minutes. He did not speak publicly, but the sisters said afterward in a statement that they were “deeply heartened” by Francis’ “expression of appreciation”...

Hillary Clinton, who reportedly will announce her candidacy this weekend, is such a prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination that she more or less cleared the field simply by behaving like someone who was going to run. That’s as much a testament to her political talent as it is to her nominal association with the boom times of the late 1990s. But it’s also the source of genuine anxiety among liberals, who worry she’ll enter the general election rusty and untested unless someone formidable dares to challenge her in the primary. This sounds like a reasonable point, until...

GRANDVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — The owner of a Grandville auto repair shop says he won’t hesitate “to refuse service to an openly gay person or persons.” Brian Klawiter, the owner of Dieseltec on Ottawa Avenue in Grandville, posted the statement to his company’s Facebook page on Tuesday because he says the voices of those who have Christian, conservative values are often overshadowed by those who do not. “I want to have a voice about this,” Klawiter told 24 Hour News 8 Wednesday. “I want to be heard about this… It’s challenging to decide to say I’m on the opposing side...

Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said his committee lacks the authority to subpoena former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s server

CUNGUS, Turkey — The crumbling stone monastery, built into the hillside, stands as a forlorn monument to an awful past. So, too, does the decaying church on the other side of this mountain village. Farther out, a crevice is sliced into the earth, so deep that peering into it, one sees only blackness. Haunting for its history, it was there that a century ago, an untold number of Armenians were tossed to their deaths. “They threw them in that hole, all the men,” said Vahit Sahin, 78, sitting at a cafe in the center of the village, reciting the stories...

Billionaire Paul Allen has formed a new company to help make spaceflight more affordable and efficient. Vulcan Aerospace, which was unveiled Monday (April 13), will spearhead the space projects of Vulcan, Inc., a company Allen and his sister Jody formed in 1986. "Vulcan Aerospace is the company within Vulcan that plans and executes projects to shift how the world conceptualizes space travel through cost reduction and on‐demand access," Vulcan Aerospace president Chuck Beames and his colleague Kyu Hwang wrote in a paper describing the company that was presented at the 31 st Space Symposium in Colorado Springs this week. "Vulcan...

WASHINGTON -- Does anyone remember what it was that turned America hostile toward the tropical paradise of Cuba? Our president tells us "we're caught in a time warp, going back to the 1950s and gunboat diplomacy, and 'Yanquis' and the Cold War." Yes, really, "gunboat diplomacy." That is how University of Chicago adjunct law professors talk about American foreign policy. And he adds, "Sometimes those controversies date back to before I was born." So, what got America so riled up over the Castro brothers and Cuban communists even before Barack Obama was born? As I recall, it was a bipartisan...

Do you dream of earning a six figure paycheck? If so, Glassdoor has compiled its newest report identifying America’s 15 Highest Paying Companies, in which the median annual total compensation starts at more than $140,000. This report evaluates salary and compensation information shared by employees over the past year on Glassdoor. The ranking of companies by median total compensation takes into account annual base salary, cash and stock bonuses, commissions and other forms of financial income. Check out the top 15 companies below, along with insights from Glassdoor Chief Economist Dr. Andrew Chamberlain explaining why these companies pay so well....

During the height of the glory years of ancient Rome its leaders grow in wealth and power by identifying threats and meeting them head on. Political correctness had no place in deliberations about what to do to counter threats. The Romans reached for their swords their banners and marched against them. Alas those days are gone. They have been blurred and erased by clever enemies who have worked diligently to place their agents deeply into the offices of power and authority in our government and civil life. Our government our media and our schools are corrupted by lies about the...

While NBC presents its clarification as re-reporting the story, The Times reports that NBC knew about these possible discrepancies both during and after Engel's captivity and still chose to put him on the air and blame the Shiite forces. Several sources who spoke to The Times said the team's escape from its captors "was staged after consultation with rebel leaders when it became clear that holding them might imperil the rebel efforts to court Western support," according to the newspaper. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nbc-correspondent-richard-engel-changes-his-syria-kidnapping-story-2015-4#ixzz3XUUaHNv3

Nearly 100 staff of Republican opposition research group America Rising are digging up dirt on Hillary Clinton. The group has 20 full-time and more than 50 part-time trackers across the country, mostly in early primary states and big money hubs such as Boston, New York and San Francisco, to document Clinton's every move. At the Arlington, Va., headquarters, more than 20 researchers are mining the paper trail she has left behind her during decades in public life, trying to find facts and factoids which can be turned into deadly ammo against the Democratic frontrunner. A dedicated war room synthesizes all...

One word problem from a Singaporean school exam briefly became the talk of the Internet last weekend....[Snip]... The puzzle went viral across the country, with people ranging from perplexed adults to eager teenagers grappling with the simple question: "So when is Cheryl's birthday?"

The "new" Hillary Clinton, branded "Hillary 2.0" by some political pundits, seems at first blush the same Hillary Clinton of Bill Clinton's presidency and of her unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid. But conservatives who bemoan the years of Barack Obama must carefully consider how they approach Ms. Clinton in 2016. Consider it a given that most voters inclined to vote Republican are adamantly opposed to a Hillary Clinton presidency. Any Republican candidate would be preferable to four or eight years of another Clinton presidency, right? Yes, but here is where the strategic part of this analysis comes into play. Consider the...