Free Republic

A former model and DJ from Melbourne, described by his former agency as having a promising future, is the latest Australian believed to have been killed while fighting alongside ISIS militantsin Syria.The parents of Sharky Jama, 25, were informed of their son’s death via a text message and phone call Monday, said Hussein Harakow, president of the Somali Australian Council of Victoria.“They’re very shocked and very disappointed,” said Harakow, who knows the Jama family.

It's a good thing Gwyneth Paltrow has buckets of money at her disposal, because her attempt to live like a needy person for a week has ended in complete failure.Paltrow agreed to take the food stamp challenge, where she was expected to feed her family on just $29 a week - what American low-income families receive on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.It turns out, shopping with that kind of budget was too difficult for Paltrow to pull off."As I suspected, we only made it through about four days, when I personally broke and had some chicken and fresh vegetables (and...

This is a YOUTUBE Audio interview. Hugh Hewitt's interview today with Rick Santorum Click on this link to listen to the interview.

President Obama's recent statement saying that requiring Iran to recognize Israel would not be part of the agreement with Iran did not surprise Israelis, many of whom feel that the more he tries to assuage their fears, the more they have to worry about. As president of the United States, his first commitment is to the welfare of his country, but it would not have been out of place for him to demand that Iran publicly declare it would not destroy Israel, one of America's closest allies.Obama is clearly aware of Israel's concerns, promising the United States would "be there"...

mitation might be the sincerest form of flattery but that’s not how Costa Rica took it. Ecuador, looking to encourage its citizens to travel within their own country, carried out an elaborate ruse to convince a group of 40 tourists that they were taking a trip to Costa Rica. After hiking, swimming and rafting, authorities revealed to the group that they had never left Ecuador. The stunt carried out by the Ecuadorean airline Tame, Ecuador’s Tourism Ministry and Ministry of Transport and Public Works triggered a firm response from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), Casa Presidencial and the Foreign...

Just got this notice from a church leader I've been following on Facebook: The crisis in Iraq has got worse than ever. Scores have been murdered, (behead, raped, homes and churches destroyed we always think it can't get worse and it does. Dr Sarah is in Erbil and her stories today are just too awful to tell. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From A Trusted Sorce The islamist group (ISIS) just took over Quaragosh, the biggest Christian city in Iraq. There are hundreds of men, women and children that are being beheaded. The people are asking for prayers to be made on their behalf...

ESPN suspended reporter Britt McHenry for one week, hours after a video surfaced of the reporter dressing down a parking lot attendant in brutally ugly fashion. “I’m in the news, sweetheart, I will f—–g sue this place,” McHenry, a Washington-based reporter, says as the video opens. McHenry vented about getting her car towed in a since-deleted tweet (as caught and saved by ARL Now) on April 6, and that was the cause of her frustration. (snip) The video, which appeared on LiveLeak, shows McHenry relentlessly mocking the clerk in a nasty attack, bouncing from jabs at her intelligence to insults...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Likely presidential contender Jeb Bush said Thursday the Senate should confirm attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch despite objections from many of his fellow Republicans.The former Florida governor appeared Thursday night at a GOP "Politics and Pies" event on the eve of a gathering Friday that will bring together more than a dozen other potential and declared contenders for the nomination.

Pope Tawadros II, Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, will travel to Yerevan on April 20 to take part in the most significant events planned to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian Genocide. Pope Tawadros’ visit to Armenia will last about a week. Sources of the Coptic Patriarchate consulted by Agenzia Fides report that it will be the first participation of a Coptic Orthodox Patriarch in official commemorations of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Apostolic Church and the Coptic Church belong to the group of Oriental Orthodox Churches, also referred to as "pre-chaldedonian", because they had refused some Christological formulations...

On Thursday, the campaign released a memo from Chris Wilson, Cruz’s Director of Research and Analytics and the CEO of WPA Opinion Research, which details the results from polls conducted over the past few weeks. “The latest round of national and early state polls show Senator Cruz firmly in the top tier of candidates only three weeks after announcing his candidacy and with several more announced candidates in the race,” wrote Wilson.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his base in Afghanistan June 30, 2009, and by December of that same year, the president's principal military adviser, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen, knew those details, according to three of Bergdahl's platoon mates who spoke to Fox News. "I asked him (Mullen) if he knew about Bergdahl and that he deserted and he (Mullen) told me that he knew of the circumstances surrounding his walking off," former Sgt. Matt Vierkant told Fox,"(and) that they were developing leads and following leads, trying to do everything they could to get him...

A Christian missionary is critically wounded after being shot in the head in Karachi, Pakistan, in an apparent terrorist attack.Fifity-five year old Debra Lobo was hit twice when four men fired shots from motorbikes as she was leaving work. Lobo has lived in Pakistan for thirty years and is married with two children. She serves as vice-principal of Jinnah Medical and Dental College. Lobo has been hospitalized with two bullet wounds, one in the chin and one in the arm.According to police, "The initial investigation suggest that this was a pre-planned terrorist attack and was made over the lady because...

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan will host a fundraiser next month in Annapolis for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a fellow blue-state Republican and likely presidential contender, according to an invitation obtained by The Washington Post. The move, a rare foray into the national political scene by the first-term governor, signals Hogan’s unsurprising and early support for Christie’s potential bid for the 2016 Republican nomination. During Hogan’s 2014 race, Christie was an enthusiastic backer of Hogan’s candidacy and helped propel his underdog victory with a series of appearances and funding secured from the Republican Governors Association, which Christie chaired at the...

A proposal to make the Bible the official state book of Tennessee, a measure the state attorney general had said would be unconstitutional, was effectively dropped for the year on Thursday by the state Senate, officials said. The bill had been approved by the state House of Representatives on Wednesday over objections by Governor Bill Haslam, who called it disrespectful. Attorney General Herbert Slatery III, religious leaders and others said the measure violated the separation of church and state under both the U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions. Republicans, who hold strong majorities in the state House and Senate, were divided over...

The longtime partner of Ron Lane, a Wayne Community College employee who was shot dead Monday shortly after he arrived for work, was reported missing and later found dead last year. Chuck Tobin was found in November hanging from a tree in the woods behind the home the couple shared in Seven Springs. Lane’s shooting death this week prompted Chuck Tobin’s sister to speak out about her brother’s death, saying she still holds concerns about the relationship that began in 2002, when Tobin was 16 and Lane was 32. Kenneth Morgan Stancil III, 20, a former work-study student who worked...

The granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, of the multi-national media empire Hearst Corporation, and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) are launching a campaign that demands Cosmopolitan Magazine be displayed behind blinders or in an opaque wrapper and not sold to minors. Victoria Hearst, who is also the founder and president of Praise Him Ministries in Montrose, Colorado, and Dawn Hawkins, executive director of NCOSE, will be joined by child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist and author Dr. Miriam Grossman on Wednesday, April 22 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to launch their new campaign titled “Cosmo Harms...

According to a 2014 survey by the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was ranked by its employees as the worst place to work among the government’s 37 large departments or agencies, Congress was told Thursday. The department, which includes agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), received an index score of 48 on global satisfaction in 2014, compared to a score of 62 in 2010. Last year’s score marks the lowest ranking of any government department that year. …

Favorite "Bird" Songs *Video* Where Eagles Dare - Iron Maiden It's snowing outside the rumbling sound of engines roar in the night, The mission is near the confident men are waiting to drop from the sky. The Blizzard goes on but still they must fly No one should go where eagles dare. Bavarian alps that lay all around they seem to stare from below, The enemy lines a long time passed are lying deep in the snow. Into the night they fall through the sky No one should fly where eagles dare. They're closing in the fortress is near...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Iran's willingness and flexibility in trying to find a solution with the West over its nuclear program had spurred his decision to lift a 2010 ban to deliver an S-300 missile defense system to Tehran, adding that the advanced Russian unit would not pose a threat to Israel. But the president, in his annual televised call-in show, said Russia would still work "as one" with its partners in the United Nations over Iran and that deliveries of the S-300 would work as a deterrent in the Middle East. "And now with the...

As many of you that visit this channel know, the Jehovah's Witness religion does not allow people to have freedom of thought and belief. If a person changes their viewpoint and questions the JW hierarchy and leadership then they will be sanctioned. If a member adopts an "unacceptable" opinion or conviction and dares to speak of it, then the local religious leaders (called Elders) will come after them, using an iron fist in a velvet glove to bring them back in line. If that fails, then they will cut the person off and ostracize them before everyone, announcing them from...