Free Republic

It really is amateur hour at Apple. The tech giant’s first major product line launch in years has gone badly wrong, with the original in-store sales date scrapped, and no word of when the Apple Watch will actually go on sale for people to, you know, buy. Sales predictions, and online pre-order numbers look great, but that’s about the only thing that’s good about the launch of the first new product line to come from Apple under Tim Cook’s stewardship. Frankly, everything else associated with the launch has been a balls up from start to finish. Here’s a product that...

THUMBS DOWN to the vandals who defaced the Borden gravesite in historic Oak Grove Cemetery. The plot, which contains the graves of Lizzie Borden, her slain father A.J., and stepmother, Abigail, as well as Lizzie’s sister, Emma, was marked with graffiti police belief to have been “tagged” by skateboarders. The crime took place on Sunday, the same day “The Lizzie Borden Chronicles” miniseries premiered on Lifetime. “It just irks me … not just when it’s Lizzie Borden, but anyone,” said Oak Grover Cemetery Director Tony Eaton. We share the sentiment and hope the perpetrators are brought to justice and make...

The $4 million that Sen. Ted Cruz collected in the first eight days of his presidential bid came from 46,871 donors in all 50 states, according to his campaign’s first Federal Election Commission filing. More than a third of that — about $1.5 million — came from donors who gave at least $2,700, the maximum allowed per election per person. Of that, more than $400,000 came from 38 couples who gave $2,700 each for the primary, and another $2,700 each for the general election, for a total of $10,800. General election funds can’t be touched unless Cruz wins the nomination....

Tasmanian devils must evolve to be less aggressive if they are to avoid becoming extinct, suggests new research. The study sheds new light on an infectious cancer threatening to wipe out the species' wild population, which only exists on the Australian island of Tasmania. The tumours caused by the devastating disease, known as devil facial tumour disease (DFTD), interfere with feeding and affected animals often starve to death. Rodrigo Hamede and his team at the University of Tasmania investigated the connection between the infection of DFTD, which is spread when one animal bites another, and the number of bites that...

The San Francisco Giants fan beaten outside Dodger Stadium on Thursday threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the home opener for the San Jose Giants, a team where he used to be a paramedic before he was left brain damaged in the attack four years ago. "It's a comeback story," said Dan Orum, president and CEO of the San Jose Giants, who faced off against the Bakersfield Blaze on Thursday. "Just to see what he's come through, and to be able to give him something back like this — it's just the kind of thing that resonates with everybody."...

Sixteen out of the 28 EU countries want the bloc to label products from Judea and Samaria in an economic attack on the Jewish state, diplomatic sources told AFP Thursday, confirming a Haaretz report. The plan was first mooted in 2012, but the 16 member states told EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini it was now time to press ahead as part of efforts to force Israel to divide in a “two state solution.” The 16 include Britain, France, Spain and Italy but not Germany. […] … (A) senior Israeli diplomat told the EU “labeling products from Judea and Samaria...

Earth has seen its share of catastrophes, the worst being the “big five” mass extinctions scientists traditionally talk about. Now, paleontologists are arguing that a sixth extinction, 260 million years ago, at the end of a geological age called the Capitanian, deserves to be a member of the exclusive club. In a new study, they offer evidence for a massive die-off in shallow, cool waters in what is now Norway. That finding, combined with previous evidence of extinctions in tropical waters, means that the Capitanian was a global catastrophe. “It’s the first time we can say this is a true...

DENVER — The Colorado Republican Party has invited a gay GOP group that was barred from setting up a table at the Western Conservative Summit to share its booth. The Denver Post reports (http://goo.gl/06887P ) party Chairman Steve House announced the decision Thursday, the day after the Log Cabin Republicans were snubbed by summit organizers.

Seventy years ago, the bells of freedom rang out across the free world. The horrific nightmare that had engulfed all humanity in blood had come to an end in Europe. But the day the Nazis were vanquished was not only a day of relief and jubilation. It was also a day of great sorrow for our nation, and a day of reflection for the world’s leaders. Leaders of modern countries realized that it was a propitious time to establish a new world order based on defending liberty, eradicating evil and opposing oppression. They articulated the most important lesson of World...

The Clinton Foundation will continue to accept donations from foreign countries—but not from Saudi Arabia, donations from which have set off an embarrassing protest movement against newly-declared Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton resigned from the Foundation’s Board of Directors last week as protests mounted in the media and on the campaign trail over the family foundation’s acceptance of donations from Saudi Arabia, which denies women many of the rights Clinton and the foundation claim to stand for. …

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation The LORD looked down from His sanctuary on high, from heaven He viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death. Psalm 102:19-20 (NIV) ----

One of the important pieces of news to come out of Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi’s visit to the White House Tuesday is that Iraq will be receiving delivery of F-16s. At Commentary, Max Boot asks if this is such a wise move, “Why Are We Giving F-16s to an Iranian-Infiltrated Government?” As Boot explains, “the government of Iraq is heavily infiltrated by Iranian agents,” and Abadi himself is an Iranian ally, selected by Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani to replace the former prime minister, also an asset of Tehran’s, Nuri al-Maliki. “Does it really make safe under those circumstances...

WXAN reports Austin City Council members debated a plan earlier this month to put restrictions on smoke from barbecue restaurants. Council member Pio Renteria asked council to regulate the amount of smoke that comes from food trucks and restaurants within 100 feet of residential areas. Renteria said residents complained to him that smoke coming from BBQ joints caused them to not be able to open their windows or enjoy their backyards. …

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has joined Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in calling for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to abandon his pre-election promise to fight President Obama’s executive amnesty by holding a vote to confirm U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch as Attorney General. “I think that presidents have the right to pick their team,” Bush said in New Hampshire at an event with about 95 voters and “a horde of media,” according to Time Magazine’s Zeke Miller. “The longer it takes to confirm her, the longer Eric Holder stays as Attorney General,” Bush said, echoing a talking point that...

During Thursday’s White House briefing, the Associated Press’ Jim Kuhnhenn interrogated press secretary Josh Earnest over the Obama administration’s unequal treatment of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Kuhnhenn asked the White House flack why the Ayatollah is getting “the benefit of the doubt” from the administration over comments about the Iran deal last week, but Netanyahu does not after his comments that there would be no Palestinian state. JIM KUHNHENN: On Iran, with talks, I believe, scheduled to restart next week, I want to go back to something the president said on Saturday at a press...

I'm quite partial to the old-fashioned sentiment expressed by this lawman. Who said this? Major kudos to whoever knows correct answer. It's not an easy one. Hint #1: "Go west, young man." -Horace Greeley Hint #2: In his day, police were commonly known as peace officers. Hint #3: His officers would have cruised in cars like this one. "Good evening, friends. In dealing with the public, the average policeman finds that every man has an inherent spark of honor which never dies, no matter how much he disagrees with society's concepts of right or wrong. Twenty-two years of police work...

A professionally shot video of Barack Obama from 1995 has recently surfaced. Shot at the Cambridge, Mass. Public Library, the video captures a skinny, youthful Obama promoting his then newly released memoir, Dreams from My Father. In this hour-long presentation, Obama openly talks about his relationship with his mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist and pornographer. Perhaps more importantly, Obama gives us a much clearer picture of who he was in 1995, on the cusp of his political career, than we had seen before. Some observations: The Obama of 1995 was not a very good speaker. He had a halting...

Lost in the mists of time are the identities of the clever individuals who created pithy acronyms out of the names of various car manufacturers. Although they were coined long before the age of the Internet troll, it’s no surprise that none are remotely positive. But are they remotely true? Here are three of the better-known ones: FIAT, “Fix It Again Tony”: Fiat had a long history in the U.S., riding the wave of the first import car boom in the 1950s until pulling out of the U.S. market in 1983 (for nearly 30 years). While Fiat offered stylish and...

The Air Force confirmed this week that it is shuttering a vital airlift wing at Fort Bragg, N.C., that trains the Army’s airborne and special operations forces, prompting outrage from the state’s lawmakers. The Air Force finally submitted on Tuesday its “Report on C-130 Force Structure” to Congress after its release had been delayed since January. Units such as the 440th Airlift Wing at Fort Bragg’s Pope Army Airfield fly the C-130s to prepare airborne forces for emergency operations overseas. The report affirmed that the Air Force would close the 440th, which it said would save $116 million during a...

And if there is one candidate who is the anti-Hillary, it is Marco Rubio. Let me list the reasons. Youth This is the most obvious contrast — one that Rubio is pushing to the hilt. Rubio is young. Clinton is not. At CPAC, when asked to say the first word that came to mind when he thought of Clinton, he said, "Yesterday." Historic-ness You can already hear the left-wing inevitability noise machine: Oh, how historic it would be to elect the first female president! But of course, there is also something historic about Rubio's candidacy: he would be the first...