Free Republic

A drunken argument over whether Android or Apple smartphones were superior turned violent early today when two Oklahoma roommates began assaulting each other during the bloody telecommunications debate. According to Tulsa police, Jiaro Mendez and Elias Acevedo were outside their apartment around 1 AM when their phone quarrel moved to the stabbing stage. As they tussled in a parking lot, Acevedo allegedly struck Mendez in the back of the head with a beer bottle. When cops subsequently apprehended Acevedo, he was “covered in blood” and “also had several lacerations on his body from the fight.” Both men were treated for...

A worldwide switch to a “more European” work schedule, which includes working fewer hours and more vacation time, could prevent as much as half of the expected global temperature rise by 2100, according to the analysis, which used a 2012 study that found shorter work hours could be associated with lower carbon emissions.

The List: Obama's Three Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Week in OfficeNews and Notes:   Obama: 'By Hook or By Crook' I'm Going to Be a Successful President  4/16/2015Obama vs the US Military Air Force Confirms Shuttering of Vital Airlift Wing Sen. Tillis: ‘It essentially takes the ‘air’ out of ‘airborne’’U.S. military ‘hostile’ to Christians under Obama; morale, retention devastatedIt's 3am and nobody's there'Why Are We Giving F-16s to an Iranian-Infiltrated Government?'War in Yemen Is Allowing Qaeda Group to ExpandDempsey: We Can Still Strike Iran Despite S-300 SaleIran releases ‘fact sheet’ of nuclear agreement at odds with US version Report: Obama covered up N. Korea...

The Girl Scouts are concerned about falling membership and a declining number of adult volunteers, so a Girl Scout staffer in Salt Lake City cooked up the idea to start a troop headquartered in the area’s “gay pride center.” The idea is to attract “transgender” youth and children living with an LGBT parent. Shari Solomon-Kleba told the Associated Press, “Girl Scouts is all about empowering girls to become leaders who make the world a better place. Why not at the Pride Center?”

Real estate mogul Donald Trump might want to check whatever reflex makes him compulsively retweet his supporters' #Trump2016 messages. The potential presidential hopeful on Thursday shared a fan's tweet that read "If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?" Trump deleted the tweet, but not before actor Lenny Jacobson got a screenshot of it: The deleted tweet was also archived on a Boston Glove live blog that tracked tweets from presidential hopefuls during a New Hampshire Republican Party leadership summit. The tweet Trump quoted apparently originated with Sawyer Burmeister, a competitive equestrian who...

A group of Muslim migrants have been arrested for 'aggravated murder' after allegedly throwing 12 Christians into the Mediterranean sea during a recent crossing from Libya, Italian police reports.

Dr. Salomon Melgen is being held in a Florida jail without bond on a second set of charges. The Florida ophthalmologist is one of three men involved in an August 2012 meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. That gathering is at the center of criminal charges of corruption brought by a New Jersey federal grand jury against Melgen and one of the other two key players, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ). The third key player, the man who actually organized that August 2012 meeting, is Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). He’s being protected by a selective Department...

Comedian and radio personality Adam Carolla is apparently a big fan of Sen. Ted Cruz. During a Friday morning interview with the Texas Republican, Carolla approved of the presidential candidate and personally thanked him for wanting to outright abolish the Internal Revenue Service. “Thank you so much for wanting to eliminate the IRS,” Carolla began the conversation. “It’s driving me nuts.” “I think that is a powerful populist issue and today is the day when its on people’s minds,” Cruz said, reminding listeners that Wednesday was Tax Day. Carolla argued that taxes are an important issue that gets overshadowed by...

When the word “appeasement” was first identified with the foreign policy of a nation, it was on purpose. Now a term of derision generally applied to political leaders who seem to be clueless about apparent danger, it was never really a “bad” word until it became forever identified with foreign policy failures in Great Britain under the premiership of Neville Chamberlain. The word itself simply means to pacify or soothe. Most of us understand that there is a measure of this required for peaceful and civilized living and discourse. But when appeasement met Adolf Hitler, it was manipulated, twisted, scorned...

Hillary’s Authentic Inauthenticity That Relatable Smile... by CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER April 16, 2015 See Hillary ride in a van! Watch her meet everyday Americans! Witness her ordering a burrito bowl at Chipotle! Which she did wearing shades, as did her chief aide Huma Abedin, yielding security-camera pictures that made them look (to borrow from Karl Rove) like fugitives on the lam, wanted in seven states for a failed foreign policy. There’s something surreal about Hillary Clinton’s Marie Antoinette tour, sampling cake and commoners. But what else can she do? After Barack Obama, she’s the best-known political figure in America. She has...

Cardinal George Dies. Tweet from media & link to official announcement. RT @nbcchicago Official announcement on the passing of Cardinal George expected for 2 p.m. Watch it live here: http://nbcchi.com/tqU9DqM

Public school officials in South Bend, Ind. are segregating elementary schools students by race and ferrying black students — and only black students — on visits to local colleges. The students facing racial segregation in America in the year 2015 are third graders at seven elementary schools, reports local ABC affiliate WBND. School district officials say they do not intend for the taxpayer-funded reenactment of Jim Crow-era race racial segregation to be discriminatory. Instead, they say, the intent is to inform black students about college because low numbers of black students attend college.

There are few bigger champions of abortion in the United States than President Barack Obama. He has promoted abortion and abortion funding at every turn as president and worked hand in hand with pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL. Obama’s view on abortion is notorious — to the point that he once said he didn’t want to “punish” his daughters with a baby if they became pregnant and saying that accepting the scientific evidence that unborn children are human beings is “above my paygrade.” But, as CNS News reports, Obama may have accidentally admitted that unborn babies are alive...

The folks who run the Yorktown say a lot of kids love the ship, but no kid has ever fallen for a sailor who served on the vessel like these two boys have fallen for Mr. Harding. Which is why, for this trip, the Yorktown made special arrangements for a surprise visitor: Mr. Harding. The boys ran to embrace him; hugging an old salt never felt so sweet. It was hard to tell who enjoyed it more, or who needed it more. Over the years Mr. Harding says he'd kept most of his war stories to himself.

Physicians are now required to care more about billing codes than your personal care. That’s right; over the last few years doctors have been forced into ignoring their sacred Hippocratic Oath. The US government and the insurance mafia have put their whips into the backs of physicians. Electronic medical records (EMRs) regulations, a key component of Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act), require doctors to quiz patients about matters which often have nothing to do with the care of their patients. The data which the government demands (but does not pay the doctors to collect) all merges into various government databases,...

BOSTON (CBS) — Everybody knows that Aaron Hernandez caused trouble during his time at Florida. It was Hernandez’s behavior — failing a drug test, whispers of gang affiliation, some covered-up scuffles, etc. — that led to the first-round talent dropping to the fourth round. Even still, nobody in the NFL could have known what Hernandez — now a convicted murderer — was truly capable of doing. In fact, he apparently even had his college head coach convinced that his troubles were behind him. The MMQB’s Greg Bedard wrote a story in which he details a conversation he had with Floyd...

Chrissy Teigen Opens Up About Racist Experience Apr 17, 2015 By MICHAEL ROTHMAN Hotel on Oct. 10, 2014 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images Supermodel Chrissy Teigen tweeted about a recent racist experience she had in West Hollywood. "I dropped my sunglasses this AM on Santa Monica blvd and this seemingly normal looking dude screamed "f------ c----- always dropping s---," she posted on Thursday. Read: Inside Chrissy Teigen and Katie Cassidy's Twitter Feud Over Erin Andrews Teigen, 29, who is known as much for her humorous personality as she is for her good looks, responded in kind on Twitter....

If Jeb Bush doesn’t win any of the first four GOP contests — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — does that eliminate him from the Republican race? Or does he have the staying power to survive those losses? If Texas Sen. Ted Cruz finishes first in the Iowa caucuses, does that all but eliminate hopefuls such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Ben Carson from the race? If Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul finishes fourth in Iowa (which would be worse than his father’s third-place showing in the caucuses...

Embattled Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett has agreed to take a leave of absence pending the outcome of a federal investigation into the role she played in awarding a no-bid, $20.5 million principal training contract to a company that once employed her. Sources said an interim CEO, Chicago Board of Education Vice President Jesse Ruiz, would be appointed to replace Byrd-Bennett and get on with the serious business of averting another teachers strike, fending off bankruptcy at the Chicago Public Schools and persuading the Illinois General Assembly to grant CPS the pension relief pivotal to avoid going broke. There...

The open in-fighting ramped up after a breakthrough on the historic bill was announced. The most important trade bill in a decade has pitted Harry Reid against President Barack Obama. Liberal Democrat Rosa DeLauro against moderate Democrat Ron Kind. Labor unions against pro-business Democrats. And Elizabeth Warren against virtually everyone who supports a landmark piece of legislation that would allow the president to close what could be the biggest free-trade deal in history. The open warring among Democrats over fast-track trade legislation, and the party’s broader existential crisis on free trade, grew more pronounced Thursday as senior lawmakers announced a...