Free Republic

Two years ago, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the nation’s top military officer, laid down an edict on the Obama administration’s plan to open direct land combat jobs to women: If women cannot meet a standard, senior commanders better have a good reason why it should not be lowered. Today, the “Dempsey rule” appears to have its first test case. The Marine Corps just finished research to see if female officers could successfully complete its rigorous Infantry Officer Course.

A bill being debated in the Texas Legislature that would severely limit local municipalities' power to regulate oil and natural gas drilling moved one step closer to becoming law Monday. In a 125-20 vote, the Republican-dominated Texas House of Representatives approved on third reading H.B. 40. The legislation would "expressly pre-empt local ordinances that ban or limit oil and gas operations," including hydraulic fracturing. The bill will now move to the state Senate, which, like the House, is Republican-controlled. If passed by both houses of the legislature it will move to the desk of Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who has...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Samuel New International Version (NIV) 16 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” 2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.” The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’...

An Air Force veteran was hauled away in handcuffs and detained by campus security at Valdosta State University in Georgia after she stopped protesters from desecrating an American flag. Michelle Manhart admits that she snatched Old Glory from a group of demonstrators who put the flag on the ground and were walking on it. One member of the unnamed group told the Valdosta Daily Times they were desecrating the flag as “a symbol of our protest.” “When a slave understands his situation and understands he doesn’t want to be in slavery, he does not respect or revere anything his slave...

Innovation is vital for the energy industry, even when times are tough, three industry executives told IHS Energy CERAWeek attendees Monday. Crude oil prices have fallen by roughly 50 percent since the summer of 2014, and the resulting squeeze has strained budgets and led to thousands of layoffs across the industry. But Muhammad Al-Saggaf, the acting head of Saudi Aramco’s shared operations and services, warned that while research might appear easy to cut, abandoning innovation during a downturn can put the future of a company at risk. “A downcycle is actually an opportunity,” Al-Saggaf said. “It is easier to find...

Financial markets underpinning the U.S. shale boom have emerged as the world’s de facto regulator of global oil production, taking over from the Saudi Arabia-led cartel that effectively abdicated its decades-old role in November, a top IHS researcher said Monday. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries “is not what it used to be; it’s no longer the balancer of the oil market,” said Jim Burkhard, chief researcher of global oil markets for IHS, during a panel on the first day of the week-long IHS Energy CERAWeek conference at the Hilton Americas-Houston. For a generation, Burkhard said, OPEC could influence...

Lifting sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program won’t immediately flood the world with oil as some have feared, recently retired U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said Monday. His comments, made on the opening day of the five-day IHS Energy CERAWeek conference Monday, addressed the concerns that have rocked oil markets as diplomats met in Switzerland to hammer out the details of a deal to cut off Iran’s pathways to making a nuclear bomb. News leaking out of the negotiations caused oil prices to swing wildly in the days leading up to the framework...

Republicans took the Senate in 2014 by stressing the data that CQ Roll Call’s presidential support vote study revealed: Democrats in red states were sticking close to President Barack Obama. So here’s a surprise: the new GOP majority in 2015 is voting Obama’s way as often as they ever have. Sure, it’s early. But at this point, few expected Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to be as accommodating as he has been. CQ Vote Watch, a new tool that offers daily reports on voting patterns, shows that Obama’s victory percentage on Senate votes where he’s taken a position...

When liberals look at the poor, first and foremost, they see people who will vote for them in exchange for goodies. This gives liberals a perverse incentive to keep as many Americans mired in poverty as humanly possible. This is why liberals are always willing to make a government handout a little bigger, easier to qualify for, or to make sure as many people as possible are using it. They want poor people to remain poor – and no wonder. Show me a ghetto in America and I will show you an area that votes heavily Democrat despite the fact...

[VIDEO] Some weeks ago, Trevor Noah was named as the next host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central. And as usual whenever anything happens ever, a bunch of people got outraged. This would be an utter non-event except for how marvelously it demonstrated the hypocrisy of the progressive Thought Police. You’ve really got to love it. Noah is a South African comedian just obscure enough to preside over the show as it hurtles into irrelevance, which it will inevitably do once its current host, Jon Stewart, leaves. But this is 2015, which means even the most meaningless and unremarkable...

State senators will take up on Tuesday a proposal to eliminate Wisconsin's 48-hour waiting period for handgun purchases. But in the wake of a recent surge of gun violence in Milwaukee, Rep. Mandela Barnes, D-Milwaukee, says the timing "couldn't be worse." A Senate vote is the last step between the bill and Gov. Scott Walker's desk. The governor has signaled his intentions to sign it into law. Under current law, adopted in 1976, anyone attempting to purchase a handgun cannot acquire it until 48 hours after a background check has been started. If the Department of Justice needs more time...

Coal-fired power generation from existing plants will increase through 2025, this according to the Annual Energy Outlook 2015 (AEO2015) report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) this week. The report centers its expectations on a middle-of-the-road predictive model called the “AEO2015 Reference case”, but also compares this reference case to alternative predictive models which adjust for variables including: low and high oil prices, low and high economic growth, and high oil and gas resources. The report predicts tradeoffs between fuels used for electricity generation, primarily due to slow growth in demand, combined with rising natural gas prices, environmental...

In the wake of the tragic murders of two Michigan children whose mother tortured them before stuffing them into the family’s freezer, lawmakers are calling for more stringent regulation of homeschooling in the state. The proposed legislation from state Rep. Stephanie Chang, a Detroit Democrat, would require homeschooled children to be inspected twice per year by a licensed social worker or law enforcement officer. The bill would also require homeschooling parents to register their children — like dogs or sex offenders — with the superintendent of the school district in which they reside. Michigan is one of eleven states that...

Sen. Ted Cruz is firing back at The New York Times for calling his support of the Second Amendment “strange” by reminding the paper that he wasn’t the only “ridiculous” one who felt that way about gun rights.The Texas Republican penned an op-ed for National Review on Sunday, featuring quotes from five gun-loving American patriots, driving home the message that if guns were OK with them, then guns must not be all bad.Cruz wrote: “The writer, the lead editor for the Times’ editorial page, continued, ‘I just don’t get the argument on constitutional or historical grounds’.”“Perhaps this will help. Let’s...

Katie Hopkins has said she ‘doesn’t care’ about migrants dying while trying to leave their countries by boat. The motor-mouth says that even if she was shown “coffins and bodies floating in water” she would not be moved – it is instead the British lorry drivers she feels sorry for. Her comments, in her latest column for the Sun, come following harrowing reports over the last couple of days of migrant deaths at sea. Katie went to say she believes the UK should "get Australian" in the way they deal with immigration because “they threaten them with violence until they...

Megyn Kelly interviewed governor Scott Walker on her show last night and covered a wide variety of topics. The first subject was Hillary Clinton, who Walker suggested is out of touch with the American people. Other topics included Walker’s strategy for winning independent voters in Wisconsin, the GOP’s prospects for 2016 and immigration. Here’s the video:

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Magellan Midstream Partners LP (NYSE: MMP) and TransCanada Corp. (NYSE: TRP) have entered into a joint development agreement to pursue a project to connect TransCanada's Houston tank terminal to Magellan's East Houston terminal. The project would include the construction of a 9-mile, 24-inch-diameter pipeline, in which Magellan and TransCanada would have a 50/50 ownership interest. The project would give TransCanada's Keystone and Marketlink shippers access to Magellan's Houston and Texas City, Texas, crude oil distribution system. Michael Mears, Magellan's president and CEO, commented that this connection would provide its customers with additional supply options for the Houston Gulf Coast refining...

<p>Not certain if the above is the same Brandon Walker from Yakima, but it seems likely.</p> <p>The gun was carried "open Carry"</p> <p>It was a 357 sig We think this person was trying to get the handgun by knockout hitting him in the head with a aluminum bat.</p>

It's hard to get more hypocritical for center-left commentators than what HBO's Bill Maher said about Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential bid, making the liberal our pick for the Mainstream Media Scream of the week.It came on his show, Real Time with Bill Maher, on Friday night:"Another week another candidate. This week: Everybody ready for Marco Rubio of Florida? Oh, my gosh. Yeah, they're all saying he's fresh, he's new. I'll say. He looks like he could be Hillary Clinton's pool boy, this guy."Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: "Imagine the reaction if a...