Free Republic

A 17-year-old gay student from Las Vegas’ Desert Oasis High School was completely caught off guard when his straight best friend asked him to prom. Anthony Martinez posted the promposal on Twitter with a giant sign that read: “You’re hella gay, I’m hella str8. But you’re like my brother. So be my d8?” Jacob Lescenski came up with the plan after Martinez, who often plans school dances with his student council, said he’s never asked to go, New Now Next reports.

Last night’s interview with Bruce Jenner by Diane Sawyer on ABC’s 20/20 turned out to be very revealing … in a much different way than many thought. By this time, a relentless series of media reports had made it quite clear that Jenner had embraced a transgender identity, at least privately. The big reveal turned out to be that Jenner also identifies as a conservative Republican: When Sawyer asked if Jenner cheered when Obama became the first president to even say the word “transgender” in a State of the Union address, the 65-year-old replied that he “would certainly give...

Despite the growing menace and media savvy of the terrorist Islamic group ISIS, the FBI appears to be, once again, failing in its investigative and enforcement responsibilities. The agency that let us down with 9/11 and, afterward, reacted mainly in a flurry of political correctness and appeasement toward Muslims is now trying to reassure the American public that we have nothing to fear from ISIS on the North American continent. This despite warnings from the nonprofit Judicial Watch of ISIS activism in Mexico, and recent ISIS-related arrests in Minnesota. More is needed from the nation's top domestic intelligence and security...

Of all the rotten reasons not to execute Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, we'll give the booby prize to the one offered by Paul Raushenbush, a HuffPo religion editor and ordained American Baptist minister. On Melissa Harris-Perry's show today, Raushenbush imagined that in twenty years, Tsarnaev might become "a spokesperson for reconciling Islam with America. We don't know what this life is going to lead to." Anything's possible, but surely Tsarnaev's sentence should not be based on this sort of idle speculation. What made Raushenbush's argument particularly galling was his statement that "the idea of ending any life for any reason is for...

While investigators declined to speculate on a motive for the killing of Sabeen Mahmud, friends and colleagues immediately described her death as a targeted assassination in Pakistan, a country with a nascent democracy where the military and intelligence services still hold tremendous sway. The gunmen shot both Mahmud and her mother, Mehnaz Mahmud, as they stopped at a traffic light Friday night in an upscale Karachi neighborhood, senior police officer Zafar Iqbal said. Later, Mahmud’s car was brought to a nearby police station; blood stained the car’s white exterior, the front driver’s side window was smashed and a pair of...

Dear FRiends, Please get your donations in early so we can wrap this baby up within 30 days. We need your continuing support to keep FR on the air. FR is funded solely by contributions made by the liberty loving patriots who enjoy and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. This means no commercial ads. No annoying pop-ups. No ad tracking. No mail campaigns. No spam. No one trying to control us. Definitely no government subsidies or tax breaks. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy...

Michigan Republican Tim Walberg was a Christian minister before winning election to Congress in 2010 — and he hasn't entirely changed jobs. In a rare Tuesday night committee meeting at which House Republicans advanced a bill curtailing reproductive rights, Walberg took the even rarer step of lecturing his colleagues on Scripture. "It is clearly taught by Jesus the Christ himself," Walberg preached to members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, "for those of us who believe in him — and I understand and I accept the fact that there are those who don't — but he said render...

You can see them at https://www.youtube.com/user/hallandoatesVEVO/videosThese are much better quality than the VHS recordings that many fans have uploaded over the years. It’s not a mistake that they uploaded “Jingle Bell Rock” twice – one version has Daryl singing, and the other one has John.

Featured Term selected at random:GENUFLECTION Bending of the knee as an act of reverence. Customary when passing before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle, entering the pew for divine worship, and during certain ceremonies to the Cross. A double genuflection of both knees simultaneously was commonly made before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a monstrance. The new directive since the Second Vatican Council specifies: "One knee is bent before the Blessed Sacrament, whether reserved in the tabernacle or exposed for public adoration" (Eucharistiae Sacramentum, 1973, number 84). Genuflections are also made to the Pope, to a cardinal, and to a...

The jungles of Viet Nam were the reality for over 54,000 deaths of America’s soldiers, but the Nam war also may be the epitome of stupidity for politicians who turned a US victory into an agonizing defeat! An important book appearing on bookshelves of an American legion post details just what went wrong and it was written by the son of John H. Richardson, Sr., the senior CIA station chief in Saigon. Much maligned after news stories popped up in homeland newspapers, written by real fly-by reporters, the Saigon headquarters of the CIA chief became the boiling point for palace...

Speaking Tuesday at the 45th Annual Washington Conference of the Council of the Americas, Secretary of State John Kerry blamed the Obama Administration's critics for undermining the country's economy. "Countries are far more likely to advance economically and socially when citizens have faith in their governments and are able to rely on them for justice and equal treatment under the law," Kerry maintained. "Yet, day-after-day President Obama faces a raft of criticism of his policies from the likes of Senator Cruz, Governor Walker, and others. These criticisms are destroying people's faith in the government." Kerry cited a recent Pew Research...

Our bubbled mainstream media got a serious crash-course in reality this week with the revelations that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio don’t hate gays, and that Bruce Jenner, who is in the process of transitioning into a woman, remains a Christian Republican. During a two-hour interview Friday night, Jenner said to a noticeably puzzled Diane Sawyer, “I’ve always been more on the conservative side.” Still in shock, Sawyer then asked if he’s a Republican. Jenner responded in the affirmative, ”Yeah. Is that a bad thing? I believe in the Constitution.” Jenner also said he was a Christian and not a...

As America inches towards a big trade deal with Asia, PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA is itching to sign one of the biggest trade deals in American history. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would link 11 economies of the Pacific rim—including Japan and Singapore—with America. These 12 countries together account for 40% of world GDP and one-third of trade (see chart 1). As well as dismantling tariff barriers, the TPP is meant to tackle tough issues such as intellectual property, labour and environmental standards. American trade negotiators predict that by 2025 the TPP will make the world $220 billion a year richer. In...

A months-long internal investigation of Brian Williams by NBC News has turned up 11 instances in which the anchorman publicly embellished details of his reporting exploits, according to a person familiar with details of the probe. NBC undertook the examination of Williams’ statement after he apologized in early February for saying on “NBC Nightly News” that a military helicopter in which he was traveling at the start of the Iraq War had been damaged by rocket fire. His account was challenged by soldiers who were on the flight, leading to a furor that prompted NBC to suspend Williams for six...

".....In a recent Washington Examiner interview, Cruz promoted legal immigration and criticized Walker for suggesting that he supported limiting legal immigration if it has a negative impact on the wages of American workers. "When we talk about what should be the policy on legal immigration, it should be driven by the economic impact. And number one on the list of priorities should be: What is the impact on American workers and American wages?" Walker said. "If unemployment is high and labor participation is low, why would we want to open the door and flood the market with more workers at...

"...Meadowbrook did not escape the political convulsions touched off during Mr. Walker’s first term as governor. In a speech to the congregation during its annual meeting in 2013, Mr. Mackett pleaded for an end to the “turmoil” caused by “slander” and “name calling” among members divided by politics.He declined to elaborate in an interview. But Lee Heyward, who succeeded Mr. Mackett as head pastor, said,“John and Meadowbrook were going through a really tumultuous time during that whole season of Act 10,” referring to the law Mr. Walker signed in 2011 that stripped Wisconsin’s public employees of most bargaining rights.The church...

lone trader has been accused of illegally earning millions of pounds and bringing chaos to the world’s financial markets from a computer in his parents’ semi-detached home in Hounslow. US financial regulators claim that Navinder Singh Sarao’s actions contributed to the so-called “flash crash” in May 2010, when hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped off the value of stocks in a matter of minutes. They believe Sarao may have made more than $40m (£27m) over the past five years, with nearly $900,000 on the day of the flash crash alone. The 36-year-old trader has been arrested on charges of...

With the 200th anniversary of the famous Battle of Waterloo just two months away a survey in Britain has revealed that most ofthe public know little about it and some even think it's just an Abba song, while many thought the French actually won. A survey of Britons published in the build-up to the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo found three-quarters knew little or nothing about it -- while many thought France won. The poll of 2,070 people for the National Army Museum found 73 percent either knew nothing or next to nothing about the battle, one of...

What started as a row over lemonade could end up with international airlines being forced to employ French speakers on all flights that serve Canada, a country where French and English are classed as official languages. An MP in Canada, Stephane Dion, has lodged a bill with parliament that if passed would oblige all flights to and from Canada to have a French speaker on board and for all passenger announcements to be made in both English and French. The inspiration for his bill lies in an argument over a lemonade on an AirCanada flight between Toronto and North Carolina...

Via Pundit Press: Johns Hopkins University has banned Chick-fil-A from its campus saying that the restaurant is a “microaggression” against its students.In an 18-8 vote, the Student Government Association at Johns Hopkins voted not to “support the proposal of a Chick-fil-A, in a current or future sense, particularly on any location that is central to student life.” After all, how can your campus be a safe place if you allow the presence of restaurant whose CEO doesn’t agree with your stance on gay marriage? And besides, all those Chick-fil-A chicken “strips” “nuggets” and “biscuits” – they could serve as “triggers”...