Free Republic

For me, the issue this US election season is the corruption. Sure, I'd like a balanced budget and less debt and repeal of Obamacare, but I'm getting used to being sold out on those issues. So I'm down to the bare minimum requirement for a politician: The corruption nauseates me, and, if it doesn't nauseate the candidates, then that explains a lot about why nothing happens on any of those other matters. It's in the air, it's in my nostrils, and I'm sick of choking on it. We have a "justice" department that prosecutes a senator who made the mistake...

The surgeon general of the United States recently showed up on Sesame Street to try to convince kids to get vaccinated, and his spiel was pitched “at the appropriate intellectual level,” according to one prominent medical doctor. “It just puts the argument down on a juvenile plane and insults people’s intelligence,” said Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. “Because these little kids are not the people you need to be talking to. The people you need to be talking to are the parents who are making the decisions.” In the video released late...

ARE women necessary? Not with Ava around. Even without hair on her head or flesh on her legs, Ava has enough allure and cunning to become a classic film noir robot vixen. Despite being a plastic and mesh gizmo locked in a glass cell, she can enmesh men with frightening ease. Ava is the appealing heroine, or apocalyptic villainess, of “Ex Machina,” a stylish sci-fi thriller set in the near future, written and directed by Alex Garland, a 44-year-old Brit who wrote the 2002 zombie hit “28 Days Later.” Critics are divided over whether “Ex Machina” is a feminist fable...

An advisory group reviewing U.S. hostage policy for the White House is expected to recommend that families of Americans held overseas not face the fear of prosecution if they pay ransoms, according to a report Sunday. "There will be absolutely zero chance of any family member of an American held hostage overseas ever facing jail themselves, or even the threat of prosecution, for trying to free their loved ones," one of three senior officials familiar with the review said in a report on ABC's "This Week." The family of slain American journalist James Foley, who become the first American executed...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Interactions on the social platform Facebook related to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas more than doubled those of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush during a period measured earlier this month according to data -- which is approximate -- provided to ABC News by Facebook. Facebook, which measured the data from April 17 to April 23, reported 2.2 million interactions related to Cruz and about 1 million interactions related to Bush. Facebook defines "interactions" on the social platform as posts, comments, likes and shares. Bush is exploring a run for the White House while Cruz has officially declared his candidacy...

Jane’s Defence Weekly reports that Hezbollah has built a runway in the morthern Bekaa Valley to be used for drones, likely Iranian-made UAVs. New satellite images shows the runway in an area 10 kilometers south of the Lebanese village of Hermel.
Jane’s states: The short length of the runway suggests the facility is not intended to smuggle in weapons shipments from Syria or Iran as it is too short for nearly all the transport aircraft used by the air forces of those countries. An alternative explanation is that the runway was built for Iranian-made UAVs, including the Ababil-3, which has been...

In a previous column, Towhall.com highlighted the upset and ascendancy of Republican Larry Hogan to Governor of Maryland.Today, conservatives frustrated with Washington bickering, pandering, and inaction should look to another governor, in an otherwise overlooked part of the country: Maine’s Paul LePage.Born into deep poverty in Lewiston Maine, LePage was the first of eighteen children in a traditional Catholic family. His father beat him repeatedly, and the impoverished mother could only look on. Once LePage’s father abused him so thoroughly, Paul ended up in the hospital, where the father attempted to bribe him into lying about his brutal beating. The...

I AM afraid you’re eligible to read this column only if you can answer this question faced by eighth graders around the world: What is the sum of the three consecutive whole numbers with 2n as the middle number? A. 6n+3 B. 6n C. 6n-1 D. 6n-3 More than three-quarters of South Korean kids answered correctly (it is B). Only 37 percent of American kids were correct, lagging their peers from Iran, Indonesia and Ghana. We know Johnny can’t read; it appears that Johnny is even worse at counting. The Educational Testing Service released a global report finding that young...

The current Indian War against Adam Sandler is a liberal rich-kid conspiracy to shut down populist conservative voices. This week, comedy filmmaker Sandler was roasted in the liberal press for allegedly demeaning Indians and women in his upcoming straight-to-Netflix Western “The Ridiculous Six.” About twelve Indian actors, extras and crew members staged a walk-out on the set because of some jokes in the movie. Here are the jokes that caused the actors to blow their little bighorn ...

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) alleged Sunday that many rioters in Baltimore the previous night were from "out of town," noting that he was amid crowds in the area. A protest over the death of Freddie Gray, a black 25-year-old, in police custody turned violent as some went on a rampage as darkness fell, as they were seen smashing windows and throwing objects at police. "I've gotta give it to the citizens of Baltimore. I was there all day, and it was very peaceful all day," Cummings said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "At the end, there were a few people...

There was a time when Common Core supporters loudly insisted the program — adopted by no fewer than 46 states — was most assuredly not federal, that any allegation that this astounding national uniformity was the result of federal pressure was a nasty, vicious lie. The State Standards Initiative confidently declares as “myth” the assertions that “Common Core State Standards were adopted by states as part of the [federal] Race to the Top grant program” or that the “federal government will take over ownership” of Common Core. The Initiative’s position is clear: “The federal government will not govern the Common...

New research reveals we're not the nation of Bible thumpers Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee like to tell themselves. The 2016 presidential campaign has really and truly started now, and already the religious pandering is getting silly. Despite wanting voters to think of him as a “libertarian” Rand Paul was recently bleating about how this country needs a religious revival, specifically “another Great Awakening.” Ted Cruz made a big fancy speech at Liberty University where he highlighted his defense of state promotion of religion, which he erroneously called “religious freedom,” even though having the state push faith on you is...

Former White House special counsel Lanny Davis on Sunday argued that a controversial book about the Clintons’ money trail makes connections where none exist. ADVERTISEMENT Davis argued that author Peter Schweizer’s “Clinton Cash” unfairly characterized moves made by the Clinton Foundation.In particular, he claimed, were misleading ties drawn between former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the non-profit organization bearing their name.“I don’t use the word coincidence,” Davis said of the charges on “Fox News Sunday.”“Of course, it’s a coincidence but it’s a false inference,” he added.“It sounds like if two incidents occur side by side,...

Supposedly the top finance news stories this week have been the Greek Bailout, the Trade Fast Track Vote, but with NASDAQ's all time high we're getting even more buzz on our new stock rally. This past week's seen the S&P500 leap almost 2% and gold fall more than 2%.  A couple percent may not seem like much but having it happen in just five trading days means we got annualized returns of a 2/3 loss on gold and 50% gain on stocks.Weird how it is though that with stocks it means that we're now officially in a "confirmed uptrend",...

The Clinton Foundation's acting chief on Sunday acknowledged the organization had made missteps, but defended its transparency efforts amid Hillary Clinton's nascent presidential campaign. ADVERTISEMENT Acting CEO Maura Pally's statement, posted to the foundation's blog, comes in response to a flood of questions surrounding a forthcoming book that scrutinizes foreign donations to the foundation."[W]e made mistakes, as many organizations of our size do, but we are acting quickly to remedy them, and have taken steps to ensure they don't happen in the future," Pally wrote in the lengthy statement, which noted the organization would likely refile tax forms and touched...

The Armed American Radio broadcast with Mark Walters is on every Sunday 8PM Eastern, 5PM Pacific. Coming to you live from the Crossbreed Holsters Studio. Find AAR on your local stationFacebookListen LiveThe AAR iTunes podcasts are usually available the following Monday Are you sad because the GunTalk radio show with the awesome Tom Gresham ended it's last few minutes, and you have to wait a week for another firearms-related radio show to appear so you can listen? Do you crave to hear from the experts across the nation about our current problems regarding twisted politicians inflicting their anti-gun agendas on...

More than a thousand Texas teenagers have been ordered to lockup on charges that stem from missing school, often because they have unpaid court fines. The costs to their education are high. Some, like Serena Vela, never go back.

WAUKEE, Iowa (CNN) —Sen. Ted Cruz argued Saturday that Democrats have become so extreme and "intolerant" of religious views that "there is no room for Christians in today's Democratic Party." "There is a liberal fascism that is dedicated to going after believing Christians who follow the biblical teaching on marriage," the Texas Republican said in his speech before a Christian conservative audience in Waukee, Iowa.Cruz joined eight other presidential candidates and potential contenders on stage at the Iowa Faith and Freedom summit, where speakers railed against what they see as threats to religious liberty. For his part, Cruz alluded to...

This past Friday night, I tweeted out, “My heart goes out to Bruce Jenner, & when he says, ‘I am a woman,’ I hear him saying, ‘I am deeply confused & hurting.’ Let's pray for him!” The responses to this tweet were as ugly and profane as anything I have ever seen. Why the extreme and even irrational hostility? Some of the tweets included these gems: "f--- you you disgusting saliva gerbil" (to be honest, I’ve never been called that before) "you cranky scheming mustachio'd clown" (this was also a new one) “F--- YOU. I don’t have the patience for...

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. II Corinthians 5:17