Free Republic

The Rev. Jamal Bryant, who gave a rousing eulogy at Freddie Gray's funeral, says Baltimore's poor people must make demands on themselves, not just on government. "If you've ever rented a car, you'll notice, no time when you've rented a car did you ever take a rental car to the car wash. Why? Because you didn't feel like it was yours. As a consequence, so many people in public housing don't really feel like that's theirs," Bryant told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday "And so we've got to do something in terms of home ownership, in terms of economic development,...

Sister Diana wants to tell Americans about ISIS persecution of Christians in Iraq, but the State Department won’t let her in. Why is the United States barring a persecuted Iraqi Catholic nun — an internationally respected and leading representative of the Nineveh Christians who have been killed and deported by ISIS — from coming to Washington to testify about this catastrophe? Earlier this week, we learned that every member of an Iraqi delegation of minority groups, including representatives of the Yazidi and Turkmen Shia religious communities, has been granted visas to come for official meetings in Washington — save one....

‘Puerto Rican citizens — U.S. citizens — ought to have the right to determine whether they want to be a state,” Jeb Bush said this week. But they have had the right to determine that several times, and they seem to have determined the answer: No. The former Florida governor also said he thought statehood was a good idea on the merits, which it plainly is not. The most recent occasion for Puerto Ricans to weigh in was 2012, when they technically did end up voting for statehood — in a ballot process that would make Vladimir Putin blush. Voters...

“A generation or two ago,,.. a person so encrusted in a reputation for scandal would not be considered a possible presidential contender. She would be ineligible. Now she is inevitable.” Imagine that you are the former Governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, both sitting in jail after having been found guilty last year of public corruption for accepting golf outings, lavish vacations and $120,000 in “sweetheart” loans. Compared to the Clintons they are just two failed bit players. Writing in the May issue of Commentary, Jonathan S. Tobin, a senior editor, noted the lack of a...

The present four-year California drought is not novel — even if President Barack Obama and California governor Jerry Brown have blamed it on man-made climate change. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, California droughts are both age-old and common. Predictable California dry spells — like those of 1929–34, 1976–77, and 1987–92 — are more likely result from poorly understood but temporary changes in atmospheric pressures and ocean temperatures. What is new is that the state has never had 40 million residents during a drought — well over 10 million more than during the last dry spell in the...

Britain has informed a United Nations sanctions panel of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network linked to two blacklisted firms, according to a confidential report by the panel seen by Reuters. The existence of such a network could add to Western concerns over whether Tehran can be trusted to adhere to a nuclear deal due by June 30 in which it would agree to restrict sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief. snip "The UK government informed the Panel on 20 April 2015 that it 'is aware of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network which has been associated with...

A police officer investigating a report of a burglary in northern New Jersey went to the wrong address and killed a dog that lunged at him. Wyckoff police received a report of a possible break-in at 621 Lawlins Road on Wednesday. Police Chief Benjamin Fox tells The Record ( http://bit.ly/1bYaZVi ) newspaper that Officer Kyle Ferreira went to 622 Lawlins by mistake.

April 2015 is the month that conservative populism broke out and reached the major leagues of American politics. On April 15, the editors of the New York Times felt compelled to denounce a Washington Post op-ed by Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), in which he called for reduced immigration to help raise the wages of American workers. The Times editors were particularly miffed that “Mr. Sessions accuses the financial and political ‘elite’ of a conspiracy to keep wages down through immigration” (“elite” is put in sneer quotes, as if there were no elite). What is important to note is not...

Ken Droz, former director of communications for the Michigan Film Office, responded to an op-ed I co-authored about Michigan's film incentive program. Unfortunately, he levels criticisms and makes claims without citing any facts. The block quotes below are the assertions he makes in a MLive article, and are followed by my response: I have seen and studied all the data published, including that much-cited Tax Foundation treatise and can tell you it consists mainly of ideology driven rhetoric and cherry picked facts to support pre-existing opinions. There are many independent studies on film incentive programs; nearly all find negative economic...

When hundreds of U.S. Special Operations Forces descend on Texas (and six other states) for an eight-week training mission in July, they will not be "incognito," nor will they threaten the constitutional rights or civil liberties of Americans, the White House said on Wednesday. "My understanding is that the -- that the individuals who are participating in the exercise won't be traveling incognito, that they'll be wearing arm bands," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

About 80 people who were arrested during protests and rioting that have roiled the city of Baltimore were released late Wednesday after spending two days in jail without ever being formally charged, and in many cases without ever being told why they had been taken into custody. Baltimore police began releasing dozens of the people they arrested Monday night after protests over the death of Freddie Gray, who suffered a severe spinal injury while in police custody. The protests escalated in the city just hours after Gray, 25, was eulogized, with some people throwing rocks and bottles at officers, multiple...

Flagstaff police arrested a woman last week after she ran into a stranger’s home, stripped naked and then assaulted a police officer in the Pine Knoll area. According to the police report, the victim called police around 4 p.m. Friday after a young woman he did not know ran into his apartment when someone there opened the door. The suspect ran into a bedroom, started jumping on the bed, took off all her clothes, started shouting “am I pretty?” and refused to leave. When officers arrived, they saw the suspect standing on an exterior second-floor balcony completely naked and yelling...

“Without Pharrell, our planet would not survive.” So says Marquis Jamont, one of 1,200 middle school children who, according to CBS News, trudged through the snow on the first day of spring to see musician Pharrell Williams talk about climate change at the UN. The event kicked off the meeting of the UN’s Open Working Group on new Sustainable Development Goals. No disrespect to Mr. Williams, but the planet could survive without him and his “Happy” song. Likewise, the world could sustain itself without the goals being cooked up by transnational envirocrats in their endless rounds of meetings. Pharrell’s appearance...

Puerto Rico is in trouble, after years of bad policies, mismanagement, excessive debt and bad luck. Its economy has been shrinking or stagnant for a decade and the unemployment rate sits at nearly 12 percent. The commonwealth and its utilities have a debt of $73 billion, its public pension funds are woefully underfunded and one state agency has warned that the government could be forced to shut down soon because it might run out of money. Lawmakers in Washington and San Juan need to come up with a plan that addresses the financial and economic problems of the territory, which...

The ultimate handbook of Newspeak provides helpful guidelines to steer us through these troubling times: Employing the concept of doublethink, the Party gives ironic names to its branches as a way to euphemize what they actually are:The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty. – George Orwell 1984 The 2015 version:Minitrue:Secrets of success in Minitrue Media:1....

The visit from environmental inspectors had the nerve-rattling effect of an IRS audit. Three U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staffers and a pair of engineers from Colorado spent two days in Manor Township, Lancaster County, poring over page after page of government records. They spent hours eyeballing government properties, construction sites and storm drains. They grilled employees about stormwater, pollution protections and record-keeping. It wound up being a costly exercise for township taxpayers. Manor, with an annual budget of around $5 million, paid $150,000 in legal, engineering and staff costs related to the federal orders and citations it received. That was...

Having lived in Baltimore for 13 years and working now as host of a daily radio show on WBAL, the biggest station in the state, I’ve seen first hand the destruction of the past week, and the past few years. Having grown up in Detroit, I’ve seen what lies further down the road my city is traveling, and it’s not pretty. A who’s who of Maryland Democratic Party politics turned out for the funeral of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old Baltimore man who died from a severed spinal cord injury that apparently occurred while in police custody. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake...

The National Park Service used falsified data to shut down an 80-year-old oyster company in Point Reyes, Calif, its owner claims. Drakes Bay Oyster Company operated in Point Reyes for decades until National Park Service officials used falsified data to force Kevin Lunny’s family-run oyster farm to shut down. The experience has left its mark on Lunny: “We are terrified,” he told lawmakers during a hearing Thursday. “Let me be clear, we did not fail as a business,” Lunny said in his prepared testimony. “This was not bad luck. Rather, the Park Service engaged in a taxpayer-funded enterprise of corruption...

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As the Obama administration claims that there is “no military solution” to militant attacks in Iraq, Ukraine, and Syria, White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice has added Yemen to the list. “As in Syria, there is no military solution to the crisis in Yemen,” Rice said during a speech at the Arab American Institute’s Kahlil Gibran Gala on Wednesday. Rice’s stark assessment of the current situation in Yemen is the latest indication that the administration is quietly backing away from touting the fight against terrorists in Yemen as a success story.