Free Republic

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case to determine whether the Constitution requires states to issue same-sex marriage licenses and requires other states to honor same-sex marriages performed in those states. A primary argument by the plaintiffs is that gay marriage is covered under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and that if straights can marry, then so can gays. The counterargument is that marriage is a privilege and not a right, a union of one man and one woman sanctioned over millennia by virtually every culture and country over time as the stable...

Likely presidential candidate had previously seen GOP reducing focus on issue.If presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tries to push forward a constitutional amendment guaranteeing state control over marriage laws, he'd have support from at least one potential rival. While speaking in Iowa over the weekend, Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker made it clear that he, like Cruz (and Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio) thinks states should have the authority to decide whether to recognize same-sex marriages. In front of a crowd in Waukee, Iowa, he said: "I still hold out hope that the Supreme Court will rule, as...

British Muslims could have the decisive vote in a quarter of constituencies, analysis shows. In 159 of the 632 seats, the number of Muslims is greater than the margin of victory in 2010. And this is true among almost half the 193 marginal seats, according to the Henry Jackson Society, which has carried out the first study of the religious breakdown of each seat. There are also 51 constituencies where the number of Hindus is larger than the winning majority five years ago. In addition, there are 15 constituencies, all marginal, where the number of Buddhists is greater than the...

Get ready to live out your Magic Mike fantasies with a side of fries. For decades, customers have had the chance to ogle scantily clad women at Hooters as they chug some beer and chow down on some wings. For everyone that has wondered why there isn't a male version of Hooters — yeah, why isn't there a male version of Hooters? — today is your lucky day.

Ted Cruz tells The Brody File that evangelicals are the key to who is elected President of the United States in 2016. “I think evangelicals, Christians, people of faith are going to play the decisive role in the republican primary. And I think we’re going to play the decisive role in the general election in 2016.” Cruz resonates with evangelicals but so do quite a few other candidates so it’s going to be an all-out “holy war” during GOP Primary season. This interview was done at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition near Des Moines this past weekend.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)David Brody, “...

Okay, some new names for cities affected by rioting or probably soon to be affected. Baltimore - Baltitroit Charleston - CharlesWatts Atlanta - Detrantla Birmingham - Birmingtroit Philadelphia - Philatroit Pittsburg - PittsWatts

This Week on the New Black Panther Party’s “Black Power Radio,” national chairman Hashim Nzinga said since America has “declared war on us,” evidenced by “military police in the black neighborhood” protecting the rich, the New Black Panthers should be looked upon as Founding Fathers who declare war and are “willing to die or kill to save our babies and to save a black nation that is dying before our eyes.”

The chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Thursday announced that the State Department has handed over 4,000 pages of new documents to the panel. "The Benghazi Committee continues to build the most comprehensive and complete record on what happened before, during and after the Benghazi terrorist attacks," Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C) said in a statement. "Contrary to those who said all had been asked and answered, the Benghazi Committee has shown there is more still for Congress to consider. The committee will provide the final, definitive accounting of what happened with regards to Benghazi, reaching conclusions based...

Hillary Clinton wants to be president of the United States, but what actually guides her? The only currently declared candidate for the Democratic ticket was raised in the Methodist tradition and continues to practice that faith today. Here are six interesting facts about Clinton's faith as it relates to her candidacy and personal life. 1) Clinton was raised in the First United Methodist Church in Park Ridge, Illinois, and wrote in her book It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us that "religion figures in my earliest memories of my family. Our spiritual life as a family was...

Immigrants accounted for about one in six abortions (194,000) in the United States in 2008...Among native-born women ages 15 to 44 the abortion rate is 41.6 per thousand for blacks, 36.7 per thousand for Hispanics, 26.2 per thousand for Asians, and 11.4 per thousand for non-Hispanic whites...Of immigrant abortions, 20.6 percent were paid for by Medicaid, compared to 20.3 percent for natives.

Ithaca, N.Y. — A new study claims to track differing levels of racism across the United States by using Google search data. The results are not so good for the area that includes Ithaca. Large swaths of Western New York and the Southern Tier, according to the researchers, are far likelier than other regions of the country to input racist search terms into Google. That means the areas are more likely to be racist, according to the researchers, who tie the results to black mortality rates across the country. The study, published in PLOS One by data scientist Stephens-Davidowitz, was...

Take a look http://www.guns.com/2015/04/29/baltimore-coverage-you-may-not-see-8-pics/

Rev. Al Sharpton said he couldn’t resist the urge to get involved in the Freddie Gray case before meeting yesterday with Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “I have been asked by many in the Baltimore area since day one to get involved in the justice for Freddie Gray movement. Though I have discussed it on my daily radio and TV shows and been in touch with our NAN Baltimore chapter, I resisted personal involvement until we saw what the promised May 1 investigation report would bring,” Sharpton said Monday in a statement through his National Action Network. Baltimore police said Wednesday...

A&E’s fyi channel has just announced something called “Seven Year Switch,” the premise of which is that couples get bored, sexually and otherwise, seven years into their marriage and need a change. Married couples will swap husbands and wives for a two-week period and do everything married couples do, including presumably having sex, since they will be “sleeping” together, according to the show’s announcement.

BALTIMORE (CBS BALTIMORE) — A Maryland sheriff who traveled to Baltimore to help law enforcement stop Monday’s riots told 105.7 The Fan that he was stunned when officers alerted him of the orders to stand down. Michael Lewis is the Sheriff in Wicomico County, and was also a Sergeant with the Maryland State Police. He joined Ed Norris and Steve Davis on Thursday to talk about the controversial orders the police were given during the riots. Lewis said it wasn’t his intention to come to Baltimore, a drive of about two hours, but he felt it was his duty to...

Spain claimed most of North America by virtue of first discovery by Desoto and Coronado. Since the area had little gold, it was of little use to the Spanish empire, and thus was sparsely settled for centuries. Beginning in 1673, the French missionary priest Jacque Marquette and French explorer Louis Joliet, came down from Canada to Lake Michigan to the Fox River to the Mississippi, as far south as Arkansas. In 1699, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, started the first French settlement, at Fort Maurepas (now Ocean Springs, Mississippi). ... Napoleon continued: “Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Already creating distance from the last nominee of his party, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz took aim at Mitt Romney's infamous "47%" remark that created a firestorm of controversy during the 2012 campaign. Speaking about the Latino vote and the economy to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Texas senator bluntly critiqued on Wednesday Romney's personal assessment that as a candidate he didn't need to worry about that part of the vote because they were government-dependent and would reelect the president in 2012. "Where he got clobbered was 47%," he said. "I think Romney is a good man...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered condolences Wednesday for Americans killed in World War II in the first address by a Japanese leader to a joint meeting of Congress, but stopped short of apologizing for wartime atrocities. Abe came to Capitol Hill after a morning visit to a Washington memorial to more than 400,000 American service members who died in the conflict. His remarks to a packed chamber a day after meeting President Barack Obama were warmly received by lawmakers. "My dear friends, on behalf of Japan and the Japanese people, I offer with profound respect my eternal...

Among the 100 largest public school systems, Maryland boasts more districts than any other state that ranks among those that had the highest per-pupil spending rates in fiscal 2012, according to new school finance data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Baltimore City, Montgomery County, Howard County, Prince George's County, Baltimore County, and Anne Arundel County all posted more than $12,000 in per-pupil spending in 2012. Of those six systems, Baltimore City spent the most at $15,287 and was only outranked overall by the New York City district ($20,226) and the Boston Public Schools ($19,720). In Maryland, Montgomery ($14,873) and...

The SEC still hasn’t stopped manipulative high speed traders from ripping off investors, even though the abuses have been self-evident for years to anyone paying attention. A series of events have brought the subject of high frequency trading abuses once again to the forefront of the financial news reportage. These events include: The recent arrest of Navinder Sarao, a British trader, who has been accused of being complicit in the infamous “flash crash” that occurred five years ago. Within minutes, the May 10, 2010 incident sent the Dow tumbling almost 1000 points before it recovered, sending shockwaves throughout our financial...