Free Republic

In what is almost certainly a presidential first, President Obama highlighted an historic gay rights riot as he issued the annual “Loyalty Day” proclamation Thursday. In the presidential decree, Mr. Obama said it was “the understanding that our Union is a constant work in progress that guided our forebears through places like Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall.” Stonewall is a reference to riots in New York City in 1969 by the gay community against a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, an event credited with starting the modern fight for LGBT rights in the U.S.

THE nauseating canonisation of executed convicted heroin smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran was well under way before their corpses had been returned to their families. At Castle Hill High, the words “merciless”, “barbaric”, “futile” and “weak” were plastered on the noticeboard on Wednesday by principal Vicki Brewer after students ­expressed horror at the executions of Chan and Sukumaran, and six others in Indonesia. “I think it’s affecting students and staff, they’ve been chilled by it, haunted by it and there’s been certainly a good deal of reflection and discussion about the ethical and moral dilemmas this has caused,” she...

RUSH: There is a front-page story on the Washington Post today. Let me repeat this. A front-page story on the Washington Post, and it looks like the Freddie Gray story is gonna go the same way as the Gentle Giant's. The original Gentle Giant story was this: "The Gentle Giant was walking around town on a beautiful Saturday and he stopped into a convenience store to pick up some things that he wanted. "He left the convenience store with a friend, and he was very excited, the Gentle Giant was, about his upcoming first year at college! Yes, he was...

If you've ever dreamed of owning your own patch of land and a successful home-grown business then a 200-word essay and $150 is all is could take for it to become a reality. Paul and Leslie Spell, of Humble Heart Farms in Elkmont, Alabama, are giving away their goat cheese farm - complete with their house, 20 acres of land, 56 goats, cheese-making equipment, recipes and even a dog - to the person who writes the best essay about why they should run it. It will cost entrants just $150 to apply and, with an expected 2,500 applications, the couple...

Guido Schaffer, a Brazilian seminarian who drowned while surfing in 2009 and whose cause for beatification has been opened. Photo courtesty of guidoschaffer.com.br Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nov 12, 2014 / 01:24 pm (CNA).- The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has approved the cause of beatification of Guido Schaffer, who was a Brazilian seminarian known as the “Anjo Surfista,” or “Surfer Angel.” The Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro will now establish a tribunal to handle the cause. The archdiocese requested approval of the cause in May by sending the Vatican numerous documents on the life of Schaffer “to...

The chief of police at the nation's busiest container port was indicted Thursday on federal corruption charges that accuse him of hiding his business links to a software developer he was helping win a contract at the port. Ronald Jerome Boyd -- the chief of police at the Port of Los Angeles for more than a decade -- faces charges of wire fraud, making false statements to federal agents and tax evasion, according to the 16-count indictment. The charging document alleges that Boyd defrauded the city "by means of bribery and kickbacks" and provided confidential information about the port to...

Syria Deeply spoke with displaced Assyrian families who fled to Beirut after Jabhat al Nusra and ISIS arrived in their hometown of al-Hasakah. Many of them have relatives presently held hostage by ISIS.Beirut, Lebanon – “We are searching for the quickest way to go to Europe or Canada, maybe America,” said Jack Zayya, an Assyrian Christian refugee from Syria who arrived in Beirut two months ago. Standing in front of a local Assyrian church, he recalled the difficult journey from his hometown of al-Hasakah, situated in northeastern Syria and home to many Christians and Kurds.Before the war, Zayya led a...

RUSH: Another bit of evidence here demonstrating how you listen to this program regularly, and you will be on the cutting edge of societal evolution, and you will know in advance what is going to happen in the world of liberalism. On Tuesday on this program... This is the day, remember, that we had the mom. Toya Graham was inside her house. She's the mother of six kids in Baltimore. Does not have a job, does not have a husband, relies on the Democrat Party for everything, and she doesn't have anything. She watching television, and all of a sudden...

participants have complained about someone posting their bloggs. Why is this? I am interested in understanding that view point.

An investigation has concluded Freddie Gray broke his neck after falling head-first into the back of the police van as it was moving, it was reported today. The news comes hours after Baltimore Police admitted the van transporting Gray made a previously unreported stop (pictured, left). The mysterious detail was picked up by a privately-owned security camera, and will be integral to the police investigation into Gray's death. Medical and law enforcement sources briefed on the police investigation told ABC News Gray's 'catastrophic' head injuries were consistent with hitting a bolt 'in the back door of the van'. They claimed...

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is not an easy person to take seriously, but her decision to give space to those “who wished to destroy” has at least made her interesting.Her office says she was misunderstood regarding her alarming “space to destroy” remark. However, it has been revealed that she did order police to stand down so that the rioters could destroy her city: Despite a firm denial by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a senior law enforcement source charges that she gave an order for police to stand down as riots broke out Monday night, raising more questions about whether some...

According to reports from Syria and also the Turkish press, ISIS has bombed two churches in Syria, the St. Odisho Assyrian Church in Tel Tal and the St. Rita Tilel Armenian Church in Aleppo. The churches were bombed yesterday. Located on the Khabur river in the Hasaka province in Syria, Tel Tal is one of the 35 Assyrian villages that was attacked by ISIS on February 23. ISIS captured nearly 300 Assyrians in those attacks and subsequently released 23, all from the village of Tel Goran. The remaining Assyrians are still being held captive. The entire Assyrian population of these...

French President François Hollande announced on Thursday that a 7,000-strong force would be dedicated to patrolling sensitive sites around the country on a permanent basis as the country boosts security in the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks. President Francois Hollande announced on Wednesday that France would increase its defence budget by close to €4billion over four years, in response to extremist threats after the Paris jihadist attacks. He also said that military patrols at sensitive sites throughout France that were set up after the January attacks would be made permanent, with a 7,000-strong force dedicated to internal security. That...

The two latest trends sweeping colleges and universities across the U.S. are a demand for gender-neutral bathrooms and peer-to-peer shaming of "privileged" students. At California Polytechnic University, students recently held a “s*it-in” to demand that administrators add more “all gender” restrooms to the 17 existing locations on Cal Poly’s campus. Despite an impending budget crisis, the University of North Texas allocated $100,000 last fall to renovate old restrooms and make them gender-neutral. “This is a situation where I thought we could be proactive and make this change… You could say it’s an all-human restroom,” Shane McCreery, Illinois State University’s Ethics...

While it might be a heretical admission coming from a conservative blogger, but there are many reasons to believe that Barack Obama’s post-presidency will be an industrious and ultimately beneficial one. Though it’s a low hurdle to clear, surely Obama’s time out of office will be spent pursuing more productive pursuits than were his years in the Oval Office. Early last year, the president began preparing for life outside of the White House when he revealed that he would launch a program aimed at addressing the struggles encountered by young, black men. Calling the program “My Brother’s Keeper,” Obama will...

The Obama presidential library will be located in Chicago, according to media reports. The University of Chicago reportedly beat out three other finalists that submitted bids to build the library — the University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia University in New York and the University of Hawaii in Honolulu — according to NBC News. An official announcement is expected in mid-May, CBS 2 Chicago reported. The foundation overseeing the creation of the library did not respond to a request for comment. The Windy City, where the president and first lady lived and worked before Obama was elected to the Senate...

Since its invention in 2008, Bitcoin, a digital currency system, has slowly gained acceptance in online circles. But Bitcoin is only part of a potential future where a freer economy leads to increased economic growth and more consumer choice. As one of the more popularly known decentralized digital currencies, Bitcoin is accepted as payment for real-world goods and services by companies such as Dell, DISH Network, Microsoft, Papa John’s Pizza, and Overstock.com. Exchanging otherwise unused spare processing cycles to verify and record other users’ payments in the shared public ledger, called a “blockchain,” for newly created Bitcoins and processing “fees,”...

Unstated though strongly implied provision in job description for MSNBC pundit -- propagandizing as necessary to generate large crowds/mobs to protest whatever liberals are angry about that week. Dutiful as ever, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow did her part to honor this during her show last night. Protests over the death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray while in police custody have spread to cities beyond Baltimore, Maddow reported. One of the other cities is Washington, Maddow claimed, with protesters gathering outside the White House -- So the nation's eyes are on Baltimore for obvious reasons but the protests, the reaction to the...

It’s not surprising that a black mother in Baltimore who chased down, cursed and beat her 16-year-old son in the middle of a riot has been called a hero. In this country, when black mothers fulfill stereotypes of mammies, angry and thwarting resistance to a system designed to kill their children, they get praised. “He gave me eye contact,” Toya Graham told CBS News. “And at that point, you know, not even thinking about cameras or anything like that — that’s my only son and at the end of the day, I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray....

The chants started early and lasted well into the night on Wednesday. The Perrin Beitel location is the same site as many other recent protests, including the high-profile officer-involved shooting of 23-year-old Marquise Jones. "We are one of the largest cities in the country and every other city is saying something. We can't go unheard," said protestor Marcus McNeil. "We have to let people know where we are." Protesters have watched how peaceful rallies can quickly turn violent, with buildings being burned and stores looted. "It was a long time coming. It was a powder keg that people kept putting...