Free Republic

April desktop OS usage stats show XP's really sinking fast now If it's the first Monday of the month, and it is, it must be time to have a look at desktop operating system market share as recorded by StatCounter and Netmarketshare. It looks like the skids are really under Windows XP now. Netmarketshare has it down from 16.94 per cent to 15.93 per cent. StatCounter has a dip to 10.91 per cent, down from March's 11.21 per cent. We know there are still big corporate XP users out there, such as the operator of the infamous Fukushima nuclear power...

GARLAND, Texas — Two armed men who opened fire on a security officer outside of a provocative contest for cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad have been killed, authorities in the Dallas suburb of Garland said Sunday night. The City of Garland said in a statement posted on its Facebook page Sunday night that two men drove up to the Curtis Culwell Center and began shooting at a security officer. Garland Police Department officers engaged the gunmen, who were both shot and killed, the statement said. The New York-based American Freedom Defense Initiative had been hosting a contest at the...

Two gunmen were killed and a security guard wounded in an attack outside a controversial Dallas-area event Sunday evening where organizers were holding a contest for cartoons featuring the Muslim prophet Muhammad, police said. The shooting in Garland, a Texas suburb about 20 miles from Dallas, was preceded by messages from two social media accounts that supported extremist Islamic viewpoints. One tweet, sent at 6:35 p.m., used the hashtag "#texasattack." The user wrote, “May Allah accept us as mujahideen.” Attendees inside the conference didn’t get word about the shooting until 6:50 p.m. -snip- Two social media accounts tweeted messages about...

CHISINAU, Moldova - Tens of thousands of Moldovans took to the streets on May 3 in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau to demand justice for a banking scandal that saw $1 billion vanish from three of the country’s biggest banks. They are calling for some political leaders in the ruling pro-European coalition to step down for their lack of action over the scandal and poor governance. The participants dispersed peacefully in the central square at midday, chanting slogans such as "Moldova is ours," "We are Moldova," and "The thieves must go to jail." Moldovans are looking for answers after $1...

Vice President Joe Biden has told a crowd at an NAACP event in Detroit that law enforcement officers and the people they are sworn to protect need to “see each other” to know one another. Referencing outrage over the treatment of black men by police, Biden pointed to the successes of federally funded community policing programs that required officers to meet with residents and business owners in their patrol areas. “Everyone has a right to be treated with dignity and respect and the only way that happens is if we see one another. And that only happens if we know...

few notes on what we have learned about law, race, order and the media after Baltimore, the largest city in my home state of Maryland, whose gleaming white stoops once stood for a city’s pride in its law and order and self-discipline. First, Marilyn Mosby should not be allowed to be a law clerk, let alone a state’s attorney/prosecutor. To prosecute police officers EXPLICITLY to please a mob (“I have heard your cries about ‘no justice, no peace’…”) is exactly the opposite of what a prosecutor should do. That is, to prosecute only when the facts and law demand it....

Senator Ted Cruz released a report entitled The Legal Limit Report No. 5. It lists 20 court cases the Obama Administration has brought to the Supreme Court which were all unanimously rejected. The cases were all in an attempt to take away citizen’s rights in alarming ways. Cruz said: The Obama Administration’s view of federal power is so extreme that since President Obama took office in January 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected DOJ’s arguments for additional federal power twenty times in cases involving a federal party. He noted the Obama Administration’s losing rate is high and it...

Lithuanian political scientist Raimundas Lopata believes Lithuania’s decision to completely boycott the Russian Victory Day military parade on May 9, is “in line with Lithuania’s declared foreign policy attitudes” towards the Vladimir Putin-led Russian government. The Victory Day parade is the Russian Federation’s equivalent of V.E. day and takes place in Moscow’s Red Square. The 2015 edition will mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Soviet Union’s war with Nazi Germany. As a result of Western sanctions on Russia following the MH17 disaster in July 2014, most EU and Western leaders will not attend this year’s Victory Day....

MuckRock has obtained a whole stack of Stingray-related documents from the FBI. As is to be expected, there's not much left unsaid by the agency, which is at least as protective of its own Stingray secrecy as it is with that of law enforcement agencies all over the US. There's nearly 5,000 pages of "material" here, most of which contains only some intriguing words and phrases surrounded by page after page of redactions. Want to know [REDACTED]'s thoughts on the possible legal implications of Triggerfish? Just close your eyes and allow your imagination to run free. Here's a quick reference...

The not-so-tolerant left fears nothing. Let me preface this by asking: Is anyone really surprised? This past May Day students and faculty at Cornell marched across campus and sat in a street intersection for over an hour delivering riveting speeches about everything they detest about this country, their university, and their peers. They later paraded through the farewell party for Cornell’s outgoing president of nine years, and for about twenty minutes chanted and delivered speeches from the stage where a jazz band was playing. You can read my more comprehensive recap of events over at The Cornell Review. At the...

Two suspects were gunned down after shooting the guard in the leg outside the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland. Building and surrounding area was placed on lockdown by a SWAT team with around 100 attendees still inside Reports suggest the pair were carrying explosives at the time, and another two bombs were discovered nearby The American Freedom Defense Initiative event offered a $10,000 prize for the best caricature of the prophet Involved a keynote speech from far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who has linked the Koran to terrorism Two armed suspects believed to be carrying explosives have been shot dead...

Nearly fifteen years ago, Portugal had one of the worst drug problems in Europe, with 1 percent of the population addicted to heroin. They had tried a drug war, and the problem just kept getting worse. So they decided to do something radically different. They resolved to decriminalize all drugs...

Nairobi - US Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Kenya on Sunday for talks on security co-operation and ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit to his late father's home country. The trip to the east African nation is the first high-level visit since 2012, and comes after a year of tensions surrounding Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta being charged by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The ICC has since abandoned the case against Kenyatta over his role in the 2007-2008 post-election violence, citing a lack of evidence and Kenya's failure to cooperate - somewhat removing Kenyatta's...

A twitter account stated that the shooting at a Muhammad Art Exhibit in Texas today were inspired by Muhammad before media had reported on the attack. The attack took place just before 8pm EST. The earliest news agencies have stated the attack occurred was at "just before 7 CST," or 8pm EST. Just before the time of the attacks, at 7:35 EST, well news agencies had reported the attacks, an Islamic twitter account reported that an attack was about to take place: The tweet reads, "The bro with me and myself have given bay'ah to Amirul Mu'mineen. May Allah accept...

TWO ISLAMISTS SHOT DEAD, OFFICER WOUNDED at Pamela Geller TX Free Speech Conference Shots Fired at AFDI- Jihad Watch Event in Texas ** Islamists were carrying explosives ** Contest to draw prophet Mohammad ** One officer injured ** Witness says 20 shots were fired!! ** The center is still on lockdown (9:00 PM Central) ** The security officer was released from the hospital

May 4, 2015Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 14:5-18 There was an attempt in Iconiumby both the Gentiles and the Jews,together with their leaders,to attack and stone Paul and Barnabas.They realized it,and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbeand to the surrounding countryside,where they continued to proclaim the Good News. At Lystra there was a crippled man, lame from birth,who had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking, who looked intently at him,saw that he had the faith to be healed,and called out in a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your...

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE BALTIMORE/FERGUSON NEIGHBORHOODS: Ya know. I’m convinced that the one thing that would end this Baltimore and Ferguson kind of crap would be to take those people in these areas (those who weren’t criminals and had the maturity and common sense -and I believe a LOT of them do), and get them interested in firearms and the second amendment. I'm NOT talking to the lawbreakers here. I'm talking to their neighbors, friends and families. You people who broke the law made your choices. You had your chance. I have YET to take someone to the shooting...

The Tu-95 Bear H bombers flew into the Alaska zone on April 22. But unlike most earlier incursions, no U.S. interceptor jets were dispatched to shadow them, said defense officials familiar with the latest U.S.-Russian aerial encounter. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), declined to confirm the incursion. But he said no jets were dispatched last week to intercept intruding aircraft.

Pretty shocking summary of themes we hear about and themes we hear snippets about. Unless you study these topics and are already familiar, you will likely be shocked. If you have children or grandchildren, this will kick you in the gut. 38 Mins. View here.

Cristian Jereghi is a Russian citizen. For a few more days, at any rate. A born and bred Muscovite, he is about to receive Ukrainian citizenship as a reward for fighting pro-Russian separatists in the county's east. Jereghi, 25, says he decided to break ties with his native country after witnessing firsthand what he describes as Russia's aggressive actions in Ukraine. "I'm renouncing my Russian citizenship," he says. "I will send my passport back to the Russian Consulate in a pretty envelope." While a number of Russian citizens are known to have joined the insurgency in eastern Ukraine, reports of...