Free Republic

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the final hours of America’s long conflict in southeast Asia. Here’s a look back at images from those last chaotic days.

Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz is glad he isn't a part of the nation's political elite."You may have heard I'm not exactly the most popular person with congressional leadership," the cheerful Texas senator said Friday to a group of conservative business leaders.Cruz, the first major Republican to officially declare his candidacy for the White House, said that because of his role in the 2013 government shutdown over Obamacare he wasn't well-liked among the party's heads. And as a result, campaign donations dried up. "Checks from Washington, D.C., went to zero because that's the way they impose discipline," he said. "I have...

Limericks inspired by recent events In Texas they held a cool contest, To see who could draw cartoons the best. Two up to no good were fragged where they stood. Just chalk outlines, no need for an arrest. You can't draw the prophet mohammed. It's Blasphemy the jihadies said. They crashed the event, Then hit the cement. Cuz in Texas they will shoot you dead. Free speech is an American thing We can draw, write, publish or sing. Outlines and a stain Are all that remain. Of Muzzies on a short Jihad fling.

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Seven decades ago this week, news broke of the imminent capture of traitor Lord Haw-Haw, William Joyce, who fled to Germany in 1939 to broadcast propaganda to the English on behalf of the Nazis. On May 4, 1945, the Daily Mail led with the news that a cell in the Tower of London had been prepared for Haw-Haw, with reports from Europe suggesting he had been caught. Within a year, the traitor would face execution. He was hanged on January 3, 1946, at Wandsworth Prison and buried in an unmarked grave. A day earlier, the paper ran with the story...

"Regarding your recent editorial, 'How to end the killing,' your last paragraph made me want to vomit. 'No doubt, Baltimore needs effective police and prosecutors, ample drug treatment, better schools, and more economic opportunities.' "I have taught in the Baltimore public school system for the past two decades. What we need is better students. We have many excellent teachers. I cannot count the number of students who have physically destroyed property in the schools." "They have trashed brand new computers, destroyed exit signs, set multiple fires, destroyed many, many lockers, stolen teachers' school supplies, written their filth on the...

I have been warning that the governments of the West are in severe trouble. We face the worst economic crisis, perhaps in modern history, with the distinct risk of moving into a state of Economic Totalitarianism. The governments are well aware of the Economic Confidence Model (ECM). Many people have questioned, “Why have they not killed you?” since it appears that most of the others central to events covered in the movie “The Forecaster” are dead. I believe the answer is rather simple, for even when I was released and appeared on Capitol Hill, I was introduced as the guy...

If the ghosts of Frank Sinatra and Liberace were still hanging around the Riviera Hotel and Casino on Monday morning, they wouldn't have found a seat at the bar. Crowds squeezed onto barstools and milled about the casino floor saying goodbye to "The Riv," a classic that spent 60 years on the Las Vegas Strip and closed at noon. It's an age reached by few properties along the four-mile stretch of hulking casino resorts mimicking other worldly landmarks or beckoning passers-by with all their wants in one place that have replaced Sin City's recent past.

The new Avengers movie is great and manages to include messages about the surveillance state, NSA-like projects, our fear of AI superintelligence, and even a warning for the cybersecurity community. Prior to its May 1st U.S. debut, Avengers: Age of Ultron amassed $201.2 million across 44 countries. During its preview night in the U.S., Ultron made $27.6 million; on its first day, Disney reported the movie made $84.46 million. I highly recommend seeing it for pure enjoyment purposes, although you might get struck with tech lust after seeing Tony Stark's toys. Some folks who have seen the movie say it's...

Season 1, Episode 3 — ‘The Spirit Arrives’Acts 2-4Editing Acts. The third episode of A.D. The Bible Continues is the first one that takes place entirely within the timeframe of the book of Acts, and it zips through the first few chapters so quickly that the final scenes are taken from Acts 4.  This is remarkable, when you consider that there are still nine episodes to go and the season as a whole is only supposed to get as far as Acts 10.  How does this episode get through the first few chapters of Acts so quickly? Partly by...

BOSTON — A nearly two-decade legal fight by a convicted murderer in Massachusetts to get taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery ended in failure Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected her final appeal. The justices did not comment in letting stand a lower-court ruling denying the surgery to Michelle Kosilek. "This is a terrible and inhumane result for Michelle," said Jennifer Levi, director of the Transgender Rights Project for Boston-based Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. The state Department of Correction, which has fought the surgery, did not immediately respond to a request to comment. State prison officials, who say the surgery...

KALAMAZOO, MI -- The state official who oversees regulation of oil and gas wells says he is certain that Saturday's earthquake in Kalamazoo County is unrelated to fracking or other drilling in the area. "I am extremely confident there is no connection," said Hal Fitch, a geologist who is director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Oil, Gas, and Minerals. That opinion is echoed by David Barnes, professor of geosciences at Western Michigan University. "I'm as certain as a scientist can be" that there is no connection, Barnes said. Hydraulic fracturing -- also known as fracking --...

Republican heavyweight Haley Barbour said Monday "no true" front-runner exists among the various Republicans announcing for president or those expected to become candidates in 2016. Whoever it is can't just run against the policies of Democratic President Barack Obama but has to "give something to be for" particularly in improving the economy, creating jobs and bringing down the national debt, he said. Barbour made the comments at a news conference before speaking at the annual Lincoln Dinner of the Knox County Republican Party at Rothchild catering center in West Knoxville. Some 325-350 people attended based on table arrangements for 400....

Washington has a new answer to growing concerns about police brutality: body cameras. After a series of controversial -- and deadly -- confrontations between law enforcement officers and minorities, the Department of Justice is launching a $20 million pilot program to implement body cameras nationwide. The department will spend another $1 million to study the impact of cameras. Meanwhile, cameras are being backed by members of both parties, with Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton calling them a tool to "increase transparency and accountability." In March, Sen. Rand Paul, a GOP presidential candidate, and several Democrats introduced a bill to establish...

NEW YORK (RNS) Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo is returning to the front line of the real war on Christians, which he calls home — that is, Aleppo in war-torn Syria, where his ancient church faces the threat of extinction. I wrote here about Jeanbart, who was in the U.S. last week in an effort to raise awareness about the plight of Christians in Syria — they include his Eastern-rite Melkite Catholics as well or Eastern Orthodox and other churches — and to raise money for their survival. The archbishop is a remarkable figure, facing the personal danger while trying...

Just because you’re not interested in politics doesn’t mean politics isn’t interested in you. Americans seem to have forgotten this dictum. A brand-new poll, taken in the form of an online survey, was just issued by the Pew Research Center. It paints a melancholy picture about the abysmal state of knowledge the U.S. public possesses on public affairs – the more so when you reflect that self-selection was probably present. In other words, you probably are brighter than Joe Sixpack if you could be bothered to take the test in the first place. Most people knew who Martin Luther King...

Whatever one makes of either one of them, the similarities between Sarah Palin and Carly Fiorina (who’s just announced she’s running for president) stop more or less at the chromosomal level. https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/what-do-sarah-palin-and-carly-fiorina-have-common_937416.html

There’s been a lot of debate today about the actions and intentions of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the group led by Pamela Geller that held a “Draw Mohammed” cartoon contest in Texas yesterday where two shooters showed up. They were killed, and Geller has been pushing back against any suggestion that the provocative nature of her group brought about those attacks. Chris Matthews tackled that argument on his MSNBC show tonight, bringing up what Geller’s group did and asking, “Does that in some way cause these events––well, not the word ‘causing’––how about provoking, how about taunting, how about daring?...

With over a dozen hopefuls for the republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is the least likely to pull support from the GOP because of his overly conservative politics. A telephone poll conducted by ORC International in April that surveyed 435 republicans found only 7 percent of potential voters in favor of Cruz—sixth place on the list of republican hopefuls led by Jeb Bush with 17 percent. Deporting immigrants, denying climate change, fighting gun-control and opposing gay marriage are issues that may all seem consistent with republican agendas, but when they are being pushed by...

NEW YORK (AP) — In a deeply personal response to outbreaks of racially motivated protests, President Barack Obama on Monday blamed a lack of opportunity in minority communities and harsher treatment of black and Hispanic men by police for fueling a sense of "unfairness and powerlessness." The country's first black president called for a nationwide mobilization to reverse inequalities and said the cause will remain a mission for the rest of his presidency and his life. "There are consequences to indifference," Obama said. Helping launch a foundation to assist young minorities, Obama said the catalysts of protests in Ferguson, Missouri,...