Free Republic

Results of the “Nation’s Report Card” released this week by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that only 18 percent of 8th-graders are “proficient” or above in U.S. history, and only 23 percent are proficient in civics. Despite hundreds of billions of dollars poured into education programs in the United States via the U.S. Department of Education, the “Nation’s Report Card” states that 8th-graders’ average NAEP scores in U.S. History, Geography, and Civics demonstrated no significant change since 2010 when students were last assessed. In geography, just 27 percent of U.S. 8th-graders performed at or above the proficiency...

A ‘message to the crusaders’ was posted on social media today, supposedly from ISIS terrorist Abu Ibrahim Al Ameriki, naming 5 target states, and saying they have 71 members ready to attack Americans. Here’s the account that posted it on Twitter: And here’s the full message: Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Raheem “The New Era” To our brothers and sisters fighting for the Sake of Allah, we make dua for you and ask Allah to guide your bullets, terrify your enemies, and establish you in the Land. As our noble brother in the Phillipines said in his bayah, “This is the...

By Colleen Conley A covert training operation by U.S. military special operations personnel, Jade Helm 15, is taking place in a several states this summer, spreading panic and conspiracy theories as to the true purpose of the mission. The two-month simulation spans much of the Southwest, requiring special forces from four branches of the military to carry out covert operations amid “hostile” territory in Texas, Utah and part of California. In at least one of those states, hostility toward the operation has begun a few months early. Online and at in-person meetings, many Texans have expressed suspicion and outright opposition...

The country certainly is on fire. Whether it’s Baltimore, Maryland or Garland, Texas, anarchists are out in force. Is it spring fever? The natural warmth of the season exciting emotions so hot that they burn… well, cars and buildings. In Baltimore, rioting and destructive “protestors” took to the street after the so-called Mayor gave them license and a “space to destroy” in the city. After a night of devilish inferno, 144 cars were torched, 200+ businesses were destroyed, and 15 structures were set aflame by gangland arsonists given the reputed respectability of civil rights protesters by a fork-tongued public official....

May 4, 2015 By Staff Writer Abbott Cruz ‘Operation Jade Helm 15’ involves special operations units of the U.S. military working in conjunction with government and law enforcement agencies in several southwestern states. The operation has raised eyebrows across the country. Is it a test run for implementing ‘martial law’ in selected cities identified as “hostile” by the government? Conspiracy theorists think so. Or is it simply a run-of-the-mill training mission? Nobody seems to have access to enough detailed knowledge about the exercise one way or the other. Therefore, speculation has run wild. Many claim the exercise will be a...

A witness to a police officer's fatal shooting of Michael Brown last summer in Ferguson, Missouri, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was wrongly stopped and fired on during the encounter on a city street. The lawsuit, filed last week by Dorian Johnson, claims that the officer, Darren Wilson, fired at him and Brown as they ran away from him on Aug. 9. The lawsuit claims Wilson targeted him without probable cause. "Officer Wilson acted with either deliberate indifference and/or reckless disregard toward" Johnson, the lawsuit says. The suit also cited many of the Departmet of Justice findings, arguing...

With the Cold War with the USSR fading into memory, including those under 40 mostly having no meaningful memory of it, has it gotten safe for atheists/communists to promote their beliefs, as they wouldn't have dared to up through the eighties? Seems so. The public could use some reminding and educating on the Cold War. This isn't even ancient history.

Windows Media Center has come to the end of the road with Windows 10. Microsoft’s next client operating system won’t include Redmond’s media software, for recording and playing TV, music and video. General manager for OSG data and fundamentals Gabriel Aul Tweeted: We can confirm that due to decreased usage, Windows Media Center will not be part of Windows 10. — Gabriel Aul (@GabeAul) May 4, 2015 For those who are using Windows Media Center, Aul said Microsoft would deliver a “DVD option” in an update later this year. Windows Media Center debuted as Windows XP Media Center Edition in...

Here’s a new low in Washington cluelessness: The feds say Times Square’s iconic billboards must come down or New York will lose highway money. Supposedly, a 2012 law put the crossroads of the world under the restrictions of the 1965 Highway Beautification Act — which limits signs to 1,200 square feet. Now Washington is pushing the city Department of Transportation to comply. Earth to Uncle Sam: Don’t be a jerk.

Truth Revolt asks why the new Archbishop of Chicago has the nerve to speak of illegal immigration as if it were ‘God’s agenda.’ Where are truth-loving Catholics supposed to look for a Church that isn’t in the pocket of anti-Catholic hate today? Either it is evil to be conservative or these bishops are pretenders. Is it ‘love’ to hand political power to the true enemies of God and man? True to his claim that immigration reform is “God’s agenda,” Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich has been cozying up to pro-abortion Democrats to get his social justice initiatives underway. On Sunday, the...

NEW ORLEANS —Kenneth Green was only 56 years old.He was a loving husband, father and the senior pastor of Greater Saint Mary Baptist Church in Algiers. Sunday, he collapsed and died in the middle of his sermon.Joan Martin was sitting in the pew, and broke down in tears."He took a swallow of water, before he took water he wiped his face, and then he looked up and it looked like his eyes were rolled back, like there was no life in his eyes, and he tumbled over. Everybody was in a state of shock people were crying," said Martin.She said...

MOSCOW — Russia's new Armata tank appeared in public for the first time Monday, rumbling down a broad Moscow avenue on its way to Red Square for the final rehearsal of the Victory Day parade. The Russian Defense Ministry last month released photographs of the tank, but its turret was covered with fabric and only the platform was visible. Monday was the first time that the tank was shown uncovered. The Armata will be a highlight of the military parade on Saturday, the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. About 200 pieces of military...

Let’s face it. Baltimore has been a-riot for decades, and was looted long before its citizens finally rose up in glaring sad and pathetic anger before the global media world this week over the still unexplained death of Freddy Gray in police custody. While the cops try and get their story straight, the citizens have taken to the street in a largely symbolic display of outrage, burning a few cars and torching a few businesses in a city that for all intents and purposes is already too burnt-out to really destroy. Against a veneer of development along its harbor, Camden...

A Baltimore police officer charged over the death of Freddie Gray has attempted to compel the Baltimore state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby to produce the knife Gray was arrested for carrying, contending that it was an illegal weapon and as such Gray’s arrest was justified.

You can call it a bureaucratic blunder … or a Washington blooper. But any way you slice it a move by the federal government to make the city remove Times Square’s iconic billboards falls in the category of “whose bright idea is this?” It is known as the “Crossroads of the World,” the “Center of the Universe” and “the Great White Way,” but Times Square could become like the “Black Hole of Calcutta” if the federal government has its way, CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reported Tuesday. The feds say many of Times Square’s huge and neon-lit billboards must come down or...

In a rebuke to the hawks of his party, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) indicated on Tuesday that he will move forward with a Senate bill on the Iran nuclear agreement by limiting votes on amendments that demand more conditions from the Iranians. Though no definitive schedule was announced, Republicans left their weekly luncheon suggesting that no further tinkering would be done to the bill. Speaking to reporters after that luncheon concluded, McConnell would not utter the word "cloture," saying only that he was trying to "move quickly" while considering other, less controversial amendments. In addition to the diminishing...

Once again, Muslim religious fanatics are striking out against our values of freedom of speech and open expression. And again, they claim that somehow they have been so deeply offended by cartoons depicting Muhammad that murder and mayhem are somehow justified. At the root of this insane rage against Western civilization is Muslim dignitude. “Dignitude” is dignity’s shabby imitation, the unfortunate tendency of some people to have an exaggerated sense of their own dignity and to be ready at any moment to be deeply offended at the slightest perceived affront. And among Muslims it is accompanied by a hypocritical...

It’s a few minutes before midnight on Wednesday and I’m sharing a cigarette with a Blood and Crip at a diner 20 minutes outside of Baltimore. It’s two hours past the government-imposed curfew on this broken city and outside its margins the unlikeliest of encounters is happening. Just two days earlier, Baltimore police put out a very different version of gang unity, issuing a memo — just hours after 25-year-old Freddie Gray’s funeral — warning that the rival gangs were planning a possible attack on cops. It put the city on edge, and as violence unfolded in the afternoon as teenagers were trapped in...

During a reception hosted by the group "Freedom to Marry," White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett praised President Obama for his huge part in accelerating the gay marriage cause heard by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) last week. "The arc of the moral universe," said Jarrett, "bent a little faster than even we thought it would." The "moral arc" regarding gay marriage cannot be bent without harmful consequence, but you'd never know that listening to Ms. Jarrett. Indeed. The arc is bent -- by intensely motivated activists pulling on it with all their might, demanding SCOTUS...

The Navy needs new servers for its upgraded Aegis Combat System after the current IBM line was sold to Chinese computer maker Lenovo. The $2.1 billion sale closed in October and made Lenovo the number three server maker in the world. IBM shedding its server business creates a security concern for the U.S. Navy, which included the company’s x86 BladeCenter HT server in its Aegis Technical Insertion (TI) 12. The TI-12 hardware upgrades, along with Advanced Capability Build (ACB) 12 software upgrades, compose the Aegis Baseline 9 combat system upgrade that combines a ballistic missile defense capability with anti-air warfare...