Free Republic

Why did Rome and Byzantium fall apart after centuries of success? What causes civilizations to collapse, from a dysfunctional 4th-century-B.C. Athens to contemporary bankrupt Greece? The answer is usually not enemies at the gates, but the pathologies inside them.

There is no reason to think the several small earthquakes recorded in Northern California and the Inland Empire on Wednesday morning were connected, earthquake experts said in remarks reported Thursday. Even the three quakes in Riverside County were too far apart to all be linked, the Los Angeles Times reported. The first two, a magnitude-3.7 and -2.7 that struck shortly after midnight, both were traced back to the San Jacinto fault zone. But the third temblor, a magnitude-3.1 near Corona at 9:11 a.m., occurred in a different fault zone. Scientists are still studying the details of the third earthquake, which...

OSKALOOSA, Iowa (CNN) - If Mike Huckabee hopes to be anointed victor of the Iowa caucuses once again, he better prepare to retread a lot of familiar ground. "Luck is good. Voters are better," Huckabee quipped as Nathan Johnson wished luck upon the newly official presidential candidate as he stopped by a local coffee shop Wednesday. Huckabee had Johnson's vote when he won the 2008 Iowa caucuses. This time around, the 33-year-old from Oskaloosa is eyeing a top tier: Huckabee, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. He's biding his time to see how the candidates perform as...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 6, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- By declining to hear a challenge to a lower-court decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has effectively solidified New Jersey's ban on "reparative therapy," or counseling designed to steer people away from their unwanted same-sex attractions.  Republican Gov. Chris Christie signed the ban into law in August 2013.The New Jersey ban applies only to minors.  According to Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), noncompliance by parents could result in the state taking their children away.The Human Rights Campaign, a powerful lobby dedicated to redefining marriage and normalizing homosexuality, recently decried reparative therapy...

OKLAHOMA CITY – Authorities say an Oklahoma City woman apparently drowned after taking cover in an underground storm shelter that later flooded. Oklahoma City police Sergeant Gary Knight says the 42-year-old woman's body was discovered Thursday morning in an underground shelter. She is the only person known to have died in the strong storms that raked the Plains Wednesday and early Thursday.

Eyes watering, struggling to breathe, Abd al-Mouin, 22, dragged his nephews from a house reeking of noxious fumes, then briefly blacked out. Even fresh air, he recalled, was “burning my lungs.” The chaos unfolded in the Syrian town of Sarmeen one night this spring as walkie-talkies warned of helicopters flying from a nearby army base, a signal for residents to take cover. Soon, residents said, there were sounds of aircraft, a smell of bleach and gasping victims streaming to a clinic.

<p>WHEN BALTIMORE’S STATE attorney Marilyn Mosby announced charges last week against six officers in the death of Freddie Gray and proclaimed to the city that “I heard your call for ‘no justice, no peace,’” it’s possible that her decisions were based, at least in part, on the understandable goal of preventing further riots. This goal is commendable, but the mean selected to achieve it — hearing the call of demonstrators — raises fundamental questions regarding the due process right of those charged with serious crimes.</p>

Ever since Chuck Norris wrote his WND editorial about how the federal government was organizing a martial law takeover, it seems that every Texas conservative is pushing that idea, reported Talking Points Memo. Now, it seems that every notable, political Texan is driving the idea that the military training exercise called “Jade Helm 15” is actually a planned takeover of the state. What’s more fascinating is that every single one of these politicians and talking heads are Texans. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was among the first Texas figureheads to bring Jade Helm 15 to national attention when he ordered the...

Other states have plenty of corruption, but it’s hard to beat New York when it comes to sheer volume. The criminal complaint Monday against Dean Skelos, the state Senate majority leader, and his son Adam came just three months after charges were brought against Sheldon Silver, then the Assembly Speaker. Having the top leaders in both chambers face criminal charges in the same session is an unparalleled achievement, but Skelos is now the fifth straight Senate majority leader in Albany to face them

President Dalia Grybauskaite holds war games: 'We try to learn from  the Ukrainian and Crimean situation ... we're not fearing anybody' While others like the Czechs, Slovaks, and Hungary act like they're afraid of/corrupted by the Russians, Baltic Lithuania -with a population of just over 3M people- seem to be cut of a bit different cloth, something more akin to Polish defiance to today's nothing-but-bad-news Kremlin... The diminutive NATO country is currently holding 'Little Green Men' war games meant to signify to the Kremlin that Lithuanians will fight -and effectively- in response to any Russian provocation.  Lithuania has a sizable Russian...

Sparks flew on a recent Fox News segment when host Sean Hannity put it bluntly to radical Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary – do you think Pam Geller should die? – and his response was pretty much, yes. Geller, who hosted the “Draw Muhammad” event in Garland, Texas, has subsequently been placed on a hit list by Islamist terrorists, as reported by WND. Specifically, ISIS has called for the “slaughter” of Geller, along with those who support her. Hannity asked Choudary for his response to the cartoon drawing event, and if he thought Geller should die. “We’re not talking about Mickey...

Cody Wilson had a vision to forward the digital revolution by creating the nation’s first firearm on a 3-D printer, and, taking a page from WikiLeaks, share the blueprints with the world via the Internet in what he called the “Wiki Weapons project.” Now he is suing the federal government in hopes of keeping his dream on target - and staying out of prison. Wilson was so taken with the idea, he dropped out of law school and designed "The Liberator," the nation’s first pistol built exclusively on a 3-D printer, consisting of 12 separate parts made from plastic and...

The CWR Blog Michael Coren goes Anglican, denounces Catholic moral teaching "I could not remain in a church that effectively excluded gay people," says the Canadian author and apologist, "I felt that the circle of love had to be broadened, not reduced." May 02, 2015 02:35 EST Carl E. Olson This past Monday, I received an e-mail with the news that Michael Coren had left the Catholic Church and recently entered the Anglican communion. Coren, the Canadian author and apologist who has written a monthly CWR column ("Controversies with Coren") since September 2013, had apparently been attending an Anglican church...

The author of Why Catholics Are Right has ditched the Catholic Church. Michael Coren is a well-known writer and talk show host from Canada. He's perhaps best known for The Michael Coren Show and The Arena with Michael Coren on Canadian television, where he earned the reputation of being an unapologetic conservative. He's appeared on Church Militant's Mic'd Up program as recently as 2013, and Michael Voris was once a guest on The Michael Coren Show in 2011. When he first became a Christian in his twenties, he joined the Catholic Church. Soon afterward, though, he left Catholicism in favor...

Until his recent conversion to Anglicanism, the broadcaster and author Michael Coren was one of Canada’s best known Catholics. He has a Catholic wife and four Catholic children and is the author of books that include “Why Catholics Are Right.” So when he was formally welcomed into an Anglican congregation in Toronto the other day, after worshipping with them privately for a year, the news caused a stir in the Catholic world. False rumours were circulated about his motives. Old scandals from a career in punditry were dredged up. The uproar cost him several speeches to conservative American Catholic groups,...

Pointing approvingly to an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal by House Science Chairman Lamar Smith (R.-Texas), Senate Environment Chairman Jim Inhofe (R.-Okla.) said on the Senate floor yesterday that global warming alarmists are advancing a new religious sect. “Global warming alarmism has evolved into a religion where one is either an alarmist or a skeptic,” Inhofe said. “The modern-day religion of climate change has been very artful in establishing and controlling carefully scripted talking points intended to scare the American people under the guise of environmental protectionism,” said Inhofe. …

If you plan to visit a college campus this month, don't be surprised if you see signs and placards encouraging you to "Restore the Fourth." Restore the Fourth is not about an athletic event or a holiday; it is about human freedom. The reference to "the Fourth" is to the Fourth Amendment, and it is badly in need of restoration. In the dark days following 9/11, Congress enacted the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act has many flaws, including its prohibition of certain truthful public speech, but its most pernicious assault is on the constitutional right to privacy. One of its...

<p>Lumber Liquidators is stopping the sale of all its Chinese laminate flooring, a week after disclosing that the Justice Department is seeking criminal charges against the specialty retailer in an investigation over imported products.</p> <p>The company has been under fire since early March over safety concerns. A “60 Minutes” report showed the flooring, made in China, contained high levels of formaldehyde.</p>

Full title: Video Evidence Emerges Of Freddie Gray Running Into Building During Chase, Then Doubling Back Before Arrest.....Baltimore police have continually said their initial reasoning for suspecting Freddie Gray of suspicious activity was his immediate running from police when bicycle officers made eye contact. However, no-one has revealed he ran into a building.

With their cool check shirts, low slung jeans and hair coaxed carefully upwards, this group of young men wouldn't look out of place in London's hipster mecca of Shoreditch. Instead, all of these twenty-somethings live in Iranian capital, Tehran where plucked eyebrows and gelled hair are considered 'satanic' and getting a tattoo means risking arrest. The striking new photos are the work of French photographer Eric Lafforgue who says, despite the best efforts of religious police, fashionable looks remain hugely popular. But embracing hipster isn't without risk - all the more so since Iranian officials announced a crackdown on 'western'...