Free Republic

Greenville, S.C. — Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential-campaign strategy assumes that he can overcome financial disadvantages by converting voters who see him in person. At the South Carolina Freedom Summit on Saturday, that didn’t happen. “Rubio’s was one of the speeches that was not the best. His was not the worst, either, but, just kind of meh compared to anybody else,” says Hannah Hill, a tea-party activist from nearby Anderson County. “He’s good by himself,” Cheryl Cuthrell, a Greenville County Republican activist who supports Senator Ted Cruz, says of Rubio. “But when you put him up to someone who just goes...

Whatever her views on other matters are, Pamela Geller is right about one thing: last week’s Islamist assault on the “Draw Muhammad” cartoon contest she hosted in Texas proves the jihad against freedom of expression has opened a front in the United States. “There is,” she said, “a war on free speech and this violent attack is a harbinger of things to come.” Apparently undaunted, Geller promises to continue with such “freedom of speech” events. ISIS is now threatening to assassinate her. She and her cohorts came close to becoming victims, yet some in the media on the right and...

The really big news this week for many would be voters is who won the least dressed award at the Metropolitan Museum’s Gala opening -- Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian, or Jennifer Lopez? Fortunately for people like me who are sick of this stuff, a new app is being developed called KardBlock which disappears from every story and feed you read online any mention of the Kardashians. Take that, Luddites who claim technology doesn’t really improve our lives. This new development got me to thinking about how best to respond to those pundit morons on the left and right who attacked Pam...

May 13 marks the 30th anniversary of a dark day in Philadelphia's history - an event that captured much national attention at the time but seems largely forgotten now, except by those who personally lived it. On that day, a series of reckless actions (and cowardly inactions) by government and police culminated in a decision to bomb the Osage neighborhood in West Philadelphia, causing the deaths of 11 people (five of them children) and a conflagration that destroyed 60 homes. In an attempt to rid a black neighborhood of a disruptive group, also largely black, the city's law enforcement mechanisms...

For 17 years, Juan Reinaldo Sanchez served as bodyguard to Fidel Castro. But when he became disillusioned with the Cuban dictator’s hypocrisy and tried to retire in 1994, Castro had him thrown in prison. Sanchez made 10 attempts to escape the island, finally making it to the US in 2008. Now he reveals all in his new book, “The Double Life of Fidel Castro.” In this excerpt, Sanchez exposes “El Jefe’s” privileged life. To Cubans, Fidel Castro presents himself as a man of the people, claiming to make only 900 pesos a month (about $38) and owning no property other...

Carly Fiorina is clearly not worried about the mocking from the media over fake web domains. After she appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this morning, she let Chuck Todd know he has a domain of his own out there.

Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but his leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Jeremiah 17: 7-8

I recently had a conversation with a good friend. Active duty O6. Recently completed a major command tour. Now the operations officer for a significant regional command. His words have set with me in a rather heavy way... He said it's not a matter of "if" a 'reset' happens, it's just a matter of when. He believes the military and civil authorities in many places will be divided and that many will be surprised where loyalties actually are found when men are finally faced with a choice of liberty over tyranny. He explained that he honestly believes that leaders of...

She was a struggling model and he was the host of a TV game show who shyly asked her if she wanted to watch some film clips of his comedy. It was the first date in 1960 in New York City for the future Joanne Carson and Johnny Carson, long before he became the king of late-night television ... Joanne Carson, 83, who later in life became a close confidant of Truman Capote, died Friday at home in Los Angeles. She had been in declining health and was in hospice care ...

The former Russian soldiers who spoke to Reuters, as well as human rights activists, said some soldiers were fearful of being sent to Ukraine, were pressured into going, or disgruntled at the way they were treated after fighting there. The former tank soldier from Moscow said he would not have gone to Ukraine voluntarily. "No, what for? That's not our war. If our troops were officially there it would be a different story." He said he had been sent to fight in Ukraine last summer and returned to Russia in September when the first peace talks took place. His crew operated...

Any nominee he’d ever make to the Supreme Court would need to be opposed to it. Sen. Bernie Sanders hates the Supreme Court Citizens United ruling and if he becomes president he'll make sure his Supreme Court nominees vote to overturn it, he said Sunday.“If elected president, I will have a litmus test in terms of my nominee to be a Supreme Court justice and that nominee will say that they are going to overturn this disastrous Supreme Court decision,” the Vermont independent said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Also on POLITICOHuckabee defends his defense of Social Security ELIZA COLLINS...

California’s Pacific Educational Group (PEG) denounced educational standards that require students to study and work hard in order to graduate as “discrimination against Black students.” PEG co-chair Kenneth K. Knowlton asserted that “Blacks are less likely to respond to fundamental ideas like working hard to achieve success, or being on time for school or work. The notion that such attitudes ought to be instilled in every student is a racist endeavor that seeks to submerge this vital subculture.” “What’s more, the contention that hard work is a key to success is belied by reality,” Knowlton maintained. “A significant segment of...

The burial of the so-called Red Lady, dating back to the Upper Palaeolithic, was discovered in El Mirón cave (Cantabria) in 2010. The Journal of Archaeological Science has devoted a special edition to all the studies conducted at this unique burial site, because there are hardly any Palaeolithic tombs like this one which is intact and which has not been contaminated. One study is the research led by the UPV/EHU's Ikerbasque lecturer Mª José Iriarte, who analysed the remains of fossilised pollen dating back more than 16,000 years ago and which appeared on the tomb. "They put whole flowers on...

The city of Baltimore, Md. has been home to roughly two dozen murders since police arrested Freddie Gray on April 12 for possession of an illegal switchblade. [Snip] Meanwhile, searchable data from The Baltimore Sun shows that 26 homicides have occurred in the city limits of Baltimore during the last 30 days — or since April 9.

It was both energizing and bracing to watch the election returns roll in here Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday — energizing because the unfolding story bore little resemblance to the polls and forecasts; bracing for the very same reason and for what that said about all the pre-election analysis. Public polls — and they were many and often — predicted a wholly different result. What the country was told to expect was the second hung Parliament in a row, and the prospect of tortuous negotiations and maneuvering to construct a new government. Instead, the Conservative Party...

GOP Presidential hopeful and conservative stalwart Sen. Ted Cruz didn’t even have to say anything intelligible to refute the gotcha journalism attempts made by reporter Mark Halperin.Halperin jabs Cruz – not even subtly, I might add – on whether he is Hispanic enough; Cuban enough.This is how low the mainstream media is these days. They don’t want conservatives anywhere near political office, and they don’t even try to hide it.Journalists are supposed to be like educators. You give us the facts, we come to our own conclusion. You’re not supposed to be swaying your audience one way or the other. I’d say...

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s political vision—and his political travels—have increasingly reached far beyond the borders of New York City. […] It is commonplace for New York City mayors to become national figures, but some experts believe that de Blasio—not even 18 months into his first term—is risking being perceived as someone who has forgotten about his home. A poll last week showed that fewer than half of New Yorkers believe the city is moving in the right direction. “He’s entering a path that can be dangerous for big-city mayors,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a retired political science professor at Hunter College....

After unexpected political charisma and cunning propelled him to another term as Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron will now need every ounce of those skills to avoid going down in history with an altogether different title: founding father of Little England. A result that maintained the status quo at 10 Downing Street masked the dramatic transformations roiling Britain, ones that threaten to leave this country more isolated than at any time in its modern history. “The E.U. referendum is going to trigger a debate over the role we play in the world, and on that, the different parts of the...

Cutting-edge archaeological work that included use of a drone and prescribed fire has unearthed previously unknown information about a one-of-a-kind Native American archaeological site in northeastern Montana dating back thousands of years. ... everything you can see archaeologically speaking on the northern plains is contained within 300 acres .. The project also has given archaeologists new information on how prairie fires interact with cultural resources that can be applied to other locations. ... The prehistoric collection of large-scale stone at the Henry Smith archaeological site spans 320 acres in Phillips County. Since the 1960s, it's been known that the site...

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says the United States should rethink the notion that a president must enforce laws the Supreme Court declares constitutional. Carson said Sunday “we need to discuss” the court’s long-held power to review laws passed by Congress. That authority was established in the 1803 landmark case Marbury v. Madison. […] Carson has said a president is obliged to carry out laws passed by Congress, but not what he called “judicial laws” that emanate from courts. …