Free Republic

So, Al Capone lives in your city. Do you talk about it? Do you mention that this Mafia guy got his mansion by breaking the law, blackmailing people, buying and selling politicians, not to mention killing people? Seriously, do you ever talk about Al Capone? Or do you look the other way and pretend that nothing is going on where you live, nothing journalistically interesting, nothing criminally interesting. The man is a psychopath and he’s running a criminal empire in your city. This is not without consequences. To survive, he will have to corrupt your police department, court system, and...

Since the end of the 2014 synod, he has spoken dozens of times on abortion, divorce, and homosexuality. But he hasn't said a single word more in support of the “openness” demanded by the innovators ROME, May 11, 2015 – The second and last session of the synod on the family is approaching, and the temperature of the discussion keeps going up. The latest uproar is over an onslaught of the German bishops, who now take as a given, in the “cultural context” of their local Church, substantial changes of doctrine and pastoral practice in matters of divorce and homosexuality:...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush rejects the popular notion that his support for a path to legal status for some undocumented immigrants is a surefire way to doom his shot at being the GOP presidential nominee. In an extensive interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly that is scheduled to air Monday night, Bush – who has strongly suggested he is moving toward announcing a run for the White House, but has yet to do so – said he believes that undocumented immigrants brought to the country as minors should be able to legalize their status.

The Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Rev. Justin Welby said that the worst "poison pen letters" he receives are from other Christians. The leader of the Anglican Communion said that Christian groups are failing to show tolerance to one another, and said that religious leaders should look to confront the "profound differences" between faiths. "The worst poison pen letters I get are from other Christian groups on the whole," Welby revealed during his address to the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Independent reported on Sunday. "The reality is that we do not as faith groups in our society...

Earlier this year, election watchers claimed that McCain was the most vulnerable senator facing reelection in 2016 and the polls show that is true.  Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows that McCain only has a 41% approval rating among republicans and a 36% approval rating among all voters.  Anything below 50% is considered dangerous for incumbents.  41% is considered catastrophic.  51% of republican  voters want someone more conservative than McCain.  Unfortunately, both Obama and Clinton are more conservative than McCain.McCain who often bills himself as a “maverick” is more like a hobby horse that liberals ride to victory.  As he gets...

President Barack Obama plans to launch a military operation this summer that will see the special forces which killed Osama bin Laden team up with Walmart to take over Texas. The invasion will also target the Mormon stronghold of Utah and an “insurgent pocket” in California. But the main thrust will be in Texas where 1,200 special forces — Army Green Beret forces to Navy Seals — will try to reclaim the state that voted for Mitt Romney in the 2012 election.

Jeb Bush, in an exclusive interview with Fox News’ “The Kelly File,” rejected the suggestion that the momentum behind his likely presidential bid has slowed – calling recent polls “irrelevant” and urging those closely watching them to “take a chill pill.” Bush, though widely expected to run for the Republican nomination, has held back as several other Republicans have officially announced their 2016 campaigns in recent weeks. As they dominate the headlines, some – notably, Bush’s presumed home-state rival, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio – have enjoyed a surge in the polls. But Bush stressed in the interview with Fox News...

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said today that if King Salman changing his mind against coming to Washington this week was supposed to send a message to the administration, “that message was not received.” Earnest insisted that “all the feedback that we’ve received from the Saudis has been positive.” The Saudi king, who was supposed to meet one-on-one with President Obama at the White House on Wednesday before a broader meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, initially RSVP’d “yes.” On Friday, he changed that to a “no.” Of the GCC states invited — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,

Another foreign automaker plans to create American jobs by making cars in the United States. Volvo said Monday that it will build a new manufacturing plant in South Carolina. Located in Berkeley County, it is expected to create 2,000 new jobs over the next decade, and up to 4,000 jobs by 2030. Construction will begin later this year and Volvo expects to begin rolling out cars from the factory in 2018. Volvo, which was bought by the Chinese automaker Geely Holding Group in 2010 from Ford Motor (F), makes cars in Sweden, Belgium and China. It first announced plans to...

THE PLUM LINE: What’s your response to the latest from President Obama?SENATOR WARREN: The president said in his Nike speech that he’s confident that when people read the agreement for themselves, that they’ll see it’s a great deal. But the president won’t actually let people read the agreement for themselves. It’s classified. PLUM LINE: But don’t you get 60 days to review it after the deal is finalized, with the authority to revoke fast track?WARREN: The president has committed only to letting the public see this deal after Congress votes to authorize fast track. At that point it will be...

British actor Michael Enright has shared the screen with some of the biggest celebrities of our generation, from Johnny Depp in “Pirates Of The Caribbean” to Tom Cruise in “Knight And Day.” But now, he’s decided to share the bunker with some of the world’s greatest heroes. The 51-year-old actor has joined the fight against ISIS. Enright made the perilous journey into the Sinjar mountains to join Kurdish rebels in the YPG, or People’s Protection Units, after seeing one too many acts of violence against civilian Westerners. For Enright, it was the video footage of ISIS beheading American journalist James Foley that was the final...

You can get a nice meal at a bistro for an easy $40, but taking a quality photo of it can be trickier. And since it is important to share pictures of your meals with the world, you need Foodography. These are two plates designed to be sets for the camera on your smartphone. The one pictured above has a rest for your phone and a high back that blocks out distractions in the background.

The Senate lent strong support today to a simply worded resolution calling on Iran to let four Americans come home. The bipartisan resolution from Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) passed 90-0. It states that it’s the policy of the United States that “the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran should immediately release Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati, and Jason Rezaian, and cooperate with the United States Government to locate and return Robert Levinson; and the United States Government should undertake every effort using every diplomatic tool at its disposal to secure their immediate release.” Washington Post bureau chief Rezaian, a California...

By Ben Kamisar - The former Navy SEAL who says he killed Osama bin Laden is slamming a new report that challenges the White House’s account of the mission, calling it “garbage.” “The story that I read, the part from [Seymour] Hersh, was full of lies,” Rob O’Neill said on Fox News's "Shepard Smith Reporting." “It took me a long time to read it because I had to put it down — I couldn’t read the nonsense.” Hersh on Sunday published in story in the London Review of Books that says Pakistani intelligence officers played a significant role in the...

The mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres are better resolved in a new sequence of images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 3 and 4, 2015. The images were taken from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers). In this closest-yet view, the brightest spots within a crater in the northern hemisphere are revealed to be composed of many smaller spots. However, their exact nature remains unknown. "Dawn scientists can now conclude that the intense brightness of these spots is due to the reflection of sunlight by highly reflective material on the surface, possibly ice," said...

Almost immediately after former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina announced she was running for president last week, her staff was dogged by questions about why they had failed to secure the Web domain carlyfiorina.org, which had been purchased by a Democratic activist who used it to post a message about how many people HP had allegedly laid off while Fiorina was the company’s chief executive. As Fiorina made the media rounds over the next week, she responded to questions from the media about the domain gaffe with a sense of humor – and with a few tricks up her sleeve. During...

Mountain Pact Campaign Targets Coal Companies Seeks compensation for global warming By: The Editors Ten western mountain towns hit hard by climate change are launching a campaign against the coal industry, seeking hundreds of million of dollars in compensation per year to help their communities adapt, the Denver Post reported earlier this week. In February, Outside covered how the nonprofit advocacy group Mountain Pact is rallying ski resort towns around the country to stem the effects of climate change. In a letter being sent this week to federal officials, lawmakers, and the White House, the towns—which include Aspen, Telluride, and...

We knew it was a matter of when, not if, we’d be hit again by Islamist terrorists on our own soil. Just last Sunday, two ISIS-sympathizing terrorists, clad in body armor and wielding assault rifles, attacked a Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest in Garland, Texas. Luckily, they were killed before they could slaughter the people attending the event. Now U.S. military bases and installations are stepping up security, as FBI Director James Comey is warning that there are “hundreds, maybe thousands” of people across the country who are being recruited by ISIS with orders to attack the U.S. Security...

Saudi Arabia has terminated its contract with the Portuguese airline Hi Fly after it flew an empty jumbo jet marked with the logo of the kingdom’s national carrier, Saudia, to Ben-Gurion Airport for repairs. The announcement was reported in the Twitter feed of a Saudi news agency. The arrival of the jet with the logo to Ben-Gurion Airport overnight Tuesday generated a stir in the Israeli media on Wednesday after surprised airport workers spotted the plane. The plane in question, an Airbus A330-300 devoid of passengers, arrived from Brussels to Tel Aviv for routine maintenance work with the Bedek Aviation...

Catholic bishops called Monday for the federal government's immigrant detention system to be dismantled, and predicted Pope Francis would address the issue when he visits the U.S. this fall. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a sobering report that tens of thousands of immigrants are housed in prison-like conditions that cause psychological harm and are inhumane and ineffective. That includes a large number of moms and little kids, because of a growth in family detention after last summer's spike in migration from Central America....