Free Republic

We are fragile mortals, given to fears of every sort. We have a built-in insecurity that no amount of whistling in the dark can mollify. We seek assurance concerning the things that frighten us the most. The prohibition uttered more frequently than any other by our Lord is the command "Fear not." He said this so often to His disciples and others He encountered that it almost came to sound like a greeting. Where most people greet others by saying "Hi" or "Hello," the first words of Jesus very often were "Fear not." Why? Perhaps Jesus' predilection for those words...

Analysis: Friday will see the removal of the sanctions regime imposed on Iran since 2007, and Russia is already deep in talks with Tehran on the sale of advanced weapons. Most of the economic sanctions imposed on Iran will be removed on Friday, US State Department officials said, while Russia readies the sale of advanced weapons to the Islamic Republic. January 15 will mark the end of the international sanctions regime, which has been in place since 2007 through a series of decisions by American Presidents George W. Bush and Barak Obama, legislation passed by the US Congress and in...

Support is building for the US House of Representatives to muster the courage to block implementation of the flawed "deal" with Iran, and the only way to do so is to enjoin the administration from dropping sanctions. This was the message delivered in a just-published op-ed by Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey and former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge. A bipartisan group of 105 congressmen wrote to US President Barack Obama asking that he freeze the Iran nuke deal, since "the Iranians have already violated critical provisions on multiple occasions just months into the agreement." Ferment among legislators has delayed emergence...

While the media is focusing your attention on the shiny object that is her email server, the real story is not being told. The circumstantial evidence indicates that Hillary Clinton, or members of her inner circle with her connivance, purloined highly classified US intelligence and either sold it, traded it, or used it for personal gain. This is not a conspiracy theory and it is not hyperbole. Stick with me for a moment. (excerpt) If you are interested in the permutations of security classifications at the TS level, this is a good primer. The focus here is TK. This document...

Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy has spoken out in defence of his country’s Jewish population as he was honoured for protecting France’s Jews at a dinner in central London on Sunday night. The Conference of European Rabbis presented the politician, who is expected run for a second term in office in 2017, with an award in honour of his efforts to support French Jewry as interior minister and later president. He said: “We do not want French Jews to leave France because they are afraid. We want them to be comfortable to wear a kippah. We must stand up to...

Proper liberal credentials trump all the usual forms of identity politics. In the 21st century, doctrinaire liberalism is synonymous with hypocrisy. Or maybe it is better seen as career insurance, providing exemption from all the many paradoxes of a leftist worldview. The rich supporter of affirmative action still uses, without apology, the old-boy network to pull privileged strings to get his own son admitted to the proper college. Al Gore flies on a carbon-spewing private jet, saving the planet by getting to conferences more quickly and enjoyably. High-tax proponent John Kerry docks his yacht where he can avoid taxes; how...

Arch Coal filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday, continuing an industry collapse that includes the bankruptcies of Patriot Coal, Walter Energy and Alpha Natural Resources. The White House must be cheering, because this is one Obama energy policy that seems to be working. As President Obama prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address Tuesday, we wonder if he'll take pride in the damage his policies have done to the coal industry. According to the National Mining Association, 40,000 coal jobs have been lost in the U.S. since 2008. The wealth destruction has been equally dramatic. Peabody...

'I was thinking to myself, "How are we going to get out of this situation? This is pretty dire"' The cougar leapt from the bushes behind them. "It froze and started hissing at us," said Donald Lauder. He and his friend, Samantha Lean, both from Australia, were out for a bike ride in Alberta's Jasper National Park earlier this week. They left their bikes at the highway and walked through the brush down toward the river. About 200 metres down the path, they heard rustling in the brush. Nervous, she picked up a big stick. He picked up rocks. The...

It looks like the Malheur Wildlife Refuge is 'under new management'. Yesterday the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom group including Ammon and Ryan Bundy, Ryan Payne, John Ritzheimer and others went to a section of the refuge five miles south of the headquarters area they have been occupying. There they used their hands and an excavator belonging to the US Fish and Wildlife Service to remove 25 to 30 yards of fence. The purpose of the fence removal was to help a local ranching family feed their 600 cattle. When the government put up the fence last year, it cut off...

They’ve left no notes behind. And it’s fairly certain they’re not doing it for the insurance money. But “suicidal deer” are apparently such a big problem in Paxton, Ill. that its county is installing signs to warn drivers. Calling the deer “suicidal,” of course, may be something of a misnomer. More likely, they just don’t know to be cautious around speeding vehicles with bright headlights. But whatever the reason, it’s certainly an issue in Paxton: 33 vehicle collisions with deer were reported in 2015, according to The Paxton Record. Button Township Highway Commissioner Ron Hilligoss stumbled onto the idea of...

The oil bust that has cost the United States roughly 70,000 energy jobs has become more severe than any downturn in 45 years, Morgan Stanley said Monday, as crude prices fell a sixth day. Crude prices tumbled below $32 a barrel on Monday, and over the past 19 months have plunged further and for a longer time than even the 1986 oil bust that deeply bruised the Texas economy. Morgan Stanley says the five major downturns since 1970 no longer can be a credible guide as the oil market enters "uncharted territory." "No floor in oil prices has been found...

Animated Colombian Parakeet (Perija) that is listed as critically endangered and is a threatened species, quoting biblical scripture.

It required only half a minute for the mayor of Philadelphia, Democrat Jim Kenney, to achieve national fame. On Friday, an already sensation-crowded day, it fell to the mayor to take part in the official pronouncements on the attempted murder of city police officer Jesse Hartnett, shot and severely wounded as he sat in his patrol car when a would-be assassin emptied his gun at him--13 shots in all. Police Commissioner Richard Ross Jr., appointed just three days earlier, delivered the details with noteworthy eloquence: The wounded officer, bleeding heavily from three wounds, one arm useless, had gotten himself out...

What did Hillary Clinton get the Donald for his wedding? Apparently, nothing. During the Fusion network’s Brown & Black Democratic forum on Monday night in Des Moines, Clinton was asked what she got the Republican frontrunner when she attended his 2005 wedding to model Melania Knauss. “Nothing, nothing,” she said. “He was basically a Democrat before he was a Republican,” Clinton explained. “He was, you know, somebody we all knew in New York, and he was supportive of Democrats and supportive of a lot of causes I care about and people I knew cared about." "Now he seems to have...

The MSA Defeats New York The most influential Islamic "student organization" unveils its Islamist colors. January 12, 2016 John Perazzo New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his police commissioner have agreed to settle a federal lawsuit that the Muslim Students Association (MSA)--along with a few other plaintiffs--filed against the New York Police Department in 2012. In its complaint, the MSA charged that the civil rights of Muslims were being violated by the NYPD's use of informants and plainclothes detectives to monitor various Islamic institutions--particularly MSA chapters--in the New York/New Jersey area. The de Blasio settlement explicitly bans...

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and actress-model Jerry Hall are to get married. They announced their engagement in the births, marriages and deaths section of the Times newspaper, which is owned by Mr Murdoch's News Corporation company. It will be the fourth marriage for Mr Murdoch, 84, and the first for Miss Hall, 59, although she lived with singer Sir Mick Jagger for many years. The new relationship reportedly began in the summer. A spokesman said: "They have loved these past months together." They were "thrilled to be getting married and excited about their future", he added. Australian-born Mr Murdoch, who...

California Capital Hosts Refugee Case Iraqi refugee lied about activities abroad. January 12, 2016 Lloyd Billingsley The question of refugees and their links to terrorism got a showcase last Friday in California, a state where on December 2 in San Bernardino Islamic terrorists Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik gunned down 14 people. The recent case centers on Iraqi refugee Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, 23, who came to the United States in 2012 and drew a rather favorable review in the Sacramento Bee. Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab "appears to be a typical young man trying to make it...

Leaders of Designated Terrorist Group Invited to State of the Union Guess who gets a front row seat to watch the President? January 12, 2016 Joe Kaufman When President Barack Obama takes the stage tonight for his State of the Union address to the American people, he will be doing so with at least two individuals associated with terrorism seated in front of him. The individuals, Nezar Hamze and Sameena Usman, are leaders of CAIR and have involvement with Islamic Relief, two groups that have been named terrorist organizations by the government of United Arab Emirates (UAE). Nezar Hamze...

Ciara sang the national anthem at the Alabama-Clemson national title game on Monday night. She did a wonderful job and looked beautiful. However, she showed rather a lot of skin for 8:30 p.m. on a weeknight. People took notice and offence.

The Census Bureau has delivered its annual Christmas gift to demographic junkies: its estimates of the populations of the 50 states and the District of Columbia for mid-2015. They show where the nation has been growing since the April 2010 Census headcount, a period that follows the end of the 2007-2009 recession and includes three-fourths of the Obama presidency. They show what states Americans have been moving in and out of, and what states have attracted the most immigrants. They're worth looking at, because the cold precision of the numbers provides clues to the warm impulses of human hearts, where...