Free Republic

Republican front-runner Donald Trump captures 45% of the GOP vote in a three way race with Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, the latest sign that party voters are ready to accept the outspoken real estate developer as their 2016 nominee. A new YouGov.com poll finds that in the three-way race, a potential situation after the first several primaries, Trump's support from those backing other candidates surges equally with Cruz and Rubio. And the reason, according to the new survey? Republicans appear more interested in having a "strong" and "bold" leader than a "true conservative." According to the poll, Trump...

Migrants arriving in Germany from North Africa are disproportionately likely to commit crime, police figures show - but deporting them isn't always straightforward. After the mass sexual attacks in Cologne and other cities which eyewitnesses and police have said were carried out by men of "north African appearance" migrants from the Maghreb region have come under the spotlight. Currently, 13 of the 19 people police are currently investigating in relation to the Cologne attacks come from the Maghreb - an area encompassing Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. [...] But capturing criminals who arrive in the country as asylum seekers is...

Michael Bloomberg keeps pouring $50 million into his Everytown organization to push gun control. That's just a portion of the money he's spending to push gun control. Bloomberg is spending money not just on the political battle, but also on funding research that he can use to push for more gun control and training the media on how to properly cover the issue. While everyone sees that Bloomberg's TV ad spending easily dwarfs what the NRA spends, what has gone unnoticed is how heavily he's spending on research. Few may have noticed how heavily President Obama's speech introducing his new...

Chancellor Angela Merkel overstepped her constitutional powers by letting over a million refugees into the country, one of Germany's most senior former judges has said. "Going it alone was an act of self-empowerment," Michael Bertrams, who was president of North Rhine-Westphalia's constitutional court from 1994 to 2013, wrote in the Koelnischer Stadt Anzeiger on Wednesday. Merkel's policy of opening Germany's doors to refugees was "full of empathy but lacking in a plan," the ex-judge said. ...

Please, tell us, Freep readers...There was an award-winning student film in which the flow of the characters' inner thoughts were spoken aloud on the sound track, at a lower volume than the conversation among the characters. A young man is having dinner with his girlfriends' parents. The Mom, Dad, Girlfriend and Boy are each contributing to the real conversation, then at a slightly lower volume, the audience can hear each of their inner thoughts spoken aloud at a slightly lower volume that distinguishes it as a separate track. (It's largely a kind of tag team between the parents' opinion of...

HUNDREDS OF students packed the library of the Academy at Palumbo High School in South Philly for yesterday's forum on Islamophobia, and supported their Muslim classmates with an outpouring of fervent finger snaps. Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160113_Palumbo_H_S__students_loudly_say__No___to_Islamophobia.html#IcmpwVAKiAzMFqUr.99

What We Can Learn About Suffering in the Story of Joseph the Patriarch Msgr. Charles Pope January 12, 2016 One of the greatest (but most painful) of mysteries is that of suffering and evil in the world. I was meditating with my Sunday school parents this past weekend on the Old Testament patriarch Joseph. His story is rich with lessons about family struggles, envy, jealousy, pride, mercy, and forgiveness. But it also has a lot to say about suffering and the way that God can use it to bring blessings.While there are many layers to Joseph's story, both personal...

President Barack Obama signaled in his final State of the Union address Tuesday night that fossil fuel companies could face higher charges when mining on federal lands. Obama said that he's going to push to change the way the federal government manages its oil and coal resources to better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and the planet.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines has offered the United States eight bases where it can build facilities to store equipment and supplies under a new security deal, a military spokesman said on Wednesday, amid rising tension with China over the South China Sea. Last year, the Philippines and the United States signed the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) granting Washington increased military presence in its former colony, rotating ships and planes for humanitarian and maritime security operations. "The list has been prepared many months ago when we had earlier discussions," Colonel Restituto Padilla told reporters, saying five military airfields, two...

A three-year-old migrant has allegedly been raped by multiple people at an asylum centre in the Norwegian city of Stavanger. Police are investigating the incident amid claims the boy was abused in the shared common area of the asylum centre, possibly within view of many people.

Last year, there were 452 suicide terror attacks across the world. Four hundred and fifty of them were committed by Muslims. Last month, Muslims pledging allegiance to ISIS murdered 14 people in San Bernardino, California. Last week, thousands of Muslims around Europe, from Germany to Sweden to Switzerland, sexually assaulted hundreds of young women on New Year's Eve. Just days ago, a Muslim man shot a Philadelphia cop at point-blank range and declared that he did it in the name of Islam. In response, Hillary Clinton declared, "Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with...

The ink is barely dry on legislation to lift a 40-year-old ban on exporting U.S. crude and energy companies already are jockeying to ship American oil overseas. Two tankers filled with freely traded U.S. oil have pulled out of Texas ports in the past two weeks, with more shipments expected. The first American oil sales abroad are flowing to Europe but, in the longer term, Latin America and Asia could become natural markets, according to industry experts. U.S. oil sales to foreign buyers have been quick to start after President Barack Obama signed the bill that abolished the crude export...

Hello I'm Wayne Allyn Root. It is a great honor to be here tonight representing the Tea Party and the American people in responding to "the State of the Union" address by President Barack Obama. I want to start by thanking the Tea Party Express and millions of Tea Party members for giving me your trust and this sacred responsibility. As a Washington DC outsider, patriot and anti-politician who believes in the American Dream and American exceptionalism, I am proud to follow previous Tea Party leaders who have delivered this response to President Obama in previous years - U.S. Senator...

I fought the United Nations and WON defending U.S. sovereignty. As President, I'll defend our Constitution!

Buchanan: Trump is sui generis, unlike any candidate of recent times. And his success is attributable not only to his stance on issues, but to his persona, his defiance of political correctness, his relish of political combat with all comers, his "damn the torpedos" charging in frontally where others refuse to tread, as in that full retaliatory response to Hillary Clinton's stab at him for having a "penchant for sexism." Trump shut her down. These clashes have elated a party base that is sick unto death of politicians who never fight. On building a fence to secure the border with...

Some historical leaders famously wrote resolutions to help them achieve lofty goals. Even if they didn't keep them perfectly, they probably came closer than if they had set their sights low. In that spirit, I humbly offer these model resolutions for real reform of our troubled state as we begin 2010. For government officials — Resolved, to read our constitutions and my oath of office and pursue no action that is not in strict fidelity to those documents; to pursue no policy that benefits my constituents at the expense of anyone else's; to maintain a voting record that matches my...

At least 14 people died this morning in the explosion of a bomb near a polio vaccination center in Quetta, Balochistan (south-west of Pakistan). Most of the victims were security guards patrolling the clinic. Another 20 people were injured. Minister of Balochistan province, Sarfaraz Bugti, said that the attack occurred before security officers began patrols around the structure: "We live in a war zone - he added - and I can say nothing about the nature of the explosion. " Pakistan, together with Afghanistan, is the only country in the world where polio is still endemic. Clinics for vaccination are...

WASHINGTON — President Obama used his seventh and final State of the Union address to deliver a rebuke to Donald Trump and other Republicans who want to undo his legacy — blasting politicians who "insult Muslims" and want to "slam the brakes on change." "America has been through big changes before — wars and depression, the influx of immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, and movements to expand civil rights," Obama told lawmakers of both parties gathered in the House chamber for the prime-time televised speech Tuesday night. "Each time, there have been those who told us to fear...

Nikki Haley, the South Carolina governor hand-picked by House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to give the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union addressed, confirmed Wednesday morning that she did indeed target GOP frontrunner Donald Trump and that the speech was approved in advance by Republican leaders.

Many believe that assurance of eternal salvation is neither possible nor even to be sought. To claim such assurance is considered a mask of supreme arrogance, the nadir of self-conceit. Yet if God declares that it is possible to have full assurance of salvation and even commands that we seek after it, it would be supremely arrogant for one to deny or neglect it. In fact, God does command us to seek certainty about our salvation: "Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never...