Free Republic

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says an EU-wide tax on petrol could help finance refugees and strengthen the bloc's borders. His comments come after sexual assaults by foreigners in Cologne caused uproar. "I've said if the funds in the national budgets and the European budget are insufficient, then let us agree to set up, for instance, a tax on a certain amount on each liter of gasoline," Schaeuble told the "Sueddeustche Zeitung" daily. "We have to secure Schengen's external borders now. The solution to these problems must not founder due to a limitation of funds," he added. Schaeuble went on to...

So, I've been chiming in on the Cruz bashing threads around here with my own bashes on Trump. When it comes down to it, I'd rather have Cruz win the nomination than Trump. BUT I'd rather have either of them win the nomination than Hillary. I'd rather have either of them win the nomination than Sanders. I'd rather have either of them win the nomination than Bush. I'd rather have either of them win the nomination than Huckabee. I'd rather have either of them win the nomination than Rubio. So, I'm done. I'm going to stop piling on in all...

Germany's ambassador to the Vatican, Annette Schavan, still sees religion as a peacemaker, despite wars and terrorism. In an interview with DW, she calls for more interfaith dialogue and respect between all religions. [...] 'There are warmongers who embrace religion. But that does not mean that religion promotes war. Religion has the great power to bring peace. People are upset by the numerous attacks and wonder, "Should we equate these images of violence with Islam?" One gets the impression that Islam is part of the problem. But that's not true. It must become clear that it is part of the...

Our government using sophisticated equipment to watch the Oregon protesters, and probably a lot of other Americans.

Super PACs supporting Republican Ted Cruz's presidential campaign released a new digital ad Sunday that counters rival Donald Trump's recent attacks on the senator from Texas by using Trump's own words. The 60-second spot is part of a coordinated six-figure buy by affiliated groups that call themselves Keep the Promise and are backed by Cruz's biggest donors. It comes hours after tensions between Trump and Cruz escalated when Trump told ABC's "This Week" that Cruz is a "very nasty guy." "Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. He's a...

See if you agree that she’s being snotty. Do all those scientists and the Pope have it wrong? asks Couric. “Satellite data show that for the last 17 years there has been no significant recorded warming,” Cruz calmly answers. “None.”It’as a partisan agenda, Cruz insists. The solution is always “more government control of the environment, of the economy, of energy, and our lives.” (Until watching this, I didn’t know that both of his Cruz’s parents were scientists.)Video at link.

Iranians burn US flags outside the former US embassy in Tehran on November 4, 2013, during a demonstration to mark the 34th anniversary of the 1979 US embassy takeover. Thousands of Iranians shouted "Death to America" as they demonstrated 34 years after Islamist students stormed the embassy compound in Tehran, holding 52 American diplomats hostage for 444 days. AFP/Getty Images Former House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra is genuinely worried about the fundamental changes President Barack Obama has made to American foreign policy, according to this 28-minute exclusive video interview for The Daily Caller News Foundation. A Michigan congressman for...

Hours after sanctions on Iran were lifted as a result of Barack Obama's nuclear deal, the president and his wife Michelle enjoyed a Saturday night out at a Mexican restaurant where they celebrated the first lady's 52nd birthday. On the menu: grasshopper tacos for $5. The Washington, DC restaurant Oyamel Cocina Mexicana is a low-key choice for dinner by presidential standards. The most expensive item on the dinner menu is the roasted lamb chop for $18.50. Oyamel has a three-and-a-half star rating on Yelp.....

In July 1985, Bernie Sanders traveled to Nicaragua, where he attended an event that one wire report dubbed an “anti-U.S. rally.” The leftist Sandinista government was celebrating the sixth anniversary of the revolution that saw it take power from an American-backed dictator, Anastasio Somoza. Sanders was in a crowd estimated at a half million people, many of whom were clad in the Sandinistas’ trademark red-and-black colors and chanting “Here, there, everywhere/the Yankee will die.”

TEL AVIV – A leading Muslim cleric and scholar who made headlines by claiming that gender equality is against Islam and women are only fit to deliver children is now hoping to spread his influence in the West with the construction of a new mosque in New Zealand. Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliar, leader of the traditionalist Sunni Muslim community in the southern Indian state of Kerala, visited New Zealand in January of this year in hopes of strengthening his base of followers in the city of Hamilton by building what he called “a beacon of Islam” in the area. At...

It is impossible for Muslims to integrate into Western Europe, the Czech President Milos Zeman told local television Sunday. Mr. Zeman also blamed the New Years Eve sex attacks in Cologne, Germany, on “Muslim culture”. Mr. Zelman has previously been outspoken on the migrant invasion flooding Europe and accused refugees “with iPhones” of exploiting their children to get asylum in the European Union (EU). As Breitbart London reported, last December the 71-year-old issued Europe with a call-to-arms to tackle the forces of Islamic state. “I am profoundly convinced that we are facing an organised invasion and not a spontaneous movement...

Cruz tells Chris Wallace he flipped his vote on crop insurance because he didn't realize what he was voting on. Blames his staff. https://youtu.be/1U3BNMK0x1A

The daughter of former President Bill Clinton and ex-secretary of state Hillary Clinton explained in a recent interview why she left lucrative professions and opted for working with her family’s philanthropic foundation. 'I was curious if I could care about (money) on some fundamental level, and I couldn't,' she said. Hillary Clinton insists she isn’t "well-off" and now daughter Chelsea, according to a recent interview, claims she couldn't care less about money. “I was curious if I could care about (money) on some fundamental level, and I couldn’t,” she told Fast Company in an interview that ran in the magazine's...

Iraq has sent an armoured army division and a police strike force into the southern oil city of Basra to disarm residents amid intensified feuding among rival Shi'ite Muslim tribes, local officials and security sources said on Friday. Forces had been deployed earlier to restore calm to rural areas running north of the city towards West Qurna and Majnoon oilfields on Wednesday, but a local official reassured foreign companies their assets were secure. "The oil companies and oil sites and the roads leading to them are completely safe. There are no concerns in this regard," said Sabah al-Bazouni, head of...

Watching Sean Penn on 60 minutes. PIORT

What does Donald Trump really think about Ted Cruz? Watch this video to see what he says behind closed doors.

The NBC News-YouTube Democratic presidential candidates' debate, hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley are gathered in Charleston, South Carolina for the live event at the Gaillard Center Theater. Coverage from South Carolina will be streamed online beginning at 8 p.m. ET on NBCNews.com and YouTube.com/NBCNews. The debate will air live on your local NBC station starting at 9 p.m. ET. Check here for more ways to watch the debate live.

A BRITISH teenager has spoken of how her clothes were ripped off in a horrifying sexual assault in Paris on New Year's Eve. The shocking revelation comes as tensions in Europe continue to rise over a wave of attacks against women, including scores being groped, robbed and even raped across Germany. Today, two teenagers from the UK have revealed they were harassed and attacked by groups of men during new year celebrations in the French capital. Klaudia Fior and Kamali Brown, both 18, told how they were groped and sexually assaulted by men in a large crowd around the Eiffel...

When they are in fashion, fads are never recognized as fads. Those under their influence and promoting them feel that they have come across An Important New Truth, or (if Orthodox) An Important But Neglected Part of Our Tradition. Recognizing them as fads or, (worse yet for Orthodox) as deviations from genuine Tradition, would only serve to dismiss them from serious consideration. Thus fads never ’fess up. I suggest that the latest interest in Universalism, the belief that everyone will eventually be saved, is the latest fad (or, if preferred, that it is currently fashionable). Evidence of this may be...

Women have reported being sexually assaulted on a train in Belgium AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after refugees as young as 12 YEARS OLD were arrested in connection with sexual assaults against women on a train. At least three young victims have come forward so far about attacks on a train from Brussels to Tournai, Belgian police confirmed. The alarm was raised by a woman who reported sexual assault to the police after her screams were heard by fellow passengers. The victim was sitting alone on the Belgian train when three boys surrounded her and "threw themselves" at her...