Free Republic

​Although critics of the Bible seem to find it objectionable whenever any biblical character is killed, the story of Jephthah and his daughter (Judg. 11:29–40) is frequently singled out for condemnation. Richard Dawkins describes this account as a “story of human sacrifice” that ended unhappily.1 Former preacher turned atheist Dan Barker says that Jephthah “found it hard to murder his daughter, but he was obligated by a vow to God to go through with it, and he did, without condemnation.”2Admittedly, even some Christian apologists say that Jephthah went through with a literal human sacrifice. Biblical scholar Walter Kaiser notes...

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney immediately called for increased gun control in the wake of an alarming incident where a convicted felon shot and wounded six police officers attempting to serve a drug-related warrant. “Our officers need help,” he told CBS News. “They need help. They need help with gun control. They need help with keeping these weapons out of these people’s hands.” He doubled down in his call for gun control when he told ABC News, “If the state and federal government don’t want to stand up to the NRA and other folks, let us police ourselves. Our officers deserve...

The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits rose moderately, pointing to sustained labor market strength despite slowing economic growth. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 215,000 for the week ended Aug. 24, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Data for the prior week was revised to show 2,000 more applications received than previously reported. Last week’s increase in claims was in line with economists’ expectations. The Labor Department said only claims for the Virgin Islands were estimated last week. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor...

This Monday marks Labor Day, a time when we transition from summer to fall, schools begin and football moves from preseason to regular season. For me, a southerner, it also is the time to store my white shoes and handbags and to pull out my fall clothes -- as soon as the temperatures drop. The first Labor Day was celebrated on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City. It had nothing to do with sales, shoes or football. Instead, it involved more than10,000 people who had taken an unpaid day from work and marched from City Hall to Union Square...

A Teenage Girl’s Murder Shows What Loyal and Disloyal Jews Are Are Jewish Democrats loyal to terrorists or to terror victims? August 29, 2019 Daniel Greenfield 43 Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. "Is there water in the spring?" Those were the last words that Danny heard on a hot day in June. The spring of Ein Bubin bursts forth in a valley surrounded by dusty hills, flows into a glittering pool, and waters a garden of fruit trees. But every garden...

All 53 Republican senators joined together Thursday to call out their Democratic colleagues for what they described as a left-wing "assault" on judicial independence in reference to a recent brief they said amounted to a threat to pack the court. In a letter to the Supreme Court, the senators warned about the danger posed by the Democrats who recently accused the conservative-majority court of being “not well” and suggested the public could demand it be “restructured” if it does not “heal itself.” This warning was part of a brief in which they argued that a case about a New York...

The Inspector General report on James Comey detailed the former FBI director’s misconduct at the agency, revealing he violated policy and set a “dangerous example” for FBI employees in his attempt to “achieve a personally desired outcome.”While Comey misrepresented the report’s findings, and actually asked for an apology, even CNN called it “very damning.” CNN reports on “damning” IG report on Comey violating FBI policeshttps://t.co/zTHFc6JQt4 pic.twitter.com/vMqYMttIia— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 29, 2019 “The report itself is still very damning for the former FBI director," reports political correspondent Sara Murray. "It goes on to say that James Comey violated FBI policies in...

SheÂ’d lived in the United States for years. An ICE agent acknowledged she posed no security risk. She regularly attended her local Baptist church. And her 18-year-old son was a U.S. citizen. But Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson rejected the Guatemalan migrantÂ’s request for release on bond, citing the womanÂ’s alleged use of an alias and a lack of witnesses to testify to her community ties. The decision left her son sobbing outside the courtroom. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 680 workers in Mississippi at the beginning of the month in the largest single-state operation in the agencyÂ’s 16-year history. Charges...

Australia: Muslim migrant sexually assaults 3-year-old girl, berates her mother for leaving her unattended AUG 29, 2019 2:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER Mohammad Hassan Al Bayati is a “refugee” from Iraq. Sexual assault occurs in all cultures, but only in Islam does it have divine sanction. One survivor of a Muslim rape gang in the UK said that her rapists would quote Quran to her, and believed their actions justified by Islam. The Qur’an teaches that Infidel women can be lawfully taken for sexual use (cf. its allowance for a man to take “captives of the right hand,” 4:3, 4:24,...

here is no doubt that Jim Comey was part of a conspiracy to destroy Donald Trump and his Presidency. But all the evidence is not yet on the record. There is some understandable frustration reverberating around the web that Comey is not being indicted in the wake of the latest Inspector General report detailing Jim Comey’s inappropriate and unethical handling of Government material. But that is not the role of the Inspector General. It is up to DOJ to prosecute and a careful reading of the current report makes clear that there was not adequate foundation to get an indictment...

Unlike the United States and Canada, where many wildfires are ignited by lightning strikes during the summer, large fires are not a typical, natural occurrence in the Amazon, particularly during non-drought years such as this one. [snip]Instead, most fires in the Amazon are caused by humans, set either accidentally or intentionally. Brazil's National Institute for Space Research found the country has lost more than 1,330 square miles of forest cover to development since January, when President Jair Bolsonaro took office. That's a 39 percent increase over the same period in 2018. July in particular featured a huge spike in forest...

It’s official — Mayor Bill de Blasio will be on the sidelines for the third round of the Democratic presidential primary debates. ABC — which is hosting the Sept. 12 affair in Houston — made the announcement on Thursday afternoon. The network confirmed that 10 candidates — the smallest debate field yet of the 2020 campaign season — met the Democratic National Committee’s entry requirements for the next showdown. The presidential hopefuls include: Former Vice President Joe Biden, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, California Sen. Kamala...

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed revoking Obama-era regulations on climate-changing methane leaks from many oil facilities, a move that environmental groups said was meant to renounce the agency’s overall legal authority to regulate the gas in the fight against global warming. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the proposed rule followed President Donald Trump’s directions to remove “unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens from the oil and gas industry.” The step would be the latest in a series easing the previous administration’s emissions controls on the oil, gas and coal industries, including a 2016 rule regulating oil-industry methane leaks as...

Pets are family, and whether you’re walking a veterinary client through their first euthanasia or their fifth, these are the most important things to keep in mind. When I first started Lap of Love (which, for perspective, was three months out of veterinary school), I thought everyone made the decision to euthanize their pet the same way. In short, my lack of experience let me assume it was simply when the family couldn’t afford the care or the pet was actively dying. In many cases, this is true. However, helping hundreds of families say goodbye to their pets in a...

There are people in every generation who believe the generation following theirs is either going to the dogs or will ruin the country. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll lends credence to that way of thinking, especially where Generation Z/millennials (those born in the mid-1990s to mid-2000s) and Generation X (those born in the early-to-mid 1960s to the early 1980s) are concerned. The poll of 1,000 adults earlier this month found that "younger generations rate patriotism, religion and having children as less important to them than did young people two decades ago." The poll contrasts with a similar survey...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who proposed “Green New Deal” climate change legislation, warned that melting glaciers could release ancient diseases that the modern world is incapable of handling. The first-term Democrat from New York said she woke up while on vacation at 3:30 in the morning worried about the consequences of climate change. “I’m 29 years old, I really struggle sometimes with the idea of how to be a policymaker, and potentially have a family in the time of climate change,” she said on Instagram live Tuesday, listing a number of ​impending ​environmental catastrophes like melting glaciers and rising sea levels....

Here is Gene Autry with Loaded Pistols and Loaded Dice (1948). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

Federal health officials issued a national warning Thursday against marijuana use by adolescents and pregnant women, as more states legalize the increasingly potent drug for medicinal and recreational use. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Surgeon General Jerome Adams made the announcement, with Azar calling marijuana “a dangerous drug.” Officials said President Donald Trump has donated $100,000 — one-quarter of his annual government salary — toward a digital campaign to raise awareness of the risks. Trump has forgone his official salary since taking office. The warning comes as legal marijuana has grown into a $10-billion industry in the...

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the sex trafficking case in New York against Jeffrey Epstein to be dismissed following the financier's death in a Manhattan jail earlier this month. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman signed a "nolle prosequi," ruling that the case will be dismissed, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Hill. “Because Jeffrey Epstein, the defendant, died while this case was pending, and therefore before a final judgment was issued, the Indictment must be dismissed under the rule of abatement,” the filing reads. The ruling does not mean that federal prosecutors can't still pursue...

HANOVER, N.H. — Joe Biden painted a vivid scene for the 400 people packed into a college meeting hall. A four-star general had asked the then-vice president to travel to Kunar province in Afghanistan, a dangerous foray into “godforsaken country” to recognize the remarkable heroism of a Navy captain. Some told him it was too risky, but Biden said he brushed off their concerns. “We can lose a vice president,” he said. “We can’t lose many more of these kids. Not a joke.” The Navy captain, Biden recalled Friday night, had rappelled down a 60-foot ravine under fire and retrieved...