Free Republic

A young mother-to-be was left terrified by her pregnancy scan because it looked like she was growing a 'devil baby' inside her - when her daughter looked at the camera and grinned. Iyanna Carrington, 17, from Richmond, Virginia, was at her 24-week gender scan when the midwife showed her the tiny baby's 'beautiful' face - before breaking the news she was a girl. But when she rolled the doppler over Iyanna's bump a second time to give her one last look, the teenager was left 'scared' as her baby flashed a bizarre 'grin' at her with wide open eyes. But...

In the 8th century, the Great Imam, Abu Hanifa (699-767), coined the term "House of Islam" (Dar al-Islam) as those places where Muslims enjoyed peace and security under the rule of an Islamic government. The rest of the world Hanifa designated Dar al-Harb or "the House of War." Hanifa's triumphalist worldview had been earned by Islamic armies that had already defeated both the Byzantine and Persian superpowers in their first century of existence. In Hanifa's own lifetime, these Prophet-inspired warriors rolled unabated across Buddhist Central Asia and South Asian Hindustan. By the time of Abu Hanifa's writing, Islamic kingdoms stretched...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued his verbal assault on the Federal Reserve, which he blames for slowing the economy, tweeting that the central bank should cut interest rates to zero or even set negative interest rates. The president also called Fed officials “boneheads” in the tweet.

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Old Testament) Daniel 4 The Dream Is Fulfilled 28 All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” 31 Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven, “This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. 32 You will be driven away from...

One of two ways that Pacific Northwest farmers get their wheat to export in Portland has been shut down after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stopped barge traffic on the Columbia River around the Bonneville Dam after a crack was found on a critical part of one of its massive locks. With the navigation lock inoperable, barges can’t push upstream from Bonneville Dam, which is about 40 miles upstream from Portland. The broken lock is also preventing barges hauling wheat, logs and other freight from Idaho, Oregon and Washington from reaching port. The crack was discovered late last week,...

“9/11” will always be remembered as one of the most horrific and catastrophic events ever in U.S. history. It sobers the mind that such a series of horrific events actually happened in the United States of America. America was completely and totally caught off guard. No one, seemingly, could ever imagine that such a day could have taken place here on U.S. soil. The events that followed were beyond anyone’s conception. What transpired on that September 11th morning came as a thief in the night to a sleeping and apathetic nation. It was a beautiful morning on that Tuesday of...

Feedback please from our fellow FReepers on our new The 9/11 Attacks: Understanding Al-Qaeda and the Domestic Fall-Out from America's Secret War piece, whose intro is below: With American military personnel now entering service who were not even alive on 9/11, this seems an appropriate time to reexamine the events of September 11, 2001 – the opaque motives for the attacks, the equally opaque motives for the counter-offensive by the United States and its allies known as the Global War on Terror, and the domestic fall-out for Americans concerned about the erosion of their civil liberties on the homefront. Before venturing further,...

Here’s the complete Week 3 [sic] college football schedule with dates, matches, locations, kickoff times and TV channels.

Sometimes things not mentioned are worth mentioning. We see post after post of political rantings and anti-Trump blather from entertainers, musicians, etc., that put a damper or flat-out ruin what we'd hoped would be a good time. I went to see The Who's "Moving On" concert yesterday and felt it was worth posting that there was not a SINGLE hint of anything political, anti-American, or anti-Trump anywhere throughout the event. We frequently repeat the mantra of "shut up and sing", and The Who did just that. This post isn't meant to be a review of the show itself. You can...

Hillary Clinton visited an art exhibit in Venice, Italy this week which displayed 60,000 pages of her ’emails’ she sent over her private server. The artist, Kenneth Goldsmith, printed up 60,000 pages of Hillary Clinton’s emails that somehow managed to survive her BleachBit spree and called the exhibit, “HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails.” “Donald Trump said, ‘Where are her emails? Lock her up!’ And I said, ‘You know what? Here they are, and there’s really nothing to them.’ It’s kind of an anti-monument,” Goldsmith told artnet News. “Trump literally made a mountain out of a molehill.” Hillary mocked Americans and...

Morning "Be ye separate." 2 Corinthians 6:17 The Christian, while in the world, is not to be of the world. He should be distinguished from it in the great object of his life. To him, "to live," should be "Christ." Whether he eats, or drinks, or whatever he does, he should do all to God's glory. You may lay up treasure; but lay it up in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, where thieves break not through nor steal. You may strive to be rich; but be it your ambition to be "rich in faith," and good works....

(CNN)Austin, Texas, will set aside city funds for abortion support resources, echoing efforts by other progressive strongholds despite a new state law barring cities from paying for abortions. An amendment in the city's 2020 budget will set aside $150,000 for "logistical and supportive services for abortion access" such as "transportation, child care, case management, and other services as needed," the amendment reads. The amendment was added to the budget with only one objector before the council -- which includes the mayor as a voting member -- passed the budget overall 10-1 on Tuesday. The move by Austin, a Democratic hub...

I first wrote about Rick Rescorla in 2003 after finishing James Stewart’s Heart of a Soldier, the book based on Stewart’s New Yorker article “The real heroes are dead.” (“The real heroes are dead” is what Rescorla would say in response to recognition of his heroism on the battlefield in Vietnam.) It’s a good book that touches on profound themes in a thought-provoking way: life and death, love and friendship, heroism and sacrifice, destiny and fate, man’s search for meaning, all fall within the book’s compass. Rescorla was a British native who moved to the United States to join the...

Loved his work but his was a life was talent and burned bridges,even to his own body. Now at 77 he wants to make amends, knowing he has limited time left. Goes on tour knowing he may not finish it. 8 stents, diabetes, new liver. Acknowledged he has no friends. We were all put on this earth to do something so he'll die soon making music. He hurt a lot of people but he did it his way. Glad he hit bottom and cleaned himself up in jail. It saved his life. Did he hurt people he didn't know like...

In the swing state of North Carolina, it was happy-dance time for the beleaguered Republicans. Two hotly contested congressional races both went solidly into the GOP camp, helping the Republicans in the crazies-run House. State Sen. Dan Bishop won in the 9th district, and Greg Murphy won in the 3rd district and both will now get the opportunity to tell Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that they are out to lunch. It was a conservative blowout. Five thing stick out about it now:

Where were you on 9/11/2001?

September 11 is known in our times as the date of a cowardly suicide attack by Islamic radicals which resulted in the massacre of over 3,000 innocents in New York City in 2001. But on September 11 nearly five hundred years ago, another Islamic attack was coming to its ignominious conclusion for the invaders. For on this date in AD 1565, the Great Siege of Malta was drawing to a close. The Turkish army, under the command of Mustapha Pasha, was making preparation for withdraw after a stunning defeat by the Knights of Saint John after a four month long...

A judge in North Dakota ruled against the state's recent law requiring physicians to tell patients that their medication abortions may reversed, a claim he called "devoid of scientific support, misleading, and untrue." In a 24-page decision issued Tuesday morning, Judge Daniel Hovland granted the American Medical Association and Red River Women's Clinic — North Dakota's only abortion provider — a preliminary injunction against North Dakota House Bill 1336, which would have required physicians to tell patients "that it may be possible to reverse the effects of an abortion-inducing drug if she changes her mind, but time is of the...

President Trump might not want to look at a new poll conducted by Univision and the University of Houston. The survey shows six Democratic presidential candidates leading the incumbent in Texas. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has the healthiest lead over Trump — a 48 percent to 42 percent edge. Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden has Trump beat 47 percent to 43 percent, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is ahead 44 percent to 42 percent. Those three, frequently considered the front-runners in the Democratic primaries, don't come as a huge surprise, but Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.)...

NFL Live Thread: Week 2 Thursday, September 12, 2019 (All Times Eastern) Tampa Bay at Carolina 8:20 pm NFL Network Bank of America Stadium Sunday, September 15, 2019 L.A. Chargers at Detroit 1:00 pm CBS Ford Field Jacksonville at Houston 1:00 pm CBS NRG Stadium Minnesota at Green Bay 1:00 pm FOX Lambeau Field Seattle at Pittsburgh 1:00 pm FOX Heinz Field San Francisco at Cincinnati 1:00 pm FOX Paul Brown Stadium Indianapolis at Tennessee 1:00 pm CBS Nissan Stadium New England at Miami 1:00 pm CBS Hard Rock Stadium Dallas at Washington 1:00 pm FOX FedEx Field Buffalo at...