Free Republic

A Brooklyn lawmaker is accusing Major League Baseball of disrespecting 9/11 first responders by refusing to allow the Mets to wear caps honoring the heroes on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks. City Councilman Justin Brannan fired off a scathing letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred last week demanding the league let the Mets wear caps emblazoned with “NYPD,” “FDNY” and other first-responder agencies for the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Any other teams wishing to do so should be allowed also, Brannan wrote. The Bay Ridge-based Democrat made the plea after MLB rejected the team’s latest request...

DUBAI (Reuters) - The attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities on Saturday that has threatened global oil supplies came from the direction of Iran, and cruise missiles may have been used, according to a senior U.S. official.

After being presented with the Mariners Franchise Achievement Award -- the first player to receive the honor -- Ichiro talked for five minutes [without his interpreter] about his appreciation for the support he received in Seattle and across the Major Leagues after coming to the U.S. to pursue his baseball dreams. “This is a happy occasion...When I came to Seattle in 2001, no position player had ever come from Japan before. The one you got was 27 years old, small and skinny. “And I know, you had every reason not to accept me. However, you welcomed me with open arms...

There is one teaching that most Protestants readily recognize as Catholic, and it is usually received with derision: the prohibition of artificial means of birth control. The Protestants in my circles often disparage this teaching with little knowledge of Humanae Vitae, perhaps the most significant document to address birth control over the last one hundred years. Our distaste for things Roman Catholic, dating back to the sixteenth century, has deprived us of a wealth of theological wisdom...Our acceptance of most forms of birth control is not helping us teach the next generation about sex and sexuality. It is time for...

Country music has been having an identity crisis since it crawled out of the cradle. Call it diffuse or call it elastic, but it has always run on two tracks: one was rough and one was slick, one rooted in tradition, the other more modern. Think about that serendipitous August in 1927 in Bristol, Tennessee, when, two days apart, both Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family auditioned for the Victor Talking Machine Company (which would ultimately become RCA Records). Ralph Peer, the record company’s producer and talent scout, immediately signed both acts. That was a big week for country...

Republican House leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-CA., told Fox New’s Sunday Future’s host Maria Bartiromo that the origination of the FBI probe into President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016 and what followed ‘was the closest thing to a coup that anyone has ever seen." Moreover, he noted that the actions and evidence gathered regarding many former Obama Administration officials and bureaucrats like former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok, former FBI Attorney Lisa Page, former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe reveal that they were attempting to frame Trump. Last week, the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu recommended moving...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is preparing to go all Hulk on Brexit. “The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets,” ​Johnson told the Sunday Mail. “Hulk always escaped, no matter how tightly bound in he seemed to be – and that is the case for this country. We will come out on October 31 and we will get it done.” ​Johnson’s comments were published a day before he is scheduled to meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Luxembourg.

13 hrs ago Brown scores in Pats debut, almost wrecks himself after Dem candidates call for Kavanaugh's impeachment KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban on Sunday revoked their ban on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghanistan and gave a guarantee of security for its staff doing humanitarian work in areas under their control. Taliban leaders imposed a ban on the ICRC and the World Health Organization (WHO) in April saying the organizations were carrying out "suspicious" activities during vaccinations campaigns and not sticking to their declared missions. "The Islamic Emirate restores the former security guarantees to ICRC...

“Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael said to Him, ‘How do You know me?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’ Nathanael answered Him, ‘Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel’” (John 1:47–49). Of all the apostles, Nathanael had one of the more interesting first encounters with Jesus. After Philip told him he had found the Messiah—“Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”—Nathanael was skeptical. His...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters marched in front of Frankfurt's IAA car show on Saturday to demand a swift end to combustion engines and a shift to environmentally friendly vehicles as Chancellor Angela Merkel's government prepares to unveil climate protection measures. Police in Frankfurt said some 15,000, including many cyclists, took part in the march. Organizers put the number at 25,000 and said that around 18,000 cyclists had descended on the city. Protesters took aim at SUVs, seen by environmentalists as a highly polluting status symbol that has no place in cities. "STOP SUV," "SUV not cool," and "We...

An SAS officer armed with a shotgun has killed five jihadis during a dawn raid, it has been reported. The intense fire fight was over in just seven seconds, and quickly led to the militant group's surrender of the stronghold. The covert operation took place on an Islamic State outpost in Baghdad, Iraq. Several other terrorists emerged from the building but immediately surrendered and began panicking as two of the bodies didn’t have heads – they thought they were about to be executed.'

Government and tech platforms each say the other should be doing more, raising questions about 2020 preparedness U.S. national-security officials traveled to Silicon Valley last week to forge deeper ties with big tech companies in hopes of better protecting the 2020 election from foreign intervention. It didn’t go entirely as planned.At the meeting organized by Facebook Inc. at its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Shelby Pierson—named over the summer to lead the U.S. intelligence community’s new election-threats group—delivered a blunt message to the assembled executives: You need to share more data with us about your users.The executives and other U.S. officials in...

Democrats advanced a new measure this week to encourage states to pass “red flag” laws. These so-called extreme risk protection orders authorize removing guns and ammunition from individuals deemed as dangerous by some anonymous, unaccountable person, but it would not include the ready-made lists of gang members. Republicans tried to add an amendment including known gang members, but the Democrats will not permit the inclusion of gang databases. It’s odd since gangs are the ones causing most of the so-called gun violence. They would agree to include the names of white supremacists, but not other terror groups.

Brace opened the Newsboys Lodging House at 9 Duane St., in the building then owned by the New York Sun. At this location, he would do much more than provide a clean bed. He opened savings accounts for the kids, gave them books and healthy food — all part of a larger vision. “Those who have much to do with plans of human improvement,” he wrote, “see how superficial and comparatively useless all assistance or organization is which does not touch . . . the inner forces which form character.” Many of his charges (including girls, housed in their own “industrial school”)...

Poor abused refugees. See the video.

WSJ: Saudi Aramco (state oil company) "has determined that its facilities were hit by missiles", and up to 15 structures at Abqaiq plant were damaged (according to a US official)

A Florida man who dragged a shark to its death from a high-speed boat has been jailed for 10 days. Robert Benac III will pay a $2,500 fine, perform 250 hours of service at an animal shelter and lose his fishing licence for three years after pleading guilty to misdemeanour of animal cruelty. Benac accepted the plea deal just as he was about to go on trial on Thursday for a more severe felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals, according to The Bradenton Herald. A second man, Michael Wenzel, accepted a similar plea deal over the incident in February...

ABC host George Stephanopoulos mentioned Cruz's warning that Texas could be a potential background state in the 2020 presidential election and noted that five Republican House members from the state have come forward saying they would not seek reelection next year. Cruz claimed that the third Democratic presidential debate in Houston on Thursday was a "very bad night" for Democrats because the candidates did not mention the economy's relative strength through the third quarter of this year. "If you look at Thursday night, the entire night of the debate, not a single Democrat talked about jobs, not a single Democrat...

...‘The closest we’ve ever seen to a coup’ House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., promised that guilty parties will be held accountable after Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz releases his report on the FBI's alleged abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in the Russia investigation, and predicted that former bureau leaders James Comey and Andrew McCabe will face criminal charges after what he described as an attempted "coup" to take down President Trump.[snip]"We came the closest ever to this country having a coup, and now we need accountability," McCarthy told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures." "I respect...

Though millions around the world continue to enjoy the James Bond films, some believe that Ian Fleming's famous, womanizing MI6 agent has not aged well. A number of people, including former Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, believe that it is time for the franchise to introduce a female James Bond to reflect the fact that times have changed. Of course, not everyone agrees. Valerie Leon starred as a Bond girl twice: once in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me with Roger Moore and again in 1983's Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery. She recently appeared on Good Morning Britain to...