Free Republic

Editor’s Note: This column was coauthored by David L. Phillips.Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to “cleanse” northern Syria of Kurds. Though the term “ethnic cleansing” originated during the Bosnian War in the 1990s, genocide and ethnic cleansing are functionally interchangeable. Both are crimes against humanity to which the U.S. must be adamantly opposed. The term “genocide” was coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1943 who explained, "I became interested in genocide because it happened so many times. It happened to the Armenians, then after the Armenians, Hitler took action." Genocide was the legal basis of the Nuremberg Trials, which prosecuted...

NYPD officers will now have to stop referring to dangerously unhinged people as “emotionally disturbed persons”. This is part of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new $37 million program to deal with serious mental health emergencies in the city.

CINCINNATI — If you have health insurance, it's easy to take access to doctors for granted. But the reality is: Many groups of people go without health care for even the simplest medical conditions because they do not know where to turn. A University of Cincinnati medical student is helping solve that problem. In between classes, exams and coffee-fueled clinics, Caroline Hensley noticed a void that needed to be filled -- health care for the uninsured.

The search for the perfect impeachable offense against President Trump is reminiscent of overzealous prosecutors who target the defendant first and then search for the crime with which to charge him. Or to paraphrase the former head of the Soviet secret police to Stalin: show me the man and I will find you the crime. All civil libertarians should be concerned about an Alice in Wonderland process in which the search for an impeachable crime precedes the evidence that such a crime has actually been committed. Under our constitutional system of separation of powers, Congress may not compel the Executive...

This weekend, cyclist Rachel McKinnon won a world championship in Manchester England…again.I understand that for casual sports enthusiasts (those who don’t subscribe to ESPN’s “The Ocho”), this information might not seem particularly newsworthy. Stay with me, it’s about to get interesting. Rachel McKinnon is a biological male. And Rachel just won gold in the women’s 2019 Masters Track Cycling World Championships for the second year in a row.Before you question whether men should be competing in female athletics based on gender identity, consider these words from Rachel: “I have yet to meet a real champion who has a problem with...

The Florida Senate on Wednesday voted to permanently oust suspended Broward Sheriff Scott Israel over his officers' response to the mass shooting that killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. The GOP-controlled state Senate voted 25-15 in favor of Israel’s permanent removal. “I hope the outcome provides some measure of relief to the Parkland families that have been doggedly pursuing accountability,” Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said in a statement after the vote.

Morning "The trees of the Lord are full of sap." Psalm 104:16 Without sap the tree cannot flourish or even exist. Vitality is essential to a Christian. There must be life--a vital principle infused into us by God the Holy Ghost, or we cannot be trees of the Lord. The mere name of being a Christian is but a dead thing, we must be filled with the spirit of divine life. This life is mysterious. We do not understand the circulation of the sap, by what force it rises, and by what power it descends again. So the life within...

In a campaign video, Joe Biden claims he met with all families affected by the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut. But at least one family member who lost a loved one in the bloody massacre – in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults – claims Biden is distorting the facts. "The issue of gun violence has been a concern of mine for a long, long time," Biden says in the video. "What really got to me though, really firsthand, was what happened up at Sandy Hook.

Agula von Stauff was born into a noble Bavarian family in 1492, the year Columbus made his first voyage of discovery to the Americas. Taught to read early, when she was ten, Argula’s father gave her a beautiful German Bible, printed by Koberger in 1483. Argula eagerly read the Bible until some Franciscan preachers discouraged her, warning that trying to understand the Bible would confuse her. As a teenager, Argula was sent to the court of Kunigunde, the Duchess of Bavaria and sister of Emperor Maximillian. There were often spiritual discussion in Kunigunde’s household, and Argula began reading the Bible...

It didn't take long for the Trump campaign to figure out how to troll Joe Biden moments after the former vice president's campaign announced a Latino voter outreach program on Wednesday. Biden, who spent the day campaigning across Pennsylvania and Iowa, announced "Todos Con Biden," a "national network of Latino supporters" working to help elect the former vice president earlier on Wednesday. But there's one problem. The Biden campaign failed to purchase www.todosconbiden.com, or even lock down the @TodosConBiden Twitter handle before announcing the new effort -- prompting the president's reelection team to do what it does best: troll. Now,...

The New York Times and CNN co-sponsored the recent Democratic presidential debate. The New York Times has not endorsed a Republican for president since 1956. Prior to the Mueller report, the influential paper published story after story about alleged Russian collusion with the Trump presidential campaign. Project Veritas, the investigative reporting outfit that uses undercover video, recorded CNN employees complaining about the cable news organization's anti-Trump agenda. On one video, a voice, identified as CNN president and CEO Jeff Zucker, can be heard all but instructing his staffers to focus on impeachment, to the exclusion of what taped staffers say...

More than a few exasperated pro-Trump folks have been asking, “What’s taking the Justice Department’s Inspector General so long to release his findings?” The answer? It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter when it’s released and it won’t matter what’s in it. Listen, I hate to be Debbie Downer here but the anticipation surrounding this report is rooted in the hope and sincere belief that its pages contain such shocking detail of government abuses and corruption within our intelligence agencies the nation will roil as one with cries for justice and vindication for Donald Trump! Sorry. It’s not going to happen....

You can forget about the Senate doing anything effective about the sham non-impeachment process being run by Adam Schiff and San Fran Nan. – House Republicans are on their own on this deal. Lindsey Graham gave that reality away during the first minute of his appearance on Sean “Tick-Tock” Hannity’s tediously-repetitive program on Fox News last night: Here’s the crucial exchange: Hannity: Adam Schiff is now a fact witness – would you be able to call him to testify before your committee? Graham: I doubt it. The whole impeachment inquiry has been referred to the [Senate] Intelligence Committee. Oh. Graham...

Anyone really believe the pearl-clutching class was actually upset about President Trump comparing the secret impeachment inquiry into him to a lynching? Democrats could barely catch their breath as they expressed their outrage over the tweet, and self-promoting TV conservatives fell right in line. What some people will do to maintain contracts that allow them to avoid honest work and having marketable skills or talent.Lost, or ignored, in all the MSNBC peacocking, CNN posturing, and House and Senate pandering was the fact that Donald Trump was absolutely correct.Words have meanings. That everyone understands this and knows those meanings is what...

In the Bible, the people of Babel unite in fighting God; they decide to build a massive tower to challenge God's supremacy. God, annoyed by their presumption, promptly causes them to speak a variety of tongues, dividing them and ending the foolhardy project. The story represents a simple truth: unity relies, at least in large part, on shared language. In the United States, we're watching our shared language disintegrate. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump fired off one of his infamously impassioned tweets about the Democrats' impeachment inquiry. Frustrated by Democrats' lack of clarity on process with regard to that...

Just a music video

One of the most common pro-abortion arguments is that legalization keeps abortion safe. The rationale goes something like this: whether people like it or not, some women will always seek out abortions. No matter what other services or programs are offered to help with crisis pregnancies, abortion is so needed, so necessary, that keeping it legal is the only way to keep women fully safe. When legislation is brought up to limit abortion to certain gestational periods (such as before 20 weeks) or to limit abortions to only ambulatory surgical centers, abortion advocates oppose these measures, claiming it places undue...

Major League Baseball is investigating a tweet from a longtime umpire who said there would be a “cival war” if the House moves to impeach President Trump. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed to ESPN that the organization is involved in the incident, which began when umpire Rob Drake, 50, tweeted late Tuesday that he was going to buy an AR-15 rifle “because if you impeach MY PRESIDENT this way, YOU WILL HAVE ANOTHER CIVAL WAR!!! #MAGA2020”

FULL TITLE: 'Outnumbered' reacts to San Francisco's abortion law blacklist: 'Not following the Ellen-President Bush example' The city of San Francisco's decision to blacklist business with companies from 22 states that have “restrictive abortion laws" is isolating and not a good idea, the "Outnumbered" hosts agreed Tuesday. Starting in January of 2020, the mandate forbids city-funded travel to those states and bans city employees from making new deals with businesses headquartered there. San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced the measure last week. In a statement, Breed said: “Every day in this country, women’s reproductive rights are threatened, and we have...

MANCHESTER—Wow! This biological male raced a bunch of women on her bike, and you won't believe what happened next! The inspiring tale began when Rachel McKinnon, a biological male and self-described transgender woman, went to race against biological women. While you'd expect that the competition would be even, since men and women are the same and in no way are there any biological differences between the two genders, this wasn't the case. What happened next will shock you. McKinnon crushed all of them. They didn't stand a chance. It was almost like she had a biological advantage, but we had...