Free Republic

In the hunt for the BCS playoffs seedings are the usual suspects with Ohio State, Clemson and two members of the Southeast Conference (neither one named Alabama) vying for one or both of the other spots in the four school playoffs. Pac 12 Utah and Big 12 schools Baylor and Oklahoma also maintain outside chances if everything falls into place and goes their way. It is a low percentage shot, one even on which the bookies aren’t willing to provide odds, but it is better than a number of schools that are ranked in the 25 but will only be...

The cold drizzle, empty seats and large black tarp covering a swath of the stadium offered a perfect backdrop. The happy-hour kickoff gave an excuse for the assembled masses to drown their sorrows. The Pac-12 conference, with its lagging revenue, intermittently blindfolded officials and star-crossed flagship programs continued a searing streak of infamy on Friday night. No. 5 Utah’s face-plant in its 37-15 loss to No. 13 Oregon in the Pac-12 title game continues the dueling droughts that define the league. Utah’s loss drops the Pac-12 to an all-too familiar place. No Pac-12 team will win the national title for...

The Air Force trainee who killed three and injured eight when he opened fire at a naval base in Florida assailed the United States as 'a nation of evil' before he went on his shooting rampage, AFP reports. The man, first identified by NBC News as Saudi national Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, opened fire inside a classroom at Naval Air Station in Pensacola early Friday morning. Police quickly responded to the scene and he was shot dead. US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the suspect was a second lieutenant attending the aviation school...

Our Founders created a nation in which the rule of law would prevail and be applied equally to citizens from all walks of life and also would act as a restraint on the power of our leaders. The tradition also includes the assumed duty of all Americans, including our political leaders, to live within the established and agreed upon laws of society. The Democratic Party's increasingly progressive, left-leaning, radical political agenda contests this fundamental and longstanding American tradition of the law applying equally to all our citizens. Whether I am walking on the streets of my city or viewing the...

“‘But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it’” (Matthew 13:16–17). As believers, we can understand God’s profoundest revelation, whether parables or other teachings, because biblical writers have recorded them and the Spirit has illumined them for us (cf. 1 Cor. 2:9–10). When Christ finished explaining some parables to the apostles and asked if they understood them, they could honestly answer...

The decision to locate the Obama Presidential Center in historic Jackson Park has received strong backing from the Chicago establishment. No surprise. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City Council expressly, and unconstitutionally, delegated their authority over public lands to the Obama Foundation and the former president. Along with associated structures, they plan to build a 235-foot-high white obelisk that would arguably resemble a stake through the landscaped heart of a Frederick Law Olmsted masterpiece. And disregarding her applicable fiduciary duties, Mayor Lori Lightfoot appears poised to acquiesce. But the project is not a fait accompli. To build the discordant...

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Arguably one of the most talked-about works of art at this year’s Art Basel was a banana duct-taped to a wall that sold for $120,000. It’s Maurizio Cattelan’s latest work of art. It’s called ‘The Comedian’ and it is entertaining art lovers from around the globe. Some of those same art lovers’ conversations swirled around his 2017 golden toilet. The $6-million throne was stolen from England’s Blenheim Palace over the summer. Art lover Weezie Chandler said, “You can do anything and once you’re established you can get away with it.” Many believe this more ‘a-peeling’ piece represents...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—There wasn't much happening in the world today, so Trump simply sat at his desk looking for something to do. Then he got an idea. Picking up his desk phone, he dialed a number and waited for the man on the other end to pick up. Meanwhile, Colin Kaepernick was sitting around nervously waiting for his phone to ring at long last. As his ringtone, the USSR anthem, began to play, Kaepernick lunged for the phone and picked up on the first ring. "Hello?" he said, attempting to sound casual. "Hi, uh, yes, is this a Mr. Kaepernick?" Trump...

He's AOC's mentor and creator of the political fund-raiser the “Young Turks.” Now Muslim Democrat candidate for Congress, Cenk Uygur, age 49, has been exposed demeaning women as sex objects, making multiple graphic and disparaging remarks about women, saying that women were genetically “flawed” because they don’t want to have sex often enough, and denying propositioning under-aged girls for sex. <><><>The Democrat Muslim candidate Cenk Uygur wrote:"women are genetically flawed” because they don’t want to have sex often enough. <><><>In an entry from 2000, The Democrat Muslim candidate Uygur complained about not having enough sex while living in Miami: “It...

If you think a Senate acquittal of President Donald Trump will put Nancy Pelosi’s clown show to rest for good, think again. – The Democrats will get their dummied-up articles of impeachment voted out just before Christmas as a gift to their lunatic Perpetual Outrage Mob on Twitter, irrevocably staining our nation’s history as a result. Many people are thinking right now that that will mean they can breathe a sigh of relief, since the Senate trial will likely result in an acquittal of the President, meaning he and congress will then spend most of 2020 conducting the nation’s business....

The U.S. House approved a Democrat-backed resolution Friday calling for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- but did so without support from the four far-left freshmen congresswomen known as "the Squad."

America remembers: America will always have enemies. They hate us because of who we are. It’s a pity that now days half our enemies dwell right in our midst. It doesn’t help any that they are clowns.When you can call the outcome, unequivocally, before the battle-royale even begins you know it’s rigged. Just like VSGPDJT has been saying from the start. If you’re not in the club you will be the club-ee. And the clubbers are very good at it. I don’t think they’ve had to deal with a walrus yet however.I am the walrus, koo koo kachoo.Posted from: MOTUS...

Hillary Clinton dismissed rumors that she had engaged in lesbian affairs during an interview with shock jock Howard Stern on Wednesday, and now a prominent LGBTQ advocate is “disappointed” in the former secretary of state. “Never even been tempted, thank you very much,” Clinton told Stern when asked if she had ever engaged in a “lesbian affair.” Reporter Trish Bendix, who has won the 2015 Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for excellence in LGBT media and is a member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, didn’t appreciate Clinton’s response to the question. “It's so frustrating when public figures like...

In a recent column, well-known Reason editor and writer Jacob Sullum made a likely unintentional error. He writes that “preventing gun violence” is a compelling government interest. From townhall.com: Restrictions on fundamental rights usually pass muster only if they are narrowly tailored to further a compelling government interest — in this case, preventing gun violence. “Gun violence” is an Orwellian phrase that compels the user to focus on guns rather than on illegitimate actions. “Preventing gun violence” is not a compelling government interest. Preventing murder can be a compelling government interest, though, in our federal system of limited governmental powers,...

Marie L. Yovanovitch—the American ambassador to Ukraine unceremoniously recalled in May 2019 for allegedly being out of touch with President Trump’s policies—is not the first American ambassador to be at odds with a president’s policy. Joseph Grew, America’s ambassador to Japan in the months before Pearl Harbor, experienced a similar frustration. Grew saw that U.S. economic sanctions were crippling the Japanese economy—rice was being rationed, the absence of gasoline meant that the few cars traversing Tokyo’s streets had been fitted with charcoal engines, and even imported coffee had been replaced by another questionable brew. Back in Washington, President Franklin D....

Today’s Cryptogram Y’L QYEEPXPHV, OHQ Y WOUP VS IP O COXXYSX VS IP VWOV COF. —RSWHHF CPYX You can find this little fun word game, to combat early dementia and senility in us baby boomers, in several daily publications. The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram). Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated. PLEASE DO NOT post the answer in general comments, but DO post your time and any tips you might give the group on how...

The House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources recently approved HR 2854, the 2019 Protect Our Refuges Act, prohibiting the use of neonicotinoid insecticides in any of the nation’s 560 National Wildlife Refuges, some of which are the size of Delaware and even Indiana. The legislation will now be considered by the full House, while a companion bill (S 1856) makes its way through the Senate. The legislation is unnecessary, misguided and based on embarrassingly bad science. Rather than protecting our refuges, it would force farmers to use other insecticides that truly are harmful to bees, birds and other wildlife...

Last week we went to Somalia as American tourists. We stayed only a night, but that was plenty of time to wander unescorted through the local market, explore town in a battered Toyota station wagon, and even head out into the desert to admire some ancient cave paintings. It might seem an odd choice of vacation spot, given that Somalia, so long synonymous with "failed state," appears to be growing ever more dangerous. The insurgency against the American-backed Ethiopian occupation persists, and just last week it was reported that a particularly radical group has launched a campaign to murder relief...

Sen. Mazie Hirono (Democrat-HAWAII) said Democrats have a difficult time “connecting” with voters because of “how smart we are” that “we know so much.” Hirono was interviewed by journalist Dahlia Lithwick at the ‘Bend Towards Justice’ conference in Washington, D.C. “We’re really good at shoving out all the information that touch people here (points to head) but not here (points to heart),” Hirono said of Democrats. “I’ve been saying it at all of our Senate Democratic retreats that we need to speak to the heart not in a manipulative way, not in a way that brings forth everybody’s fears and...

<p>House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a prominent figure in the impeachment inquiry, has said that President Trump "doesn’t give a shit about what’s good for our country."</p> <p>Schiff, in an interview with The New Yorker, cited the impeachment testimony of diplomat David Holmes, who said he was told that Trump did not care about Ukraine and only cared about "big stuff" like an investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.</p>