Free Republic

In November, 25-year-old Japanese citizen Midori Nishida was checking into a flight to Saipan, a US island in the Pacific, where she was going to visit her parents. She wasn't pregnant, and said so on a check-in questionnaire, but airline staff made her take a pregnancy test anyways before she was allowed to board. The Wall Street Journal reports that Nishida was asked to give permission to an authorized medical provider to conduct a "fit-to-fly" assessment, and the form said it was for women who had a body size or shape resembling a pregnant woman. Nishida told the Wall Street...

On Sunday and Saturday, for two consecutive days people of Iran, and students at different universities took to the streets, protesting the downing of the Ukrainian passenger airplane by the IRGC. The protesters were targeting the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and calling for the overthrow of the regime by chanting, “Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, resign, resign,” They also were chanting, “death to the dictator,” “Death to this murderous regime,” “Death to the oppressor, whether the Shah or the Leader (Khamenei),” “Soleimani was a killer and so is his leader,” “Death to this theocracy, for crimes in all these...

Democratic congressional leaders and presidential candidates who were unsparing in their criticism of President Trump for the escalation with Iran over the past two weeks largely have gone silent now that the protests on the streets of Tehran and beyond have turned their rage toward the regime — and not the Trump White House. Even as videos emerged online Monday that purportedly show Iranian police and security forces firing live ammunition to disperse protestors, so far among the 2020 Democratic candidates only former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., have spoken out in support of the people....

The sole female Iranian Olympic medalist has defected. Kimia Alizadeh bid farewell and has relocated to Europe. It is reported she has gone to the Netherlands. The bronze medalist in Taekwondo posted her letter of farewell on Instagram just one day after the Iranian government admitted it shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet. She wrote in Farsi. “Let me start with a greeting, a farewell or condolences,” the 21-year–old wrote in an Instagram post explaining why she was defecting. “I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years.”“They took...

Early one morning on May 5, 2006, Paul Allen Houser walked into a convenience store in Columbus, Miss., to purchase cold medicine, a copy of Tradewind magazine, lithium batteries and a 24-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew. Houser, then 43, had struggled with substance abuse for most of his adult life, after a work-related back injury at age 15 left him with a prescription-painkiller addiction. Houser was on his phone at the check-out counter when he noticed a police officer approaching the store. He rushed out after paying for his items and drove off in his truck. #Shortly afterward, the same...

President Trump is not letting Iran's mullahs off easy. Following the spectacular rubout of Iranian terrorist chieftain Qassem Soleimani and the blunderous events in Iran that followed, Trump is now cheering, hard, for Iran's student protestors.   To the leaders of Iran - DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS. Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching. Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free! Stop the killing of your great Iranian people! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2020   The demise of the...

They use it to call it "voting with their feet" or something like that.  Indeed, people are voting with their feet by trading in their old blue shoes for shining red shoes. This is from Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, Texas: According to an Election Data Services analysis of the Census Bureau report, "The population projections point toward a ten [congressional] seat change over 17 states across the nation by year 2020." Seven states are projected to gain one or more congressional seats after the 2020 election; 10 states are projected lose one...

On Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said he is worried about the “integrity of the information” given by the Trump administration to justify the killing of former Quds force commander Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Host Jake Tapper said, “We have heard mixed messages and conflicting stories about the reason for the attack, whether it’s the existential threat that Soleimani posed, vs. imminent attacks, vs. an attack on one embassy, vs. an attack on four embassies. You and I have sat through this movie before, conflicting, changing information, intelligence juiced in order to justify...

President Trump’s Senate trial may have witnesses after all. Sen. Susan Collins on Friday confirmed she is working with a “fairly small group” of fellow Republican senators to ensure witnesses can be called. “We should be completely open to calling witnesses,” Collins (R-Maine) said Friday, the Bangor Daily News reported. “I am hopeful that we can reach an agreement on how to proceed with the trial that will allow the opportunity for both the House and the president’s counsel if they choose to do so.” Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has also had recent conversations with the Senate’s minority Democratic leadership, one...

“Joker,” the controversial drama about the mentally ill Batman villain that sparked backlash with its realistic depictions of extreme violence, triumphed at the 92nd annual Academy Awards nominations on Monday morning, earning 11 nods, the most of any film. Three films were close behind with 10 nominations: “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Quentin Tarantino’s fictional ode to 1960s Hollywood; “The Irishman,” Martin Scorsese’s mob drama starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci that clocks in at three and a half hours; and “1917,” the World War I epic that centers on two British soldiers on a dangerous...

On Sunday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) accused the Trump administration of giving “contradictory information” on why the president ordered the killing of former Iranian Quds force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Paul said, “I think we’ve heard contradictory information. We’ve heard from the secretary of state that they don’t know where or when but it was imminent. That to me does seem inconsistent. He thinks he can square the circle but to me it seems pretty inconsistent.”

A Queensland university student who took part in a controversial protest against drag queens at a children's event has died. Wilson Gavin, the head of University of Queensland's Liberal National Club, was among those filmed chanting "drag queens are not for kids" in a video that quickly went viral on Sunday. It's understood Gavin was found dead on Monday morning. His death is not being treated as suspicious.

Imagine you’re retired and your primary source of income is your monthly Social Security check. Your telephone rings and an automated message says your Social Security number has been “suspended” because of some suspicious activity. You may even be threatened with arrest if you don’t call the telephone number provided in the automated message. If someone calls saying that your Social Security number and the benefits connected to it may be in jeopardy, it’s understandable that you might panic. You’re told that to “reactivate” your Social Security number, you have to pay a fee or buy gift cards. You have...

The Dallas Police Department is investigating the shooting death of an alleged armed robber that occurred late last night in west Dallas. Officials say a homeowner was hosting a social gathering in the front yard of a house when three suspects robbed the party at gunpoint. One of the individuals at the party, who police say is a licensed handgun carrier, produced his weapon and shot one of the robbers. One robber was shot and two others fled the scene. The injured robber was transported to the hospital and pronounced deceased.

For the first time in roughly half a century, Oman is under new direction. The longest-serving monarch of the Arab world, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, died Friday at the age of 79, ceding the country to his cousin and former culture minister Haitham bin Tariq al-Said. The latter was sworn in as sultan Saturday, assuming the reins of state in a ceremony attended by high-ranking military and government officials. "The trust in us is great and the responsibilities are great," the new sultan told those assembled for the occasion, according to the state-run Oman News Agency. He focused on...

Sir Roger Scruton has died and Britain has lost her greatest conservative thinker, writer, fox hunting man, philosopher and all-round-hero of the right. Like so many of the bravest and best, he was a prophet almost without honour in his own country.

With the college football world descending on the state of Louisiana for the College Football Playoff title game, the folks over at LSU realized there probably wasn’t going to be much learning taking place on campus in Baton Rouge early next week. On Friday, days before LSU will face Clemson for the national championship at the Superdome in New Orleans, the school announced that it has canceled classes on both Monday and Tuesday.

Judicial Watch (JW), the DC-based citizens’ watchdog group, is the national leader in enforcing the National Voters Registration Act, which requires states and counties to take reasonable steps to clean their voting rolls by removing ineligible registrations (voters who had died or moved). Below are some examples of JW’s success: In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld a massive voter roll clean up that resulted from a Judicial Watch settlement of a federal lawsuit with Ohio. In 2019, California also settled a similar lawsuit with Judicial Watch, and began removing up to 1.5 million “inactive” names from Los Angeles County voting...

One could perhaps have excused them their earlier indiscretions of November 2016. He was, after all, an unknown quantity, an outsider of questionable conservative pedigree. Indeed, Donald Trump had been a fairly typical New York liberal Democrat for much of his life. And he had led a less than stellar moral life. And so the pile-on at the time by National Review and others could perhaps have been forgiven, although not really, when one considered the alternative. As I had written at the time: One could perhaps have excused them their earlier indiscretions of November 2016. He was, after all,...

The Inspector General of Social Security, Gail S. Ennis, is warning the public that telephone scammers may send faked documents by email to convince victims to comply with their demands. The Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has received reports of victims who received emails with attached letters and reports that appeared to be from Social Security or Social Security OIG. The letters may use official letterhead and government “jargon” to convince victims they are legitimate; they may also contain misspellings and grammar mistakes. This is the latest variation on Social Security phone scams, which continue to...