Free Republic

The world knows Kirk Douglas as Spartacus, and as one of the greatest movie stars of the greatest generation. I know him as my hevruta — the Aramaic word for study partner. For almost 25 years I met with Kirk Douglas, born Issur Danielovich, once a week to study Torah. After we read through the Bible and hit up all the greats — “That’s a role I was born to play,” he said of King David — we moved on to other books: the Mishna for rabbinical wisdom; “The Prophet” by Khalil Gibran; Walt Whitman’s poetry; and modern theology from...

Socialist candidate says execution device a ‘symbol of the work we have to do’  A Democratic Senate candidate has unveiled the guillotine as her campaign’s new logo to symbolize the “very serious problems with our government” that must be addressed “before a violent uprising becomes inevitable.”Yes, really.Bre Kidman, the Senate candidate of Maine challenging Susan Collins in November, and a self-described “non-binary” socialist, said the execution apparatus was the perfect symbol to represent her party’s upcoming war with the Republicans and the wealthy.“We’re not going to start a guillotine in Monument Square (in Portland) and start beheading people,” Kidman told the Portland...

China’s Communist Party uses “corporate America [and] Wall Street” as proxies in its war against America, said retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding, author of Stealth War: How China Took Over While America’s Elite Slept and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, in a Friday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Ed Martin. China procures the political support of American companies and institutions through financial incentives, explained Spalding, who reflected on his time in the Trump administration as a national security advisor to President Donald Trump. “The real challenge that the...

Some great men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have great catchphrases said to them. James Doohan is an honorary member of that last category. He was the guy who spent four decades on the receiving end of the request to "Beam me up, Scotty" – if not on TV, where no character on Star Trek ever actually uttered the words, at least in real life, where fans would cheerfully bark the injunction across crowded airport concourses in distant lands, and rush-hour freeway drivers would lurch across four lanes of traffic to yell it out the window at...

      LEADERSHIP AND LISTENING "Listen to what I am saying," Job cried out to his "friends" in the biblical story. "That is all the comfort I ask from you. Give me a chance to speak, and then, when I am through, sneer if you like." Job didn't ask for much. But it was more than these colleagues were prepared to offer. Unfortunately, such encounters are far too frequent -- even among those we would expect to care about what we think or feel. Back in 1989, Admiral Carlisle Trost (then Chief of Naval Operations) asked a group...

... [C]onsider the baggage that Sanders drags into the campaign. Go back over 40 years, to the start of Iran’s long conflict with the United States. On April 1, 1979, the theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran was proclaimed. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had returned to Iran from exile to assume command of the revolt, became Supreme Leader in December of that year. His rise was accelerated by the seizure on Nov. 4 of 52 American diplomats and citizens, and citizens of other countries, at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The hostage crisis became the means by which the Ayatollah crushed...

At least a dozen evangelical women prayed over President Donald Trump when he made an unplanned appearance Wednesday at his hotel in Washington, DC. DailyMail.com obtained the video that shows Trump in the middle of the group of women at the Trump International Hotel, as they prayed over him with their arms outstretched and hands laid upon him: One woman led the prayer, saying: Holy Father, we thank you so much for this evening. We thank you for this man of God. We thank you for his courage of standing up when others would rather stay seated. Father, we ask...

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper framed the Chinese regime as “Pentagon’s top concern” on Feb. 15, saying that Beijing’s aggressive commercial and military postures have posed a challenge to the world. “The Communist Party and its associated organs … are increasingly operating in theaters outside its borders, including Europe, and seeking advantage by any means, and at any cost,” he told the world’s leading policy makers at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. “While we often doubt the transparency and forthrightness of Beijing, when it comes to their security aims, we should take the Chinese government at its word,” he...

What would I say , if I was given a chance to totally communicate freely with everyone I have ever loved; My brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, acquaintances, former church members, even my enemies ? What would I say if I was given a chance to before I die to put into the barest form, what I long for you to realize? What are my essentials? I believe I should be succinct. I will give you seven things I hope you don’t die without knowing personally, First of all; That Jesus died for us as a substitute, on the cross. I...

Bernie Sanders has won the popular vote in both the New Hampshire and Iowa presidential primary contests in considerable part by presenting himself as an opponent of war. Following the criminal assassination of Iranian General Qassem Suleimani last month, Sanders was the most vocal of the Democratic presidential aspirants in criticizing Trump’s action. His poll numbers have risen in tandem with his stepped-up anti-war rhetoric. He has repeatedly stressed his vote against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, reminding voters in the Iowa presidential debate last month, “I not only voted against that war, I helped lead the effort against that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday criticized the conduct of online supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, saying his rival for the Democratic nomination for president has "some accountability."Biden, in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," waded into a spat between Sanders supporters and leaders of The Culinary Union, a powerful labor group in Nevada that has been critical of the senator's healthcare proposals. Nevada holds the next nominating contest in the Democratic presidential primary.

A New York City environmental organization called “BK ROT” violates OSHA safety regulations by forcing its employees to dangerously use their feet as brakes, “Fred Flintstone style,” on a bicycle, while hauling “almost eight hundred pounds” down “substantial hills” * A New York City environmental organization called “BK ROT” violates OSHA safety regulations by forcing its employees to dangerously use their feet as brakes, “Fred Flintstone style,” on a bicycle, while hauling “almost eight hundred pounds” down “substantial hills.”* Sandy Nurse, the organization’s founder, is running for political office.* Nurse also thinks she shouldn’t have to pay back her college...

China has appointed a hardliner, who is known for removing hundreds of crosses from churches in the eastern province of Zhejiang, to take charge of its office overseeing matters in Hong Kong, which might raise concerns among pro-democracy protesters and residents in the semi-autonomous city. Xia Baolong, the vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference who was a close aide to Chinese Premier Xi Jinping from 2003 to 2007 when he was Communist Party secretary of Zhejiang Province, will serve as the director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, China’s Human Resources Ministry has announced, according...

We’ve chronicled pretty extensively on this show how our leaders in Washington suddenly seem deeply sympathetic to people ensnared in our criminal justice system. An awful lot of criminals are getting out of prison early these days or not going at all. This is compassionate, they tell us, and it may be. Yet somehow, those same compassionate impulses don't seem to extend to Roger Stone, one of President Trump's oldest advisers. Stone was convicted of lying during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. In the end, Mueller couldn't find collusion between the Trump 2016 election campaign and Russia, but Justice...

Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said at a recent campaign stop that English should not be the official language of the United States, even though she voted for a pro-English language bill during her time in the Senate. Klobuchar said at the campaign event in Las Vegas on Friday that she has “taken a strong position against” the English-language amendment, which she voted in support of in 2007, the Associated Press reported. “I think that when you look at a state like this state, and a country like ours that is so diverse, you don’t want to have...

Republican strategist Kimberly Klacik said after winning the primary election to run for the late congressman Elijah Cummings’s old seat in Baltimore that she won because of her “grassroots efforts," and she added that some of President Trump’s policies will help her historically blue district. “What I try to remind people is if you take a look at President Trump — take a look at prison reform, First Step Act, he’s actually just rewinding and fixing what was broken with that crime bill that led to so much mass incarceration that you really see in the greater Baltimore area,” Klacik...

ANALYSIS/OPINION: Remember that giant gavel that Nancy Pelosi carried in triumph across Capitol Hill after the House voted for Obamacare in 2010? You know, the one that looked like a croquet mallet? During the State of the Union address on Feb. 4, she looked bereft without it as she chewed her lip, gauging the distance between her and Mr. Trump. It would have been so quick and easy. And who could have blamed her? Certainly none in the media. They would instantly discover all sorts of mitigating circumstances. But, not having her mallet handy, she settled for ripping up her...

They’re the Real Housewives of Fighting Crime. A band of Manhattan moms are trading luncheons and playdates for political lobbying and police meetings — all in the name of protecting their kids from rising crime, bail-reform loopholes, aggressive panhandlers, and what they see as a general return of lawlessness. The 2,600-mother movement formed on the Upper West Side in the fall, when a string of high-profile muggings and a playground shooting put the family-oriented neighborhood on edge — and one woman decided to do something about it. “My background is in finance and non-profit. I’m not like an activist or...

Like Canada and many Commonwealth nations, Australia is a constitutional monarchy where Queen Elisabeth of the English House Of Windsor is the head of state. Many Australians want Australia to become a republic, but not yet enough to make the change. Jim Cousens discusses the debate and how political correctness influences what he is able to say. NB This is satire.

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