Free Republic

Michigan synagogue attack was act of terror inspired by Hezbollah, FBI says Attacker Googled, “What time is the Trump rally in Michigan?”

The Bible is more concerned with the theological meaning of circumcision than its ethnic significance. First commanded to Abraham, circumcision in the Bible does not constitute the brit (covenant) itself, but is the most permanent ot (sign) of someone who undertakes to live in covenant with God. Without this commitment, circumcision carries only surgical meaning; and without circumcision, the Bible’s commandments that were intended to be suffused with higher religious dimension lose their value. The circumcision of the flesh is also a picture of the greatest circumcision need – that of the heart... Only God can perform a circumcision of...

U.S.-mediated peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have not reached a dead end, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on March 30 in response to a question from the Kyiv Independent, arguing that negotiations are merely postponed. The comments come as diplomacy appears stalled, with the U.S. now focused on the war in Iran and no new Kyiv-Moscow-Washington talks scheduled. Despite the pause, Zelensky sought to project momentum, even as fundamental disagreements — particularly over territory — remain unresolved. "The trilateral meeting must take place; it is undoubtedly being postponed because the U.S. is currently focused on Iran," Zelensky said about a...

I don't think many people saw this one coming, but it makes sense in a perverse way. Events in the Middle East have conspired to create a situation in which Ukraine has become an indispensable ally and munitions supplier to Gulf Arab states. Nobody in the world has as much experience fighting Iranian drones as does Ukraine, and they have become extraordinarily proficient at destroying them before they do any damage, and at a price that cannot be beat. The Gulf states, having blown through an awful lot of their anti-air magazines, are having to quickly learn how to defend...

When Air Force Times reporter Michael Scanlon wrote that the A-10 Warthog had been pulled into maritime interdiction missions in the Strait of Hormuz, it landed like a jolt. This was not the airplane most people expected to hear about in a sea fight. But according to Scanlon, that is exactly what happened. During a Pentagon briefing, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said the A-10 was now operating along the southern flank of Operation Epic Fury, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fast-attack watercraft in the Strait of Hormuz. That detail matters because it confirms something the host of the...

Connecticut already has some of the toughest gun restrictions in the country, and a new bill advancing in the state legislature targets Glocks and Glock clones. Backed by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D), state House Bill 5043 advances a ban on popular handguns that have been on the market for over 40 years and are commonly used for lawful self-defense. The measure, advanced last week in a partisan vote of the House Judiciary Committee, ambiguously bans the future manufacture, sale, and importation into the state of "convertible pistols" defined as "any semiautomatic pistol with a cruciform trigger bar" that could...

VIDEOBrian Craig, in his first radio broadcast since returning from his Steve Kane Radio Show luxury cruise to the Caribbean, made a bold prediction. He predicted that AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) would blame January 6 PTSD for causing her to ILLEGALLY use campaign contributions to buy expensive crazy pills aka ketamine treatment. We shall see if Brian Craig is correct but if he is your humble correspondent is predicting that the very first person to laugh out loud over that wild claim will be... Jussie Smollett.

On Monday’s CNN This Morning, the network cast President Trump less as the Commander-in-Chief than as a common street criminal. Global affairs analyst Kim Dozier -- who was a longtime overseas reporter for CBS News -- likened Trump’s negotiating posture toward Iran to an armed robbery, suggesting the U.S. was telling Tehran: agree to Washington’s demands, “or else this is a stick-up.” Discussing the gap between competing U.S. and Iranian proposals, Dozier brushed aside diplomacy as little more than window dressing. “The fact of the matter is the 15-point plan that the U.S. has put forward versus Iran's five-point plan...

A new Tourism Bill passed Nepal’s National Assembly last week. It will require climbers to have previously climbed a 7,000’er in Nepal before tackling Everest. In part, the move will prevent inexperienced or unfit climbers on the mountain, but it also boosts the country’s thriving expedition business. Every year, new regulations are proposed for trekking and mountaineering in Nepal. We then wait to see which ones are actually implemented, and how. The difference this time is that the Everest rules are on the verge of becoming national law. This differs significantly from the regulations of the Department of Tourism or...

Why would an American citizen with enough intellect to obtain an I.D. to vote see merit in assisting American citizens without enough intellect to obtain an I.D.?That is my question. Who favors and who disfavors Voter ID?

State officials have awarded the City of Sacramento $2.5 million to support equity efforts in the local cannabis industry. The funding comes from the Cannabis Equity Grants Program for Local Jurisdictions, administered by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (Go-Biz).

The University of Southern California (USC) and Los Angeles television station KABC tried to have a gubernatorial debate on March 24. The qualifying criteria for being invited included polling numbers and fundraising thresholds. Six candidates made the cut: four Democrats: Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, Eric Swalwell and Matt Mahan, and two Republicans: Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton. Democrat Xavier Becerra, who didn't make the cut, called the qualifying criteria "biased. Every one of those who were invited is white. They should all withdraw from this racist so-called debate." His reasoning was so powerful that USC decided to cancel the debate...

The Trump Administration has been clear that its national defense strategy is to defend the homeland and deter China. To achieve these goals, the new funding made available in the FY 2027 defense budget should be focused on expanding capacity across the services—especially in sea power and airpower with large procurement orders for existing programs and investments in next-generation capabilities like the B-21 and F-47. America’s long-neglected strategic deterrent needs funding to defend the homeland, to include necessary support for programs like the Sentinel missile and Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. New spending needs to prioritize the Indo-Pacific and the Western...

At the beginning of the Iraq War, David Frum published an article in National Review entitled “Unpatriotic Conservatives,” attacking those on the right opposed to the war—including the founders of this magazine, Patrick J. Buchanan, Scott McConnell, and Taki Theodoracopulos. Almost a quarter-century later, Frum’s arguments stand out as particularly lazy and dishonest smears. Almost everyone acknowledges that the Iraq War was a mistake sold to the American people on false pretenses, directly causing the deaths of 460,000 Iraqis and 4,506 American servicemen, destroying Iraq’s ancient Christian community, and replacing a stable government with a power vacuum that has been...

Every civilization has had its oracles. In ancient Greece, kings traveled to Delphi to consult the Oracle of Apollo. In Babylon, rulers relied on astrologers and diviners to interpret signs in the heavens. Pharaoh's court included magicians and wise men who claimed insight into mysteries beyond human understanding. Humanity has always longed for a voice that could answer life's most difficult questions: What should we do? Where is the world headed? Who can guide us through uncertainty? Today, that voice may be emerging from an unexpected place--not from temples or altars, but from servers, algorithms, and neural networks. Artificial intelligence....

Car crash-prone Tiger Woods won’t hire a driver to cart him around because he’s too private — and doesn’t want anyone knowing his whereabouts. The 50-year-old golf legend opts to drive himself everywhere because he doesn’t want employees to “watch over him or know what he is doing,” a source told People. “And he thinks he is fine to drive,” the source added. Woods — who is worth $1.5 billion, according to Forbes — was arrested on suspicion of DUI following another rollover car crash in Jupiter Island, Fla., last Friday. Woods, who was forced to crawl out of his...

Plans for a wall in Big Bend National Park prompted public protests and behind-the-scenes lobbying to sway the Trump administration to stop. Raymond Skiles, a retired ranger for Big Bend National Park, described how an area in Langtry, Texas, could be affected by Customs and Border Protection plans while standing along the edge of a canyon near his family’s property.

While all eyes are on Iran, Gaza is being pushed to the side -- not because it has been solved, but because it has become politically inconvenient. It is still there, still burning beneath the surface, still unresolved, still deadly. And now, as attention drifts elsewhere, a so-called peace process is taking shape in the background that may do the opposite of what it promises. On paper, the latest Gaza framework sounds structured and responsible. Committees. Stages. Verification. Security transitions. Demilitarized zones. Timelines. But buried inside the language is the kind of detail that should stop everyone cold: Hamas could...

US President Donald Trump has claimed that the US is in "serious discussions" with a new regime in Tehran to end the war in Iran. "The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran," he announced on Truth Social. "Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately 'Open for Business,' we will conclude our lovely 'stay' in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all...

Since the launch of Operations Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury, Israeli and US strikes have thinned out Tehran’s political, military and security elite with a series of decapitation strikes. As the Trump administration seeks to explore diplomacy with the remnants of the Iranian regime, a core group of hardened men remain. The new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has been injured and hasn’t appeared in public. Surrounding him are a group of influential Islamic Republic loyalists. They include parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf; the new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr; military advisor to the Supreme...