Free Republic

The next president will take office as this year’s $544 billion deficit pushes up the U. S. national debt to nearly $20 trillion. Scary, but mere chicken feed compared to the way more than one hundred trillion bucks in unfunded liabilities has already been racked up by our entitlement state. And, on top of that, add our outrageous world policeman fees. The Washington Post reports that, “thanks to various treaties and deals set up since 1945, the U.S. government might be legally obligated to defend countries containing 25 percent of the world’s population.” And boy, has America, World Policeman, been active! The...

Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump described his foreign policy as an "America first" approach that will stop the US from being systematically "ripped off." The Republican frontrunner, who has spent his entire career in business, gave the most in-depth discussion so far on foreign policy in a phone interview with the New York Times. During the conversation, he detailed his views on issues ranging from East Asian security to Syria, the Islamic State group and relations with allies such as Saudi Arabia. Trump said he was not an isolationist, but described the United States as a poor debtor nation that...

In Donald Trump’s Worldview, America Comes First, and Everybody Else Pays By DAVID E. SANGER and MAGGIE HABERMANMARCH 26, 2016 Mr. Trump’s views, as he explained them, fit nowhere into the recent history of the Republican Party: He is not in the internationalist camp of President George Bush, nor does he favor President George W. Bush’s call to make it the United States’ mission to spread democracy around the world. He agreed with a suggestion that his ideas might be summed up as “America First.” “Not isolationist, but I am America First,” he said. “I like the expression.” He said...

<p>Jihadists in Egypt's lawless Sinai Peninsula are using U.S. weapons to carry out attacks against the temporary government in the wake of the military's ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, according to the embattled nation's Interior Ministry.</p>

British and Americans lay wreaths at a ceremony in London. Mobs of Islamofascists show up to shout threats, curse America, burn our flag, and threaten jihad. What do London Police do? Nothing to the jihadists, but they force the memorial ceremony to end and its participants to leave, to avoid an "incident." So much for freedom of speech. Shame on you, Britain. It's terrible to see a once great nation die at the hands of political correctness. VIDEO

Members of the group 'Muslims against Crusades' hold placards as they gather during an anti-U.S. rally, held close to the memorial ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11 U.S. attacks at the Memorial Garden, adjacent to the U.S. Embassy in central London, Sunday Sept. 11, 2011.

It’s official: Britain is no longer a Christian nation. In banning Eunice and Owen Johns, a devout Christian couple, from fostering children, Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson declared that we live in a secular state, and that the Johns’ religious convictions disqualified them from raising citizens of that state. We’ve outgrown Christianity, the judges professed. Instead, we have graduated to the status of a multicultural nation, blessed by a plurality of faiths. Ironically, the justices who have pronounced that Britain is no longer Christian did so in a court where witnesses swear on the Bible and invoke God’s...

In this post I would like to ponder the apparent dying of Europe and what God might be teaching us. I would first like to present some information and then reflect as to what God might be teaching us. The Pope has remarked that the lights are going out in Europe. The Christian faith has largely been forsaken by Europeans (only about 10% go to Mass and in many places over 60% describe themselves as atheists). Birth rates have plummeted to death-wish levels, and Europeans are slowly being replaced by Muslim immigrants who have a much higher birth rate. It...

Former Dutch EU commissioner says "recognizable" Jews are no longer safe in Netherlands due to Muslim anti-Semitism. Former European Union Commissioner Frits Bolkenstein said that Jews have no future in the Netherlands and recommended that they emigrate to the US or Israel, Dutch magazine Elsevier reported on Tuesday. According to a book on Dutch Judaism, released this week, Bolkestein, former leader of the right-wing VVD party, said that due to anti-Semitism amongst young Moroccans, Jews who look like Jews - those who wear kippahs or payot - should leave Holland for their own safety. "I see no future for recognizable...

The 200 robed and bearded men gathered at dusk on the market square, rolled out their prayer rugs and intoned Allah's praises as dismayed townspeople looked on. It was Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, and the group that calls itself "Invitation to Paradise" was mounting a defiant response to weeks of public protests against construction of a religious school to teach its austere, militant interpretation of Islam. In Germany, where the racial crimes of the Nazis have bred extreme sensitivity toward the rights of minorities, such confrontations would until recently have been limited to the far-right margins. The weekly rallies...

A courtroom erupted in protest today after a student who tried to murder a Labour MP was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years. Roshonara Choudhry, 21, stabbed Stephen Timms twice in the stomach after being inspired by a radical Al Qaeda cleric linked to the air cargo bomb plot. Her attack on the former Treasury minister is thought to be the first Al Qaeda-inspired attempt to assassinate a politician on British soil. After the sentence was passed, a group of men began shouting in the public gallery 'Allahu akbar' ('God is great'), 'British go to hell'...

The birth rate is falling, the birth rate is falling! In case you missed recent headlines, the U.S. birth rate has declined for two years running, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. A national panic about a population drop-off would be premature at this point, but it’s a statistic worth monitoring in coming years. 3 0 0Share The birth rate in 2007 — 4,317,119 — was the highest ever recorded in the United States. The rate declined modestly in 2008 and continued its decline in 2009 to 4,136,000, according to preliminary data from NCHS. In Pennsylvania, the number...

ROME, MAY 27, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The president of Italy's episcopal conference says the two most important problems facing the nation are the "demographic winter" and unemployment. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, said this Tuesday when he opened the conference's plenary assembly. He warned about a "slow demographic suicide to which Italy is headed." More than 50% of Italian families today do not have children and among those that do, almost half have only one child, the rest have two. Only 5.1% of families have three or more children. "Because of this, an urgent policy is needed that is oriented to...

Islam will overwhelm Christendom unless Christians recognize the demographic realities, begin reproducing again, and share the gospel with Muslims.

The Reuters headline put it this way: “Pirates Pose Annoying Distraction For Obama.” So many distractions, aren’t there? Only a week ago, the North Korean missile test was an “annoying distraction” from Barack Obama’s call for a world without nuclear weapons and his pledge that America would lead the way in disarming. And only a couple of days earlier the president insisted Iraq was a “distraction” — from what, I forget: The cooing press coverage of Michelle’s wardrobe? No doubt when the Iranians nuke Israel, that, too, will be an unwelcome distraction from the administration’s plans for federally subsidized daycare,...

PARIS – Government officials and Jewish leaders are concerned the conflict in Gaza may spill over into violence in Europe, with attacks reported against Jews and synagogues in France, Sweden and Britain. Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France, Monday night. A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, was attacked Monday night by someone who "broke a window and threw in something that was burning," said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. And on Sunday slogans, including "murderers ... You broke the cease-fire," were daubed on Israel's Embassy in Stockholm.

WASHINGTON - Many people like to stop and play with newborn babies, but now some adult women are playing house with fake babies. Some women are even going as far as taking day trips with the fake babies to the park, out to eat, and even hosting birthday parties for them.

Update: The French press reported that the Interior Ministry released a final "verified" count of 1,147 vehicles burned in France over New Year's Eve. The number is up 30.64% from last year's total, 878. REUTERS - At least 445 cars were torched over the night of New Year's Eve in France, a 20 percent rise on last year, but there were relatively few clashes with police, the Interior Ministry and police said on Thursday. Car burnings are regular occurrences in France but the registering the New Year's Eve total has become something of a tradition since they achieved symbolic status...

Channel 4 could easily have picked another Iranian figure for its Christmas message. Iran is not short of brilliant minds and speakers. A far better choice would have been Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Prize-winning Iranian human rights activist who has just had her office shut down in Tehran by Ahmadinejad’s government. Her message for human rights and justice, for which she has worked all her life, would have been far more befitting the message of Christmas and the beliefs of the founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ... By giving Ahmadinejad such a high-profile platform, the people of Iran could be forgiven...

It's the latest and trendiest in the contracepting world - "Essure coils" (one pictured at left): Getting your tubes tied is not the most appealing phrase, but it's way more user-friendly than sterilization. Maybe that's why the maker of Essure--a newer, cheaper, faster, scalpel-free alternative to tubal ligation--is marketing the procedure as "permanent birth control."... The 1 1/2-in.-long (38 mm) coils--which are like pen springs but smaller and softer--contain fibers that irritate the tubes and prompt scar tissue to grow into and around the tiny loops. After three months, the Fallopian tubes are blocked, preventing eggs from reaching the uterus...