Free Republic

Dr. Shahid Shafi enters a Tarrant County Republican Party executive committee meeting at Faith Creek Church in Richland Hills on Thursday before a failed attempt to oust him from his vice-chairmanship because he’s Muslim. Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson for The Texas Tribune Shahid Shafi will retain his role as vice-chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party despite a push from a small faction of precinct chairs to remove him from his post because he’s Muslim. Shafi, a trauma surgeon and Southlake City Council member, came to the U.S. in 1990 and became a naturalized citizen in 2009. The attacks on his religion,...

Today, "atheism" means something entirely different from a simple lack of belief in God. What atheism has become can be more accurately described as "the anti-Christian movement." It is a movement that assumes that Christianity isn't merely naïve and false, but a major cause of social ills, something worth the effort to actively ferret out and purge from our society. This anti-Christian crusade has been both supported by, and a natural outgrowth of, the much larger program of cultural Marxism.

Today, we are increasingly faced with a contrived reality. A mirage. Images shone on a wall (television screens, cell-phone, laptops) portraying what our captors wish for us to believe (is reality). What is truth? Let me suggest that truth, increasingly, is a byproduct of force. Are any important matters reasoned true today, or are we stuck in a battle of messaging wills? In this, let me suggest, the Left are winning, as we’ve abandoned reason, and are left with, whatever message can be advanced enthusiastically enough, to run roughshod over the other. As Goebbels stated; “If you tell a lie...

Students from Winnipeg, Canada recently discovered a stash of 800-year-old seeds while on an archaeological dig. The mysterious seeds, once planted, grew into a rare species of squash that has been extinct for hundreds of years. While we don't know if the seeds themselves were safe to eat, the squash that they harvested was absolutely delicious. Check out the images below to see the rare gourd for yourself and learn more about this discovery.

A Czech doctor working in Germany has threatened to leave the country over what is happening with the flood of Muslim migrants. The story she relates is horrific, and it’s one that needs to be heard — or read. Since the (German) press is forbidden from reporting on the true situation and social media giants like Facebook are working to stifle stories like this, she relayed the story in an email letter read by an independent Czech television host. An English translation of that letter follows the video below. ..... "Many Muslims are refusing treatment by female staff and, we,...

Today’s guest post is written by a friend that I’ve known for a long time. I’m thankful that she was willing to be vulnerable to share her story with all of us. You may notice that her name is not attributed. When asked, she said that she no longer wanted to be defined by her past, and felt that her story could be just as compelling whether named or not. Since these are sensitive topics, I suggested we leave it anonymous. I believe you will still find encouragement from it as I did. – If you want to read yet...

I was once reasonably dignified. I dressed like a gentleman and luxuriated in the cultural heritage of Western civilization. My three places of residence—my home, my office, and my mind—were free of clutter and arranged so as to allow me both to make the most of my days and to begin to venture out into intellectual life. Then I became a father.

When you lose awareness of sin and start thinking that, deep down, human beings are pretty wonderful, you lose the struggle of character building. Building character is not like being better than someone else at a career. It’s conquering your own weakness. But you won’t make that effort if you lose a sense of what your weakness is and where it comes from.

Somewhere along the line of modern history, the idea has taken root, spread, and become commonly held among seculars that religious people hold to a Faith that is separate from, and at odds with, natural reason. Modern science, following the lead of modern philosophy and modern secularized religion, has fallen for the heretical notion that there are two separate tracks of history: a material track, which many assume to be the true one and to which many attach all their trust, and the spiritual one, which is reduced by many to mere fantasy; a delusion held by believers to bring...

Dr. Jorg Gerlach has invented a gun that shoots new skin on burn victims. There's really nowhere to go from there, so let's just go ahead and learn about the skin gun. WARNING: There are graphic closeups of burns in this video, so if that kind of thing bothers you, bring the smelling salts and a fainting couch. It's kind of amazing.

Now things were coming together. The Progressive worldview, and the Libertarian, Rand-worshipping worldview -- are all part of the same existentialist family tree containing Sartre and Alinsky. Rand's humanistic objectivism is as cold and Godless as Sartre's humanistic existentialism. These pseudo-intellectuals are the reason Christianity has been quietly erased line by line, year after year in the popular psyche. God was dead to Nietzsche, Sartre, and Ayn Rand. Even Sartre's famous cousin, Albert Schweitzer, denied the divinity of Christ.They were simply players in a full-court press for a total paradigm shift that has led us to the Mad Max dystopian...

In pondering the behavior of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I cannot help but think of the 500,000 plastic keys that Iran imported from Taiwan during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88. At the time, an Iranian law laid down that children as young as 12 could be used to clear mine fields, even against the objections of their parents. Before every mission, a small plastic key would be hung around each of the children’s necks. It was supposed to open for them the gates to paradise. “In the past,” wrote the semi-official Iranian daily Ettela’at, “we had child-volunteers: 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. They...

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A FLORIDIAN WHEN....*Socks are only for bowling. * You never use an umbrella because the rain will be over in five minutes. * A good parking place has nothing to do with distance from the store, but everything to do with shade. ... * You can tell the difference between fire ant bites and mosquito bites. * Anything under 70 degrees is chilly. * You've driven through Yeehaw Junction. * You know that no other grocery store can compare to Publix. * You know that anything under a Category 3 just isn't worth waking up for. *...

My wife didn't look, but I had to. I had to know what would happen to my children. I had to know how they would die. "It never rains, but it pours," said the fertility doctor -- of the three embryos that were implanted, all three took. We were faced with the news of triplets. I was shocked, knowing the burden that would entail, but since G-d gave us three, I was prepared to do whatever I needed to do to help, manage, and provide. Snip... Each retreated, pushing away, as the needle entered the amniotic sac. They did not...

Davis spent a larger portion of a more than 100-minute news conference explaining why he fined former coach Tom Cable $120,000 in the final year of his contract. Davis says he withheld the money from Cable’s last six checks because of the strain on the organization from lawsuits involving Cable assaulting a former assistant coach and a former girlfriend. SNIP “Can’t get the story,” Davis said. “You know, it’s like Gitmo. Trying to find out, did they waterboard those guys or not? No, really. It’s hard to believe. How many guys went in? Four guys went into the room with...

The dog days of August have arrived. The "summer of recovery" is evolving into a "winter of discontent" as virtually anywhere one looks, reality overwhelms the rhetoric of the ruling class. It appears that those in the White House, Congress, and the liberal media believe an economic tooth fairy will soon appear and place under the national pillow 15 million new jobs and 5% GDP growth. But these are tough times for our friends in the Left; their overwhelmingly high opinion of themselves and their divine right to rule (see Barack and Michelle Obama) seems to be running afoul of...

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit . She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. Heidi keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers' loans). Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for...

(CNN) -- James Cameron's completely immersive spectacle "Avatar" may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.snip"Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate...

Alas, how have the mighty fallen! The Angel Barack has gone the way of his hero's hero, Lucifer, the Angel of Light, crashing on down, far, far down from Faireyworker Heaven to the lowest circles of Darkness. The sight is absolutely Miltonian, a tragedy for all except for a few adults, who knew perfectly well it was bound to happen when reality struck this White House. ShaZZAM! Obama has gone to war. The Lightworker has sinned. Yes, it's the Good War in Afghanistan, but if you scratch below the surface of liberal media twaddle, the Iraq War is still going...