Free Republic

On this day, in 1478, George Plantagenet was executed for treason against his brother King Edward IV — famously supposed (as in Shakespeare’s Richard III) to have been drowned in a butt of malmsey wine. George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, played an important role in the long-waged War of the Roses, a series of dynastic wars, battles, and skirmishes between 1455 and 1487 between supporters of rival branches of the House of Plantagenet for the English crown: the House of Lancaster versus the House of York. Plantagenet originally supported his brother’s claim to the throne. Through a series of battles...

WASHINGTON: Even as Congress inches toward cutting off arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Riyadh’s grinding war in Yemen, the United States is preparing to ship $14.5 billion worth of arms to the increasingly embattled kingdom. Those weapons include “helicopters, tanks, ships, weapons, and training,” a Pentagon spokesman said, confirming they were part of the $110 billion worth of arms the Trump administration pledged to sell Saudi over the next decade. While defense and diplomatic officials declined to put a timetable on the delivery of the equipment — or offer specifics...

Sarah Palin endorsed a third-party candidacy against Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., if he persists in his refusal to drop out of the general election campaign after making startling comments about rape and abortion. “We’ve got to take back the Senate and Missouri is a must-win state,” Palin told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. “The way we do that is to have someone like Sarah Steelman be able to run — even if it’s as a third-party candidate — to be able to run and help us take this back.” Palin endorsed Steelman in the primary, which was regarded as showdown...

One of the great lessons we all learned as children was the importance of minding your own business. And just to be clear, that’s MYOB, not BYOB, although that is also an important principle to keep in mind. MYOB is a simple idea, but if you think about it, it has also been the basis of all modern civilization. It was behind the Reformation, the Enlightenment and parliamentary democracy. It spawned the Magna Carta, the U.S. Constitution and the Charter of Rights. Basically, it’s the right to tell everyone to mind their own business as long as you’re doing something...

The Hague (dpa) - The United States on Tuesday rejected accusations by Mexico that 52 Mexican nationals were on death row in the U.S. because of a lack of consular protection. William Taft of the U.S. State Department said there was neither legal basis nor grounds for Mexico's request that the 52 defendants be granted re-trials. According to Taft, the U.S. had done everything to comply with the judgement of the International Court of Justice at The Hague in regard to a similar complaint by Germany in June 1999. After the withholding of consular protection resulted in the sentencing and...