Free Republic

As the Trump administration is reportedly preparing to deploy 100 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to Minnesota, home to an estimated 87,000 people with Somali ties, Lutheran church leaders are pushing back against federal immigration enforcement actions with evangelism. Last Tuesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said ICE agents are being deployed to the Twin Cities to specifically target the Somali community, which has faced allegations of rampant fraud involving the state’s benefit system after federal prosecutors charged dozens of individuals with stealing over $300 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program through Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota-based nonprofit....

For more than a decade, the United States has nurtured a secret intelligence partnership with Ukraine that is now critical for both countries in countering Russia... Nestled in a dense forest, the Ukrainian military base appears abandoned and destroyed, its command center a burned-out husk, a casualty of a Russian missile barrage early in the war. But that is above ground. Not far away, a discreet passageway descends to a subterranean bunker where teams of Ukrainian soldiers track Russian spy satellites and eavesdrop on conversations between Russian commanders. On one screen, a red line followed the route of an explosive...

“Encouragement for St. Timidity” (2 Timothy 1:1-14) Fear, or timidity, can paralyze a person and render him ineffective. This is true when it comes to our life as Christians. We live in a hostile world. We’re in enemy territory. The world is not friendly to the Christian faith. Where will we find the courage we need to be faithful Christians? Faithful Christians are those not ashamed of the gospel, nor afraid of suffering for it. Not ashamed, not afraid. The alternative is that we turn into tame and timid “people-pleasers.” St. Paul addresses this issue when he writes to Timothy...

When I first encountered the Persian word mofangi, I struggled to grasp its meaning. It implies a certain timidity, physical weakness, and awkwardness. Seeking to put some flesh on that definition, my language tutor told me to envision Grand Ayatollah Hosein Ali Montazeri. "He's more than a little mofangi," remarked the tutor, expressing the condescension that well-educated, leftwing Iranians often have for the clergy who stole their revolution. That was in the mid 1980s, and Montazeri was the number two cleric in Iran, a mullah who once passionately believed in exporting Iran's revolutionary tumult and was instrumental in building the...

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER hasn't just abandoned his campaign promise to fight the special interests that dominate Sacramento politics. He has thrown it from his favorite Hummer and driven over it. His craven surrender to the tyrannical prison guards union is so complete that his aides have been subverting the authority of the state corrections chief by consulting union officials on her choices for warden positions and other jobs. And that, according to one insider, is the explanation for the resignation Wednesday of Jeanne S. Woodford, acting secretary of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Woodford quit just two months...

<p>Last Sunday, two members of the Senate were interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press" on the subject of eliminating Saddam Hussein, a prime target of American foreign policy. The administration, like most Americans, is anxious to destroy the regime of the Butcher of Baghdad as soon as possible and replace him with a democratic government. The situation is increasingly urgent because of the fear he might use his weapons of mass destruction built up since the Gulf war. The two senators, Bob Graham, Florida Democrat, and Chuck Hagel, Nebraska Republican, immediately offered their opinions about President Bush's plans to invade Iraq. Mr. Graham quickly doffed his general's hat and said that no, we should instead focus our military might on a different target than Iraq.</p>

Has the bold post-9/11 President George W. Bush been spending a lot of time with magician David Copperfield lately? How else to explain why this strong and committed leader has vanished, only to be replaced by a wavering, wishy-washy replica? Whether it's over the question of identifying freedom's mortal enemies (e.g., Saddam Hussein) and steadfastly toppling them, or remaining true to the principles of free trade, or standing up to the America's self-loathing tree-hugger contingent on the question of global warming, the real George W. Bush appears to have gone AWOL, and a sinister clone resembling a certain other George...