Free Republic

An emotional Eric Church broke down in tears while preforming a brand new song at the Grand Ole Opry, in honor of the victims of the Las Vegas massacre this past weekend.Church preformed last Friday night at the same Harvest Music Festival that deranged gunman Stephen Paddock targeted on Sunday night, killing 59 people and wounding hundreds. “That night something broke in me,” said Church, “And the only way I’ve ever fixed anything that’s been broken in me is with music.” Church describes in detail his concert on Friday night. Towards the end of the concert, he walked around the...

Massachusetts U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton says he will not participate in a moment of silence on the House floor after 50 people were killed in Las Vegas and more than 400 others were sent to area hospitals in the deadliest mass shooting in American history. The Democratic congressman, along with his Bay State colleague Katherine Clark, also did not participate in a moment of silence after a mass shooting in Orlando claimed the lives of 49 people in June 2016. The two joined other Democratic representatives to walk out on the moment of silence in a protest over a lack...

When the Classic West and East, two two-day concerts in Los Angeles and New York headlined by the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, were announced earlier this year, comparisons to last year’s wildly successful Desert Trip were immediate and inevitable. Like that once in a lifetime bill bringing together six iconic acts of one era, Classic West and East featured six bands from one era, in this case the ‘70s, joining together for a special bill. That is really where the comparisons end though. Unlike Desert Trip, which was much more about the event, night one of Classic West, held at...

At precisely 7:30PM Eastern time on Wednesday, January 12, 1966, “Commissioner Gordon” (onetime Saturday matinee idol Neil Hamilton)—surrounded by uniformed Gotham City police and elected officials—carefully lifted the plexiglass cover off a glowing red telephone in his office. Looking around the room, he solemnly declared: “I don’t know who he is behind that mask of his. But I do know when we need him. And we need him…now!” Of course the person on the other end of that call on the Batphone was actor Adam West, about to step into television history as star of the iconic 1960’s series Batman....

Facebook users around the UK - and the world - are showing their solidarity with the people of Manchester by updating their profile picture. The site is encouraging users of the social media site to add a Union flag in the shape of a heart with the word 'Manchester' on the bottom.

When the late Robert Bork was received into the Catholic Church only a few years ago, his two godparents were Kate O’Beirne and me. He was amused enough by this to say to Kate that he felt that he was becoming an Irish Catholic rather than a Roman Catholic. “Beware the sin of pride, Bob,” responded Kate. Almost everyone who knew Kate from National Review, the Heritage Foundation, the Washington media world she all-too-briefly dazzled, or in her earlier life as an Army wife and lawyer, can tell some such story of her quick spontaneous wit and engaging laugh. If...

Don Rickles has died. I pray that his tribe increases. Mr. Comedy was so refreshingly anti-politically correct (PC). We need that, desperately. If he were a budding comedian in this day and age, his career would have died after one day on the stage. Imagine the SJWs crawling all over the stage and pushing this doddering grandpa off… for good! Rickles knew how to rib everyone and touch the hot-button issues. But he wasn’t vulgar or mean-spirited. He wasn’t a jerk. Here were some of his best lines: On the Tonight Show with Jay Leno: “You’re Chinese? That’s what they...

The death of the journalist Nat Hentoff, who slipped away Saturday at 91, takes one of America’s greatest tribunes of the Constitution at one of its hours of maximum peril. Hentoff rose to fame as a jazz critic of for the Village Voice. We tend to think it was no coincidence that his love of jazz, which toppled musical conventions, throbbed in the same heart that led him to challenge so many political conventions, particularly, though not exclusively, the political correctness of the Left. How we will need newspapermen like Hentoff in the years ahead...

The columnist has championed a woman rejected from law school for being white. He has defended a police chaplain fired for saying "fag," and been shouted down by pro-choice feminists at a pro-life rally. He's quoted approvingly a charter school founder saying that only when racial categorization is stopped can there be "true equal protection of the laws." And he quit the ACLU in protest of their position against revealing the results of HIV tests on newborns. By the way, he's a life-long leftist who has written for the Village Voice since the 1960s. He's Nat Hentoff. And with virtually...

TCM Remembers Debbie Reynolds (1932-2016) Turner Classic Movies pays tribute to Debbie Reynolds on Friday, January 27 with the following festival of films. This program will replace the previously scheduled movies for that day so please take note.  The new schedule for Friday, January 27 will be:  6:00 AM It Started With A Kiss (1959) 7:45 AM Bundle of Joy (1956) 9:30 AM How the West Was Won (1962) 12:30 PM The Tender Trap (1955) 2:30 PM Hit The Deck (1955) 4:30 PM I Love Melvin (1953) 6:00 PM Singin' In the Rain (1952) 8:00 PM The Unsinkable Molly Brown...

I first read Thomas Sowell in college -- no thanks to my college. At the majority of America's institutions of "higher learning," reading Thomas Sowell was a subversive act in the early 1990s when I was a student. It remains so today. Why? Because the prolific libertarian economist's vast body of work is a clarion rejection of all the liberal intelligentsia hold dear. Among the left's most corrosive ideas is the concept of perpetual and permanent racial victimhood, which social engineers pretend to rectify through federally mandated, taxpayer-subsidized preferential policies. Sowell's groundbreaking academic analyses of these programs in the...

A day after Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Owen was shot and killed during a burglary call, mourners gathered Thursday at the Lancaster sheriff’s station to pay their respects to a lawman whom one resident described as “one of the good ones.” Just before 8 a.m., Bishop Vaughn stopped at the Lancaster Sheriff’s Station to offer prayers for the fallen sergeant. His first encounter with Owen wasn’t ideal. It was about eight years ago and the sergeant arrested him. "That's how long we've been together, partners," Owen said. "He brought me a long way." Vaughn now stays at a...

Editor's Note: This piece was written by Phyllis Schlafly's son Andy.Phyllis Schlafly was with us a glorious 92 years, and active in politics for more than 70 of them. It is difficult to identify any issue that she was not on the right side of, typically years or decades before others rallied beside her. She wrote or spoke out on nearly every controversial American political matter, and the conservative movement today is based largely on work that she did five, ten, twenty, and even sixty years ago. Though we grieve her passing, she leaves us with a legacy that will...

Penn State marked the 50th anniversary of the late Joe Paterno’s first game as head football coach Saturday, introducing former players and displaying video tributes at the Nittany Lions’ game against Temple... The tribute ignited reaction from Paterno critics as well as supporters...

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump praised longtime conservative champion Phyllis Schlafly at the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Friday and at her funeral in St. Louis the following day. In a statement released on Monday, the day Schlafly passed away, Trump said: “Phyllis Schlafly is a conservative icon who led millions to action, reshaped the conservative movement, and fearlessly battled globalism and ‘kingmakers’ on behalf of America’s workers and families. I was honored to spend time with her during this campaign as she waged one more great battle for national sovereignty.” Schlafly established herself as one of the greatest...

Remarks delivered by John Schlafly at the funeral of his mother, Phyllis Schlafly, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis on September 10, 2016:When my father, Fred Schlafly, reached the age of 75, and realized he could no longer compete in the sports he had enjoyed throughout his life, he turned to my mother one day and said: "Phyllis, you probably have about 10 good years left." That conversation took place more than 30 years ago. And those 30 extra years were good years: good for us, of course, her family and friends who received her wise counsel; and also...

Seattle’s full team interlocked arms and stood on the sideline. “Unity,” was their idea. Unity of a team asking for a more unified community. Cornerback Jeremy Lane, who took a knee during Seattle’s game last week, joined the team in locked arms. So the players agreed to act like a team with one voice here. On the Dolphins, four players - Arian Foster, Kenny Stills, Michael Thomas and Jelani Jenkins - stood during a ceremony for the 9-11 victims on Sunday’s 15th anniversary. They then dropped to a knee at the start of the anthem. The rest of the team...

These guys are true blue. Odell Beckham Jr. and Victor Cruz paid their respects to the victims of 9/11 on Sunday by wearing the patriotic commemorative cleats as the Giants took on the Cowboys in Dallas — despite NFL warnings that players would be fined for wearing the un-sanctioned footwear. Beckham’s special cleats were red, white and blue and emblazoned with the bust of a bald eagle.

Williamson decided he will auction them off to benefit Operation Warrior WishesThe NFL has already ruled at least one 9/11 tribute out of bounds on opening weekend. Tennessee Titans linebacker Avery Williamson wore a pair of custom cleats to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks during the home opener against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, despite being told by the league to shelve them. On 15th Anniversary of 9/11, 'the Grief Never Goes Away' Williamson was informed by the league he would be fined for a uniform violation if he wore the shoes.

Donald Trump paid his respects on Saturday at the funeral of conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, 92, who passed away this week. “We are here today to honor the life and legacy of a truly great American patriot,” Trump told attendees of Schlafly’s funeral mass on Saturday afternoon. “A movement has lost its hero.” Trump met privately with the Archbishop in the adjoining chapel where Schlafly was married in 1949. Trump was welcomed by the mass attendees with a standing ovation. “We lost an amazing woman and our county has lost a true patriot. A strong, proud, and fierce warrior. And...