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Ted Cruz seems poised to take his momentum well into the New Year, having raised $20 million in the fourth quarter of 2015, the Texas senator’s largest haul since becoming a White House hopeful. An official campaign memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal shows Cruz’s fundraising nearly doubled the roughly $12 million he raked in during the previous quarter. Cruz took in $4.3 million in the first quarter, then $10 million in the second, though his camp touted the fact that he had more cash on hand than any other candidate in the crowded GOP field. Cruz’s fundraising total...

To regulate assault weapons, to ensure that the right to keep and bear arms is not unlimited, and for other purposes.

If pundits and observers are skeptical that Donald Trump can win a primary--much less the primary--it's not because they don't buy his popularity. That much is evident. He still leads national polling, he's still ahead in early states like New Hampshire, and his supporters are well in his corner: 63 percent of Trump backers say their minds are "made up" about their candidate of choice....

The article below is about the apocalyptic level of culturally-enriched violence in Gronland, a district of the city of Oslo. Gronland is only two subway stops from the Parliament, and one from the Central Station, fairly close to the government offices that were bombed by Breivik.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday evening slammed the State Department for releasing its latest batch of emails from Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton on New Year's Eve. "Do you believe that The State Department, on NEW YEAR'S EVE, just released more of Hillary's e-mails. They just want it all to end. BAD!" the GOP presidential candidate tweeted. The State Department has for months been releasing the Clinton emails, which were generated during her tenure as secretary of State ending in 2013 but have garnered interest since the revelation of her private email server. A judge ruled earlier this...

Full title: Bill Clinton's speaking fees draw new attention as they line up with actions his wife's State Department took between 2009 and 2013 At least two dozen different companies, groups or foreign governments paid former President Bill Clinton hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees at the same time that they had issues pending with the State Department that was being run by his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, alleges a new report this week. More than $8 million was eventually paid out to the former president - and 15 of the organizations also donated as...

Paris (AFP) - President Francois Hollande's call for convicted French-born terrorists to lose their citizenship if they have a second nationality has triggered uproar among those who see him adopting right-wing ideas that recall dark moments in France's history. Ever since the French Revolution in the late 1700s, "le droit du sol" ("the right of the soil") has been a fundamental principle, giving everyone born in the country the right to citizenship. But in the aftermath of November's jihadist attacks in Paris, Hollande announced to an extraordinary session of both houses of parliament that he would seek changes to the...

A string of allied “super PACs” supporting the presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is planning a $1 million television, digital and radio advertising buy in the early voting states, with the heaviest spending in Iowa, a spokeswoman for the group said. The super PACs, both collectively and individually called Keep the Promise, are flush with cash, and this spending is the biggest investment in television advertising that any of them have made this year. The ad buy includes television advertising in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. By midday Thursday, $700,000 was reserved for television time...

A string of allied "super PACs" supporting the presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is planning a $1 million television, digital and radio advertising buy in the early voting states, with the heaviest spending in Iowa, a spokeswoman for the group said. The super PACs, both collectively and individually called Keep the Promise, are flush with cash, and this spending is the biggest investment in television advertising that any of them have made this year. The ad buy includes television advertising in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. By midday Thursday, $700,000 was reserved for television time...

Two train stations have been evacuated in the German city, and police are urging revellers to avoid crowds for fear of an attack Munich Police has used social media to warn locals about the terror threat Police in Munich are urging people to avoid train stations after receiving "serious information there will be an attack tonight". In the hour before revellers in Germany welcomed in 2016, officers used Facebook to inform the public of an "imminent threat". Munich Police also tweeted: "Current indications that a terrorist attack is planned. Please avoid crowds and the stations." According to the dpa news...

Men dressed as Ottoman janissaries chased Santa Claus in a street show protesting the celebration of New Year's Eve in western Turkey, which ended with Santa converting to Islam.As the show proceeded, Santa was brought to face a qadi, an Islamic judge in the Ottoman era, after he was caught by the janissaries, the Ottoman elite infantry units. The act, staged by members of the nationalist-Islamic Grand Unity Party (BBP) in the province of Bolu, highlights anti-New Year's Eve celebrations sentiments in Turkey, where the festivity is widely deemed to be associated with Christianity. Turkish media have reported education authorities...

We can wipe out the adoption crisis tomorrow. We could wipe it out this week, but we’re too busy arguing to have abortion banned, we’re too busy arguing to defund Planned Parenthood. We are too busy withholding mercy from the living, so that we might display a big spectacle of how much we want mercy to be shown to the unborn. Where is your mercy? … What is your goal in only doing activism that makes you comfortable? ~ #BlackLivesMatter activist Michelle Higgins, speaking at the InterVarsity Christian conference, as quoted by The Blaze, December 31 ————————- UPDATE: InterVarsity issued...

A 12-year-old’s dreams came true when she received a puppy as a New Year’s present from Russia’s president, after having sent him a letter. In the true holiday spirit, Olga Maruchshenko, from a small town in Siberia, got the present of a lifetime from Vladimir Putin. He wasn’t there in person, but ordered the head of the Republic of Khakassia, where the girl lives with her family, to give Olga a husky puppy after reading the girl’s letter. The family recently moved to Siberia from Kazakhstan and live on a tight budget, renting a flat. Olga explained that she dreamed...

“Hundreds” of African invaders engaged in a widespread orgy of violence over the Christmas weekend in Melbourne, the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Victoria. According to local media reports—all of which deliberately failed to report on the race of the rioters—the incidents took place outside a train station in Melbourne’s southeast and outside a Carlton nightclub on Queensberry Street, North Melbourne.In addition, a further brawl took place later at a police station when groups of the arrested Africans went on a rampage, attacking each other and wounding two policemen in the process. The violence outside...

Several top aides to Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson resigned on Thursday, citing frustration with the influence of the retired neurosurgeon's business manager and questioning his readiness for the White House. Barry Bennett and Doug Watts, both seasoned political operatives, stepped down with less than five weeks before voters in Iowa begin the nominating process with the state's Feb. 1 caucuses. Bennett was Carson's campaign manager. Watts was communications director. But Bennett said Carson's longtime business manager, Armstrong Williams, is the adviser who has Carson's ear, even though Williams does not have a formal role in the campaign....

2015 was a rough year for the abortion lobby. They saw a huge number of pro-life laws passed. For the first time in history, the Senate — along with the House of Representatives — voted to defund Planned Parenthood. And while the media tried valiantly, they couldn’t close the floodgates of negative information about the abortion industry. But while 2015 was a hard year for everyone in the abortion industry, some definitely had a harder time than others. Here are the four biggest losers in the abortion lobby for 2015. Wendy Davis Hey, remember Wendy Davis? She was crowned the...

The State Department broke a judge's order on the number of former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton's emails it was supposed to release Thursday, blaming the holiday season for throwing it off track. The department promised another release of emails next week to make up for its breach, and said even the emails it was releasing Thursday will not be fully processed and won't be able to be sorted by senders or recipients in the department's computer system. "We have worked diligently to come as close to the goal as possible, but with the large number of documents involved and the...

In January, for the first time since 2006, a pro-life Senate majority was sworn into office after hard-fought victories in the 2014 elections. In addition to defending pro-life seats, the following either ousted a pro-abortion incumbent or flipped an open seat that had previously been in pro-abortion hands: Sens. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Steve Daines of Montana, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. All of these freshman senators currently hold a 100% voting...

Conway- Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton, at an editorial board meeting Tuesday, sparred with a conservative columnist over Benghazi and spoke about how she'd address opioid addiction. The former first lady, secretary of state and senator from New York is running neck-and-neck with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the New Hampshire Democratic primary polls. A third challenger, Martin O'Malley, is a distant third. The primary is Feb. 9. Clinton took New Hampshire in 2008 and was the first woman to win a major party's presidential primary, but ultimately the nomination went to Barack Obama. Before getting into the details of...

In the early days of my ministry, I was speaking at a very modest sized church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The church was celebrating a major anniversary. That church also had the distinction of having turned Billy Graham down when he candidated as a young man to enter the pastorate. They probably did him the greatest favor in recognizing the difference between a pastor and an evangelist. What I remember on the occasion that I spoke was another young man sitting next to me, thoroughly bored by the proceedings. So I leaned over and inquired, "Are you okay?" He...

Hillary Clinton is denying once again that she told family members of Benghazi attack victims that a video was to blame for the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks — leaving only the possibility that the families are either lying or grossly mistaken about what the then-secretary of state told them in private.During an editorial board meeting with The Conway (N.H.) Daily Sun, Clinton was asked about an interview she recently had with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in which she denied that she told family members of the Benghazi victims during a Sept. 14, 2012 memorial service at Andrews Air Force Base...

The children were unable to say their names or where their parents were. The youngest child, a 1-year-old girl, had a "severe rash on various parts of her body" that appeared to have been there for several weeks, according to a statement from Hernando County Sheriff's Office Wednesday. Deputies had been at the scene for 30 minutes when they were approached by Samantha McCarthy, who told them that the children she was caring for at a nearby Motel 6 went missing while she was asleep.

Hillary Clinton insists that if anyone is lying about the aftermath of the 2012 Benghazi terror attacks that left four Americans dead, it's 'not me.' More than three years after the fires inside a U.S. diplomatic compound in the Libyan port city died down, the political heat is intensifying again – with Clinton facing tough questions along her road to the White House. The Daily Sun, a newspaper in rural Conway, New Hampshire, hosted an editorial board meeting with Clinton on Wednesday. Columnist Tom McLaughlin recounted for her the claims of victims' family members who said she had told them...

Happy New Year's Eve to all at Free Republic!!! Make your predictions for 2016. Good Luck!!!

Given the times we are in and the abilities that we have, I am curious if others do as I do and record certain End-of-Year data for comparison from yer to year. Some of the obvious ones are personal like weight and miles run/cycled. Others are more business-like, say car odometer for business miles use, Electric Meter reading for year usage. Watching the change in net worth can be good or depressing but attention needs to be paid!

“In 2012, she represented the State Department’s U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) in the Jameed Festival in Jordan…” She thinks Jews are animals, but who cares? Remember: “Islamophobia”! Lina Allan, a Palestinian-Jordanian activist who lives in Michigan, published a video in which she attempted to rebut the position of people who prohibit the stabbing of Jews by Palestinians. Allan called on these people to not talk about something they don’t understand and to “go back to watching Turkish soap operas” instead. She added that objecting to the stabbing of Jews is like defending animal rights “at best.” In 2011, Allan...

I took a break from this list for two weeks but its back! This week we have a drama. I believe it comes from the PRC because the the writing in the credits appears to be the "simplified" version used in the Chinese mainland. This is a generational story about surviving hard times. It should require about 1.5 boxes of tissue per person watching as it is quite sad or emotional in places IMDb says: After Fugui and Jiazhen lose their personal fortunes, they raise a family and survive difficult cultural changes during 1940s to 1970s China. You Tube has...

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton says she once went head-to-head with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in a drinking contest. "I haven't been in many [drinking contests], but the most famous one, I suppose is the one I engaged in with Sen. John McCain when he and I were on a congressional delegation and he kind of challenged me," Clinton said in a video posted on her Facebook page Thursday. "We have our political differences, but we sat there drinking vodka."

Hillary Clinton will roll into 2016 by likely surpassing her campaign's $100 million fundraising goal for its first three quarters, according to a CNN analysis of figures provided by the Clinton campaign. Clinton raised at least $21 million at fundraisers she personally headlined in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to figures provided by the Clinton campaign, a number consistent with what Clinton-headlined events raised in the second and third quarters of 2015. The Democratic front-runner headlined a total of 58 fundraisers in the fourth quarter, a pace identical to the 58 events she headlined in the second and third...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tells his volunteers about the need to energize and mobilize Christians. "If we awaken and energize the body of Christ - if Christians and people of faith come out and vote our values - we will win and we will turn the country around," Cruz told volunteers on a conference call Tuesday. Cruz also said that he is organizing a coalition of pastors in early states including Iowa and South Carolina. "We're working to have a lead pastor in each of the 99 counties in Iowa, 99 pastors are organizing other pastors," Cruz said. "We're doing...

Monday – January 4th10:00 am - Boone King's Christian Bookstore 1325 SE Marshall St. Boone, IA 50036RSVP Here12:45 pm - Carroll Charlie's Steakhouse at the Carrollton Inn 1730 US Highway 71 North Carroll, IA 51401RSVP Here3:30 pm - Guthrie Center Prime Time Restaurant 217 State St. Guthrie Center, IA 50115RSVP Here6:00 pm - Winterset Winterset Stage 405 East Madison Winterset, IA 50273RSVP Here10:45 pm – Missouri Valley Penny's Diner 128 Willow Rd. Missouri Valley, IA 51555RSVP HereTuesday, January 5th11:00 am - Onawa Onawa Library 707 Iowa Ave. Onawa, IA 51040RSVP Here2:15 pm - Cherokee Danny's Sports Spot 1013 South 2nd...

Video at link.

A glyptodont shell found in Carlos Spegazzini, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina on December 29, 2015 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A passer-by on Christmas Day found a meter-long shell on a riverbank in Argentina which may be from a glyptodont, a prehistoric kind of giant armadillo, experts said Tuesday. A local man thought the black scaly shell was a dinosaur egg when he saw it lying in the mud, his wife Reina Coronel told AFP. Her husband Jose Antonio Nievas found the shell beside a stream at their farm in Carlos Spegazzini, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the capital Buenos Aires. "My...

A man suspected of supporting the Islamic State and planning a New Year's Eve attack in Rochester became a Muslim while serving in a state prison, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged Emanuel Lutchman, 25, of Rochester, with attempting to provide material support to terrorists. The governor said Lutchman had served time for robbery in Attica, which is home to the state-run Wyoming Correctional Facility. Cuomo said the man "became radicalized" on the Internet. The federal complaint says Lutchman is a self-professed convert to Islam who claimed to receive direction from an overseas ISIS member and...

The State Department found yet another of former Secretary Hillary Clinton’s emails it’s deemed to contain “secret” information, and hundreds more that it classified at a lower level of secrecy — part of Thursday afternoon’s release of more than 3,000 new messages from her unique email arrangement. The new secret message was deemed “unclassified” at the time it was sent, but has now been elevated as officials process and release more than 30,000 of Mrs. Clinton’s emails, which she belatedly returned to the government nearly two years after she left office. This latest release, just hours before the new year,...

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This image, taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the galaxy NGC 6052, located around 230 million light-years away in the constellation of Hercules. It would be reasonable to think of this as a single abnormal galaxy, and it was originally classified as such. However, it is in fact a "new" galaxy in the process of forming. Two separate galaxies have been gradually drawn together, attracted by gravity, and have collided. We now see them merging into a single structure. As the merging...

One of the worst environmental disasters of the decade is currently underway in a quiet community 25 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Putrid, methane-rich natural gas has been spewing into the air at an estimated rate of nearly 1,300 metric tons per day for over two months. Experts are calling it the climate version of the BP oil spill, and the leak isn't going to be contained anytime soon. Natural gas is often touted as a cleaner energy source than oil or coal, because of the lower greenhouse gas emissions associated with burning it. But as this disaster highlights, there...

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa - Supporters of Donald trump lined up outside the Mid-America Center, hoping to see the Republican presidential candidate speak Tuesday night. KETV's Kristyna Engdahl interviewed Mr. Trump before his appearance. Trump was asked if questions about his personal life will be fair-game in the campaign, since he's bringing up Bill Clinton's infidelity. "Yes they would be, and frankly, Hillary brought up the whole thing about "sexist" and all I did is reverse it on her, because she has a major problem in her own house," Trump said. "If she wants to do that, then we'll go after...

Clinton told a newspaper's editors that she never told Benghazi victims' families that an anti-Muslim YouTube video had sparked the deadly attacks Four of them have said otherwise - including the father of one of the fallen who wrote Clinton's words verbatim in a notebook 'Somebody is lying,' a columnist told her Wednesday. 'Who is it?' 'Not me, that's all I can tell you,' Clinton replied, casting blame on the families and attributing any confusion to the 'fog of war' Hillary Clinton insists that if anyone is lying about the aftermath of the 2012 Benghazi terror attacks that left four...

In the final hours of 2015 the Obama administration has quietly proposed a host of rule changes that critics say will end up being a bonanza for foreign students and illegal immigrants seeking work in the U.S. while putting a dagger in the hearts of thousands of American workers. The rules, as proposed by Obama's Department of Homeland Security, make it easier for employers to hire and retain foreign workers who have not yet received their green cards or "lawful protected resident" status. The U.S. already hands out approximately 1 million green cards per year, but under the proposed changes...

Police find military clothing and Isis propaganda but no weapons or explosives in searches in Brussels and elsewhere Belgian police have arrested two people in different parts of the country who were suspected of plotting attacks during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Brussels, prosecutors have said. Less than two months after the jihadi attacks in Paris, which France said were planned in Belgium, the federal prosecutor’s office said police seized military-style uniforms, computers and Islamic State propaganda during raids in Brussels, Brabant to the north, and near Liège in the east.

The 37-year-old man who has been arrested on suspicion of setting fire to a Houston mosque on Christmas Day attended the facility for five years and prayed there five times a day.

If you’ve watched all ten episodes of the Netflix documentary series Making A Murderer, you’re most likely left with more questions than answers. For starters: What really happened? The filmmakers present the story of Steven Avery, a man falsely accused of sexual assault and attempted murder, who was convicted and imprisoned, then exonerated, only to be charged decades later with murdering a photographer named Teresa Halbach. It’s a complicated, harrowing, frustrating narrative, and it’s sparked a lot of speculation. Warning: If you haven’t watched the series, this post isn’t for you; it requires some knowledge of the show, and spoilers...

The call went out seeking Green Bay Packers fans born in October, November, or December 1967, and those fans answered in a big way. The Green Bay Press Gazette had reported that House Casting of New York wanted "die-hard Packers fans" born during those months to appear in the NFL's Super Bowl 50 commercial. House Casting followed up Wednesday morning to say the agency has been inundated with responses, and the casting of the commercial is now closed. So what role might these 48-year-old Packers fans play in the commercial? You'll have to wait until the Super Bowl to find...

U.S.stocks closed lower in light volume trade Thursday, the last day of 2015, despite some stabilization in oil prices. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average both ended lower for the year, their worst since 2008. The Nasdaq composite closed up more than 5.5 percent for the year as biotech stocks and major tech names outperformed. The Russell 2000 and Dow transports also had their worst year since 2008. Selling accelerated into the close, with the Dow closing about 180 points lower. The Nasdaq composite fell more than 1 percent as Apple declined nearly 2 percent. The S&P 500...

An indictment was filed Monday against a 15-year-old Arab girl for two counts of attempted murder and two counts of possession of a knife, after she tried twice to carry out deadly stabbing attacks against Jews in Jerusalem. According to the indictment, on December 6 the terrorist minor decided to carry out a deadly stabbing attack against Jews and die during the attack, in order to become a "martyr." ...

ROME -- The Islamic State has a plan to conquer Rome. Yes, it might sound crazy, but ISIS believes the conquest of Rome is central to its mission. They believe it is necessary to fulfill what Islam teaches was the prophecy of Muhammed and to prepare the return of the Muslim messiah: the Mahdi. "ISIS thinks that Rome is one of its primary goals and is in its timetable," Robert Spencer, author of The Complete Infidel's Guide to ISIS, said. "It has a timetable where in the 10 years, by the year 2025, it hopes to bring about Armageddon, the...

"The satanists all had blood on their hands" OKLAHOMA CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - On Christmas Eve, the Oklahoma satanists who planned to pour blood on a staute of the Blessed Virgin in front of St. Joseph's Old Cathedral were met with a counter-protest: a group of Catholics with Rosaries and Gregorian chant bearing a statue of Our Lady on a litre (pictured above). Many of the Catholics represented the traditional Catholic international group Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). The leader of the Satanic Church of Ahriman, Adam Daniels, a registered sex offender who has used the alias "Adam Smith," obtained a...

The story of Bill Cosby's arraignment yesterday on charges of rape got headline treatment across the nation and signals very bad news for the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. Legal experts say the case against Cosby is weak, unless the testimony of some of the 52 women who have complained of sexual predation by Cosby can be admitted as testimony, establishing a pattern of behavior, or modus operandi, as the lawyers like to say. The legal proceedings against Cosby are certain to be a major topic of discussion in the months ahead. Much of that discussion will center on the proposition...

ORIGINAL TITLE: IN 1844, THE PHILIPPINES SKIPPED A DAY, AND IT TOOK DECADES FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD TO NOTICE The southern Philippines, in an 1852 map (Image: Geographicus Rare Antique Maps/Wikimedia)One of the marvels of modern civilization is that, for the most part, humans all around the globe have agreed on one system for counting days and hours. This is a recent development. While people have generally relied on the cycles of the moon, Earth and sun to measure time, at least 80 different calendars have been used, some more closely aligned than others.And no system is perfect....