Free Republic

So little time, so much to do, what with Christmas almost here. Cards to mail, last-minute presents to buy, stockings to hang. ... It must have been like that the day they found him out by the railroad tracks. That was long ago in little Pine Bluff, Ark. -- but he still comes to mind every time the calendar flips to the 21st of December. Unbidden, untended, unnoticed, he lay there. For who knows how long. He'd come at a most inconvenient time -- just four days before all Christendom celebrates the birth of Him who said, "Inasmuch as ye...

During solemn hearings on the floor of the U.S. Senate investigating drugs and terrorism a swarthy Hispanic who landed on U.S. shores with the clothes on his back and was graciously put on the path to U.S. citizenship repeatedly insulted a U.S. Senator who was also a highly decorated war veteran, an Ivy League graduate and a scion of a wealthy and politically-connected American family. The smartmouthed Latino was accused of drug-running and money-laundering to finance terrorists. He was testifying under oath –sneeringly and with a heavy Spanish accent-- upon a subpoena by lawmakers of the nation that had shown...

These spell-binding pictures bring a whole new meaning to the term freeze frame. They look like painstakingly carved ice art that even the most experienced sculptors would be proud of. But take a cold, hard look and you will see they are in fact tiny natural ice formations, captured in minute detail. Andrew Osokin has captured stunning images of ice formations and snow using macro photography.

State Department's Accountability Review Board Report Leaves It To Obama Explain His And His Minions' Explanations. According to President Barack Obama, the alleged protest before the attack on the Special Mission Benghazi was purportedly caused by spontaneous mob’s emotional reaction to an anti-Islamic video produced in the U.S. However, the ARB’s conclusion, “there was no protest prior to the attacks,” directly contradicts the president’s, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s, UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s, and White House Spokesman Jay Carney’s repeated false statements to the nation blaming the video as the motivation for the attack and the deaths of four Americans,...

Lawmakers in Moscow moved to ban Americans from adopting Russian children Friday, as they passed a bill that imposes a series of sanctions on U.S. interests, state media reported. Russia is one of the top sources of international adoptions to the United States. The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, adopted the bill on its third reading, the state-run RAPSI news agency reported. The measure will now move to the Federation Council and, if approved there, will go to President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law, the news agency said. The legislation could affect hundreds of American families...

The panel reviewing the EBT system took a pass on major reforms yesterday, but Republicans are promising a fight in the state Legislature in the new year to fix the abuse-ravaged system once and for all. The EBT Cashless Commission’s final report was approved yesterday and called for more education and stricter enforcement but skipped over the toughest proposals. “The recommendations in the report are weak and ineffective, especially considering one of them is already law,” said state Rep. Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton), one of the members of the commission composed of legislators and state advocates. “It was a missed opportunity...

NEW YORK CITY -- It hasn't been an easy time -- year, decade, early century -- for organized religion. Books by atheists proliferate, some meaner than others. Fewer men and women attend church or synagogue services. The season highlights Christmas and in recent years Hanukkah, but the cultural emphasis is more materialistic than meditative. Confidence in organized religion has declined to 44 percent, as measured by Gallup. When tragedy strikes, as in Newtown, Conn., prayer resides mostly in the shadows of those personally affected. The public ritual requires politicians to assure survivors of their thoughts and prayers -- what one...

"God put the Republican Party on earth to cut taxes. If they don't do that, they have no useful function." Columnist Robert Novak was speaking of the party that embraced the revolution of Ronald Reagan, who had hung a portrait of Calvin Coolidge in his Cabinet Room and set about cutting income tax rates to 28 percent. But, to be historically precise, the GOP was not put here to cut taxes. From infancy in the 1850s, its mission was to halt the spread of slavery. From 1865 to 1929, it was the party of high tariffs. Mission: Build the nation...

Confused by what is about to take place amid the loud noise, political posturing and rhetoric that as soon as tomorrow will hit an unseen before level as Obama's plan to split the GOP has worked so well it has completely backfired and thrown any game theoretical forecasts out of the window? Here is Goldman's fiscal flowchart, which is not for faint of heart, as ever more signs point to the box with the all caps "recession" written all over it. 

The U.S. Treasury Department has added three individuals with alleged ties to the crime group Brothers' Circle to a blacklist which bans American citizens and companies from conducting any business with them according to a press release: "today's action targets Zakhariy Kalashov for acting for or on behalf of, or providing material support to, the Brothers' Circle, as well as Almanbet Anapiyaev and Adilet Kasenov, for acting for or on behalf of, or providing material support to, Kamychbek Kolbayev." The Treasury Department previously placed Kolbayev on its black list. According to the press release the Brothers' Circle "is a criminal...

A few years ago, the country became aware of a “bubble” building in higher education, as it had in housing. Excessive demand – based largely on easy credit, government subsidies and the overselling of a college education – caused academia to expand unsustainably. Then came the economic downturn. With underemployed graduates and dropouts increasingly unable to repay loans, state legislatures cutting appropriations, and innovative competition making inroads, the bubble appeared ready to burst, or at least deflate. That could mean – so the theory goes – devastation for traditional academia: declining enrollments, with some colleges forced to close, perhaps; a...

To My Democrat Liberal Friends: Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2013, but not without due respect...

Why does the media make it so difficult to find news stories of Americans employing guns--more specifically, semi-automatic guns (including AR-15s)--to save their lives? I set out to write a piece this morning to highlight heroic instances in which people have used semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles in desperate attempts to defend themselves and others. To my surprise, Google didn’t take me very far. Conservatives know that the mainstream media has engaged in a biased war on the Second Amendment over the last few decades, but this morning’s search opened my eyes to the extremity of their bias. Instead of...

One week ago, a lone lunatic took the lives of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Sadly -- yet, predictably -- before the crime scene was even secured by police, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg took to his bully pulpit to issue another in his endless demands for more stringent gun control. There is no question the Sandy Hook shooting is a tragedy of horrible dimensions. Nor is there any question the incident is another red flag that something is not right with the culture of our nation. Half of the...

A website set up by the White House to solicit petitions has been flooded in the wake of last Friday's gun massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, and today, President Obama issued a video response to petitioners, indicating that he hears the outpouring loud and clear. "We hear you," said Mr. Obama. "Like the majority of Americans, I believe the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms...It's encouraging that many gun owners have stepped up this week to say there are steps we can take to prevent more tragedies like the one in Newtown - steps that both...

The brutal murders of 20 schoolchildren and six adults in Newtown, CT, stunned the world last week. A mentally ill young man apparently discovered that his long-suffering mother was going to attempt to have him committed to a psychiatric facility; he took out his rage upon her and then his former elementary school’s faculty, staff, and students. It was senseless. It was barbaric. As parents, it is difficult for us to cope with the thought of having our youngest beloved ripped from us by any method, much less something as abhorrent as intentional, callous murder. No decent person could feel...

When Pope John Paul II described the New Evangelization back in 1983, he said it required new ardor, new methods and new expressions. Since then, perhaps no priest has embodied those qualities like Father Robert Barron of Chicago. Through his “Word on Fire” ministry he has used blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, websites and mobile apps to spread the faith. He’s evangelized the culture through movie reviews and news commentary. And he released the epic “Catholicism” film series which has been seen across the world on both Catholic and secular television. Fr. Barron Father Robert Barron. Courtesy of Word on Fire...

t is Dec. 20, 2012 — and citizens of Earth are panicking, consumed by the idea that the world will end Friday, something they say was predicted by Mayan astronomers. Of course, most people are not panicking, and Maya expert David Stuart says no one should. The calendar, he says, has plenty of room to go. In an interview airing on Thursday's Morning Edition, David Greene asks archaeologist Stuart, who helped translate influential ancient Mayan hieroglyphs in 1996, if he thinks the world will end on Dec. 21. "Absolutely not," is Stuart's answer, dashing the hopes of students eyeing a...

In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of “Word for the Day”. FlummeryNoun Plural: flummeries 1. Meaningless or deceptive language; humbug. 2. a. Any of several soft, sweet, bland foods, such as custard. b. A sweet gelatinous pudding made by straining boiled oatmeal or flour. c. A soft dessert of stewed, thickened fruit, often mixed with a grain such as rice. Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the...

MK Zev Elkin of Likud talked to Arutz Sheva about refusing orders after Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) party head Naftali Bennet raised the issue by saying that if he were ordered to expel Jews from their homes he would ask his commander to release him from duty. Elkin related that he, too, would request a release from duty – but that if one were not forthcoming, he would carry out the eviction order. His decision does not indicate a support for such orders, he said, and he plans to use his status as an MK from the ruling party to...