Free Republic

JUNEAU, Alaska - Petitioners have called for the removal of a statue in Alaska of the U.S. cabinet secretary who arranged the purchase of the state’s land from Russia. The Juneau Empire reports Jennifer LaRoe launched the Change.org petition to remove the William H. Seward statue that drew signatures from 1,300 people. The $250,000 statue unveiled in 2017 shows Seward holding the 1867 Treaty of Cession authorizing the Alaska Territory sale to the U.S. from the Russian Empire. LaRoe acknowledged Seward's role as an abolitionist in President Abraham Lincoln’s administration but says the statue is a symbol of white, patriarchal...

This past week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi ordered that the official portraits of four of her predecessors be removed from the Capitol walls. This grandiose display of virtue signaling occurred, she said, “because we must lead by example.” Example of what? “There is no room in the hallowed halls of this democracy, this temple of democracy, to memorialize people who embody violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy.” The four portraits are of whom? Robert Hunter who served as Speaker 20 years prior to the Civil War and Charles Crisp, an enlisted man in the Confederate Army,...

It began with a prayer and ended with a loud clunk. On Saturday afternoon, a group of about five dozen indigenous activists of all ages — children and elders included — gathered at Father Serra Park in downtown Los Angeles, just south of Olvera Street. As Tataviam/Chumash elder Alan Salazar burned sage and invoked the spirit of his ancestors, a group of young activists bound the nearby statue of Father Junipero Serra with ropes and tore him off his pedestal to chants of "Take it down! Take it down!"

<p>The anti-ISIS operation, Naharawan al-Sham, who distributed images of the first American to be killed fighting for ISIS yesterday, has according to CNN announced a second American was killed in battle representing ISIS. So far, neither ISIS (which often comments on death of its "martyrs") or Naharawan al-Sham has released any images or evidence of the second death.</p>

The battle in itself seemed tragically normal. Two Syrian opposition groups fought and there were heavy casualties on both sides. Then victorious rebels rifled through the pockets of the dead. One contained about $800 in cash -- and an American passport. Douglas McAuthur McCain, of San Diego, California, was killed over the weekend fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), according to the Free Syrian Army. Photos of McCain's passport and of his body -- which feature a distinctive neck tattoo

Douglas McAuthur McCain, 33, of San Diego California was killed over the weekend in fighting between the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and a Syrian opposition group, according to the Free Syrian Army. After the battle, McCain, along with his American passport and the bodies of three other foreign jihadis were found. McCain, who referred to himself as “Duale ThaslaveofAllah” on Facebook made his allegiance to Islam apparent on his social media pages. His Twitter bio read: “It’s Islam over everything.”

Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDSThe owner of a bridal shop in Pennsylvania has been forced to close her doors after a lesbian couple launched a social-media bullying campaign in retaliation for the owner’s refusal to service their same-sex wedding.Breitbart is reporting that Victoria Miller, owner of the W.W. Bridal Boutique in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, said she has had to shutter her bridal shop after a pair of “unidentified” lesbians began attacking her for refusing to sell them wedding gowns.“We feel we have to answer to God for what we do,” Miller said, according to the New York Daily News. “And providing...