Free Republic

In all the bad days that opponents of same-sex marriage have had lately, few compare with the one they had this past week in a courtroom in Chicago. Lawyers defending the bans in Wisconsin and Indiana were buried in an avalanche of skepticism and incredulity. The judges demanded to know what worthy goals the prohibitions serve, and the attorneys had terrible trouble coming up with any. Perhaps the low point for their side came when one was asked why Wisconsin makes it so hard for same-sex couples to adopt and ventured to say, "I think tradition is one of the...

Suddenly, it’s 1964 again. Racial tension is in the air. Cries of “injustice” and “police brutality” occupy the headlines. However, the epicenter has moved from Mississippi and Harlem to Ferguson, Missouri, a small municipality that occupies a slice of northeastern St. Louis County. Unfortunately for the peace-loving citizens in that community, those fanning the flames that have led to the violence are stuck in 1964. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and members of the New Black Panther Party have never moved on. They are in a time warp. In fact, their relevance depends on being able to make disadvantaged blacks believe...

The film begins in formulaic fashion, introducing us slowly to the ensemble cast that is about to flee for their lives for the rest of the movie, while also giving us the backstory on how a government group called “The New Founding Fathers” have instituted “the Purge,” while Internet preachers rail against it as a form of false, secular religion. Then the sirens go off, the population huddles behind closed doors and “commencement” of the purge begins with ticking clock, an excellent suspense element.

As the sorry ramifications of situational morality play out on virtually a daily basis, many of us wonder where this all came from. With no hard edges on ANY concept these days, let alone good and evil, we observe the seeming paradox that with endless shades of gray comes not compromise, but more division! Of course, there is one thing on which we can all agree: money and debt. If I owed you $1000, you would consider yourself cheated unless I paid back every penny. There is a clear standard here. It’s the economy, stupid! Now throw into the mix...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says immigrants who came to the country illegally at a young age are now legitimate residents and should not be deported. Reid made the remarks in response to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is demanding that an emergency spending bill for the border reverse President Obama’s 2012 order halting deportations of so-called Dreamers. “Before Republicans help our Border Patrol agents and all the personnel trying to do something to handle this humanitarian crisis, they want President Obama to deport the Dreamers who are already here, legitimately here,” he said on the Senate floor Thursday...

Robert David Steele, former Marine, CIA case officer, and US co-founder of the US Marine Corps intelligence activity, is a man on a mission. But it's a mission that frightens the US intelligence establishment to its core.... ...Drawing on principles set out in his latest book, The Open-Source Everything Manifesto: Transparency, Truth and Trust, he told the audience that all the major preconditions for revolution – set out in his 1976 graduate thesis – were now present in the United States and Britain.... "...We are at the end of a five-thousand-year-plus historical process during which human society grew in scale...

Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Friday that many of the illegal immigrant children his agents are encountering trying to slip across the U.S.-Mexico border have never even seen a doctor before. He described scenes of Border Patrol agents changing diapers and heating baby formula in order to care for some of the youngest children, and said agents are being asked to do things way beyond their skill set — particularly for so many of the agents who are young, single men. “I’ve been down there, a lot, and spent a lot of time and I’ve...

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Their faces hide behind scarves, gas masks and motorcycle helmets. TV images show them smashing cars, hurling bricks at police and setting tires ablaze on the streets of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian politicians have claimed they are a national security threat. But who really are these protesters who plan to run riot at the World Cup as soon as the inaugural game kicks off on June 12? Brazil's police allege the militants form an extremist group called the Black Bloc, and say they are watching its leaders. The local press has published exposes...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall spoke with comedian Rob Schneider on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the struggle comedians face in today’s current political environment. Schneider struck on ominous tone when discussing the path he sees the country on. “Democracies don’t end well. We are sliding very fast towards fascism. It’s an ugly kind of thing. There’s this kind of mob mentality that we have to be careful of,” he said. He believes comedians are pressured toward one side of the political spectrum. “There’s a polarization that’s happening…I do think you look can look at government and go, ‘Wow, it...

Recently, I was a panelist on MSNBC. The topic was same sex marriage. A fellow panelist called for a Marriage Spring. We know what that means. Or we think we do. The unmarriage advocate wants us to hurry up and overthrow the existing order. Do it as the Arab Street has been doing it: Assemble a vast mass of people entering the square to insist on change. Demand an end to an oppressive old order. And it will all happen with stunning suddenness—just as the winds of change have blown through the Arab world. Or so they say. We all...

The 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference drew a fairly international swarm of conservatives possessing a variety of ideas about limiting and specializing the role of civil government. The obfuscations of a (to use Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s term) plus sized, overreaching bureaucracy have made some young people wonder why we need a civil government in the first place and why we can’t have anarchy instead. How do you respond to the statement: ”The system isn’t broken; the system never worked”?...

It turns out that with the newfound fame as international human rights spokespersons, Maria Alyokhhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova have alienated their former musical group members, who now feel the pair have strayed from the movement's original goals. Six of the members of the Russian punk rock group known as Pussy Riot have decided to write a letter stating that they may no longer be listed as members of their group. In the letter, the collective accuses the two former members of no longer meeting up to the "aspirations and ideals of [the] group." The two newly disenfranchised members had performed...

After the Seattle Seahawks won their first Super Bowl in franchise history on Sunday, fans in Seattle jumped on cars, took over intersections, torched couches, and riot police had to be brought in to restore order.

European Union foreign ministers on Monday unanimously approved a joint military force to assist French and African troops trying to quell anarchy and bloodshed in Central African Republic. The 28-nation bloc is now preparing operational details to dispatch about 500 soldiers to stabilize the situation in and around the country’s capital, Bangui, said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. However, it is still mostly unclear which nations will contribute soldiers to the EU mission. …

schmuck-by-natureAn old joke has a policeman parking his car outside a bar shortly before closing time. He's certain he'll bag a tipsy driver or two toward his arrest quota. Immediately, an obvious drunk stumbles from the bar. The drunk drops and retrieves his car keys repeatedly as people leave the bar, enter their vehicles and head home. Convinced that he's found an easy target, the officer ignores the departing crowd. Finally, the drunk reaches the last remaining car, enters and starts the engine. The officer flips on his lights, pulls his cruiser next to the drunk's car—and receives a shock....

"It's the law of the land." This is rapidly becoming the preferred shorthand argument for why criticism of Obamacare is just so, so wrong. It also serves as the lead sentence of a larger claim that all attempts to overturn the Affordable Care Act are really symptoms of a kind of extremist right-wing lunacy. For instance, here's Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who walked out of the painting "American Gothic" to deliver this homespun wisdom: "We're not going to bow to Tea Party anarchists who deny the mere fact that Obamacare is the law. We will not bow to Tea...

At the core of America’s founding was a simple, yet literally revolutionary, idea: that all people deserve to be free because they are created by God in His image, and that our rights come from God, not government. This was articulated in the most important sentence in America’s founding, the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Those 36 words are sometimes called the best-known...

A federal judge says the Environmental Protection Agency’s use of personal email accounts may have been aimed at skirting public disclosure requirements.

Shoppers at a Wal-Mart on Crenshaw Boulevard described a scene of chaos and mayhem Monday night as unruly protesters stormed the store, tossing merchandise and trying to loot jewelry cases. . . . The women said they saw clothes on the floor and a little girl crying. “She must have been in the middle of it,” Erica Williams said. The two left the store and watched as the crowd continued to gather on Crenshaw Boulevard. When they decided to go shopping, they thought they were a safe distance from any potential problems.

Pennsylvania attorney general refuses to defend state in same-sex lawsuit Reuters By Dave Warner PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane refused on Thursday to fight a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage. The lawsuit is believed to be the first federal case since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 26 that the U.S. government must recognize same-sex marriages in states where it is legal. Kane, a Democrat who supports same-sex marriage, announced her decision at a press conference in the National Constitution Center in historic Philadelphia. By declining...