Free Republic

A recently released poll shows significant public support for the protection of religious liberty—especially when special rights based on sexual orientation are being advanced at its expense. The results reveal hope for the classical liberal vision of America: they indicate that most Americans still appear to want maximum freedom and individual rights protection. […] Support for religious freedom jumps even higher in the context of wedding vendors. 82 percent said “yes” when asked whether a Christian wedding photographer with “deeply held religious beliefs opposing same sex marriage” has “the right to say no” to a same-sex couple asking him or...

Mozart finished his last symphony, no. 41 on August 10, 1788. It was nicknamed "Jupiter" after his death. Certainly it is the loftiest and most magisterial of Mozart's symphonies, with a formal and ceremonial quality in keeping with its key of C major. Although today we think of C major as the plainest and most basic of keys — all white notes on the piano — in the late 18th century it was usually associated with court and high-church pomp since it was well suited to the valveless trumpets of the period. And we find two of them adding brilliance...

Our man on Woodward Avenue is shooting everything, and we'll be updating all weekend In past years, we've broken our Woodward Dream Cruise photos into chunks, showing you imports, Fords, Chevys, Mopars and just plain weird stuff in individual galleries. This year, we're covering the "world's largest one-day car show" a little differently: Call it the "shotgun approach." We'll put up as many huge galleries as our servers will handle, and you can sort through the insanity any way you like. As for captions that specifically identify each car ... maybe we'll get to that after the event. There's also...

Winner in the Scary Cow Film Festival! Before she passed away, my Great-Grandmama recorded a cassette tape of a story she said must be told. I found the tape, had it translated from Geshemshaskcili, and using photos from our family archives assembled it into this movie. Some of the photos are from current family, but others are original. People who know my clan might notice some family resemblances. This is a delightfully twisted fairy tale of coming to America. . .

An iconic 19th century American painting that remains one of art’s most famous works will be on view July 4th at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. James McNeill Whistler’s most famous painting known today as Whistler’s Mother is an 1871 portrait of the woman born as Anna Matilda McNeill. Curator Jay Clarke says the image became an American icon while on a cross-country tour during the 1930s.

FULL TITLE: Creepy moment 'haunted puppet' said to have choked its previous owner starts moving on its own inside a sealed glass container in the middle of the night A creepy puppet said to have choked its former owner has been filmed moving inside a sealed glass container in the dead of night. Paranormal Investigator Jayne Harris, 32, from Stourbridge, West Midlands, recorded the puppet every night for three months - after its previous owner claimed it tried to choke him to death. And last month she was left dumbfounded, when her cameras caught the chilling moment the wooden doll...

A team of Spanish police experts flew to the French island of Corsica on Tuesday to retrieve a masterpiece by Pablo Picasso that was smuggled out of Spain, where it is considered a national treasure. A spokesman for Spain's Civil Guard said four police experts in national heritage and several Culture Ministry officials flew to recover the painting, "Head of a Young Woman," which is valued at 24 million euros ($26 million). The officer said they expect to return with the painting later Tuesday. The work is owned by Spanish banker Jaime Botin, brother of the late Emilio Botin, former...

Meagan Abell recently made a discovery during a thrift store expedition that... contains an interesting astronomical dimension as well. This is an instance where observational astronomy may play a key role in pinning down a date...first discovered the set of four medium format negatives at a thrift store on Hull Street in Richmond, Virginia. Beyond that, they have no provenance. ...Facebook users have pinned down the location as Dockweiler Beach... One ... image shows a tiny sliver of Moon just to the subject’s upper left. ...The Moon looks to be a 5-6 day old waxing crescent about 30-40% illuminated. Not...

Full Title: 'The ISS is being monitored by aliens': Conspiracy theorists spot yet another UFO hovering above the space station ============================================================================================================= Another UFO has been spotted hovering over the International Space Station, conspiracy theorists claim. Footage allegedly taken from a Nasa camera shows a pink and white object soaring across space. It has reignited claims the ISS is being 'monitored by extra-terrestrials'. The latest supposed sighting comes after another Nasa video, shot from the ISS in June, which showed mysterious lights 'leaving' Earth before the stream cut. The short clip, uploaded to YouTube, is the latest to fuel claims that...

This is my first attempt at original jazz. It is not (intentionally) humorous. I compose and record my music under the pen name Hopalong Ginsberg, because what says Jazz more than Jewish cowboys? To download a free MP3 copy of "Blues For Rufus," click here or here.

There are three movies this week 1. The Road Home is a romance and one of the best films to ever be produced in the PRC. It stars Taiwanese actress Zhang Zi Yi. This is a three box of tissue film. No sex, no violence no strong language. You should notice the implied criticism of the Chinese government in the Cultural Revolution. This link will require registration but I have not had ay problem with this site and the film did not cost me anything to see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPhTf-Zt5iM 2. MAd Mission3 with Sam Hui. Sam Hui is sort of a...

With Hari Nef signed to IMG and Andreja Pejic making make-up modeling history, it's been a good year for transpeople in the fashion industry -- and it's about to get even better because there's now a trans-exclusive modeling agency in the game, dubbed Apple Model Management. Originally founded in Thailand, Apple has just expanded to LA, where they've become the first modeling agency to launch a transgender division. "We see trans individuals as beautiful," agency director Cecilio Asuncion said. "But their full potential was never reached because of the stigma the community-at-large had towards the trans community. This has to...

Two cast members and a production company of the reality show "Alaska: The Last Frontier" are facing a misdemeanor charge after they reportedly used a helicopter for a black bear hunt. The Alaska Dispatch News reports that Atz Lee Kilcher and his wife, Cristina Jane Kilcher, and Wilma TV Inc. have each been charged in connection with a helicopter flight and bear hunt in September 2014 near Homer.

LOS ANGELES – Season 5 of "Last Man Standing" is going to get political with the presidential race upon us, and neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump is going to be safe from the wisecracking Mike Baxter, played by Tim Allen. "We're going to drill Hillary," the star told FOX411 at the Television Critics Association Q&A session for his ABC series. "It will be horrible personally if Hillary continued [to lead the Democrats], but it will be great for the storyline if she continues."

For his groundbreaking 1948 LIFE magazine photo essay, “Country Doctor” — seen here, in its entirety, followed by several unpublished photographs from the shoot — photographer W. Eugene Smith spent 23 days in Kremmling, Colo., chronicling the day-to-day challenges faced by an indefatigable general practitioner named Dr. Ernest Ceriani. Six decades later, Smith’s images from those three weeks remain as fresh as they were the moment he took them, and as revelatory as they surely felt to millions of LIFE’s readers as they encountered Dr. Ceriani, his patients and his fellow tough, uncompromising Coloradans. Born on a sheep ranch in...

I'd like to start a ping list for Bolliwood and Hong Kong Movies. Often these are low budget by US standards but can be really funny and lack the PC nonsense in Hollywood productions. This one is a spoof of James Bond, Peter Gun, Get Smart, Die Hard, and Lethal Weapon and several Bruce Lee Films. It is low brow humor very bloody and a tremendous amount of fun. See how many parodies you can identify. Enjoy

Someone found in an attic old 16 mm home movies from the 1930s -- labeled Kodachrome experiment. "Yeah, I was intrigued. So I took the projector, I took the films and I started to watch," Bill said. "And I loved what I saw. I saw scenes of our community and they were in color!" -snip He found out the photographer, a guy named Bob Kramer, went to work for Kodak labs right out of high school -- and that girl was his high school sweetheart, Leona Sharp. She would be 96 years old if she were alive. He found an...

A video shot in Japan’s port city of Osaka has been making the rounds online, displaying a swarm of white spherical objects of unknown origin flying across the sky. The low-quality footage has triggered speculation over extra-terrestrial life and UFOs.

Over the last couple of years we have seen 3D printing progress at an incredibly rapid rate. One of the areas which excites us the most is the 3D printing materialÂ’s space where new materials are being utilized as a print medium nearly every week. What started out as ABS and PLA, a few different types of metal powders, and ordinary photosensitive resin, has quickly grown to include hundreds of new, interesting, innovative materials. From wood and metal composites, gl8to clay, food, and everything in between, new materials are what will drive 3D printing towards mainstream adoption. When printing with...