Free Republic

I haven't seen Pookies cartoons for several days now. Anybody know if he is okay?

...Chuck Grassley has been criticized incessantly and repeatedly throughout the confirmation process. Take a look a selection from a single day’s comment threads on one conservative site: Get Grassly outta there then. They need a man to deal with the anitics that'll be'a'comin' for that show. Grassley needs placed out to a grassy pasture. Is Grassly going to allow the Soros loud mouth demons in the room to make a stink, like he has in former hearings? Grassley has weak knees. There is no way Grassley pulls this off. Imagine the therapy he will need! Grassley is taking his cowering...

Conventional wisdom is that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asleep at the wheel – from recusing himself unnecessarily from the Trump-Russia collusion investigation to doing nothing about the politicization and weaponization of the Department of Justice. He also gave free rein to his deputy A.G., Rod Rosenstein, who is in turn allowing Special Counsel Robert Mueller unlimited time, money, and jurisdiction to investigate President Trump's entire life.

. . . I have been thinking about Gavin lately because his life and thought so perfectly capture the conservatism of Donald Trump. When you read Gavin, you begin to understand that the idea of Trump as a conservative is not oxymoronic. Trump is a conservative—of a particular type that is rare in intellectual circles. His conservatism is ignored or dismissed or opposed because, while it often reaches the same conclusions as more prevalent versions of conservatism, its impulses, emphases, and forms are different from those of traditionalism, anti-Communism, classical liberalism, Leo Strauss conservatism in its East and West Coast...

New York Police Department's Precinct 60 has pulled off a massive mannequin challenge with a holiday flare. The nearly three-minute video opts out of the traditional Rae Sremmurd's 'Black Beatles', which is typically used in the challenge. Instead, it plays the cheery song 'Easy Street' from the Walking Dead as the camera breezes through the precinct, revealing all kinds of mischief and holiday fun the officers are getting into. From new recruits to plain-clothed officers and high-ranking cops, it appears everyone took time out to participate in the video, which has been viewed more than 27,000 times.

So, about a week or so ago, Patrick Quinn felt trapped. He was sitting on the couch, afraid to move -- lest he woke up Maxton, his 3-week-old son who was sound asleep on his lap. Then he spotted a bowl of Cheerios by the couch. His older son had left it there because he never puts anything away. Hmm, thought Quinn, let's see if I can get one to balance on Maxton's nose. It worked. Hmm, let me see if I can get two.

Lucianne Goldberg, one of the pivotal figures in the Monica Lewinsky affair that rocked Bill Clinton’s second term in office, predicts this presidential election season will be a “highly sexed” campaign due to the reemergence of Clinton’s sex accusers. Goldberg, a literary agent at the time of the Lewinsky affair, was in touch with Clinton’s publicly known accusers and alleged mistresses. Regarding those accusers, Goldberg asserted, “I believed every one of these women. … They were telling you the truth.”

Airline passengers flying into Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) can look down and see a new, bold, controversial political sign in the days leading up to Maryland Republican primary. A giant orange “TRUMP” sign is on the roof of a house directly under the approach for BWI. Donald Trump has a double digit lead in the Republican primary in Maryland, but the blue state is making many of his supporters hide their vote. But one retired police detective decided to fight back– in a “yuge” way — after his 12-year old daughter was bullied at school for backing the billionaire...

While Ted Cruz proudly proclaims he is an Evangelical Christian, his campaign takes pains to hide the truth that Cruz and his pastor father, Rafael Cruz are Pentecostal Christians, a fact further hidden by having Ted and Heidi Cruz’s belong to the congregation of First Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist church in Houston, as their home church. Both Cruz’s parents, his father Rafael a Cuban-born immigrant, and his mother Eleanor, born in Wilmington, Delaware, grew up in Catholic families. Both were among the millions of that left the Catholic Church since the 1960s to embrace Pentecostalism, a Christian movement estimated...

Police in Philadelphia have arrested a group of juveniles in connection with attacks on Roman Catholic High School students. Sources tell Action News that the attack on a Roman Catholic student last month was caught on surveillance video. That video was in part what led to the arrest of the four juveniles. Police tell us all four juveniles have admitted to their involvement in that attack. Police say that during questioning one of the four juveniles admitted to also being involved in an attack on another Roman Catholic student, Jimmy Fallon, who was jumped the same week as the other...

The State Department is lying when it says it didn’t know until it was too late that Hillary Clinton was improperly using personal e-mails and a private server to conduct official business — because it never set up an agency e-mail address for her in the first place, the department’s former top watchdog says. “This was all planned in advance” to skirt rules governing federal records management, said Howard J. Krongard, who served as the agency’s inspector general from 2005 to 2008.

Consider this a dangerous post, and a post that will be easily misunderstood. For here I am about to make a point that explores a biblical theme and apply it to today. But in so doing, I am “holding other things equal”—a technique which examines a certain aspect of a problem and focuses on that one thing, while not denying that other factors and issues are also at work. Simply put, part of the explanation is that God is permitting increased violence, and not restraining it, as a kind of chastisement on the increasingly secular West for our unbelief. This...

(Reuters) - Major U.S. computer company Dell Inc said on Monday a security hole exists in some of its recently shipped laptops that could make it easy for hackers to access users’ private data. A pre-installed program on some newly purchased Dell laptops that can only be removed manually by consumers makes them vulnerable to cyber intrusions that may allow hackers to read encrypted messages and redirect browser traffic to spoofs of real websites such as Google or those belonging to a bank, among other attacks. . . . . .Dell said it would provide customers with instructions to permanently...

The TV is on in the background, and you’re replying to a quick email on your phone nearby. You don’t know it, but the devices are communicating. During a commercial, the TV emits an inaudible tone and your phone, which was listening for it, picks it up. Somewhere far away, a server makes a note: Both devices probably belong to you. This information about which devices belong to whom is immensely valuable to advertisers hoping to target ads specifically to you. In a simpler time, targeted marketing was easy. Most people had a computer at work and maybe another at...

Interview with Harry MacDougald the Atlanta lawyer who's initial questioning of the validity of the Killian documents exposed the flaw CBS report about George W. Bush's National Guard Service.

WASHINGTON DC – The Obama administration formally announced that inspectors general will have to get permission from their agency heads to gain access to grand jury, wiretap and fair credit information — an action that severely limits the watchdogs’ oversight capabilities, independence and power to uncover fraud. An opinion, issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, says the Inspector General Act of 1978 — which was written by Congress to create the government watchdogs in order to help maintain integrity within their agencies — does not have the authority to override nondisclosure provisions in other laws, most...

Donald Trump catapulted himself into the spotlight with his gilded real estate ventures and vibrant personality. The latter is what has made his show "The Apprentice" such a huge success. And over the years, he's had an opinion or two about the business world. "In the end, you're measured not by how much you undertake but by what you finally accomplish," Trump once said. But like any successful business person, Trump has had his share of setbacks. Here, we present to you 12 Trump businesses that went belly up or no longer exist.

. . . If you want to maintain your credentials as a tolerant citizen of the world, you have to pretend that there is a strict wall of separation dividing Islam and radical Islam, and that the vast majority of Muslims are peace-loving. But in the real world no such wall exists. As exemplified by all those nice Muslim boys and girls next door who suddenly sign up for the jihad, Muslims can slide readily from the “trad” side to the “rad” side. Moreover, many of those who don’t resort to violence themselves seem willing to lend moral support to...

Sinister Circuit Board Peter Shanks via Flickr CC By 2.0 In late summer of 2006, the Japanese division of McDonald’s decided to run a new promotion. When customers ordered a Coca-Cola soft drink, they would receive a cup with a code. If they entered that code on a designated website and were among 10,000 lucky winners, they would receive an MP3 player pre-loaded with 10 songs. Cleverly constructed, the promotion seemed destined for success. Who doesn’t like a Coke and a free MP3 player? But there was one problem the marketers at McDonald’s could not anticipate: In addition to 10...

Islamic State terrorists have begun their promised killing of Christians in Mosul, and they have started with the children. According to a report via CNN, a Chaldean-American businessman has said that killings have started in Mosul and children's heads are being erected on poles in a city park.