Free Republic

By our count - and the day is still young - four Democratic U.S. senators have flipped on gay marriage in the past few days. Senators Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Mark Begich, D-Alaska - have joined Senators Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Mark Warner, D-Va., in renouncing their previous opposition to gay marriage, just since Sunday. They follow, of course, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio - still the only Republican senator to endorse gay marriage - to flip as the Supreme Court takes up the issue today and tomorrow.

The Westboro Baptist Church has a colorful new neighbor, and Roy G. Biv isn’t going anywhere soon. Planting Peace, a Destin, Fla.-based nonprofit, has purchased a house directly across from the notoriously homophobic Westboro Baptist Church, and today it is being painting with the rainbow pattern of the gay pride flag.

As recently as 2003, the president of the Greater Fort Bend County Tea Party had a very different title: director of propaganda for the American Fascist Party.

Have the past few weeks been a tipping point for the Republican Party on the issue of gay rights? Several top Republicans have shifted their tone and position on issues like gay marriage and benefits for same-sex couples, which the GOP's social conservative base has staunchly opposed for years. But it remains unclear whether Republican officials who have changed their mind on gay rights will be able to bring the party's base with them.

Senator Rob Portman, the Ohio Republican, has switched his stand on same-sex marriage, saying he now supports it after his son told him he is gay. Mr. Portman, who had been considered one of the leading candidates to be Mitt Romney’s running mate in 2012, told Ohio newspapers that his son Will told him and his wife, Jane, in 2011 of his sexual orientation.

A Round Rock police officer shot himself in the foot during fire arms training Wednesday. The incident happened about 1:45 p.m. at a local facility, said Round Rock police spokeswoman Dee Carver. The officer, who was receiving training with other officers from an outside provider, was treated at a Round Rock hospital and released later in the day, she said. The officer has been on the force for 18 years, Carver said. Police are still investigating the incident.

(Reuters) - California voters favor same-sex marriage by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, a poll showed on Thursday, a month before the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments over a gay marriage ban approved by the state's residents in 2008.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- It appears the ongoing drought in Texas will keep most rice farmers in three counties from getting irrigation water to flood their fields for an unprecedented second consecutive year.

A suspect has been charged in a recent defacing of a mural of President Barack Obama near a popular midtown restaurant.

On opposite sides of the world, the brother and sister sat transfixed before their computers, reading a stranger's account of long-ago secrets and deeply buried sins. The memo was just four pages long, about an incident in 1963 at a Boy Scout camp in New Jersey. A Scout executive had gotten drunk during an overnight outing, then was discovered gambling with a group of boys. But there was more.

(CNN) -- The Illinois Senate passed a measure Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage, voting 34-21.

A confrontation over a political sign and a community's Home Owners Association has occupied four years and nearly half a million dollars in legal fees.

Thanks to Fox News and its expert commentators, millions of Americans now understand the real, hidden reason why Germany's solar-energy industry is so much further along than ours. Turns out it has nothing to do with the fact that Germany's government has long supported the industry far more generously, with policies like feed-in tariffs that stimulate investment in green technologies. No, the real reason is much simpler, explained a trio of journalists on Fox & Friends: It's always sunny in Germany!

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – A rising chorus of congressional Republicans are calling on President Obama to acknowledge that the pop singer Beyoncé lip-synched during his inaugural festivities on Monday and resign from office, effective immediately. “By lip-synching the national anthem, Beyoncé has cast a dark cloud over the President’s second term,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky). “The only way President Obama can remove that cloud is by resigning from office at once.”

Republicans trying to raise a case against confirming Chuck Hagel have cited not so kind remarks about Israel -- or "the Jews," as he's been quoted calling them -- as a reason not to confirm, but that could be a hard sell when Israel's departing Deputy Foreign Minister thinks Hagel is an alright guy.

There have been further clashes between police and Loyalist protesters in east Belfast, with reports of shots being fired and a 38-year-old man being arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. The violence, which flared for the third night in a row, is linked to last month's decision by councillors to limit the number of days the union flag is flown over Belfast City Hall.

If you thought the tale of how Mitt Romney lost the general election was already told, you would be wrong. Because there is so much left to tell, like how Mitt never wanted to be President anyway.

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he is donating nearly $500 million in stock to a Silicon Valley charity with the aim of funding health and education issues. Zuckerberg donated 18 million Facebook shares, valued at $498.8 million based on their Tuesday closing price. The beneficiary is the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a nonprofit that works with donors to allocate their gifts. This is Zuckerberg's largest donation to date. He pledged $100 million in Facebook stock to Newark, N.J., public schools in 2010, before his company went public earlier this year. Later in 2010, he joined Giving Pledge,...