Free Republic

Between the faction of gay Christians who are happy with their sexual identity and "ex-gays," who say they've removed their homosexual yearnings, is a third group that gets little attention. These so-called Side B Christians identify as gay and believe it's not sinful to do so. But because they see acting on their orientation as ungodly, they commit to a life of celibacy. Now, for the first time, a sociologist has taken an in-depth look at what makes Side Bs tick, particularly how they navigate their same-sex desires and their awkward position as stuck in the middle of ex-gay groups...

Earlier this week, Roger L. Simon of PJ Media broke a story with shocking revelations, contending that slain U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens was in Benghazi on September 11 to buy back Stinger missiles from al-Qaeda groups that had been originally provided to them by the U.S. State Department. Simon cited two former U.S. diplomats: Stevens’ mission in Benghazi, they will say, was to buy back Stinger missiles from al-Qaeda groups issued to them by the State Department, not by the CIA. Such a mission would usually be a CIA effort, but the intelligence agency had opposed the idea because of...

Following the hacking death of a British soldier by two alleged Islamic extremists, Prime Minister David Cameron said, "There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act." Winston Churchill thought otherwise, but he lived in a time before political correctness ran amok and drew on his personal experiences serving in the Sudan and in the Crimean War. In his 1899 book "The River War," Churchill described what he witnessed in countries where Islam ruled: "Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde...

Each year, 24/7 Wall St. identifies 10 important brands sold in America that we predict will disappear before 2014. This year’s list reflects the brutally competitive nature of certain industries and the importance of not falling behind in efficiency, innovation or financing. The list also reflects how industry trends can accelerate the demise of certain brands. This year, we included two magazines — Martha Stewart Living and Road & Track. With print advertising in a multiyear decline, some magazines have weathered the decline better than others. These two, however, have suffered sharp drops in advertising revenue over the past five...

Forty-one percent of Americans now characterize their economic views as "conservative," or "very conservative," the lowest since President Barack Obama took office in 2009 and on par with where views were in May 2008. This year's downtick in the percentage of Americans identifying as economically conservative has been accompanied by an uptick in the percentage identifying as economically moderate -- now 37% of Americans, up from 32% last year. The percentage of Americans calling themselves economic liberals has remained virtually unchanged from last year at 19%, and has not fluctuated much since 2001. The findings are based on Gallup's annual...

Although Cleveland hero Charles Ramsey publicly refused a monetary reward for helping to rescue three women and a girl from alleged sexual miscreant Ariel Castro this month, just over 600 fans recently sent him a check for nearly $14,000 for his bravery. The money was raised by a thankful fan from Portland, Ore., Robby Russell, through crowd-funding website, gofundme.com. Russell initially started the campaign to raise $10,000 for Ramsey on May 6, the same day Ramsey helped Amanda Berry, 27, her 6-year-old daughter Jocelyn; Gina DeJesus, 23; and Michelle Knight, 32, escape from Castro's house where they were being held...

A Christian lawmaker decided to redo the opening invocation at the Arizona House of Representatives on Wednesday, a day after Democratic Rep. Juan Mendez of Tempe led a secular "prayer." "When there's a time set aside to pray and to pledge, if you are a nonbeliever, don't ask for time to pray," said Republican Rep. Steve Smith, of Maricopa, according to AzCapitol Times. "If you don't love this nation and want to pledge to it, don't say I want to lead this body in the pledge, and stand up there and say, 'you know what, instead of pledging, I love...

Via Greg Hengler, this testimony to the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice may be even more chilling than some of the testimony at Kermit Gosnell’s trial. In part, that&http://media.hotair.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/abortion-levantino.jpg#8217;s because former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levantino describes the “normal� process of later-term abortions, and not just the supposedly outlier practices of Gosnell and his co-defendants. Levantino, speaking in support of a bill to ban all abortions after 20 weeks offered by Rep. Trent Franks in response to the exposure of the Gosnell case and others like it, dispassionately describes how abortionists tear fetuses apart limb from limb in such...

Lerner signed IRS cover letters to conservative groups demanding intrusive tax-exemption info — after she learned what was going on posted at 11:21 am on May 24, 2013 by Allahpundit Via Andrew Stiles, no wonder the IRS wants her out.Now that she’s gone quiet, we can’t know what her defense would be to the ACLJ’s charges. But I can guess. We now know through her own testimony and from the Inspector General’s report that Lerner was briefed about this unlawful targeting scheme in June 2011. But nine months later, beginning in March 2012, she sent cover letters to many...

President Obama on Thursday nominated Victoria Nuland, a State Department official involved in the editing of the administration's talking points on Benghazi, to be the next assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Nuland, a career foreign service officer who was until recently State's top spokesperson, had long been expected to be nominated the post to replace Philip Gordon, who Obama picked to serve as Middle East coordinator for the National Security Council. Nuland's nomination -- which requires Senate confirmation -- could come under scrutiny from Republicans who see her as playing a central role in shaping the...

As the House group struggling to write a bipartisan immigration bill huddled in the Capitol on Thursday, Republican leadership indicated its wait-and-see approach was over. "Through regular order, the House will work its will and produce its own legislation," said a statement issued by Republican leaders, including Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia. The implication was clear. While the Senate "gang" produced a bill, the House will have one of its own. And no matter what the House group is doing, or failing to get done, behind...

In addition to the horrendous beheading of a British soldier in Woolwich by Muslim terrorists, Stockholm's suburbs have seen riots for the last four nights, with car burnings and crowds throwing rocks at the police, reminiscent of the recurring riots in France. Who are these rioters? The story on the Huffington Post has the following descriptions: "Gangs of youth... Around 50 youths...The youths set light to a parking garage... masked youths hurling rocks.... One policeman was attacked by youths." On the Bloomberg article with a link on Drudge, the rioters are described as "stone-throwing youths." The Washington Post: "Some 200...

While many conservative voters obsess over the unholy trinity of elected big liberalism -- Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid -- but the real threat to our liberties and way of life is unelected 'big bureaucracy.' Unelected bureaucrats are who have persecuted Tea Parties, conservative donors, adoptive parents, True the Vote, Boeing's non-union plant, the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, select GM dealerships, and God knows who else over the past few years. And this week, we've met the three stooges of the big bureau; Steven Miller, Loris Lerner, and Sarah Hall Ingram. Collectively, they paint an accurate...

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes isn’t afraid to talk to the press. After the Navy SEAL raid in which Osama bin Laden died, he spoke to The New Yorker, Newsweek, the Washington Post, National Journal, and Vanity Fair — at least. He also helped coordinate access for the filmmakers of Zero Dark Thirty. He recently cooperated with a New York Times profile of himself, and his mother, Jane Rhodes, answered questions for a GQ feature about him and his brother, CBS News President David Rhodes — the byline of which included Ben’s former White House colleague Reid Cherlin. But...

A series of letters suggests that senior IRS official Lois Lerner was directly involved in the agency’s targeting of conservative groups as recently as April 2012, more than nine months after she first learned of the activity. Lerner, the director of the IRS exempt organizations office in Washington, D.C., signed cover letters to 15 conservative organizations currently represented by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) between in March and April of 2012. The letters, such as this one sent to the Ohio Liberty Council on March 16, 2012, informed the groups applying for tax-exempt status that the IRS...

<p>As most readers are now aware, technology giant Apple Inc. has in the past few days been the recipient of juvenile attacks from U.S. Senators on both sides of the political aisle. Its alleged misdeed: the legal shielding of overseas earnings from corporate taxation stateside.</p>

Via Joel Gehrke, a scene from the intramural debate over the debt ceiling between Maverick McCain and the Paul/Lee/Cruz tea-party coalition. If you read Erika’s post last night, you already know the background. The tea partiers are threatening to block the Senate’s budget from being sent to the House for a conference committee unless Reid assures them that whatever emerges won’t raise the debt ceiling. (Or, if it does, that 60 votes will be required for passage rather than the simple majority typically required for budget bills.) Reid won’t budge on that — yet. McCain, who’s been busy lately recouping...

That's the logical question to ask after an avalanche of official denials of knowledge and responsibility from the IRS, Department of Justice, and the White House. "I don't know" seems to be the new mantra of executives at every level once questioned about wrongdoing and abuse. The editors of the Wall Street Journal wonder not where the buck stops, but if it even exists anywhere in the federal government: There’s a certain infantilization of the federal government here that should be especially alarming to taxpayers who have ever crossed paths with the IRS. The agency has the power to make...

Gay activists love to point to the changes in public opinion regarding same-sex marriage, announcing triumphantly that this is a sign of moral and even spiritual advancement. In reality, it is part of a larger trend towards immorality, a sign of moral bankruptcy and spiritual apostasy. According to a May 13th Gallup report, “Just three years ago, support for gay marriage was 44%. The current 53% level of support is essentially double the 27% in Gallup's initial measurement on gay marriage, in 1996.” But let’s put that data into a larger, cultural perspective. A May 20th Gallup report is headlined,...

Keep your eye on the mission, which is to save us from an ambitious tyranny. We cannot accomplish this life-and-death task if we turn it over to the lawyers. It’s a political mission, not a law enforcement roundup. We need to know, in detail, what happened. We have to know the details, which will, if we are good, enable us to dismantle an enormously ambitious attempt to change America in precisely the way Alexis de Tocqueville predicted. As I wrote four years ago, American tyranny would not resemble those of the past. It would consist of a series of rules...

After longtime Chavismo-strongman Hugo Chavez’s death earlier this year, his lieutenant Nicolas Maduro “won� the snap election for a replacement president — except that the opposition party headed by challenger Henry Capriles maintains that the election results were fraudulent and is refusing to recognize Maduro as the legitimate president without a thorough audit of the whole thing. The Venezuelan Supreme Court tried to nip that idea in the bud (because really, what good is a corrupted and tyrannical power structure without rule-of-law-defying loyalty?), but the opposition isn’t giving up and Venezuelan politics of late have not been going at all...

Initial unemployment claims dropped back to a level indicating moderate job growth last week after a spike the previous week raised alarms about the labor market recovery. The number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time stood at 340,000 for the week ending Saturday, falling from a revised 363,000 the week before, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists had expected the closely watched jobless claims figure to drop last week to 345,0000. Claims for the week ending May 11, which were revised up from 360,000, had the biggest one-week jump since last fall and were the most...

A majority of American voters wants to keep the military prison at Guantanamo Bay open, and many feel it has made the United States safer. A new Fox News poll finds 63 percent of voters want to keep the detention facility known as Gitmo open, while 28 percent say it should be closed and the terrorist suspects moved to federal prisons in the United States. There’s across-the-board agreement on keeping the prison open, although the degree of support varies by political party. Democrats favor keeping Gitmo by a 7 percentage-point margin, independents by 31 points and Republicans by 66 points....

Yes, climate change is happening. But it's hard to say that the tornado that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma -- or any given tornado, for that matter -- was influenced by climate change. Scientific research has not made a clear connection between tornadoes and climate change, said J. Marshall Shepherd, climate change expert and professor at the University of Georgia. There is currently a much better understanding of how climate change increases the risks of droughts, heat waves and precipitation, he said. There are also indications that changing patterns may influence the intensity of hurricanes. But as far as tornadoes: There's...

Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service’s embattled director of Exempt Organizations, could be held in contempt of court and jailed for refusing to testify before Congress, civil-rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz says. "She's in trouble. She can be held in contempt," Dershowitz told "the Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV. "Congress . . . can actually hold you in contempt and put you in the Congressional jail." Lerner, grilled Wednesday on the IRS' targeting of conservative organizations, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination — but not before insisting "I have done nothing wrong." Her brief statement of innocence has opened...

Mary Katharine linked this yesterday in her post on Rep. Stephen Lynch’s unmistakable anger over the corruption at the IRS, but it’s worth a long look on its own, too. National Review’s David French, an adoptive father himself (as am I), researched a few other IRS priorities over the past few years other than targeting conservatives for extra scrutiny and harassment. The agency took very clear aim at people claiming the adoption tax credit, auditing a jaw-dropping 69% of all such filers: As we get word that the IRS has harassed a number of pro-life groups, including at least one...

Remember the claim that “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan� under ObamaCare? That was never actually true, as many who had low-cost catastrophic coverage married with HSAs will have to abandon them for more-costly comprehensive plans under the ACA’s coverage mandates. In California, it’s even less true as three insurers with millions of subscribers opt out of the state-run ObamaCare exchange: Some prominent health insurers, including industry giant UnitedHealth Group Inc., are not participating in California’s new state-run health insurance market, possibly limiting the number of choices for millions of consumers. UnitedHealth, the nation’s largest private...

[SNIP] Here are top line numbers from the Washington Post poll that should worry Mr. Obama and his team: Q: Changing topics, in general do you think the federal government is doing more to (protect) the rights of average Americans or more to (threaten) the rights of average Americans? 54% - threaten. 38% - protect. The Washington Post didn't ask "threaten" respondents if they connect their fears to the president. With more to come from the IRS scandal -- and with links to the White House probable -- the majority feeling threatened by government will grow. Q: Republicans in Congress...

At a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, federal lawmakers hauled in America’s most successful corporation to investigate why it had so precisely followed the laws those solons have passed. The targeting of Apple should be no particular surprise, in Congress’s crass calculus: True, even if reducing one’s tax burden and shifting profits overseas were a crime, Apple would probably not be the first company to investigate for such behavior — as chief executive Tim Cook pointed out, Apple paid $6 billion in corporate-income taxes to the U.S. Treasury in 2012, which is enough to run the entire Transportation Security Administration...

‘The misconduct had stopped in May of 2012,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Monday about the IRS’s improper targeting of conservative groups. Not so, say two D.C. attorneys, each representing a number of conservative groups that — after years of waiting and countless rounds of invasive questions — have yet to receive recognition from the IRS. The American Center for Law and Justice, headed by chief counsel Jay Sekulow, plans to file suit in federal court in the coming weeks on behalf of more than two dozen conservative groups that claim their harassment at the hands...

A global rally in stocks came to an abrupt halt Thursday as a 7% plunge on Japan's Nikkei index unnerved investors in Europe and set the tone for a weak opening on Wall Street. European markets fell by 2% and U.S. stock futures were pointing lower in the wake of the biggest one-day drop on the Nikkei since the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster. Germany's DAX lost 2.4% and France's CAC 40 was down 2.1%. Investors were rattled by weak economic data from China and indications that the U.S. Federal Reserve may start dialing down its bond-buying program as early...

On the surface, conservatives and progressives seem to be in agreement about what should be done about the IRS scandal: Larry Kudlow: “…must find out exactly what happened and who was involved, and then come up with a fix so it never happens again.” Steven Rattner: “…the matter needs to be fully investigated, those responsible need to be held accountable and procedures need to be put in place to ensure that nothing like this can happen again.” However, abuse of IRS power has been going on for almost 80 years. It began under FDR, not long after the IRS was...

NBC News is reporting new details that link Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev to 2011 triple homicide.From NBC New's Twitter feed: JUST IN: Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and man killed by FBI in Orlando responsible for 2011 triple homicide, sources say — NBC News (@NBCNews) May 22, 2013 MORE: Tsarnaev and Ibragim Todashev murdered three people in drug rip-off in Waltham, Mass. to avoid being identified, sources say — NBC News (@NBCNews) May 22, 2013 On Sept. 11, 2011, three men were found in a Boston-area apartment with their throats slit and their bodies covered in marijuana.Tamerlan described one of...

It is often believed that people who have PhDs are possessed of higher self-esteem and greater independent thought than the average population. As a PhD myself, I fully understand why people believe this. The rigorous studying, testing, and writing required to receive a doctorate should free the PhD's mind from the idols of the marketplace and teach him that great truth that Socrates discovered: the more we learn, the more we realize what we do not know. That's what should happen. What I have more often found (in myself, as well as in others) is that the knowledge acquired puffs...

You already know the background on this from Ed’s post this morning. Lerner began her testimony by reading a self-serving statement, then declared that she’d answer no questions. Trey Gowdy objected, insisting that once you start yapping in your own interest, you’re not allowed to clam up again.Issa evidently agrees — but only for the moment, I suspect. Prediction: Either he’ll reverse himself on this or he’ll bring her back simply to have her sit there and plead the Fifth repeatedly in response to the committee’s questions. He won’t hold her in contempt. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman...

There is no better steward of American taxpayer dollars than Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. When Hurricane Sandy struck last year, he fought to eliminate non-emergency items from a supplemental disaster relief bill that included millions for road construction in states not affected by the hurricane. So when a monster tornado struck his home state yesterday the liberal press immediately tried to brand Coburn as a hypocrite for accepting federal funds. The Huffington Post reported: "Coburn spokesman John Hart on Monday evening confirmed that the senator will seek to ensure that any additional funding for tornado disaster relief in Oklahoma be...

After a week of revelations about government spying on reporters and the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservatives, most voters feel “like the federal government has gotten out of control and is threatening the basic civil liberties of Americans.” At the same time, a new Fox News poll finds disapproval of President Obama’s job performance is above 50 percent for the first time in a year, his honesty rating is at a new low and half of voters already think he’s a lame-duck. More than two-thirds of voters -- 68 percent -- feel the government is out of control and threatening...

Can there really be anyone who didn’t instantly recognize this as the cheap negotiating tactic that it is? To refresh your memory, Democrats have been threatening for the past month to add an amendment to the Gang of Eight bill that would extend spousal benefits for illegals under the bill to gay spouses too. That’s a potential dealbreaker for Republicans, who’ll have a hard enough time explaining their amnesty vote to conservatives next year without explaining a vote for gay marriage on top of it. Would Democrats insist upon it, thereby wrecking this horrible left-wing dream legislation, with sham border...

Some critics have pointed to New York State’s new gun control law as chilling in its scope and intent. But new allegations coming from sheriffs may add to the outcry, as some authorities maintain that Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushed local sheriffs to stop publicly speaking out against the SAFE Act, the gun-control law he signed in January. One source, in fact, told a local outlet that the governor threatened sheriffs’ jobs if they don’t comply. Law enforcement officials were reportedly summonsed to Albany last month, where they met with the governor about the contentious issue. It’s no secret that sheriffs...

More whistleblowers will emerge shortly in the escalating Benghazi scandal, according to two former U.S. diplomats who spoke with PJ Media Monday afternoon. These whistleblowers, colleagues of the former diplomats, are currently securing legal counsel because they work in areas not fully protected by the Whistleblower law. According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The former diplomats inform PJM the new revelations concentrate in...

<p>The controversy over the Obama administration’s response to the Benghazi attack last year began at a meeting over coffee on Capitol Hill three days after the assault.</p> <p>It was at this informal session with House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the ranking Democrat asked David H. Petraeus, who was CIA director at the time, to ensure that committee members did not inadvertently disclose classified information when talking to the news media about the attack.</p>

<p>Perhaps the best answer to the question posed to Bernanke moments ago whether US unemployment is structural or cyclical comes courtesy of Microsoft, which announced earlier that it was set to hire "several thousand" workers. Sadly, the catch is that the hires will be in China.</p>

With the cost of higher education skyrocketing, student loan debt growing, and youth unemployment persistently high, a former United States Secretary of Education asks "Is College Worth It?" In Is College Worth It?: A Former United States Secretary of Education and a Liberal Arts Graduate Expose the Broken Promise of Higher Education, William J. Bennett and David Wilezol examine the costs and benefits of American higher education. The book explains the tough jobs market, a potentially repressive academic culture, and the benefits of alternative options. Wilezol, an associate producer of the Bill Bennett's Morning in America show, discussed the economic...

Until a few weeks ago, only the most die-hard political geeks would have known the name Kathryn Ruemmler or her position as White House counsel. These days, she’s becoming more and more famous, and that might be by design. The Washington Post highlights her role in the IRS scandal, in which the top lawyer in the West Wing is purported to have played goalie with information in order to ensure plausible deniability: Until this week, the story of how White House officials learned that the Internal Revenue Service was targeting conservative groups was fairly straightforward. White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler...

Hey, if Mark Sanford can find redemption at the polls after having an affair, why can’t Anthony Weiner after, er, exposing himself? Let the campaign of a thousand double entendres begin! Weiner inexplicably provides the first in his video, talking about the plight of the middle class and the lack of traditional upward mobility — saying that “it’s getting harder and harder every day.� No, I’m not kidding:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x92OWufIWcU#!Difficult, Anthony, difficult. Someone get this man a thesaurus, please.Nonetheless, Weiner is finding some sympathy for his big comeback. According to a new poll in the Big Apple from Quinnipiac, Weiner enters the...

President Obama "selective appreciation" of the First Amendment is on full display again. Check out your neighborhood music store because the dark side of "hope and change" has just been released. It's hard to believe that there is anybody out there still caught up in the "hope and change" farce. Yes, it was always a farce and the last two weeks confirm it. We learned that James Rosen of FOX News was the DOJ's latest target: "The Fox News Channel is outraged over new revelations that three of its reporting staffers were targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice in...

Sheesh! It took me 5 minutes of scanning about a half dozen articles before finally - finally - finding a media account of the riots by "immigrants" that have shocked Sweden in the last 48 hours that mentions where the rioters are from. I can say without a trace of irony, "Thank God for the BBC": Police in the deprived, largely immigrant suburb of Husby shot a man dead last week after he reportedly threatened to kill them with a machete. The founder of a local youth group told Swedish media the riots were a reaction to "police brutality". Prime...

In the fallout from the recent revelations about the Internal Revenue Service systematically persecuting conservative political groups and other enemies of President Obama, the establishment is putting on a good show of being shocked by the behavior. The reality is that the IRS is and always has been a tool of oppression and is routinely used by those in power to destroy their opponents. Once the income tax expanded to include nearly every wage-earner and company in the country, it was immediately seized upon as a potent weapon by the worst tyrants in American history. Franklin Roosevelt loved the IRS...

It is the Washington way. Egregious misconduct surfaces, showcasing the militantly officious nature of bloated big-government bureaucracy. But the Beltway and the commentariat cry in unison for a special counsel, ensuring that the symptoms — a few corrupt bureaucrats — will get all the attention while the underlying cancer metastasizes. In the unfolding IRS scandal, we already know President Obama’s conservative political opponents were targeted for the revenue agency’s version of waterboarding. On cue, prominent Republicans and conservatives are starting to call for a special counsel — clearly under the misimpression that a “special counsel” would mean a prosecutor “independent”...

Remember Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor’s fictional Minnesota town where “all the children are above average?” Well, too many members of Congress inhabit a Lake Wobegon government, where every government program is also above average — not just successful, but essential. Here is just one example: Among the many outrages that congressional Democrats have assigned to the sequester is that it could reduce the available slots in the Head Start program by as many as 70,000 children. This was repeatedly hammered home last month when the Democratic leadership complained that Congress was giving additional flexibility to the FAA to avoid furloughs...