Free Republic

There is a difference, Mr. President, between Christian extremism and Muslim extremism. Christian extremism was in the 1400s. Muslim extremism was Wednesday. One is a dark era in the history books, the other is a threat to modernity as we know it. At the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday, after bowing to the Dalai Lama, President Obama – apologist in chief for Islam – talked about protecting the reputation of the Muslim world. Then he minimized the evil of militant Islam by bringing up the Spanish Inquisition and even Jim Crow, citing them as counterbalancing examples of Christian terrorism. In his...

On Saturday, the police say, parolee Michael Morris dragged his ex-girlfriend halfway across the county – twice putting a gun to her head and threatening to execute her – before he crashed a birthday her family was holding and shot a half a dozen people, wounding some of them severely. This was in Syracuse, New York, at an Irish bar in the old Irish neighborhood known as Tipperary Hill. Twenty-two years old, out of prison in December after doing five years for a crime at 17 he committed while toting a stolen handgun. On the plus side, the bar was...

To fight poverty, you’ve got to attack the behaviors that cause it. The governor (Cuomo) should remember that. If all of a sudden he’s decided to be concerned about poverty, and is riding to the rescue, his only chance of success is to be honest about both poverty’s causes and cures. Thus far, it doesn’t look like he’s going to be. To progressives, poverty is a condition imposed upon victims by oppressors. One party is disadvantaged by the evil of another. There is a fixed amount of wealth and the fact someone else has it and you don’t is because...

In the wake of the Muslim terror attack in Paris, in which three jihadis murdered journalists and police in cold blood, President Obama said it was an assault on the freedom of expression. He said that as a free people, we must stand against such efforts to silence people’s views. I agree. But I’m surprised he does. Because American progressives, of whom Barack Obama is the nominal leader, have sought to suppress freedom of expression for years. I am certainly not comparing the techniques of terrorists and progressives, but I am contrasting the results. And I would suggest that that...

Cause and effect. The president, governor, mayor and Reverend Al all say that the cops are a bunch of racist bastards. Somebody, aggrieved by what these leaders have said, walks up and kills two cops in cold blood. Cause and effect. A leads to B leads to bagpipes and “Amazing Grace.” And when they’re trying to hose the blood out of a precinct car it’s a little late to distance yourself from it. The claims of Sharpton and his crew that they disavow any violence, and that this has nothing to do with their protests and speeches, are, well, just...

A lightning strike after the Buccaneers game at Raymond James Stadium sent seven people to the hospital, according to Tampa Fire Rescue. The patients were in stable condition, said Jason Penny, spokesman for Tampa Fire Rescue. The bolt of lightning hit the ground in Lot 14 near where the victims were standing just after the game between the Bucs and the Green Bay Packers ended, firefighters said. None of the individuals was hit by lightning, which struck around 4:15 p.m. in lot 14, Penny said. But the resulting force of the bolt knocked some people over while others were hit...

In modern America, we believe security and safety are entitlements. And like the welfare recipient who curses the taxpayer, we offer those who keep us safe not gratitude, but resentment. Or condemnation. As the Democratic majority in the United States Senate demonstrated yesterday in the release of an overview of a 6,000-page report intended to rip apart the CIA. At issue are interrogation methods used by the CIA in the effort to investigate the Islamic attacks of September 11, 2001, and to prevent subsequent terrorist acts against this country. But at its core, this is about the Left’s hatred for...

Every cop in America knows one thing – it could have been him. Or her. It could have been him or her, instead of Darren Wilson, who pulled that trigger on Michael Brown. Or some such similar young man. Every cop in America knows that, in return for choosing a career in law enforcement, the rules of the road are now that, at any minute, it all could be over and you could become hated and condemned all across the country. No one would have your back, even the president could denounce you. Because you defended yourself. In a twist...

Actually, relations between the police and my community are great. The police enforce the laws, the community obeys the law, we get along fine. We speak to the police politely, we comply with their orders, we don’t have a problem. It’s all good. So, no Mr. President, there isn’t a national problem between the police and “the community,” at least not in most communities. And, likewise, Ferguson is not about some great rift between the police and society. Ferguson is about a kid who did a strong-armed robbery of a store and then attacked a police officer. Period. It’s about...

Take him to court. That’s what the Republicans in Congress should do about Barack Obama’s executive actions on illegal immigration. Some member of the House or Senate should file suit in federal court seeking an injunction on the grounds that the actions are a clear violation of the Constitution, which authorizes the Congress to establish a “uniform rule of naturalization.” The Constitution gives matters of immigration to the Congress – the people’s branch of government – and a president is violating the Constitution when he abrogates a congressional action on immigration. It’s really very simple. And it’s not about illegal...

Tonight on national television Barack Obama will give away what your grandparents worked to get. He will spit in the face of the Statue of Liberty, repudiate the spirit of Ellis Island, and throw rule of law out the window. Tonight, by royal decree, Barack Obama will bestow amnesty on millions and millions of illegal aliens. It is astounding act of arrogance by a president who was repudiated just two weeks ago by an electorate that has no confidence in him. With no mandate and no discussion, the people and the Congress have been left out of a society-changing decree...

In Missouri yesterday, the governor put the National Guard on alert. He and his state and much of the county are fearing the worst. As early as today, a grand jury could come back in Ferguson after months of deliberation in the matter of a white police officer who shot and killed a black teen-ager. The National Guard and the region’s police agencies are on standby because of the expectation that the jury will find no probable cause to charge the officer with a crime. That decision, many fear, could spark race riots in Missouri and elsewhere. Earlier, upset in...

After nine seasons in Tampa Bay, Joe Maddon is moving on. He won’t manage the Rays in 2015. After nine seasons in Tampa Bay, Joe Maddon is moving on. He won’t manage the Rays in 2015. Joe Maddon will no longer be the Tampa Bay Rays’ manager. The team issued this statement from owner Stuart Sternberg this afternoon: “Joe Maddon has exercised an opt-out in his current contract, a contract which was not scheduled to expire until after the 2015 season. We tried diligently and aggressively to sign Joe to a third contract extension prior to his decision. As of...

Ebola is now in New York. And the governor is to blame. It’s a simple matter of policies have consequences. And stupidity comes at a cost. For the last several weeks, a debate has raged about whether or not to impose a brief travel ban on those west African nations known to have ebola. On the one side, the president has been alone among significant world leaders in saying that a travel ban would be ineffective. While most of the nations of the world have closed their borders to travelers from west Africa, Barack Obama has insisted that America remain...

We have screwed the pooch. With this ebola thing, it is hard to imagine how we could have been more incompetent. Our stupidity has killed one patient and infected two nurses, and left a nation suddenly unsure of the reliability of its health care system. For all the cocky assurances and arrogant assertions, it turns out that primitives with dust masks are better at caring for ebola patients than we are with our isolations units and high-tech doo-dads. In the treatment of one patient, the American hospital system has infected more health care workers than would be infected by the...

Sloppy gets people killed. We’re learning that in Dallas. In the nation that invented modern health care, we’re learning that our own carelessness and incompetence is losing us its benefits. If you aren’t conscientious, if you don’t pay attention to detail, if you grow lazy and haphazard in the doing of your daily duty, it doesn’t take long for you and your society to slip back into the gutter. The Secret Service has shown us that. So has Texas Health Presbyterian. We killed the African guy, and now we’re about to kill one of our own. Basic incompetence is proving...

The Federal Communications Commission is going to outlaw a word. Or at least it is going to give serious consideration to doing so. Yesterday, the FCC agreed to consider a petition asking it to forbid the use of the word “redskins” on the public airwaves. “Public” airwaves, of course, is the insane claim of the federal government that it owns the air and all things which pass through it. A broadcasting company builds a transmitter and the equipment necessary to broadcast, it purchases the electricity which is the substance of a transmission, and it sends a signal to receivers purchased...

This is really scary...unless you're a Muslim.This is worth taking a few minutes to understand. Decoding Obama’s speech reveals some startling revelations “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3 In one press conference after another, when referring to the Muslim terror super-group ISIS, United States President Barack Obama will use the term ISIL instead of their former name ISIS or current name Islamic State. Have you ever wondered about that? We have. ISIL stands for the Islamic State of...

I know what domestic violence looks like. Hell, I know what it tastes like. It’s the salty taste of blood after you get popped in the mouth. The odd aroma of iron as it dries on your lips. The swirling dizziness when you bounce off a wall or take a swat to the head. The breathless, convulsing, burning sting as you dance across the room or writhe on the floor while the belt lashes you. The belt or the Hot Wheels track or the wooden spoon. Or the switch or the leather strop. It is the thundering curses downstairs at...

Attorney John Morgan’s exuberantly profane comments to Amendment 2 supporters in a Lakeland bar puts a lie to the claim that the measure is aimed solely at legalizing medical marijuana. Morgan showed up at Lakeland’s Boots ’n’ Buckles Saloon after a debate with Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd about Amendment 2 last week. He continually used four-letter words to rouse the frantic pro-amendment crowd. And although he does say he is speaking on behalf of medical marijuana, Morgan, holding a drink, also jokes, “I didn’t smoke a piece of grass all the way here. But I’ll tell you this, once...