Free Republic

A 37-year-old man from New Jersey was arrested after attempting to enter St Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan with two gasoline cans Wednesday night, police say. Church ushers stopped the man at about 8 p.m. and notified nearby officers with the NYPD Critical Response Command, who took him into custody. Authorities say he drove to St. Patrick's, parked in front of Saks and took two gas cans and lighter fluid from the car into the cathedral where he was stopped. The man's intentions were not immediately clear. The incident came two days after the fire at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

In heavily-plagiarized speech, Vatican spokesman accuses Archbishop Viganò of ‘lies’ CAMBRIDGE, England, February 15, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A Vatican consultant and frequent English-language spokesman for the Vatican accused Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò of “lies” in a lecture in which he passed off other writers’ words as his own.  At a February 8 lecture at Cambridge University,  Fr. Thomas Rosica, executive director of Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation, suggested Archbishop Viganò was a liar. Rosica, known for his pro-homosexual views, described the Vatican whistle-blowers' witness as a “diabolical masterpiece.”  Authors who Fr. Rosica plagiarized in that speech - often word-for-word and...

On October 17, 2018, a student at a technical college in the Crimean city of Kerch carried out a Columbine-style rampage attack. He committed suicide at the end of his attack. He killed 20 people and wounded 70 more, many of them severely. I will not mention his name. It is included in the excerpt below. There are very restrictive gun control laws in place in Crimea.The murderer legally obtained a shotgun by performing all that was required, including a medical exam, and joining a local gun club. He purchased 150 rounds of ammunition a month before the attack. In...

In days of yore, I might have pointed my doubters – usually women and seniors – toward a SIG P238, a Walther PK 380 or, more recently, a Glock 42. But each of those came with caveats related either to cost (SIGs are pricey), functionality (Walthers are a pain to break down) or useability (for better or worse, beginners are skittish about Glock’s lack of a manual external safety – thankfully, most of them eventually get over that!). Now, however, I smile slyly and trot out Smith & Wesson’s most recent contribution to the concealed carry market – the M&P...

ROWLETT, Texas – A Dallas-area teenager was being held on $1 million bond Thursday after a police officer encountered him sitting in his car outside of a high school sporting event with a semi-automatic rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition.

Another mass killing has taken place in the defenseless victim zone of a Florida high school in the Miami metropolitan area of Broward County. The major media in this country has blood on its hands. They know that mass murderers are incentivized by media coverage that gives a form of immortality to the deranged killers. The pattern is clear.  Many of the killers are open about their desire for infamy. The Port Arther murderer asked his lawyer, again and again: “Did I break the record?”.The media does not care how many innocents die because of their push for ratings...

The extreme form of gun control pushed onto the Australian electorate after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 will not “work” in America. The reason is simple. It did not “work” in Australia. There have been numerous studies about what happened after extreme restrictions on gun ownership were implemented in Australia in 1996.  The evidence is clear. There was no measurable benefit, and significant cost. The overall homicide rate was not reduced in a measurable way. The suicide rate went up, down, and up, but stayed level as other methods were substituted.This detailed article, with charts, is the best...

The murder of Sam Strahan at Freeman High School in Washington State, appears to be another result of the American media's obsession with school shootings. Guns have been around for hundreds of years. Semi-automatic pistols have been common for over a hundred. But the rash of school shootings only escalated in the middle 1990's, after the federal bans on guns in schools. The most likely explanation is the copycat effect.The copycat effect is well known and understood. When an event is highly publicized, people who are emotional misfits, contemplating suicide, see a way to put meaning in their lives.They see...

It should surprise no one that we now have leftwing Democrat officials joining the Kathy Griffins and Snoop Doggs of the world in overtly calling for the president’s assassination. After all, this is exactly what the fake news media, led by the open seditionists at CNN, have been dog-whistling to readers and viewers since last November. When you have a coordinated effort by the national Democrat Party and 95% of the national news media to de-humanize a sitting president in the eyes of the public for the express purpose of bringing down his presidency, that is a virtue-signal that killing...

CNN suggested Thursday that the terrorist attack in Barcelona, Spain may have been inspired by the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., because both involved a vehicle running down pedestrians. The claim has drawn criticism because vehicle-ramming has been used before by Islamic extremists to carry out terrorist attacks. Investigators have not drawn any links between the incidents in Barcelona and Charlottesville.

(Full title) Blitzer: There Will Be Questions About Whether Barcelona Attack Is ‘A Copycat Version’ of Charlottesville Attack On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Wolf,” anchor Wolf Blitzer stated that there will be questions about whether the Barcelona terror attack was a copycat of the Charlottesville, Virginia car attack. CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Scuitto said, “[I]n light of the uproar over the last several days, five days apart, you have white supremacists in Charlottesville use a vehicle to kill, and here you have — attackers at least following the modus operandi of terrorists using vehicles, apparently to kill as...

CNN's Wolf Blitzer was anchoring the network's breaking news coverage Thursday afternoon on the possible radical Islamic terror attack in Barcelona, Spain when he made the inartful and arguably pathetic assertion that the truck attack could be "a copycat" of the neo-Nazi car attack on Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia.

[snip] It may come as an unpleasant surprise to the party's supporters, then, to learn that the Democrats' rumored message for the 2018 midterms is the following: "A Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages." Sweet fancy Moses. That's basically the Papa John's Pizza slogan ("Better ingredients. Better pizza. Papa John's"), but in reverse.

Picture from The Canadian Press Details about the school shooting in Canada are still in short supply.  But it seems likely that the shooting was motivated by the media coverage that is given to mass shooters, especially school shootings, in the western world.  From thestarphoenix.com: "The community usually pulls together really strong in times like this," said Clearwater River Dene Nation Chief Teddy Clark on Friday. "Both Clearwater and La Loche, a lot of people are in shock. This is something that you only see on TV most of the time." (skip) Desjarlais-Thomas forwarded to The Canadian Press a...

Trump: Let's face it, Ted Cruz is copying me on building a border wall in order to step up his "weak" immigration game. Skip to 4:55 of the clip below for the key bit from yesterday's "Face the Nation" interview. Pop quiz: Who said the following, and when did he say it - and to whom? We have a crisis on illegal immigration. Neither party is serious about stopping it. I strongly oppose illegal immigration. I categorically oppose amnesty. I support legal immigrants who come here supporting the American Dream. I come from the perspective of someone who spent much...

Jeb Bush announced a new television ad focused on his strategy against ISIS, in a style that seems to be trying to trump Trump. Bush's ad will begin running in New Hampshire on Tuesday, according to an email from the campaign. It centers on the former Florida Governor calling to lead "a global coalition" to take out ISIS with "overwhelming force," overlaid with dramatic music and headlines about the terrorist group's violence.

Dr. Ben Carson boarded a flight to the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan late on Thanksgiving to embark on a tour of Syrian refugee camps there on Friday, he told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview before the trip. The tour–which Carson is taking so he can learn more about how to solve the refugee crisis by resettling Syrians throughout the Middle East, rather than bringing any refugees to the United States of America or placing more in Europe–means the world-leading neurosurgeon is the first 2016 GOP presidential candidate to tour refugee camps in Jordan. “I’m going to be visiting...

Photo from Bedroom Police Chief William J. McMahon said that the Maryland shooter who killed two innocent people in a mall skateboard shop was fascinated with the Columbine shooting from 1999. A foxnews.com report quotes McMahon as saying that the shooter knew he had mental problems: "He knows he's sick. He knows he has problems that need to be addressed. He writes it in his journal. He writes in his journal he's not comfortable talking to his mother about it," McMahon said, adding that there was no indication he ever spoke with anyone about his concerns. Media focus on...

The White House released a letter Tuesday handwritten by President Obama .....< snip > OBAMA'S LETTER COMMEMORATING LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS In the evening, when Michelle and the girls have gone to bed, I sometimes walk down the hall to a room Abraham Lincoln used as his office. It contains an original copy of the Gettysburg Address, written in Lincoln's own hand. I linger on these few words that have helped define our American experiment: "a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Through the lines of weariness etched in his face,...

LONDON (AP) - Britain is bracing for clashes with right-wing extremists and possible copycat terror attacks after the brutal slaying of a young soldier. London's Metropolitan Police said more than 1,000 officers will be sent to potential trouble spots with armed response units. Only a fraction of Britain's police officers are armed.