Free Republic

Attorney General William Barr accused the Black Lives Matter movement of using the issue of Black people shot by police as a tool for a larger political agenda instead of sincerely trying to help those they claim to support. At an event hosted by Michigan's Hillsdale College on Wednesday, Barr was asked about the relationship between the rule of law and economic prosperity. That led to a discussion of crime and Barr's claim that while the concept of "Black lives matter" cannot be argued against, the organization using that slogan has little interest in making Black lives better.

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis welcomes honest criticism: ‘This is loving the Church’ ROME, September 10, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis returned to the topic of his critics in America today, saying that he values honest and constructive criticism but not those who dispense “arsenic pills” or “throw a stone and then hide their hands.” He also said that while he prays a schism will not occur, he is not afraid of it as it has always been part of the Church’s history. The Pope’s remarks were in response to a question from the New York Times on Tuesday, during an inflight press conference on...

"We're going to shut them down," promises Representative Frederica Wilson, the Florida Democrat who does not understand the First Amendment.  She not only wants to silence criticism, but wants to prosecute it, though she has no idea what law could be used to do that...because there isn't one.  In other words, she is a moron. Those people who are online making fun of members of Congress are a disgrace, and there is no need for anyone to think that is unacceptable. We're going to shut them down and whoever it is, to shut them down and they should be prosecuted. You...

President Donald Trump is not the only person in America to criticize the federal judiciary in recent years for its stunning overreach into areas of government our founders specifically tried to wall off. Earlier this month, in fact, former federal prosecutor and GOP lawmaker Bob Barr noted that when it comes to the issue of immigration, especially, activist federal judges have routinely flouted established law and constitutional presidential authority to rule against the country and on behalf of people who have no legal right to be here. He noted: If you were to guess the most critical problem faced by...

If you’re desperate for a smile while stuck in Seattle-area traffic, just look toward the billboards where Washington state has launched a $4.4 million marketing campaign that promotes the new Highway 99 tunnel as resembling a happy face. The messages remind motorists this four-lane tunnel goes completely under downtown, from the stadiums to the Space Needle. Television ads depict people performing a swooping “under” gesture — for instance, while ordering a chicken sandwich with meat beneath the lettuce. Viewers are encouraged to check www.99tunnel.com. The shape resembles the trademark smile of Amazon, which dominates several blocks near the tunnel’s north...

Ronald Reagan’s “Eleventh Commandment” reads, “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.” The former president’s sage advice went ignored once again last week by the freshman Utah Senator Mitt Romney when he published his anti-Trump oped in The Washington Post. Romney didn’t have a problem accepting Donald Trump’s endorsement for Senate to get the job in the first place, but hey, that’s politics, right? Like most positions Mitt Romney takes, I guess he was against Trump before he was okay with Trump before he was against him again. Romney lamented in his article that the president hasn’t changed his...

A LEADING MEP has warned EU citizens they could be “jailed” for criticising migration policies if a new United Nations agreement is acted upon. (snip) --- “One basic element of this new agreement is the extension of the definition of hate speech. “The agreement wants to criminalise migration speech. Criticism of migration will become a criminal offence. “Media outlets that give room to criticism of migration can be shut down.

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, a nationally influential literary critic for The New York Times for three decades, who wrote some 4,000 reviews and essays, mostly for the daily column Books of The Times, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 84. His death, at the Milstein Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, was caused by complications of a stroke, his daughter, Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, said. In one of journalism’s most challenging jobs, Mr. Lehmann-Haupt was The Times’s senior daily book critic from 1969 to 1995, tackling two or three books a week and rendering judgments that could affect, for better or ill, literary careers as well...

...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...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a rare statement Thursday said that the Justice Department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” In one of his toughest statements following criticism from President Trump, Sessions defended his leadership of the Justice Department, which has come under increasing attack from the president and his allies.... “While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action,” Sessions said in a direct response to Trump's interview on Fox. “However, no...

The newest iteration of the gun control debate concerns whether teenage survivors of last week’s shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, should be immune from criticism when they argue for gun control. This is a relatively new question: other school shootings, like Sandy Hook in 2012, have involved children too young to have opinions. But the answer is no: once you enter the political arena, your views are fair game. Democrats have perfected the art of using sympathetic public figures to argue for positions most Americans reject, then accusing critics of mean-spiritedness when they disagree....

The Establishment, a construct of Democrats and Republicans that rules in Washington no matter which party controls government, appears to be over its fainting spell following Donald Trump's election. It is now throwing everything at him from a daily -- make that hourly, even minute by minute -- onslaught of investigations to big media's equivalent of Molotov cocktails. Washington, D.C., recently made assisted suicide legal. The president isn't helping his cause by committing unassisted political suicide. Changing his chief of staff may help, but significant change must come from the president himself. Name-calling by the president and his critics...

Melania Trump has too many negatives to win the affections of envy-prone Americans. She is rich, tall, intelligent, well traveled, elegant, professionally accomplished, slim, stylish and photogenic in—or out of-- designer togs. She is devoted to family, lives in spectacular homes and travels by private jet. Worst of all, she won the heart of the most powerful man on the planet. At a recent Trump rally in Florida, she had the gall to pray. She read the Lord’s Prayer, into a microphone, no less. Heaven help us. There is enough in that magnificent creature to make smaller minds in every...

A Chinese professor has been sacked after he criticized Chairman Mao Zedong on his 123rd birthday in an commentary he posted online that enraged leftists. Mao, who died on Dec. 9, 1976, is still officially venerated by the ruling Communist Party as the founder of modern China, and his face appears on every yuan banknote. But he is particularly respected by leftists who believe the country has become too capitalist and unequal over three decades of market-based reforms, and attitudes towards Mao and his legacy mirror differences between reformers and traditionalists. Deng Xiaochao, 62, an art professor at Shandong Jianzhu...

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told Army Radio on Monday that he regretted the timing of remarks he made last week that were critical of Israeli policies in Judea and Samaria. Shapiro made the controversial remarks at the Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv last Monday. Earlier the same day, Israeli terror victim Dafna Meir had been laid to rest in Jerusalem after being stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant in Otniel the previous day and another Israeli woman, Michal Froman, was wounded in a stabbing in Tekoa. In his speech, Shapiro said, "Too many...

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro voiced a particularly sharp attack against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria on Monday, accusing Israeli authorities of holding them to different standards of law. He expressed the unusually harsh criticism during a speech at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference in Tel Aviv. Shapiro condemned two brutal stabbing attacks on Sunday and Monday as "barbaric acts of terrorism," before launching into a critique of Israel's policies concerning the communities in Judea-Samaria. "We are concerned and perplexed by Israel's strategy on settlements," Shapiro stated. "This government and previous Israeli governments have repeatedly...

Once again, Congressional representatives overstep their Constitutional bounds and advance a resolution that condemns free speech, something protected in the First Amendment, which is part of the very Constitution these anti-Americans swore an oath before God to uphold. Oh, I know, they claim it is “hate speech,” but it really is targeting those who tell the truth about the religion of pieces, Islam. House Resolution 569 was introduced by Rep. Donald Beyer (D-VA), along with 82 co-sponsors introduce the resolution to condemn “violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United States.” The usual gang is involved in this,...

Labour's ruling body will silence MPs and party members who criticize Jeremy Corbyn on social media. The National Executive Committee has agreed to create a new code of conduct to tackle the "very harmful leaks to the media" and curb the "very damaging way in which social media is being used". It comes after Mr. Corbyn's first 10 weeks as Labour leader have been dogged by open criticism by his own MPs. ...

Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy, and pointed out the criminal behavior of illegal aliens such as MS13 gang members, he has been inside a firestorm of media-spun, PC-fueled hatred, directed specifically to tear him down. Today Trump responds with a rather long press release; and in what’s sure to create a stir, The Donald points out the infectious disease issue. Here’s the full statement:

CIA director John Brennan gave a staunch defense of the framework nuclear deal with Iran on Tuesday, calling some criticism of the accord "disingenuous" and claiming Tehran had made considerable concessions. In his first public remarks since the outline agreement was announced last week, the spy agency chief said the deal would impose a litany of restrictions on Iran's nuclear work, reports AFP. "I must tell you the individuals who say this deal provides a pathway for Iran to a bomb are being wholly disingenuous, in my view, if they know the facts, understand what's required for a (nuclear) program,"...