Free Republic

Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern at the center of President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial, will continue her reentry into public life with a TED talk in late March. Lewinsky's remarks will focus on making "a safer and more compassionate social media environment, drawing from her unique experiences at the epicenter of a media maelstrom in 1998," the TED website said.

When she served as chancellor of Washington, D. C.’s public schools, Michelle Rhee’s policies provoked scorn from Capital City teachers, to put it mildly. Long gone from the D. C. scene, Rhee’s approach is still benefiting D. C. students. “Ninety-one percent of the students on opportunity scholarships graduate from high school compared to 77 percent of the students in D. C. public schools,” Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last Thursday. Currently, there are 22 states with private school funding programs, according to Dr. Wolf. Additionally, some states have Educational Savings...

PPP's newest North Carolina poll provides just the latest evidence of a Scott Walker surge among GOP voters. Walker leads the Republican field in the state with 24% to 17% for Jeb Bush, 15% for Mike Huckabee, and 12% for Ben Carson. PPP has now had three polls in a row- this one in North Carolina, one two weeks ago nationally, and one three weeks ago in South Carolina- where Walker, Bush, Huckabee, and Carson have all hit double digits while none of the rest of the GOP contenders have. For the time that quartet seems to be the top...

A horrific video has emerged claiming to show a nine-year-old child being brutally murdered by members of a Shia militia who accused him of being a supporter of the Islamic State terror group. The footage was purportedly filmed near the Iraqi city of Tikrit, where a coalition of 30,000 Iraqi Army soldiers and private Shia armies launched a campaign to oust ISIS militants earlier this week. The horrific film has not been independently verified and could easily be just the latest piece of propaganda to be released by the terrorist organisation. Nevertheless the sheer brutality of the clip calls into...

MARCH 4--Prosecutors are now considering criminal charges against members of Michael Brown’s family in connection with a violent confrontation over the sale of merchandise commemorating the late teenager, who was shot to death last year by a police officer.

Allahpundit nails it: Faced with the dilemma of ticking off pro-Israel Democrats and donors versus ticking off her party's left-wing, hostile-to-Israel base, House Minority Nancy Pelosi decided to split the baby. She'd show up to Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to rebuff the "boycott" crowd (representing a sizable chunk of Congress' remaining Democrats), but she'd also cartoonishly flaunt her displeasure with the Prime Minister's message. Her angry theatrics were so ostentatious that reporters in the gallery couldn't help but take notice: Nancy Pelosi looks ENRAGED on the House floor. She shook her head and covered her eyes at one point.— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 3,...

Is the Chicago pension system so messed up and union work rules so entrenched the only way to change either of them is bankruptcy? I think so. So does Dennis Byrne who wrote on his blog today Chicago's Only Salvation: A Detroit-Like Bankruptcy. This is a guest post from Byrne. Chicago's Only Salvation: A Detroit-Like Bankruptcy Wait, I thought only the Republican Party was being torn asunder by a rift between the establishment middle and the fringe. That impression was nailed down, again, last week by the embarrassing fracture among House Republicans over funding for the Department of Homeland Security....

In the Persian bazaar, it's always wise to count your fingers after the handshake. Or naive. Or, let’s face it, evil. It appears that we have an entire administration of expensively credentialed plutocrats, without the slightest clue how the world really works. Bibi Netanhayu gave his “good friend” John Kerry a hint yesterday when he referred to Iran as a “Persian bazaar,” where the hondeling is part of the fun and cheating is the name of the game. And now here come the Iranians to prove it! Iran rejected on Tuesday as “unacceptable” U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand that it...

Susan Payne, a Maryland political activist who was interviewed on the Mark Levin Show last week, called into The Joe Miller Show yesterday and provided even more details on what a White House task force is planning with respect to illegals in this country. She explained that not only did members of the task force make it clear that their efforts are designed to provide as much money and benefits to illegals as possible, they were also trying to expand ways to induce illegals to come to the United States. With respect to those who receive executive amnesty, Ms. Payne...

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Facebooked a news story on suspected road rage killer Christopher Lee McCullum with the caption “Don’t worry, folks. He’s a ‘Good Guy with a Gun.'” Huh? Any man who murders an innocent victim isn’t a “good guy.” Ipso facto. The antis are spreading this mendacious meme throughout social media and onto op ed pages. Here’s how Jennifer Thorne, Executive Director of Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, deploys the same sarcastic barb in a cleveland.com column focusing on last year’s pro-gun legislative package H.B. 234:

Shifting his tone to reassure social conservatives, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker declared Tuesday that he intends to sign a state law in the coming months that bans abortion after 20 weeks. In an open letter to the Susan B. Anthony List, the likely Republican presidential candidate also said that he supports “similar legislation” now stalled in Congress. “My policies throughout my career have earned a 100 percent rating with pro-life groups in Wisconsin,” Walker writes. “As the Wisconsin legislature moves forward in the coming session, further protections for mother and child are likely to come to my desk in the...

Airfare from the U.S. to China and a months-long stay in an Orange County, Calif., apartment: $80,000. A baby born a U.S. citizen: priceless. In the largest operation of its kind, early Tuesday morning federal officials in Southern California served warrants at "Chinese birthing houses" or "maternity hotels," where wealthy Chinese nationals paid up to $80,000 for the sole purpose of giving birth in the U.S. to obtain citizenship for their children, earning in-state tuition to U.S. universities for them and permanent U.S. residency for the parents. "It is essentially citizenship for sale," said Center for Immigration Studies analyst Jessica...

I know that a lot of tax reform hawks were hoping for more of a complete overhaul, perhaps taking the form of an entirely new system which replaces the progressive tax code with a completely alternate structure. (Something along the lines of a flat tax, consumption tax, etc.) It doesn’t look like that will be happening any time soon, but Marco Rubio and Mike Lee are at least looking at some simplifications. GOP Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah are rolling out an overhaul of the tax code on Wednesday that, among other things, consolidates...

Rare-Earth Clocks, Sm-Nd and Lu-Hf Dating Models: Radioactive Dating, Part 5 by Vernon R. Cupps, Ph.D. * Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8) Author’s note: I was about nineteen when I realized Darwinian evolution was unscientific and completely rejected it, but I didn’t give much thought to a “young earth” at the time. Decades later, when I was in my mid-50s, I came to believe in a young-earth view of creation after taking the time...

New York City public schools have added two Muslim holidays to the school calendar, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina announced Wednesday. Schools will now close for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, making New York City the largest school district in the nation to recognize the two holidays on the official school calendar. “We are committed to having a school calendar that reflects and honors the extraordinary diversity of our students,” said Farina. De Blasio said the change means that Muslim families won’t be forced to choose between observing the holidays and sending their kids to school....

New York City schools will add two Muslim holidays to the calendar this year, Mayor de Blasio is announcing Wednesday.“Today we’ll announce the addition of Eid al-Adha & al-Fitr to @NYCSchools holiday schedule, a change that respects the diversity of our city,” Hizzoner tweeted.

The people at State who are responsible for this probably didn’t see anything amiss. They probably believe much the same thing, even if they wouldn’t state it in the same lurid terms: they likely think that if Israel would just go away, peace would prevail in the Middle East.

Nancy Pelosi was near tears. After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress on Tuesday, the House minority leader sent out a press release informing the media, "I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister's speech -- saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States" and "saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran." Wags lampoon House Speaker John Boehner for getting teary-eyed too readily -- and rightly so. So why would the San Francisco Democrat outdo the GOP leader by announcing that she was getting all blubbery because she didn't...

For more than a century, Sweet Briar College has offered women a liberal arts education in a pastoral setting near Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Equestrian programs, a tight-knit residential community and, lately, an engineering science degree, have been its hallmarks. On Tuesday, the college’s leadership abruptly announced its closure to stunned and tearful audiences of faculty and students. Officials cited “insurmountable financial challenges,” saying the 700-student college, founded in 1901, would shut down permanently in August. An $84 million endowment, officials said, was not enough to offset ebbing demand for their school in a tumultuous market.

In his latest piece, National Review’s Charles Cooke related a choice exchange he had with a former Clinton White House staffer who attempted to defend Hillary Clinton’s role in this latest scandal involving her determination to avoid using an official and secure email address, as is mandated by law.“It’s ‘worth remembering,’ a former Clinton administration staffer assured me quickly on Twitter, ‘that Hillary didn’t have email until she was in her forties. She was clueless.’” Cooke wrote. “‘I just mean,’ he added, desperately, that “she’s no dummy — except possibly with computers — where she kinda is.’”So the Democratic...