Free Republic

Tuesday night (Sept. 20), 38-year-old Travon Williams lay dead on the pavement outside a small grocery store at the intersection of North Claiborne Avenue and Desire Street. Fatally shot, Williams had followed a grim pattern running through his family, a well-worn groove of untimely, violent deaths. According to those who knew him, Williams had spent the past few years of his life trying to build better relationships with his daughters -- and trying to free himself from a tragic legacy. At age 5, Williams lost his 24-year-old mother to gunfire at a Desire neighborhood barroom. Gretchen Williams of Desire was...

In his farewell address to the nation, President Ronald Reagan declared, “All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So tomorrow night in the kitchen, I hope the talking begins.”Reagan was a great champion of the power of family dinners, but a commitment to this tradition crosses partisan lines.President Obama has made family dinner an almost inviolable part of his daily schedule. No matter what is going on, at 6:30 he takes a break from work to sit down and eat with Michelle and their daughters. He’s made it a strict rule not to miss more than...

The father of Orlando mass shooter Omar Mateen has longstanding connections to prominent Islamist groups in the U.S., a document discovered by the Investigative Project on Terrorism shows. Seddique Matin is listed as president of a then-new American Muslim Alliance (AMA) chapter in Fort Pierce in a July 1997 announcement archived by the IPT.The AMA sponsored several radical conferences in the U.S. and its leader, Agha Saeed, has spoken in defense of convicted terrorists, including Aafia Siddiqui (a.k.a "Lady al-Qaida"), Palestinian Islamic Jihad board member Sami Al-Arian, and Pakistani intelligence lobbyist Ghulam Nabi Fai.The Fort Pierce chapter is among 10...

The father of mass shooter Omar Mateen, who opened fire at a Florida nightclub killing 50 people, is a strong supporter of the Afghan Taliban. Seddique Mateen is an Afghan man and also hosts the Durand Jirga Show on a channel called Payam-e-Afghan, which broadcasts from California. Dozens of videos are posted under his name on YouTube, where he speaks on a range of political subjects in the Dari language. One video shows him declaring his candidacy for the Afghan presidency.

**SNIP** Jackson, a 36-year-old from Dallas, was ultimately arrested and charged with property theft, a Class B misdemeanor - because he had taken his daughter's iPhone and refused to give it back. Following a long legal battle, a Dallas County Criminal Court judge ruled last week that the state did not have enough evidence to continue the case and ordered a jury to find him not guilty. Jackson spoke with The Washington Post at length following the verdict but then recanted, saying he had signed an exclusivity agreement with a TV program a day earlier. He said he could not...

A woman stood at the corner of Garfield Boulevard and Union Avenue early Sunday morning and called 911. Send an ambulance now, said LaTonya Taylor. Someone was shot hours ago, and he was still in the car. "He got shot at 12:30," she said. Her voice was steady and deliberate. "I want to know why he's still sitting here." Yes, she said, police were there already, at least 20 officers. But the person shot might be her son, and he was still in the crashed car. She listened for a moment and hung up.

The father of the 25-year-old Stillwater woman accused of plowing her car into a homecoming parade crowd Saturday morning in Stillwater told The Oklahoman by telephone that he first found out about the accident through social media. “Everyone across the country is talking about it,” said an emotional Floyd Chambers, 47, of Oologah, who said he couldn’t believe that his daughter could have done something like this. “I can’t figure this out. This is not the person that’s my daughter ... I can’t imagine alcohol being involved. She is not an alcoholic that I’m aware of,” he said. “This is...

BANGOR, Wis. (HotTopics.tv) – A dad’s warning to his daughter’s homecoming date is going viral.

A Muslim man has confessed to strangling his 19-year-old daughter to death with his bare hands after learning from police she had been caught shoplifting condoms to have sex with her forbidden boyfriend.

A father has been arrested after shooting down an $1,800 drone that was reportedly hovering over his two sunbathing daughters. William H. Merideth, 47, from Kentucky was charged with first-degree criminal mischief and first-degree wanton endangerment. The owner of the drone claims he was only trying to take pictures of a friend's house when Merideth shot at the device, sending it crashing into a field near his yard last weekend. Sunday afternoon, the kids – my girls – were out on the back deck, and the neighbors were out in their yard," Merideth told WDRD. 'And they come in and...

(CNN)Connecticut police have recovered the body of a 7-month-old baby, who died after his father allegedly jumped off a bridge with him. Aaden Moreno was found Tuesday evening in the Connecticut River near the town of East Haddam, miles downstream from where Tony Moreno leaped from the Arrigoni Bridge in Middletown, police said. Moreno was listed in critical condition at Hartford Hospital. Authorities said he was alert and stable. No charges have been filed against him, but Middletown Mayor Daniel Drew told CNN that the state's attorneys office is investigating and charges are expected.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that the dad, maternal grandpa and father-in-law of President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, were hardcore Communists under investigation by the U.S. government. Jarrett’s dad, pathologist and geneticist Dr. James Bowman, had extensive ties to Communist associations and individuals, his lengthy FBI file shows. In 1950 Bowman was in communication with a paid Soviet agent named Alfred Stern, who fled to Prague after getting charged with espionage. Bowman was also a member of a Communist-sympathizing group called the Association of Internes and Medical Students. After his discharge from...

Former ambassador to the US Michael Oren, whose book on his experience in Washington is due out on Tuesday, continues to ruffle feathers by criticizing US President Barack Obama’s Mideast policies in op-ed pieces in the US press. In a piece Friday in Foreign Policy, Oren – who left Washington on October 1, 2013, and is now a Kulanu MK -- charged that Obama was naïve as a peacemaker, had blinders to terrorism, and that his abandonment by both his Muslim father and step-father had something to do with his desire to be accepted by their “co-religionists.” And in a...

Via Truth Revolt and the Daily Mail, here’s the best evidence lefties have that Dolezal isn’t the racial equivalent of Caitlyn Jenner. The basic story she tells might well be true: Albert Wilkerson, the man she passed off as her dad, did serve in the Corps and did migrate north as a young child after his father “had a confrontation with a police officer” in Birmingham. But he isn’t her father, of course, and the fact that she went so far as to steal his history to back up her own claim of being black is a step that Jenner...

Marilyn Mosby has made it widely known that she comes from a long line of police officers, five generations of law enforcement to be exact. The 35-year-old Baltimore city state’s attorney’s father, mother, grandfather, and uncles have all at some point worked as cops — a history which Mosby cites to push back against the claim — as Fox News’ Griff Jenkins put it during a recent interview — that Baltimore’s finest believe the rookie prosecutor does not have their backs because of how she’s handled the Freddie Gray case. “I come from five generations of police officers,” Mosby responded...

June 1, 2015Memorial of Saint Justin, Martyr    Reading 1 Tb 1:3; 2:1a-8 I, Tobit, have walked all the days of my lifeon the paths of truth and righteousness.I performed many charitable works for my kinsmen and my peoplewho had been deported with me to Nineveh, in Assyria. On our festival of Pentecost, the feast of Weeks, a fine dinner was prepared for me, and I reclined to eat.The table was set for me,and when many different dishes were placed before me,I said to my son Tobiah: “My son,go out and try to find a poor manfrom among our...

It's been a troubling semester, but not because many of my students passively and/or actively resist the knowledge that I try to pass on to them.  It's been frustrating not merely because government regulations and mandates have made me into a secretary filling out a myriad of online forms.  It's been disheartening not only because leftist propaganda surrounds me and I am but one small voice in the academic desert trying to teach true American core values. No, it's been a sad and sometimes heartbreaking semester because many college students' assorted troubles are related to the fact that they are...

Thirteen years ago Jim Cardosi’s wife, Cindy, discovered she had little time left to live.In 2002 she experienced symptoms resulting from a neurological illness that by 2005 would be identified as frontotemporal dementia or Pick’s Disease, which Cindy developed in her mid-40s.She required full-time care, so Jim retired from the military. They raised five kids together and built their lives around each other.Jim’s faith kept him poised throughout the illness, and he felt the call to the priesthood before her death. He cared for Cindy until her passing in July 2008 at 51 years old in their Jacksonville, Florida home.“I...

The University of Maryland, Baltimore and numerous downtown businesses closed early Monday, citing concerns about potentially violent activity in the area. Lexington Market, a city courthouse and businesses including T. Rowe Price and Venable LLP said police warned them of large gatherings and protests downtown. According to widely circulated flier, a high school "purge" was to take place at 3 p.m., starting at Mondawmin and ending downtown. Such memes have been known to circulate regularly, but today's has led to bolstered police presence around the city. The flier includes an image of protesters smashing the windshield of a police car...

Fathers and Daughters – Is This a Missing Key to Modesty Today? By: Msgr. Charles PopeWe often speak today of the terrible toll that fatherless homes have on young boys. And this is true. Without a reasonably good (even though not sinless) model of manhood and responsibility, many boys lose their way. Fathers also play a large role in disciplining boys, especially as they grow older and become  stronger than their mothers.But missing fathers also bring forth terrible effects on many girls. Women, even young girls, certainly do seek and desire the love and appreciation of men and have...