Free Republic

When you tell people that our society glorifies sex and power, they look at you like you have another head growing out of your neck. They look this way because they like what they watch on television. They like going to the movies They love their music These things cannot be bad, can they? I do not want you to think that I am anti any of these things. I watch T.V., go to movies, and listen to music. I am also not one that thinks that these things are ultimately responsible for our actions or the actions of others....

On the eve of what’s expected to be the most-traveled holiday for Americans in a decade, President Obama’s national security advisers told him Tuesday that there is no specific, credible threat from the Islamic State extremists who carried out the deadly attacks in Paris.Mr. Obama met with his national security council at the White House to discuss the response to the Paris killing spree on Nov. 13 and other attacks by the militants. The advisers told the president there is no known threat to the homeland from the extremist group, also known by the acronym ISIL.The president has been urging...

Barack Obama has now created an unwinnable war. While all of the 2016 candidates declare their strategies for victory against ISIS, President Obama’s leading from behind has now entered the Middle East and the West into a free-for-all that cannot end any way but poorly.

Originally published by the Jerusalem Post. Since the Islamic State attacks in Paris on November 13, we have seen the development of a new, and strange justification for the Obama administration’s insistent refusal to jettison its manifestly failed strategy of contending with IS specifically and with Islamic terrorism generally.

Canadian journalist Ezra Levant visited Muslim neighborhoods in Paris to get a sense of public opinion there, finding that many blame Jews for the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) terrorist attacks on November 13, which left 130 people dead.(video at link)As Levant notes, the Muslims he interviewed do not “have long beards or traditional clothing.”The first man he interviews owns a Turkish restaurant and insists the world cannot call ISIS Muslims.“I don’t know how we can define this war,” said the first man, when asked if the West can the war against terrorism. “Because it is international, it is not a fixed enemy. They...

The Russian Air Force base in Latakia will be reinforced with S-400 SAM system, which will soon be deployed there, Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Wednesday. "An S-400 will be deployed on Khmeimim airbase in Syria," Shoigu said at a Defense Ministry meeting. On Tuesday, a Russian Su-24 was shot down by a Turkish F-16 fighter jet near the Turkish-Syrian border. One pilot died in the incident. The second one was rescued and brought to the Latakia airbase. Moscow maintains the jet did not violate Turkey's airspace. It ditched on Syria's territory 4km from the border. Shortly afterwards,...

A Lebanese news agency reports that the Russian pilot whose plane was downed on Tuesday by Turkey was rescued by Syrian commando forces.

German police are taking legal action against theatre staff in Mainz for disrupting an anti-migrant rally by singing Beethoven's Ode to Joy. About 300 people gathered over the weekend near the theatre in the south-western city to protest against the government's "chaotic" asylum policy. But speakers were interrupted by the theatre staff singing "All people will be brothers" from the symphony. Police say the right to free assembly is guaranteed by the constitution. They argue that it is therefore a criminal offence to disrupt such events.

On September 30, 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain landed at Heston Aerodrome in England and spoke to the crowds there: “The settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace. This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to read it to you: … We regard...

Obama always claims he found out about scandals from the "news". He only ramps up the fight against ISIS, when the media's reporting makes it obvious that the group is still a problem. So he has an obvious solution. If the media would just stop covering ISIS, it wouldn't be a problem. “The media needs to help in this,” he said, admitting that it has been a “difficult week,” with the threat posed by ISIS becoming a primary focus in the media. “One of the things that has to happen is how we report on this has to maintain perspective,...

For the better part of a year, Turkey remained on the sidelines in the "fight" against ISIS. Then, on July 20, a powerful explosion ripped through the town of Suruc. 33 people were killed including a number of Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) and Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF) members who planned to assist in the rebuilding of Kobani. The attack was promptly attributed to Islamic State who took "credit" for the tragedy the next day. To be sure, the attack came at a rather convenient time for President Tayyip Erdogan. A little over a month earlier, the ruling...

Michael Savage rarely welcomes guests on his show, but this week, he brought on respected expert on Russia to try to explain Obama’s motivations for provoking Vladimir Putin. Dr. Stephen Cohen is a columnist for the liberal magazine The Nation. He told Savage that even though he voted for Obama twice, he is now deeply concerned about the president’s increasingly bellicose attitude towards Russia. “What began as the Ukrainian civil war became a proxy war,” said Cohen. “Now that proxy war could become an actual war between the United States and Russia” (Free audio). Dr. Savage believes he knows the...

As the United States debates how to properly vet 10,000 Syrian refugees expected to resettle here, employees with Samaritan’s Purse are stationed on the frontlines in Greece, working to be a “face of compassion” for refugees fleeing war and terror. Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs and government relations for Samaritan’s Purse, spent a week in Greece, where the Christian organization has deployed employees and contractors to the region to assist scores of refugees flowing into the country, with hopes of continuing deeper into Europe. There, the group’s workers meet refugees arriving by rubber rafts on Greek islands and provide...

Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet fighter is a “critical moment” for the U.S. and its allies to stand up to Moscow, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Tuesday. Hours after the Kremlin condemned Turkey’s decision to shoot down the warplane for entering its airspace, Rubio warned against letting Russia get the upper hand. “It's important for us to be very clear that we will respond and defend Turkey if they come under assault from the Russians. Otherwise the entire NATO alliance comes into question,” Rubio, who is running for president, said on Fox News.

BRUSSELS - A month before the Paris terrorist attacks, Mayor Francoise Schepmans of Molenbeek, a Brussels district long notorious as a haven for jihadists, received a list with the names and addresses of more than 80 people suspected as Islamic militants living in her area. The list, based on information from Belgium's security apparatus, included two brothers who would take part in the bloodshed in France on Nov. 13, as well as the man suspected of being the architect of the terrorist plot, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Molenbeek resident who had left for Syria to fight for the Islamic State in...

According to an Austrian publication, the parents of Samra Kesinovic have received bad news. Their daughter, who was radicalized in Vienna, ran away to join ISIS fighters in Syria when she was just 17. Her friend, Sabina Selimovic, was 15 when she disappeared. Both girls were the children of Bosnian refugees who had fled to Austria during the Chechen war. The two girls later appeared on social media, carrying Kalashnikov rifles and surrounded by armed ISIS militants. Their pictures were used as a recruitment tool for other young women who would also leave home to become ISIS brides. About a...

Nanjing mother Zhang Minyan began encouraging her 5-year-old daughter to learn coding from Wu after watching a video of an American child who wrote an app for friends so they could share their views on Canadian singer Justin Bieber, she said. Before that, Zhang hadn’t thought it was necessary for children to learn. ‘Big impression’ “That made a big impression on me,” Zhang, 32, recalls. “I thought, since my child is playing games on an iPad everyday already, why not give her some guidance and let her learn something in the process?” Also children are learning to code in other...

China has become a banking powerhouse. Four of the five largest banks in the world are Chinese, according to SNL Financial’s latest global bank rankings. It’s a big change from the past few years when only two Chinese banks made the top five. Beijing-based Industrial & Commercial Bank of China holds the top spot with assets valued at $3.5 trillion. That means the bank is worth more than the entire value of the British economy. The only non-Chinese bank remaining in the top five is HSBC, which is eadquartered in London. It fell several spots to position No. 4 this...

"What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be." ___ President Barack Obama said during a press conference on Tuesday that his plans to attend a climate change summit in December will serve as a “powerful rebuke” to ISIS, which took credit for brutal terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and injured hundreds more. While standing alongside French president François Hollande in a joint news conference at the White House, Obama explained that his attendance at next month’s World Climate Summit will put ISIS in its place. “Next week I will be joining President Hollande and other...

Matt Drudge: 'America has been arming ISIS'Rare tweet by media giant alludes to sinister Obama policy Matt Drudge’s first tweet in months came with a cryptic message: “America has been arming ISIS.” The Obama administration has been plagued for weeks over news U.S. weapons supplied to Syrian rebels were inadvertently winding up in the hands of terror groups. The media giant’s tweet on Tuesday alludes to something far more sinister. Major media outlets covered the ineptitude of Obama’s U.S.-trained rebels in early November, but there was no evidence he purposefully sent weapons to terror networks determined to attack America....