Free Republic

The best New Year's Resolution I ever made was to stop trying to reason with unreasonable people. That may be especially valuable during an election year. With 4 of the 9 Supreme Court justices being more than 75 years old, the next president will probably be appointing replacements who can help determine the direction of American law well into the next generation.

PRINCETON, N.J. -- The American public estimates on average that 23% of Americans are gay or lesbian, little changed from Americans' 25% estimate in 2011, and only slightly higher than separate 2002 estimates of the gay and lesbian population. These estimates are many times higher than the 3.8% of the adult population who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in Gallup Daily tracking in the first four months of this year. Trend: Just your best guess, what percent of Americans today would you say are gay or lesbian? The stability of these estimates over time contrasts with the...

Why must we relegate the homeless, the unemployed, and the poor to ePodments, to tiny homes, to mini-homes, to dwellings made of junkyard scrap and other cheap materials, to dwellings the size of closets? The mark of a civilized society is how well the most helpless are treated—animals, children, the elderly, and those who are homeless. There is always room for improvement. We are plenty generous with people from other countries, but we miss the mark when it comes to helping our own chronic homeless, the veterans, babies in the womb, the elderly, and others who cannot protect themselves. It...

Three Americans have been kidnapped in Baghdad by "militias," according to Arab news channel Al Arabiya, citing its own sources. The State Department said it is aware of the report and is working with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans. Officials, however, would not confirm that anyone been kidnapped. "We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement to The Hill. "The safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority, he continued. "We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to...

Dramatic video shows ten American sailors on their knees as they surrendered to Iranian troops in the Persian Gulf while a U.S. 'commander' is filmed apologizing to the revolutionary guard Footage of sailors on the floor, with hands behind their heads surrounded by Iranian guards has been released It was aired on the Islamic republic's state television after the Navy personnel were freed following a standoff When the sailors were taken off of the boats in the Persian Gulf, they were questioned by the IRGC Later the captives were pictured looking relaxed while sitting on a big carpet sharing plates...

The seizure of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon by armed anti-government extremists has attracted national attention and raised questions about whether the takeover is a powder keg about to blow. But experts who monitor the anti-government movement say an even greater concern is lurking behind the confrontation that erupted Saturday at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the high desert of eastern Oregon. The militia movement, they say, is in the midst of a massive growth spurt at levels even greater than in the early 1990s after the Waco, Texas, standoff and the siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. It...

More than 50 million Americans have not even STARTED their Christmas shopping yet and nearly half the country hasn't finished Despite early retailer promotions meant to entice shoppers, 54 million Americans or or 17 percent have not started holiday shopping about a week before Christmas - one percentage point less than last year, a recent poll found. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted between December 14 to 18, also found that less than a third of shoppers had completely finished their shopping. The pace of sales is crucial to retailers who receive a substantial portion of business during November and December.

(CNN) - Gunshots fired into a mosque in Connecticut. Armed men protesting the "Islamization of America" outside Islamic centers in Texas. Death threats called in to mosques in Florida, Maryland and Virginia. Anecdotal evidence suggests 2015, a year bookended by murderous attacks carried out in the name of Islam, has been one of the most intensely anti-Muslim periods in American history. A new study shared with CNN puts statistical heft behind that suspicion. Through December 8, American mosques and Islamic centers have been the victims of vandalism, harassment and anti-Muslim bigotry at least 63 times this year, the Council on...

News Flash for Barack Obama: Americans are not afraid of terrorism. We're afraid of you. Your chronic diffidence, dismissal and downplaying terrorism -- especially from radical jihadi extremists, in both word and deed -- is scaring the hell out of your countrymen. Get over it! It's not cool. Nor is it presidentially-composed to disregard the palpable fear that permeates America today. Even if we're all so ignorant, naive and unworldly as to elect you twice. Leading from behind does not work as United States commander-in-chief. Sunday night was only Obama's third Oval Office address. (Scroll down for the C-SPAN video.)...

A new poll taken after the San Bernardino shooting, shows a majority of Americans view Muslims positively. A majority of Americans view Muslims in the United States the same way as any other community, a new poll shows. In the first poll on views of Muslim Americans taken after the mass shootings in Paris and San Bernardino, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 51 percent of Americans consider Muslims living in the US the same way they consider other groups of people. Only 14.6 percent of those surveyed said they were generally fearful.

The Syrian refugee crisis is the only issue many people in the media are talking about today, and many on social media are crying, "If you don't let the terrorist in, the terrorists win."But does the United States really have a refugee crisis, or has the Obama administration created this controversy? Over the past 100 years, America has often served as the watchdog for freedom in the world, but is acting as the world's police officer really the right course of action in these troubled times, or are we too unstable ourselves? How can we help others if we can't...

Donald Trump tops a new poll of candidates Americans think are most likely to say something inappropriate during Thanksgiving and ruin the meal. The survey from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling finds that 46 percent of Americans think Trump would say something to kill the mood surrounding the turkey feasting.

The majority of Americans say the country is at war with radical Islamic terrorism, according to a new poll taken in the aftermath of last week's terrorist attacks in France.

It all goes downhill after 30 — at least when it comes to happiness. “Adults over 30 are less happy than their predecessors,” concludes a study published online Thursday in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, which examined happiness data from more than 50,000 adults, gleaned from the General Social Survey, carried out by NORC at the University of Chicago, a nonpartisan, independent research organization, which has collected information about American adults since 1972. From 2010 to 2014, adults over 30 had an average happiness score of just 2.18, compared with 2.24 a decade ago. That’s significant considering happiness...

Pope Francis arrives in Washington D.C. on Tuesday to kick off a six-day American tour in which he'll meet the president, address Congress, speak to the United Nations, headline star-studded celebrations, lead thousands in prayer and visit with immigrants, prisoners and the homeless.

Before 9/11, the trial run for the attack was the World Trade Center bombing. The key figures in that attack, from Ramzi Yousef, the nephew of 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to the Blind Sheikh, whose ambitious plans involved bombing New York bridges and tunnels, asked for political asylum. Ramzi Yousef showed up with a fake passport and claimed to be an Iraqi refugee seeking political asylum. He was released on his own recognizance and told to show up for a hearing. He never did.

<p>As a patriotic and proud citizen of the United States, I have a story to share that has not only impacted my family, hundreds of colleagues, but also current and future United States workers.</p> <p>As I watched the grim faced Disney Executive, it was obvious that bad news was going to be delivered. The dead silence was broken when the Disney Executive made a harsh announcement. All of you in this room will be losing your jobs in the next 90 days. Your last day of employment for this company will be January 30, 2015. Your jobs have been given over to a foreign workforce. In the meantime you will be training your replacements until your jobs are 100 percent transferred over to them and if you don’t cooperate you will not receive any severance pay. Also, if we don’t feel confident that we have captured everything that you do we can, at our discretion, keep you longer than the 90 days until we have captured everything that you do with this job. Don’t discuss this meeting with anybody else in the company. Everybody in the room was appalled at the message. I was completely silent thinking how this was going to affect my coworkers and how I was going to break the news to my wife and children back at home as I was the only person in my home with a steady job. How would I pay for all the expenses that go along with a home, a wife, and children?</p>

Outspoken candidate Donald Trump got more good news today — the vast majority of Americans agree that “political correctness” is a problem. A new Rasmussen survey released Friday reveals that 71 percent of American adults believe that “political correctness… is a problem” in the U.S. Just 18 percent disagreed, and 10 percent were undecided.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) will meet with fellow GOP contender Donald Trump on Wednesday at Trump’s campaign headquarters, New York City’s Trump Tower. Cruz, the first Republican to declare a run for the presidency, will step onto Trump’s territory in Manhattan and is visiting Trump, not the other way around. As the Washington Post notes, the two candidates are on friendly terms and both take a strong, popular stand against mass illegal immigration. According to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll, Trump leads the field, with 17 percent of Republicans and independents surveyed saying he’s their first choice for the...

On The Rush Limbaugh Show, the popular conservative talk radio host discussed Donald Trump’s immigration plan and told listeners that Trump’s meteoric rise in the polls is entirely attributable to his position on immigration, which appeals to a broad array of voters.