Free Republic

Disney has updated security policies at several of its resorts in Orlando’s Walt Disney World, but not everyone is happy about it. Three of the Resort Hotels — the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Polynesian Village Resort and Contemporary Resort with its Bay Lake Tower — have already seen the tighter measures in place, which include the removal of the “Do Not Disturb” door sign. The signs have been replaced with “Room Occupied” door hangers, which will alert maintenance and Disney staff that guests are currently in their rooms, but will not stop staff from coming in.

I have 1,000 words to convince you to celebrate Christmas—or, as someone on Facebook recently put it, “The Jesus Myth.” Right. I could try to convince you that Christmas is a fully Christian celebration, having nothing to do with supposed appropriations of pagan festivals, but that presumes that you care about celebrating Christmas as Christian in the first place. What I need to do is convince you that the myth matters as a myth. This is not a comfortable thought for many modern Christians, accustomed as we are to the accusation that we worship a fairy-tale sky god. If you...

Any conservative will tell you the nasty names they’ve been called time and again by those on the left. There’s the obvious “deplorable” label which most of us have embraced as humorous. Then there are the standard sexist, xenophobe, islamophobe labels as well as the long-standing homophobe. But perhaps the most persistent accusation from the left is that conservatives are racist. This is a textbook example of psychological projection which places one’s undesirable feelings onto another rather than acknowledging them as their own. And the left is guilty of this more often than not. How do I know this? Because...

I buy almost all my food at the farmer's market and I am fortunate that I live near several different weekend markets. One reason I do this is that I like to support small businesses like farms. Another is that I care about where my food comes from and how, in the case of meat, it is treated and fed. Factory farming is a nightmare. My farmer's markets also accept WIC so anyone can come by and purchase fresh vegetables, herbs, fruit or more importantly: bacon. I gave out bacon from my pig farmer to my friends for Christmas because...

Houston Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee is a terror. Everyone in Houston knows it. Everyone in Washington, DC knows it. Over the last 22 years, since she was first elected to represent Houston in the district seat once held by Barbara Jordan, Cong. Lee has become a legend for her bizarre and abusive behavior. One of Lee’s most famous eccentricities comes every year on the day of the presidential State of the Union message, which is held in the House Chamber before a joint session of congress. This is the one session of congress at which there is no reserved...

Check Washington's conventional political wisdom — and then look the other way to see where U.S. is headed in the next 12 months Here are three leading examples of the conventional wisdom among Washington’s political experts about what will happen in 2018: Democrats will ride a “blue wave” of congressional campaign victories to retake control of Congress, gaining majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Only the richest Americans will benefit economically from passage of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts, as the stall in middle-class prosperity continues. Special counsel Robert Mueller will indict a host of former Trump...

The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) recently debuted a new dorm that promises to be a “safe, supportive living-environment” for students interested in promoting “social justice issues.” The new Social Justice House, which is now accepting applications for the 2018-2019 academic year, “will be a community of unique and multi-faceted students from a variety of backgrounds, united into a singular voice of social activism and equality.” "The House will seek to grapple with present day issues while providing students a safe, supportive living environment designed to help them grow and further their ambition." Tweet This [RELATED: Progressive UND students get...

Trudging through mud in sub-zero temperatures, digging the earth with their bare hands and heaving huge rocks with the most primitive of tools, these horrifying photos have revealed life inside Joseph Stalin's gulag prisons, where people were worked to death in Soviet labour camps through the mid-1900s. This year marks 100 years since the 1917 Russian Revolution, which led to Vladimir Lenin taking control of the Soviet Union. When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin rose to power and became the state's authoritarian leader. Between 1929 and the year of Stalin's death in 1953, 18million men and women were transported to...

China did not export any oil products to North Korea in November as U.S. sanctions against the isolated country continue take effect, according to a report Tuesday from Reuters. The move comes as North Korea ratchets up ongoing nuclear and missile programs despite years of U.N. resolutions prohibiting the actions. U.N. Security Council imposed a new batch of limits of oil products earlier this month to the communist country. China did not export any gasoline, jet fuel, diesel or fuel oil, or any other petroleum products to North Korea last month, according to the report, that relied on General Administration...

According to research from the Center for Economics and Business Research in London, China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy by 2032. “In 2032, three of the four largest economies will be Asian – China, India, and Japan,” Bloomberg News points out, citing CEBR’s research. India will pass the United Kingdom and France next year, and will pass Germany by 2027. South Korea and Indonesia will knock G7 nations Italy and Canada out of the Top Ten list by 2032. Writing at Bloomberg View in October, Noah Smith argued that China has already surpassed the United...

Dennis Murphy sniffed the bobcat urine he uses to lure his prey. He checked the silencer on his AR-15 assault rifle and loaded a few snares into his Ford pickup. “Let’s go kill some coyotes,” he said. But he wasn’t heading for the wilderness. Mr. Murphy’s stalking ground is on the contentious new frontier where hunters are clashing with conservationists: cities and suburbs. Coyotes are largely associated with their ancestral bastions in the wild lands of the American West, but they are highly adaptable, and in recent years they have been colonizing large population centers throughout North America. The hunters...

Whether punching Nazis, galavanting on the red carpet at the GLAAD Awards, or hobnobbing with newly discovered genders, 2017 introduced us to some fresh (and available!) faces in Marxism. Toppling systems of oppression with the stroke of a keyboard is just in a day’s work for these stunning and brave individuals who kept our flames for justice burning…and our hearts throbbing! While all of these sexy Stalinists may not technically be single, all’s fair in love and the culture war. And besides, every polyamorous relationship has room for one more, dontchathink? Brush that hair, ladies, straighten those ties, lads, and...

Former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton Tuesday applauded cuts to the United Nations budget, saying they are a "real opportunity" for President Donald Trump's administration to rethink the United States' share of what it contributes to the world agency and possibly even pulling out of the U.N. Human Rights Council. "There are plenty of parts of the U.N. system that don't deserve any U.S. funding, let alone a cut," Bolton told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program. "I think if the administration really wants to review what the options are available to us, they should think about having the U.S. in the...

Why is it that liberals are apparently the only ones able to pick up on “dog whistles?” Don Lemon took issue with President Trump’s pledge to fight the “assault” on Christmas by “saying Merry Christmas again.” The “CNN Tonight” host accused the president’s remarks on Christmas of being laden with covert racist appeals to his base.

Over the last year, it seems as if more campus hate crimes turned out to be hoaxes than legitimate acts of hate. Schools tended to be fertile ground for overzealous students looking to prove there is hate where none exists. These 17 examples show 2017 continued to be a year in which hate-crime hoaxes are an epidemic with no end in sight. Some anecdotes are fallout from post-election antics spawned in late November 2016 in the wake of the Donald Trump presidency. The rest originated in apparent desperate attempts to push a progressive narrative. Student cries KKK — except it...

NEW DELHI: Indian security forces hit back at Pakistan, hard, overnight Monday, killing three Pakistani soldiers across the LoC in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), and separately, neutralising a wanted Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist in J&K's Pulwama district. In retaliation for a ceasefire violation on Saturday+ , the Indian Army undertook an operation very reminiscent of last year's surgical strikes. They crossed over to PoK early Tuesday, to Rakhchikri in the Rawlakot sector, and killed three Pakistani troops while also wounding one, agencies reported.

The first year of Donald Trump's presidency has, in many ways, been exactly what you would expect: Trump has continued to drive his opponents — and sometimes his allies — batty with his predictable unpredictability, distracting the media and dominating the national conversation, all the while implementing many of the major policy initiatives he promised in his sweep into office. Political pundits, media elites and pollsters decree that the presidency is on shaky ground. They'll note that the president remains divisive, with record high unfavorable ratings. There’s no way he and the GOP can survive this. Sound familiar? It’s the...

I had a great Christmas and hope all of you did, too. Now, back to work. First, I want to thank everyone for the overwhelmingly positive support given my initial after-action report on the trial run of the new app called PostBot. Especially the freepmail. You can view the original post here http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?m=all;o=time;q=quick;s=postbot . A few days have passed and this has allowed the app to further analyze the collected data and activity. I think the additional findings and results are worth sharing. Background: 1. EI vs. AI – the developers feel they have broken new ground in the field...

In each of the past few years, I have done an end-of-the-year summary on jihad activity and Islamization in the United States, so that people might better understand the overarching progress of the jihad in the U.S., and connect the dots. After years of shouting into the wilderness, the message hit critical mass in November 2016, and Donald Trump, to the absolute shock of the totalitarian left elite, was elected President of the United States. President Trump’s initiatives to stem jihad and sharia in America have been met with fierce resistance from the jihad-aligned left. Even just last Friday, the...

As many of you know as I started my Christmas holiday last night and employed a new app called PostBot to fulfill my commitment and obligations as a productive and engaged member of FR while taking much needed time off. After running it for approximately 24 hours I can report the following. 1. The app kept track of what it perceived were negative replies to those it determined were positive. The ratio was approximately 20:1 positive. 2. It compiled lists from the negative responses as to belligerent (9), thin-skinned (18), irrational (6), nasty (11) and self-righteous/sanctimonious (22). A total of...