Free Republic

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara called Wednesday for "all urgent measures" to end migrant slave trading in Libya as he opened an Europe-Africa summit meant to focus on long-term economic growth and stability. The slavery revelations are casting a shadow over the Abidjan summit, which both sides hope will launch a deeper partnership to create jobs for Africa's exploding population while reducing mass migration and terrorism. "Given this wretched drama which recalls the worst hours of human history, I would like to appeal to our sense of responsibility to take all urgent measures to put an end to that practice...

Las Vegas officials held a press conference Wednesday revealing more information and insight into the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. They believe the shooter, Stephen Paddock intended to escape the hotel room he was shooting from following the massacre and are actively looking for accomplices. A Texas firearms dealer who had sold handguns to Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock in 2010 and 2011 remembers him coming into the shop last year with girlfriend Marilou Danley. Paul Peddle, who owns B & S Guns in Garland, Texas, said Wednesday that Paddock didn't buy anything on the most recent visit but asked...

Freddie King performing the classic Have You Ever Loved a Woman sometime in the early to mid '70s.

This Magnet is no Joke I don't often write reviews, but for this.....I had to write one. The magnet was everything as described, but please realize this is not a toy. This magnet is uncontrollable within 6-12 inches of a solid metal surface. If you are looking to just buy a strong magnet to "play" around with, buy this with extreme caution. There would not be much noticeable bone left if your finger was caught between this magnet and another magnet/fridge. Again, the magnet was everything stated in the description but its strength is no joke. Scary Strong I'm kind...

ItÂ’s never a dull day in Donald TrumpÂ’s Washington. ThereÂ’s a lot to unpack in SaturdayÂ’s controversy over the temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge James Robart of the Western District of Washington (based in Seattle) against portions of President TrumpÂ’s executive order on refugees, and TrumpÂ’s ensuing tweets in response. For now, letÂ’s start with what happened. Judge RobartÂ’s decision, handed down Friday night, did four things. First, it concluded that the States of Washington and Minnesota had legal standing to challenge the executive order. Judge Robart seems to have accepted the argument that the states could...

“This is a law-enforcement agency.” That’s what President Trump told Department of Homeland Security staff Wednesday after he signed two executive orders on immigration enforcement. The fact that he had to say that – and that the assembled ICE agents, Border Patrol officers, and others heartily applauded – tells you all you need to know about how badly Obama gutted immigration enforcement and torpedoed employee morale. The two executive orders dealt with border and interior enforcement. They are substantive and far-reaching, a change from the pabulum and generalities we usually get from politicians. Some of the directives will have immediate...

Donald Trump has picked an honorable, thoughtful, and courageous warrior to lead the Pentagon. He knows how to lead men in battle. He’s an outstanding strategic thinker, and he’s unencumbered by politically correct nonsense. Trump’s cabinet is shaping up very well indeed, but this choice is his best and most crucial personnel decision yet. No one can doubt General Mattis’s credentials. The Washington Post has a nice summary: Mattis, whose nicknames include “Mad Dog” and the “Warrior Monk,” has had a leading hand in some of the U.S. military’s most significant operations in the last 20 years. As a one-star...

ABBA on YouTube.

So I just stopped by the Corner blog at National Review Online to see their reaction to Trump's speech today. To my surprise, there wasn't a single post commenting on it. The NR writers spent the day posting about Brexit, and about Rubio's senate run, and about a picture of Trump they don't like. But not a word about Trump's speech. If that isn't proof that Trump hit a home run today, I don't know what is.

YAHOO MUSIC: What made you want to get involved with Schoolhouse Rock!? BOB DOROUGH: When they explained that they didn't want it to be too simple or too "writing down" for kids, I got a great thrill out of that. I thought it was a great opportunity to communicate. After I'd been on television for a year, I got to thinking, "Gee, is anybody watching this?" So I went to some elementary schools in Manhattan and volunteered to do a Schoolhouse Rock! assembly for the kids. I went to all kinds of schools, rich and poor, and did 13 concerts...

I've always loved the F-4 Phantom. Probably got it from my Marine dad who witnessed F-4s doing their thing back in the 1960s. I love their sinister appearance with their droopy nose and tail fins. Such cool looking machines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZGDE2y_2H8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfJ-trw4uCg Got some goosebumps listening to this song, so I figured I'd post it.

Back in April, when the Obama administration announced the “framework” that wasn’t, I opined that the drawn-out Iran negotiations (to be followed by an elongated, process-heavy agreement that incrementally gives the jihadist regime everything it wants) was just theater to enervate the public while our government empowered our enemy. Now that the agreement is here, I don’t see things any differently: What we have is simply an Obama administration assumption and a timetable. The assumption is that Iran will become a nuclear-weapons power. The timetable involves dragging out the enervating negotiations-to-nowhere for as long as it takes to inure Americans...

Who are you gonna believe, your honey or your lyin’ eyes? That is the question that springs to mind upon reading the “dissent,” forwarded to Rich by a friend who prefers to remain anonymous, from my weekend column on the dangerously misguided Republican response to Obama’s Iran deal. In the column, I repeated the critique of the Corker bill I’ve been making for months (see, e.g., here, here and here): The legislation will help President Obama pave Iran’s way to become a nuclear-weapons power. This seems counterintuitive to those with higher expectations of Obama’s Republican opposition than I have: The...

By Mark Strand and Dan Risko According to the Constitution, the President has the power to negotiate treaties with foreign nations, and the Senate must approve with a two-thirds vote. So how did the process our Founding Fathers created evolve into the bicameral procedure that exists today?To understand why free trade agreements need approval from both chambers of Congress, it is important to recognize the jurisdiction of the branches of government involved in these negotiations: Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress the power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the...

Live performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTduYXf9s5s Official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HnOFwqpLRQ Political relevance: She "frowns" after reading the daily paper's editorial which no doubt was some sort of liberal nonsense.

Eric Alterman writes in the 150th anniversary issue of The Nation: The primary difference between liberalism and conservatism, at least in theory, is that the latter is an ideology and the former isn’t. Conservatism, as Milton Friedman argued, posits that “freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself.” Liberalism, however, as Lionel Trilling observed, “is a large tendency rather than a concise body of doctrine.” And while John Kenneth Galbraith helpfully pointed out that only those programs and policies that honor “the emancipation of belief” are worthy of...

. . . wrapped in a fraud, inside a sham. On the heels of the issuance of the Department of Justice’s Ferguson Report — one of the more frivolous and sophomoric “reports” ever produced by the federal government — President Obama asserts that the pervasive racial discrimination found in the Ferguson Police Department occurs in departments across the country. Now, maybe the Ferguson PD engages in systematic racial discrimination. Perhaps other departments also do. But nothing in this travesty of a report proves that, and the fact that the Department of Justice produced a report so buffoonish, so replete with...

The future of the internet is about to be decided. Will it continue to be a place where dreams are born, dissent is protected, and democracy thrives? That depends on a crucial net neutrality vote at the Federal Communications Commission on February 26. Internet Service Providers want to break the internet into fast and slow lanes that sell public voice to the highest bidder. If we lose that vote, the most democratic communications platform the world has ever seen could become more like cable TV, a fairly scary place that reproduces the economic gaps and racial hierarchies of the offline...