Free Republic

Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets, better known as the man who piloted the Enola Gay during the bombing of Hiroshima, became a well-known figure in the United States at the end of the Second World War. Despite his fame, Tibbets asked that upon his death he receive no funeral or gravestone. Paul Tibbets started his career as an abdominal surgeon before enlisting in the US Army Air Corps. He initially served for three years, qualifying as a pilot in 1938, and opted to stay on active duty when the US entered the Second World War. While he is best known for...

The only thing worse was Dukakis in a tank.

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said he was “sobbing” as he watched the Jan 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol happen, according to a new book. In Atlantic journalist’s Mark Leibovich’s new book, “Thank You For Your Servitude,” Ryan said he felt “disturbed” about what was taking place in a building in which he spend most of his political life, according to CNN. “I spent my whole adult life in that building,” Ryan told Leibovich in the book. “And I saw my friends, a lot of cops, some of my old security detail – I’m still friends with a...

Question: Was it immoral to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Yesterday, August 6th, the world commemorated the 75th anniversary of America dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, thus commencing the “atomic age.” Seventy-five years later, the debate still rages on whether it was immoral for President Truman to authorize the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and then a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki three days later. I believe that President Truman made the right decision, the moral decision and one that stands moral scrutiny and the test of history. To properly evaluate the decision to...

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr criticized Vice President Mike Pence on Friday, accusing him of lying about Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani's involvement with the attacks on Sept. 11. "One thing I've learned in my lifetime is to not believe our government when it comes to matters of war," he tweeted. "Johnson and Nixon lied about Viet Nam [sic]. Bush and Cheney lied about WMD's in Iraq. Now Pence is lying about Iran/Soleimani's supposed involvement in 9/11." [cut] After his Friday tweet, Kerr received criticism for apparently picking and choosing when to speak up about geopolitics. Guy Benson ✔ @guypbenson...

MSNBC star Rachel Maddow was on the defensive Thursday night after multiple reports said the Justice Department investigation into the origins of the Russia inquiry had shifted into a criminal probe. Maddow, who had beeen the face of MSNBC's coverage of the two-year investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, was baffled at the opening of her show Thursday night by the ongoing investigation from U.S. Attorney John Durham, whom Attorney General William Barr had appointed earlier this year. "This is the news that honestly, we've been sort of expecting for some time or thinking that if...

It was the signing of one of the most important pieces of legislation for terminally ill patients in decades, and a little boy wanted to hug President Donald Trump for it. When he noticed, the president gave him three hugs back. It all happened as Trump was about to put his signature upon the “Right to Try” bill, a piece of legislation that allows terminally ill patients to access medications that aren’t yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, shortly after 8:00 a.m. local time, a lone American B-29 was conducting what seemed to be a reconnaissance flight at high altitude over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. At about 16 minutes after 8:00, the aircraft released an object over the centre of town. Attached to parachutes, the object floated down slowly enough to give the four-engine Boeing Superfortress time to turn and lumber out of the airspace. The atom bomb exploded at about 1,900 feet above the centre of Hiroshima. The devastation was cataclysmic. Immediate casualties, dead and injured, numbered approximately 115,000....

Alejandro Monteverde and Eduardo Verastegui have produced and directed another great Catholic and family centered movie. This movie should be watched and enjoyed by all families. Little Boy is a movie about Pepper Flynt Busbee "Little Boy" (Jakob Salvati) who is often harassed and bullied by most of his peers, and which the whole town is soon harassing as well, based on his petite nature. It is only his father, James Busbee (Michael Rapaport) who is his only real companion and friend. James Busbee is however soon drafted to the military to fight in the Second World War, as London...

And I say this not just because I am in the movie. But yes, I am in the movie. Don't blink, though, or you might miss me. I have two speaking lines (I play a soldier in a hospital to visit wounded comrades). I say this because it is a magnificent movie. It opens April 24th in theatres across the country.“Little Boy” comes to us from Metanoia Films, the same people who gave us "Bella" back in 2006. Their very first film project, it, and they, took Hollywood by surprise by winning the Toronto Film Festival. There could have been no better title for what...

Today marks one of the United States’ most important – but least celebrated – anniversaries. It is remarkable not only for what happened on this date in 1945 but for what did not happen subsequently. What did happen was that the “Enola Gay,” an American B-29 bomber from the intentionally obscure 509th Composite Group (a U.S. Army Air Force unit tasked with deploying nuclear weapons), dropped “Little Boy,” a uranium-based atomic bomb, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. That dramatic act hastened the end of World War II, which concluded within a week after the August 9 detonation of “Fat...

On this date in 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb used in combat on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, causing possibly as many as 80,000 deaths, with thousands more later from radiation and other illnesses. While many still debate the morality of the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there is no doubt that, had the Japanese not surrendered following the dropping of the bombs, the Allied invasion of Japan, scheduled to begin on November 1, 1945, would have likely caused millions of casualties on both sides before Japan would have capitulated.

A curious 4-year-old in Monroe, Conn., is going to have to get his doughnuts elsewhere after asking a Doughnut Inn customer the wrong question. Justin Otero's mother says the boy asked the customer if she had a baby in her belly and was told no. "My response was, 'Oh my goodness, I'm so embarrassed, I'm so sorry,'" the mom tells WFSB. But she says that while the customer was forgiving, managers refused to allow her in the store with her son, saying, "'He's not allowed in here, he's rude.'" The mom says she plans to get doughnuts somewhere else with...

VIDEO

An English boy with limited mobility formed a special bond with a three-legged dog nobody else wanted, and now their story is becoming a book. Owen Howkins, 7, suffers from Schwartz-Jampel syndrome, a rare genetic condition that leaves his muscles in a permanent state of tension. Owen's mother learned about Haatchi online. The Italian shepherd had been tied to a railroad track where he was hit, and his tail and one leg had to be amputated. Owen's family adopted the dog, and Haatchi and Owen formed a bond straight away.

I checked out a book from my 'pubik' library titled WEIRD WISCONSIN and lo and behold on page 20 I discovered an old photo of Obama as a little boy. But I can't copy and paste the photo. Check out this link and see if I am right: Click the forward arrow to page 20. http://books.google.com/books?id=mnsGPoAglWgC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Everything I need to know about Barack Obama I learned as a Cub Scout den leader. Last week I watched an American president and a Russian leader sign a START treaty. I almost checked the calendar, wondering if I'd been transported back to 1980. In news stories of the summit I found a link to an article Barack Obama had written in 1983 while at Columbia University titled "Breaking the War Mentality." Back then, Obama was firmly in the nuclear freeze camp. It's true that many of us held views as college students that seem quaint and naïve after two...

During the April 16 debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, moderator George Stephanopoulos brought up “a gentleman named William Ayers,” who “was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and other buildings. He’s never apologized for that.” Stephanopoulos then asked Obama to explain his relationship with Ayers. Obama’s answer: “The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense, George.” Obama was indeed only eight in...

On June 15, 1995, defense attorney Johnnie Cochran goaded assistant prosecutor into asking Simpson to put on a leather glove that was found at the scene of the crime. The prosecution had earlier decided against asking Simpson to try on the gloves because the glove had been soaked in blood, mangled during scientific investigation, and frozen and unfrozen several times. Darden was advised by Clark and other prosecutors not to ask Simpson to try on the glove, but to argue through experts that in better condition, the glove would fit. Instead, Darden decided to have Simpson try on the...

1945 : Japanese sink the USS Indianapolis On this day in 1945, Japanese warships sink the American cruiser Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen in the worst loss in the history of the U.S. navy. As a prelude to a proposed invasion of the Japanese mainland, scheduled for November 1, U.S. forces bombed the Japanese home islands from sea and air, as well as blowing Japanese warships out of the water. The end was near for Imperial Japan, but it was determined to go down fighting. Just before midnight of the 29th, the Indianapolis, an American cruiser that was the flagship of...