Free Republic

<p>CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - City leaders voted to move a Ten Commandments monument out of a public park after an anti-gay preacher proposed his own monument saying slain college student Matthew Shepard is in hell. The Rev. Fred Phelps said displaying the Ten Commandments monument would force the city to allow other public displays as well, including his own.</p>

The World Boxing Council, an international professional boxing organization, announced Thursday that it intends to create a separate category in which transgender athletes can compete in order to protect the women’s division but accommodate men who have undergone sex changes. Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of the WBC, revealed the plan in an interview with the Telegraph. “It is the time to do this, and we are doing this because of safety and inclusion. We have been the leaders in rules for women’s boxing — so the dangers of a man fighting a woman will never happen because of what we...

The Supremes haven’t begun releasing new decisions yet, but they’re still managing to make news. In this case, it’s not so much what they did as what they opted not to do. A court case out of Nebraska was challenging a law regarding restrictions on protests which interrupt funerals. It takes little imagination to guess that this was aimed directly at Westboro Baptist Church. The church had challenged the law on constitutional grounds but lost their bid in the lower courts. Rather than taking up the task yet again, the Supreme Court declined to hear it and allowed the lower...

Could Jim Leyland be any different from Colin Kaepernick? Last night, Team USA dominated Puerto Rico 8-0 to win the World Baseball Championship for the first time. Leyland, 72, the Hall of Fame-bound manager and baseball lifer who came out of retirement to manage the U.S. team got emotional in a post-game interview.

The stars of American baseball have finally earned their World Baseball Classic stripes. The United States got a brilliant pitching performance from starter and WBC 2017 MVP Marcus Stroman and enough offense from its All-Star-packed lineup of Major League luminaries to beat Puerto Rico, 8-0, in the championship game of the 2017 Classic on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. After three World Baseball Classics dating back to the inaugural tournament in 2006 in which Team USA never made it past the semifinals, the Americans won their first title in decisive style in front of a raucous, bipartisan crowd of 51,565...

Mariners left-hander Drew Smyly started the United States' 4-2 victory against Venezuela on Wednesday night, and he was dominant. The 27-year-old struck out eight and walked none in 4 2/3 innings in the Pool F opener of the World Baseball Classic. The last six outs Smyly recorded were strikeouts before he gave way to Rangers closer Sam Dyson. Smyly's final pitch, a fastball to strike out Carlos Gonzalez, was clocked at 94.4 mph. Smyly had never thrown a pitch that exceeded 93.96 mph (on April 24, 2015) in the Statcast™ era. Smyly gave up one run, but it was unearned....

Throw out all the tiebreaker scenarios. Team USA is moving on. The Americans' mission was clear after the Dominican Republic outlasted Colombia, 9-3, in extra innings: Win and get in to Round 2 of the World Baseball Classic. A focused Team USA squad did just that by defeating Team Canada, 8-0, on Sunday at Marlins Park in Miami to punch its ticket to the second round in San Diego. The victory left the Americans with a 2-1 record in Pool C, good enough to claim a Pool F matchup against the Pool D runner-up Wednesday at 9 pm. ET (6...

Israel’s national baseball team upset Cuba 4-1 in the World Baseball Classic, continuing its unlikely run in the tournament. After falling behind 1-0 in the second inning Sunday, Israel took control of the game, driving in four consecutive runs and holding the heavily favored Cuban team to just five hits. The game was the first of the second round and gave Israel a 4-0 record in the international tournament. Israel was the lowest-ranked team to qualify for the showcase tournament, coming in at 41st in the world. But last week in the first round, the team squeaked past third-ranked South...

Anarchists Plan Mass Disruptions at Trump Inaugueration Thousands of anti-Trump protesters are preparing to descend on the nation's capital for Inauguration Day, setting up a combustible situation opposite the large gatherings of the president-elect's fans... The "Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparation" also will hold a rally and march on Saturday at Freedom Plaza, according to a permit issued by the National Park Service that has allotted space for 600 people... The Westboro Baptist Church has a permit to demonstrate at John Marshall Park located along the parade route on Inauguration Day, the same site where...

Just before gay marriage was legalised in Ireland, JK Rowling tweeted that she was hoping Gandalf and Dumbledore would be able to get married. Now that’s set to become a reality this weekend with LGBTQ rights activist group Planting Peace staging a wedding between the fictional wizards. The nuptials will take place in their rainbow-coloured headquarters opposite the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. The church threatened to picket the wedding if it ever happened....

My parents taught me never to speak ill of the dead, but in the case of Fred Phelps, who died last week at the age of 84, I think they would have made an exception. The man, who will be referred to in this column without the modifier "reverend," because there was nothing reverent about him, defined the word "odious." He and some of his family members constituted the entire membership of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. It was BINO, Baptist in name only. Phelps and some members of his family (though not all) picketed military funerals with...

A Twitter account allegedly run by Westboro Baptist church says that the congregation intends to protest the funerals of the military members killed in Chattanooga earlier this week. The account claims that God sent the shooter to kill the servicemembers and it insinuates that their murders are part of God’s punishment for America moving away from their Biblical standards.From Times Free Press: Claiming that God sent the gunman to the military installations in Chattanooga, Westboro Baptist on Saturday indicated that it planned to protest the funerals of the slain Marines and Sailor.Blaming the killings in part on the acceptance of...

The extremist Westboro Baptist Church won't have to travel far for its next protest. That's because on Sunday afternoon, Planting Peace, "a non-profit organization founded in 2004 for the purpose of spreading peace in a hurting world," plans to hold a wedding between Gandalf and Dumbledore across from the hate group's headquarters in Topeka, Kansas. The marriage of the characters, played by volunteer actors, is a culmination of tweets between a fan of JK Rowling and the author's spat with the anti-gay 'church' on Twitter. Shortly after Ireland voted to legalize same-sex marriage, @justaoifethings tweeted: "@jk_rowling proud to see us...

Three members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested the funeral of Beau Biden, the vice president’s son, on Saturday, according to USA Today. One man was arrested for throwing coffee at the protestors, the report said. The three members of the Topeka, Kansas-based church were seen picketing outside St. Anthony of Padua church in Wilmington, Del. where at least 1,000 people attended a service for Beau Biden.

Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through a popular vote last week, prompting emotional celebrations, outpourings of support and, yes, a little bit of hate. The Westboro Baptist Church already stumbled over an attempted diss of the Irish referendum, mistakenly chastising the Ivory Coast instead. But when they tried to take on J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter author had nothing but ire for the hate-mongers ..."I don't care about WBC. I think it's important that scared gay kids who aren't out yet see hate speech challenged."...

The Westboro Baptist Church says it will picket the memorial service of the late Rev. Robert H. Schuller on April 20. The group often protests American soldiers' funerals, and has staged nearly 55,000 protests. In a press release posted to its website, the group says Schuller, a televangelist and author, "should have been hated." "He called himself a Bible preacher; he should have been hated of the world, not loved; and he should have preached about hell," the release reads. The 88-year-old Schuller died Thursday, having been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2013. He was the host of the "Hour...

TOPEKA, Kan., Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Remember when "God" said he wanted to plaster a pro-tolerance message on a billboard in the back yard of the Westboro Baptist Church? Well, thanks to the donations of more than 3,700 funders, God -- or at least the mysterious person running God's Facebook page -- has raised more than $80,0000 in support of a "God Loves Gays" billboard in Topeka, Kan.

Westboro Baptist Church members say they’ll picket the funeral of killed Missouri teen Michael Brown because of openly gay NFL player Michael Sam, who plays for the St. Louis Rams. A flier posted on the group’s website says that no matter the reason of the shooting for Brown, the “cause was from the Lord.” “Missouri has made itself known worldwide for three things. [Gays] e.g. Michael Sam; bestiality; and shredding the constitution in order to remove the Word of God from their streets,” the leaflet states. “Now you reap what you have to diligently sown, Missouri! Your streets resemble a...

The West Borough Baptist Church nearly made a journey to Iraq to protest against IS, after taking up an offer from comedian Adam Hills to fly the anti-gay hate group to the war torn country.The Australian comic made his pledge on his show The Last Leg, on Channel 4 last Friday after the church vowed to picket the funeral of Robin Williams, who they labelled a ‘fag pimp’.He told members of the controversial church to ‘put your money where your mouth is’ and offered to fly them to Iraq so they could protest against the killing of Christians by Islamic State...

Westboro Baptist Church, the hate group that masquerades as a religious organization, is known for their publicity stunts, but they may have bit off more than they can chew with this one. After a comedian offered to pay for them to fly to Iraq so they can protest real Christian persecution at the hands of Islamic militants, the group tweeted that they have accepted his offer. They want to take their picket signs and head over to a country currently occupied by a group that beheads Christian children without hesitation – this ought to go well. To bring you up...