Free Republic

For 181 years, the U.S. House of Representatives has imposed a ban on its members wearing head coverings. With Ilhan Omar, one of the first Muslim women to be elected to Congress, set to take her oath of office in January, that rule—which would have prohibited her wearing her customary headscarves or the hijab—is slated to change. The change was proposed jointly by Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Incoming Rules Chairman Jim McGovern and member-elect Ilhan Omar as part of a larger overhaul package. When Omar is sworn in next year, she will become the first federal legislator to wear a...

The G-20 summit in Argentina was supposed to be part of the carefully choreographed diplomatic dance between two of the world’s most powerful leaders. Instead, Russia’s aggressive action against Ukraine prompted President Donald Trump to cancel a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, leaving Putin filling his summit dance card with other partners, Newsmax reported. Putin met instead with Turkish President Recip Erdogan, who used the time to try to convince Putin to hold a summit on the situation in Syria’s Idlib province, where Russia-based Syrian forces are slowly squeezing the last pockets of resistance, Reuters reported. Putin also...

A conservative watchdog group announced Friday it had filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Justice Department seeking communications records that relate the FBI's investigation into whether Hillary and Bill Clinton's charity organization participated in pay-to-play schemes or other improper behavior with the U.S. government. The latest lawsuit by Judicial Watch related to the Clintons, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the FBI denied their FOIA request and appeal this fall, targets the offices of prominent Obama-era officials, including former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former FBI Director James Comey, and former FBI...

Friends it's Sunday night again and time to relax. Warm up the tubes for another 4 hours of classic radio Americana. Listen Live Info *tonight's show will be available at the "Info" link starting tomorrow. Official OTR Blog of "The Big Broadcast" thread: http://kallmansalley.com/

We knew (or at least feared) that this was coming, but Friday saw the finalization of the new biofuels – specifically ethanol – blending requirements for 2019 and 2020. And true to the promises that President Trump made to Iowa politicians, we did not see any significant reductions in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates. In fact, they went up, much the same as under Obama’s EPA. (EPA website)

Unwilling to wait weeks in Mexico to press their asylum claims, a group of 30 caravan members, with a BuzzFeed News reporter in tow, search for a way to skirt the border barriers. Javier Piñeda and his sleeping 10-year-old son huddled in the dirt with a group of Central Americans from the caravan, who were eyeing their latest obstacle: the US border fence and the agents who patrol it. Piñeda was one of about 30 people who'd walked two hours to get here. They'd been kicked out of the sports complex where they'd been housed since arriving in Tijuana about...

Our 41st president was the most honorable, decent and capable of gentlemen—as close to the ideal of the office as anyone in our lifetimes. If you’re looking for a role model, I told my children when they were growing up, start with George Bush.

Winning: As the usual suspects pick apart the high-profile meeting between POTUS Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aries on Saturday, there were definitely some positive things — for both countries — that came out of it. Already Western pundits and commentators are downplaying what was discussed and, more importantly, what was agreed upon as little more than a reprieve: In exchange for POTUS holding off imposing 25-percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods come January 1, Beijing agreed to immediately begin “not yet agreed upon, but very substantial” amount of...

Keynote Address with the U.S. Secretary of Defense, The Honorable James N. Mattis. Moderated by Bret Baier, Fox News

The English idiom "highbrow," derived from a physical description of a skull barely able to contain the brain inside of it, comes from a long-held belief in the existence of a link between brain size and intelligence. For more than 200 years, scientists have looked for such an association. Begun using rough measures, such as estimated skull volume or head circumference, the investigation became more sophisticated in the last few decades when MRIs offered a highly accurate accounting of brain volume.Yet the connection has remained hazy and fraught, with many studies failing to account for confounding variables, such as height...

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump joined the chorus of voices praising former President George H. W. Bush for his lifetime of service following the 41st president's death Friday night. Bush passed away in his home in Houston. Statement from President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on the Passing of Former President George H.W. Bush pic.twitter.com/qxPsp4Ggs7— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 1, 2018 Trump has also ordered the flags in Washington at half-staff for 30 days and he has moved the date of a press conference with Argentina out of respect for the Bush family....

Can I Learn Two Languages at the Same Time? In short, yes, it is possible to learn two languages simultaneously. Our brains are frequently required to learn similar topics at the same time. In fact, all educational curriculum count on the fact that you should be able to process and filter information from multiple categories concurrently. Even in other situations, our brains are primed to adjust to new tasks as needed on a regular basis. Motivation matters– especially when attempting to learn two languages at once. If your only goal in studying two languages at the same time is to...

I just channel surfed into this game on ESPN 1. These kids are remarkably good and very entertaining.

The city government of Tijuana announced that it has closed a migrant shelter at a sports complex close to the U.S. border that once held about 6,000 Central Americans ... the migrants were being moved to a former concert venue farther from the border....the sports complex shelter was closed because of unsanitary conditions. Experts had expressed concerns about unsanitary conditions that had developed at the partly flooded sports complex, where the migrants had been packed into a space adequate for half their numbers. Mud, lice infestations and respiratory infections were rampant. Farther from the border ... the new shelter about...

This week on The David Rubenstein Show, retired Justice Kennedy finally admitted the real reason behind his Obergefell ruling, the 2015 Supreme Court decision that created a novel definition of marriage to give legal status to same-sex couples. Kennedy said, “It seemed to me just wrong that under the Constitution, over 100,000 adopted children of gay parents could not have their parents married. I just thought this was wrong.” Well, now we know. The justice’s reasoning had nothing to do with Constitutional principles. He had an emotional reaction and in his hubris he imposed his private feelings on the nation....

Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California announced on Saturday that she will make a decision about whether she will launch a presidential bid in 2020 by the end of this year. “It’s a very serious decision,” Harris told “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski during an onstage conversation at the Know Your Value conference in San Francisco. “Over the holiday, I will make that decision with my family.” Harris, whose husband joined her in the audience, said she is keenly aware of the challenges a barrier-breaking campaign will entail. “Let’s be honest. It’s going to be ugly,” Harris said. “When you...

FULL TITLE: Transgender teen posts video of the moment school staff use a yardstick to open the girl's bathroom stall on her to kick her OUT, but the principal insists the situation is being 'misrepresented' A transgender teen has posted videos of school administrators forcing open the door of a bathroom stall while she sits inside - but the principal insists that the video 'misrepresents' the situation. The student shot the videos on Wednesday at Osseo Senior High in Minnesota, accusing school officials of 'violating' her while she uses the bathroom. The video shows the student sitting on a toilet...

A simple molecule in the atmosphere that acts as a "detergent" to breakdown methane and other greenhouse gases has been found to recycle itself to maintain a steady global presence in the face of rising emissions, according to new NASA research. Understanding its role in the atmosphere is critical for determining the lifetime of methane, a powerful contributor to climate change. The hydroxyl (OH) radical, a molecule made up of one hydrogen atom, one oxygen atom with a free (or unpaired) electron is one of the most reactive gases in the atmosphere and regularly breaks down other gases, effectively ending...

In one of his first acts in office, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has signed an agreement with his counterparts from three Central American countries to establish a development plan to stem the flow of migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. The Foreign Ministry said Saturday that the plan includes a fund to generate jobs in the region and aims to attack the structural causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Former FBI Director James Comey withdrew his legal challenge to a subpoena from the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee for him to testify next week behind closed doors. In a reversal, Comey indicated he reached an agreement with House Republicans in a tweet Sunday — one day before a judge was set to rule on his effort to block the subpoena as Comey hoped to convince lawmakers to allow a public hearing instead. “Grateful for a fair hearing from judge. Hard to protect my rights without being in contempt, which I don’t believe in. So will sit in the dark, but...