Free Republic

The Ghost Ship warehouse/artists’ colony fire makes for a compelling drama. And everyone knows that for a drama, you need villains, especially when a tragedy is as vivid as the horrible deaths of 36 mostly young adult creative explorers.

President Trump can “make America great again” by planning a surprising and easily affordable human exploration mission to the red planet Mars and its two moonlets Phobos and Deimos: PH-D, for short. JFK is remembered by many people mainly for putting Americans on the Moon, but he really just initiated the program. The two moonlets of Mars were discovered in 1877 at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. They are in near-circular, near-equatorial orbits around Mars. Deimos, smaller than the island of Manhattan, orbits at a distance of 6.9 Martian radii; Phobos, about five times larger than Deimos, is...

Yesterday, a student contacted me with a concern that is common among those taking courses in the social sciences and humanities. This particular student is enrolled in an online criminology class taught by a leftist professor. During a discussion of the Black Lives Matter movement, one of the more conservative students in her class used the phrase “all lives matter.” Predictably, the leftist professor objected. But he went even further by repeatedly accusing the student of racism. To make matters worse, the ad hominem attacks were made in front of all the students enrolled in the course. It was...

Jill Stein makes a perfect casting choice for the outlandish reality television series, “Bridezilla.” She possesses all the requisite antisocial behavior of a selfish bride-to-be on a mission to pull off a fantasy dream of her own making. Nothing gets in the way of Ms. Stein being demanding or acting oblivious to the effect she’s having on those caught in the crossfire of her recount campaign. Just ask the good folks in Wisconsin. Like a compulsive bride, Stein wanted everything to be perfect before the big launch and got a little crazy going before the Wisconsin Electoral Commission. She demanded...

n the fall of 1957, the Soviet launch of Sputnik I was a deflating moment for the United States, a blow to national pride amid broad fascination as to when man would send an artificial object into Earth orbit. Months later, the newly formed NASA began winnowing 500 test pilots down to the seven Mercury astronauts, presented to the public in April 1959. The ensuing year brought even more urgent curiosity: which nation would be the first to send a man on that first step toward the stars? In April 1961, another blow. The Soviets beat us again as Yuri...

WACO, TX – On-the-ground sources in west Texas confirm that the United Methodist Church (UMC) is potentially engaged in a massive operation designed to reprogram churches as virtual mosques in preparation for a deluge of Muslim refugees. While President-elect Trump announces plans to defund “sanctuary cities,” churches (especially those with far-left theologies) are declaring their intent to invoke “sanctuary” for the millions already pouring across the border, including Muslim refugees. Some churches are even getting visits from “clergy” urging them to virtually roll over and accept an Islamic future. [RELATED: GELLER REPORT: Sanctuary Cities Showdown: Churches Loom As Thorn To...

Whenever we recall Book VII of Plato's Republic, the "Allegory of the Cave" that many of us studied in college, we remember that the chained population in the cave was always looking at shadows on the wall of the cave and mistakenly believed that those shadows were reality. Shadows of unreality are being reflected today by the policies and practices of many school systems. Vague talk about improving our schools, becoming more competitive globally, and opening doors of opportunity becomes rubrics that express "shadows" of the reality that managers of education are in fact implementing progressive – i.e., totalitarian –...

The Bensalem Police Department is asking for the public's help locating a man accused of theft.    According to police, on Wednesday Kevin Van Allen, 30, of Williamstown, was given a bank deposit bag from his place of work. It was to be deposited in the bank, but Van Allen never made the large deposit. Police reported that he quit his job through an email the next day. 

Highlights, the nationally recognized magazine for kids, has decided to include same-sex families in their magazines. Babies and preschoolers will soon be introduced to homosexuality in the Highlights line of magazines. Sadly, children's publications are no longer off limits, even those designed specifically for toddlers and elementary age children. Highlights had stated previously that they believe parents should decide when to bring up the topic of homosexuality. But after backlash from the LGBT community, Highlights committed to including same-sex families in future publications. Highlights' Christine Cully said, "When we do show families in the magazines, we make it a point...

One of the most poignant scenes in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is when Linus stands on a stage and recites a passage from the Holy Bible describing the Christmas story. "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior which is Christ the Lord. That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown,” Linus said. It really does sum up the true meaning – the true reason for the holiday season – the birth of our Lord. Dedra Shannon, a staffer at Patterson Middle School in Killeen, Texas, was so inspired by the scene she decided...

China Universities Must Become Communist Party 'Strongholds', Says Xi Jinping All teachers must be ‘staunch supporters’ of party governance, says president in what experts called an effort to reassert control By Tom Phillips Friday 9 December 2016. Chinese authorities must intensify ideological controls on academia and turn universities into Communist party “strongholds”, President Xi Jinping has declared in a major address. “Higher education ... must adhere to correct political orientation,” Xi said in a high-profile speech to top party leaders and university chiefs that was delivered at a two-day congress on “ideological and political work” in Beijing. Universities must be...

I have spent the better part of the last 10 years working diligently to investigate and relate information on economics and geopolitical discourse for the liberty movement. However, long before I delved into these subjects my primary interests of study were the human mind and the human “soul” (yes, I’m using a spiritual term). My fascination with economics and sociopolitical events has always been rooted in the human element. That is to say, while economics is often treated as a mathematical and statistical field, it is also driven by psychology. To know the behavior of man is to know the...

A group of leftist activists is plotting to “shut down” the inauguration of Donald Trump on Jan. 20 – forcing the president-elect to take his oath of office “behind closed doors” – “if Trump is to be inaugurated at all.” The group, known as the D.C. Counter-Inaugural Welcoming Committee, or #DisruptJ20, says it calls on “all people of conscience to shut down the ceremonies.” It continues, “If Trump is inaugurated at all, let it happen behind closed doors, showing the world that the vast majority of people in the U.S. do not support his presidency or consent to his rule.”

U.S. government officials say Treasury Secretary Jack Lew could release early images of redesigned $5, $10 and $20 bills in an effort to pressure the Trump Administration away from reversing their plans. . . . ...in the throes of the primary election, Trump called the move “pure political correctness” and suggested moving Tubman to a lower denomination like the $2 bill. “Andrew Jackson had a great history. I think it’s very rough when you take somebody off the bill,” Trump said last spring.

We keep reading in the media that the job market is on fire, that we´re near full employment. But it´s a sad truth that the monthly jobs report doesn´t really reflect what´s going on in our hobbled economy. As everyone knows by now, the jobs data for November show a decline from 4.9% to a 4.6% unemployment rate, as businesses created 178,000 new payroll jobs. What could be better? While we applaud these improvements, they mask deeper problems with the U.S. job market.

Votes in Democrat stronghold may have been counted up to 6 times . . .

Many times we accuse our political opponents of crimes of which we ourselves are equally guilty. Neither the left nor the right has a monopoly on dishonesty, hypocrisy, or hyperbole. But there is at least one unpleasant trait that seems to reside almost exclusively in the hearts of leftists: a puling hysterical weakness in the face of setbacks and defeat. I think President Barack Obama is the worst president of my lifetime: an incompetent ideologue who made the world and the country worse. The economy is not as bad as it was directly after the crash, but it is much,...

On Thanksgiving Day, I stopped by the palatial home of my longtime friend and lawyer, E. Hobart Calhoun, a fellow Mensa member, bon vivant, and part-time oenophile. He was burning leaves in his front yard. I jumped out of my reconditioned hybrid Ford Falcon and raced to stomp out the flames, feverishly checking for any sign of the EPA death squads routinely patrolling our neighborhoods these days. “Have you lost your mind?” I asked E. as I stepped out of my rugged Duluth steel-threaded overalls, which had caught fire in spite of Duluth’s guarantee that they were flammable or inflammable,...

In a new wrinkle in the "black lives matter" movement, an editor of a top-rated legal website is calling on blacks to scare whites by automatically acquitting African-Americans accused of murdering or raping whites, no matter what the facts. On Above The Law, African-American editor Elie Mystal called for "jury nullification" by blacks when on juries in trials that focus on white victims. "Jury nullification would get white people's attention. Remember how pissed-off white people were about O.J.? And that was just one dude. White people would notice if black jurors simply refused to play along," he wrote.

INDIANAPOLIS — Robert James stood outside the Carrier plant just before the president-elect addressed workers at the refrigeration and heating assembly factory. “I feel a great swing of emotions that go from disbelief to satisfaction that this is happening in our community. An area like this can go from a stable middle-class area to foreclosures and urban blight in the blink of an eye,” he said. James would never dream of voting Republican: “For all of my life the Democrats have been the party of the working guy, had my back. But if I am being really honest, and this...