Free Republic

San Francisco has become a “desolate” city over the past year, as the coronavirus pandemic forced people to work from home — and companies learned to embrace it. A few years ago, as Breitbart News reported in 2016, San Francisco was so crowded with workers, and so expensive to live in, that people would commute from hours away each day to reach the city.

Speaking at an event in New York City last week, Hillary Clinton said something interesting about Democrats today and their lurch to the left. Clinton said being a capitalist “probably” hurt her when campaigning against democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2016. Think about that. Part of the reason so many Republicans are frozen like a deer in headlights when it comes to President Trump is the horror of thinking about Clinton as president. It is stunning to realize how in today’s Democratic Party, being a capitalist is something one must either apologize for or at least give qualified...

Cardinal Schönborn: At Synod, Church should embrace ‘positive elements’ of gay unions and other sexual sins The Church should not look in the bedroom first, but in the dining room!” explained Cardinal Christoph Schönborn in a lengthy interview last week with the Italian Jesuit journal, La Civiltà Cattolica, using a mantra sure to be repeated at the upcoming October Synod on the Family. In the interview, Schönborn, the archbishop of Vienna, identifies himself as the intellectual architect of so-called “lifestyle ecumenism,” described in the controversial interim report at last year’s Synod on the Family with the approval of Pope Francis,...

Nine months after opening, the Cuddle Connection is now in a different location and the client list is in the hundreds. Kelly Peterson is proving the human touch is powerful, even if it comes from a stranger. “It’s been an amazing journey,” she said. Peterson is a professional cuddler, and since her business opened in Roseville in March, there has been no shortage of clients looking for a cuddle. “It continues to grow the phone is ringing with new client requests everyday,” she said. She says many of her clients keep coming back for a warm embrace, and even travel...

Does anyone know what in the heck this photo is on the Drudge Report.....or where it originated? It's just weird.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States must look past the violence and extremism that has erupted after the "Arab Spring" revolutions and boost support for the region's young democracies to forge long-term security, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday. Clinton, seeking to reinforce the Obama administration's Middle East policy following a wave of anti-American violence and last month's deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, said Washington cannot be deterred by "the violent acts of a small number of extremists." "We recognize that these transitions are not America's to manage, and certainly not ours to win...

Pelosi Fires Back at Gingrich By Nell Henderson House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi fired back at fellow former Speaker Newt Gingrich Sunday morning for his disavowal of a TV ad calling for action on climate change that the pair filmed together. Mr. Gingrich, chasing the Republican presidential nomination, has called the 2008 ad “probably the dumbest single thing I’ve done in recent years.” Ms. Pelosi, of California, asked about the comments on CNN’s State of the Union, had a tart riposte: “He has been fined $300,000 dollars by the ethics committee, you’d think he’d consider that a big mistake.” CNN...

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said today on Laura Ingraham's radio show that the debt-limit deal struck by President Barack Obama and congressional leaders is “like saying we embrace being Greece.” Bachmann preferred the bill she co-sponsored with Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) that would pay the interest on the debt, cut checks for military personnel and then prioritize federal spending. “My opinion is we’re going to now give the president almost a trillion dollars and then come Christmas time, he’ll get potentially--we’ll find it what the final numbers were--potentially upwards...

British Muslims must subscribe to mainstream values of freedom and equality, David Cameron will say as he declares that the doctrine of multiculturalism has “failed” and will be abandoned. Entering the debate on national identity and religious tolerance, the Prime Minister will declare an end to “passive tolerance” of divided communities, and say that members of all faiths must integrate into wider society and accept core values. To be British is to believe in freedom of speech and religion, democracy and equal rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality, he will say. Proclaiming a doctrine of “muscular liberalism”, he will...

The tax rate extension, Obama celebrating it, Chris Matthews getting two tingles up his leg over Obama's smile at the signing ceremony. I saw a picture of Obama at the signing ceremony. He did not look particularly happy. It was a still shot. He looked rather bored. Joe Bite Me, the vice president, said that not extending the Bush tax rates would have caused a double-dip recession, but he's morally troubled by having to do it. I don't know. I think the Christmas parties have started early and they're still going on. Wait 'til you hear this. It was on...

WASHINGTON – All signs point to huge Republican victories in two weeks, with the GOP now leading Democrats on virtually every measure in an Associated Press-GfK poll of people likely to vote in the first major elections of Barack Obama's presidency. In the final survey before Election Day, likely voters say the GOP would do a better job than Democrats on handling the economy, creating jobs and running the government. Most also think the country's headed in the wrong direction. More than half disapprove of Obama's job performance. And even more don't like the Democratic-controlled Congress. Neither party is popular....

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Dec. 8, 2009 – A previous fear of the Taliban would have kept the people of Amir Agha hidden in their compounds as Marines patrolled through their fields and town, but their willingness to talk has increased with a growing sense of security. Marine Corps Sgt. Stephen G. Patten talks to a villager during a patrol through the fields and town of Amir Agha in Garmsir, Afghanistan, Dec. 2, 2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Dwight Henderson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "We want to help you. We need to talk to you. It...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2007 – Troops in Iraq know too well how quickly life can take a wrong turn. An outpouring of goodwill and support from the public is helping one wounded soldier and his wife cope with a tragic loss. For Army Spc. John A. Johnson, the fifth improvised-explosive-device blast he experienced in Iraq, in August, was the one that caused traumatic brain injury that landed him at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for treatment. Two months later, when he was being discharged, his wife and three children left El Paso and headed east to meet him....

Tuesday is September 11th. Tuesday, lets everyone go and run with the flag, walk with the flag, drive, wear it and show the world that our answer to Osama is.... LETSROLL U S A. Embrace THAT! Let the World see that America Reacts. Let them see HOW. Mr. President, Lead US in our Response. Run to the Iwo Jima Memorial with a big ole Red White and Blue OLD GLORY flying in the wind. Run by the Pentagon. To the Washington Monument. To the Jefferson and the Lincoln too. I'll do my share, 11 miles with the flag here in...

Tomahawk Troops Embrace Pocket-Size Memories Soldiers keep pieces of metal which wounded them during their deployment to Iraq. By Spc. Jeffrey Ledesma 1st Cavalry Division, Multi-National Division, Baghdad BAGHDAD, April 17, 2007 — One undeniable commonality in every battle fought is the memories of war that burn into the minds of the soldiers who fight in it and the small pieces that remind them to never forget. Three infantrymen with Company C, 1st "Tomahawk" Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, experienced three different attacks, on three separate occasions and each came away with...

ROME, Italy (AP) -- It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love. Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua. The site is just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of "Romeo and Juliet." Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig. (Watch archaeologists uncover the embracing...

Call it the eternal embrace.Archaeologists in Italy have discovered a couple buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, hugging each other."It's an extraordinary case," said Elena Menotti, who led the team on their dig near the northern city of Mantova."There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging -- and they really are hugging."Menotti said she believed the two, almost certainly a man and a woman although that needs to be confirmed, died young because their teeth were mostly intact and not worn down."I must say that when we discovered it, we all...

AL ASAD, Iraq, Aug. 25, 2006 -- When two sisters from Jefferson, Ga., walked into a Marine Corps recruiting station and decided to join, they had no idea the entire experience of a four-year enlistment would be spent together. Cpls. Leenorta and Renorta Washington are electrical equipment repair specialists with the Utilities Platoon of Marine Wing Support Squadron 274, Marine Wing Support Group 37 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, and have not been separated once since leaving home for recruit training. “We joined the Delayed Entry Program on the same day,” said Renorta. “We worked to get into the...

In California, Fox Gets Warm Embrace and a Cold ShoulderBy JOHN M. BRODER Published: May 26, 2006 SACRAMENTO, May 25 — In an echo of the debate on immigration under way in Washington, the California Legislature gave visiting President Vicente Fox of Mexico a two-edged welcome on Thursday. Democratic and Latino members, including the Assembly speaker, Fabian Núñez, embraced Mr. Fox, while some Republicans boycotted his evening address to a joint session of the Legislature. Other Republicans attended the speech, but wore yellow buttons reading "No más!" to protest Mr. Fox's support for liberalizing American policies on immigration. In his...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2005 – A Missouri-based nonprofit organization uses the power of teddy bears to comfort young military family members with one or both parents deployed in the war against global terrorism. Little Patriots Embraced Inc. was incorporated in 2004 "to show support from the American people to the immediate family members of military personnel," according to the organization's Web site. The group solicits donations from individuals and corporate sponsors to buy and assemble gift packages, including teddy bears, that are distributed to service families at military bases, said Michelle Williams, president of Little Patriots Embraced for about a...