Free Republic

(LifeSiteNews) –– As I have reported many times in this space, the LGBT movement is successfully taking over classic and beloved children’s entertainment franchises, one by one (and, as I detailed in a recent essay for The American Conservative, producing many potent propaganda stories of their own in nearly every genre of film and TV). I have tracked these capitulations closely, because many parents allow their children to watch the same cartoons and familiar characters they watched when they were young – and because they are not generally watching, say, Peppa Pig with their children, they are usually unaware of...

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A tiny Nevada toad at the center of a legal battle over a geothermal power project has officially been declared an endangered species after U.S. wildlife officials temporarily listed it on a rarely-used emergency basis last spring. “This ruling makes final the listing of the Dixie Valley toad,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a formal rule published Friday in the Federal Register. Environmentalists who first petitioned for the listing in 2017 filed a lawsuit in January to block construction of the geothermal power plant on the edge of the wetlands where the toad...

RENO, Nev. (AP) — In a rare emergency move, the U.S government temporarily declared a northern Nevada toad endangered Monday, saying a geothermal power plant in the works could result in its extinction. The Fish and Wildlife Service announced it is formally proposing a rule to list the Dixie Valley toad as an endangered species subject to 60 days of public comment under the Endangered Species Act’s normal rulemaking process. But it said the emergency listing goes into effect immediately and will continue for eight months while more permanent protections are considered for the toad at the only place it...

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A federal appeals court has lifted a temporary ban on construction of a Nevada geothermal power plant opposed by a tribe and conservationists who say the site is sacred and home to a rare toad being considered for endangered species protection. U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones in Reno had granted the 90-day injunction last month sought by opponents of Ormat Technologies’ Dixie Meadows project at the high-desert site bordering wetlands fed by hot springs east of Fallon. A two-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a one-page ruling...

Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton declared on Tuesday that “we are boiling” and in the midst of a “Constitutional crisis” even though Joe Biden is president. “It’s like the frog dropped into the water. We are boiling. But there’s still time to hop out of the pot,” Clinton wrote on Tuesday, referencing her extensive September 30 interview with the far-left Atlantic:

Hillary Clinton began a Labor Day rally in Cleveland with a bad cough — which she blamed on her opponent, Donald Trump. “Every time I think about Trump, I get allergic,” Clinton said after some sustained hacking. “Boy, we have 63 days to go,” Clinton croaked, before coughing some more.

div class="article_body"> The case for Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan recusing herself from voting on the upcoming decision regarding Obamacare would seem to be an open and shut one. Emails show that she harbored definite opinions about the law while serving as Obama's solicitor general.The Examiner: At her confirmation hearing in 2010, now-Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan that she "was not" asked at any time to give her opinion on the merits of the Obamacare legislaton. Newly released emails suggest that whether or not she was asked, Kagan was not shy about her enthusiasm for the bill that eventually...

Andrew Breitbart, famous for using the Internet to take down former Congressman Anthony Weiner and liberal organizations like ACORN, has Michael Moore in his crosshairs, metaphorically speaking. Breitbart, seizing on Moore’s embrace of Occupy Wall Street and his denial that he’s among the richest 1 percent of Americans, has posted five photos of Moore’s lavish vacation home on Lake Torch in Michigan. he blogger-provocateur also included a copy of the Antrim County property tax assessment, though with the address redacted, and apparently Moore’s “summer tax amount” owed on the property is $15,849. “No one begrudges Moore his wealth, but it...

Apparently the U.S. Army finally came to its senses. The project of erecting a horrendously eyeball-maiming statue of a 10-foot fairy riding on a giant gurgling toad at a bus depot at a military facility has been scrapped. Thankfully. Not only is this a piece of “art” that likely would likely induce screaming nightmares in small children, but the $600,000 pricetag should have told the Army it was a very bad idea in the first place. As announced yesterday by U.S. New and World Reports, The Army, under public and congressional attack for a $600,000 plan to dress up a...

Habitat protection for the endangered arroyo toad, which lives along slow-moving pools and sandy streams in Southern California, would cost $789 million over 25 years, according to a new analysis by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Most of the costs are expected to occur in new development, primarily in San Diego County, the study shows. The analysis also considered losses from grazing, mining, road construction and utility projects, and possible prices increases for water customers. The financial study was required as part of the agency's proposed designation of 112,765 acres as critical habitat for the small, buff-colored toad with...

People in the Australian state of Queensland have taken part in a mass capture of poisonous cane toads as part of a collective effort at pest control. The celebratory cull is known as Toad Day Out and was advocated by a Queensland politician, Shane Knuth. The toads have to be captured alive and unharmed, examined by experts, and then killed humanely under the event rules.

WASHINGTON (Feb. 18) - A frog the size of a bowling ball, with heavy armor and teeth, lived among dinosaurs millions of years ago - intimidating enough that scientists who unearthed its fossils dubbed the beast Beelzebufo, or Devil Toad. But its size - 10 pounds and 16 inches long - isn't the only curiosity. Researchers discovered the creature's bones in Madagascar. Yet it seems to be a close relative of normal-sized frogs who today live half a world away in South America, challenging assumptions about ancient geography. The discovery, led by paleontologist David Krause at New York's Stony Brook...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Law enforcement authorities have discovered that people are willing to go to great lengths to get high, including a troubling new method that features a frightened toad. "Toad smoking," which is a substitute for "toad licking," is done by extracting venom from the Sonoran Desert toad of the Colorado River. The toad's venom — which is secreted when the toad gets angry or scared — contains a hallucinogen called bufotenine that can be dried and smoked to produce a buzz. In October, a Kansas City man was charged with possessing a controlled substance after Clay County...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A 21-year-old man has been accused of using a toad to get high. Clay County sheriff's deputies said David Theiss, of Kansas City, possessed a Colorado River toad with the intention of using it as a hallucinogenic. Experts said it's possible to lick the toad's venom glands to achieve psychedelic effects. Most pet stores don't sell the Colorado River toad because the venom can sicken humans and kill household animals. "People used to do it all the time, but it got faded out awhile, but came back as a fad. Not a smart one," animal expert...

Toad found deep down in Loch Ness US researchers carrying out a sonar survey of Loch Ness have been amazed to find a common toad crawling in the mud 324ft (98m) down. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been attempting to unravel the mysteries of the loch. However, MIT said it did not expect to come across the amphibian so far down. Bob Rines, a lecturer at MIT, will tell the Oceans 07 engineering conference in Aberdeen about the toad and the survey next month. Conference chairman Professor John Watson, of the University of Aberdeen, said: "They were surprised...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A huge cane toad the size of a small dog has been captured in the Australian tropical city of Darwin, startling environmentalists who are fighting to stop the poisonous reptiles from spread across the country. "It's a monster toad," said Paul Cowdy from FrogWatch which captured the cane toad on Monday night. "We've never seen a cane toad this big," he said on Tuesday. "It's a male and normally females are bigger." The cane toad, regarded as a major pest in Australia, was one of 39 caught by a group from FrogWatch near Lee Point in Darwin....

It sounds like something straight out of a video game: A snake collects toxin by biting a poisonous toad and uses that venom as a defense against hawks and other predators. But that is exactly what researchers say the Asian snake Rhabdophis tigrinus does, based on studies of glandular fluid from hatchlings and adult snakes on two Japanese islands. Some R. tigrinus snakes carry toxins called bufadienolides in their nuchal glands, sacks located under a ridge of skin along their upper necks. When threatened, they arch their necks, exposing the poisonous ridge to an antagonist. The clawing and biting of...

<p>FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: 'At least I tried. That's the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed'...</p>

Theory that U.S. orchestrated Sept. 11 attacks 'not absurd': Venezuela CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that it's at least plausible that the U.S. government was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. Chavez did not specifically accuse the U.S. government of having a hand in the Sept. 11 attacks, but rather suggested that theories of U.S. involvement bear examination. The Venezuelan leader, an outspoken critic of U.S. President George W. Bush, was reacting to a television report investigating a theory that the Twin Towers were brought down with explosives after hijacked airplanes crashed into them in 2001....

Remember back in 200 when George W. Bush was running for President? Even if you didn't support him, you were somewhat anticipating a Presidency with this amusing guy who didn't know the names of foreign leaders and who spoke with the eloquence of a second greater. Remember how after he was elected,Comedy Central even saw his Presidency as being whimsical enough to create a show, "That's my Bush." It was a laugh a minute back in those Bush salad days. Now we have quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan, a budding world war centered around Israel, $3 a gallon gas, $85...