Free Republic

Scientists studying the ancient ruins of Çatalhöyük, in modern Turkey, found that its inhabitants - 3,500 to 8,000 people at its peak - experienced overcrowding, infectious diseases, violence and environmental problems... Çatalhöyük, in what is now south-central Turkey, was inhabited from about 7100 to 5950 B.C. First excavated in 1958, the site measures 13 hectares (about 32 acres) with nearly 21 meters of deposits spanning 1,150 years of continuous occupation... Çatalhöyük began as a small settlement about 7100 B.C., likely consisting of a few mud-brick houses in what researchers call the Early period. It grew to its peak in the...

Democratic presidential candidate Beto (BET’-oh) O’Rourke is pledging to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and help create a federal health care fund to cover the costs of caring for those who serve in future wars by taxing those who don’t. […] The proposal pledges to improve the Veterans Affairs health care system and provide immigrant veterans a “pathway to citizenship.” …

My old boss Boris Johnson has been fortunate, as Donald Trump was in 2016, in his enemies. Labour and the Liberal Democrats and the various Celtic nationalists are all wasting their time going on about the "racist" and "homophobic" things he's said or written. By "racist", they mean he views the burqa as do the vast majority of those who aren't banged up in one. As for "homophobia", my memory is that during his Spectator days he used to get lunch at a gay sandwich bar called The Butty Boys, which I recall he spoke very highly of. If they're...

As the U.S. piles sanction after sanction on Iran, it’s the average person who feels it the most. From a subway performer’s battered leather hat devoid of tips, to a bride-to-be’s empty purse, the lack of cash from the economic pressure facing Iran’s 80 million people can be seen everywhere. Many blame President Donald Trump and his maximalist policy on Iran, which has seen him pull out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and levy punishing U.S. sanctions on the country. In recent weeks, Iran has threatened to break out of the deal unless European powers mitigate what...

U.S. casino operator Eldorado Resorts Opens a New Window. has agreed to buy Caesars Entertainment Opens a New Window. in a $17.3 billion cash-and-stock deal, including debt, the companies said on Monday. Eldorado will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Caesars for a total value of $12.75 per share, consisting of $8.40 per share in cash consideration and 0.0899 shares of Eldorado common stock for each Caesars share of common stock.

The celebration of Highmore's 50th annual Settler's Day was a success. "It's just a wonderful time to get together and come back home," said Vikki Day, the Mayor of Highmore. But one parade float did get people talking. "I had to think about it with the mask of Obama, coming out as racist," said Jeff Damer, the creator of the controversial float. The float portrays former President Barack Obama in a cage with Hillary Clinton, while current President Donald Trump stands on the outside. "I just wanted to put it out there, it was just my view that I feel...

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Dozens of official documents suggest that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was living with her current husband, Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi, throughout her entire legal marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, contradicting the story she tells to explain her multiple marriages. Omar tells her marital history in the following way: <><> 2002: Omar married Hirsi in a Muslim faith ceremony, but never legally married. <><> 2008: Omar and Hirsi “decided to end our relationship in our faith tradition. ” <><> Early 2009: Omar legally married Elmi. <><> 2011: Omar and Elmi religiously divorced. <><> 2011: Omar and Hirsi reconciled....

A trove of vetting documents leaked to the news organization Axios on HBO shows “red flags” the administration uncovered as President Trump put together his cabinet and the top levels of government following his shocking White House win and his decision to fire transition director Chris Christie. With Christie’s departure, much of the vetting of candidates was left up to “20-something [Republican National Committee] staffers,” according to Axios’ Jonathan Swan. The documents show what aides worried would be problematic. For instance, both Mick Mulvaney, now the acting White House chief of staff, and former Defense Secretary James Mattis got dinged...

"Mr. Undersander did not break the law, he simply abided by the rules that were in place, so he didn't defraud anybody," said Rep. Mike Conaway, Republican from Texas. "He intentionally defrauded the federal government," McGovern shot back. "That is, in my opinion, breaking the law."

The Hillary Follies continue. For Democrats and the left (but I repeat myself), reality for them has always been a construction that they feed to you through media. The desperate effort by Hillary Clinton and her supporters to keep her relevant through simple exposure in the media continues apace. But if being a celebrity is what makes a person important and valuable, then Mrs. Clinton might want to worry about O.J. Simpson’s rising Twitter star knocking her off her perch. The latest news from the Hillary entertainment front is the sad failure of the “Hillary and Clinton” Broadway play. Maybe...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Old Testament) 1 Kings 16 Omri King of Israel 21 Then the people of Israel were split into two factions; half supported Tibni son of Ginath for king, and the other half supported Omri. 22 But Omri’s followers proved stronger than those of Tibni son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri became king. 23 In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah. 24 He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents[a] of silver and built a city...

For Swingin' Monday we have Pee Wee King & His Golden West Cowboys - Ragtime Annie Lee. Recorded at RCA studio A in Chicago on Nov. 4, 1951. That's Redd Stewart on fiddle and vocals, Shorty Boyd on fiddle and Gene Engle on piano. The Westerner www.thewesterner.blogspot.com

Rep. Ilhan Omar swore under oath in a 2017 divorce filing that she hadn’t seen her husband Ahmed N. Elmi in six years and didn’t know anyone who might be able to locate him — yet he appears to have designed a website for Omar’s sister this year, according to data hidden in the source code of that website. The Democratic Minnesota congresswoman swore that she had not been able to locate the man she married — who the Minneapolis Star Tribune says may or may not be her brother — since 2011. She swore she didn’t know the names...

The latest attempt to tame the healthcare beast is a surprisingly bipartisan effort coming out of the Senate. The Lower Healthcare Costs Act of 2019, introduced by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) would attempt to solve a problem that has attracted considerable attention recently- surprise medical billing. Surprise medical billing occurs when a patient who has insurance, receives a bill from a doctor after expecting the services they received to be covered and paid for by insurance. This troubling situation mostly occurs in an emergency situation and fortunately does not occur very often. However, when it does,...

During the June 21 edition of the “Freedom Friday” radio show, former Maricopa County, AZ “Cold Case Posse” leader Mike Zullo reminded host Carl Gallups’s audience that former Special Counsel/former FBI Director Robert Mueller “defended” the NSA’s widespread, warrantless surveillance of American citizens in June 2013, the same month former CIA contractor Edward Snowden publicly revealed the depth and breadth of the NSA’s capabilities. Friday’s hour-long interview touched on numerous topics, including the “Mueller report” on alleged “collusion” between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Kremlin; government spying; Facebook’s censoring of the “Freedom Friday” show; sinister computer intrusions, including those...

We are warned not to allow ourselves to become hardened, because if we look at the whole concept of hardening in its biblical perspective, we see that something happens to us through repeated sins. Our consciences become seared. The more we commit a particular sin, the less remorse we feel from it. Our hearts are recalcitrant through repeated disobedience. When God hardens the heart, all He does is step away and stop striving with us. For example, the first time I commit a particular sin, my conscience bothers me. In His grace, God is convicting me of that evil. God...

Yes, the world has officially gone mad. First YouTube and Facebook imposed their “standards” for group-think. Then the role-playing gaming site RPG.net joined the community opposed to free speech with this announcement: We are banning support of the administration of President Trump. You can still post on RPG.net even if you do in fact support the administration — you just can't talk about it here. Most generous of them to at least let you think things you are not allowed to speak of. So they haven’t yet gone full 1984.Then, as noted here yesterday, Ravelry, a crafting website community of...

“A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength” (Proverbs 24:5).

If you were hunting waterfowl with a bow how well would you do? Would you need superior skills like Robin Hood. Ever wonder or did you have to retrieve your arrow after you missed that duck. Chances are you lost that arrow. In the early days of yesterday, the native American Indian (Klamath, Modoc tribe) hunted waterfowl with a skipping arrow. Just like tossing those thin stones where it skips across the water. These native indians did it with an arrow. If you missed the shot, the arrow can still be retrieved since it floats. One of the tactics that...

It’s been extremely common for news accounts to portray Donald Trump’s candidacy as a “working-class” rebellion against Republican elites.… But the definition of “working class” and similar terms is fuzzy, and narratives like these risk obscuring an important and perhaps counterintuitive fact about Trump’s voters: As compared with most Americans, Trump’s voters are better off. The median household income of a Trump voter so far in the primaries is about $72,000. Normally, even a candidate as politically inept as Hillary Clinton wouldn’t be dumb enough to publicly insult the customers, but the polls and the projections of all the experts...