Free Republic

I was taken by surprise last month while holidaying in Biarritz. As I splashed through the surf towards the beach I passed a woman paddling. She was topless and it struck me that this was a sight you don’t often see any more in France. I first came to France on summer holiday as a young boy and recall asking my mother, who is of Scottish presbyterian stock, why Frenchwomen didn’t wear bikini tops. She replied from behind her sturdy one-piece swimming suit that it ‘was just the French way’ Not any more. In 1984, a survey found that 43...

The Lexington County coroner identified a woman who was killed on Interstate 20 after a semi-truck ran over her. Maliyah Smith, a 19-year-old from East Point, Georgia, was pronounced dead at the hospital after she reportedly ran into the east bound lane of I-20 and tried to jump onto a moving semi-truck, Lexington Coroner Margaret Fisher said. Smith fell under the trailer and was run over. The incident happened about 11 a.m. Wednesday after Smith stole a series of cars and wrecked one of them on the interstate, according to police. Smith stole a car from Georgia and broke down...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his administration was seriously looking at ending the right of citizenship for U.S.-born children of noncitizens and people who immigrated to the United States illegally. “We’re looking at that very seriously, birthright citizenship, where you have a baby on our land, you walk over the border, have a baby - congratulations, the baby is now a U.S. citizen. ... It’s frankly ridiculous,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. Trump has made cracking down on immigration a central plank of his presidency and re-election campaign, but many of the...

Hey, any of you NFL owners out there interested in entrusting your team's fortunes this season to a man leading a Black Panther-inspired movement and a fight for black liberation in his spare time? Yes, it's Colin Kaepernick, who came out swinging at police, system oppression and the NFL again today, practically taking over The Paper, a publication featuring commie radical Angela Davis, Kaepernick's kneeling sidekick Eric Reid, and Victoria Secret's first trans model. While serious pro quarterbacks are devoting themselves to the upcoming 2019 NFL season, Kaepernick (seen in file photo explaining his protest in 2016) lashed out with...

On Tuesday, journalists on all three network morning shows joined liberal celebrities in rushing to defend Prince Harry and Meghan Markle against accusations of hypocrisy after the supposedly environmentally-conscious royal couple took two different trips on private jets within a week. Reporters on CBS, NBC, and ABC touted other wealthy elites like Elton John and Ellen DeGeneres scolding critics for daring to question the royals’ controversial travel habits. “Elton John coming to the defense of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. This after news broke about the royal couple’s recent vacation to Nice, France. Headlines focused on their use of a...

Doc: Dem frontrunner definitely doesn't have brain damage Something is happening behind the scenes within the Democratic Party. Former Vice President Joe Biden remains the prohibitive favorite to win the nomination, even as he continues to commit word gaffes with his mouth. Many still consider Biden to be the most "electable" candidate, but some Democrats, including some of his own aides and supporters, are beginning to express doubts about the 76-year-old's intellectual capacity. It would appear that the Democratic establishment, in its desperation to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the nomination, is keen to develop a contingency plan in case...

Sanders, who is making his second straight bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, vowed “that war will come to an end when I am president. If we are serious about rebuilding the middle class in America, we have got to rebuild, strengthen and expand the trade union movement in America.” Sanders said if elected, he would aim to double union membership by the end of his first term in the White House in January 2025. His plan also calls for ending so-called "right to work" laws favored by Republicans and decried by organized labor for weakening a union’s ability to...

This is a crucial question and one that tends to make many uncomfortable, but it is legitimate: should everyone from outside the Western world be permitted entry to the West as an immigrant? Is there no point where such nations may be allowed to say no to any particular group, regardless of where they come from? With the advent of loosened immigration policies throughout the Western world over the last half-century and the growing push for multiculturalism within them, the mantra "diversity is our strength" has ushered in a mentality that effectively says all people, from all over the world,...

The Republican National Committee has published its fundraising numbers for July 2019 and once again they've completely destroyed the Democratic National Committee on totals. "In July, the RNC continued to see record enthusiasm for President Trump’s agenda and Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is leading the charge: Since 2018, major donors have increased from 33% to roughly 45% of total fundraising. This past month was our best off-cycle July in party history," the RNC released Wednesday. "We brought in $20.8 million in receipts in July (nearly 3 times that of the DNC). Cycle to date, the RNC has brought in $117.9 million....

Liam Hemsworth has filed for divorce from wife Miley Cyrus, 11 days after the couple announced their separation after just seven months of marriage. The 29-year-old Hunger Games star cited 'irreconcilable differences' in paperwork he filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles. The couple had a prenup so their individual earnings during the marriage will remain separate and there is no request for spousal support. As the duo don't have children together the divorce should be finalized fairly swiftly.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib's (D-MI) profanity-laced start to her congressional career continued on Twitter on Tuesday. But instead of swearing at President Trump, this time she cursed at the Detroit Police Department. In her trite message, she told the police to get rid of their facial recognition tactics, and shared a Vice News story about Sen. Bernie Sanders being the first 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to endorse a nationwide ban of the practice. .@detroitpolice You should probably rethink this whole facial recognition bulls**t.https://t.co/ZvHEEQxzWB— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 20, 2019 Some of the criticisms of facial recognition software is that has been...

Ted Wheeler and the progressive left's intolerance of free speech.

Posted on August 20, 2019August 20, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope The Double Loss of Being Good for Nothing In the Office of Readings for this past Sunday (20th Sunday of the Year), we read St. John Chrysostom’s meditation on what it means that we are “the salt of the earth.” I would like to ponder his teaching in three stages.The DignityDo not think, he says, that you are destined for easy struggles or unimportant tasks. You are the salt of the earth (Mat 5:13). What do these words imply? Did the disciples restore what had already turned rotten?...

The rule, which went into effect in May, bans Title X family planning providers from referring patients for abortion care and also requires facilities to financially and physically separate Title X services from abortion services, meaning abortion care must be billed separately and conducted in a separate physical space from the program’s family planning services. “We’ve always known that absent some sort of legal relief or legal action to block the administration from implementing its unlawful rule, that providers would be facing the choice that we see today,” said Jessica Marcella, president of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health...

There is a lot spoken and written about the wine industry’s inability to truly connect with more consumers about what wine is all about and why there is so much to discover if only people took the time to look. But why should they? Are they ever going to change the habits of a lifetime and not just see wine for what essentially it is. An alcoholic drink to enjoy with friends or on your own. That’s where Paul Mabray start his conversations about wine. If wine is truly going to connect with its target audience it needs to really...

The news first reported by Bloomberg on the weekend piqued the interest of economists worldwide. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, the report said, had for the first time mulled the possibility of putting together an emergency stimulus package to prop up the economy, should a full-blown recession beset the nation. This in itself revealed a fundamental change in thinking and philosophy as for a decade or so Scholz’ predecessor, Wolfgang Schäuble, had been an unwavering supporter of a policy that just wouldn’t accept any fresh borrowing. His balanced budget policy had even made inroads into the German language, with lawmakers...

Welp, this was predictable. A former Planned Parenthood president who was unexpectedly fired because she wanted the "health care" organization to focus less on abortion and more on health care is now a professor at The George Washington University. Zara Kupus of Young America's Foundation publication, The New Guard, reports that Leana Wen will start her new position this fall. "Honored to join exceptional colleagues @GWpublichealth @GW_Workforce to train future generations of public health leaders who are dedicated to achieving health equity and fighting for social justice," Wen tweeted. According to Zupus, Wen will "serve as a distinguished fellow in...

What's the deal with Greenland? Why would POTUS suddenly bring it into focus? Patrick Mack gets to the backgound that explains POTUS's actions. First note that Greenland is really Iceland and Iceland is really more green. It is said the Vikings switched the names to mislead others exploring lands on the periphery of the Artic. Note from history that Greenland, an inhabitable wasteland except for research stations and military bases, was claimed by both the United States and Denmark and the UN assuaged a slab of UN gobbledegook by making it seem as if Denmark had this or that and...

Some day, hopefully long after I’ve shuffled off this mortal coil, I hope you’ll remember that I was the one who tried to warn you about this impending apocalypse. And now it’s at our doors. The socialist vegan hordes who are diligently (and successfully) working to get rid of all the cows and pigs so they can save the planet have a new target in their sights. Chickens. More specifically, they want to replace all of the eggs we eat with “eggs made from plants.” And they’re not joking. The work is already in progress. (Fox Business Network) Impossible Foods’...

Lori Carpentier, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Michigan says the decision to leave Title X will effect more than 42,000 people in Michigan. In 2017, Planned Parenthood of Michigan received $4.3 million from Title X funding, Carpentier says. The withdrawal will cut approximately 20% of the agency's fiscal budget. Carpentier says that Planned Parenthood has been the backbone of Title X since the Nixon administration created the program. “We are 1 of 30 recipients of the grant but we take care of about 70% of the patients in the program,” said Carpentier. As for how Planned Parenthood of...