Free Republic

Some Insiders are more equal than others (sorry, Release Preview) Microsoft has attempted to clear the murky waters of its Windows Insider programme by stowing its virtual coin toss for those on the Slow Ring.Build 18362.10019 of Windows 10 went out last night to those keen to get their mitts on 19H2, the version expected to drop at some point this month.Unlike previous releases, Microsoft has turned on the new features for all Insiders.The previous arrangement had some users running build 18362.10014 with the new toys turned off while all the good little Insiders on build 18362.10015 had their stockings...

We know a little more about the dust-up between Antonio Brown and Oakland Raiders general manager Mike Mayock and, not surprisingly, the details aren’t pretty. Brown saw Mayock, who sent Brown a letter informing him he’d be fined for missing a workout before the Raiders’ preseason game in Canada, watching practice on Wednesday. So during practice he initiated an argument with Mayock, according to ESPN’s Josina Anderson. During that argument, he called Mayock a “cracker,” Anderson reported. A day later the Raiders leaked a report that they were considering suspending Brown, who wasn’t at practice Thursday. The Raiders listed him...

Recently, the University of Vermont Medical Center was accused of forcing a nurse to assist with an abortion against her will, a violation of federal conscience rights laws. According to Vice, the fact that a pro-life nurse objected to performing an abortion “shows we need to be more discerning about who is worthy of serving the public.” So much for the right to choose. Instead, author Monica R. McLemore, a registered nurse and associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, wants the Vermont nurse “to wrestle with why her discomfort with abortion kept her from empathizing with the...

NEW ORLEANS -- Texas attorneys asked a federal appeals court Thursday to revive the state's requirement that fetal remains from abortions and miscarriages at health care facilities be buried or cremated. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans gave no indication when it would rule after the arguments. One panel member raised the possibility that a decision could be delayed until after the Supreme Court rules in a pending Louisiana abortion regulation case. No date for consideration has been set in that case. The law, blocked last year by U.S. District Judge David...

The preliminary hearing for undercover journalist David Daleiden continued Thursday with a witness for the abortion industry admitting that the Center for Medical Progress videos were “not altered.” Daleiden and Sandra Merritt face 15 felony charges for invasion of privacy because they exposed the Planned Parenthood abortion chain’s gruesome baby body parts trade. Tuesday began a nine-day preliminary hearing about whether the case should go to trial, Courthouse News reports. During the third day of the hearing in California court, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) reported on the testimony of witness Doe 9, who was granted anonymity by the...

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke is demanding answers from major tech platforms following an unsubstantiated claim online that the gunman involved in last weekend's mass shooting in Odessa, Texas, was driving a vehicle with an O'Rourke campaign sticker. Jen O’Malley Dillon, campaign manager for the former House lawmaker from Texas, sent letters to Facebook, Google and Twitter on Friday asking for greater transparency about how the companies respond to disinformation on their platforms and calling on them to take action against any fraudulent accounts involved in amplifying the claim. “As a campaign, we’re almost entirely powerless to stop misinformation,” O’Malley...

A 74-year-old woman now holds the record for “world’s oldest mom” after she reportedly gave birth to twins on Thursday following a round of in vitro fertilization using donor eggs. The woman, identified as Erramatti Mangayamma, and her husband, 80-year-old Rajarao, hail from a small Indian village in the Eastern Godavari district, SWNS reported.

SNIP Reiterating his loathing for the role that he expressed in June, Baldwin tells former SNL regular Kevin Nealon on the latter’s new YouTube series Hiking with Kevin (watch it below), that the first couple seasons recurring as Trump were fine – “fun, fun, fun,” actually – but the role grew tiresome. “I don’t want to do it anymore,” Baldwin says bluntly, explaining that he doesn’t think the satire is having any impact on the real thing. “I don’t think it’s doing anything. It’s not doing anything good or bad for him.” The actor says the president “likes any attention...

Democrats, who have called for the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for months, screaming loudly about its raids on illegal immigrants, and demonizing its officers, suddenly don't have a lot to say about this one: WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 39 fugitives – 30 males and nine females – sought for their roles in known or suspected human rights violations during a nationwide operation that took place from Aug. 27 to 29. The ICE National Fugitive Operations Program in coordination with the ICE Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, and the ICE...

This is an argument I get so often from people who don’t want to take a stand against abortion or get involved with pro-life work. They always say that other people don’t believe that abortion is killing a human so we can’t force “our morality” on them. Just because we are pro-life does not mean we should tell someone who is not pro-life they should not have an abortion. I will be honest; this to me is really just a cop-out, an excuse for people to not take a stand or get involved. The fact is, abortion is the taking...

What began as a question from actress Alyssa Milano about the scriptural basis for owning a gun has led to a meeting Tuesday with Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. After Milano’s Twitter query, Cruz responded with a 10-tweet explanation, equating gun ownership with self-defense. At the close, he said he would “be happy to sit down & visit next week about uniting to stop gun violence & about the Constitution. Milano announced Thursday that she had accepted the invitation, event though the two “don’t agree on this issue.”

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Archaeologists have uncovered the massive walls of a 2,200-year-old Hellenistic fortification that may have been built by the Seleucid general who defeated Judah the Maccabee, the famed Jewish leader at the center of the Hanukkah story. In an unexpected twist, the discovery could also help identify the location of the biblical town of Emmaus, where the Gospels say Jesus made his first appearance after being crucified and resurrected. Since 2017, a Franco-Israeli expedition has been digging at Kiriath Yearim, a hill overlooking the approach to Jerusalem a few kilometers west of the city, next door to the town of Abu...

A closer look at what was on Tlaib and Omar's curious itinerary. There are many aspects of Rashida Tlaib’s on/off/on again/off again visit to Israel/Palestine that are worth examining. Let’s take them in turn. First, there is the propaganda value of the whole absurd affair – what some are calling, the matter of optics. How do things look? No one quite knows who has come out ahead. Many supporters of Israel think Israel looks bad for cancelling the trip initially, especially as Netanyahu is being depicted as “weak” for acceding to Trump’s request. Others think that whatever advantage the anti-Israel...

How the Left validates Islam’s sexual fantasies and victimization of Western women. Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Western women are to blame for being raped by Muslim men.  Such is the latest position—the latest apologia—being offered by those Western elements dedicated to exonerating undesirable Muslim behavior, particularly in order to continue taking in more Muslim migrants. According to a August 9, 2019 report, “in the Swedish city of Uppsala … four women were raped in as many days….  Two ‘completed rapes’ took place last weekend, with another attempted rape on Saturday night, and another sexual...

Background How do people die? How do people think we die? And is there a difference? Well, it turns out there's a fascinating study conducted by Paul Slovic and Barbara Combs where they looked at how often different types of deaths were mentioned in the news. They then compared the frequency of news coverage with the actual frequency of people who died for each cause. The results are what one might cynically expect: "Although all diseases claim almost 1,000 times as many lives as do homicides, there were about three times as many articles about homicides than about all diseases....

Today’s post is in honor of Marine LCpl. Michael T. Badsing who was killed on this date in 1965 by enemy small-arms fire in South Vietnam. The 20-year-old Chicago native served with C Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. 1781: Hoping to divert Gen. George Washington from marching against Lord Cornwallis’ forces now trapped in Virginia, two battalions of British soldiers — including American Loyalist forces under the command of Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold — assault New London, Conn.. The redcoats easily capture Fort Trumbull, but across the Thames River, the heavily outnumbered defenders of Fort Griswold fiercely...

SNIP Three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this term now seek to clarify or extend the meaning of Title VII’s employment provision. Employees in Zarda v. Altitude Express and Bostock v. Clayton County allege employer discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Alongside these two cases, a claim of discrimination on the basis of gender identity is being brought against the R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes under the same employment provision of Title VII. As evidenced in the struggle of the civil rights movement, Title VII was intended to fulfill a distinct and remedial legislative purpose that was...

Posted on September 5, 2019September 5, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope Exorcism or Deliverance? There is wide interest today in the topic of exorcism. Numerous books and news stories have helped to fuel this. Another reason for the interest is that as our world becomes more secular, families disintegrate, the outright celebration of sinful practices spreads, and there is an increase in psychological trauma, bondage to sinful drives, and openness to demonic influence.An entire generation of priests were taught to distrust the traditional understandings of trauma and dysfunction, which gave significant weight to spiritual causes. These priests were often...

Wayne Messam is best known, if you’ve heard of him at all, as the other mayor running for president — in his case, not quite as successfully as South Bend, Indiana’s mayor, Pete Buttigieg. The mayor of Miramar, Florida, has not found much of an audience or appeared in any debates. He has raised a mere $93,812 and a small campaign staff. And now, according to internal campaign documents and interviews with eight former Messam campaign staffers and contractors, his campaign appears to be in near-total disarray. The documents and staffers, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity...