Free Republic

AUSTIN, Texas — It could cost nearly $1 million to install 10 new drinking fountains throughout Downtown Austin as part of an effort by some council members to make free drinking water more accessible for everyone. In a city memo released on Thursday, Austin Water identified 10 proposed locations for these fountains. At least two of them would be in the vicinity of the ARCH shelter on Seventh Street. The ADA-compliant fountains would be free to use 24/7 and would be located in well-lit areas, according to the City. Each fountain would contain three components: a drinking fountain, a bottle-filling...

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) responded on Thursday after the chief executives of more than 100 companies wrote a letter to the U.S. Senate urging Congress to pass various anti-gun measures. “Now look, here’s my starting point: I want to see facts. I believe love is the answer, but I also own a handgun just in case, and that’s my right as an American citizen,” Kennedy told Fox Business host Stuart Varney. “The Bill of Rights is not an a la carte menu — the Second [Amendment] is just as important as the First or the Fourth.” “Some of my colleagues...

President Donald Trump confirmed Saturday a son of Osama bin Laden was killed during a U.S.-led counterterrorism operation along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The loss of Hamza bin Ladin not only deprives al-Qa’ida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group. Hamza bin Ladin was responsible for planning and dealing with various terrorist groups,” he continued. It is unclear when Hamza bin Laden died, though it has been reported it was between 2017 and 2019. The State Department put out a $1 million reward for information on...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Steven Crowder. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Steven Crowder is a media personality whose conservative and libertarian views are showcased on the conservative Blaze TV Network. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of the puzzle into the white squares on the bottom half...

BALTIMORE, Maryland—White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sept. 13 that the U.S. economy was now on the upswing despite a looming global recession and the Federal Reserve’s tight monetary policy. U.S. retail sales rose 0.4 percent on a monthly basis in August, beating market expectations, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Sept. 13. Solid retail data was driven by more-than-expected auto sales and online shopping. “The core retail sales are growing at about 7.5 percent annualized for the last three months, which gives you a hint of a big Q3 number. That’s a terrific...

Former Prime Minister David Cameron has said that a second Brexit referendum cannot be ruled out, and opposed Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament. During an interview with The Times published on Friday, Mr Cameron was asked whether he thought there would be a second referendum, and responded: “I don’t think you can rule it out because we’re stuck.” “I’m not saying one will happen or should happen. I’m just saying that you can’t rule things out right now because you’ve got to find some way of unblocking the blockage,” he said, adding his voice to that of Remainer and...

Let's cut the crap. He was everybody's favorite here at this site for the longest time. 'Best Secretary of State we never had.' The Democrat Senators wouldn't approve him for the UN post. 43' had to go to a recess appointment. He would have gutted the (deep)State Department as we all wanted. Then the stupid '2k troops for Venezuela' clipboard memo and the calling out by Tucker Carlson. Has he been exposed by Trump or were the Democrats right all along? No sweeping under the rug this time.

Whenever a non-traditional diet becomes mainstream, there’s skepticism about its real impact on health — and the ketogenic diet is no exception. After all, it isn’t every day that you hear about a diet that encourages you to eat tasty, fatty cuts of meat. Since dietary fats have been unfairly demonized for the past few decades, some people are worried that keto may affect your internal organs. Specifically, there’s controversy about the keto-kidney connection. So is the low carb, high fat lifestyle bad for your kidneys? Read on to see the two sides of the debate.

IF aliens dropped in from Mars, well, they could be forgiven for thinking that a Town Hall meeting titled ‘Hate Crimes’ – in partnership with CAIR – is a beneficial public service. But the reality is the polar opposite on a multiplicity of levels. Dangerously so. Indictable. INTERSECTING LEVELS & INDICTMENTS:....Ominously, the upcoming pow-wow is coming from the most jacked-up Jihadi arena imaginable; that which is primed to explode – and CAIR is completely linked into said nexus of terror! Said charges are backed-up at an attached SCRIBD Counterterrorism Report (see below), and it is more than telling that St....

Joe Biden is no spring chicken. In fact, he’s not even a late-fall chicken. Biden, at 76, is old, realllllly old. He falls asleep at events, can hardly utter a sentence without misspeaking, and sometimes his eyeball just fills up with blood. While still the front runner in all the polls, Biden is no longer inevitable. And some prominent backs of the past have begun to bail. Take Rolling Stone magazine, the cultural icon for decades. They’re now saying no to Joe. “Why It’s Time for Joe to Go,” says a headline of a piece posted Friday, with a subhead...

Six astronauts, five space agencies and a fresh start into underground worlds to help prepare for living on other planets. ESA’s latest training adventure will equip an international crew with skills to explore uncharted terrains on the Moon and Mars, this time with a focus on the search for water. The CAVES training course takes astronauts to the depths of Earth to improve their communication, problem-solving and teamwork skills. After a week of preparations above and underground, the ‘cavenauts’ are set to explore a cave in Slovenia where they will live and work for six days. “It is all part...

(Moderator, if I can't excerpt the BBC, please note) Drone attacks have set alight two major oil facilities run by the state-owned company Aramco in Saudi Arabia, state media say. Footage showed a huge blaze at Abqaiq, site of Aramco's largest oil processing plant, while a second drone attack started fires in the Khurais oilfield. The fires are now under control at both facilities, state media said. A spokesman for the Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen said it had deployed 10 drones in the attacks. The military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, told al-Masirah TV, which is owned by the Houthi movement...

“He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD: but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him” (Proverbs 14:2 KJV).

The British prime minister who called the Brexit referendum and then saw the public vote to leave the European Union says he is sorry for the divisions it has caused. David Cameron said in an interview published Saturday that he thinks about the consequences of the Brexit referendum “every single day” and worries “desperately” about what will happen next. “I deeply regret the outcome and accept that my approach failed,” he said. “The decisions I took contributed to that failure. I failed.” He admitted that many people blame him for the Brexit divisions that have deepened since the referendum and...

Watch Amir's video get interrupted and cause him to have to do part 2 separately! Amir tells of the recent strikes in Iraq by Israel, the Iranian deception of carpet and fruit facilities, Iran's continuing quest for a land "bridge" to the Mediterranean, and of course a summing-up of the election coming up in just a few days in Israel, in which Netanyahu must get his 61 seats. The recent annexation of land may help to gain votes in the crucial election. The so-called Deal of the Century will be revealed shortly after the election.

California police have arrested a woman who threw a feminine hygiene device containing “what appeared to be blood” onto the floor of the state Senate, splashing onto lawmakers and forcing them to finish their work in a committee room on the final day of the legislative session. Senators had just finished taking a vote about 5:14 p.m. Friday when a woman tossed the substance onto the floor of the Senate from the public gallery, saying: “That’s for the dead babies.” The California Highway Patrol identified the woman as 43-year-old Rebecca Dalelio. She faces several charges, including assault, vandalism and disrupting...

In all of the decades that the modern version of the contentious debate in America over guns, freedom, and the Second Amendment has been going on, the gun-control advocates have repeatedly assured gun owners of one thing: they don't want to take our guns away from us. My, what a difference one presidential primary full of unabashed Democratic statists makes. After years of being told that we are paranoid for saying that the anti-gun Left wants to confiscate our weapons, the anti-gun Left is letting us know in no uncertain terms that they want to confiscate our weapons. Loudest among...

All, I will be doing a Texas speaking tour in late October/early November. Oct. 29, Tomball (Houston), Tomball Tea Party, Tomball Community Center, 7:00, "Reagan: The American President" Nov. 2, Cypress, Cypress Tea Party, Springcreek BBQ, noon, "Reagan" Nov. 5, Austin, Republican Club of Austin luncheon (location TBD) "Reagan" Nov. 7, Dallas, North Dallas Tea Party, 7:00, location TBD (watch their website) "Reagan" I have some holes in the schedule and am happy to discuss speaking to ANY group on Oct. 30-32 in DALLAS, Nov. 1, 3, 4 in Houston, Austin, or Dallas, and Nov. 7 during the day in...

Thieves have stolen a solid gold toilet worth up to £1 million ($1.25 million) from the birthplace of British wartime leader Winston Churchill. The toilet, the work of Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, had been installed only two days earlier at Blenheim Palace, west of London, after previously being shown at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Police said the toilet was taken early Saturday by thieves who used at least two vehicles. …

I remember all these commercials