Free Republic

COBOL is celebrating 60 years since its specifications were signed off. Darling of Y2K consultants, the language is rapidly approaching pensionable age, but many a greybeard owes their career to it. It arose from a desire to create a language that could straddle the computers of the era. Each manufacturer had its own way of working, which, while OK if a company always stuck with one maker, made portability of programs or skills a tad tricky. If only there was, say, a COmmon Business-Oriented Language? Wouldn't that be splendid? Mary Hawes, a programmer of Burroughs machines, put forward a proposal...

A woman who was treated for breast cancer a year ago has become the first person to swim across the English Channel four times non-stop. Ms Thomas, from Colorado in the United States, Sarah Thomas, 37, began the epic challenge in the early hours of Sunday and finished after more than 54 hours. Swimmer Lewis Pugh said in a tweet: "Just when we think we've reached the limit of human endurance, someone shatters the records." Author and broadcaster Charlie Connelly has described her achievement as "one of the greatest feats of mental and physical endurance in human history", while official...

Sleepy blond Trump supporter on stage with Trump

Has America Become One of the Most Evil Nations on the Entire Planet?Michael Snyder How will history remember us?  As Americans, we like to think that we are a light to the world and that other countries should be using us as a model for how to properly do things.  But the truth is that we have become unspeakably evil, and after reading this entire article I doubt that there will be anyone that will disagree with me.  And while it is certainly true that there are quite a few other nations that are also tremendously evil, none have fallen...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday offered to help Saudi Arabia protect its people and oil infrastructure by selling the kingdom Russian-made air defense systems. Putin's remark, at a press conference with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, came after U.S. officials said that Iran is likely to blame for the attacks over the weekend on two crucial Saudi oil processing facilities, which Tehran denies. In response, U.S. President Donald Trump pronounced his country "locked and loaded." The Russian president's comments were clearly aimed more at Washington than at Riyadh, and both Rouhani and Iranian Foreign...

SACRAMENTO, September 17, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – The California legislature has voted in a resolution that blames "religious groups" who hold to biblical understandings of sex and gender as responsible for "disproportionately high rates" of suicide among homosexuals and transgenders. Assembly Concurrent Resolution 99 declares that homosexuality and transgenderism are “part of natural variations that occur in sexual orientation and gender identity” and condemns counseling services that help people resolve unwanted gender confusion or same-sex attraction.

Scientists at a human body farm watched a dead body dance while it decomposed. For 17 months. Scientists in Australia have allegedly captured video evidence of post-mortem movement in a decomposing body. Researchers suggest in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that contracting ligaments may be responsible for the arm movement. Body donation facilities—or body farms—provide forensic scientists with an unrivaled opportunity to study the decomposition of human remains in natural environments. ======================================================= Our bodies undergo strange changes after we die. But this may be the strangest: Scientists say they've captured footage of a decomposing body moving in its...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Democrats such as Beto O’Rourke have proposed a number of new gun laws, such as universal background checks, a ban on magazines that hold more than ten bullets, and possibly even a “mandatory buyback” of some weapons such as AR-15s. While these laws are likely to be a headache for law-abiding gun owners, the nation’s murderous psychopaths aren’t quite certain how the laws will affect them. “The background check sounds concerning,” explained deranged murderer Steve Mason, known as “Murdering Steve” to his friends. “I would definitely fail it since I’m a well-known psychopath. But I’ve never actually purchased a...

<p>For a while, we thought MSNBC had temporarily usurped CNN as the font of fake news — although both networks had tied for the most negative coverage (93 percent of all their news reports) of President Trump’s first 100 days in office.</p>

[Catholic Caucus] Rosica in Recovery  Disgraced former Vatican spokesman has checked himself into the Southdown Institute The upcoming Synod on the Amazon just won't be the same without one familiar figure on the dais of the Holy See's press office, lying to the assembled international media. Father Thomas Rosica of the Congregation of St. Basil (C.S.B., known as the Basilian Fathers) is taking some time for reflection and healing at Southdown Institute, a facility for troubled clergy and religious located in Holland Landing, north of Toronto, Ontario. Rosica has long served as a communications adviser to the Vatican and the foremost English-language media attaché to the Holy See Press Office. Until quite recently, Rosica has been regarded as a figure close to...

The Trump administration is poised to revoke California's authority to set auto mileage standards, asserting that only the federal government has the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy. Conservative and free-market groups have been asked to attend a formal announcement of the rollback set for Wednesday afternoon at Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington. Gloria Bergquist, spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said Tuesday that her group was among those invited to the event featuring EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The move comes after the Justice Department recently opened an antitrust investigation...

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez has been arrested on charges of computer pornography - solicitation of a child and providing obscene material to minors, authorities said Tuesday. Vazquez is being held in the Allegheny County Jail, awaiting extradition to Lee County, Florida. FDLE agents, with assistance from the Pennsylvania State Police, today arrested Felipe Vazquez, 28, of Saint Cloud, FL, for one count of computer pornography - solicitation of a child and one count of providing obscene material to minors. Vazquez, a baseball player with the Pittsburgh Pirates, was taken into custody in Pittsburgh this morning on a felony warrant...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Twenty people arrested, 18 of them now charged — all connected to brutal robberies in downtown Minneapolis. The attacks were caught on surveillance video, taking place in August. Police say groups of people would target one person, assault them often to take their cellphone and wallet. The 18 suspects range in age from 15 to 27.

In 2018, Mexico had 35,964 murders — a rate of 29 per 100,000 people. Preliminary estimates for 2018 show a US murder rate of 4.9 per 100,000.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Shiela Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said members of the House of Representatives would have to start "flooding" the Senate in order to get gun control measures passed.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski appeared on Capitol Hill Tuesday as the first “witness” in Democrats’ crap “impeachment” inquiry into President Donald Trump, the most persecuted and least guilty president in two generations. There was a moment when Lewandowski let Democrats have it with both barrels, saying — truthfully — that if a Republican president had attempted a coup against a Democratic president, then that president would have been driven out of office by now and people who worked on his behalf would already be in jail. Boy, is he spot-on. Without a doubt, Trump has been treated worse...

The United States might seem divided over President Donald Trump's policies, but overseas, the American president is loved. According to the data from the Pew Research Centre, Nigerians' confidence in Trump to do the right thing regarding world affairs was at 59 percent in 2018, higher than some points during the Obama administration. Also, Nigerians are in top five of those actively following Trump on Twitter, a social media platform constantly used by the president, Monti Datta, associate professor of political science from the University of Richmond, claimed. “Some of Trump's foreign policies in Nigeria might explain his relative popularity....

Last week news broke that family members of the late South Bend, Indiana abortionist Ulrich George Klopfer had unearthed at his home in northern Illinois preserved remains of more than 2,000 unborn babies. This discovery came just months after a federal court injunction allowed the Texas-based abortion chain Whole Women’s Health to open a new center without the required state license in this Midwestern town where presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg serves as mayor. These developments raise myriad questions about Buttigieg’s support for Whole Women’s Health, which has a history of violating state laws regarding the disposal of fetal remains and...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Four Indiana lawmakers are demanding an investigation to determine if more than 2,000 medically preserved fetal remains found at the Illinois home of a former Indiana abortion doctor were illegally transported across state lines. State Rep. Ron Bacon and three fellow Republican lawmakers issued a statement Sunday saying the Indiana attorney general’s office should investigate the abortion clinics in Allen, Lake and St. Joseph’s counties where Dr. Ulrich Klopfer worked. The attorney general’s office hasn’t responded to a request for comment Monday.

Just ate a plant based "impossible whopper" from Burger King. They got the texture of a burger right but the burger leaves a nasty after taste and a nasty after smell.