Free Republic

Hundreds of Central Texas students debut projects Tuesday that illustrate their advocacy on local issues they care about, like homelessness, school safety and climate change. Civics Day — a sort of science fair, but for government — is the product of the national nonprofit Generation Citizen, a group that gives middle and high school students hands-on experience working with local governments. “I can’t think of a more important thing to teach my kids than that their voice matters,” said Kyle Olson, a government teacher at Austin ISD’s Northeast Early College High School... Olson’s AP government class brainstormed ideas at the...

I found Michael Brown’s response to my op-ed, “Are Evangelicals Who Support Trump Fools?” further proof that evangelicals who back Trump are foolish when it comes to how they view the President.According to Merriam-Webster, foolish means “having or showing a lack of good sense, judgement, or discretion” and fool means “a person lacking in judgement or prudence.” Whether you say someone is being foolish or acting like a fool, Brown’s op-ed gave me no rational or biblical reason to think evangelicals who support the president are being anything other than both when it comes to their perception of the most...

OLYMPIA — Freshman Wasmine Ghosheh said she noticed it in the dorms. When the 19-year-old from Sonoma County, California, arrived at The Evergreen State College in September, she met students who were supposed to have roommates but ended up with their own rooms. “There’s a lot of space — it’s spacious, let’s say,” Ghosheh said the Friday before Thanksgiving break in a nearly empty cafeteria on campus. Evergreen’s enrollment this fall was 2,854 students, down more than 40% from its peak head count a decade ago. The decline, corresponding with an economic recovery and mirroring a trend in liberal arts...

People tend to seek out news that reinforces their own ideologies, and a new analysis of more than 1 million responses gathered over the past year suggests the country is much hungrier for red meat. Morning Consult data from 1,124,368 responses gathered Nov. 1, 2018, through Oct. 31, 2019, provides a unique look at weekly viewership of CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC among Democrats, independents and Republicans in every U.S. congressional district — and reveals the awesome reach of one outlet in particular: Fox News. Fox News is the most-watched cable news outlet in 299 of the country’s 436...

John Ray is best known for his work in botany, with his thorough Catalogus Plantarum Angliae serving as the basis for subsequent british plant encyclopedias, and for his work defining the concept of species. However, like most of his era, his prosperity was gained from his pen, and he published works on Religion, as would be expected, as well as this collection of english proverbs (with a section on Scotch proverbs as well.) Evidently some took offence at the contents, given the following passage from the preface to this edition: “Now whereas I understand that some Proverbs Admitted in the...

The impeachment news conference went off as scheduled this morning at 9 a.m. ET. The USMCA news conference also went off as scheduled — just one hour later. Various lefties are WTF-ing on social media over the timing: Why would Pelosi follow up a plea to remove Trump from office by handing him the biggest bipartisan policy win of his presidency, something he’ll surely run on next fall? She was asked about the timing. Watch: Pelosi says timing of new trade agreement deal with Mexico and Canada and articles of impeachment announcements wasn't a "coincidence." https://t.co/8akZTb5iee pic.twitter.com/EY3s5FuYZu— CBS News...

WITCH HUNT!

Up until now, President Obama has said he knew nothing about the FBI bid to destroy his political rival, Donald J.Trump, as evidenced in the newly released and mighty critical Inspector General, report.Back in August 2016, Obama said:  "I do not talk to the attorney general about pending investigations. I do not talk to FBI directors about pending investigations," he insisted. "I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department or the FBI -- not just in this case, but in any case. FULL STOP. PERIOD. Guaranteed. Nobody gets treated differently when...

A New York state judge on Tuesday exonerated oil giant ExxonMobil from charges of fraud. New York Attorney General Letitia James accused the company of using two different accounting methods when making projections about business costs in countries that were implementing policies to fight climate change, The Wall Street Journal reports, which, the attorney general asserted, cost shareholders up to $1.6 billion. However, New York State Supreme Court Justice Barry Ostrager said that James's office failed to prove that ExxonMobil violated antifraud laws such as the Martin Act. “The Office of the Attorney General failed to prove, by a preponderance...

Former Massachusetts Governor and Republican presidential candidate Bill Weld told WGBH News Morning Edition Host Joe Mathieu Monday that Trump has committed impeachable offenses "way worse than Nixon" and should be removed from office. "I'm a longtime federal prosecutor. ... I've never seen such evidence in an obstruction case," Weld said. "Extorting a foreign leader to come interfere in a U.S. election for the advantage of the person doing the extorting, that's as bad as it gets in terms of what the framers were afraid of, and what they thought should be grounds for removal." Weld added that he thinks...

Fired FBI Director James Comey ought to be embarrassed. The Inspector General's long awaited report on FISA abuses is out, revealing a systematic pattern of abuses at the bureau on Comey's watch. Rules broken all over the place, nobody punished, nobody following procedures. Under Comey, 'hain't I got the power,' was pretty much the only recognizable modus operandi. That must have been some atmosphere of lawlessness in the once proud agency, and yes, the bureau has since lost public trust as a result of it. Bother him in the least? On the contrary, he's claiming the whole ethical shambles vindicates him. His deputy, Andrew...

Chair of the United States Congress Judiciary Committee Jerrold Nadler (Democrat, New York, 10th Congressional District) is being worn out by Republicans constantly demanding points of order during the impeachment process. more here.... genesiustimes.com/jerry-nadler-surgically-adds-bionic-arms-to-maintain-impeachment-hearing-gavel-banging

Of all the naïve nonsense that emits from the mouths of young people today, perhaps the most annoying is the constant and ignorant presumption that, somehow, the land within America’s borders doesn’t truly belong to the people who reside here, because the majority are the descendants of people who have migrated from European countries in centuries past. Ostensibly, this land was “stolen” by European settlers hundreds of years ago from the people who happened to live here before. “[W]e are standing on native land, and Latino people are the descendants of native people,” said a tearful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez back in...

Customers at an Olive Garden in Kennewick, Washington, are treated to the usual breadsticks, salad and pasta, but when it's someone's birthday, they're also treated to something extra special: a serenade from server Alphonso Nichols

President Donald Trump will be at the Giant Center on Tuesday as he rallies supporters and campaigns for a second term. The address is 550 Hersheypark Drive, Hershey, Pa., 17033. Doors open at 3 p.m. Trump is expected to begin speaking at 7 p.m., according to the campaign. Vice President Mike Pence also is scheduled to attend as the campaign offers a rare double bill which likely reflects the tight race expected in Pennsylvania and it’s role as a key battleground state.

Posted on December 9, 2019December 9, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There! The Importance of Experience I want to give two thumbs up for good old-fashioned experience—just experiencing life to the fullest. Too often in today’s hurried age, in these times of 24×7 news, we rush past experience right to analysis. We insist on knowing immediately what something “means” and what we should think about it. This rush to analyze often happens before the experience is even over. And, of course, analyzing something before all the facts are in can lead to incorrect conclusions....

BREAKING NEWS: Democrats say they have a deal on Donald Trump's USMCA trade deal an hour AFTER announcing they are bringing two articles of impeachment against him House Democrats announced that they had come to a deal with the Trump administration Tuesday on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scheduled a press conference on USMCA an hour after Democrats announced articles of impeachment against the president Pelosi's move will give moderate Democrats some cover, while taking away a favorite Republican talking point

It turns out that the most revealing aspect of the long-awaited Justice Department’s inspector general’s report on the origins of the Russia collusion hoax comes from Attorney General William Barr’s damning assessment of it. In unmistakably terse language, Barr denounced “a small group of now-former FBI officials” for their “misconduct,” “malfeasance and misfeasance,” and “clear abuse of the FISA process.” Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz, issued a 476-page report Monday that broadly examined: (1) how and why the FBI initiated an investigation of candidate Donald Trump and his campaign in July 2016; and (2) the decision to seek a Foreign...

A New York state judge found Exxon Mobil Corp. not guilty of fraud, saying Tuesday that the New York state attorney general had failed to establish the oil giant had deceived its investors about how it accounted for the cost of future climate-change regulations. The verdict, which capped a nearly three-week civil trial between Exxon and the New York attorney general’s office, is a victory for the company, which had spent several years fighting the case. The company is also battling similar accusations in other state and federal courts. In his 55-page ruling, New York State Supreme Court Justice Barry...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Victor Davis Hanson. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Victor Davis Hanson is a Canadian philosopher and societal pragmatist who has authored several books on the effect of runaway socialism 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...