Free Republic

When most people want something back from the store they go to the returns department. But it wasn’t that easy for Jamie Shupe. He wanted his gender back. It started in 2016 when the U.S. Army veteran decided he wanted to be “non-binary” (no sexual classification). A year later a judge in Oregon gave him that legal designation. Could Shupe alter his biological sex to non-binary? Of course not. Was he still a man? Yes. But could a courtroom in Oregon, and a judge who had a “transgender” kid, let him have his fiction and legally play along as well?...

MEXICO CITY – A Mexican asylum-seeker slit his own throat on a bridge across the Rio Grande after being denied entry into the United States, two Mexican security officials said on Wednesday. The man, who has not been identified, tried to enter the United States at the Pharr–Reynosa International Bridge between the Mexican border city of Reynosa and Pharr, Texas.

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalm 81 Psalm 81[a] For the director of music. According to gittith.[b] Of Asaph. 1 Sing for joy to God our strength;     shout aloud to the God of Jacob! 2 Begin the music, strike the timbrel,     play the melodious harp and lyre. 3 Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,     and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival; 4 this is a decree for Israel,     an ordinance of the God of Jacob. 5 When God went out against Egypt,     he established it as a statute for Joseph. I heard...

“For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it” (Proverbs 9:11-12 KJV).

Prior to Iran's missile attacks on U.S. bases inside Iraq, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said, "We are not seeking war with Iran, but we are prepared to finish one." Esper said the U.S. prefers a "diplomatic" solution to the escalation of tensions in the region. Yes, that would be ideal, but a diplomatic solution would require Iran to reverse course, no longer fund and practice terrorism, stop developing a nuclear weapon and cease its repeated threats to destroy Israel. Never at a loss to make political hay out of a serious foreign conflict with American troops in danger,...

Independent physicist John Droz, Jr. alerted me to the website of Deep Green Resistance (DGR), an international environmental organization that calls for the total destruction of what it refers to as the “global industrial economy,” a.k.a. capitalism. Given the group’s hard-left credentials, its call for dismantling capitalism throughout the world is not surprising. What is surprising is that in an unusual show of progressive candor, Deep Green Resistance openly acknowledges what skeptical scientists have been saying for more than two decades: that renewable energy is a government-backed hoax that enriches big corporations -- and green energy investors like Al Gore...

Late last January, a short video showing Catholic high school boys and an indigenous drummer in Washington created a media and social media flurry. The video documented a confluence of two marches (the March for Life and the Indigenous Peoples March) near the Lincoln Memorial. It showed a group of teenage boys standing and smiling as the indigenous man was chanting and beating a drum. The teenager at the front was Nick Sandmann, who was then 16 years old. While normally this might have been dismissed as "teenagers watch drummer," many viewers and media outlets prejudged the teenagers -- who...

The October, November, and December 2013 issues of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension (a conservative journal) each included a section of a major research review article on a topic that hard-science, data-driven clinicians might not have taken seriously until recently. The topic under consideration: replacing antihypertensive medications with appropriate nutrition and nutraceutical supplements. “People’s eyes have been opened,” he said. There has been amazement at how much science is in the literature to back up such strategies, he added, and surprise about the extent to which hypertension patients are clamoring to know more about ways to avoid or reduce the...

Washington -- Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley A. Strassel has just conferred her "Adult of the Year Award" on a man who deserves it, Attorney General William Barr. And Strassel writes with sufficient distance from the swamp to be taken seriously. Her column, titled "Potomac Watch," is, I am told, composed from her lair in Alaska. That ought to insulate her from the swamp's fumes, and from Wall Street's, too. Moreover, though the attorney general has been a presence in Washington for years, he is not simply a Washington creature. He is his own man. A few months back, when...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” former Secretary of State John Kerry commented on President Donald Trump’s speech earlier in the day. Trump said the Obama administration’s “foolish Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013, and they were given $150 billion, not to mention $1.8 billion in cash.”

President Trump’s decision to kill the terrorist Qassem Soleiman reveals how alienated Rep. Ilhan Omar (D. Minn.) is from America.

Here's a riddle: What do Victor Davis Hanson, Dennis Prager and Ricky Gervais have in common? Hanson published an excellent piece at National Review online on Jan. 7. Titled "The Steele Dossier Bacillus," Hanson summarizes the evident defects in the substance of the dossier compiled by British former spy Christopher Steele as well as defects in its use to obtain surveillance warrants from the FISA court. Steele was known to be "a pathological liar," Hanson notes. But the "fanciful" (translation: false information contained in the dossier spread like wildfire because so many on the left -- including Hillary Clinton and...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she no longer has cancer, following a flurry of recent health scares. “I’m cancer-free. That’s good,” she said in an interview late Tuesday with CNN. Last year, Ginsburg underwent treatment for what likely was pancreatic cancer, according to a statement from the Supreme Court. In late 2018, she was treated for cancerous growths on her lungs.

The amazing Martinez It was the first day of school and a new student named Martinez, the son of a Mexican restaurateur, entered the fourth grade. The teacher said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American history. Who said "Give me Liberty, or give me Death?" She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Martinez, who had his hand up. "Patrick Henry, 1775." "Very good! Who said 'Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth'"? Again, no response except from Martinez: "Abraham Lincoln, 1863.", said Martinez. The teacher snapped at the class,...

President Trump heads to the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday for his first rally in 2020 as he deals with tensions in Iran and impeachment limbo on Capitol Hill. The rally is expected to begin at 7 p.m. How to watch the Trump rally today •What: Donald Trump Rally •Date: Thursday, January 9, 2020 •Time: 7 p.m. ET •Location: Huntington Center, Toledo, Ohio •Online stream: Watch in the live player above Mr. Trump announced on Wednesday that Iran appears to be standing down for now after strikes on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops. Mr. Trump said the U.S....

Summary: Films, TV, and books show our fears – and dreams of solutions. See how they have evolved over time, and their missing element that prevents us from solving our biggest problems. “All fantasy should have a solid base in reality.” — Max Beerbohm’s novel Zuleika Dobson: Or, An Oxford Love Story (1911). Sailing into a disastrous future. Scientists gone bad. Since the early days of science fiction, books, films and TV shows describe science experiments gone awry. Usually experiments conducted by scientists who are some combination of mad, overconfident, evil, criminal, well-meaning, and ambitious. The mad scientist and criminal...

Relatively unheard of outside of intelligence circles, deceased Iranian General Qassem Soleimani has surged into 4th place in the national Democratic primary poll among likely Democratic voters. Just days after President Trump ordered Soleimani’s killing in Iraq for orchestrating an attack on the Iraqi US embassy and decades of bombings in the region, many Democrats think he has the stuff to beat Trump in the 2020 presidential election. “He was a great man,” Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said of Soleimani. “That’s why I am proud to endorse him as my favorite candidate in the 2020 primary.” Analysts are quick to...

TPQBYSO, AWDZW WEX E JQOEB COER PT GPAOQ DS PBWOQ KEBBOQX UYB OXGOZDERRI DS AEQ, ZES UQDSJ EUPYB JQOEB ZWESJOX DS E XDBYEBDPS BWQPYJW NOQI XRDJWB TPQZOX. --- ZEOXEQ You can find this little fun word game, to combat early dementia and senility in us baby boomers, in several daily publications. The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram). Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated. PLEASE DO NOT post the answer in general comments, but DO post...

Some of the Democratic candidates for president support studying reparations to blacks to compensate for slavery. But in many ways, America has made reparations to blacks. What are race-based preferences if not a form of compensation for historical wrongs? Many cities have "set-aside" programs that award government contracts to minority contractors. President Lyndon Johnson pushed his Great Society programs to "end poverty and racial injustice." But few think of the federal government's housing policy, particularly the Community Reinvestment Act, or the CRA, as a form of reparations. But that is exactly what it was and still is. In many ways,...

One of the busiest abortion facilities in Massachusetts may be shutting its doors soon, and is begging for donations to help stay open. Women’s Health Services in Brookline, a suburb of Boston, claims to only have a few months left if it doesn’t get more money, fast — even though it is the third busiest abortion facility in the state. Women’s Health Services (WHS), which has been open for 27 years, launched a GoFundMe page with the hope of raising $250,000; so far, it is far short of that goal. Allegedly, the loss of a grant has left them with...