Free Republic

This is a new one. The New York Times headline read: "Minimum Wage Raises Could Lower Suicide Rates, Study Says." But there was a subheadline: "It was the latest study to suggest that effects of wage increases reach beyond economic welfare, but some experts pushed back on the findings." Let us "push back." The study was published in January in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The Times article noted that 47,000 Americans committed suicide in 2017 and said: "The new study examined suicide rates from 1990 through 2015 across all 50 states and Washington, and measured how they...

It’s as if the House Managers think that their case suddenly becomes airtight if Adam Schiff and his colleagues take forever to lay it out and add some audio-visual aids. There is not a shred of a new angle to their arguments. It is the same litany of assertions that peppered the House hearings, filled with the same attempts at mind-reading. They somehow magically know that President Trump’s interest in Ukraine was not a justifiable curiosity over that nation’s worthiness for hundreds of millions in foreign aid, despite the curious presence of Hunter Biden on a crooked company’s board; they...

... When considering the Democrats’ high-minded arguments, ask yourself: What if Hillary Clinton won in 2016? After she took office, it would have been revealed that her campaign hired the opposition-research firm Fusion GPS, which assigned Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence official, to reach out to Russian counterparts to solicit dirt on Donald Trump. Recall that the since-discredited dossier Mr. Steele peddled to the media in the fall of 2016 was made up of unsubstantiated rumors from former Russian agents. It’s naive to believe the Kremlin was unaware that Mr. Steele asked Moscow pals for dirt on Mr. Trump....

A story of rampant child abuse—ignored and abetted by the police—is emerging out of the British town of Rotherham. Until now, its scale and scope would have been inconceivable in a civilized country. Its origins, however, lie in something quite ordinary: what one Labour MP called "not wanting to rock the multicultural community boat." Imagine the following case. A fourteen-year old girl is taken into care by the social services unit of the town where she lives, because her parents are drug-addicted, and she has been neglected and is not turning up in school. She is one of many, for...

Five (state) Republican Attorneys General announce action asking the Senate to reject articles of impeachment. See video at link.

Whether by accident or by deliberate osmosis, Israel and the U.S. have adopted similar solutions to their existential problems. Before 2002, during the various Palestinian intifadas, Israel suffered hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries from suicide bombers freely crossing from the West Bank and Gaza into Israel. In response, Israel planned a vast border barrier. The international community was outraged. The Israeli left called the idea nothing short of "apartheid." However, after the completion of the 440-mile border barrier -- part concrete well, part wire fencing -- suicide bombings and terrorist incursions into Israel declined to almost nil....

Today’s CG from The Arkansas Gazette. FP QXN NQZ VFP XSFBP PSG EBRVJY. RU KQDB SPETDYRFYO TFY XQYE REY IREFXREK, NQ SISBKETRPZ CQYYRWXS EQ BSIRIS RE. —NQP OVFBE 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 your...

A woman who was recently crowned Miss Utah USA after competing in the pageant five times will be the first openly bisexual contestant to compete for the Miss USA title in the competition's nearly 70-year history.

Congratulations, Virginia – you overcame the terrible peril that was patriots rallying in Richmond to peacefully express your disgust with Governor Jolson Klanrobe and his legislative back-up dancers’ attempt to strip you of your rights. You came, you saw, you protested, and then you swept up. But the fight’s not over. It’s just starting. But know this – you will win. Let’s begin with a basic principle: You have no moral obligation to respect or obey unconstitutional actions by a government. None. And when a government acts outside its constitutional limits, you do not merely have the right but the...

Guards have blocked routes out of China's Wuhan as part of efforts to seal the city and bottle up a new coronavirus as residents scrambled for supplies on Thursday, clearing out supermarket shelves and queuing up for petrol. The virus first appeared in the central city of 11 million people last month and is suspected to have jumped to people from an animal in a market where animals were sold illegally. It has gone on to kill 17 people and infected nearly 600, most in China but cases have been detected as far away as the United States.

The International Court of Justice on Thursday ordered Myanmar to take urgent measures to protect its Muslim Rohingya population from persecution and atrocities, and preserve evidence of alleged crimes against them. Mostly Muslim Gambia launched a lawsuit in November at the United Nations' highest body for disputes between states, accusing Myanmar of genocide against Rohingya in violation of a 1948 convention.

Did you see all those white people winning awards at the Golden Globes? What about all those white people winning awards at the Screen Actors Guild ceremony? Why are white people winning so many acting awards from left-wing Hollywood elitists so quick to call everyone else a racist? Are they racists themselves?  The answer to that last question is “yes, they are.” Like most problems in life, the problems Hollywood is facing are of their own making. For decades they’ve been lecturing the public on every issue facing the country, obediently parroting the Democratic Party talking point without question or fail....

Addressing a crowd earlier this week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared that Joseph Stalin was actually a conservative or at least a center-right kind of guy.

House Delegate Lee Carter, a self-professed democratic socialist, accused participants in Monday's peaceful protest of menacing lawmakers, saying the thousands of "idiots" who demonstrated would only embolden the Democratic majority on gun control. . . . Carter claimed he spent Monday at a safe house after he received death threats on social media in the weeks leading up to the rally.

Schiff warns of Russian attack on US mainland, the need to protect 2020 election in Day 2 of Trump's Senate impeachment trial. The Russians could attack the U.S. and removing President Trump from office is necessary to preserve the integrity of the 2020 election. Those were the claims Wednesday from Democrat Adam Schiff on Wednesday during Day 2 of Trump’s Senate impeachment trial. The lengthy arguments from Schiff and other House Democrats broke little new ground, if any. Trump's lawyers sat by, waiting their turn, as the president blasted the proceedings from afar, jokingly threatening to face off with the...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K-pA9AwqvA The Ingraham Angle 1/22/20 | Laura Ingraham| Fox News January 22, 2020 This entire show was very good last night, but one segment MUST BE SEEN with regard to impeachment and the Obama administration's corruption and the infamous whistleblower. _____ At a little past the 30 minute mark she explains new information on “email exchanges from State Department officials that could drastically ALTER THE COURSE of President Trump’s impeachment … they involve the Obama administration, he potential whistleblower, and Hunter Biden’s shady Burisma arrangement.” Constance Mitchell comments: “Adam Schitt is a very sick, evil person. Looking at him and...

He can hide, but he can’t run. An arrest warrant has been issued for free-agent receiver Antonio Brown, via Andy Slater of FOX Sports 640. Brown faces charges of burglary with battery. The warrant arises from a Tuesday incident during which Brown refused to pay the driver of a moving truck for delivering property from California. Brown allegedly threw a rock at the truck as the driver left with the property. Then, when the moving company informed the driver to return after Brown supposedly agreed to pay the $4,000 plus an extra $860, Brown allegedly refused to pay more than...

House Judiciary Chairman Adam Schiff said that President Trump’s alleged misconduct can’t be proven at the ballot box but only through his impeachment. The California Democrat is one of the House’s impeachment managers and made the remarks during his opening statement on Wednesday. “If not remedied by his conviction in the Senate and removal from office, President Trump’s abuse of his office and obstruction of Congress will permanently alter the balance of power among the branches of government,” the 59-year-old congressman said. Schiff accused Trump of attempting to “use the powers of the presidency to cheat in an election.” “For...

It’s nearly impossible to have even a short conversation with a college administrator, politician, or chief executive without the words diversity and inclusion dropping from their lips. Diversity and inclusion appear to be the end-all and be-all of their existence. So, I thought I’d begin this discussion by first looking up the definition of diversity. Here’s my question to those who are wedded to diversity and inclusion: Are people better off the less they have in common with one another? For example, women are less likely to be able to march 12.4 miles in five hours with an 83-pound assault...

It once felt impious just to mention Auschwitz. Now, 75 years after its liberation, the death camp has spawned a literary subgenre – and Hitler is in Oscar-nominated comedy Jojo Rabbit. Are we betraying the dead?