Free Republic

The death of this reigning physics paradigm, the Standard Model, has been predicted for decades. There are hints of its problems in the physics we already have. Strange results from laboratory experiments suggest flickers of ghostly new species of neutrinos beyond the three described in the Standard Model. And the universe seems full of dark matter that no particle in the Standard Model can explain. But recent tantalizing evidence might one day tie those vague strands of data together: Three times since 2016, ultra-high-energy particles have blasted up through the ice of Antarctica, setting off detectors in the Antarctic Impulsive...

Shanghai Disneyland will close its doors Saturday as a reaction to the spread of a form of coronavirus that has now killed 26 people in mainland China. The resort complex, which normally operates 365 days per year and welcomes more than 10 million visitors annually, announced Friday afternoon local time that it will shutter the Shanghai Disneyland theme park, the Disneytown retail and dining area, the Walt Disney Grand Theatre, and Wishing Star Park. It did not give a date for their reopening.

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalm 95 Psalm 96 1 Sing to the Lord a new song;     sing to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name;     proclaim his salvation day after day. 3 Declare his glory among the nations,     his marvelous deeds among all peoples. 4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;     he is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the nations are idols,     but the Lord made the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before him;     strength and glory are in his sanctuary....

A year ago, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced its aim to flip Texas’s 21st District. It’s a longtime GOP seat, held by freshman Rep. Chip Roy and for three prior decades by the equally conservative Lamar Smith. Republican win margins have tightened there over time, but Democrats still need some right-leaning voters to split their tickets. So, they’re gearing to nominate… Wendy Davis? The former state senator’s 2013 filibuster of pro-life legislation, her failed 2014 gubernatorial campaign, and her subsequent nonprofit work have made her nationally famous for abortion liberalism. Her reality is more complicated; she is extreme...

15-year-old American Coco Gauff became the youngest player in the professional era to eliminate the reigning women's champion at the Australian Open, beating former No. 1 Naomi Osaka 6-3, 6-4 in the third round at Melbourne Park on Friday. ... She is also the youngest player to beat a top-five opponent in a women's tour-level match since American Jennifer Capriati did it at 15 in 1991. "You don't want to lose to a 15-year-old, you know?" Osaka said. ... It was the second significant result of Day 5 in Melbourne: In the same quarter of the bracket, 23-time major champion...

If you are a Republican, the first week of impeachment meant the Democrats were unserious clowns, out to launch a coup against the duly elected President of the United States. The president's team was diligent, thoughtful and proficient. If you are a Democrat, the first week of impeachment meant the president's team was a cast straight from the island of misfit toys, unable to make a coherent argument -- and the Democrats were veritable geniuses. Impeachment, and your view on impeachment, is all in the eye of the beholder. Republicans think it is a scam, and Democrats think it is...

As Democrats’ efforts to oust President Trump from office have played out in the Senate this week, his opponents in the judiciary branch of government quietly maneuvered to curb conservatives’ growing influence on the federal bench. The ethical advisory arm of the federal judiciary is quietly circulating a draft rule that would ban judges and their clerks from belonging to the Federalist Society, an organization aimed at fostering an originalist interpretation of the Constitution at law schools and through forums and debates across the country. The proposed rules change is the latest salvo in a campaign to cast the Federalist...

Ten years ago, the Supreme Court overturned portions of a federal law that empowered government to dictate how Americans who were not connected to any candidates and political parties could practice their inherent right of free expression. It was one of the greatest free speech decisions in American history. The case of Citizens United revolved around state efforts to ban a conservative nonprofit group from showing a critical documentary it produced of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton right before the 2008 Democratic primary elections. At the time, the McCain-Feingold Act made it illegal for corporations and labor unions to engage in...

For an advocate, it is a coup when the judge rules that harmful testimony is excluded. But such rulings always come with a warning label: Don’t open the door. That is, don’t do anything that makes the otherwise irrelevant evidence relevant. President Trump’s impeachment trial has a Biden door. Adam Schiff has thrown it wide open.

Second family claims Universal Studios costumed actor made racist ‘OK’ hand gesture in photo with child A second family has come forward to claim a costumed actor at Universal Studios made a racist hand gesture while posing for a photo with their child. In 2019, a Colorado family went public with complaints that an actor dressed as “Despicable Me” character Gru made an upside-down “OK” hand gesture while posing with their 6-year-old daughter who is biracial and has autism. According to the Anti-Defamation League and several other organizations, while still common as a gesture to convey assent or approval, the...

A Detroit man is suing a Michigan bank for refusing to cash a settlement check awarded to him in a racial discrimination lawsuit, according to a report. Sauntore Thomas, 44, claims TCF Bank employees refused to cash or deposit his settlement check on Tuesday at a branch in Livonia, leading cops to respond and a fraud investigation to be launched, the Detroit Free Press reports.

We live in history-making times. Not so much because of the impeachment trial going on in the Senate, which will make history only if it routinizes impeachments of impolite presidents when their opposition party gets control of the House, but because of what looks like an ongoing battle for control of the central narrative of American history. That battle was opened back in August when The New York Times ran the first several articles of its 1619 Project. Named for the year when the first African slaves were offloaded in the dozen-year-old colony of Virginia, the central theme is that...

The Democrat/media/Deep State Axis of Propaganda is in full swing. – Watch as former Clinton bag man and career propagandist George Stephanopoulous gets caught live on air attempting to cut off video feed of Trump Lawyer Jay Sekulow debunking the Democrats’ impeachment scam: This is what Republicans are always up against with the corrupt news media. It’s been this way pretty much since the advent of television, in fact. So, while ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN/MSNBC have shown us play-by-play of the entirety of the Democrats’ ridiculous impeachment scam, with hour upon hour of Adam Schiff, Jabba the Nadler and the other house manager...

An explosion at a northwest Houston business shook part of the city early Friday, sending at least one person to a hospital, damaging nearby homes and sending firefighters scrambling to put out a resulting fire. The blast -- which occurred at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing, according to CNN affiliate KTRK -- happened around 4:15 a.m. local time (5:15 a.m. ET) in the 4500 block of Gessner Road, about an 18-mile drive northwest of downtown, authorities said. Video posted to Twitter from a camera that was mounted to a home window appears to show the blast in the distance, followed by...

Fox News host Laura Ingraham revealed on her show Wednesday night that last May, the New York Times quashed a story about a White House meeting that took place in January 2016 between Obama administration officials, Ukrainian officials, and the alleged whistleblower, which addressed Hunter Biden's position on the board of Burisma Holdings.

Our media elites arrogantly lecture about our democracy being undermined by robotic propaganda, but do they ever listen to themselves talk about the Democrats? Somehow, they think their robotic propaganda is just the "truth." The press came to witness the Senate impeachment trial, and Rep. Adam Schiff had them at hello. No member of Congress has been more dramatically partisan in this war on the Trump presidency than Schiff. Did you know he's the second coming of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg? Check out this list of the media's responses to his opening statement at the trial. 1."I think it'll go...

A young Arab boy asks his father “What is that strange hat you are wearing? The father said: “Why, my son, it is a ‘chechia.’ In the desert it protects our heads from the intense heat of the sun.” “And what is the long flowing robe you are wearing?” asked the boy. “Oh, my son!” exclaimed the father “It is very simple. This is a ‘djbellah.’ As I have told you, in the desert it is not only very hot, but the sand is always blowing. My djbellah protects the entire Body, The son then asked: “But Father, what about...

TGIFF! Its Fiddle Friday and we have Bartow Riley with That's A-Plenty (1971). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

Today’s CG hand picked by me.... Anything under 4 minutes is excellent SKNNJYBII JI K RHLLBOPEV, DSJQS DSBY NHOIHBZ, JI KEDKVI CHIL RBVTYZ VTHO XOKIN, RHL DSJQS, JP VTH DJEE IJL ZTDY GHJBLEV, AKV KEJXSL HNTY VTH. —YKLSKYJBE SKDLSTOYB 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...

"Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician." So says Hillary Clinton of her former Senate colleague and 2016 rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders. Her assessment of Sanders' populist-socialist agenda? "It's all just baloney and I feel so bad that people get sucked into it." Does that assessment still hold with Sanders now running strong in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and having emerged, according to The New York Times, as "the dominant liberal voice in the 2020 race"? "Yes, it does," said Clinton, who left open the...