Free Republic

As the media remember Kobe Bryant’s legacy, some of them are acknowledging his faith. Americans mourned the death of the basketball legend after the media confirmed that both he and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, perished in a helicopter crash. Seven others also died in the Jan. 26 crash in California. While the tragedy made waves in the news, a more hopeful undercurrent focused on Bryant’s relationship with God. Outlets including CNN, The Washington Post, Fox News, and the New York Post mentioned the 41-year old’s faith. Bryant retired in 2016 after playing with the Los Angeles Lakers for 20 seasons –...

Will Punxsutawney Phil predicts six more weeks of impeachment? The plump Groundhog's wacky weather prediction always falls on February 2. In the Northern Hemisphere, this date traditionally marks the midpoint between the winter solstice in December and the spring equinox in March. Today February 2, the people of our nation (at least a few of us) will watch with bated breath as Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his burrow. It’s said that if Phil encounters his shadow, we’ll be in for six more weeks of winter weather, but if he doesn’t, then spring is just around the corner. So which will...

Democrats find themselves in an unenviable position for the 2020 election: they have to convince the American public that they don’t know how bad they have it at a time when we have it pretty good. Their task is like me trying to convince my 2-year-old daughter that she doesn’t really like chocolate ice cream – an impossibility. But when the alternative is to run a campaign extolling the virtues of socialism and the need for government to take life decision-making powers away from individuals, talking people out of believing reality seems like an easier task. The economy is churning...

Red Sovine has our gospel tune today: I Got Religion The Old Time Way (1956). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

Ever since Carter established the Department of Education in 1979, presidents have at least pretended to select their DOE head by looking at that person’s theories and expertise about educational opportunities for all students. Elizabeth Warren, however, has decided that all potential Education secretaries must pass muster with a single demographic: “A young trans person.” And no, this is not a story from the Babylon Bee. It’s a genuine story of Elizabeth Warren pandering on the campaign trail. At a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Elizabeth Warren was giving a speech to a young audience when she began to...

A shootout at a border wall construction site near San Diego that wounded two Mexican security guards last summer is now under FBI investigation, according to private contractors and government documents obtained by The Washington Post. The incident, which has not been publicly disclosed, occurred on the night of July 1 east of the San Ysidro border crossing, when Mexican security guards came under fire while protecting materials and equipment for Texas-based Ultimate Concrete, according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report. One of the guards was shot in the lower right buttock, and another suffered a light...

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas.

WILLOW FALLS, NY—Pastor Chuck Nielsen of Foundations Church prides himself on his powerful, moving sermons. But congregants began to grow concerned when Nielsen referenced articles from popular satire site The Babylon Bee in nearly every message. "At first, we thought he was playing along, but it became increasingly clear that he thought the Bee was real news," said church member Edna Willis. Nielsen has reportedly cited articles like "Elevation Church Debuts Water Slide Baptismal" and "Joel Osteen Sails Luxury Yacht Through Flooded Houston To Pass Out Copies Of 'Your Best Life Now'" to demonstrate how far the American church has...

MANILA, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Blood samples taken from pigs in a southern province in the Philippines, the world's 10th-largest pork consumer, tested positive for the African swine fever virus, the Department of Agriculture said on Sunday. It was the first reported case of African swine fever infections in Davao Occidental province and elsewhere in Mindanao, the southern island of the Southeast Asian nation.

/newb warning/ I know that I'm not the only freeper thats talked about what a politically charged atmosphere has to exist inside the Hard Rock Miami Stadium today. I just had to share my excitement in hoping that the stadium at least once erupts into cheers and chants of approval for our great 45th president of the USA. We have a lot to be grateful for...

Chinese authorities have been accused of leaving people to ‘starve and die’ after shocking videos emerged of police barricading families into their homes to stop the spread of coronavirus. Footage sent to Metro.co.uk shows masked men nailing huge metal bars over the doors and windows of people feared to be infected with the deadly disease. In one, a woman can be heard screaming and pleading as uniformed officers lock her inside. A sign outside her sealed off door reads: ‘This family came back from Wuhan. Stay away, no contact’. The video is believed to have emerged from Nantong, in the...

Britain is reclaiming its agency as a self-governing nation. Its example will reverberate throughout Europe. . . It’s easy to point and laugh at such an extravagant statement, but Tusk was verbalizing the incredible challenge Brexit presents to a certain kind of European mind, a mind conditioned to the idea that democracy inheres not in popular sovereignty — democratic peoples governing themselves — but in the elite administration of human rights, insulated from democratic passions and prejudices It is this worldview that has shaped the construction of the European Union. The EU is governed by an unelected Commission and an...

A Virginia Beach man is embracing a major challenge: Seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. It’s called the World Marathon Challenge. “I’m feeling good. I’m looking forward to it,” said Ashoka Arora. Ashoka Arora Arora said he has run ultra-marathons - which are 100 miles - and he has completed a few Ironman races, but now he’s taking on a whole new challenge. He said when he got into running, this was a bucket list item for him. News 3 met up with up with the 58-year-old at Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach. He said it is his...

With the coronavirus sweeping through major manufacturing hubs in China, the government has mandated shutdowns in many cities. The mandatory evacuation and closure of many businesses and schools in the area has shut down a number of manufacturing facilities and distributors located in China. In addition, many companies based in the United States and elsewhere are suspending or limiting their operations in China. The outbreak and resulting measures imposed by the government are impacting companies with manufacturing facilities, or suppliers, located in China. With no end to the outbreak in sight, the impact on the supply chain is likely to...

New Zealand has announced it will bar entry into the country from all foreign nationals arriving from mainland China due to the increasing threat from the coronavirus epidemic. The ban is in effect from Monday and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade also raised its travel advice to New Zealanders for all of mainland China to "Do not travel", the highest level. "We have been advised by health officials that while there are still a range of unknowns in the way the virus is being transmitted, we should take a precautionary approach," New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said...

A Florida man turned lizard smuggler pleaded guilty this week in federal court to trafficking live water monitor lizards from the Philippines. Akbar Akram, of Holiday, Florida, near Tampa, admitted to illegally importing more than 20 live water monitor lizards in 2016, according to the plea documents. The documents say Akram stuffed the lizards into socks and sealed them with tape, before hiding them inside electronic equipment which was shipped under a false label.

For almost a week, 21-year-old American-born college student Nicholas Schneider has been trying and failing to find a way out of Wuhan, China, the quarantined city at the heart of a fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak. An eerie calm has descended on the normally bustling streets of the city of 11 million people, where Schneider has been studying geodesy - a branch of applied mathematics - at Wuhan University, about 16km from where experts believe the new coronavirus originated in a market illegally trading in wildlife. "It's like a ghost town, barely any people and cars. It's a weird feeling. I feel...

LAS VEGAS — After a little over one week on the run, two Seattle deadly shooting suspects were caught in Las Vegas. Twenty-four year olds William Toliver and Marquise Latrelle Tolbert were booked into jail in Clark County, Nevada Saturday, according to Lt. Ken Nogle, Days Watch Commander with Las Vegas Metro Police. They were arrested near the 3700 block of West Flamingo Blvd in Las Vegas. The details as to what led up to their arrest has not been made clear yet. The two men are suspects in the shootout that left one woman dead and injured seven other...

The first death outside China connected to the novel coronavirus respiratory illness was announced Saturday by the World Health Organization. The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, responded by banning travel from the island nation to China. The deceased was described as a 44-year-old resident of Wuhan, China, the epicenter of coronavirus outbreak, who had traveled to the Philippines, WHO Philippines officials said in a news conference. A second person in the Philippines was confirmed to have the virus but has so far survived, they said. The 44-year-old, who experienced fever, coughing and a sore throat before he was hospitalized,...

A Billings Republican legislator said Saturday he believes the U.S. Constitution calls for the shooting or jailing of those who identify as socialists. State Rep. Rodney Garcia, from House District 52 on the South Side, first made a statement in the form of an unprompted question at a state party gathering in Helena Friday meant to kick off election season and offer training for party members and candidates. In his question after a speech by former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who was Montana’s representative in the U.S. House for two years, Garcia said he was concerned about socialists...