Free Republic

There was nothing enjoyable, moving, or engaging about 'Joker,' which decided to trade an interesting story and compelling characters for a grim tone. “Joker” may be the best-made film that I actively hated. With brilliant acting, excellent cinematography, and phenomenal source material, this movie should have been amazing. I really wanted to love it, too. I’ve always held deep affection for comic book movies, and the more serious, artistic tone sounded exciting.Unfortunately, there was nothing enjoyable, moving, or engaging about “Joker,” which decided to trade an interesting story and compelling characters for a grim tone and a dearth of anything...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

The pilot of the helicopter that crashed and killed Kobe Bryant and eight others was almost out of blinding clouds when he suddenly plunged and crashed into a Southern California hillside, investigators and aviation experts indicated. Ara Zobayan had told air traffic control he was climbing to 4,000 feet and he rose to 2,300 feet, according to an investigative update released Friday from the National Transportation Safety Board. The helicopter was just 100 feet from the cloud tops and conceivably would have broken through into clear air in a matter of seconds. Air traffic controllers had advised Zobayan that the...

In his State of the Union address, President Trump renewed his pledge to ensure that all Americans benefit from the “most affordable, innovative, and high-quality health care system on Earth.” Under his leadership we’ve seen the end of the costly individual mandate; more-flexible insurance offerings at lower premiums; billions of dollars in savings on prescription drugs, with faster approval of generics; and our veterans empowered to choose doctors and hospitals beyond the VA system, so that they no longer need to wait to receive the care they deserve.Most recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has introduced the...

Yes, Russia Once Had Its Own Version of the SR-71 Blackbird How did it end? ...Still, brilliant Soviet engineer Pavel Tsybin came close to developing a “Soviet Blackbird”—though it, in fact, predated the A-12/Blackbird by several years and was originally conceived as a nuclear bomber. By 1957, OKB-256 had built an NM-1 three-quarter-scale demonstrator equipped with two Mikulin AM-5 turbojets instead. After multiple delays, the subsonic test model made the first of 32 test flights on April 7, 1959. These revealed the airframe’s unstable takeoff handling and flight characteristics—meaning the jet needed to be re-engineered. Supposedly, three or five RSR-020s...

The Democratic National Committee announced new rules for getting on stage for the party's Feb. 19 debate in Nevada — and they have the potential to shake up who is on the stage. The new qualification standards scrap the grassroots funding support threshold that candidates have had to meet for prior debates. That means former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who is self-funding his campaign and is not soliciting donations, could make his first appearance on stage. The DNC said Friday that candidates have three paths to the Nevada debate stage. They could reach 10% support in a...

Saint Josephine Bakhita Giuseppina Margherita Fortunata Josephine was a twin, child of an African family of property. When she was kidnapped into slavery, Sudan wasn't yet a country. She saw one of her group of fellow slaves severely beaten and abandoned to die. She suffered great cruelty from Turkish owners and was viciously, ritually scarred all over her back. She became the nanny of the daughter of Italian owners. While her mistress returned to Africa, she was left with the baby girl at a convent in Italy where she became Catholic. When her mistress returned to take her and...

Analysis: The former South Bend mayor's momentum moment renews nagging questions about experience and ability to represent people of color. MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Pete Buttigieg came into Friday night's Democratic presidential debate here riding a wave of momentum from Iowa. He walked out facing a new round of nagging questions about his inexperience and his ability to represent the interests of a diverse party. The first could have more of a direct impact on his chances in this state — where he is running neck and neck with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in recent polling — while the second threatens...

Both Pelosi and Romney – and probably almost all political figures and analysts of politics in America – have continually grossly underestimated Donald Trump. It became clear at his East Room event in the White House on Thursday that despite his meager experience, this man is a shrewd, steely gladiator of the political arena. Romney was looking to the post-Trump era when he cast his impeachment vote with the Democrats, betting that the GOP and the country will be pining for a washing away of Trumpism. It’s more likely Romney will soon find himself an ostracized, impotent legislator whose phone...

A good majority of New Hampshire Democrats are feeling existential right about now. According to a poll from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, 64 percent of Democratic voters would rather see "a giant meteor strike the Earth, extinguishing all human life" than President Trump re-elected. The poll, conducted Jan. 28–31, also shows about half of Independent voters would say the same extreme thing. How New Hampshire voters feel about the death of humanity does coincide with how well they're materially doing on this planet. While 69 percent of respondents making under $50,000 a year say they'd be cool with...

So-called “deaths of despair” in rural areas — from drug overdoses and suicide — have become so common that they have even affected our national life expectancy figures. Life expectancy in the United States has fallen for three years in a row. That is a reversal not seen since 1918 (during a pandemic) or in any other wealthy nation in modern times, as Nobel-prize winning economist Angus Deaton has pointed out. What should be done? Small town woes in many areas can be traced to the erosion of manufacturing jobs. A typical example is Lordstown, Ohio (population 3,300) which revolved around a...

Department of Water Resources and Fish and Game were using Cal-Fed (bond) funds to backfill their state budget deficits.

In the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, President Trump vowed to protect Second Amendment rights. President Trump gave an epic State of The Union (SOTU) speech on 4 February 2020. He touched on numerous themes, highlighted multiple successes of the Trump Administration, and recognized numerous exceptional individuals. President Trump honored radio talk show icon Rush Limbaugh with the highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The speech started near 9 p.m. Eastern time. About 69 minutes into the speech, President Trump spoke of freedom of religion, and his administration's commitment to protecting First Amendment rights.Then he...

For 68 years the National Prayer Breakfast has been a political oasis, a chance for Republicans, Democrats, national and world leaders to assemble and pray for each other and the nation. Not this year. One could tell where things were headed when President Trump arrived later than most other presidents and held up two newspapers with the headline "Acquitted," a reference to the vote by the GOP majority in the Senate the day before, which refused to convict him of articles of impeachment written by the Democratic majority in the House. The president then shook hands with only half of...

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council who testified in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, was “escorted out of the White House.” A federal appeals court dismissed one of several lawsuits against President Trump alleging he violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution by illegally profiting from his presidency.

LUSAKA, Zambia -- At a Chinese-run hospital in Zambia, some employees watched as people who recently returned from China showed up with coughs but were not placed in isolation. A doctor tending to those patients has stopped coming to work, and health workers have been ordered not to speak publicly about the new virus that has killed hundreds around the world. The virus that has spread through much of China has yet to be confirmed in Africa, but global health authorities are increasingly worried about the threat to the continent where an estimated 1 million Chinese now live, as some...

The wind industry claims a virtuous, moral superiority, but the millions of birds and bats that it slaughters each year, no doubt, think otherwise. If wind power proponents weren’t so arrogant and sanctimonious, the fact that their beloveds slice and dice countless birds and bats and crush millions of tonnes of beneficial insects each year would probably pass as the natural and justifiable incident of an important power source. But, starting from the position that these things are not only clean and green, but couldn’t harm a fly, leaves them wide open to a slam dunk charge of hypocrisy. Then...

Hat tip to Motzilla at The Conservatice Treehouse:

Today’s Caturday feature is getting a bird’s eye view of the world:Don’t worry, it’s a photoshop. My question: is this supposed to be the adult version of the cat who thought he was an owl…or is he serving as the  Democrat’s beacon, scanning the horizon for global warming, racism, sexism and other social injustices in order to sound the alarm? Or blow a dog whistle.And speaking of dogs, we gave short shrift to Cursday this week so I’m rolling this in as well:The Backyard Bark-o LoungerHave a great weekend. A big pot of soup is about all I’ve got on...

If you missed our livestream Clubland Q&A on Friday afternoon, here's the action replay. Simply click above and settle back for an hour-plus of my answers to questions from Mark Steyn Club members around the planet. This latest edition began with a Friday-night droning and ended on a musical note with Matt Monro and "Rule, Britannia!" - not the former singing the latter, alas. In between came a variety of topics from impeachment and Iowa and the State of the Union to Boris and Greta and climate change via Wodehouse and Waugh and woeful stand-up. You don't have to be...