Free Republic

A new report by Sweden's Board of Health and Welfare examines mental health and the rise of gender dysphoria – a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because they feel that their gender identity and biological sex assigned at birth do not match – in the past decade. The 1,500-percent rise was seen among teenagers defined as girls at birth and aged 13-17, but other groups also saw an increase according to the report. In the same period, between 2008 and 2018, the number of registered men aged 18-24 and diagnosed with gender dysphoria grew by 400 percent.

A shocking St. Pete Polls survey late last month has Mike Bloomberg surging to second in the Florida presidential primary. The newest version from the same outfit, released Friday, shows Bloomberg is now slightly ahead among Florida Democrats, edging out former Vice President Joe Biden. St. Pete Polls conducted the survey among likely Florida voters. More than 27% selected Bloomberg as their top choice. Biden secured just under 26% support in the survey. That’s within the poll’s margin of error, which is 1.8 percentage points. But it marks a drastic shift from the previous snapshot of the race taken by...

Sports Illustrated has introduced its next slate of finalist models for its upcoming swimsuit issue, and a plus-sized model, a 56-year-old model, and a bald fitness trainer will be among them. The magazine introduced the six finalists that the magazine touted as its most diverse ever. The finalists were winnowed down from seventeen hopefuls unveiled last October, the Daily Mail reported. Before this year’s winner is announced, the magazine is set to send the finalists to a photo-shoot conducted in the Turks & Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Territory southeast of the Bahamas. The finalists include Philadelphia native Christie Valdiserri,...

n another sign of the growing financial crisis in print journalism, McClatchy (MNI), the owner or 30 US newspapers, has filed for bankruptcy protection. The company, whose newspapers include the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Charlotte Observer, The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas, says it plans to stay in business and emerge from bankruptcy in the next few months. McClatchy is the nation's second largest publisher of local newspapers behind only Gannett, the publisher of USA Today and hundreds of local newspapers. Gannett has had its...

WASHINGTON - The government’s debt is rising faster than one can say bankruptcy, default, delinquency, insolvency and ruin. If you don’t believe me, here’s what Phillip Swagel, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, told the House Budget Committee last month: “As a result of the persistently large deficits, federal debt held by the public is projected to rise to $31.4 trillion at the end of 2030, an amount equal to 98 percent of” our nation’s entire GDP. That means our entire economy. “At that point, debt would be higher as a percentage of GDP than at any point since...

If banks reported their liabilities using the same fictitious accounting that the federal government does for student loans, they’d be charged with fraud. Behold the Congressional Budget Office’s latest restatement of the cost for income-based repayment plans. The Obama Administration promoted these plans as a way to reduce student loan defaults. Borrowers who couldn’t afford their monthly payments could refinance their loans for free. They merely had to agree to pay 10% of their discretionary income for 20 years—10 years for those who work in “public service”—after which their balance would be forgiven. The number of borrowers who have enrolled...

The German economy posted zero growth in the final quarter of 2019, the federal statistics authority (Destasis) reported in preliminary statistics on Friday. The Gross domestic product (GDP) was the same in October-December as in the previous three months. The results were worse than forecast, with predictions of 0.1% growth. However, Destastis revised its results for the third quarter, with the GDO growing by 0.2% instead of the 0.1% previously reported. […] The zero growth is a reflection of broader eurozone slowness with headwinds from the US-China trade dispute and Brexit. The European Central bank has been trying to stimulate...

Red clothes:Flowers:Sweets:Special Effects:Cards:Sentiments: Correct:Incorrect: Valentine’s Day: if you’re going to do it, do it right.Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

There are three widely proclaimed verities now bandied about in the aftermath of the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday.They are that Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is a clear front-runner with a chance for a break-through to a commanding lead in the quest for the nomination. The second is that former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is a serious candidate with a chance for the Democratic nomination, and the third is that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been providentially assisted by the disintegration of the candidacy of former Vice President Joe Biden and the bunching together...

With violent confrontations on the rise, there is an increasing fear of the radicalization of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. A recent accusation from Indian intelligence points the finger at its Pakistani counterparts.Last Saturday, in the hilly jungles near the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, police forces were involved in a gunfight with a criminal gang. Local news sources reported that the police rescued three Rohingya who were kidnapped and held for ransom. Earlier that week, a clash between two armed groups in the camps injured 14 Rohingya refugees. “There were two groups,” Mohammad Kashem, one of the...

Or, the virtually ignored factors that make you miss and how to correct for them. - In America, if a gun feels good and is easy to hit with, the standard pat answer is that it has "good balance." But that’s only part of the equation and using it as a pat answer is like picking one number and saying it is the correct answer to every mathematical equation. That just don't cut it. Most people let the manufacturers tell them what they want. But often the manufacturer is concerned with their profit margin more than the fine points of...

National discussions of college athletics routinely emphasize race. That emphasis, however, is unfortunate because it diverts attention from issues that affect all student-athletes. Also, discussions of race in college sports commonly rely on questionable statistics. Some of those statistics come from a report by Shaun Harper, head of the Center on Race and Equity at the University of Southern California. His report makes the case that big-money college athletics exploits black male athletes—or, as Harper’s Washington Post op-ed read, “Black Men Will Play and White Men Will Profit.” Harper’s report provides useful data on graduation rates of black male athletes...

Bernie Sanders' victory in New Hampshire has driven the Democratic Party establishment into mass hysterics. Now they rush to embrace multibillionaire Mike Bloomberg, the former Republican mayor of New York City, to save them from President Donald Trump. Bloomberg is buying this thing. They're afraid of young people voting. But if they want a "moderate," they've got Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who came in third in New Hampshire, beating former can't-miss candidates Sen. Elizabeth "Pow Wow Chow" Warren and former Vice President Joe "Dead Man Walking to South Carolina" Biden. "Lying dog-faced pony soldier!" shouts Joe "Dead Man Walking."...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is warning that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will have to “moderate” if he continues to maintain his frontrunner status in the Democrat primary, the West Virginia lawmaker emphasizing that he is “not going socialist.” Sanders’ successes in both Iowa and New Hampshire, combined with Joe Biden’s (D) poor performances, have several lawmakers increasingly considering the possibility of Vermont’s socialist senator winning the Democrat nomination.

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalm 117 Psalm 117 1 Praise the Lord, all you nations;     extol him, all you peoples. 2 For great is his love toward us,     and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.[a] Footnotes: 1. Psalm 117:2 Hebrew Hallelu Yah New International Version (NIV)(End of Scripture Passage) . Psalm 117 is the shortest song in the Psalter. New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are...

In an exclusive interview with Pierre Thomas of ABC News, Attorney General William Barr said he will not be “bullied” by President Trump or anyone else. Barr also indicated that the president’s commentary, often delivered via Twitter, makes it “impossible” for Barr to do his job. To have public statements and tweets made about the Department (of Justice), about people in the Department, or men and women here, about cases pending in the Department, and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job to assure the courts and the prosecutors and the...

You may soon be getting your groceries delivered to you by a car with no driver. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) just approved an exemption for the autonomous vehicle startup Nuro to deploy 5,000 driverless electric delivery vehicles. The exemption is for Nuro's R2 delivery vehicle, which is the company's second-generation self-driving vehicle. It is designed only to carry packages, so there won't be any passengers inside. Nuro wrote in a blog post that the company is excited about this development. "We custom-designed R2 to enrich local commerce with last-mile delivery of consumer products, groceries, and hot food...

WASHINGTON - Fresh from handing President Trump a victory in his impeachment trial, the U.S. Senate has moved to install federal judges who have expressed disdain for the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 law that struck down rules across the South that kept African-Americans from the ballot box. Overturning voting-rights protections tends to benefit Republicans, who have said states, not the federal government, should decide the particulars of how elections are conducted. Some scholars even believe that weakening the Voting Rights Act ahead of the 2016 election helped Trump win the presidency. The first of those nominees, Andrew L....

In keeping with FR restrictions only the title of UselessA Today can be posted. The link provided is to MSN and has no viewing restrictions. However, the original article and link are: Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/02/13/antarctica-iceberg-massive-iceberg-breaks-off-pine-island-glacier/4748397002/

Is there nothing—nothing!—that the liberal media can't spin against President Trump and his administration? Take Attorney General Bill Barr's comments to an ABC correspondent that some of the president's tweets make it impossible for him to do his job. You'd think that dedicated Trump-detester Mika Brzezinski would be thrilled! But no. Mika managed to spin Barr's words in the worst possible way. On today's Morning Joe, Brzezinski declared: "It seems to me that what he’s saying is that these tweets make it harder for Bill Barr to help him be corrupt."Get the rest of the story and view the video...