Free Republic

DAYTONA BEACH, FL—After yesterday's race was rained out, presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg made a surprise visit to the Daytona 500 today as part of his campaign. “I saw a lot of people gathered in one place having fun,” Bloomberg told reporters, “which seemed a clear indication I needed to come by and fix things.” When Bloomberg arrived at the race, he was shocked to see cars driving around at extremely unsafe speeds. With the help of police, Bloomberg began to pull aside all the cars and hand out tickets to the drivers. After enough hefty fines were handed out,...

One immense reason for our present political entanglements -- would it be OK to say "messes"? -- is the lately acquired political habit of addressing every possible human problem through politics. For instance, with regard to women's rights, the Equal Rights Amendment. We don't as a nation affirm female entitlement to opportunities long gainsaid by social convention. If patient readers will indulge an unreformed Goldwater Republican, I can't wait until we hand the White House to an American Maggie Thatcher, female and conservative to the tips of her polished nails. What's this business, then, about dusting off the failed Equal...

You knew it was coming.  Some leftists on Twitter reacted to Ryan Newman’s horrific crash at the Daytona 500 in Florida by celebrating the accident because Newman is a Trump supporter.The NASCAR driver is hospitalized in a serious condition after his car flipped and burst into flames in a 190mph crash. Newman was leading the race when the accident happened.While most normal people reacted to the crash by expressing concern for Newman’s health, some leftists on Twitter immediately rushed to politicize the tragedy.“#ryannewman is a huge Trump supporter. S**t like this happens when one supports the anti-Christ. No what I...

The San Francisco Giants have told Aubrey Huff, a key member of their 2010 World Series championship team, that he will not be welcomed back for a 10-year anniversary reunion at Oracle Park this season. The Athletic’s Steve Berman and Dan Brown were first to report the story Monday night, and the Giants released a statement confirming the decision. The Giants attributed not inviting Huff to a series of sexist and vulgar social-media posts. “Earlier this month, we reached out to Aubrey Huff to let him know that he will not be included in the upcoming 2010 World Series Championship...

The White House Correspondents’ Association is pleased to announce the lineup for its annual dinner, to be held on Saturday, April 25, 2020. Kenan Thompson, the actor and longest-tenured Saturday Night Live cast-member, will serve as the evening’s host. Hasan Minhaj, the Peabody award-winning host of Netflix’s Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, will return to the dinner as featured entertainer. “Kenan and Hasan are two of the most engaged and engaging entertainers in America. I’m thrilled they’ll help us celebrate the role of a free press in our democracy,” said Jonathan Karl, Chief White House Correspondent for ABC News...

If you have kids, or if you ever were a kid, you know about the television show Sesame Street. It’s been around for more than 50 years and it’s been appropriately described as an American institution, with lovable characters, entertaining stories, and unique music. It was the first television show to base its content on educational goals and a curriculum, and for so many children (and their parents), it made learning fun. Indeed, if there’s one street that always felt safe for children, it was Sesame Street. And why not? It features a plethora of friendly puppets, an 8-foot tall...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told a Presidents’ Day audience of investors and money managers that it’s time for a return to civility in the nation’s politics. And the man who was ousted early from the Republican primaries of 2016 gave a decidedly mixed review of the first term of President Donald Trump SNIP As for such "kingly’ duties as setting an example to which younger people can aspire, Bush found the president deficient. “The duties say if you can work hard and play by the rules you can be just like him … that’s an ‘F,’” Bush said. “That’s...

"This I pray" (Phil. 1:9). Your prayers reveal the level of your spiritual maturity. As we come to our study of godliness in Philippians 1:9-11, we note that this passage is a prayer. Typically, Paul's prayers reflected his concern that his readers would mature spiritually. That is impossible without prayer because spiritual growth depends on the Holy Spirit's power, which is tapped through prayer. Prayer is so vital that Jesus instructed His disciples to pray at all times (Luke 18:1). Paul commands us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17). Peter said we should be "of sound judgment and sober...

One of the Democrats’ favorite talking points on gun control is that we don’t need military weapons of war on America’s streets. Former mayor Pete Buttigieg has been the most effective of the presidential candidates at making this claim, because of his military background. If anyone knows whether a gun is a military weapon, it is surely an Afghanistan War veteran who was trained on these weapons. Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is the only other remaining candidate with military experience, having been a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard for 17 years, and she is the least outspoken about...

Monday, February 17, 2020 How Lord of the Rings Brings Modern Day Orcs to England Posted by Daniel Greenfield 2 Comments Before The Hobbit movies could begin their trek through theaters, Warner Brothers and the Tolkien Estate had to settle their lawsuit over profits from the original movies for an undisclosed sum. Christopher Tolkien, the now deceased son of the author, stated that the settlement would “allow The Tolkien Trust to properly pursue its charitable objectives." The Tolkien Trust was founded by Tolkien’s children in the seventies to use some of the income from the estate of the celebrated philologist...

A newly minted district attorney for a major American city vows to establish an immigration unit. At first blush, that would seem entirely normal for a prosecutor’s office. Immigration laws require enforcement, and prosecutors are in the law-enforcement business. But no—the new San Francisco DA actually has in mind an immigration defense unit. He wants to assign a staff of prosecutors to protect undocumented aliens—those who are either illegal and thus deportable to begin with, or for whom a criminal conviction could result in loss of lawful status and thus eventual deportation. The unit’s enforcement target would be not the...

NASCAR’s most significant safety improvements have come in the wake of major crashes. Restrictor plates were added to cars’ engines at Talladega and Daytona after Bobby Allison’s scary crash. Head and neck restraints became mandatory in the wake of Dale Earnhardt’s fatal crash in the 2001 Daytona 500. Energy-absorbing SAFER barriers were added to inside walls and other unprotected barriers in the wake of violent wrecks that injured Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch less than two years apart.

The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will waive federal contracting laws to speed construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Department of Homeland Security said waiving procurement regulations will allow 177 miles (283 kilometers) of wall to be built more quickly in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The 10 waived laws include requirements for having open competition, justifying selections and receiving all bonding from a contractor before any work can begin. ...Tuesday's announcement marks the first time that waivers have applied to federal procurement rules. Previously they were used to waive environmental impact reviews. The Trump...

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has just given us notice he will be terminating the Visiting Forces Agreement that governs U.S. military personnel in the islands. His notification starts the clock running on a six-month deadline. If no new agreement is negotiated, the VFA is dissolved. What triggered the decision? Duterte was offended that one of his political allies who led his anti-drug campaign in the islands, which involves extrajudicial killings of drug dealers, had been denied a U.S. visa. Yet, Duterte has never been an enthusiast of the U.S. presence. In 2016, he told his Chinese hosts in Beijing: "I...

NeverTrumpers: the single dumbest special interest group on the planet. – In an election year characterized by mind-numbing stupidity, some people still manage to stand out. Some guy named Neal Simon, writing at the NeverTrumper website called “The Bulwark,” published a piece on Monday that will go down in infamy as the single most profoundly stupid opinion piece of the 2020 election season. The headline of the piece is so desperately stupid that one doesn’t even really need to get into the guts of the thing. But here at the Campaign Update, we like to get into the guts of...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are running neck-and-neck for the top spot in Virginia’s upcoming Democratic presidential primary, according to a Monmouth University survey released early Tuesday. The poll shows Bloomberg and Sanders tied in the Old Dominion at 22 percent, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden at 18 percent. Only one other candidate, former South Bend, Ind,. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, registered double-digit support in the commonwealth at 11 percent

Here's a tune that created a little stir for the Country Gentlemen and for Rebel Records: Bringing Mary Home (1965). I was a senior in High School when this came out.

The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy Tuesday in what it said was an effort to safeguard compensation payouts for sexual abuse victims. The organization has been accused of covering up generations of abuse inflicted on thousands of its young members and failing to do enough to root out pedophiles using the youth movement to prey on minors over its 110-year history.

WESTBY, Wisconsin -- Spend any time with people who supported presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016 and you quickly find out that the reasons they voted for Trump had very little to do with him. It is likely one of the most misunderstood threads among this new conservative populist coalition. To get the real reasons for their support for Trump, you have to be where they are, have no preconceived ideas about who they are and have no prejudice for what you think their motivations are. Tom Schaub, Ralph Petersheim, Donna Leum, Kris Amundson and Ben Klinkner are all sitting...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday qualified for this week’s Democratic presidential debate in Nevada, putting him on the same stage as his rivals for the first tie in the race for the party’s nomination. The debate on Wednesday will be the ninth in the contest for who will challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election. A late entry to the race, Bloomberg, 78, has risen in public opinion polls as he pours money from his estimated $60 billion personal fortune into a national campaign, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on...