Free Republic

Editor's note: This column was co-authored by Jim McCoy.In Shakespeare's narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece, Roman leader Tarquin is unable to control his lust for Lucrece, the wife of his best friend. Tarquin wrestles with his principles momentarily before surrendering to his passions and forcibly raping Lucrece. Among the poem’s many themes is Tarquin’s violence and harm, a man led by his own selfish desires who cannot discern between right and wrong. Since Trump took office, we have witnessed Democrats and liberal journalists so overwhelmed by their own lust for power and control they cannot discern between right and...

Groups of conservatives, QAnon supporters, and others on social media have jumped on the release of the French coming-of-age film Cuties and a trending “Cancel Netflix” hashtag to associate the company with pedophilia. A Netflix spokesperson on Thursday defended “Cuties” as an award-winning “social commentary,” according to the DCNF, “Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children. It’s an award-winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up – and we’d encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie.” But...

The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office on Friday night warned residents of Corbett not to set up illegal checkpoints, even if their stated purpose was “keeping the community safe.” The admonition came hours after the sheriff’s office said deputies responded to reports of a brush fire near Corbett, and discovered fireworks near the scene. Neighbors heard several pops, spotted the flames and quickly extinguished the blaze, deputies said. The sheriff’s office tweet about the fireworks was shared nearly 5,000 times on Twitter. Hours later, the sheriff’s office said residents had set up checkpoints around the town. “While we understand their intent...

Yes, he did. Joe and no amount of racial pandering will change that historical fact. A Joe Biden terrified by his puppet masters that the African-American vote is slipping away from the party of pandering made that absurd claim during a rare day trip from his basement bunker to Kenosha, Wisconsin. At least his handlers were able to find and lead him to Wisconsin which Hillary Clinton failed to do in 2016. Biden had just finished a meeting with the family of Jacob Blake, the young African-American shot after struggling with police his girlfriend had called for breaking into her...

The accident in the makeshift mine occurred on Friday about 3pm local time (13:00 GMT) following heavy rains in the town of Kamituga in South Kivu province. The mine was not located on the Kamituga gold concession owned by the Canadian miner Banro Corporation, the company's chief executive said. Thousands of informal miners operate in and around mines in DRC, which produces more than half of the world's cobalt, a key component in electric car batteries. Mining accidents are common, with dozens of deaths every year in mines where often ill-equipped diggers burrow deep underground in search for ore. Last...

A man accused of starting a brush fire on state Route 167 in Puyallup was out of jail less than two hours before he was arrested a second time. On Friday, Pierce County prosecutors charged Jeffrey Acord, 36, with second-degree arson for allegedly starting a fire Wednesday that burned nearly two acres in the Route 167 median near North Meridian. He was scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court on Friday afternoon. An off-duty Fife police sergeant was traveling north on North Meridian about 1:50 p.m. when he spotted a Chevrolet pickup truck parked on the shoulder of Route 167....

In the immediate wake of the jihadist attack against America on September 11, 2001, most Americans came together with a sense of unity and a desire for revenge. Only a handful of people — Michael Moore, Ward Churchill, and Obama's Rev. Wright — came out of the box with insults against America. Soon, though, Americans took two very different paths. On the conservative side were those who stood up for America; on the leftist side were those who attacked America. On this year's 9/11, we can clearly see the binary choice Americans have going forward. As part of the White...

September 12 2020 Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time Twenty-third Saturday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 442 Reading 1 1 Cor 10:14-22 My beloved ones, avoid idolatry. I am speaking as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I am saying. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one Body, for we all partake of the one loaf. Look at Israel according to...

EXCLUSIVE: A network of left-wing groups with budgets eclipsing those of conservative powerhouses like the Heritage Foundation will likely “carpet bomb” the 2020 election with anonymous dark money, a new report obtained by Fox News warns. "If 2018 is any indicator, we should expect to see the Left carpet-bomb the 2020 presidential election with buckets of anonymous cash, while complaining about the evils of ‘dark money’ the entire time,” the report from conservative watchdog Capital Research Center says. snip

“The U.S. Forest Service used to be a profitable federal agency,” McClintock told Grimes. Up until the mid-1970s, we managed our national forests according to well-established and time-tested forest management practices. But 40 years ago, we replaced these sound management practices with what can only be described as a doctrine of benign neglect. Ponderous, Byzantine laws and regulations administered by a growing cadre of ideological zealots in our land management agencies promised to save the environment. The advocates of this doctrine have dominated our law, our policies, our courts and our federal agencies ever since. But these zealots have not...

...I have performed a simple calculation to estimate the number of coronavirus deaths of those who voted for Trump and those who voted for Clinton in the 2016 election. (This is distinct from numbers of Republicans and Democrats, of course—but this data is readily available and the Trump/Clinton distinction is, I think, a sensible proxy for Republican/Democrat under the circumstances). Election data is tabulated by county here. Daily U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 are compiled in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering database (henceforth called the JHU data) again by county. The calculation is simple and...

A man has been arrested and charged with arson for setting a fire in Phoenix that contributed to the spread of what’s now being called the Almeda fire complex. Michael Jarrod Bakkela, 41, faces two counts of first-degree arson for allegedly lighting a fire Tuesday in the area of Quail Lane and Barnum Drive that damaged 15 properties, threatened the lives of 14 people in nearby neighborhoods and contributed to the Almeda fire that ravaged the town, according to Jackson County Sheriff Nate Sickler. Police said the Almeda fire had two points of origin, one in Ashland and the other...

...In that year’s presidential election, Bucks’s swing voters helped deliver the state to then-vice president George H. W. Bush over Michael Dukakis, the Democratic governor of Massachusetts. Bush became the last Republican to win the county. And yet, in 2016, Hillary Clinton carried Bucks by fewer than 2,700 votes...This narrow margin was a forgotten factor in Trump’s statewide victory by about 44,000 votes. “Bucks was a disaster,” one Democratic media strategist told the Inquirer. In a county where Democrats have outnumbered Republicans since 2008, Clinton’s underperformance indicated that Bucks remained an unpredictable battleground. This year, suburban Philadelphia is undoubtedly Joe...

Prayers up for all the families suffering from the impact of this virus. And we're praying that the spread continues fading and that an effective treatment and vaccine are developed before the next flu season starts. And we pray that our people are able to go back to work in greater and greater numbers as the great Trump economy comes roaring back. And I believe we the people are going to tire real soon about the democrats allowing the radical leftist revolutionary blackshirt/brownshirt squads of their party using violent organized fascist tactics to rampage, riot and burn our once beautiful...

2020 has been an incredibly difficult year for the U.S. as a whole, but no part of thecountry has been hit harder than the states along the west coast. It has just been one thing after another all year long, and now unprecedented wildfires have turned the skies bright orange and blood red over vast stretches of California and Oregon. Many are using the word "apocalyptic" to describe what is happening, and others have said that the skies look like something out of a science fiction movie. And even though hundreds of thousands of acres have already burned in Oregon...

...The physical and mental strain of high-level public speaking and debates can be arduous, even debilitating. For seniors especially, constant levels of high stress can cause dangerous and lasting effects, including high blood pressure, weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and an increased risk for heart disease. If the Democrats want a healthy Joe Biden in 2021 and beyond, they would be wise to have him skip the debates and all the preparation they require. While Biden has said “he can hardly wait” to take on Trump in the debates, I don’t think his team or his proxies will let...

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MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WPDE) — Friends of Albert "AJ" Soles of Tabor City are in shock after Myrtle Beach police say he was shot and killed outside of the Cook Out on North Kings Highway early Friday morning. "He didn't deserve any of this," Ashley Azzarella said. She said Soles was her best friend. "I feel like he's the best person I've ever met in my life and been friends with. I'm so lucky to have known him," she said. "He's a huge teddy bear and he would never hurt anybody." Friends said the death is especially heartbreaking because he...

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) expressed concern that protests in Portland are continuing despite an emergency declaration, and responded to a question on the timeframe for ending the protests by stating, “we know that these protests are caused by folks who have been experiencing systemic racism in this state and in this country for decades, for centuries. And it will take time,” to “eradicate” the racism that exists in various systems. Brown said that the protests continuing despite the declaration of a state of emergency is “certainly a concern. I’ve worked with our community partners, our...

Biden megadonor Bela Bajaria was promoted this week to vice president of global TV of the left-leaning streaming giant Netflix, which is facing a wave of criticism over its airing of a French film that sexualizes 11-year-old girls. Bajaria's promotion came just days after cohosting a Hollywood-led Biden fundraiser headlined by Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.). Bajaria gave at least $100,000 and as much as $500,000 to the Biden Victory Fund as part of the fundraiser. The promotion also came one day before Cuties—a French film ...A July CNBC report ranked Netflix the most liberal major tech company. According to...