Free Republic

Republicans on Monday asked the Supreme Court to halt a major Pennsylvania state court ruling that extended the due date for mail ballots in the key battleground, teeing up the first test for the high court since the death of its liberal leader Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The filing comes after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled against the GOP in an election lawsuit that could help shape the race between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the Keystone State, which the president won by just over 44,000 votes in 2016. The Pennsylvania court’s decision earlier this month requires...

> TOTAL REGISTERED VOTERS: 11/08/16:DEMS: 4,217,456 REPS: 3,301,182 OTHERS: 1,204,339 6/03/20:DEMS: 4,092,963 REPS: 3,290,944 OTHERS: 1,215,657 9/28/20:DEMS: 4,150,678 REPS: 3,426,563 OTHERS: 1,265,652

Guest post by Michael Strickland. Before Michael Forest Reinoehl shot Aaron Danielson. Before Kyle Rittenhouse. Before Marquise Love punted Adam Haner’s head into the ground. Before the McCloskeys. Before Jake Gardner in Omaha. Before the Albequerqe guy shot people shouting they were going to kill him. Before Andy Ngo was attacked. Before Joey Gibson and Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys. Before riots were commonplace in Portland. Before everyone and their mother were accused of being white supremacists. Before “antifa” was a household term. Before Trump was even the nominee for President. There was me. My name is Michael Strickland....

Even if you’re not following the polls super closely like those of us at FiveThirtyEight, you probably know that Joe Biden has both a sizable and fairly stable lead over President Trump. However, you shouldn’t count Trump out just yet. Trump currently has a nearly 1 in 4 shot of winning the election,1 according to our presidential forecast, even though he only has a 1 in 10 chance of winning the national popular vote.

On the first day of my political philosophy class at Shawnee State University in the spring of 2019, a biologically male student raised his hand and I called on him, unwittingly using the now-incendiary words, “Yes, sir.” As a professor of philosophy, I view the classroom as a place of dynamic discussion and exchange. And I work hard to foster an atmosphere of civility and rational discourse, a place where students can seek truth. This student approached me after class and said that he identified as a woman and demanded, from that point on, that I refer to him as...

For six months, the rules for how Americans can vote during the coronavirus pandemic have been locked in court battles while states across the country rushed to embrace mail ballots. Now, with just weeks to go before the Nov. 3 election, voting rights advocates and Democrats have advanced on key fronts in the legal war, scoring victories that make mail voting easier, ensure votes cast by mail are counted and protect the wide distribution of mail ballots in some states.

Since we started burning fossil fuels on a widespread, global scale, the number of people killed by natural disasters has gotten smaller, not bigger Since we started burning fossil fuels on a widespread, global scale, the number of people killed by natural disasters has gotten smaller, not bigger.Does this mean that we have fewer natural disasters now than in the past?No.Instead, what it means is that the huge amount of wealth that we have created by burning fossil fuels has made us better able to withstand natural disasters.This chart shows the number of people killed (per 100,000 population) by natural disasters...

The 13,000-year-old partial tusk of an adult mammoth found in western Siberia has four images of two-humped camels engraved on it. The artifact, which measures about 70 cm (27.6 inches) in length and 10 cm (3.9 inches) in diameter, is a frontal fragment of a 1.5-m- (59-inch-) long tusk from a 35 to 40-year-old male mammoth... The researchers radiocarbon-dated the artifact to about 13,000 years ago and spotted several incisions on it... "All four animals (labeled as #1, 2, 3 and 4 in the image above) were executed in the same style, using similar techniques and tools... The main stylistic...

Oceanside Police Department told FOX 5 the woman was lying on the sand at Oceanside Harbor Beach around 10 a.m. A worker operating a tractor didn’t see the woman sleeping and ran her over, according to police. The woman, who appeared to be in her 40s, did not have identification on her. SkyFOX video showed crime scene tape and police officers surrounding the tractor. It was being used to move pipes as part of a dredging project.

In a rare atmospheric shift, Earth’s seasonal aurora borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights, will be visible to some northern states in the contiguous United States. What are the Northern Lights? The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has forecast a trend of geomagnetic storms, also called solar storms, to continue through Tuesday, September 29. These celestial weather patterns, like a shockwave of particles from the sun, bombard Earth’s magnetic shield. The interplay between those solar particles with Earth’s atoms and molecules of oxygen, nitrogen and other elements causes a dazzling dance of lights in green, indigo and violet. Where...

Wheaton theology professor Jennifer Powell McNutt, in her article An Unsung Inspiration for the Protestant Reformation: the Ethiopian Church, recounts how the Reformation–far from being an exercise in individualism–saw itself in the context of the historical church and global Christianity.  The Reformers looked to the Orthodox churches of the East and of Africa as providing a precedent for many of their reforms. When Rome insisted that there can be no church without a Pope, the Reformers pointed to the Orthodox churches, which have no Pope and whose practices pre-date those of Medieval Catholicism.  Those churches do not emphasize Purgatory and do not...

White House reporters are used to getting attacked as "fake news" these days, but on Monday several were reportedly "attacked" in a whole new way: by an angry raccoon. In an incident that sparked viral jokes on Twitter, CBS's Paula Reid said a raccoon on the White House lawn had "attacked multiple news crews." "Strong Pawnee vibes at White House this morning as a raccoon attacked multiple news crews on North Lawn. allegedly grabbed pant leg of a photographer & then a corespondent [sic] before being fended off," she tweeted, referring to the fictional town of Pawnee, Ind. from the...

Federal and state organizations are up in arms over which modern warfare tactics should be deployed against a park’s goat population. Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park has a problem: Invasive mountain goats pose a life-threatening risk to the region’s bighorn sheep. In the name of protecting the native flock, the National Park Service and the state of Wyoming developed a plan for eradication in 2018, relying mostly on aerial sharpshooters to gun down the goats from helicopters. Although the NPS initially dismissed volunteer hunters as “ineffective,” they eventually allowed for a supplemental on-the-ground anti-goat op after a significant push from...

Hello - i'm stuck in CA. the politburo here has graciously allowed gyms to reopen, but muzzles are required and valve masks have been banned for being too comfortable. i'm going to order some single-layer gauze masks off of etsy, but does anyone have any recommendations on how i can conceal the valve holes on a valve mask? (maybe by removing the valve and sewing a thin layer of gauze over it?) Has anyone used neck gaiters and cut vents in them?

The Washington Post‘s editorial board issued an endorsement of Joe Biden’s White House bid on Monday, arguing the former vice president was the right person to replace the “worst president of modern time.” “In order to expel the worst president of modern times, many voters might be willing to vote for almost anybody,” the editorial board wrote. “Fortunately, to oust President [Donald] Trump in 2020, voters do not have to lower their standards.

Mazal tov to Hannah and Methuselah on their 111 miracle babies! The proud parents are date palms grown from ancient seeds uncovered in archeological excavations in Israel. These dates, recently picked at the Arava Institute at Kibbutz Ketura in southern Israel, are a type that hasn't been tasted since the times of Jesus and the Maccabees. "Dr. Elaine Solowey, our director of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture, grew our first ancient date tree, Methuselah, in 2005," explained Miriam May, CEO of Friends of the Arava Institute. "He came from a 2,000-year-old seed found in excavations at Masada; his growth was...

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have Eternal Life." Here is my interpretation of , , , "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"__The Lord Jesus The Lord Jesus was made a sin offering. He bore the penalty of the "perish" of John 3:16 During the time the Lord Jesus hung on the Cross His Father temporarily forsook His Son while His Son was bearing the penalty of sin for the world. Here is the verse. Note the caps. "GOD MADE...

11% of childless adults say climate change is a “major reason” they don’t currently have children, while 15% say it is a “minor reason.” Childless Hispanic adults are especially likely to say climate change has factored into their reproductive decisions, at 41%. For some childless adults, climate change looms large when they consider whether or not to reproduce. According to recent Morning Consult data, 11 percent of that group say climate change is a “major reason” they do not currently have children, and 15 percent say it plays a minor role. While climate change was among the least-cited reasons for...

Genetic markers for the Clan MacDougall... descends from Dougall, King of the Isle of Man and founder of the ancient Scottish Kingdom of the Isles and Lorn. Dougall (c1140-c1207) was the eldest son of Somerled, the ancient warrior sea-king and progenitor of the MacDonald, MacAllister, and MacDougall clans. Somerled expelled his Scoto-Norse rivals from Argyll, Kintyre and the Isles but was himself a Norseman paternally, having a genetic signature that is more common in Scandinavia than in Scotland. The first genetic signature for Somerled was discovered and published in 2005 by researchers at the University of Oxford, and since then,...

Snuck into the guidance on the Employment-Based Green Card category in the Oct. 2020 Visa Bulletin from the Department of State was a chart which indicated any H-1B national from India who had been sponsored for an EB-3 Green Card before January 1, 2015, would now be able to file for an EAD work permit (Advanced Parole). In the September 2020 Visa Bulletin, that date was February 1, 2010. That is a five-year jump!!!! That means there's a possibility of more than a 100,000 Indians getting EAD cards along with their spouses and children! In the past, it was often...