Free Republic

23 centuries ago, the army of Alexander the Great marched into Jerusalem. The ensuing occupation of the Jewish capital proceeded, at the outset, with unexpected smoothness and goodwill. The Greeks had brought to the world the first secular culture aspiring to more than wealth, lust, and power. Guided by pure aestheticism, Greek art, architecture, and drama demonstrated an affinity for abstract pursuits and a singular respect for cerebral engagement. The result was a synchrony of mutual admiration and appreciation between the Jews and their new masters. Advertisement But the veneer of intellectual integrity projected by Greek culture was a sham....

As vaccines began being put into arms in New York City and indoor dining was shut down again Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that additional restrictions could be coming — potentially including a return to a full shutdown. “There’s the potential of having to do a full pause, a full shutdown, in the coming weeks, because we can’t let this kind of momentum go,” de Blasio said on CNN when asked about comments made by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week, in which the state’s top executive said a fuller shutdown could be in the offing this winter.

MADISON — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Mark Jefferson and the Republican Party of Wisconsin. The opinion, which was released this morning, says local elections officials were wrong to suggest that voters could claim the status of “indefinitely confined” based on COVID-19. The majority decision also held that if voters falsely claimed they were indefinitely confined “their ballots would not count.” But the court noted that a determination must be made in every case before tossing a ballot, as President Trump has sought in a separate lawsuit. Under Wisconsin law, a voter may receive a ballot...

He doubted the vaccine. He threatened to sue the federal government over its dispersal. He railed that he didn’t trust President Trump. Yet there was Gov. Cuomo, preening for the media as Queens critical care nurse Sandra Lindsay became the first person in the US to get the life-saving COVID-19 vaccine. As usual, Andrew had to make it all about himself.

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I have questions about the New York Times’ parenting article, “Saying Goodbye to Hanukkah,” published on Dec. 4, 2020. The piece was written by children’s book author Sarah Prager, a self-described non-Jewish woman whose Jewish father and Catholic mother raised her Unitarian. Throughout her life, she has never observed any Jewish holidays. She recounts how she (like the rest of her extended family) has chosen not to continue her family’s holiday tradition of eating latkes, lighting a menorah on Hanukkah, reciting Hebrew prayers (which, as she explains in her piece, she experienced as meaningless) and decorating their Christmas tree with...

I suppose it’s the prerogative of opinion writers to twist the facts to advance their narratives, but that’s not what fact-checkers are supposed to do.Fact-checking the fact-checkers ought to be a full-time job. It never ceases to amaze and appall how these pretend nonpartisans can take entirely true statements that threaten the mainstream media’s narrative and twist them so far as to make them appear false. Over the weekend, Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler gave “three Pinocchios” to an assertion President Trump made during his speech last week about the presidential election, based on a report published by my think...

@pastormarkburns BREAKING: President Trump will pardon Julian Assange.

Good Morning/Afternoon, MEGAHappyHanukahMerryChristmassTheCovidVaccinesHaveBeenSentOutAndHappyAdventDITTOS!

A company that provides voting systems in 28 states uses an Internet technology firm that was hacked.Dominion Voting Systems uses SolarWinds software, according to a Dominion web page.SolarWinds does not list Dominion on its partial customer listing but says its products and services are used by more than 300,000 customers around the world, including all five branches of the U.S. military and more than 425 of the U.S. Fortune 500.The situation with SolarWinds software enabled hackers to gain access to the U.S. Commerce Department and, reportedly, the Treasury Department.SolarWinds Orion products are currently being exploited by malicious actors, the Department...

A Queens critical care nurse who has been on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic has become the first person in New York – and the first person in the US – to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, was vaccinated with the first dose of the two-dose shot on-camera at around 9:20 a.m. at the Queens hospital as Gov. Andrew Cuomo looked on via livestream

f they were principled and actually cared about protecting women, then Democrats would be doing whatever they could to openly and honestly discuss the allegations surrounding Joe Biden’s conduct. That would be honorable, and, I think, widely applauded by most of America. But that’s not what they did. Instead, they’ve reneged on their principles and launched a full-throated defense of Joe Biden. Elizabeth Warren said she believes him and, in doing so, showed that she has completely forgotten what she said during the Kavanaugh confirmation. Biden, being senile, hasn’t said much other than that he denies it. Kamala Harris is...

Electing Warnock is a key step toward reaching Schumer’s goal of totally changing AmericaSen. Kelly Loeffler has asserted that Raphael Warnock is “the most radically liberal candidate we have seen in this country for Senate.” Is that just a political charge in a heated campaign, or is Warnock more radical than liberal? Here is his record. You decide. Betsy McCaughey, for the New York Post reported on Dec. 8: “At the debate, Warnock didn’t deny he wants to eliminate cash bail and empty the prisons. He promoted the false narrative that police disproportionately kill Blacks more than Whites suspected of...

Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister for China, celebrated the presumed return of former vice president Joe Biden to the White House by saying it marked a “return to the right track.” Speaking to the board of the US-China Business Council (USCBC), the representative of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) revealed his goal of improving relations with the United States. That goal would require the removal of barriers put in place to smooth dialogue. The hard-line stance of the Trump administration, for instance. ... “Based on the direction of mutual benefits for our two peoples and countries,” he continued, “we need...

Early Sunday afternoon news emerged that the Cleveland Indians were preparing to change the team’s name in an effort to appease parties that are offended by it. Later that same day, President Donald Trump weighed in on the matter.

Archaeologists researching on an underwater diving project, stumbled over an ancient underwater temple claimed as Heracleion’s ‘Egyptian Atlantis’ and probably have found a destroyed ancient Greek temple and treasure-laden vessels which might have sunken into the sea due to floods and tsunami 1,200 years back.

It is hard to believe the justices put the constitutional question above their desire to avoid appearing to meddle in the 2020 election.Late Friday, the Supreme Court rejected Texas’s election-related lawsuit against fellow states Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia. The Supreme Court was right—and wrong. A week ago today, Texas filed a Motion for Leave to file a Bill of Complaint in the U.S. Supreme Court against the four states, charging constitutional violations related to the 2020 election. Texas also sought preliminary injunctive relief to prevent the putative defendant states from taking further actions related to the election. Two days...

According to police, a man was held at gunpoint for his Silver Nissan Rogue by a woman with five children on the West Side Saturday night. The incident occurred near Martinez Creek Trail on at 11:35 p.m. Saturday night. Officials say the man drove to Martinez Creek Trail to meet up with a female, then when he arrived at the street, a woman with five kids held him at gunpoint demanding the keys to his vehicle. The man handed his keys to the woman, she placed her children in the vehicle and headed northbound on Cincinnati Street towards Interstate 10,...

Media-anointed President-Elect Joe Biden acknowledged that "Trump beat the living hell out of us across the country" and thanked "the courageous few in the swing states who went the extra mile to overcome the massive lead he held before our special ops team found the votes needed to change the outcome." "While I can't name all of these heroes, I want to thank the governors and judges whose late changes in the rules for mail-in ballots allowed us to bypass the ID requirements that would have deterred the acceptance of ballots cast by unidentified persons and in the names of...

An Australian woman plunged about 260 feet to her death in front of her horrified husband and two sons after climbing over a safety barrier at a “perfect selfie” spot at a nature reserve, according to reports. Rosy Loomba, 38, of Craigieburn, was hiking with her family at the picturesque Grampians National Park in Victoria on Saturday afternoon when she decided to pose for a photo at the Boroka lookout near the village of Halls Gap, news.com.au reported. Police have issued many warnings about the dangers of the idyllic spot — famed on Instagram as the “perfect selfie” spot —...