Free Republic

(Warning to reader: this introduction is choppy. I am just trying to accommodate the public by getting blocks of my narrative up quickly. When I finally weave them all into one story I will improve the writing, add more links etc. Last edited/augmented 1/26 7 PM Eastern). On the last day of July, 2020 a dear friend of mine from Montana, a stolid, Native American fellow several years my junior, visited me at my home in Utah to check on my health. Weeks earlier I had had surgery on my spinal chord, as one of my legs had gone paralyzed...

These training videos are reportedly used at companies such as Dolby, LiveNation, Netflix, Yelp, BuzzFeed, and The New York Times. I can't believe what they put their employees through...

A Los Angeles school plans to host segregated “dialogue sessions” in an attempt to foster “inclusion” and fight against racism. The events, hosted by the Brentwood School in Los Angeles, will act as information-seeking sessions, with the goal of “leading best practices in order to create identity-affirming, psychologically safe environments in which to facilitate conversations around complex topics such as anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion.” A schedule shows dates and times for various groups, with separate sessions being held for black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish, and “LGBTQIA+” participants. “Over 50 different session groupings, organized by constituencies, are offered from January...

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). All Christians are part of the same Body, with the same Spirit, who is our pledge of eternal life. Everything God ever designed for the church is based on the unity of believers. Paul emphasizes that by listing seven “ones” in these verses. One is the key; it is the cause of the worthy walk. How many...

There were ten thousand or more reasons for people to love Jesus and not one reason to hate him. The four Gospels portray him as kind, patient, long-suffering, full of tenderness, forgiving, not willing that one person should perish. He is called a shepherd, a teacher, a brother, a light in darkness, a physician, an advocate, a reconciler. Jesus gave no cause whatsoever that he should be hated by anyone. So why did the world hate Christ, both then and now? He promised to deliver the people from their chains of darkness and set men everywhere free from all satanic...

The coronavirus continues to spread with more than 25 million cases nationwide since the pandemic began. And as new, more contagious variants of the virus emerge, many wonder how to keep themselves and others most protected. Dr. Anthony Fauci recently told NBC News’ Today that wearing two masks at a time “just makes common sense,” which has caused many to consider double masking. If you’re considering purchasing more masks to start double layering, check out these 15 good options below that are available for purchase online now. Masks prevent respiratory droplets from moving through the air when the wearer sneezes,...

January 22, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — In what some have suggested is politicized timing, the World Health Organization on Wednesday changed the protocol for COVID-19 tests, which will result in large reductions in the numbers of positive cases. The body took this action just one hour after Joe Biden was sworn in as president of the United States. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidance regarding the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which is being widely used across the globe in order to detect cases of COVID-19. In a short information notice, the WHO referred back to an instruction...

The era of electric cars isn't coming; it's already here. Though they still make up a small portion of the new car market, EVs are where the action is when it comes to the exciting realms of vehicular development. No longer are they battery-powered compliance cars or subcompact shuttles for the crunchy granola set; today's electric vehicles come in a broad range of sizes, shapes and prices. Still, while Tesla may have carved out a solid niche as purveyor of cutting-edge automobiles, Porsche has redefined sport sedans and Audi and Jaguar have whipped up stylish crossovers that feel imported from...

A new study out of New Jersey shows that the controversial antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine could help people with mild symptoms of COVID-19. Hackensack Meridian Health published a new study that found outpatients who received the anti-inflammatory drug last year were much less likely to be hospitalized, NorthJersey.com reported. Andrew Yip, the director of the Division of Outcomes and Value Research at the John Theurer Cancer Center, cautioned people against jumping to conclusions about the drug, as it needs to be studied further before it is approved for use. “If you’re going to say it’s a cure, that’s definitely crazy,” Ip...

This article was first published July 29, 2015A current Centers for Disease Control (CDC) senior scientist has made an unprecedented admission: he and his colleagues--he says-- committed scientific misconduct to cover up a meaningful link between vaccines and autism in black boys.Just as startling, the CDC scientist, Dr. William Thompson, says the study co-authors "scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the study. The remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into the meeting room, and reviewed and went through all the hardcopy documents that we had thought we should discard, and put them into...

WILMINGTON, Delaware (WPVI) -- Commuters can expect to see delays on Interstate 95 through Wilmington beginning in February. It's time for some rehabilitation, according to the Delaware Department of Transportation, which will be restoring a nearly one-mile corridor through Wilmington. They will also be overhauling 19 bridges to make sure it's safe for the next 30 years. The project will take about two years, and some commuters are frustrated. "Very frustrating. It's already always congested with traffic. So, if it's down to one lane, it's going to be even worse," said Stephanie Gentile from Tinicum. Traffic will be reduced by...

Wall Street giants are calling foul after having been beaten at their own game by a bunch of guys on the internet. It's hard not to cheer. Sometimes heroism has a name, and sometimes — well, at least once — that name is u/ronoron. In recent weeks, users of a Reddit message board called r/WallStreetBets decided that they would like to do something they'd tried to do often in the past: mess with a big hedge fund trying to short a public company. In this case, they wanted to mess with the hedge fund attacking GameStop, the debt-mired retail chain...

Recent events have thrust the practice of selling a stock short into the spotlight. With companies like GameStop (NYSE: GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings seeing their shares soar as the result of short squeezes, everyone's getting an education about the dynamics of short-selling and how it actually works. In this latest short-selling controversy, many investors have been confused by the sheer level of exposure that short-sellers have to certain stocks. For instance, GameStop recently had short interest that exceeded 100% of its available shares. That left many investors completely gobsmacked -- but there's a simple explanation for how situations like...

CNN’s Editor-at-Large Chris Cillizza was so obsessed with former President Donald Trump that he tried to blame him for an unrelated GameStop stock short squeeze caused by Reddit users. CNN’s never-ending fixation on Trump actually made him look good this time. Cillizza published an absurd story headlined, “How Trumpism explains the GameStop stock surge.” Cillizza bleated: “At the core of Donald Trump's angry populist appeal was -- and is -- this sentiment: The elites think they know better than you. They think they can tell you how to live and what to believe. But guess what? We the people are...

Biowarfare is as the ancients dumping corpses in each other’s wells, and by the Cold War, both sides had developed storehouses of biological weapons alongside their nuclear weapons. Mutually Assured Destruction kept the world from dying from radiation poisoning or plague. The deadly weapons of the Cold War stalemated each other so that neither side could use its weapons without unleashing massive destruction. Both the US and the USSR wargamed the use of ‘low-yield’ battlefield nuclear weapons that would allow for strategic victories without triggering a full-scale nuclear war that would kill billions of people and wreck both sides. The...

Reports are coming in that Robinhood, the stock broker app, is forcibly selling shares of GameStop on behalf of some of its users. The transactions cannot be canceled and it is being positioned as mitigating “unreasonable risk” on behalf of the company as well as the investor. Billionaire hedge funds have been taking a huge hit after a Reddit group started buying up GameStop shares in an effort to counter a massive amount of short positions. This prompted a “short squeeze” that sent the stock skyrocketing. As the dominos fell, GameStop reached a high of over $400 dollars per share,...

The chief of staff for Israel's Defense Forces said this week Iran is close, just "months" or "weeks" away from developing a nuclear weapon, the Times of Israel reports. "No one has any doubt: Iran hopes, wants, identified, and built the capabilities necessary to be a military nuclear power, and maybe even use them when it decides it wants to," Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi said in a speech to Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy met with former President Trump at Mar-a-lago Thursday where the two agreed to work together on Republicans taking back the House in 2022. McCarthy, who once said Trump "bears responsibility" for the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, reunited with Trump in Florida for a "very good and cordial" meeting where McCarthy welcomed Trump's support in promoting GOP House candidates in the next election, according to a readout from Trump's team.

You ever hear stories of someone buying a used car only to have it breakdown a mile from the lot? That car is Joe Biden. Do you know a person who invested in a fixer upper only to find it had asbestos, lead paint, a radon gas leak, and no one willing to approve building permits for renovations? That waste of space is Joe “I don’t know what I’m signing” Biden. I knew his leadership would be bad, but I have whiplash at this point, it’s SO BAD. The Titanic sank slower than this. In his first week in office,...

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has declined to run for U.S. Senate in Ohio to replace Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), who announced he will not seek re-election next year. In a statement to Cleveland.com, a spokesperson for Jordan said that the lawmaker “is solely focused on representing the great people of Ohio’s Fourth District, and will not be running to fill the seat of retiring Senator Rob Portman.”