Free Republic

Ice-coated outskirts, pagan New Year, roadside cafe waitresses, village schools - all this and more in local photographer Alexei Vasiliev's depiction of daily life in Russia's coldest region. Yakutia is Russia's largest region-five times the area of, for example, France. The distances between towns and villages here can stretch to 1,500-2,000 km. It is also home to the coldest place in the world, where snow can fall in June and the mercury can drop below -50C in winter. The Yakut frost and vicious mosquitoes are the stuff of legend and the subject of many online memes. Getting to Yakutia from...

At least 30 Taliban members died after an explosive device detonated during a bomb-making tutorial in Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province over the weekend, the Defense Post reported on Tuesday. A group of Taliban jihadists gathered at a mosque in the village of Qultaq on February 13 to receive training on how to assemble bombs and improvised explosive devices (IED). An explosive device accidentally detonated, killing at least “30 Taliban fighters including six foreign nationals who were expert mine makers,” according to the Afghan Army’s 209th Shaheen Corps, which confirmed the deadly blast in a statement released Saturday. The bodies of...

It is blue states, however, that have the real case for secession, because American politics systematically tilts money and power to smaller and more conservative states, undermining the interests of the majority of the population

A Chicago man devised an unorthodox way to reserve a parking spot — by freezing his denim pants, so they stand upright in the desired space. His only-in-the-Windy-City method of calling dibs has taken social media by storm. “Polar vortex fun: pants with nobody inside them!” wrote West Ridge’s Adam Selzer in a tweet with more than 1,300 likes. An accompanying photo shows his frozen pants standing in a parking spot as if H.G. Wells’ “Invisible Man” is guarding the space. To accomplish the in-jean-ious lifehack, the local tour guide explains that one simply needs to soak a pair of...

Heavy rains followed by an extended drought, an increase in local consumption and a drop in the number of marijuana farmers have caused a shortage in the island’s famed but largely illegal market that experts say is the worst they’ve seen. “It’s a cultural embarrassment,” said Triston Thompson, chief opportunity explorer for Tacaya, a consulting and brokerage firm for the country’s nascent legal cannabis industry. Jamaica, which foreigners have long associated with pot, reggae and Rastafarians, authorized a regulated medical marijuana industry and decriminalized small amounts of weed in 2015.

Joe Biden traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin Tuesday evening to participate in a CNN presidential town hall. Biden stole Wisconsin with a big vote dump in the middle of the night after Election Day so no doubt CNN will use Democrat plants tonight during their event. Joe Biden started the night with a huge whopper of a lie. Biden told Anderson Cooper that there was no Covid vaccine when he got into office. Thanks to President Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed,” a Covid vaccine was approved and ready to be distributed by October/November. The Biden Admin inherited Trump’s vaccination program already meeting...

So people died, and Cuomo lied, and now you’re up to date on Andrewgate. What’s next? Doubtless a lurch to the left, as the governor moves to protect his most vulnerable flank while preparing for an expected fourth-term re-election bid. Also more lies. Many more. Nonsensical deflections and outrageous fabrications come reflexively to Cuomo, as he twists in a windstorm of his own making. A less fearful, more self-confident governor — Mario Cuomo, perhaps, or certainly fellow Democrat Hugh L. Carey — would have admitted upfront that a fateful, though defensible, error had been made last March. That’s when the...

Joe Biden made another one of his bizarre gaffes during his presidential town hall on CNN. This time, Biden told Anderson Cooper that “everybody knows I like kids better than people.”

She turned to me the other morning and said, “You heard of The Gateway?” It didn’t register in the moment. She continued, “It’s blowing up on TikTok.” Later on, she elaborated: it was not in fact the ill-fated 90s computer hardware company folks were freaking out about. No, they’ve gone further back in time, to find a true treasure of functional media.The intrigue revolves around a classified 1983 CIA report on a technique called the Gateway Experience, which is a training system designed to focus brainwave output to alter consciousness and ultimately escape the restrictions of time and space. The...

The power disaster unfolding in California will soon occur across the country, if Joe Biden gets his way. The Golden State has been sweeping away the forms of energy that have provided reliable electricity for decades, under the same agenda the former vice president is planning for America as a whole.

At the end of January I watched a video message from the commissioners of the suburban Philadelphia county where my wife and I reside. According to them, it may take Pennsylvania up to a year to administer COVID vaccinations to all persons over the age of 65. We oldsters (my wife and I are 76) were told to register with the county and prepare for a long wait. This information decided the issue of whether or not we should take up residence in Florida for the remaining winter months. Not only would the weather be more congenial, according to our...

Bishops need to ‘correct’ pro-abortion Biden for ‘acting contrary’ to Catholic faith: Abp. Naumann 'When [Biden] says he is a devout Catholic, we bishops have the responsibility to correct him.'KANSAS CITY, Kansas, February 16, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — President Joe Biden must “stop defining himself as a devout Catholic” on account of his pro-abortion activism, said Kansas Archbishop Joseph Naumann in a recent interview, adding that the U.S. bishops “need to correct” the president for “acting contrary to the Catholic faith.”Naumann made these comments when asked by Catholic World Report in a Feb. 13 interview how America’s bishops ought to respond...

A former pro baseball player who built one of the largest Black-owned McDonald’s franchises claims the company forced him to sell stores to white owners in a squeeze play that violated his civil rights.

Louis Clark, the string arranger and conductor who enriched Electric Light Orchestra's music in the '70s and '80s, reportedly died Saturday, Feb. 12, at the age of 73. The musician's wife, Gloria, announced the news on Facebook. Though a cause of death has not been revealed, Clark had apparently been "ill for many months." "He passed very peacefully surrounded by love," she wrote. "This morning he watched premier league soccer and listened to the Beatles, two things he loved. This afternoon I told him I loved him, he said I love you too, and we kissed. He was gone five...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) says President Joe Biden “cannot square” opening the United States-Mexico border to thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens while also potentially restricting travel for American citizens. Reports this month have circulated that the Biden administration is leaving the door open to restricting domestic travel from state-to-state for Americans — specifically travel to and from Florida. Simultaneously, Biden has dismantled a legal wall at the southern border that has surged illegal immigration. Biden’s end to the Remain in Mexico policy, as well as a series of cooperative asylum agreements with Central America, is ensuring that...

Former President Donald Trump issued a lengthy statement attacking U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R‑KY) on Tuesday: The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political “leaders” like Sen. Mitch McConnell at its helm. McConnell’s dedication to business as usual, status quo policies, together with his lack of political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality, has rapidly driven him from Majority Leader to Minority Leader, and it will only get worse. The Democrats and Chuck Schumer play McConnell like a fiddle—they’ve never had it so good—and they want to keep it that way! We know our America...

Several House Republicans are demanding Speaker Nancy Pelosi answer questions about her actions and what she knew before the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. She's not answering. Instead her office issued a statement accusing the Republicans of trying to "deflect" responsibility for the violence away from President Trump, who was acquitted last week on a charge that he incited an insurrection. House Administration Committee Ranking Member Rodney Davis, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member James Comer and House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes sent a letter to Pelosi asking why a request...

Ohio State University is encouraging precocious teenage freshmen girls to use OnlyFans and sell pornographic images and videos of themselves as part of their annual ‘Sex Week’ event. “Starting an OnlyFans? Join us for a panel with OnlyFans content creators to discuss their experiences and destigmatizing digital sex work. “On that Demon Time, she might start an OnlyFans (OnlyFans) Big B and that B stands for bands”… cue Megan Thee Stallion & Beyoncé,” the description for the Zoom conference reads. The digital conference promoting OnlyFans is scheduled to take place on Feb. 20. It is unknown whether the fathers who...

Former president claims the church is failing those who die unbaptised before or at birth The Catholic Church’s failure to reflect its concern for the right to life of the unborn with a smilar concern for the right to eternal life of those who die unbaptised before or at birth has been highlighted by former president Mary McAleese. “These are not rare or exceptional cases. There are tens of millions of them every year. They die by clinical abortion, spontaneous miscarriage, still-birth or from fatal conditions which cause them to die in utero or soon after birth. The vast majority...

* Abdel Qader Mohamad died from COVID-19 aged 72* Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti: He was ‘a personal friend’ and ‘brother’ ROME: Top Italian Catholic clergy and politicians have been paying tribute to the imam of the city of Perugia, who died aged 72 from COVID-19. Abdel Qader Mohamad, a retired medical doctor who had lived in Perugia since the 1970s, was respected by the city’s Muslim community and strived to maintain good relations with the local Catholic Church. Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, archbishop of Perugia and chairman of the Italian Episcopal Conference, expressed his “great sadness and emotion” over the death of...