Free Republic

Rachael Blackmore became the first woman jockey to win the Champion Hurdle when she guided Honeysuckle to victory in the opening feature race of the Cheltenham Festival on Tuesday.The 31-year-old Irish rider was untroubled as the 11-10 favourite streaked clear to win by six lengths. It was unbeaten Honeysuckle’s 11th successive victory.“Absolutely incredible,” Blackmore said. “I’m speechless to be honest. I can’t believe we just won the Champion Hurdle.

At some point in the next few weeks, a B-52H bomber will carry a missile high into the air and launch it at an unprecedented velocity toward its target, according to the U.S. Air Force. If everything goes according to plan, that missile will accelerate to more than five times the speed of sound before deploying a dummy second stage that will promptly "disintegrate" somewhere in the atmosphere. The missile, known as AGM-183A, is supposed to be the first hypersonic weapon — or Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) — in the U.S. arsenal. It should move so quickly through the...

When people vote – with a moving van or a U-Haul truck – they vote for lower taxes and smaller government. That’s the conclusion from comparing a new report on freedom at the state level with the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data. Over the course of a year a net of 788,381 people moved to Florida, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, the "freest" five states in America, according to the Fraser Institute’s annual Economic Freedom in North America index. The annual report, published by Canada’s Fraser Institute, ranks the states and provinces of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico...

A Norwegian journalist bizarrely claimed she would “love to die from the AstraZeneca vaccine” if it meant other people in Europe were not discouraged from taking it. The statement was made in the headline of Linn Wiik’s article, which literally translates as “I would love to die from the AstraZeneca vaccine.” The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has been temporarily pulled by numerous countries across Europe, including Spain, France, Portugal, Cyprus, Austria, Denmark, Slovenia and Norway, due to reports of blood clotting and several deaths of people who took the jab. In response to the news, Wiik defiantly suggested that she would...

I just finished watching the 1981 Oscar-winning film from England, "Chariots of Fire", on Turner Classic Chanel. Chariots is on my top 5 list of the best movies of all time. Not so much for the acting, cinematography, or directing, those are excellent but for the message it conveys.He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run...

The China-backed Confucius Institute is rebranding to avoid public scrutiny into its work disseminating propaganda to thousands of American students. United States government oversight and faculty pushback have curtailed the influence of the Confucius Institute, which has dwindled from 103 college branches in 2017 to just 51 today. But the propaganda program is not going away without a fight. Experts say that after host institutions shutter Confucius Institutes, some of the programs continue to operate by adopting new names. The rebranding has allowed the Beijing-backed influence program to continue to shape the education of students from kindergartners to college students....

A judge has ruled that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson violated state law last year when she issued “guidance” on how absentee ballots should be evaluated. State Court of Claims Judge Christopher Murray ruled last week that Benson, a Democrat, did not follow the proper rule-making process when instructing voting clerks in October to presume the accuracy of absentee ballot signatures, and the guidance is now invalid, according to the Detroit News. "The presumption is found nowhere in state law," Murray, a Republican-appointed judge, wrote in the ruling. "The mandatory presumption goes beyond the realm of mere advice and...

GAO has no option other than to find that President Biden’s pause of the border wall funds is unlawful and should issue an opinion stating the Biden administration has broken the law.Last Congress, many Democrats, including Rep. John Yarmuth, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, claimed the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) broke the law when it paused the obligation of funds to Ukraine for 50 days to determine the best use for them. On the very first day of his administration, however, President Biden directed that funding specifically appropriated to build the wall along the...

Enjoy!Dennis Day sings "Danny Boy" on the Jack Benny Show. St. Patrick's Day 1946.

Atlanta massage parlor shooting suspect Robert Aaron Long took "full responsibility" for the string of Tuesday night attacks that left eight people dead and another person injured, authorities said Wednesday. Police officials said the events were not believed to have been racially motivated, and Long instead allegedly opened fire because he saw the locations as "an outlet for him" to succumb to purported sex-addiction temptations, police and officials said during a news conference. Long, 21, was allegedly on his way to Florida at the time of his Tuesday night arrest and indicated he was potentially going "to carry out additional...

For nearly a year now, we've been monitoring the shift toward enabling digital "passports" that will allow at least some people - those wealthy and/or fortunate enough to get their hands on the vaccine - to continue traveling and going about their lives as normal, while others are forced to continue living with COVID-inspired restrictions, potentially for years.According to a draft plan leaked to the FT, Brussels has proposed the creation of a COVID certificate to allow EU citizens who have been vaccinated, who have recently tested negative, or who can provide proof of recovery to move around the bloc...

Look, for those of you sitting there thinking, hey, Michelle was asked the question, she just answered it, just stop it. First of all, Michelle Obama doesn’t just willy nilly walk onto a set or pick up a ringing phone and talk to reporters unprepared. She and Jenna Bush unquestionably communicated prior to that interview, so that Michelle could carefully prepare answers to the questions she knew would be asked. It is entirely likely, in fact, that Michelle herself actually suggested that line of questioning so that she could roll out that specific answer. In fact, it is entirely likely...

After a much anticipated and hyped federal investigation and intelligence report into 'Russia-linked cyber attacks' found (gasp... or rather entirely as expected in yet the latest repackaged iteration of long deflated Russiagate) the Kremlin mounted an online 'interference' campaign related to the 2020 election, President Biden said in a bombshell ABC News interview that he agrees Vladimir Putin is a "killer" and that he's going to pay a price. CNN reports sanctions are likely coming, specifically targeting "people close to Russia President Vladimir Putin as soon as next week."Here's the key part of the pre-recorded interview with George Stephanopoulos which...

Londonderry Air isn't "O Danny Boy", that came a decade later, it was originally "An Irish Love Song". Would God that I, might be an apple blossom, that falls and floats, from off the twisted bough, to find a home, beside your tender blushes, and gently lie, where lies that blossom now. Or would I were, a little burnished apple, for you to gather gliding by so fair, while shade and sun, your robe of lawn will dapple, and hide together in your crown of golden hair. Or, would that I were one among the roses, that bow to greet...

There is a direct line from those who attacked the Trump administration for “family separation” at the border to the current pain and suffering of thousands of migrant children. Now that the Biden administration has carried out a policy these critics argued for, the result is a humanitarian disaster, and those who were most vocal about the care of migrant children are now silent.First, the backstory. A legal ruling says the federal government can’t detain migrant children in the United States for more than 20 days. If adults bring children with them to the southern U.S. border, assuming these children...

VIDEOWatch Joe Biden debate Joe Biden debate each other over the border surge. One Joe Biden says "don't come" to the border while the other Joe Biden demanded that they "surge to the border." Finally, a third Joe Biden interjects to declare that he has given up on the border by not even bothering to appear there.

President Biden came to the defense of his German shepherd rescue dog Major after he caused what the President described as "a minor incident" last week at the White House. Biden said Major, one of his two German shepherds, was just startled in his new home when he caused what the White House called a "minor injury" to someone last week. "You turn a corner, and there's two people you don't know at all," Biden said in an interview with ABC's Good Morning America. "And he moves to protect. But he's a sweet dog. Eighty-five percent of the people there...

The third and last remaining commissioner of the Texas utilities regulator resigned under pressure on Tuesday after the release of comments to investors vowing to protect utility profits and dismissing financial hits from a cold snap on municipal power companies. The resignation came soon after the disclosure of inflammatory comments by the Public Utility Commission Chair Arthur D’Andrea in a March 9 call with Bank of America utilities’ analysts. The call took place two days before he was to consider rescinding billions of dollars payment to utilities. His stance against repricing helped sink a proposal this week to cut $4.1...

From the beginning of the COVID-19/Wuhan virus epidemic, China's communist government has lied about the disease, its origin and its transmissibility. It has also avoided an accurate accounting of the contagion's health and economic consequences within the Peoples Republic, always insisting Chinese Communist Party leadership has minimized the pandemic's effects. We know for a fact that since early January 2020, CCP lies, denials and obfuscations have exacted a heavy worldwide price in human illness, in human lives lost and in economic damage. A Wall Street Journal article recently revealed Chinese officials didn't inform their own Chinese Center for Disease Control...

A Michigan judge ruled last week that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s last October guidance relating to ballot signature verification was not in compliance with the law and thus it’s invalid. Michigan Republican Party and Allegan County clerk Robert Genetski filed the lawsuit on Nov. 2, 2020, against Benson and Jonathan Brater, director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections. The plaintiffs claimed that the guidance Benson issued last October violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) and should be nullified. They also asked the court to declare that they have the right to request an audit of their choosing, saying the...