Free Republic

Most Americans tend to think of private property simply as a home – the place where the family resides, store their belongings and find shelter and safety from the elements. It’s where you live. It’s yours because you pay the mortgage and the taxes. Most people don’t give property ownership much more thought than that. There was a time when property ownership was considered to be much more. Property, and the ability to own and control it, was life itself. The great economist, John Locke, whose writings and ideas had major influence on the nation’s founders, believed that “life and...

What could be more ’80s Hollywood than two child stars sneaking off on a date to Johnny Carson’s set? SNIP Interestingly, he says that although his politics skewer very much to the left, his stand-up audience is generally Republican. “I’m very progressive so I find a way on stage to balance it,” he explained. “To not sell out and yet not let the people who voted for Trump feel less than entertained. It’s a real tightrope walk. I enjoy it and it’s because I respect people with dissenting opinions. Something that’s not happening in America right now.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday accused scandal-scarred foe Gov. Andrew Cuomo of lifting coronavirus restrictions based on his “political needs” — after the governor defied the mayor to reopen indoor fitness classes in New York City. “I want to ask a question — is this being done because of what the data and science is telling us or is this being done for political reasons?” de Blasio railed during a City Hall press briefing. “Cause it sure as hell looks like a lot of these decisions are being made by the governor because of his political needs.” De Blasio’s...

Biden’s gaffes already appear to be escalating the US’s relationship with Russia in a bad way. Russian President Vladimir Putin has reacted to President Joe Biden calling him a “killer” by challenging Biden to take part in a conversation with him broadcast live online. The Russian president upped the stakes on Thursday, offering to hold public talks via an online method – such as zoom – with Biden and directing his foreign ministry to reach out to the Americans. “I’ve just thought of this now,” Putin told a Russian state television reporter. “I want to propose to President Biden to...

"I'd like to offer Pres Biden to continue our discussions with one condition. We will do it in a LIVE BROADCAST, ONLINE. Without any lags, in an open direct discussion. I believe this could be interesting for the Russian people, and the Americans - for other countries as well."

'A celebration of womanhood and diversity' A transgender person is now one step closer to being crowned Miss USA. Kataluna Enriquez, a biological male, won the Miss Silver State USA pageant this week, an event considered the biggest preliminary competition for the Miss Nevada USA pageant, KVVU-TV reported. The outlet called it a "monumental win" for Enriquez, who will now move on to the statewide competition in the pageant circuit that leads to Miss USA and, eventually, the Miss Universe competition. The pageants, collectively run by the Miss Universe Organization, were once owned by former President Donald Trump and are...

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday urged Filipinos to learn from history and "never again allow any other tribe to compromise our sovereignty," as he marked the 500th anniversary of the landing of the Spanish expedition in the Philippines. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew landed in the Philippines on March 16, 1521, in the first circumnavigation of the world. He died on the shores of Mactan, Cebu, in a battle with chieftain Lapu-Lapu, which Duterte called "an exemplary display of firm leadership and extraordinary courage defeated and drove away the colonials."

Premiere Networks Developing Podcast On Life Of Rush Limbaugh.Mar 17, 2021 Updated Mar 17, 2021 FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailPrintSave On this, the one-month anniversary of the death of conservative talk radio groundbreaker Rush Limbaugh, Premiere Networks tells Inside Radio it will continue to provide the voice of Limbaugh for the long term. Meanwhile, plans are being developed for a podcast focused on the life of Limbaugh, with details shared at a later date.“We are commemorating Rush Limbaugh every day by sharing his words of wisdom with millions of listeners across the country,” a statement from the network read.After the death of Limbaugh on...

Teen Vogue's new editor Alexi McCammond has resigned less than two weeks after taking the job over anti-Asian tweets she wrote as a teenager which surfaced online and cost Conde Nast a seven-figure ad campaign. McCammond's resurfaced tweets include one in which she wrote: 'Googling how to not wake up with swollen Asian eyes'. Another now-deleted tweet read: 'Give me a 2/10 on my chem problem, cross out all of my work and don't explain what I did wrong… thanks a lot stupid Asian T.A. you're great.'

An elderly Asian woman fought back against a man who randomly attacked her in San Francisco and sent him to hospital covered in blood on a gurney. Xiao Zhen Xie, 76, told San Francisco's KPIX 5 that she was standing at a crossing on Market Street on Wednesday when a 39-year-old man punched her in the face. Xie said she found a nearby stick to defend herself and started pummelling him. While Xie suffered eye injuries, the unidentified man was taken away on a stretcher with his face covered in cuts. Xie then tried to go for her attacker again...

On this date in 1314, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar was burned in Paris. In a boring materialist history, Jacques de Molay was simply the head of an overrich military order whose crusading raison d’etre had become passe* with the Templars’ expulsion from the Holy Land. Scores of trumped-up heresy charges did the work of ecclesiastical assassination for this renowned brotherhood originally founded to safeguard pilgrims in the Holy Land. (There’s a fine podcast episode on the Templars’ history here.) This appears to be some sort of legitimate history. How droll! Ruthless French King Philip the Fair,...

A deadly hospital superbug has been discovered on a remote island beach, marking the first time researchers have seen this multidrug-resistant organism in the "wild". The findings, published Tuesday (March 16) in the journal mBio, may provide clues to the origins of this superbug, Candida auris, which mysteriously popped up in hospitals around the world about a decade ago. "It's a medical mystery, where did it come from," said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. The new...

Total Vaccine Doses Delivered: 151,108,445 (4,145,700 J&J) Administered: 115,730,008 (1,911,052 J&J) People Vaccinated, At Least One Dose: 75,495,716 Fully Vaccinated: 40,981,464

The Chinese government maintained tight control of a World Health Organization investigation in Wuhan into the origins of the coronavirus, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, which said that Beijing was granted veto power over which scientists were allowed to take part in the mission. According to the Journal, the constraints placed on the WHO team rendered the scientists unable to conduct a thorough investigation into the virus’ origins. A team of more than a dozen scientists, including one American, visited Wuhan last month, where they met with Chinese authorities and scientists to figure out how the...

A human plasma cell. =============================================================== For the millions of us plagued by hypersensitive, overactive, or downright abusive immune systems, it can feel like you're constantly fighting your own physical self. From incessant allergies to life-threatening anaphylaxis and debilitating autoimmune disease, the system that's supposed to be protecting us can be problematic when it goes wrong. Now, we might be closer to fixing these issues in an entirely new way. Using transgenic mice and cultures of cells taken from human tonsils, researchers have now found evidence of how our bodies might defend against the mistakes that result in conditions such as...

Brett Blomme – a former head of the Cream City LGBTQ+ Foundation which runs a Drag Queen Story Hour program – was arrested on charges of possession of child pornography. Blomme, 38, was taken into custody “following an investigation into multiple uploads of child pornography through a Kik messaging application account in October and November 2020,” according to a statement. A 44-page search warrant filed Friday by a Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) special agent said investigators found Blomme, using the name “dommasterbb,” uploaded 27 videos and images containing child pornography. Two of the files were uploaded at a Milwaukee...

In our era, ideas that until quite recently would have bordered on insane have become thoroughly entrenched in academia and, increasingly, government. The “woke” ruling classes implicitly understand—as in all the cultural revolutions of history—that their power depends on punitively enforcing falsehoods. How could this have happened, so rapidly and so pervasively? How could the accrued common wisdom of mankind have come so quickly to be regarded by so many as not only false, but deeply pernicious? Insightful contemporary writers like Carl Trueman, Yuval Levin, and others have drawn on the resources of important 20th-century theorists like Charles Taylor and...

Someone had to do it. Someone had to say it. Why are these medical experts so damn pessimistic about a virus that has a 90+ percent survival rate? They’ve been wrong about almost everything, and I thought the liberal media was the only institution to hold that title. Okay, I’ll be a little fairer—Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins noted where the medical experts have been wrong regarding masks, testing, schools, and vaccine distribution. Only pediatricians were the ones who were saying schools were safer to reopen last summer. Those are four big issues that they’ve bungled. And now, they’re...

US defense officials are increasingly warning of the potential for conflict with China over Taiwan. There is almost no way in which the US could intervene in that conflict without devastating losses. Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, ret, Defense Priorities Thu, March 18, 2021, 7:16 AM·5 min read Shiyu Kinmen County Taiwan China Shiyu, or Lion Islet, one of Taiwan's offshore islands, with the Chinese city of Xiamen in the background. Carl Court/Getty Images US defense officials are increasingly warning of the potential for conflict with China over Taiwan. There is almost no way in which the US could intervene...

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union said that Ford Motor Co.’s plan to build a new vehicle in Mexico instead of Ohio might be a violation of the auto manufacturer’s contractual commitments. “We 100 percent reject the company’s decision to put corporate greed and more potential profits over American jobs and the future of our members. We expect the company to honor its contractual commitments to this membership and when it fails to do so we will take action,” UAW Vice President Gerald Kariem said. “We are intensely exploring our options at this time,” he added. In the letter, Kariem...