Free Republic

Greater Sydney’s Hawkesbury Nepean Valley – including major urban centre Penrith – is expected to experience its worst flooding in 60 years as people around NSW are forced from their homes by incessant rain and overflowing rivers. The state’s emergency service says it will be working beyond Easter on the post-flood clean-up effort and restoration of key services in affected areas. The Bureau of Meteorology’s Justin Robinson said forecasters believed the Hawkesbury Nepean Valley would experience its worst flooding since 1961, with the spilling of a full Warragamba Dam prompting major concern. Warragamba was hit by more than 150mm of...

Quid pro ho, smoked the Mary Joe don't you know?She even said so.Listening to Tupac and Snoop Dawg like she was born in a ghettoBut then she got mean on the green, and despite her Jamaica geneShe joined the police teamand cracked down on the weed sceneAll over town, all over Willie BrownA tribute to skanks moving up in the ranksShe was laughing out loud while prosecuting the dankShe never looked back or gave a second thoughtAs she incarcerated people for smoking potTime went on and she made it to the topBut never forget, she used to be a copHer...

“To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice” (Proverbs 21:3 KJV).

A Nevada town founded a century ago by pioneers lured to the West by the promise of free land and cheap water in the desert is trying to block the U.S. government from renovating a 115-year-old earthen irrigation canal with a plan that would eliminate leaking water that local residents long have used to fill their own domestic wells. A federal judge denied the town of Fernley’s bid last year to delay plans to line parts of the Truckee Canal with concrete to make it safer after it burst and flooded nearly 600 homes in 2008. Now, lawyers for the...

A Native American tribe that calls the Capay Valley in Yolo County home is looking to move cannabis growers to another part of the county and away from the valley. In beautiful Capay Valley, cannabis farms are seen by some as a burden. “I have never locked my doors in 30 years until recently,” said Charles Opper from Rumsey. For Opper, who supports the legalization of marijuana, cannabis farms are causing him headaches. “Gasoline generators run 24/7. Refrigeration on these containers run 24/7,” he said. He said the traffic has picked up on the north end of the Capay Valley...

“Great Servant” (Mark 10:35-45) Are you familiar with what an oxymoron is? An oxymoron is when you put two words together that seem to contradict each other. The two ideas don’t belong together. The classic example is “jumbo shrimp.” Another would be “plastic silverware.” Or “civil war.” Well, today in our text we have two concepts put together that don’t seem to fit. It’s the idea of being “great,” placed side by side with the idea of being a “servant.” Those two thoughts would seem to cancel each other out. But not the way Jesus tells it. And not the...

“When Jesus Comes to a Wedding” (John 2:1-11) When Jesus comes to a wedding, that’s a good sign. It was back in Cana, and it is here today. And it’s appropriate that Jesus be here, since God instituted marriage as a good gift for man and woman, and God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is here today to bless this union of Scott and Sarah. When Jesus comes to a wedding, that’s a good sign. And it certainly was that back with the wedding at Cana. Jesus’ mother was there, Jesus got invited too, and he brought along his disciples. Jewish weddings...

Philly Commissioner Outlaw says a young black was shot 14 times, in Hot Pot Cuisine, Nicetown Pa. He was 29. Five others got shot up too, and roughly 150 people made a run for it… Commissioner Outlaw said “such large gatherings are illegal

As RedState has covered (see here and here), Kristi Noem is in a bit of hot water with Republican voters over a decision to not sign a recently passed state ban on biological men competing in women’s sports. Noem sent the bill back with suggestions that some are alleging water the bill down too much. There’s also worry that the South Dakota governor is bending the knee to corporate interests that have levied threats behind the scenes.This story has really broken out over the last day, and I’m seeing a lot of disapproval, including from people who I would have...

Is this a good economy or a bad economy? Well, that all depends on who you are talking to. For most Americans, economic conditions have been absolutely horrible ever since the COVID pandemic first arrived. More than 100,000 businesses have permanently shut down, approximately 10 million Americans are in danger of being evicted from their homes, and weekly unemployment claims have been above the old record set in the early 1980s every single week for nearly an entire year. Meanwhile, the absolutely insane polices that the Federal Reserve and our politicians in Washington have been pursuing have made the wealthy...

Lionel Richie took the stage at the 2021 Grammy Awards on Sunday night (March 14) to pay musical tribute to his late friend and collaborator, Kenny Rogers, singing Rogers' career-altering hit, "Lady," which Richie wrote. The pop superstar and American Idol judge was clad in a long, black trenchcoat in front of a backdrop of Rogers on a dark, moody stage. He delivered the romantic lyric over an acoustic guitar-dominated arrangement that was very different from Rogers' piano-driven recording, while still retaining the vibe of the iconic record. Primis Player Placeholder 'I miss you, Kenny," Richie said somberly at the...

Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska, recorded a temperature as low as -18 degrees Celsius (nearly zero degrees Fahrenheit) in the early morning. A two-day high-level talk between the United States and China has just ended in this frigid place. The high pitch of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “wolf warriors” howl and the weak U.S. response, in contrast, are really worrying.In short, the U.S. side fell into four traps set ingeniously by the CCP during the talks.First, the holding of high-level talks between the United States and China is itself a CCP trap.After Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Anthony...

There was no doubt that the U.S.-China talks, which began on March 18, would be very difficult despite the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Ministry of Foreign Affairs, repeatedly calling it a “high-level strategic dialogue.” However, as soon as the talks began, the Chinese Foreign Ministry immediately changed its tone from dialogue to confrontation.At a press conference on March 19, spokesman Zhao Lijian said, “the opening statements were fiery and theatrical.” State-run media Xinhua quickly followed Zhao’s briefing in its report by stating that the U.S. side “provoked disagreements first and that the opening statements were fiery and theatrical, which is...

Arizona legislators have ordered a recount of 2.1 million ballots for the 2020 presidential election, this time to be done by hand.The Arizona Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, released a statement confirming their intent to do another audit of the ballots from Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county.The Arizona State Senate statement released on Thursday says that they will conduct a “broad and detailed” audit, adding that they will test voting machines, scan ballots, look for IT breaches, and perform a hand count.“As thousands of our voters continue to call for a thorough audit of the 2020 election...

A federal judge this week said that the Democrat Party is close to controlling the press as he detailed what he described as shocking bias against Republicans.D.C. Circuit Court Judge Laurence Silberman outlined his opposition to the Supreme Court’s key decision in 1964 in New York Times v. Sullivan, which has since protected many media outlets from lawsuits.Silberman, a Reagan appointee, wrote that the ruling is “a threat to American Democracy” and must be overturned.“The increased power of the press is so dangerous today because we are very close to one-party control of these institutions. Our court was once concerned...

The largest asteroid to come near our planet this year will swing by Sunday (March 21), giving astronomers a rare opportunity to glimpse a remnant from the birth of our solar system, astronomers say. 2001FO32, first discovered in 2001, has a well-known orbit and poses no danger to Earth. At its closest encounter with our blue orb, the space rock will still be a whopping 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) away, about the distance you would travel if you flew 50 times around the globe. "There is no chance the asteroid will get any closer to Earth than 1.25...

Soldiers "from every echelon" of the US military have been openly questioning why last year's violent BLM and Antifa riots weren't treated like the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a comparison which has flown sideways up the ass of the military's top enlisted leader, Chief Master Sergeant Ramón "CZ" Colón-López.In a Thursday briefing at the Pentagon, Colón-López (CZ) told reporters that some troops have asked "How come you're not looking at the situation that was going on in Seattle prior to that? [Jan. 6 riot]""This is coming from every echelon that we're talking to," CZ added.The Pentagon is freaking out bc...

Director Lee Isaac Chung's heartwarming "Minari" is already a Golden Globe-winning film, and it has six chances to become an Oscar-winning one as well. The film, which consists of a small but endearing cast, follows a Korean-American family as they start a new life on an Arkansas farm. The film, Chung recently explained to Townhall, is semi-autobiographical. He grew up in the South and, as a Korean-American, he said that Christianity has always been a major part of his life. As such, he wanted to make sure he included a touch of spirituality in the film. "I still come back...

Khan was injected with China’s Sinopharm vaccine on Thursday and was probably infected before then, according to Pakistan’s Health Ministry. The Sinopharm vaccine requires two doses about a month apart and can take up to 21 days after the second injection to become fully effective. Minutes after the news broke of Khan testing positive, debate about the vaccine’s effectiveness heated up on social media in Pakistan and Sinopharm began trending here on Twitter. The Health Ministry quickly responded that the prime minister was not fully vaccinated when he contracted the virus.

New York identified its first confirmed case of the Brazilian variant of the coronavirus. Scientists at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City found the variant in a nonagenarian who resides in Brooklyn and has no known travel history, according to an announcement by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Saturday. The New York state Department of Health is working to learn more about the patient's potential contacts. "The detection of the Brazilian variant here in New York further underscores the importance of taking all the appropriate steps to continue to protect your health," Cuomo said. "While it's normal for a virus...