Free Republic

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What if Iran doesn't actually plan to use a nuclear weapon? What if Iran wants, as various of its officials have said over the years, to prevent being toppled the way Saddam Hussein was, or Moammar Gaddafi or Hosni Mubarak? To prevent a 20-year U.S.-led invasion like that of Afghanistan? Nuclear-armed North Korea, not to mention Russia and China, have received far more forbearance from the U.S. than the leaders of Iraq, Libya, and Egypt, or the Afghan people. Yes, all things considered, its better to be a nuclear-capable Iran than not. Iran might be willing to accept delays in...

Louisiana is in play to pass a Constitutional Carry bill in 2021. SB 118 has passed a crucial Senate Committee. It is scheduled to go to the floor of the Senate on 21 April 2021. It seems likely to pass the Senate. Senate Bill 118 requires the person who would carry without a permit to be 21 years old, or older. It requires a person who is approached by a law enforcement officer to disclose they are carrying a concealed weapon. It prohibits the carrier from being under the influence of alcohol.These requirements are not required for people who carry...

Former Sen. Jeff Flake: "The Republican Party desperately needs people like Liz Cheney if we're going to be a force in the future."

President Biden on Friday signed into law a new measure that designates sesame as the ninth major food allergy and ramps up allergy research, enacting a bipartisan attempt to address marked growth in certain deadly allergies. The Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education and Research (Faster) Act passed the Senate in March and the House of Representatives this month. It received bipartisan support. In the past two decades, life-threatening childhood food allergies have risen steadily, growing by about 4 percent per year to afflict 32 million Americans, according to research by Northwestern University, McKinsey & Company, and Food Allergy Research and...

In the debate over whether one should or should not get the COVID vaccination, much has been said about the “science.” However, I’m not sure any encyclopedic knowledge of “science” is required to make this health decision. Simple statistical analysis should suffice to inform one’s ultimate decision. Statistics is primarily a study of probabilities. Fortunately, as regards COVID mortality rates, these probabilities are now known. That is, COVID mortality statistics broken down by age cohorts are now “known knowables.” For example, through statistics as of April 7, the odds an American under the age of 25 would die from COVID...

Even as millions of Americans are vaccinated, the COVID-19 pandemic has left the U.S. economy in shambles.Mortgage rates are climbing above 3 percent, while gas prices are skyrocketing—increasing more than 50 cents per gallon, with no end in sight. There is a global shortage of computer chips, generators, and houses. America’s housing market is nearly 4 million homes short of buyer demand, undermining the career prospects of Millennials and other generations. At the same time, businesses of all sizes continue to be crushed by COVID-related restrictions, especially in blue states. In February, nearly one-quarter of U.S. small and medium-sized businesses...

'Let’s make them hurt a little bit. . . . I’m also asking for your help to make a stand and take our city back.' Antifa made the Portland Mayor flee his home and they sucker punched him in the face. But in response he did nothing. Even in the final days of the Trump administration, Ted Wheeler was an indirect Antifa advocate. He was publicly offended at comparisons being drawn between the Far Left group and the January 6th Capitol Riots. Last year after the death of George Floyd, Antifa spent the summer sieging the Portland courthouse. Pushover Wheeler...

Math, unfortunately for some of us, matters. And numbers, unfortunately for all of us, can mislead. For example, President Biden’s recent $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” was sold as a COVID-19 relief bill. But the bill provided less than $200 billion to actually fight the virus. Billions more will go toward new stimulus payments and expanded child tax credits in the months and years ahead. Supporters call these provisions the new War on Poverty. And, just like the old War on Poverty, our eyes will look at the poverty rate as a scorecard. In the tornado of conjecture, opinion, and...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Psalm 44Psalm 44[a] For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A maskil.[b] 1 We have heard it with our ears, O God; our ancestors have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago. 2 With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our ancestors; you crushed the peoples and made our ancestors flourish. 3 It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face,...

TULSA, Okla. — In honor of Earth Day yesterday, Senator Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, filed Senate Bill 1065 to ban paper straws in the state of Oklahoma. “You have states, like California, where the leftist loons have banned plastic straws because they saw a video on social media about a sea turtle that was harmed by ingesting a straw,” Dahm said. “So, under the guise of helping the planet, they’ve banned plastic straws, resulting in who knows how many trees now being cut down to make paper straws.” Under the bill, if passed, any licensed food establishment in the state...

Indonesia’s navy on Saturday declared its missing submarine had sunk and cracked open, killing 53 crew members aboard, after finding items from the vessel over the past two days. Military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said the presence of an oil slick as well as debris near the site where the submarine’s last dive on Wednesday off the island of Bali were clear proof the KRI Nanggala 402 sank. Indonesia earlier considered the vessel to be only missing. Navy Chief Yudo Margono told a press conference in Bali, “If it’s an explosion, it will be in pieces. The cracks happened gradually in...

So have I got this right? This was the week we learned that knife-fighting is just a typical rite of passage for youth today, and the police should just stay out of it. Occam’s Razor would suggest this is idiocy, but I guess a knife beats even Occam’s blade, though I am surprised some nitwit hasn’t suggested that police officers deploy rocks, since rocks beat scissors, and I’m sure there’s a pusillanimous postmodern paper explaining the transitive properties of rocks to knives in the Journal of Woke Policing.

Matt Bracken of https://enemiesforeignanddomestic.com guest hosts The Alex Jones Show to expose the race based brainwashing of the public into submission. Video length approximately 34 min at Info Wars link.

When my husband and I founded Let Them Live back in 2019, the side of the pro-life movement focused on passing laws and changing policy was ascendant under a pro-life president. That side of the struggle to save unborn life could be considered the “supply-side.” Its aim is to reign in the groups whose central mission is to make abortion ubiquitous in America, especially when it comes to taxpayer dollars going to those groups. That mission to clamp down on the supply of abortion is important, but even in 2019, I knew there was more that could be done. We...

It’s just the flu, bro. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/texas/ I try not to be too obsessed with these graphs as this is an endemic disease - it will always be with us. The loser media will always point out any time any Coronavirus metric gets worse for a red state, which will randomly occur many times over the next few decades. Regardless, I must point out that Texas Coronavirus deaths are less than they have been since June 2020. I must also point out that Texas’ is currently recording significantly fewer Coronavirus deaths per capita than most blue states. - https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/2021042310359/some-democrats-push-for-permanent-expansion-of-unemployment-benefits3rd-update Democrats want...

Unknown to most people except those with an interest in solar science, the sun is about to shut down. Well, not completely – we’ll still have plenty of sunlight and heat, but the small dark blotches on the sun’s surface called sunspots, visible in the figure below, are on the verge of disappearing. According to some climate scientists, this heralds a prolonged cold stretch of maybe 35 years starting in 2020, despite global warming.How could that happen? Because sunspots, which are caused by magnetic turbulence in the sun’s interior, signal subtle changes in solar output or activity – changes that...

Outnumbered over ten to one by Soviet led forces and betrayed by their sponsor, these mostly civilian volunteers fought till the last bullet. In three days of relentless close-quarter fighting they made monkeys of the Soviet commanders at the scene and their Cuban lackeys and cannon-fodder, inflicting losses of 20 to one. Castro and Che were jittery there for awhile, urging caution in the counterattack. From the lethal fury of the attack and the horrendous casualties their troops and militia were taking, the two Soviets satraps assumed they faced at least 20,000 invading "mercenaries," as they called them. Yet it...

April 24, 2021Saturday of the Third Week of Eastertide; Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest, MartyrCathedral of Chur, Switzerland Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. First readingActs 9:31-42 ©The churches grew and were filled with the consolation of the Holy SpiritThe churches throughout Judaea, Galilee and Samaria were now left in peace, building themselves up, living in the fear of the Lord, and filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit. Peter visited one place after another and eventually came to the saints living down in Lydda. There he found a man called Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden...

It started as soon as I was old enough to form memories. My mother took me to see Gone with the Wind, in the early 1960s, when it was still playing in first run theaters. A Confederate as the hero! Disney's animated features from the past are now recognized as racist. Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, The Three Stooges, all racist! In my college years, British comedies began being popular in the Colonies. Considering how advanced Europeans are compared to guns and religion, you would think these shows at least would be empowering of the masses. But sadly, turns out...