Free Republic

Fear not those who can destroy the body. After Napoleon III banished him from France, Victor Hugo made his home first in Belgium, then in Jersey, and finally on the island of Guernsey, where he completed some of his most famous and resonant works. Hugo’s was not a complete exile. He wrote prodigiously, continued to receive friends and admirers from the continent, and evidently enjoyed life in the English Channel. But he had lost his position and his home. Such experiences change a person, though not always for the worse. Standing at a remove, Hugo felt that he could see...

On Friday, 9 April, 2021, Happy and Kristi Wade were going about a normal morning routine, as shown by their security video. Happy can be seen setting a cup of coffee on the hood of his car, and placing a box of sweets in the back seat. His wife Kristi comes out. She hears a cat growling. She takes a step back, and a bobcat attacks her from behind. Screaming, she darts between the two family vehicles, with the bobcat biting as it climbs up her back.Her husband, Happy, comes to her aid. She turns around, and he grabs the...

Kamala Harris hasn't been looking well lately. She gave a maskless interview to CNN's Dana Bash a week ago, and she looked much more jowly and wrinkly than she did just three months ago, when she took the oath of office. She has a bit more junk in the trunk now, and gone are the purple, maroon, and ivory suits; it's black or navy all the time now, the better to hide the extra jiggly bits. A lot of her sentences now begin with "Well, I mean," signaling the intellectual vacuity she's settled for, as though she's completely given up...

Donald Trump gave his retort to the Joe Biden Joint Address to Congress just hours after the speech was made. Biden addressed the nation and Congress on Wednesday night, and on the same day the apartment of former Trump attorney, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was raided. The 45th President of the United States spoke to Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo to give his retort to the speech and speak on other issues. But the biggest news of the interview came when Bartiromo asked him if he would run again for president in 2024.

Lumber prices are so high that this ordinarily sleepy industry has captured headlines around the world. The generic lumber spot price reached $1,420.50 at time of writing — more than triple the figure of December 2019. The National Association of Home Builders estimates that this has added $24,000 to the average cost of new home construction relative to this time last year. It's an unfortunate situation for builders, buyers of newly constructed homes, or anyone else who uses lumber. But it's also an unavoidable long-term consequence of some horrific policy mistakes that were made after the Great Recession. The only...

Spanish comedian Juan Joya Borja, whose infectious laughter brought him global fame, has passed away aged 65. Better known by his nickname El Risitas, meaning Giggles, the comedian became known on the internet as "Spanish laughing guy". Following appearances on national television, Borja went viral in 2014 when people started dubbing subtitles over him laughing recounting a story.

TANSTAAFL. There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. That’s the pithy way that economists convey the idea that there are always costs associated with the goods and services we consume. Some resources, if only our time, had to be expended so we could enjoy them. Despite foolish talk from politicians about giving us “free” college, higher education cannot escape costs. People must pay for all of the inputs that go into the college experience. But just how much are we paying? And what are we paying for? Those are the main questions addressed in a new study published...

Once again, we see people in the sports media obsessed with skin color. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised. After all, this is the same NFL that blessed professional athletes who disrespected the U.S. flag. The latest from the "wokes" is their reaction to the NFL draft or the potential top choices about to be selected by teams. Are the experts concerned about the character or talent of top college athletes? We used to do that but no more in the days of woke. The big deal this year is that the top quarterbacks are all white. Check this out on...

An article published this week in Quillette (which, along with Substack, is one of the best sources of thoughtful, intelligent journalism in America today) argues persuasively that grade inflation is destroying education in the United States. Author Shane Trotter describes a system where grades are no longer tied to actual achievement, where high school standards have been lowered so much that a college degree -- and absurd levels of debt -- now takes the place of a high school diploma, where self-esteem is more important than achievement and where the performance of American students relative to the rest of the...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Psalm 49Psalm 49[a] For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm. 1 Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world, 2 both low and high, rich and poor alike: 3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the meditation of my heart will give you understanding. 4 I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle: 5 Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me— 6 those who trust in their wealth and boast...

“Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:49). All believers can look forward to one day receiving new bodies and new images. Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances present a glimpse of the greatness, power, and wonder that our own resurrection bodies will have. Our Lord appeared and disappeared at will and always reappeared in other places. He was able to go through walls and doors, but He could also eat, drink, sit, talk, and be seen by others. Jesus was remarkably the same as before His death, yet...

In the gospels, Jesus told his disciples, “…on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity…men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Luke 21:25-26, NKJV). Christ’s warning to them and us is “Without hope in me, multitudes of people are literally going to die of fright!” For those who trust in God’s promises to preserve his children, however, there is glorious freedom from all fear. In fact, all who come under the lordship of Christ never need to fear again if...

Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade are ready to change the world — but first, they've got to tackle potty training their spirited 2-year-old, Kaavia James. "It's been a challenge," Union, 48, says with a laugh. "She's very strong-willed!" And since the actress and NBA All-Star welcomed Kaavia via surrogate in 2018... "My focus when it comes to any of my kids is to let them know who they are so that when other people's opinions about them are formed, it's not hitting them," says Wade, whose daughter Zaya, 13, is transgender. (The couple also have Zaire, 19, who along with...

This unexpected maneuver was undertaken despite the fact that it came in the midst of cooperative on-going conversations with Giuliani’s attorney. At some point in the 1980’s, when Rudy Giuliani was a US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, my mother went with a friend to hear him talk at a local meeting. She came home enormously impressed. The speaker, she reported, was not all that good-looking, but he was a real “comer.” As always, mother was right. After an unsuccessful run for New York City’s mayor in 1989, Giuliani was finally elected to that office in 1994...

If it doesn't look like avocado toast, you can't have it. That's the message I get loud and clear from Uncle Sam when I read story after story about the Food and Drug Administration's latest foray into stopping ordinary Americans from doing what ordinary Americans like to do. Take the latest news that the FDA is thinking about requiring tobacco companies to lower the nicotine in all cigarettes sold in the United States. Its goal is to fight nicotine addiction. The paternalists at the FDA are also considering whether this proposal should be paired with a ban on menthol products....

“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Proverbs 29:18 KJV).

Joe Biden spoke to 200 people in an address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night. Biden’s speech is taking place later than most presidents in recent years because he is feeble and can’t handle a grueling schedule. The Biden administration is using “coronavirus protocols” as their excuse to pare down the number of attendees to 200 despite the fact that Congress has had several hundred in the House Chamber earlier in the year. Joe Biden dropped this gem Wednesday night as he spoke about competing against China in the 21st Century: “We have to do more than build...

Like that January inaugural address, last night’s TelePrompter reading by our China Sock Puppet will lead to the exact opposite of anything resembling the national unity that Biden promised to bring to the office into which he has been installed. Like pretty much any Democrat presidential address, it was a speech intentionally designed to divide us along racial and class lines. It was a pretty typical Democrat speech that appealed not to unity, but to envy, jealousy, resentment and ignorance-based rage, the kind of which we see played out on the burning streets of major, Democrat-run cities every night of...

French generals who called for military rule if President Macron cannot stop 'Islamists' from 'disintegrating society' will be punished, government declares Twenty retired generals, as well as serving officers, signed the ferocious rebuke Incendiary letter claims France at risk of 'disintegration' at 'hands of Islamists' Defence Minister Florence Parly warned 'these are unacceptable actions'

Subject:The Deaf Wife Problem Bob feared his wife Peg wasn't hearing as well as she used to and he thought she might need a hearing aid. Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family Doctor to discuss the problem. The Doctor told him there is a simple informal test the husband could perform to give the Doctor a better idea about her hearing loss. 'Here's what you do,' said the Doctor, 'stand about 40 feet away from her, and in a normal conversational speaking tone see if she hears you. If not, go to 30 feet, then...