Free Republic

Southwest Airlines grounded flights across the country Tuesday for the second time in less than 24 hours, amid reports of nationwide computer issues.

A brief passage from a recent UN report describes what could be the first-known case of an autonomous weapon, powered by artificial intelligence, killing in the battlefield. Nothing transforms warfare more violently than new weapons technology. In prehistoric times, it was the club, the spear, the bow and arrow, the sword. The 16th century brought rifles. The World Wars of the 20th century introduced machine guns, planes, and atomic bombs. Now we might be seeing the first stages of the next battlefield revolution: autonomous weapons powered by artificial intelligence. In March, the United Nations Security Council published an extensive report...

An underwater archaeologist from The University of Texas at Arlington is part of a research team studying 9,000-year-old stone tool artifacts discovered in Lake Huron that originated from an obsidian quarry more than 2,000 miles away in central Oregon.The obsidian flakes from the underwater archaeological site represent the oldest and farthest east confirmed specimens of western obsidian ever found in the continental United States."In this case, these tiny obsidian artifacts reveal social connections across North America 9,000 years ago," said Ashley Lemke, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at UT Arlington. "The artifacts found below the Great Lakes come from...

Charlie the Chipmunk and his human best friend. Video: 3 minutes & 3 seconds

Dr. Robert Malone (the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology) states that the FDA was warned about the dangers of the spike protein months ago. They chose to ignore the warning.He also goes on to discuss what the spike protein does https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du2wm5nhTXY

An Illinois man has pleaded guilty to accidentally shooting and killing his girlfriend as they posed for selfies with a gun. Isaiah Cole, 20, and A’Meyah T. Brewton, 21, were taking snaps with the handgun in front of a mirror in September when the tragedy unfolded, the Chicago Tribune reported. Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Money said Cole was under the influence of marijuana when he removed the pistol’s magazine and put a bullet in the chamber before then mistakenly reloading the gun.

Further to my recent remarks on seat-warmer conservatism, here is Boris Johnson at his apparently spectacularly successful global summit:Johnson said that he wants the G-7 to be 'building back better, building back greener, building back fairer, and building back more equal and in a more gender-neutral and perhaps more feminine way.'The Boris of twenty years ago would have hooted with derision at the above, and would have pelted with bread rolls and mange-tout anyone who uttered such twaddle at a Spectator lunch. I'm not sure even "long Covid" can account for a grown man committing to build back gender-neutrally. Is...

Deputy James Cady acknowledged that he didn't handle the situation well, but he told investigators he's a "country boy" who calls everyone "boy," regardless of race.

Tune in via Roku/AppleTV/AmazonFire with the America’s Voice App PM tennmountainman, if you want On/Off this list https://pluto.tv/live-tv/americas-voice https://americasvoice.app Past episodes: https://rumble.com/c/BannonsWarRoom

Scene: A donkey tied to a tree One night a ghost cut the rope and freed the donkey. The donkey went and destroyed the crops in an adjacent farmer's land. Infuriated, the farmer's wife shot the donkey and killed it. The donkey's owner was devastated at the loss. In reply, he shot dead the farmer's wife. Angered by his wife's death, the farmer took a sickle and killed the donkey's owner. The wife of the donkey's owner got so angry that she and her sons set the farmer's house on fire. The farmer, looking at his house turned into ashes,...

The tide is turning in the fight against Critical Race Theory (CRT). Following the exposure in 2020 of CRT training in agencies throughout American government, the Trump Administration issued a ban on CRT at the federal level. President Biden overturned that ban on his first day in office, but the war has gone on—and it’s turning in the direction of reason, common sense, and the American tradition of equality before the law. State legislatures from Texas to Florida have put forward bans on critical race theory. Meanwhile, local activists and parents have taken the fight to their local school boards....

GENEVA (AP) — Fresh from supportive summits with allies, Joe Biden declared himself ready Tuesday to take on Russia’s Vladimir Putin in far more confrontational talks — a climactic finish to the most important week of meetings in his young presidency. Biden meets for his first talks as president with the Russian leader on Wednesday, in what’s expected to be roughly a half-day of discussions between the two leaders and aides behind closed doors. That’s after spending much of a weeklong European trip — the foreign policy highlight of his presidency so far — working to strengthen ties with like-minded...

BRUSSELS (AP) — Over the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency and through the seeming eternity of pandemic misery and isolation, America’s partners in world affairs were waiting to exhale. As they cycled through Group of Seven, NATO and European Union summits over the last week, exhale they did, between bites of haggis mousse, pineapple weed and Dover sole. President Joe Biden — “dear Joe” to the European Commission’s chief — engaged fellow world leaders in hours of small talk, hours of large talk, fist bumps, clumsy elbow bumps, a beach barbecue overlooking the moody British seascape, “family photos” and...

Ronaldo caused a stir Monday when he stepped to the podium to talk to reporters. Sitting in front of him were two Coca-Cola bottles. He then removed the soda from his vision and brought out his unlabeled water bottle and told reporters in his native Portuguese to drink water. "It’s almost like the veterans know what they’re doing," Brady tweeted. Ronaldo revealed to Goal.com in 2020 he eats a high-protein diet with whole-grain carbs, fruits and vegetables. He eats six small meals per day or one meal every three to four hours. Portugal won the European Championship in 2016. Ronaldo...

Ask any outsider what Maine brings to mind, and the response might well be: Bone-chilling winters. Forests. Moose. Quaint fishing villages along a rocky coast. Flannel shirts and Bean boots. And lobsters—lots of lobsters. These cold-water-loving, bottom-feeding crustaceans are top of mind for many Mainers too, including Monique Coombs. She’s the director of community programs for the Maine Coast Fisherman’s Association, in Brunswick. She’s also the wife of Maine lobsterman, Herman Coombs, and the mother of 16-year-old Joceylne, who’s going into the family trade. Homarus americanus—the American lobster—is what keeps bread on the Coombs’ table. Last year during the pandemic...

Authorities have yet to name the police office who fatally shot Babbitt as she attempted to enter a secured area of the Capitol building. The husband of Ashli Babbitt has gone on television to push forward the effort to learn the name of the police officer who fatally shot his wife during the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. "Somebody up in D.C. knows," Babbitt said Monday night on the Fox News Channel's "Tucker Carlson Tonight." "I think a lot of people know, but nobody is telling us. And the silence is deafening ... I never expected to lose my wife to...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) apologized Monday for using the word “retarded” to describe disabled children during a podcast appearance over the weekend. Schumer was a guest Sunday on the “1 NYCHA” podcast, which examines public housing and related issues, when the topic turned to historic opposition to low-income and other forms of public housing. When I first was an assemblyman, they wanted to build a congregate living place for retarded children,” recalled Schumer, who represented parts of Brooklyn in Albany between 1975 and 1980. “The whole neighborhood was against it! These are harmless kids. They just needed some...

[Catholic Caucus] ‘Enough is enough’: Altman says sidelined priests will rise up against ‘tyrannical’ bishopsFr. James Altman said he is corresponding with other conservative priests who have been targeted by their bishops about a strategy for fighting back.“They don’t realize we’re going to get together and say enough is enough. They don’t get it yet. They don’t have enough brains in their heads, some of these shepherds of the Church,” Altman told Alpha News Wednesday night.The popular La Crosse, Wisconsin priest was asked to resign by Bishop William Callahan late last month for being “divisive and ineffective.” Altman is working...

Of all the questions asked, words spoken, and ink spilled on the so-called “Capitol Siege” of January 6, 2021, none hold the key to the entire event quite like what Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked of Christopher Wray. The Democrat from Minnesota asked the Trump-appointed FBI Director: Did the federal government infiltrate any of the so-called “militia” organizations claimed to be responsible for planning and executing the Capitol Siege? Christopher Wray is able to uncomfortably weasel his way out of answering the question directly, partially because Klobuchar does him the courtesy of not asking him the question directly. Klobuchar instead asks...

Employees at Lake City Ace Hardware in Seattle tried to enforce the mask mandate with a bat. https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1404885177453580288