Free Republic

America’s racist!!! One would think, if America is to be considered a racist country, we’d want to know the definition of the word. And who better to get that definition from but a giant of the anti-racist movement, Ibram X. Kendi, the author of How to Be an Antiracist. Here’s Mr. Kendi’s definition of racism: "I would define it as a collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequity that are substantiated by racist ideas…" Apparently Dr. Kendi missed that day in kindergarten where the teacher said “You cannot use the word you’re trying to define in the definition...

Ivory Hecker, an astute and brave local Fox reporter, interviewed Dr. Joseph Varon, despite Fox threatening her job if the unedited interview went live. It's worth listening to in its entirety, but here's some of what it says.It's certainly not the first time Dr. Varon's been interviewed. He's talked with the media 1,640 times, including Hecker's interview. The first 1,639 interviews were edited to exclude specific information about his successes in treating hospitalized COVID patients.This doctor is certainly no quack. He's chief of staff at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas. He invented the MATH+ protocol for treatment, and...

The court said it would not take up the florist's appeal, leaving the state court rulings against her intact and again ducking the hot-button issue. The Supreme Court on Friday declined to wade into the contentious issue of whether businesses have a right to refuse service for same-sex wedding ceremonies despite state laws forbidding them from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. The court dodged the wedding question three years ago in a case involving a Colorado baker who said baking a cake to celebrate a same-sex marriage would violate his right of free expression and religious beliefs. The...

Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 9:9-13 Friends, our Gospel for today is the simple but magnificent story of the conversion of Matthew. I urge you to read it and meditate upon it this week, for it’s about you. The Bible says that Jesus told Matthew, “Follow me.” The call of Jesus is meant to get into your mind, and then past your mind into your body, and then through your body into your life, into your most practical decisions. And then we hear that Matthew “got up and followed him.” The verb used here in the Greek is the...

On Kamala Harris, looks like some sort of salvage operation has begun for this Biden administration shipwreck. That's evident enough in two stories from swamp-beltway media, using named and unnamed sources, both of which say the same thing: There's this from Axios: Top White House officials are mobilizing to defend Vice President Kamala Harris amid a gusher of leaks about dysfunction and infighting in her office. Driving the news: White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told Axios in a statement: "The President's trust and confidence in her is obvious when you see them in the Oval Office together." Biden...

VIDEOThe second best thing about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Arizona election integrity laws (which the media calls voter restriction laws) is the reaction it caused in the media. So in addition to standing up for the integrity of the state voting system, the SCOTUS also inadvertently provided us with very entertaining hilarious media freakouts. The SCOTUS cherry on top is revealed at the end of the video.

U.S. officials are sounding the alarm on China’s growing nuclear arsenal. Specifically, the State Department voiced concern over the rapid expansion. During a press briefing on Thursday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price urged Beijing to reduce its nuclear arms. According to a Washington Post report on Wednesday, Chinese officials have started construction on roughly 100 new missile silos located in a western desert region of the country. Price said the build-up of China’s nuclear arsenal is concerning and is raising questions on their intentions.

Even as more Americans seem optimistic that life is returning to normal, half of U.S. adults are worried that another surge of COVID-19 infections could threaten the country, according to the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll. With states dropping pandemic restrictions and the most transmissible coronavirus variant so far on the rise, the concern about another wave is most pronounced among 74 percent of Democrats. Forty-nine percent of U.S. adults are not concerned, including 72 percent of Republicans, reflecting the pervasive partisan divide that has hindered the nation’s pandemic response.

WASHINGTON, Monday, July 1. I think I have obtained a sight of the small live coal that made so much compromise smoke a few days since. There has been talk of a compromise, and I have no doubt there is a compromise sentiment in the Cabinet, and in the army, or rather a desire to arrange with the rebel States for a peaceful separation. Those entertaining this feeling sought to ascertain the public pulse, and they put out this compromise suggestion as a feeler -- very much as some good loyal men, acting under Gen. MCDOWELL's orders, send up rockets...

Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have both said their two-dose vaccines are protective for at least six months

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas.

A Republican-led drive to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, will go to a special vote on Sept. 14, the lieutenant governor declared on Thursday, shortly after the state's top election official certified the recall petition. The race to oust Newsom 2-1/2 years into his four-year term is shaping up to be chaotic, as several high-profile Republicans - including transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner - have said they will run to replace him.

When cruise ships depart from Florida’s ports in the coming months, some won’t require passengers to get the most effective pandemic life preserver there is — a Covid-19 vaccination. That’s because of new legislation Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed that bars businesses from requiring customers to show proof of vaccinations. The law goes into effect Thursday and opponents say it could threaten the recovery of an industry that is vital to the state’s economy, in addition to making it difficult for cruise ship companies to put some teeth into the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination recommendations. At...

As parents across America take to school board meetings to challenge state-sanctioned racism being taught in schools, the National Education Association (NEA) wants them to know it’s just about had it with their interference. But it’s hard to swat away thousands of parents who refuse to capitulate when their children are at stake. So NEA has vowed to go after organizations that it believes are instigating the uprising. This strategy fundamentally misinterprets what’s going on in the nation’s school districts. It will fail. The issue, of course, is Critical Race Theory (CRT), sometimes called (as by the NEA) antiracism. The...

Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) on Friday claimed that the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was worse than the 2012 Benghazi attack. McCaskill said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that she does not want to “minimize the loss of life in Benghazi” but argued the Capitol riot was “more foundation-shaking to our democracy.” She noted that Benghazi had numerous investigations and called into question why Republicans are refusing to investigate the riot the same way they did Benghazi.

College athletes’ rights, including their economic rights, have long been denied. American college sports have existed under an antiquated and oft-changing definition of amateurism that requires athletes to forfeit any pay for their efforts on the field or court. Despite the revenue explosions in the industry, and the wealth flowing into athletics departments, amateurism has been the rule. Moreover, college athletes are also denied basic freedoms that most college students and Americans take for granted such as the right to protest under the First Amendment and the freedom to transfer between schools. However, the rules for American college sports are...

Amy Mek (@AmyMek) Tweeted: Islamic Attack: Jihadi Khaled Awad stabbed a Rabbi in Boston Awad is being charged with “assault and battery” not terrorism!? At what point will the Democrats be forced to address Islamic antisemitism? They seem way to busy creating fake “islamophobic” “hate crimes.”

When it comes to government control, there is usually a slippery slope into the depths of authoritarianism. Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti recently introduced Bill C-36 to Parliament, titled "An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act and to make related amendments to another Act (hate propaganda, hate crimes and hate speech)." If the name was not obvious enough, this is code for censoring speech the Canadian government does not agree with. The bill, if passed, would allow the government to fine its own citizens for content that violates their definition...

According to city data, there have been 41 homicides in Minneapolis so far in 2021. That is a 46 percent increase on the number for the same period in 2020. It is more than double the average for the same period in the ten years from 2010 to 2019 — 16. Violent crimes more generally are up 29 percent for the period since the start of 2021 compared to the same period last year. Indeed, violent crime in this period of 2021 is up 44 percent from the average of the same period for the ten years from 2010 to...

Donald Trump has long claimed that investigations of him are a partisan “witch hunt.” Manhattan DA Cy Vance seems determined to make Trump’s point for him by indicting the Trump Organization along with its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. The 15-count indictment throws a kitchen sink of charges, including grand larceny, conspiracy, scheme to defraud,and tax fraud. But the whole thing comes down to paying perks to Weisselberg — such as his parking garage fees, tuition for family members and reimbursement of holiday gratuities — and not reporting them as taxable income, or reporting that the wrong Trump entity paid...