Free Republic

The conservative Presbyterian Church in America voted Thursday to disqualify all gay men from serving in its ministry. The 1,400-400 vote to change its governing document came at the denomination’s 48th General Assembly, held this week in St. Louis. The rule change, known as “Overture 23,” will go to local church bodies known as “presbyteries” for a vote before a second round of convention balloting next year that would place the language in the denomination’s “Book of Church Order,” which governs PCA practice....

On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Réard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Réard dubbed “bikini,” inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week. European women first began wearing two-piece bathing suits that consisted of a halter top and shorts in the 1930s, but only a sliver of the midriff was revealed and the navel was vigilantly covered. In the United States, the modest two-piece made its appearance...

The suspicious death in December 2020 of a Uyghur plant biology researcher at a detention facility in Xinjiang has drawn attention on social media. Mihriay Erkin, 29, left her job at Japan’s Nara Technology and Science Institute in June 2019 and returned to China over concerns about the safety of her parents in Xinjiang. She was arbitrarily detained and sent to the Yanbulaq detention center in Kashgar in February 2020. Her relatives blame Chinese authorities for her death, which they say they learned about only recently. China denies all allegations pertaining to the persecution of Uyghurs and calls the internment...

A massive explosion at a factory on the outskirts of Bangkok has damaged homes in the surrounding neighborhoods and prompted the evacuation of a wide area over fears of poisonous fumes from burning chemicals and the possibility of additional detonations. Styrene monomer, a hazardous liquid chemical used in the production of disposable foam plates, cups and other products, can produce poisonous fumes when ignited. Chailit said officials were trying to move all people out of the area, including doctors and patients from the neighborhood's main hospital where many of the casualties were initially treated, over fear of the fumes and...

Catholics band together to support faithful priests ‘canceled’ by bishopsApproximately 1,000 people gathered for the Coalition for Catholic Priests kickoff event in Illinois. (Photo courtesy of Coalition for Canceled Priests)Catholic clergy who feel they are being targeted by their bishops received a shot in the arm late last month.An organization called the Coalition for Canceled Priests has just been launched.On its website, the group says its goal is to provide “moral and material support” to priests who are “persecuted by forces in the secular world or … in the Church.”“We are … committed Catholic lay people and clergy who came...

BRIEF America’s largest teachers union to vote on boycott of Israel, Palestinian statehood The multi-day conference that began Wednesday will consider calling on the United States to cut material support and funding to Israel and promote Palestinian causes. View of the main entrance to the National Education Association (NEA). Credit: John M. Chase/Shutterstock. View of the main entrance to the National Education Association (NEA). Credit: John M. Chase/Shutterstock. Republish this article (July 1, 2021 / JNS) At its annual conference this week, the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers union, will debate and decide on whether to adopt...

Matthew McConaughey, who is mulling a run for Texas governor, delivered a typically surreal July 4 message on Sunday, declaring that America is still “going through puberty” while also urging Americans “to keep maturing.” The. Hollywood star delivered his address against the backdrop of an American flag while wearing sunglasses and sporting slick-backed hair. “Happy Birthday America. Yes indeed, as we celebrate our independence today, as we celebrate our birth as a nation today that kick started our revolution to gain our sovereignty, let’s admit that this last year’s trip around the sun was also another head scratcher,” Matthew McConaughey...

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

Mainstream media figures, Big Tech moguls, investors, intelligence insiders, former government officials and titans of industry are set to meet in Sun Valley, Idaho this week for an annual conference held by “intensely private” investment bank Allen & Co. The annual globalist meeting, dubbed the “summer camp for billionaires” by NPR, is being held in the small town of Sun Valley, Idaho this week. The attendees are meeting to “plot some of the biggest deals in media and tech” among other undisclosed agenda items. Prominent globalist kingpins such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, Walt Disney CEO...

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Russia’s Eastern Military District is monitoring the French Navy’s reconnaissance ship Dupuy de Lome in the Sea of Japan, the Russian National Defense Control Center said on Monday. "The Eastern Military District’s forces and equipment are monitoring the French Navy’s intelligence vessel Dupuy de Lome, which has been in the Sea of Japan and the Tatar Strait since July 5, 2021," the center said. The French Navy’s large intelligence vessel Dupuy de Lome was last spotted in a joint reconnaissance operation with the US in the Black Sea in September 2020, when it was monitoring Russia’s...

Disney has removed the phrase "ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls" from a greeting announcing its widely recognized Magic Kingdom fireworks show.The change is "part of a broader effort," a Disney spokesperson told CBS News. "It's not about one or two things.""Good evening, dreamers of all ages," an announcer now says in the greeting.CBS notes that this development comes just months after Disney announced that it would be adding "inclusion" as a fifth component to its customer service priorities. The original four components were: safety, courtesy, show and efficiency.

In the weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001, many thousands of Americans took to the roads and highways in lieu of flight. Some opted to drive because their vacation or business air travel was cancelled; others because they were understandably afraid of subsequent hijackings. Some years later, a group of Cornell University economists determined that after the terror attacks, in the last three months of [2001] fear of flying revved up car use and caused a second toll of lives in US roads. In addition, the inconvenience of tighter airport security after 9/11 may have further encouraged substitution...

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) launched an effort to prevent forced vaccinations in the military after a massive outreach by troops. In a tweet on Monday, Massie said Democrats have attacked his recent proposal to ban forced vaccinations of U.S. troops. The congressman added he introduced HR 3860 to outlaw vaccine mandates in the military, which has been already back by 24 lawmakers. This came after reports claimed Joe Biden’s Pentagon might require vaccination for U.S. troops by September. “They want everybody to get vaccinated, even those who don’t need vaccinated,” he asserted. “If you followed the science, the Moderna trial...

Three mutations in the Epsilon coronavirus Spike protein dampen the neutralizing potency of antibodies induced by current vaccines or past COVID infections. The mutations give this coronavirus variant of concern a means to totally evade specific monoclonal antibodies used in clinics and reduces the effectiveness of antibodies from the plasma of vaccinated people. To better understand the exact immune escape strategies at work here, the scientists visualized this variant’s infection machinery to see what is different from the original configuration of the pandemic coronavirus, and what the implications of these changes are. The international project was led by David Veesler’s...

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,027, May 13, 2021 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The explosion of mass violence by Israeli Arabs against their fellow Jewish citizens is nothing short of a religious war and has to be treated as such. When synagogues and religious seminaries are torched, it is a religious war. When Torah scrolls are desecrated, it is a religious war. When cars are torched only after verification that they belong to Jews, it is a religious war. When Jewish drivers and passengers are dragged from their cars to the shouts of “Allah Akbar” and beaten up, it is a religious...

JACKSON, Miss. — Dr. Anthony Fauci says Mississippians who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 might want to keep wearing a mask. The nation's top infectious disease specialist made the suggestion because the state's vaccination rate is the lowest in the nation.

Legislatures are often very unrepresentative of the people at large, and they pass special-interest legislation that inflicts great harm. One way to make them more representative would be to add a third, randomly-selected house to state legislatures: a “House of the People” consisting of members selected by lot. If random selection is good for juries, and worked for ancient legislative bodies like the Athenian Council of Five Hundred, why not use it for our legislatures? All states except for Nebraska currently have two houses in their state legislature, both elected by state voters. Although these houses are elected, they are...

According to MedicineNet, informed consent is defined as:“The process by which a patient learns about and understands the purpose, benefits, and potential risks of a medical or surgical intervention, including clinical trials, and then agrees to receive the treatment or participate in the trial.”There are four parts to informed consent:You must have the ability to make a decision.The provider must give you ALL information on the treatment/procedure including benefits and all risks.You must be able to understand the information being given.You must voluntarily give consent to proceed WITHOUT feeling coerced.Patients have the legal and ethical right to obtain enough information...

KENNESAW, GA — Police continue to search for a suspect and a motive in the triple homicide that ended with the shooting death of a golf pro. "The suspect is currently outstanding and has not yet been identified," a Cobb County Police statement said. Police were called to the Pinetree Country Club in Kennesaw on Saturday afternoon after a shooting was reported. According to police reports, officers arriving found that golf pro Eugene Siller had been fatally shot in the head on the green of the 10th hole.

The Dog Whistles of July 4thBy J. JohnsonLike clockwork, the haters have come out in full force this Holiday season; spewing all the dogma that many already suspected. Bottom line: they hate this country and all it stands for. If we reply with STFD, STFU, or GTFO, they will of course wrap themselves in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution – which they also hate. Since we know this will probably be the standard for all things American going forward, perhaps our side should employ a different strategy.It is this author’s opinion, the haters’ strategy has the following objectives:...