Free Republic

It has become common in some circles to call the Jan. 6 Capitol riot an "armed insurrection." That leads to a few questions: How many rioters were armed? And what weapons did they have? What were the arms in the "armed insurrection"? The Justice Department maintains a website listing the defendants and the federal charges against them in the sprawling Capitol riot investigation. At this moment, about 670 people have been charged, many of them with misdemeanors like "Parading, Demonstrating or Picketing in a Capitol Building." Of the 670, I counted 82 who face weapons-related charges. That's about 12% of...

Rolling Stones retire classic rock song ‘Brown Sugar’ The Rolling Stones retired one of their most popular rock songs due to lyrics that depict the horrors of slavery. The Stones have not played the 1971 hit “Brown Sugar” on their current tour and said the blues classic has been removed from their setlist.

I am not an atheist, nor even an agnostic. Keep that in mind, because I am not saying the Bible promotes atheism. Quite the opposite, of course — but there is a passage in the Bible that helps us Jews and Christians to understand why some people are atheist/agnostic and why we cannot persuade them otherwise. The reason may humble us. From 1 Corinthians 2:14 (King James Version): [T]he natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. This passage rebukes atheism,...

More than 150 former Houston Methodist employees who parted ways with the hospital in June over a vaccine mandate policy will demand to be rehired after Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Monday banning any entity in the state from implementing such mandates, according to a lawyer representing the former employees. Attorney Jared Woodfill, who currently represents almost 200 healthcare workers in multiple lawsuits against Methodist, said executive order GA-40 makes the hospital’s policy illegal. “Governor Abbott says very clearly, ‘whereas countless Texans fear losing their livelihoods because they object to receiving a COVID-19 vaccination for reasons of...

Dean Cain, who played Superman in the 1990s series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman — and played him very well, I might add — appeared on Fox & Friends to express his disdain for DC Comics' announcement that Clark Kent's and Lois Lane's son, who is the "new" Superman, is bisexual and will have an affair with a "hacktivist" while fighting climate change and defending illegal aliens. Cain made the excellent point that this storyline isn't fresh and bold; it's hackneyed, boring, and singularly lacking in bravery. First, Cain pointed out something that I had missed since...

So while the border, which Heels Up Harris is supposed to be overseeing, is in chaos, she instead was wasting her time and ours by putting out an awful "Get Curious" video designed to promote teenage interest in space exploration — but, more importantly, to push Heels Up's own fading brand into the public eye to prop up her diminishing credibility. The video was put together by not an American company, but instead a Canadian company despite the fact that Biden's own Build Back Better schemes supposedly emphasize full employment via domestic production. And to make matters even more embarrassing,...

Jon Gruden is a dinosaur. The heretofore Raiders coach is very old school, unrepentant, and of the toxic masculinity persuasion, no less. As was swiftly evidenced, the world today has no place for such creatures. He is another speed bump on the road to a sorry gray future of banal mediocrity called erroneously “equity,” since mere equality falls so, far, far short of what we can stoop to achieve with just a little more force. Gruden was fired when the NFL leaked private emails it discovered in another and totally separate vital investigation into potential political incorrectness -- this one...

Are red and blue America headed for a split? Lately, Dan Bongino has discussed the possibility on his daily podcast and radio show. Glenn Beck has mentioned it, too. It’s a focused topic of David Reaboi, whom Bongino cites. Reaboi suggests that a “national divorce” should be discussed. He sees a split more as a matter of when, not if. The hope is for a civil, if not amicable, separation. What may surprise readers is the convergence that’s happening about the need for a national divorce. As the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia discovered in its recent...

YAVNE, Israel (AP) — Israeli archaeologists on Monday said they have unearthed a massive ancient winemaking complex dating back some 1,500 years. The complex, discovered in the central town of Yavne, includes five wine presses, warehouses, kilns for producing clay storage vessels and tens of thousands of fragments and jars, they said. Israel’s Antiquities Authority said the discovery shows that Yavne was a wine-making powerhouse during the Byzantine period. Researchers estimate the facility could produce some 2 million liters (over 520,000 gallons) of wine a year. Jon Seligman, one of the directors of the excavation, said the wine made in...

Are red and blue America headed for a split? Lately, Dan Bongino has discussed the possibility on his daily podcast and radio show. Glenn Beck has mentioned it, too. It’s a focused topic of David Reaboi, whom Bongino cites. Reaboi suggests that a “national divorce” should be discussed. He sees a split more as a matter of when, not if. The hope is for a civil, if not amicable, separation. What may surprise readers is the convergence that’s happening about the need for a national divorce. As the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia discovered in its recent...

The perpetually irascible Samuel Goldwyn, a founder of the American motion picture industry, once said “I am willing to admit I may not always be right, but I am never wrong.” While Goldwyn said this tongue-in-cheek, the quote is an accurate portrayal of one of the primary and most obvious character traits of those with authoritarian mindsets. Those that have a predilection towards authoritarianism invariably have a deep-seated conviction of infallibility combined with attendant hubris and pathological lying. Traits that are ever present in those that can justify any devious or unethical means to achieve their goal. There are two...

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The Bay Area woman charged with starting a California wildfire that destroyed more than 100 homes near Redding will undergo a psychiatric exam before returning to court, multiple media outlets reported. Alexandra Souverneva, 30, of Palo Alto made a court appearance in Redding on Tuesday, and the court agreed with her lawyer's request to have his client meet with one to two psychiatrists to assess her mental stability before her next appearance in November, KTLA reported. Souverneva faces a felony arson charge with an enhancement because the fire ignited during a state of emergency. She pleaded not guilty last month...

Matt Hancock made a surprise comeback last night as he was given a United Nations role just four months after resigning as health secretary. The former Cabinet minister will advise African nations on how their economies can bounce back from the pandemic. The Daily Mail understands he won the unpaid job thanks to Nimko Ali, a campaigner against female genital mutilation who is a close friend of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s wife Carrie. Mr. Hancock, who will remain a MP, was forced to resign as health secretary in June after he breached social distancing guidance by kissing a colleague. CCTV...

After being shuttered for 17 months, the upmarket Hujan Locale restaurant in the Balinese town of Ubud is slowly coming back to life... ...‘We do not want backpackers’ The pandemic has prompted a debate about the role of tourism in Bali, with some arguing the island should become less dependent on the sector and instead develop other areas of the economy. Reports of foreign tourists who remained on the island during the pandemic but refused to follow health protocols has added to such sentiments. This week, Bali’s governor said that tourism had benefited “a handful of people, especially foreign investors”,...

RICHMOND, Va. -- Former President Barack Obama will campaign with fellow Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the final stretch of the Virginia governor's race. “The stakes could not be greater,” McAuliffe said, as he announced the news Tuesday morning on MSNBC. McAuliffe's race against the GOP nominee, first-time political candidate Glenn Youngkin, is tightening, according to the latest polls. His effort to win a second, nonconsecutive term in office is one of only two regularly scheduled governor's races in the country this year and is being closely watched for indications of voter sentiment ahead of next year's midterms. .... Stacey Abrams,...

The man suspected of a multi-parish crime spree that left two people dead, including a Louisiana state trooper, has been released from the hospital and booked into prison. Louisiana State Police say Matthew Mire, 31, was taken to the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison wearing the handcuffs that belonged to Master Trooper Adam Gaubert, who Mire is suspected of killing. "Those handcuffs are symbolic to every Trooper within LSP," police wrote in a Facebook post showing the handcuffed suspect... ...Gaubert was killed while he was in a parked patrol unit in Ascension Parish after working a traffic crash, Superintendent Lamar...

About 100 Central California properties and a shuttered oil refinery were under threat from a rapidly growing wildfire that forced the closure of a major highway near Santa Barbara overnight, per the Los Angeles Times. The big picture: The Alisal Fire that ignited near the Alisal Reservoir on Monday has grown to 13,400 acres with 5% containment, officials said. Nearly 800 firefighters are now battling the wind-driven blaze that caused thousands of people to evacuate.

Pastor Karma Patras stated in a sermon that animal sacrifice was unnecessary, citing the Bible. Muslims accused him of blaspheming against Islam and threatened to burn his sons alive if they did not leave town. Patras was arrested. In October 2012, Pakistani Christian pastor Karma Patras delivered a speech at a funeral. In it, he explained the Biblical teaching that animal sacrifice was no longer necessary because of Christ’s sacrifice. The speech came only a few days before Eid-al-Adha, an Islamic holiday where ritual animal sacrifice is a common custom. There were some Muslims at the funeral, but there was...

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