Free Republic

There are many etymological instances of alcohol coming to be known as the “water of life.” The word “whiskey” stems from the Gaelic version of this very term; same story for “aquavit.” And so it should come as no surprise that the name “vodka” is an evolution of the Russian word for water, or вода, which is pronounced “vo-da.” Like the colorful domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral and lines of matryoshka dolls, the mind quickly wanders to Mother Russia following any mention of vodka. But how many of our modern-day associations with the spirit — like say, in the Moscow...

A friend of a friend is convinced they’ve uncovered a novel way of getting extra perks from the kitchen while dining out: buying a round of drinks for the kitchen. More specifically, the person in question believes that this act can be something as simple as rocking up to the kitchen, pre-meal, and leaving a pack of cold ones for the kitchen team. Having worked as a professional chef for the majority of my 20s, I had some immediate reactions to this claim: First, this is not a concept I’ve ever heard of before, nor have I ever experienced benevolent...

ESCUINTLA, Mexico (AP) — When a few thousand migrants resumed their walk north through southern Mexico Thursday, the chatter of stroller wheels on pavement accompanied the slap of feet. Still-sleeping children slumped as the caravan lurched forward. Others, still drowsy, perched on parents’ shoulders. José Avila Lagos and his wife Yolanda Melgares bought two strollers in Tapachula before setting out because they’re travelling with their three children ages 6, 9 and 15. “(The kids) get hot and tired from walking and you have to bring them in this, Avila said, indicating to the stroller. “You have to spend.” The truck...

Explanation: As far as ghosts go, Mirach's Ghost isn't really that scary. Mirach's Ghost is just a faint, fuzzy galaxy, well known to astronomers, that happens to be seen nearly along the line-of-sight to Mirach, a bright star. Centered in this star field, Mirach is also called Beta Andromedae. About 200 light-years distant, Mirach is a red giant star, cooler than the Sun but much larger and so intrinsically much brighter than our parent star. In most telescopic views, glare and diffraction spikes tend to hide things that lie near Mirach and make the faint, fuzzy galaxy look like a...

Do You Know What’s Happening in Virginia Public Schools? You should. Virginia state law explicitly states that “a parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child.” (Va. Code Ann. § 1-240.1) But government officials and schools are secretly working overtime to take away parent’s rights, to make sure that most people—including many parents—don’t know what’s actually happening in their children’s schools.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday said the Biden administration’s forthcoming Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule imposing vaccine mandates on private employers will be “challenged immediately,” and he predicted it is “going down.” Speaking at a press conference in Lakeland, Florida, where he and Attorney General Ashley Moody announced their lawsuit against President Biden, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, NASA, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and General Services Administration (GSA) over the federal contractor vaccine mandate, DeSantis made it clear that his administration will challenge the OSHA rule, which has yet to be issued. “Now we...

When Kyle Rittenhouse goes on trial Monday for shooting three men during street protests in Wisconsin that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake last summer, he'll argue that he fired in self-defense. Legal experts say under Wisconsin law he has a strong case. What's less clear is whether prosecutors will be able to persuade the jury that Rittenhouse created a deadly situation by showing up in Kenosha with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle — and that in doing so he forfeited his claim to self-defense. Rittenhouse, 18, of Antioch, Illinois, faces six counts including homicide charges in the Aug. 25,...

Alec Baldwin is resting up in Vermont with his family a week after the "Rust" movie shooting involving the actor/producer which left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead and director Joel Souza injured. The 63-year-old was spotted shopping at a clothing store in a small town in Vermont.

New York police have arrested a man in connection with the vandalism of a newly-unveiled statue of George Floyd earlier this month. The New York City Police Department Hate Crimes Task Force announced on Monday that it had charged 37-year-old Micah Beals of Manhattan with second-degree criminal mischief. Beals' attorney, Rebecca Heinsen of Legal Aid Society, declined to comment on the arrest or charge. Outlets including Newsweek and People report that Beals is an actor who goes by the stage name Micah Femia. He appeared in the 2013 movie Pop Star as well as one 2011 episode of NBC sitcom...

McAuliffe receives 45 percent to Youngkin’s 53 percent in a new Fox News survey of Virginia likely voters. Youngkin’s eight-point advantage is outside the poll’s margin of sampling error. That’s a big shift from two weeks ago, when McAuliffe was ahead by five, 51-46 percent.

It’s only hypercritical people like me who think that the Biden administration is doing an utterly terrible job. The reality is, everything is just fine except for a few pesky hoarders who are causing problems. The mainstream media, POTUS’s Chief of Staff, and White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said so, and we all know they’re both utterly reliable sources. In reality, grocery store shelves are full. They’re full because they took a page from the script of The Interview, in which two goofy journalists go to North Korea to interview/kill Kim Jong Un. At first, they fall for the propaganda,...

The Racine County Sheriff’s Office announced in a Thursday morning news conference that it has identified eight cases of what it believes to be election fraud at a Mount Pleasant nursing home. Following the allegations, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Racine County Republican, called for Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Meagan Wolfe to resign. The WEC called an emergency special meeting to be held by teleconference Thursday evening. Sheriff Christopher Schmaling and Sgt. Michael Luell, who led the investigation, said that eight men and women whose mental capacities had diminished due to age and/or disease, several of whom were largely unaware of...

The Biden administration is considering paying out a whopping $450,000 per person to families separated at the southern border as it tries to settle lawsuits with migrants who say the policy caused them lasting psychological damage.

A new poll has shown that more than six in 10 Frenchmen realize that the “great replacement” is underway to destroy their nation through demographics. The survey demonstrated that 61 percent of French people believe that “European, white and Christian populations [are] threatened with extinction following Muslim immigration, from the Maghreb and black Africa.” Additionally, 67 percent of the French are “worried” about this occurring. This is bad news for the globalists and good news for populist upstarts in the country. They are using these results to show the demand for new political leadership in France that will stand up...

As most of us in our community have heard by now, the Nevada Board of Health unanimously voted to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for all college students throughout the state. It is required of all students at the University of Nevada, Reno to be fully vaccinated by November 1st, 2021 before students can enroll in the Spring 2022 semester. This means that some current students who have not been vaccinated yet are left with an ultimatum, either be forced into making a health decision they do not feel comfortable with or drop out of school. This decision ultimately hinders the development...

Alec Baldwin may want to lie even lower if he’s still in Vermont. The leader of a pro-gun group in the state where Baldwin is thought to be hiding out has publicly blamed the “Hollywood hypocrite” for his deadly on-set shooting — saying the star “broke every single rule of basic firearm safety that exists.” Eric Davis, president of Gun Owners of Vermont, penned a scathing op-ed that ran in the Vermont Daily Chronicle on Wednesday — hours before photos emerged of Baldwin hiding out in the Green Mountain State. He ripped Baldwin for “mismanagement,” “hubris” and not taking “individual...

Over the past several years, we've published numerous stories on ANP about the full descent of America's big cities being transformed into homeless hellholes and crime ridden wastelands and believe it or not, as bad as things have been, things are about to take a huge turn for the worse. As ABC News had reported in this October 16th story, there's great concern in Portland, Oregon that the city is turning into a gigantic dumpster fire after a crowd of 100 people wreaked havoc in downtown Portland, smashing storefront windows, lighting dumpsters on fire and causing at least $500,000 in...

Violence broke out late on Tuesday evening with flames erupting from cars and vans in several places in the district. Smoke and the smell of burnt metal smothered the neighbourhood, with local residents terrified of the horrific acts taking place around them. In the early hours of this morning, young people from the city, many wearing hoods, broke car windows and threw molotov cocktails inside them. More than a dozen of the hooded mob made their way across the city on foot and by car, with some 50 other youngsters attending the chaotic scene. Several other residents in the neighbourhood...

HHS proposed repealing its "sunset" rule that would require the department to eliminate existing regulations after 10 years unless the department reviewed them and could justify keeping the regulation in place, according to an Oct. 28 Federal Register notice. The Securing Updated and Necessary Statutory Evaluations Timely, or "sunset" rule, was finalized by HHS a day before President Joe Biden's inauguration. The policy was slated to take effect March 22, but HHS postponed the final rule March 19 by one year, pending judicial review. The American Hospital Association and other health groups sued HHS in March over the rule. In...

The whole world understands what Bill Gates is trying to do, the New World Order is providing his cover, and sites like NTEB work to remove that cover and expose him for exactly what he is. Even the World Health Organization, with this white paper entitled ‘ID2020, Bill Gates and the Mark of the Beast: How COVID-19 Catalyses Existing Online Conspiracy Movements’ understands what’s going on, telling us that “a recent poll found that 44% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats in the US now believe that Gates is linked to a plot to use vaccinations as a pretext to...