Free Republic

It’s no secret that the Republican Party in Texas has veered sharply right in the last decade. As a new set of midterms loom, the few remaining moderates are starting to leave the legislature. Among a slew of retirements recently announced following redistricting is State Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo). For years he’s been a moderating force in the Republican Party and a personal thorn in the side for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Seliger, who Patrick has called the “most liberal” Republican in the state, has voted against various tax measures put forth by Patrick and also declined to endorse the...

If you’ve ever put away a serving of house-fermented vegetables at a fancy restaurant or had a roommate taking up your counter space with a crock of slowly bubbling sauerkraut, it’s likely you have Sandor Katz to thank. The self-styled “fermentation revivalist” has become a globe-trotting mascot for the power of bacteria and yeast to create delicious food, a kind of modern-day Johnny Appleseed of tangy, savory flavors. Katz discovered fermented foods in the early 1990s when, after receiving an H.I.V. diagnosis, he moved from his hometown of New York City to a queer community in rural Tennessee, where preserving...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday turned away healthcare workers seeking a religious exemption to Maine's COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the latest battle over vaccination to reach the justices. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, rejected a request made by nine unnamed plaintiffs who identified themselves as healthcare workers who object to receiving the shots on religious grounds. The court previously rejected challenges to vaccine mandates in New York and Indiana, though those cases did not involve religious objections. The justices were divided, with three conservative members saying they would have granted the request. In...

T The Lincoln Project claimed responsibility for a demonstration outside of Virginia Republican gubernatorial contender Glenn Youngkin's campaign bus that recalled the 2017 Charlottesville < "Today's demonstration was our way of remaining Virginians what happened in Charlottesville four years ago, the Republican Party's embrace of those values, and Glenn Youngkin's failure to condemn it," a statement from Lincoln Project said.

The armorer who oversaw guns used in filming of Western movie “Rust” said producers allowed for an “unsafe” movie set and rejected her requests for training and other measures before actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer. Attorneys for 24-year-old Hannah Gutierrez issued the first statement on her behalf late on Thursday, a week after the fatal shooting by Baldwin of Halyna Hutchins on the “Rust” set outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Safety was the “number one priority” for Gutierrez, who had been hired as armorer and assistant prop master, according to the statement from attorneys Jason...

In post-World War II American political tradition, foreign trips have become ways for a president to burnish his image and shore up authority at home. In the 1950s, then-vice president Richard Nixon traveled a lot with an eye on running for president in 1960. Getting stoned by mobs in Venezuela and debating Nikita Khrushchev over the virtues of capitalism at a Moscow trade fair enhanced Nixon’s foreign policy reputation. The 1960 presidential election winner John F Kennedy made his first trip to Europe and was greeted by rapturous crowds. (The masses were also eager to celebrate his wife). The scenes...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — U.S. governors want a seat at the table as international leaders prepare to gather in Scotland at a critical moment for global efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions and slow the planet’s temperature rise. At least a half dozen state governors — all Democrats — plan to attend parts of the two-week United Nation’s climate change conference in Glasgow, known as COP26. Though states aren’t official parties to talks, governors hold significant sway over the United States’ approach to tackling climate change by setting targets for reducing carbon emissions and transitioning to renewable energy. Governors slated...

Johann Sebastian Bach was generally known as a very somber religious man who wrote a vast river of non secular music - a body of music so vast that it literally takes a lifetime to fully explore (and trust me, it's worth the journey). But Bach had his non-secular side as well. After all, he fathered no less than TWENTY children with two wives. JS Bach's bedroom was a very busy (and noisy one) indeed. Anyway, one of his greatest pieces of music in my opinion is BWV 212 - otherwise known as the "Coffee Cantata". Bach is said to...

Police in Northern Virginia are increasing their presence around shopping malls and high-volume roads and transit areas in response to a purported threat from ISIS. A law enforcement source told CBS News the recent threat against a mall in Northern Virginia this Halloween weekend originated from ISIS. It is the basis for a law enforcement-sensitive alert that was issued. ……. “We have an election coming up next Tuesday where we’ll have increased patrols throughout the next several days out of an abundance of caution, because that’s what we do as a public safety agency,” Davis said.

The Biden administration has refused a Washington, DC district court judge's request to halt disciplinary actions against federal employees who are not vaccinated against COVID-19.

Virginia gubernatorial candidate and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) appeared to cancel or skip campaign events only days before Tuesday’s bellwether election. McAuliffe, on Thursday night, did not show up for a “Get Out the Vote” (GOTV) event in Prince William County.

A majority of Americans agree the U.S. economy has gotten worse since President Joe Biden was inaugurated, but they are divided when it comes to placing blame for the decline. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 57% of Likely U.S. Voters say the U.S. economy has gotten worse since Biden became president. Just 21% think the economy has gotten better with Biden in the White House, while 19% say the economy has stayed about the same.

About 12,000 Air Force personnel have declined to get vaccinated for COVID-19, causing many officials to question how to address the considerable opposition without causing significant challenges and setbacks within the military, The Washington Post reported. Officials had warned that if military personnel do not receive the COVID-19 vaccination, they will be subjected to punishment, including possible dismissal from service or receiving a charge from the military justice system, the Post wrote. The deadline for complying with the mandate is Tuesday. However, with such a significant amount of service members rejecting the vaccine mandate, officials are faced with a dilemma:...

It was supposed to be a joyful occasion. Young men and women gathered in a circle, displaying their dance moves as they celebrated Mali’s independence day in the country’s western region of Kayes. But things took a dark turn when a group of people carrying thick wooden sticks and machetes appeared all of sudden. The celebrating crowd – people from the so-called “slave” class – were brutally attacked and publicly humiliated by the descendants of slaveholder families who consider themselves “nobles”.

Alec and Hilaria Baldwin were seen in Vermont on Thursday night stocking up on clothes at Ralph Lauren then filling up on gas before retreating to the private home where they are riding out the storm surrounding his accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The couple were without their six kids on Thursday when they stepped out in the afternoon. Baldwin, 63, was seen leaving the Ralph Lauren store with a small bag in hand. He visited the store on Wednesday and returned, likely to make an exchange. Later, his 37-year-old wife was seen pumping gas on their SUV.

A livestream by a Chinese influencer came to a tragic end, when she died after drinking a bottle of pesticide after being egged on by viewers. It all started on Oct 14, when the influencer from Hunan, China, known as Luo, uploaded a video on Douyin. She informed her 678,000 fans that it was "probably [her] last video", thanking them for their company and support. According to reports from Chinese media, Luo shared with her fans that she had been struggling with depression for some time, and previously spent two months in the hospital undergoing treatment. "My diagnosis is official,...

Joshua Graham Rohrer, a homeless veteran in North Carolina, says he was wrongfully arrested and mistreated by Gastonia police officers, who also tased his service dog Sunshine, sparking support from those who witnessed the incident. ~ Rohrer was standing on a median near a Gastonia shopping center with Sunshine on Oct. 13 when a 911 caller contacted police. While Rohrer wasn’t bothering anybody, having Sunshine with him was his way of using sympathy to get money from people, the caller said, according to a copy of the audio call. ~ Rohrer’s grief over losing Sunshine almost killed him, Dowell said...

Portland’s “badly damaged” reputation – marked by months of destructive protests, a homeless crisis and record year of homicides – is hurting the standing of Oregon’s largest city, according to the city’s main tourism promoter. Travel Portland, the city’s tourism promotion group partly funded by taxes, presented data to the City Council and mayor this week showing the city has declined to its “lowest level” of being a likely destination for delegates to attend conferences. Just 64% of surveyed tourists said they would visit Portland again. “There’s an old old saying, ‘It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and...

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant different things to different people. For some, it’s meant stress over new school and work regimes, or anxiety over the prospect of catching COVID-19 and dealing with the aftereffects of an infection. But for others, it’s created space and freedom to pursue new passions or make decisions that had been put off. Our upended lives—for better or for worse—also likely influenced our perception of time. In June 2020, we were part of a team of researchers who presented initial evidence that an individual’s sense of time during the pandemic was closely related to their emotions....

I don’t know about money, but in the twentieth century envy has been the source of all evil, or at least most of it. It was envy that motivated the two totalitarian ideologies, which between them account for the vast graveyard of somewhere from 100 to 200 million murdered, starved, worked to death, and killed in wars of aggression they had unleashed. They also account for the great bulk of oppression and persecution, denial of human rights, economic devastation and general human misery inflicted on hundreds of millions more. German Nazism, or national socialism as it called itself to distinguish...