Free Republic

Sometime between 7-6 million years ago, our primate ancestors stood up and began to walk on two legs. A defining moment along the winding evolutionary roads to becoming human, this is the feature researchers use to distinguish hominins from other apes. Although why it occurred remains an intriguing mystery. By about 2 million years ago, we became fully bipedal, but there were many steps along the path to get us there. Some of these steps still elude our fossil records, but a new study analyzing the remains of a female Australopithecus that researchers nicknamed Issa, has found another. "Issa walked...

MSC Cruises today announced that all guests for its winter sailings fleetwide must now be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and also take a COVID-19 test before their scheduled embarkation date, according to a press release. The measures have already been in place for all of the line’s winter voyages in other regions and now Mediterranean sailings have been added with the new requirements thus extending to guests booked on both MSC Grandiosa and MSC Fantasia. Guests on any of the line’s winter sailings on its two ships operating in the Mediterranean travelling from Dec. 4 will now also need to...

If there is one lesson to be learned from the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, it is that lies that lead to rioting should no longer be tolerated. Far too often, Democrats have peddled numerous falsehoods resulting in chaos and destruction. While the trial focused on a teenager who decided to act when his government would not protect people, it started with the lie told by many Democrats that Jacob Blake was an innocent black man killed by police. As a country, we must say "no more" when it comes to these incendiary Democratic deceptions. After the Capitol riots on Jan. 6,...

German officials are mulling the possibility of enacting stricter coronavirus restrictions across the country amid a surge in daily infections. Chancellor Angela Merkel called on German state heads to decide whether to opt in to a full lockdown and vaccine mandate by Wednesday, according to CNBC. On Tuesday, health minister Jens Spahn starkly warned citizens that “pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead" by the end of this winter while calling for more restrictions to be put in place. He also called for more public places to implement the "3G rule," or to limit access to...

Americans may not be mentally prepared to hear the really bad news: The COVID pandemic is not going to end What the government is doing (and not doing) will ensure no end to the pandemic. Keeping it going means more money for big drug companies and more preventable deaths. Just released is a new forecast of the coming COVID death toll on March 1, 2022. It comes from the group that has been doing the most thorough studies and modeling of the pandemic in the U.S. It is the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an independent global health...

A remarkable 195 House Republicans and all 50 Republican senators, have stood up to support a resolution that was introduced this week to undo President Joe Biden’s federal vaccine mandate, Representative Fred Keller (R-PA) said. “We’re working to undo the illegal mandates for vaccines by Joe Biden. [It’s] clearly an overreach of authority to have OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, come to private employers and dictate to them whether or not their employees have to be vaccinated to have a job,” Keller said. “In America, we have personal liberties and freedoms, and this is an overreach. And what we’re...

I see daily news articles that fully vaccinated people are still getting infected with Covid. Q How sick do they GET?

Investigators fear a £100million F-35 fighter jet crashed into the Mediterranean while taking off because the cheap rain covers had not been taken off properly. Officials believe the rain cover was sucked into the F-35B Lightning II stealth plane's engine as it took off from the flight deck of the HMS Queen Elizabeth, forcing the pilot to eject. Naval personnel reported seeing the cover floating in the sea nearby Britain's flagship aircraft carrier after the accident in the Mediterranean on Sunday. Sources said the RAF pilot realised the issue and tried to abort take-off but was unable to stop the...

JUST IN - Saudi Arabia, Russia consider pausing planned oil production increases after the U.S. and others release crude to push prices lower (WSJ)

While nothing will change the fact that Joe Biden is resident, election integrity matters and Gov. Brian Kemp’s letter is but the latest proof that it must be shored up in America.. Last week, Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp referred data to the State Election Board showing “36 inconsistencies” in the results of a Fulton County audit. This development provides yet the latest example of the chaos controlling the November 2020 election—and the corrupt media’s refusal to care. With only 11,779 votes out of nearly 5 million votes cast separating Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the final tally in...

Anger mounted Tuesday after bail for a man accused of killing six and injuring 62 others by plowing his SUV into them at a Christmas parade in Wisconsin was set at $5 million - despite him having already been free on bail from a previous crime at the time of Sunday's carnage.

Georgia’s public university system will not rename any of its 75 buildings with ties to slavery or racial segregation, explaining that "history can teach us important lessons." "The purpose of history is to instruct," the Board of Regents for Georgia’s public university system wrote in a statement. "History can teach us important lessons, lessons that if understood and applied make Georgia and its people stronger." The board voted unanimously on Monday against such changes, nearly a year after it established a committee to study the names and potential changes. The internal committee had advised that changes be made to 75...

I've spent the last few months putting together a book on my grandfather, Jack Bell, a prospector who won and lost fortunes from Alaska down to Mexico - naturalist, angler, newspaper and magazine writer, law enforcement. Book's too big. So while I'm figuring out what to do about that, thought I'd put up the occasional story of his to see if people find them interesting. Major categories that might interest you are prospecting/naturalist, fishing, the first air mail pilots, and crime.

Black Lives Matter protesters chanting "shut it down" if there isn't "justice" for Ahmaud Arbery told Fox News they will march peacefully if the men accused of murdering him are not convicted of all charges. "We just want them to do the right thing," Michael Harris from North Carolina said. Travis McMichael, 35, his father Greg McMichael, 65, and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan, 52, were charged with murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment for the Feb. 23, 2020, fatal shooting of Arbery outside Brunswick, Georgia.

Renters in the US are getting clobbered by inflation. The US Zillow Rent Index All Homes YoY + CPI YoY is one measure of renter misery. The classic misery index (CPI YoY + U-3 unemployment rate) is 10.80%. Then there is inflation in food prices, gasoline, heating oil, natural gas, etc. While Biden is releasing the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) in order to mitigate the problem that he created by terminating the energy pipelines and oil/natural gas drilling permits in the name of “Going Green!” But on the announcement of tapping the SPR, crude oil futures actually rose. But never...

The Article VI Placebo There are some bright guys at The John Birch Society (JBS). Since I share their exasperation with Washington DC, I wish they devoted more of their intelligence to study. In particular, they should look both closer at, and beyond, Article VI. The pertinent clauses of Article VI are frustratingly brief. The Constitution, laws pursuant thereof and treaties are the supreme law. Judges and everyone else in the state and federal governments are “bound by oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution.” Well, there you go. JBS relies on Article VI to restore Constitutional government. Just send...

- Wild hogs are running rampant in Corona and residents say it's becoming a growing problem that's posing a threat to the safety of families and pets all across the area. "The pigs have been coming," said Corona resident Judy Gardner. "They came here to my house on Halloween night, and then they came back on Veterans Day, and probably going to be here for Thanksgiving. Resident Robert Esquizel told Eyewitness News a pack of 15 pigs damaged his street. Department of Fish and Wildlife discuss possible options to deal with the feral pig population, which included allowing homeowners and...

Location: Donetsk, Luhansk, Crimea, and Ukraine’s borders Event: U.S. citizens are advised of concerning reports of unusual Russian military activity near Ukraine’s borders and in occupied Crimea. The Travel Advisory for Ukraine remains at Level 4 – Do Not Travel in Crimea due to abuses by Russian occupation authorities, in the eastern parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts due to armed conflict, and for all of Ukraine due to COVID-19. U.S. citizens are reminded the security conditions along the border may change with little or no notice. Please check our website and social media pages for additional information. Actions...

A WOMAN believed to be the oldest person in world has died at the reported age of 124. Francisca Susano, affectionately known as Lola Iska, died on Monday night at her home in the Philippines. Lola's record-breaking age has been confirmed by local officials The government of her hometown Kabankalan, in Negros Occidental, confirmed the news on social media. Officials say the supercentenarian was the world's last surviving person born in the 19th century. Documents say she was born on September 11, 1897 - a year before the Spanish relinquished reign over the Philippines. It was the same year the...

Do you want to live in a world where the most important things about you are your race and gender? There's a bunch of geniuses up at Harvard University that do, and they're doing important stuff.