Free Republic

Some years are pretty easy to be thankful for – when things are going well, the country is thriving and people are better off than they were the year before. Then there are years like 2021, when the reasons to be thankful are harder, if not impossible, to find. Joe Biden has been an unmitigated disaster. Has there been a president of the United States who’s racked up more failures, obvious failures, in their first year than the sniffy, grope-loving creep with the crack addicted son who somehow manages to make millions of dollars in spite of his problems? The...

Explanation: Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as large and clear as this. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident. The featured exposure, taken from Florida, USA, covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45,...

According to CBS Evening News, on Thanksgiving Eve, the hottest item you absolutely needed to celebrate the holiday with your friends and family wasn’t just the turkey you paid an inflated price for, but you needed to have rapid Covid tests as well!.. She also included a soundbite of Dr. Anthony Fauci speaking with Brennan on Sunday’s Face The Nation about how testing your holiday guests could be needed

PHOENIX (AP) — A Republican state senator who has occasionally been a thorn in the side of the majority party's legislative agenda will not seek reelection in 2022. State Sen. Paul Boyer said this week that he will serve out the remaining year of his term and then move on to other pursuits. The Glendale lawmaker said opponents in his own party will need to put up with him for his remaining year in office, however, meaning he'll retain the ability to thwart some key initiatives the slim one-vote GOP majority failed to get past him in this year's legislative...

Jamie Dimon is a renowned Wall Street wisecracker but making jokes about China is risque even for the world's top banking executive. Speaking at a panel discussion at the Boston College Chief Executives Club, Dimon quipped: 'I was just in Hong Kong and I made a joke that the Communist Party is celebrating its hundredth year. So is JP Morgan. I'd make a bet we last longer.'

Many people despair of the media content available to young people these days. Parents complain that modern cartoons can’t compare in quality or content with the shows they grew up with. But clearly some of them are still including important information, as one toddler from Rowley Regis, West Mids, England, recently demonstrated.

As you dig into your expensive turkey after having spent a ton of cash filling up your SUV to get to grandma’s for Thanksgiving dinner, take heart. We’re winning. Yeah, I know – conservatives are Eeyore/Cure fan centaurs, always ready to see the despair, always ready to detect the doom coming at us. And let’s not sugar-coat it – there’s a lot of bad stuff going on. Our alleged president is only allegedly mentally competent. His understudy is a half-wit who got with Montel Williams. His party wants to spend trillions we don’t have and is convinced that printing more...

I ran into an old California buddy online Sunday. He asked me why I moved to Texas. We didn’t have a lot of time, so I gave him the shortest explanation I could: “It’s not California.” For the 10 or so friends, all former Californians, who have moved near us in Texas in the last year or so, no further explanation is needed. In Texas 80 looters don’t pull their cars up to swankiest department stores and loot the place in broad daylight with impunity. San Francisco is different, and has been for a long time, nearly as long as...

According to theatlantic.com, "Friendsgiving" has "become a widely celebrated holiday in its own right," one that, among many Americans, may be replacing traditional Thanksgiving celebrations. For these people, the holiday is not so much a time to gather with family for a traditional meal as it is time for a casual party for friends celebrating...whatever. Millennials can celebrate as they wish, but a lot of things are lost when Thanksgiving becomes Friendsgiving. For one thing, the connection with our first Thanksgiving — so beautifully evoked in two columns from 1961, "the Desolate Wilderness" and "the Fair Land," republished every Thanksgiving...

Maybe as a vaguely religious Jew, I’ve got the wrong end of the stick when I look at Christianity, but I’ve long understood Christianity to be a faith that gives comfort and relief to the afflicted. SNIP. . . The Archdiocese of Berlin will effectively segregate vaccinated and unvaccinated faithful during Advent and Christmastime. The archdiocese issued the harsh restrictions in a communiqué published Friday on its official website, announcing that from November 27 onward, the so-called 2G rule will apply to most Masses and church services of the diocese throughout Advent and Christmastime. The 2G rule allows only people...

For years the media and radical left have been fighting to divide Americans, destroy our national identity, and dissolve the fabric of our society, the belief “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” In its place, they have inserted a brainwashed culture that believes that just by having the wrong skin color you are inherently racist and lack empathy, that there are gross disparities between Americans of different skin color due to systemic racism, and that certain communities will...

This comes after Holcomb held back support from a Republican proposal that would force businesses to grant COVID-19 vaccination requirement exemptions without questions. The GOP proposal, which was announced Saturday, would have also blocked similar immunization rules by state universities and would have rejected an appeal by the state’s largest business organization to leave such decisions up to employers. Leaders of the legislature on have decided not to call themselves into session Monday to consider the Republican proposal; instead, lawmakers will consider the proposal when reconvening Jan. 4. Indiana’s public health emergency has been in place since March 2020.

Kyle Rittenhouse says he was “used” by his former attorneys, Lin Wood and John Pierce. The 18-year-old told host Tucker Carlson in an interview that aired on Fox News Monday that Wood and Pierce were responsible for Rittenhouse languishing in jail for 87 days because they were “trying to raise money so they can take it for their own benefit, not trying to set me free.” The bombshell allegation was one of many riveting moments during the interview. Rittenhouse struck me as honest, decent, sympathetic and earnest—a boy scout and a patriot who has been a victim of a politicized...

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[...] “We're going to be making some changes to Union Square and how cars are able to access,” [SF Mayor London Breed] told reporters after the burglaries. “There will be limited access in terms of when you come to this area.” [...] It seems as though the Union Square police takeover is a test balloon for an ostensibly liberal city fully ceding to capital and conservative talking points — the natural result of months and months of fear mongering about Business Owner Rights and crime and especially bogeyman District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who’s facing a recall effort. Contrary to the...

(CNN)The Arctic Ocean has been warming since the onset of the 20th century, decades earlier than instrument observations would suggest, according to new research. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, found that the expansion of warm Atlantic Ocean water flowing into the Arctic, a phenomenon known as "Atlantification," has caused Arctic water temperature in the region studied to increase by around 2 degrees Celsius since 1900. Francesco Muschitiello, an author on the study and assistant professor of geography at the University of Cambridge, said the findings were worrisome because the early warming suggests there might be a...

A 1,500-year-old mosaic depiction of Homer's Iliad which was found by a walker in a farmer's field has been described by experts as the 'most exciting' Roman discovery of its kind in the UK in the last 100 years. The artwork, which is the first known example in the UK, was unearthed on private land in Rutland, East Midlands.... ...The remains of the mosaic, which measures approximately 31 feet by 21 feet, are the first in the UK and one of only a handful in the world to depict the Ancient Greek poet Homer's story about hero Achilles and his...

GoFundMe has removed a crowdfunding effort aimed at raising $5million toward bail for Darrell Brooks, the Waukesha, Wisconsin 'killer' who allegedly plowed his red SUV into scores of people during a holiday parade on Sunday, killing six and injured dozens more. Brooks, who was charged with five counts of homicide, was arraigned in court on Tuesday. Waukesha Court Commissioner Kevin M. Costello set bail at $5million - a move that sparked anger considering Brooks’ violent past that includes convictions for felonies... ...Prosecutors said they're investigating their bail recommendation in that case, calling it inappropriately low..

RACINE COUNTY, Wis. - Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling on Wednesday, Nov. 24 called for the immediate removal of a county supervisor who allegedly posted a man's $10,000 bail. Video provided to FOX6 News by Schmaling shows that man – identified as Adrian Jefferson – with a high-powered weapon. The sheriff said Jefferson is currently facing a multitude of charges, accused of stealing SWAT equipment from a SWAT operator's home; that includes a pistol, sniper rifle and another fully-automatic rifle. Jefferson is also facing felony charges of armed robbery, carrying a concealed weapon and intentionally pointing a firearm at law...

Advent, from the Latin advenio, which means “coming,” is a time that calls us to prepare for the Lord’s coming. It is a season of preparation and joyful expectation as we await the birth of the Savior. It is also a season that reminds us to wait with hopeful anticipation for the time when Christ will come again in power and glory at the close of the age. The First Sunday in Advent ushers in the beginning of a new church year. The Scripture texts for each of the four Sundays in Advent exhort us to remain alert and faithful...