Free Republic

Governor Ron DeSantis proposed reinstating Florida's State Guard — and the entire leftist establishment went mad. So mad, indeed, that Sarah Silverman, of all people, issued a "calm down" warning to MSNBC's professional hysteric, Joy Reid.State guard forces are nothing new and nothing exciting. Indeed, even Wikipedia has an honest and temperate description of them. It explains that they are military units that operate under the aegis of the given state's governor. Unlike a state's national guard forces, they cannot be federalized. (You may recall how the Democrats called National Guard forces to D.C. in January so there'd be someone...

Most U.S. adults say bad things just happen, and that people are often the reasonFor centuries, philosophers and theologians have attempted to answer a vexing question: If there is a good and all-powerful God, then why is there so much suffering and evil in the world? From the biblical Book of Job to the 18th-century satirist Voltaire, the 20th-century Christian writer C.S. Lewis and the 1981 bestseller “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” both great literature and popular culture repeatedly have tackled this “problem of evil.” The question takes on added significance amid a global pandemic that has killed...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A lawsuit filed by a teacher who was fired from his job at a Catholic high school in Indianapolis for being in a same-sex marriage can proceed, a state appeals court ruled. A panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Tuesday that a Marion County court erred in dismissing Joshua Payne-Elliott’s lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. The ruling reverses that decision and sends the case back to the lower court......

Catholic bishops in the Netherlands have decided to cancel Christmas Midnight Masses once again this year as a precaution to stop the spread of COVID-19. The Dutch bishops announced on Dec. 1 that no Catholic Masses or other parish functions will be allowed to take place after 5 p.m., with public venues required to close between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m. under new government measures lasting until at least Dec. 19. The Dutch bishops’ conference website explained that the decision, also taken last year, was made to prevent large crowds gathering for evening Masses on Christmas Eve. It added that...

Former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker is currently at Mar-a-Lago with former President Donald Trump discussing Trump’s possible endorsement for a campaign to return to the House, said Jack Minor, Walker’s former chief of staff. Walker has spent nearly two years campaigning for an open U.S. Senate seat, after Sen. Richard Burr announced his retirement. But Trump endorsed Rep. Ted Budd for the seat, and Walker has trailed both Budd and former Gov. Pat McCrory in the polls. And some Budd supporters worry that if Walker stays in the race he could take votes from Budd, pushing McCrory ahead. That has...

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A man accused of putting razor blades and screws in pizza dough at supermarkets in Maine and New Hampshire was sentenced Thursday to four years and nine months in federal prison. The sentencing of Nicholas Mitchell, 39, of Dover, New Hampshire, followed an agreement with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty in June to one of two counts of tampering with a consumer product. He also must pay nearly $230,000 in restitution to Hannaford Supermarkets.

A second teenage suspect has been arrested and charged with murder related to a large brawl near downtown Atlanta in July that erupted into gunfire, injuring two teenagers and killing a third. Kentavius Dayquan Jeffries, 19, of Atlanta, was charged with murder, criminal attempt to commit murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, Atlanta police said in a news release Monday. He was served arrest warrants at the Fulton County Jail, where he is being held on unrelated charges related to a mid-October incident. The brawl took place just after 10 p.m. on...

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Police have made an arrest in connection to a Miami Beach shooting that happened Sunday evening. Tyi Shim, 25, of Sunrise, is accused of being involved in the shooting into the Snipes shoe store at 1345 Washington Ave., which caused the glass window to shatter and other damage. It happened Sunday shortly before 5 p.m., police said. According to an arrest report, investigators believe the dispute that led to the shooting began when a man made “flirtatious remarks” toward Shim on the sidewalk along Washington Avenue as she was walking with two other men. Detectives say...

For months, we’ve documented countless instances of otherwise healthy people being injected with the Covid-19 “vaccines” only to develop major heart problems shortly after. Our reporting has practically become rote with so many cases of people between the ages of 30-45 “inexplicably” acquiring myocarditis, pericarditis, and pulmonary embolisms. Of particular interest have been the athletes who have fallen, often while in the middle of playing their sports. This has been a real eye-opener that has prompted many to finally start scratching their heads and wonder if they’re being fed lies. But just as it seemed more people were starting to...

This is not CGI! First look at Ameca , most advanced humanoid robot from @Engineered ArtsDesigned as a platform for AI and human robot interaction (HRI) . Will be on show at #ces2022. For more information check https://www.engineeredarts.co.uk/robo... #robot #humanoidrobots #ai https://youtu.be/IPukuYb9xWw

Longtime vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a runaway bestseller on his hands with his blockbuster book skewering Dr. Anthony Fauci, no thanks to what his publisher calls a “total media blackout.” “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health” continued its reign Wednesday atop the Amazon and USA Today nonfiction bestseller lists and ranked fifth on The New York Times’ list of top-selling books. The book is flying off the shelves even though technology platforms refuse to carry its advertising. Mainstream media outlets won’t touch it, much to the...

Being double-vaxxed doesn’t protect people from the Omicron variant, UK health officials said. A total of 134 cases of Omicron were confirmed in the UK as of Friday night, the Guardian reported. The quick spike in infections came amid a report from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) indicating that the first 22 Omicron cases in England were people that had gotten two shots of a coronavirus vaccine Of those, 12 cases occurred more than 14 days after the individual had received at least two doses of vaccine. Two cases were more than 28 days after a first dose of...

In a Friday press release by the Kyodo News Service, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare warned of myocarditis and pericarditis issues related to the mRNA COVID vaccines. The Kyodo News Service is the Japanese equivalent of the AP or Reuters. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is the Japanese equivalent of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where the CDC is located. The Microsoft Translate version of the entire Japanese press release follows: The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare today decided to raise alertness to "serious side reactions" from normal warnings and...

“The Word of God Came to John” (Luke 3:1-20) Every year during Advent, we get Gospel readings about John the Baptist. Why is that? Well, John’s whole purpose in life was to prepare the way of our Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise, the purpose of Advent is to prepare for the coming of Christ. So it’s a natural fit: John the Baptist prepares the way during this season of preparation called Advent. In today’s Gospel reading, Luke begins by setting the stage for John the Baptist’s ministry. He writes: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate...

When the virus is studied from another direction — by exploring the nucleocapsid, another viral protein which contributes to viral replication, rather than the spike protein — Palmer says her team found Omicron may have been created by what's called a "recombination" – a supercharged love child of the early Alpha variant plus Delta, something that has not been found in SARS-CoV-2 until now. "We're very, very concerned," Palmer says, relaying the discovery with a calm and measured voice that belies its seriousness. "It indicates that possibly we could see that variants can recombine and if somebody is infected with...

WHAT I'VE LEARNED FROM LIFE "I've learned that although it's hard to admit, I'm secretly glad by parents are strict with me." (Age 14) "I've learned that silent company is often more healing than words of advice." (Age 24) "I've learned that the greater a person's sense of guilt, the greater the need to cast blame on others." (Age 16) "I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you miss them terribly after they die." (Age 53) "I've learned that making a living is not the same as making a life." (Age 58) "I've learned that if...

Like the sinking of the Titanic, the assassination of John F. Kennedy has been a subject of fascination for me over the years. I remember perusing Mom and Dad's copy of the Warren Commision Report with great interest. I remember, earlier than that, repeatedly combing through the National Geographic issue shortly after the assassination and developing a crush on Caroline Kennedy who would have been about my age at that time. In Jr. High School I wrote a short paper based on Mark Lane's assertion of a second assassin or more and conspiracies surrounding the event. The presentation given here...

First Week of Advent Matthew 9:35-10:1, 5a, 6-8 Friends, today Jesus instructs us to pray for laborers for the harvest, for disciples to do the work of evangelization. We need to organize our lives around evangelization. Everything we do ought to be related somehow to it. This doesn’t mean that we all have to become professional evangelizers. Remember, you can evangelize by the moral quality of your life. But it does mean that nothing in our lives ought to be more important than announcing the victory of Jesus. We should think of others not as objects to be used, or...

He’s the Whine House Chief of Staff. President Biden’s top aide, Ron Klain, took to Twitter Saturday to decry press coverage of his boss. The chief of staff — known to insiders as the “Prime Minister” for his outside influence inside the West Wing — shared an opinion essay from the Washington Post arguing that Biden was receiving worse coverage than former President Trump. The piece from Post opinion columnist Dana Milbank warned that “My colleagues in the media are serving as accessories to the murder of democracy.” Milbank said he came to the conclusion after an analysis of more...

NEW YORK, NY—The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting a drastic rise in the unemployment rate among brothers in the Cuomo family, saying it has increased to a record 100%. "This is unprecedented among Cuomos," said BLS Commissioner Bob Labor. "Contributing factors may include a struggling economy, as well as the fact that they're both corrupt skeezy pervs." Experts expect the Cuomo unemployment rate to tick down later next year when they release their bestselling tell-all books about being corrupt skeezy pervs and run for public office.