Free Republic

A total of 60 United States police officers have been shot and killed in the line of duty since the beginning of the year, new data reveals, following anti-law enforcement riots and the start of the “Defund the Police” movement in 2020.According to records from the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP), 60 police officers across 45 U.S. states and territories have been killed in gunfire from January 1 to December 3 — a nearly 28 percent increase in fatal shootings of officers compared to all of 2020 when 47 officers were shot...

The man who gave reportedly gave the parents of accused Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley a place to stay as they were being hunted by police is a Detroit artist. Artist Andrzej Sikora said through a lawyer on Sunday that he had given shelter to the parents of accused Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley but did not know they had spent the night, and that he’s cooperating with police.... ...The couple said they did not intend to flee but had left their home for safety reasons and planned to return for their arraignment. Authorities, meanwhile, launched a manhunt,...

While America had been rocked by riots and assassinations when I was a kid, the first big political development in America that shocked me was the election of Ronald Reagan. He was a boob, a Hollywood actor, not even a very good one. At the time, just out of college, I did not really understand the darker forces that were behind his election—the racism and greed, the anti-government ideology that was really just a formula to enable the richest among us to make more and the most racist states to chart their own course.

Mental health has suffered considerably since the start of the COVID pandemic, especially among college students. According to one JAMA report, data from as early as April 2020 indicated that mental health had declined considerably since 2018 and that young people between the ages 18 to 29 were experiencing symptoms of psychological distress at greater rates than any other demographic. By June of 2020, following what for many was a three month period of lockdown, 18- to 24-year-olds were reporting anxiety, depression, new or increased substance use, and suicidal ideation at rates higher than any other age group, the CDC...

People carried signs saying: "I will decide for myself", "Make Austria Great Again", and "New Elections" - a nod to the political turmoil that has seen three chancellors within two months - as crowds gathered. "I am here because I am against against forced vaccinations. I am for human rights, and the violation of human rights should be stopped," one protester told Reuters Television. A parliamentary committee this week approved doubling the length of the lockdown to 20 days, which the government has said is the longest it will last.

I happened to hit on this Russian Crepe Torte recently – it has chicken, mushroom and cream cheese filings, and looks like a ton of work and time – but I can’t think of a better time than Christmas (or maybe New Year's Eve?) to try out something so extravagant: "https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/262207/cheese-torte-with-chicken-and-mushroom/********************************************* I have had several cookie-presses – my first one was a Mirro, which I had in the 1960s when I first became interested in cooking. It was all metal, with the giant screw that you had to crank down for each cookie. After that, I had several of the...

President Biden has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff through Dec. 9 to honor late Kansas Sen. Bob Dole (R), who died on Sunday. Biden said in a proclamation that flags shall be flown half-staff at the White House and all public grounds and military posts in the country throughout Thursday.

A treasure trove of emeralds, rubies and sapphires buried for decades on a glacier off France’s Mont Blanc has finally been shared between the climber who discovered them and local authorities, eight years after they were found. The mountaineer stumbled across the precious stones in 2013. They had remained hidden in a metal box that was onboard an Indian plane that crashed in the desolate landscape some 50 years earlier. In September 2012, India took possession of a bag of diplomatic mail from a Boeing 707 flying from Mumbai which crashed on the south-west face of Mont Blanc on 24...

A pair of Iranian hackers have been charged with breaking into a Missouri tech firm’s cloud-computing account and running up a $760,000 bill while mining cryptocurrency. Prosecutors say the two men, who live and operate in Iran, managed to access the company’s Microsoft Azure cloud-computing account and install several new servers and programs to mine a cryptocurrency called Monero — a process known as cryptojacking... ..The company was unaware of the intrusion until it received a bill from Microsoft for $760,00 for the use of the additional server capacity, prosecutors said....

Christmas ornaments are great to have around the house, but equally admirable are the kid-friendly decorations. Bonus points for the decor that kids can actually make! If you've already tried your hand at paper snowflakes or sugar cookies, it's time to get outside with your little ones and make ice marbles....

Imagine a scenario where a college student walked into your office and proposed teaching youand your people a “theory” that he came up with about Witches? “Critical Witch Theory” he’d explain, has three central tenants: 1) Witchcraft and sorcery are central components of American life. 2) To end witchcraft we must segregate all people as either witches or non-witches. 3) Since all witches are inherently evil we should categorize all people based on whether they are evil or non-evil.” What do you think? Albert Einstein taught us that a theory can never be proven, only disproven. A theory stands until...

Prices for the U.S. will go up by between 40 and 60 cents.,". Those for Europe, a relatively small market for Aramco, will be cut. OPEC+ opted on Thursday to proceed with a production increase for next month, even as new Covid-19 cases threaten to sap demand and with the alliance predicting the oil market will flip from a supply deficit to a surplus in early 2022. Brent crude is down 15% since late November to just below $70 a barrel, reducing this year’s gain to 35%. The fall is mainly due to the discovery of omicron and the prospect...

As a record number of Americans died of drug overdoses in early 2021, Senate Democrats unanimously blocked an amendment that would have provided hundreds of millions of dollars in "opioid detection activities" at the southern border. From April 2020 to April 2021, more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics. An overwhelming majority of those deaths came from opioids, and fentanyl smuggling has surged at the southern border since the start of Joe Biden's presidency. In March, however, Senate Democrats blocked a Republican motion that would have provided "$300 million...

A young Australian woman has claimed in a video interview that she was forcibly detained for two weeks in a Covid internment camp, despite not having the virus. Hayley Hodgson, 26, said she was seized by the authorities in Australia’s Northern Territory and forced to spend 14 days in the region’s notorious Howard Springs camp after a friend of hers tested positive. Police reportedly identified her via her scooter number plate as a ‘close contact’ and sent her to the camp. Miss Hodgson said that, though she was tested three times during her internment, the tests came up negative every...

The Biden administration has yet to present to Congress a report detailing the number of Afghan refugees in the United States and on overseas military bases—in violation of a law that required those disclosures by Dec. 1. A provision in a government funding bill passed Sept. 30 required Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas to produce a detailed accounting of Afghan refugees both in the United States and abroad to Congress within 60 days. Congress has yet to receive any report from DHS. The violation of a congressionally mandated deadline comes as more than 124,000 people were airlifted out of Afghanistan by...

AOC told the Washington Times that “a lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually panning out.” “I believe it’s a Walgreens in California cited it, but the data didn’t back it up,” she said. Now, she says this in the face of numerous videos and reports of smash and grabs in Democratic cities across the country, in particular a spurt of such criminal actions in California. So, it’s fantasy to deny them. Republican lawmakers and retailers blasted AOC for denying the obvious.

The Biden administration quietly waived sanctions on Iran to allow the hardline regime to sell electricity to Iraq, according to a non-public notification obtained by the Washington Free Beacon that was provided to Congress just as nuclear talks between the United States and Tehran resumed this week. The timing of the waiver notification—which was signed Nov. 19 but not transmitted to Congress until Nov. 29, the day nuclear negotiations resumed—has prompted accusations the Biden administration is offering concessions to Tehran to generate goodwill as talks aimed at securing a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear deal restart following a months-long...

Journalists who cover crime in Oakland, California, are now becoming the victims of crimes as news crews are being robbed of expensive equipment. And those crimes include the recent shooting death of a security guard who was working for a local media outlet. “The tragic turn of events last week and the unabating levels of violent crime has caused us to further enhance our safety procedures,” Jim Rose, vice president and general manager of KRON, said in a statement. “We have made immediate adjustments in our news gathering process and are also actively reviewing longer-term systemic changes to our coverage...

Sunday's Politico listed a number of reasons why freshly fired Chris Cuomo embarrassed his network, CNN. However there is one really big item that has been left off the list. Here is what Politico's Tara Palmeri listed and see if you can guess what she notably left off the list. I'll give you a hint, it was a blatant example of fake news for which Cuomo was widely mocked.