Free Republic

Americans are awakening to the call to protect children from being sexualized. Following the national news coverage of local school board meetings in Virginia, many U.S. citizens are shocked to learn that today’s elementary school lessons include material that would make most adults blush. Whether or not you are a parent, it is stomach-turning to learn that our taxpayer dollars have been used to make sexually explicit materials available in school libraries and attendance to pornographic sex-ed lessons mandatory.The alarm rang even louder when we found out that government officials were willing to assign weighty terms like “terrorist” to parents...

Last weekend in Chicago’s Loop, all hell broke loose as hundreds of teens rampaged across the downtown area near Millenium Park. A bus driver was assaulted, a young girl was shot, and 21 people were arrested. It’s becoming a distressingly familiar occurrence in Chicago. Mayor Lori Lightfoot blames the parents. “Do you know where your children are?” the clueless mayor asked. Last weekend’s “Wild in the Streets” moment was the result of social media influencers spreading the word on several platforms. But the “Flash Mob” wasn’t some harmless stunt. Two officers were injured in the melee, and the general sense...

A reporter asks about Biden and Harris’ tweets on Jussie Smollett.“Since the guilty verdict, are there any lessons learned here on rushing to judgement when a crime is alleged?”Psaki: “There are lessons learned, perhaps for everybody … including former president Trump.” pic.twitter.com/wtfzWnCart— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) December 10, 2021

This week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a new statewide mask mandate that will take effect on Monday, Dec. 13, citing a rise in case numbers. The mandate requires face masks to be worn in all indoor public places that don’t have a vaccine requirement. “A violation of any provision of this measure is subject to a maximum fine of $1,000 for each violation,” Hochul said in a statement. She also added that “local health departments are being asked to enforce these requirements.” But local governments were essentially blindsided by the announcement, and several counties with Republican executives are...

Senator Joe Manchin was right. In September, he suggested that Democrats “hit the pause button” on their massive spending plans. At that time, the Build Back Better bill was $3.5 trillion — an inflationary bomb just waiting to go off.Even after the Democrats cut the bill in half to $1.75 trillion, Manchin kept sounding the inflation alarm. He kept insisting that inflation wasn’t “transitory,” as Joe Biden still insists to this day. Manchin also asserted that it was fiscal madness to take on so much debt at this time.Manchin’s September op-ed in the Wall Street Journal summed up the danger.Those...

Colorado may have paid $73 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits, with payments made to dead people, inmates and underage applicants, a state audit found, more than double the $30 million state labor officials had previously confirmed was improperly paid. TODAY’S UNDERWRITER “Despite the numerous steps that the department has taken to prevent and detect fraud, our audit identified likely or potentially fraudulent claims that the department didn’t identify,” Ethan Greenberg, senior auditor with the Colorado Office of the State Auditor, told the legislative audit committee hearing Monday. The auditor’s report found 8,200 unduplicated claims for $73.1 million in payments between...

Vermont's Essex-Westford School District, which includes the town of Essex that last year fired a high school lifeguard for merely questioning Critical Race Theory, has done it again. In the midst of a national furor over a sexually explicit graphic novel, the school has proclaimed it has the duty to expose children to pornographic imagery — to support free speech.It is axiomatic that free speech rights do not extend fully into schools — they never have. For example, the First Amendment protects quite a shocking variety of pornographic materials, including bondage and rape videos. Are those acceptable, protected school teaching...

Twelve hours after Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, then–Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted out congratulations to Biden and Harris for their victory along with a thank you to Trump for his friendship to Israel and to Bibi himself. Trump, however, feels that this congratulatory message, which Bibi later cemented with a video after Biden's inauguration, was a major betrayal.Netanyahu's November 8 tweeted message was short and to the point regarding the election outcome:Congratulations @JoeBiden and @Kamala Harris. Joe, we've had a long & warm personal relationship for nearly 40 years, and I know you as...

A new flavor in the French presidential race. Valerie Pecresse emerging from a "primary of the Right" in France to be the candidate of Les Republicains one of France's "mainstream" parties. Pecresse is President of the Ile de France region in and around Paris. Her victory last weekend led to instant polling that gave her second place in the first round behind incumbent Emmanuel Macron. And the polling for the second round showing Pecresse a winner over Macron by a narrow margin. Macron himself went before the media on Thursday for a press conference in the aftermath of the polls....

The more you look at Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, the more you like him.Here's his new plan on how to deal with Joe Biden's open borders policies that have brought the surge of illegal aliens into the country, in a neatly presented, effectively communicated Twitter summary:The failure to secure our nation’s border is affecting communities across our state & nation. Today, I outlined additional proposals for consideration in the next legislative session that will protect Florida from the Biden Admin's reckless border policies https://t.co/1yRVgUtoym pic.twitter.com/8KZkxNfUcb — Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) December 10, 2021It's impressive, frankly for multiple reasons.First, as noted above,...

Enormous thanks to all the commenters in my open thread, who provided reports on containment conditions in their own countries. I haven’t been able to include every last report, but I’ve tried to select representative and interesting examples from across the world, organised by region:

Steve Vai, who joined David Lee Roth's post-VAN HALEN band more than 35 years ago as lead guitarist, spoke to "CMS Music" about the musical influence and impact of legendary VAN HALEN axeman Eddie Van Halen. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'm not unlike the average Edward fan in that he really had an effect. For Edward fans that really were touched by him, it's inexplicable, obviously; you can try to use words, but it doesn't really work. It's like that with many things. "I have a different position in that, yeah, one might say that I replaced the...

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, was widely mocked over the weekend after he posted a tweet in which he bragged about how the United States pays its bills on time by taking on more debt. “The United States pays its debts when they are due,” Biden wrote in a tweet that also featured a video. “That’s why today, I signed a bill to fast-track the process to raise our debt limit.” “This bill will reassure all the economic markets at home and around the world that we’re going to continue to pay our debts when they are due,” Biden says...

A two-shot course of Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine has just 22.5% efficacy against symptomatic infection with the omicron variant, but can thwart severe disease, according to laboratory experiments in South Africa.

An IGA has apologised for displaying a sign telling staff to ring a bell for assistance if an African customer entered the store.Fury at the Sunshine West supermarket, west of Melbourne, grew after images circulated online showing a racist message taped to the liquor cashier’s desk.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released new data showing a total of 946,463 reports of adverse events following COVID vaccines were submitted between Dec. 14, 2020, and Dec. 3, 2021, to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). VAERS is the primary government-funded system for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S. The data included a total of 19,886 reports of deaths — an increase of 354 over the previous week — and 150,946 reports of serious injuries, including deaths, during the same time period — up 4,226 compared with the previous week. Excluding “foreign reports” to...

The state of New York used federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) coronavirus relief funds to advance critical race theory indoctrination in elementary and secondary public schooling. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona approved of the plan, saying it “lay[s] the groundwork for the ways in which an unprecedented infusion of federal resources will be used to address the urgent needs of America’s children and build back better.” The Empire State’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) plan is federally funded to the tune of $8,995,282,324, and “highlights” its commitment to “provide social emotional support within a Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Framework.”...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

AUSTRALIA has reported a new version of the Omicron Covid-19 variant, dubbed 'Omicron Like', just weeks after the new strain was first discovered in South Africa. A South African man who tested positive for the variant was found to have a genetically different version of virus strain. He is currently isolating at a quarantine hotel in Brisbane. Yvette D'Ath, Queensland's health minister, confirmed the case meant that Omicron now has two lineages classified by the international committee. The new sister of the variant does not have one of the genes that are used to identify the Omicron strain, the World...

TV personality and medical professional Dr. Mehmet Oz is calling for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be "held accountable," suggesting that he should resign as Americans have lost "faith and confidence" in his service. Oz, who announced last month that he was joining the race for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, took aim at Fauci in a statement to the New York Post. "Dr. Anthony Fauci has lost the faith and confidence of the American people," Oz said. "It’s time for a new face talking to the American people, one that is more trusted." Oz also stated he believes Fauci "should...