Free Republic

Good vs, evil, moral failure followed by redemption, forgiveness, unconditional love, sacrifice, equality, free will, liberty; these are concepts deeply ingrained in the human spirit regardless of a person’s religious beliefs. They are the themes of great novels and movies. Civilizations have been established on their principles—“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness...” These are not concepts that evolved on their own, millennia after we supposedly crawled out of the primordial soup. They...

New names for four Nova Scotia places in Shelburne County containing a derogatory word will have new names chosen in early 2022. A survey asking area residents to vote on new names will come to a close at the end of December. "The final selections will be tallied in the new year and will then go to the municipalities of Shelburne and Barrington, along with the local MLA, to receive their support," Blaise Theriault of the Department of Service Nova Scotia told CBC. Together, they will decide what the new names will be for Cape Negro (the area), Cape Negro...

A new poll suggests an overwhelming majority of unvaccinated Americans who voted for former President Donald Trump will never get the COVID-19 jab despite the ex-president's urging. **SNIP** A poll released this week by The Economist/YouGov suggests that Trump's apparent efforts to change the minds of his unvaccinated followers could be a tall order, given that 75 percent of those who remain unvaccinated and voted for him in 2020 said that they did "not plan on ever getting ANY shots of ANY COVID-19 vaccine." Another 12 percent said that they "might" get a shot in the future, while only 3...

As the leader of one of the world’s most visible bands, U2’s Bono is an extremely polarizing figure. On one side, he’s the source for some of the greatest, most popular music of a generation. He has also been one of the most charity minded celebrities covering a cause in ways not seen since the days of Harry Chapin. And that crossing between entertainer and activist has pushed people into either loving or hating him.

Right-wing podcast host Candace Owens says former president Donald Trump’s recent vocal support for Covid-19 vaccines can be explained by his generation’s experience with inoculations and his lack of familiarity with the internet. During an appearance on Owens’ podcast and YouTube show on Wednesday, Mr Trump defended the effectiveness of the jabs in preventing hospitalisation and death. After Owens — who has called the lifesaving vaccines “pure evil” and claimed that one would “never” be injected into her — said people were “questioning” the shots’ effectiveness, Mr Trump interrupted her to defend the jabs developed with funding from his administration...

Joe Biden and Mrs. Joe Biden were taking calls from children and their parents to NORAD (which “tracks” Santa Claus). One father, speaking in cheerful and respectful tones, ended the call by saying “Merry Christmas and let’s go, Brandon.” And to the delight of Biden’s tens of millions of detractors, Biden echoed those words and added, “I agree.” His supporters could argue that he was taking the air out of the phrase, but alternative explanations are that he couldn’t hide from the truth or that he was revealing yet another sign of dementia. As I know every one of you...

reedom of speech, guaranteed by the First Amendment, isn’t always pretty, it isn’t always respectful, but it can be “humor in a jugular vein” as the old Mad Magazine motto said. A father exercised his free speech rights in a once in a lifetime chance to tell Joe Biden what he thinks of him, doing so in a humorous way on a Christmas Eve phone call that offended all the right people.

“Santa has a message for holiday shoppers,” proclaims a new PETA poster campaign: “You can avoid the “naughty” list if you put down that hunting rifle. His Yuletide greeting, courtesy of PETA, can be found on artwork plastered on local buses running downtown…through the end of December. The message comes after a national hunting group ranked Minnesota a top state for killing big deer….When it comes to feeling pain and fear, loving their families, and valuing their own lives, deer are just like you and me,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. PETA’s cheeky cartoon encourages holiday shoppers to give wild...

As the parents of four teenagers (ages 19, 17, 15, and 13), my wife and I have had many years of joyous celebration at Christmastime. Interestingly, we've done this without ever "doing" Santa Claus. In other words, we have never pretended with our children that the gifts under the tree and the goodies in their stockings were the result of the magical efforts of a jolly fat man. Don't get me wrong; we don't shun Santa. We embrace most of the traditions surrounding Christmas. We have a Christmas tree with presents underneath. We decorate the house inside and out with...

In 1847, a French wine dealer by the name of Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure was asked by his parish priest to write a poem for Christmas mass. As he traveled by coach to Paris, Cappeau wrote his poem, using the gospel of Luke as a guide. By the time he arrived at the capital city, he had completed “Cantique de Noel.” But Cappeau felt that the poem needed to be set to music, so he asked his friend, a fairly well-known composer named Adolphe Charles Adams, to write the music. Both Cappeau as well as the priest who had commissioned...

General Motors (GM) plans on going beyond manufacturing a fleet of electric cars, according to an announcement Wednesday regarding electrification component sets, which are capable of converting most old gasoline-powered automobiles into new-age electric vehicles (EV). The technology will be used for EV conversion projects and GM expects to target a group of diverse commercial clients and enable them to meet their sustainability targets. Electrification components will open up new business avenues and the company estimates a market growth of $20 billion by 2030 with the increasing demand for zero-emissions technology.

Sadly, this Christmas, many Christian leaders must enter into a period of theological soul-searching. Christian diplomats from once proudly Christian nations failed to oppose the United Nations General Assembly resolution that designated the central holy sites of Jerusalem to be exclusively Islamic property, thereby excising both Jewish and Christian history and the biblical heritage of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. And, following this recent fraud that Israel will never accept, Christian pastors and bishops are now preaching blasphemy against Israelis and the Jewish State. This Christmas, the Archbishop of Canterbury colluded with the Archbishop of Jerusalem in suggesting...

In the wake of a surge in Covid cases driven by the Omicron variant, the New York Times is trying to scare you back into your homes, alone, perhaps through government edict, just in time for the holidays. Although early studies suggest the highly contagious Omicron may not be nearly as deadly as the Delta variant, that didn’t stop the paper from virally spreading panic and using it as an excuse to push the same authoritarian measures -- lockdowns and mask mandates -- that have failed the past two years.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has released a video of the S-70 Okhotnik combat drone testing its weapon. The state-of-the-art UAV dropped a bomb to destroy the target. The video shows the Okhotnik UAV dropping a 500-kilo bomb from the inner compartment. The bomb successfully struck the ground target. In October, the chief designer of the Okhotnik drone, Sergei Bibikov, said that the control system of the UAV was outfitted with artificial intelligence. This enables the S-70 drone to work autonomously in conditions of communication failure with the operator. In July, The National Interest compared the S-70 Okhotnik drone with...

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Poland’s deputy prime minister and the leader of its ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, accused Germany’s new government of wanting to turn the European Union into a federal “German Fourth Reich.” In an interview with far-right Polish daily GPC published on Friday, the head of the Law and Justice (PiS) party said that some countries “are not enthusiastic at the prospect of a German Fourth Reich being built on the basis of the EU.” […] He added that the EU’s Court of Justice was being used as an “instrument” for federalist ideas. […] The agreement forged by the three parties to...

Merry Christmas, everyone! And thank you all very much! God bless.

After Matthew Jaurequi lost his footing on an icy trail and began to slide, his friend tried to grab him. Both hikers coasted about 150 feet down from Icehouse Saddle near Mount Baldy on Tuesday, losing their cellphones during the precipitous descent, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Jaurequi slammed into a tree and was badly injured. They had no way to call for help. Then, as Jaurequi was moving to a safer spot, he jabbed at the snow with a stick and hit something — a cellphone. It had 1% battery — enough to dial 911. The...

A New Jersey decorator - who created a fake Clark Griswold mannequin inspired by the 1989 holiday film Christmas Vacation - landed himself in hot water after a local fire department was called because of the prank. The well-designed automated mannequin was created by decorator Doug Peterson, of Oceanport, who posted the prank on TikTok. The mannequin was meant to resemble the popular Vacation series character Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase, who is portrayed as a fun-loving family man fixated on giving his family the perfect Christmas holiday. The decoration is inspired by a famous scene where Griswold is...

President Joe Biden boasts his love of chocolate chip ice cream yet again in a letter to Santa Claus in his first Christmas Eve message as president. The president shared a video on Friday showing him enter a festive room filled with Christmas decorations carrying a plate of cookies. Biden sets the plate down next to a Christmas tree and a roaring fire as he writes a note.