Free Republic

A reporter for The New York Times suggested in an Instagram story that the United States is a "trash country" because of its current healthcare system. Taylor Lorenz, a technology reporter for The Times, was answering a question from one of her followers, who asked why "COVID hasn’t woken new Americans up to fight for free healthcare." Lorenz then gave an anti-American response to the question. "Yeah if a global pandemic doesn’t help people in this trash country recognize the problems in our healthcare system [I don't know] what will," Lorenz wrote Monday.

That’s not cookie dough — it’s a meat alternative created with a 3D printer and plant-based ingredients, including cocoa butter. Credit: Adapted from ACS Food Science & Technology 2021, DOI: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.1c00311 No longer just a dream of vegetarians and vegans, fake meat is becoming more widely available in grocery stores and restaurants. And more options are almost certainly on the way. In a study reported in ACS Food Science & Technology, one team has developed a new combination of plant-based ingredients tailored for 3D printing meat alternatives. Their most successful recipes required an odd-sounding addition: cocoa butter, derived from cocoa...

(Thanks to Scottish Enlightenment titan David Hume for the guest post on William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford — a Catholic peer who fell victim to the hysteria of Titus Oates‘s “Popish Plot”. It takes some time to build into the execution itself, since Hume in his History of England narratively locates it in the proto-Whig party’s frustrated parliamentary efforts to exclude from the succession the king’s Roman Catholic brother, the eventual King James II who at this time was the Duke of York. -ed.) Besides friendship for his brother, and a regard to the right of succession, there were many...

2021 showcased the inability of the West to win small, long wars, and now, on the eve of 2022, the perils of far more existential big, fast wars loom over East-West relations. These risks pose grave questions. In the wake of the US humiliation in Afghanistan, and with fears rising of a potentially apocalyptic conflict breaking out over the flashpoint Taiwan Strait, how can conflict be better managed – or even better, effectively obviated? In a world in which state-run militaries seek ever-bigger budget allocations, while generals and their staffs war game with expensive conventional weapons and deadly strategic arms,...

The Washington Post tried to whip out the generic “Republicans have pounced” cliché in order to spin some of the attention on skyrocketing prices away from President Joe Biden. The liberal newspaper released a revealing story headlined, “Inflation emerging as top economic challenge in 2022.” Strong consumer demand in addition to ongoing supply chain problems “threaten to prolong sharply rising prices well into 2022, potentially making inflation the premier economic challenge of the new year.” The Post conceded that inflation “defied many economists’ expectations in 2021 by rising at the fastest pace in nearly 40 years,” and that “[e]verything from...

The new offensive fight against COVID-19 got a boost Tuesday night as the first shipment of 13 million home COVID-19 test kits arrived at JFK via Air China Airlines, in the pouring rain, with more shipments planned throughout the week

We’ve all seen the absurdity of biological males winning sporting events, breaking records, and shattering the dreams of biological females who can’t adequately compete against their transgender counterparts. Now, another female record has been broken by a biological male who used his brains instead of brawn to overcome every woman who has ever competed on the show. Current Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider, who used to be Thomas E Schneider before deciding to defy biology, just won his 18th match. That breaks the record for most wins by a “female” Jeopardy player, knocking down biological female Larissa Kelly’s record. According to...

Current 7-day daily average of new COVID cases is roughly 240,400 cases per day, an increase of 60% over previous week, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky says. cases up 60% hospitalizations only up 14% deaths DOWN 7%

Sen. Durbin on filibuster reform: "It has to be done for the good of this country. [...] If we don't change the rules to go back to a Senate that truly debates and legislates and responds to the needs of America, then it's going to be a great misfortune for this country." Clip...

Twelve major cities across the nation broke annual homicide records this year, following 2020’s already historically bloody year. "The community has to get fed up," Rochester Police Department Capt. Frank said at a news conference in November. "We're extremely frustrated. It has to stop. I mean, it's worse than a war zone around here lately."

An online poll conducted by the staunchly left Guardian newspaper seeking nominations for “Person of the Year” has been turned off, sparking speculation it was shut down when author J.K. Rowling took the lead.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man was found dead, stuffed in a suitcase earlier this month and now his roommate is charged with his murder. Police said the body of Bruce Jeffries, 63, was found in a suitcase that had been left behind a dumpster in Memphis on Dec. 12, WHBQ reported. Police said Jeffries died of blunt force trauma to the head. A witness told the authorities that he saw a person dragging a suitcase in an alley the morning of Dec. 12. The witness said the man tried to lift the suitcase to throw it in the dumpster but...

Reid, Democrats trigger ‘nuclear’ option; eliminate most filibusters on nominees

CLAIM: COVID-19 vaccines don’t provide protection against the new omicron variant of the coronavirus. AP’S ASSESSMENT: Missing context. While it’s true that people who are vaccinated can still get infected with omicron, early research has shown that the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death stemming from the new variant. THE FACTS: A video clip circulating on social media shows Dr. Robert Malone, a frequent critic of the COVID-19 vaccines who has researched mRNA vaccine technology, stating that the shots don’t protect people from omicron. The comments were made during a Dec....

December 29, 2021 5th day within the octave of Christmas St Thomas Becket Church, Lewisham, Australia Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White.First reading1 John 2:3-11 ©Anyone who loves his brother is living in the lightWe can be sure that we know Godonly by keeping his commandments.Anyone who says, ‘I know him’,and does not keep his commandments,is a liar,refusing to admit the truth.But when anyone does obey what he has said,God’s love comes to perfection in him.We can be sure that we are in Godonly when the one who claims to be living in himis living the same kind of life as...

NASA is 'Psyched' as preparations to explore a wild metallic asteroid nears launch in the Summer of 2022. It will be the first time NASA has explored a world not made primarily of rock or ice, but of metal. NASA's Christmas day launch of the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captivated those who have been looking forward to its launch. Along with JWST, however, many also await the launch of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) as it journeys to an asteroid in order to provide data about how to possibly divert the object and prevent an impact...

A gunman who went on a shooting rampage in several locations around the Denver area, killing five people and wounding two, targeted his victims based on previous personal and business dealings, authorities said. Lyndon James McLeod, 47, was also killed Monday night after he shot a police officer who confronted him in a busy shopping district in the Denver suburb of Lakewood. [T]he gunman knew most of his victims but not the last person he shot — a clerk in a hotel in Lakewood’s Belmar shopping area. Sarah Steck, 28, who died of her injuries Tuesday, was apparently targeted because...

At a time when the statues of good people who had done bad things are being torn down, the world must reckon with the mixed legacy of Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, even in the immediate aftermath of his death. He did much good in fighting apartheid but he also has long history of ugly hatred toward the Jewish people, the Jewish religion and the Jewish state. He not only believed in anti-Semitism, he actively promoted and legitimated Jew hatred among his many followers and admirers around the world. Tutu minimized the suffering of those killed in the Holocaust. He has...

Geneva: A "tsunami" of Omicron and Delta Covid-19 cases will pile pressure on health systems already being stretched to their limits, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday.The WHO said the Delta and Omicron variants of concern were "twin threats" that were driving new case numbers to record highs, leading to spikes in hospitalisations and deaths."I am highly concerned that Omicron, being more transmissible, circulating at the same time as Delta, is leading to a tsunami of cases," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference."This is and will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted health workers, and health...

A Southern California man who shot and killed a woman holding her 2-year-old son during an argument over the 2016 presidential election was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison. John Kevin McVoy Jr., 40, of Corona, received the maximum sentence Monday after being convicted of murder last month... McVoy pulled a gun after he was teased for saying he had voted for Hillary Clinton and Garcia told him to leave, prosecutors said. McVoy shot and wounded Garcia and a second shot fatally struck Garcia’s wife, Susan Garcia, 33, as she held their child on her lap. The child...