Free Republic

After repeatedly accusing Google of ignoring Russian laws on obscenity, Russia has dramatically escalated its long-running battle with major US-based internet platforms. On Friday a Moscow court imposed an unprecedented fine of almost $100 million on Google for corrupting minors with porn, propaganda and transgenderism. . .Crucially, Kremlin officials and the regulator have long charged Google with promoting politically subversive messaging with the intent to stir up protests in support of jailed dissident Alexei Navalny. Furthermore, Silicon Valley-based internet companies have been accused by Russia of allowing themselves to be used as a hidden hand of US foreign policy inside...

I’ve been a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) for years, and a fellow for the past six or seven years. I sat on their Council of Representatives, which theoretically sets policy for the APA, for three years. I am just ending my term as president of the APA’s Society for Media and Technology, where I have met many wonderful colleagues. Yet, at the end of 2021, I decided to resign my membership in the APA. My concern is that the APA no longer functions as an organization dedicated to science and good clinical practice. As a professional guild,...

With aquamation, or “alkaline hydrolysis”, the body of the deceased is immersed for three to four hours in a mixture of water and a strong alkali, such as potassium hydroxide, in a pressurised metal cylinder and heated to around 150C. The process liquifies everything except for the bones, which are then dried in an oven and reduced to white dust, placed in an urn and handed to relatives. First developed in the early 1990s as a way to discard the bodies of animals used in experiments, the method was then used to dispose of cattle during the mad cow disease...

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday endorsed freshman Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois against another sitting House Republican, bucking the advice of GOP leadership. Shortly after Trump's endorsement, Miller, who was left without a seat after the state's redistricting process, announced she would run in the state's newly drawn 15th District, where GOP Rep. Rodney Davis is seeking reelection. "President Donald Trump inspired me to run in 2020 because our country needs principled conservatives in Congress who always put America First," Miller said in a statement on Saturday. "Today, President Trump is endorsing me because I am a conservative fighter...

Hillary Clinton may end up in prison sometime after November 2022 as majority of the analysts in the world of politics believe, Republicans are going to win back control of the House of Representatives and the Republican lawmakers will use the opportunity to get revenge on Democrats, especially Hillary Clinton. It is also anticipated that with the US Congress going into the control of Republicans would initiate investigations in Hunter Biden’s artwork scandal, which is seen by most of the political analysts as an indirect bribery channel of Joe Biden’s scandalous son. Florida Rep. Kat Cammack said, in an exclusive...

ASPIRE TO A VISION A scene in the movie Karate Kid was quite striking. Daniel went to see Mr. Miyagi and found him trimming a delicate bonsai tree. Daniel was fascinated and wanted to try it, but he had no idea how it was done. Miyagi told him to close his eyes and picture in his mind the way he wanted the tree to look. After Daniel found that vision in his mind, Miyagi told him to open his eyes and start trimming the tree. Daniel's every move was deliberate and focused. Then he stopped. He asked, "How do...

New York City will take a patient’s race into account when distributing potentially life-saving COVID treatments, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene revealed on their website.The city will “consider race and ethnicity when assessing individual risk,” reads the agency’s official guidance from Dec. 20, which adds that “longstanding systemic health and social inequities” can contribute to an increased risk of dying from COVID-19.

It's rare for a single election result to spell the likely end of the careers of two politicians, but Virginia Democrats appear to have accomplished just that in 2021. With Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin's two–percentage point upset victory, angry parents likely put an end to the careers of current Gov. Ralph Northam and 2014–2018 Gov. Terry McAuliffe. As we bid adieu to 2021, let's take a ride down memory lane as we also bid good riddance to Northam and McAuliffe. McAuliffe's four years in office were plagued by corporate cronyism, which was not surprising given that an electric car company McAuliffe...

A man who federal authorities believe was driving from Northern California to Washington, D.C. to kill several notable figures was instead arrested in Iowa. According to the criminal complaint from the United States District Court’s Southern District of Iowa, Kuachua Xiong was arrested along Interstate 80 in Cass County on Dec. 21. The complaint states a Cass County deputy saw Xiong driving erratically heading east on I-80 before pulling him over. Xiong told authorities his journey through Iowa started near Sacramento, California and was supposed to end in the nation’s capital. When he was pulled over, Xiong allegedly told the...

Explanation: Every Full Moon of 2021 shines in this year-spanning astrophoto project, a composite portrait of the familiar lunar nearside at each brightest lunar phase. Arranged by moonth, the year progresses in stripes beginning at the top. Taken with the same camera and lens the stripes are from Full Moon images all combined at the same pixel scale. The stripes still looked mismatched, but they show that the Full Moon's angular size changes throughout the year depending on its distance from Kolkata, India, planet Earth. The calendar month, a full moon name, distance in kilometers, and angular size is indicated...

The box office news from earlier this December was mixed. The stupendous success of the latest Spider-Man sequel, No Way Home, indicated that fears of the Omicron variant have not deterred audiences from coming out in the millions: it grossed $260 million at the US box office and $600 million globally. But it also trampled other less franchise-friendly films. Guillermo del Toro’s new picture Nightmare Alley debuted to a dismal $3 million, and Steven Spielberg’s version of West Side Story will be one of the director’s greatest flops, having grossed a mere $18 million in the US so far. The...

New religious community holds Sunday Latin Mass in Pala (Indian Reservation)PALA – A new religious community has moved from its previous North County parishes and now attends Sunday morning mass at the San Juan Diego Center, Pala.A group of lay Roman Catholics, the Traditional Latin Mass Community of North County, are prior members of Saint Mary’s Escondido and Saint Margaret’s Oceanside, and now call Pala home.San Diego Bishop Robert J McElroy approved the moving of the community to Pala because of diocesan restrictions placed on the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in Latin from the 1962 Missal...

They have shown up whenever women rallied against sexual violence and gender biases in South Korea. Dozens of young men, mostly dressed in black, taunted the protesters, squealing and chanting, “Thud! Thud!” to imitate the noise they said the “ugly feminist pigs” made when they walked.“Out with man haters!” they shouted. “Feminism is a mental illness!”On the streets, such rallies would be easy to dismiss as the extreme rhetoric of a fringe group. But the anti-feminist sentiments are being amplified online, finding a vast audience that is increasingly imposing its agenda on South Korean society and politics.These male activists have...

CNN) — After a woman tested positive for Covid-19 midflight, the bathroom became her seat for the next few hours. Marisa Fotieo was on an Icelandair flight from Chicago to Reykjavik, Iceland, on December 19, en route to her final destination of Switzerland with her brother and father.

The Biden administration never learns. The United States is still funding risky coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a new report shows. Research at the Wuhan lab is being sponsored by U.S. taxpayers via USAID and disgraced non-profit agency EcoHealth Alliance, which was used as a funnel for Dr. Anthony Fauci’s agency, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), as well as the Pentagon, to go around the law and back “risky” coronavirus research. The research was not “gain-of-function” but rather the gathering of contagious coronavirus in rodents that were found to be transmissible to humans....

history professor at Dallas College used the Tuesday morning death of John Madden to claim the NFL coach’s hugely popular video game “dehumanizes” black athletes. Andrew McGregor, whose research deals with “American culture, politics, race, and the history of sports,” wrote Madden’s football video game “was not a great development for the U.S.” as it “help[ed] to establish plantation cosplay” which has only “grown worse in the era of fantasy football.” Madden, who led the Oakland Raiders’ for ten seasons which included the Super Bowl XI title and a remarkable 103-32-7 overall record, “built a digital plantation” with his post-coaching...

Joe Biden wasted no time after being sworn in as president in destroying the U.S energy renaissance ushered in during Donald Trump’s presidency which made the country energy independent and a net annual petroleum exporter for the first time since at least 1949.Through regulations, executive orders, and other means, Biden has driven up the cost of energy for Americans and made the country more dependent on foreign and often unfriendly entities for its energy needs.Here are ten Biden policies that have ended abundant and affordable energy in America:1. On his first day as president, Biden canceled completion of the Keystone...

A Missouri woman was arrested this week after she rushed onto a tarmac in an attempt to stop a departing plane. According to FOX 6, the incident took place at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Sunday, after 53-year-old Vickie Meyers had missed her flight. Authorities say the woman initially tried to open the closed gate by entering numbers of the keypad, but eventually opened emergency doors and began making her way down a flight of stairs toward the nose of the plane. Airport staffers “immediately made contact” with Meyers and then called police for assistance. Officers say the woman,...

[Catholic Caucus] Last Minute: Francis Didn't Preside VespersFrancis, 85, concluded this year by participating in the December 31 vespers in Saint Peter's. But he didn’t preside as expected, leaving this to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 87.The Vatican did not explain why this last minute change was made. The program said that Francis would preside.Francis walked in unassisted and appeared to be in good condition. He sat on a chair at the side for most of the time, however, when he walked to the ambo and read the homily he did both with difficulty.As in 2020, Francis cancelled the traditional visit...

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts aims to improve ethics training while also improving internal compliance systems after it was found in hundreds of instances where judges had ruled over cases in which they or their family owned stocks, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. “Let me be crystal clear: the Judiciary takes this matter seriously. We expect judges to adhere to the highest standards, and those judges violated an ethics rule,” Roberts said in his year-end report. Roberts went on to add that most judges strictly adhere to the guidelines laid out and that any incident where a conflict...