Free Republic

He was packaged to American voters as “Lunch Bucket Joe,” a moderate, a voice of reason who would bring factions together and sooth a “suffering” nation. In his inaugural address, resident Biden repeated this message, stating, “Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this: Bringing America together. Uniting our people. And uniting our nation.” But a casual review of several his political appointments raise serious questions about the cultivated image of Biden as a unifier and a centrist. The administration has nominated a series of individuals with far-left political views and many with a history of divisive...

The Oregon State Court of Appeals denied an Antifa member's request to stop journalist Andy Ngo's lawsuit against Rose City Antifa from being amended. Defendant and appellant Benjamin Bolen, an Antifa extremist accused of assaulting Ngo at a Portland May Day riot in 2019, had appealed a limited judgement denying his special motion to strike and sought review of the trial court's order granting motion for leave to amend his complaint. "BOOM! Update on my lawsuit against #Antifa: Oregon Court of Appeals denied defendant Benjamin Bolen's request to stop the lawsuit from being amended (stay tuned for updates). Bolen, an...

For leftists reveling in smug fear about COVID, the CDC director Rochelle Walensky had some very bad news. Something peculiar has become clear over the last two years: Leftists seem to enjoy the COVID panic. For them, it started with the camaraderie of lockdowns and morphed in the smug self-righteousness of the masks and vaccinations, all made shiveringly delicious with that soupçon of fear that pairs well with totalitarian mandates. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s appearance on Monday’s Good Morning America, however, may destroy that delightful emotional castle in which leftists have immured themselves. It turns out that most vaccinated...

Pray For The Peace of JerusalemActs 10Cornelius Calls for Peter 10 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2 He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. 3 One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!” 4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked. The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the...

Tuesday 11 January 2022 Tuesday of week 1 in Ordinary Time St. Paulinus' Church, Trier Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First reading1 Samuel 1:9-20 ©The Lord is mindful of Hannah and she gives birth to SamuelAfter they had eaten in the hall, Hannah rose and took her stand before the Lord, while Eli the priest was sitting on his seat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. In the bitterness of her soul she prayed to the Lord with many tears and made a vow, saying, ‘O Lord of Hosts! If you will take notice of the distress of...

This is classic word salad. I’ve never seen a column twist itself into a pretzel to justify mocking those who have died of COVID who also happened to be unvaccinated. How about this? Maybe you just don’t. Liberals have an incessant need to lecture. It’s part of their moral superiority complex. They need to explain why they’re right. The irony being that they’re almost always wrong. No one really dwells on this subject, except the Left. It’s concern trolling at its worst and this op-ed from The LA Times is a clear MVP winner in that category. Liberals are not...

It started in Chicago, where an incredible 91% of union teachers voted to go on strike and refused to do what they get paid to do, which is teach. Then the union walkouts spread to Maryland, New Jersey and California. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a liberal Democrat, has attacked the Chicago teachers unions for "holding kids hostage." She is right. Why doesn't she call a state of emergency and disband the union to save the children from the union terrorists? Or tear up the contract because the unions have violated it? If she did, she would be a hero. resident...

Everybody is wondering what is coming up in the near future as the Federal Reserve Board starts to respond to the current “temporary” surge in inflation. Everybody is wondering what is coming up in the near future as the Federal Reserve Board starts to respond to the current “temporary” surge in inflation. My pal Curtis Yarvin has a nearly incomprehensible piece on “Stagflation and neo-chartalism” on his Gray Mirror Substack. But I did learn something from him, that AOC’s favorite Modern Monetary Theory is an update of “Chartalism,” a theory that… SNIP Whatabout now? Well, my Federal Budget Interest page...

A 57-year-old patient is the first human to have the heart of a gene-edited pig beating inside his chest. Doctors implanted the heart from a pig that was genetically engineered and bred specifically for the purpose of saving human lives. [Fast clip 22 secs]

veteran NFL quarterback was reportedly arrested on suspicion of DUI following his team’s Week 18 game early Monday morning. According to the Seattle Times, Seahawks backup quarterback Geno Smith was reportedly arrested early Monday morning. Smith was reportedly arrested and then released, per the Seattle Times: Geno Smith, the Seahawks’ backup quarterback the past three years, was arrested Monday on suspicion of driving under the influence and then released, according to King County District Court records. Smith was arrested at 2:10 a.m. and released at 9:27 a.m., documents show. No other details were immediately available. Smith, 31, has been with...

On New Year’s Day, 43 congregations of the Reformed Church in America split from the national denomination, one of the oldest Protestant bodies in the United States, in part over theological differences regarding same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy. The departure of the theologically conservative congregations to the new group, the Alliance of Reformed Churches, leaves some who remain in the RCA concerned for the denomination’s survival. Before the split, the nearly 400-year-old denomination had fewer than 200,000 members and 1,000 churches.

Source: Photo/Salena Zito>TRAFFORD, Pennsylvania -- For the first couple of weeks in December, a tiny, bare tulip tree, common in Appalachia, grows on the trail that hugs Turtle Creek and the eye of passersby. Decorated with cheerful homemade Christmas ornaments, it brought smiles to the faces of cyclists, runners and walkers who saw it every day. Some days, people would pull an ornament from their jacket pocket and add it while on their daily stride. On other days, one might see a parent pushing a stroller or with a child on their bicycle stop and look at the delightful little...

Click on link

The Algemeiner, a Jewish publication I highly respect, published a column about Judaism that is not merely wrong; it actually advances a thesis that is the opposite of what Judaism teaches. That fact alone would not have prompted me to write a rebuttal. What prompts me is that the column was written by an Orthodox rabbi. It is sad enough that many non-Orthodox rabbis have been influenced more by their secular/Left educations than by the Torah. But when a rabbi identified as "centrist Orthodox" distorts one of the most important and normative ideas in Judaism, and is published in a...

The anniversary of the Capitol Hill riot on January 6th was something the average media liberal celebrated more than the birth of their first child, and they probably love it more too. Wall-to-wall coverage on CNN and MSNBC, with a chunky Weeble Brian Stelter at CNN even complaining that Fox News had chosen to start every hour with actual current news, only later getting to the anniversary, because too much is never enough. When Democrats had a chance to cover an earlier riot, something closer to an actual insurrection, they chose not to. They didn’t even bother to draw an...

resident Barack Obama argued in defense of the filibuster on the Senate floor in 2005 despite now referring to the Senate tactic as a “Jim Crow relic” in a comment that resident Joe Biden echoed on Thursday. "If the majority chooses to end the filibuster, if they choose to change the rules and put an end to Democratic debate, then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse," then-Sen. Obama stated in 2005, a clip of which has gone viral on social media this week. Obama argued that ending the filibuster would "change the rules in...

"Hillary Clinton's all-encompassing ambition will ensure that she can never be completely counted out for a presidential run as long as she is still drawing breath," noted Robert Spencer recently. With Biden more addled by the day, and few prospects on the bench, such a run could indeed happen -- especially with Hillary's recent hints on the matter. But Hillary has a problem. "If Hillary were held accountable for her actions," Spencer adds, "there would be no question of her running for president in 2024 or ever." Those actions include the home-brew server, the Russia Hoax, Benghazi, and the Clinton...

Most Americans today have a romanticized (and extraordinarily narrow) historical understanding of the conflict that we call the Civil War. In their imaginations, it goes something like this: With passions inflamed by a moral renaissance in the North regarding the institution of slavery in the South, the two sides decided to go to war over the issue. In the end, the evil South was righteously razed by the armies of the North, and thus, slavery was ended, and the former slaves made American citizens, as Abraham Lincoln intended. If you think this an unfair caricature of the extent of the...

On January 6, 2022, the governing and corporate media wing of the ruling class put on a sophomoric production commemorating the first anniversary of a contrived “insurrection.” Self-righteous preening and blatant propagandizing amid a sea of lies were the hallmarks of the ceremony. Over the past twelve months, unable to hide their unbridled disdain for the unwashed masses, unfounded accusations of domestic terrorism and insurrection have been directed at the legions of everyday Americans who attended the rally on January 6, 2021. They are willing to blindly persecute and marginalize a sizable percentage of the citizenry -- Americans whom these...

The old Massachusetts Republican Party, the wing of Bill Weld and Charlie Baker, has pretty much evaporated for a new, more red meat conservative party. And when Baker leaves office next year for a lucrative private-sector job, he’ll be taking with him the last vestiges of the old party. Bring on Donald Trump and Republicans like Geoff Diehl, because that right now is where the party stands. Nearly 1.2 million Massachusetts voters stood with Trump in 2020, which amounts to about a third of the vote. That’s clearly not enough to win elections, but maybe Massachusetts Republicans have had too...