Free Republic

TV Rain, a youth-focused Russian TV station often critical of the Kremlin, was shut down by state authorities on Thursday, but its staff got in one last full newscast that ended in a symbolic protest. At the end of the night’s report, the staff gathered around the news desk. The anchors were overhead saying “no war” as everyone walked off together. The broadcast image of the empty studio was replaced by the TV station’s logo and a message asking for donations before the telecast cut to old footage from a performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake. The Swan Lake bit...

Former President George W. Bush offered some unique insight into the psyche of Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, relaying an exchange the world leaders once had years ago involving their pets. Bush, headlining a benefit fundraiser for the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center on Tuesday, recounted the story of how he once hosted Putin and introduced him to his Scottish Terrier, Barney. "I introduced Vladimir Putin to Barney, our Scottish terrier, and [he] dissed him," Bush told the audience during a Q&A, Politico reports. Bush continued: "A year later, Laura and I go visit Vladimir and his wife...

A ketogenic diet may be safe for people with multiple sclerosis (MS). The preliminary study also found people with MS may experience less fatigue and depression and report an improved quality of life while on the diet. Study participants consumed a ketogenic diet for six months. A total of 83% of participants adhered to the diet for the full study period. Participants completed tests and surveys prior to the start of the diet and again at three and six months while on the diet to measure level of disability and quality of life. Researchers found that not only did participants...

As Russia is trying to cut off the flow of information in Ukraine by attacking its communications infrastructure, the British news outlet BBC is revisiting a broadcasting tactic popularized during World War II: shortwave radio. The BBC said this week that it would use radio frequencies that can travel for long distances and be accessible on portable radios to broadcast its World Service news in English for four hours a day in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and in parts of Russia. “It’s often said truth is the first casualty of war,” Tim Davie, director-general of the BBC, said in a...

Russia may fire missiles at its own villages in a move to justify furthering its invasion into Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ministry of Security and foreign minister claimed Wednesday. "Worrying reports: Russians might have pointed multiple rocket-launching systems in the Russian border village of Popovka towards their own territory," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted on Twitter. "Knowing the barbaric nature of Russian actions we fear a false flag operation might be prepared in order to accuse Ukraine." The Ministry of Security likewise issued a similar statement regarding Russian military units that had crossed the border into the Ukrainian village of Krasnopil...

MSNBC guest Sarah Kendzior, a regular contributor to the network, pushed a conspiracy theory that Donald Trump was “installed” as President as a means to benefit Vladimir Putin. Kendzior pushed the conspiracy theory during a weekend appearance on “The Cross Connection,” after being prompted to comment on Trump’s recent comments which the media have falsely pushed as genuinely ‘heaping praise’ upon Putin. Kendzior piggybacked off the claims and launched a new conspiracy theory of her own. “Trump was installed as the President of the United States in order to weaken the alliances that were preventing Putin from achieving his goals,”...

Q: You said that Eucharistic adoration is the first thing you would do to renew a parish. Why is the Eucharist so central?Because life is a Eucharist.Too bad it has such a technical- and “churchy”-sounding name. It is love; it is life; it is the whole meaning of our lives. It is not just one very good thing in life, or in the world; life and the world are in it. It’s not just that there is an analogy, a likeness; it’s not just that our life is like the Eucharist or that the Eucharist is like our life. Rather,...

“Attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law” (Proverbs 4:1-2 KJV).

October 28, 2020In 2011, Thomas G. Mortenson, senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education in Washington, D.C. and independent higher education policy analyst, put together and published the 100+ item list “For Every 100 Girls….” on Education Week. In an email, Tom explained to me that “At the time I wrote it initially I was hearing and reading that boys were no different than girls, and the data I was looking at said something very different. Our differences are important, to both genders, and should be respected. Education has a long way to...

POLTAVA REGION snip When Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, this small city in central Ukraine — the name of which is being withheld for security reasons — immediately mobilized to resist the Russian invaders. Territorial Defense and police forces fortified road arteries in and out of the city and implemented a strict curfew. snip Armed with assault rifles and sniper rifles, the local resistance unit is an ad hoc group of volunteers who immediately sprang to action when the war began. The outfit is not funded, armed, or commanded by the regular military or city...

Now that Russia has invaded Ukraine, there is full-scale war in Europe. Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and possibly also Moldova are fully engaged, with other nearby countries on alert, involving themselves in a way that sometimes appears to push the envelope of neutrality. We all know what this means in terms of the human cost to people and geography. Shelling, bombing, firing on individuals, businesses, population centers, industrial centers, and other targets, both military and civilian. Thousands of people have already been killed, and many thousands more, most likely, will die in the weeks and months ahead. That is of course...

Kay Smythe from The Daily Caller reports, Republican congressional candidate Shukri Abdirahman went after her opponent, “Squad” member and Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, in her latest campaign ad.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Joe Biden is in hot water following his annual State of the Union address because of his mysterious sign-off in which he exclaimed, "Go get him!" Now progressives are in an uproar after he appeared to assume the gender of the person we're all supposed to "go get." "I'm sorry, but him? HIM??" said Director Christopher Wray of the FBI. "Whoever this person is that we're supposed to get could be any number of genders! The President should know better. Also, who are we getting and what are we supposed to do when we get him? D'oh!" Director...

Breaking911 @Breaking911BREAKING: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., calls for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be assassinated

A 40,000-year-old archaeological site in northern China has unearthed the earliest evidence of ochre processing in east Asia, researchers say. The site was discovered at Xiamabei in the Nihewan Basin, in the northern Chinese province of Hebei. Ochre pieces and tools found in the area suggest that the clay earth pigment was processed there, via grinding and pounding, to produce powders of different colours and grain sizes. Near lumps of ochre, archaeologists unearthed a hammer stone as well as a flat limestone slab that showed signs of battering. In a study published in the journal Nature, the team has dated...

PATERSON — A city resident seen on video cursing about the public call to prayer at a local mosque is facing charges for an incident being investigated as a possible bias crime. Edward Wright, 57, was arrested Feb. 22, stemming from the encounter at the Islamic Congregation of North Jersey two months earlier, according to the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office as first reported by NorthJersey.com. Video posted to YouTube by the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, shows surveillance footage of the man entering the mosque on Preakness Avenue in Paterson on Dec. 23. The full video...

Looks like two daycare women telling a little kid how precious and good he is. God help me....

A group of three statues honoring the Holy Family was vandalized Feb. 23 at Holy Family Catholic Church in Jacksonville, Florida, the latest in a worrisome surge of attacks on Catholic churches across the country. "It's disheartening and very upsetting,” Holy Family Catholic Church Administrator Patti Lombardo told CNA on Thursday. The incident report shows the marble statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Child Jesus, and St. Joseph all had either vulgar or satanic images written on them in black marker. “Hail satan” was written on the Child Jesus. Surveillance footage shows three people at the scene, two of...

The World Health Organization will meet with member states and reps from vaccine certification credentials groups to discuss a global vaccine certification system. Over the last two years, vaccine passports have become compulsory for international travel in some countries. Related: How vaccine passports are crushing freedom, privacy, and civil liberties However, different regions and countries have different standards when it comes to proof of vaccination, meaning a passport that is verifiable in one country might not be verifiable in the other. The World Health Organization wants to get involved in pulling it all together under a global system. The WHO...

Zelensky’s Career As An Entertainer and Politician If you’re wondering why the president would have time for “Dancing With the Stars,” well, it’s because he was an entertainer long before he was the head of Ukraine. Zelensky was part of a KVN team, which is a comedy competition in eastern Europe. After his time on “Dancing With the Stars,” he went on to star in a film called “Love in the Big City” and its two sequels, plus the films “Office Romance” and “Our Time.” In a funny twist, Zelensky later played the role of the president of Ukraine on...