Free Republic

Americans are becoming less supportive of punishing Russia for launching its invasion of Ukraine if it comes at the expense of the U.S. economy, a sign of rising anxiety over inflation and other challenges, according to a new poll.The shifts in opinion reflect how rising prices are biting into American households — surging costs for gas, groceries, and other commodities have strained budgets for millions of people — and perhaps limiting their willingness to support Ukraine financially. That may be a troubling sign for President Joe Biden, who on Saturday approved an additional $40 billion in funding to help Ukraine

A top Russian air force commander has reportedly been killed in the Ukraine war, delivering another blow to Vladimir Putin's invasion. Information about the reported shooting down of retired Russian Air Force Major General Kanamat Botashev was confirmed to BBC Russian by three of his former subordinates. On Sunday, May 22, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said a Russian Sukhoi (SU-25) attack aircraft was shot down over the Luhansk region and that the pilot did not have time to eject.

TheHill.com STATE WATCH New York cancels history Regents exam following Buffalo shooting BY MONIQUE BEALS - 05/24/22 2:05 PM ET SHARE TWEET ... MORE The New York State Education Department announced on Tuesday that it would cancel a statewide standardized exam on U.S. history and government for high school students following the mass shooting in Buffalo. “Our experts determined that there is content on the new Regents Examination in U.S. History & Government (Framework) that has the potential to compound student trauma caused by the violence in Buffalo, which created an unexpected and unintended context for the planned assessment,” the...

The precept of honoring one’s parents is a force throughout one’s entire life. One is never free from this obligation.The precept of honoring one’s parents is a force throughout one’s entire life. One is never free from this obligation. This is an adapted excerpt from “Conservatism: A Rediscovery“Honor is one of the central ideas in a conservative political theory. I do not mean any particular code of honor, such as that which was accepted among English gentlemen two hundred years ago. Rather, I want to understand honor as a general phenomenon appearing across all human societies. In examining it, we...

Gardners beware -- the invasive Amynthas agrestis, also known as the Asian jumping worm, could be wiggling around a garden near you. These worms are known for their insatiable appetite and ability to jump a foot in the air. Yes, you read that right. "True to their name, they jump and thrash immediately when handled, behaving more like a threatened snake than a worm, sometimes even breaking and shedding their tail when caught," said the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in a report. As if that's not disconcerting enough, the worms "are extremely active, aggressive, and have voracious...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A blue-ribbon Army commission has recommended new names for nine Army bases named after Confederate leaders, including Fort Bragg, which will be recommended as being renamed Fort Liberty, according to a U.S. official Tuesday. Later Tuesday, the Army Naming Commission is expected to formally disclose its recommended names for the bases named after Confederate generals. Last year, Congress passed legislation that required the renaming of U.S. military installations named after Confederate leaders by 2023.

Law enforcement from the border region are responding to an active shooter call at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school. At least one 911 call was placed from within Robb Elementary School. Border Patrol agents, BORTAC special response team, and Texas Highway Patrol troopers are on the scene to assist local first responders. The situation unfolded at approximately 11:50 local time when shots were initially heard in the vicinity of the elementary campus.

A food insecurity expert said the world has only about 10 weeks of wheat supplies left in storage amid the conflict in Ukraine and as India has moved to bar exports of wheat in recent weeks. Sara Menker, the CEO of agriculture analytics firm Gro Intelligence, told the United Nations Security Council that the Russia–Ukraine war “simply added fuel to a fire that was long burning,” saying that it is not the primary cause of the wheat shortage. Ukraine and Russia both produce close to about a third of the world’s wheat. “I want to start by explicitly saying that...

I support the Quad as an initiative to contain Chinese totalitarianism. But using The Quad as a place to discuss human rights in Afghanistan or to extend the scope of the war in Ukraine does not look like good strategy to me. New Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was right to make attendance at the Tokyo meeting a high priority, but when he gets home he faces serious human rights questions which he cannot ignore if he wants to truly defend freedom from all of its enemies in Australia. Likewise Joe Biden is not consistently defending freedom in America. Leftist...

I once found woke ideology perfectly summed up by conservative commentator Jon Gabriel: a religion with many paths to damnation, but none to redemption. No matter what trails you blaze, what ground you break, how stanch and formidable an ally for The Cause™, you will eventually face your unpersoning at the hands of the Neojacobins. Just ask SFWA’s most recently appointed Grand Master, Mercedes Lackey. One can hardly imagine an author that could serve as a more suitable avatar of science fiction and fantasy’s leftward arc over the past 40 years than Mercedes Lackey. The protégé of Marion Zimmer Bradley...

Under-counts may have cost Florida and Texas another House seat. Well, well. Remember how Democrats accused the Trump Administration of trying to rig the 2020 Census? Now a Census Bureau study reveals that Republican-leaning states may have been hurt by mistaken under-counts. On Thursday the bureau published the results of its post-enumeration analysis, which it does after every Census to identify errors in the count. Its study found that 14 states were over- or under-counted by statistically significant margins. Compare that to 2010 when the bureau’s post-hoc analysis found that all the state population counts were more or less accurate....

The Australian government’s eSafety Commissioner called for a “recalibration” of the right to freedom of speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) during its annual meeting which sees global elites from enterprise and government descend on the ski resort town of Davos, Switzerland. Speaking to the WEF panel on Monday, commissioner Julie Inman Grant spoke of the need to rethink various rights, including the right to free speech. “We are finding ourselves in a place where we have increasing polarization everywhere, and everything feels binary when it doesn’t need to be,” Inman Grant said. “So I think we’re going to...

Friedman’s ultimate takeaway: Biden has been exceptionally good at managing our march to the brink of World War III.The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman — yes, the Thomas Friedman — ended his most recent and very bland column this week with the declaration that he had “left my lunch with the president with a full stomach but a heavy heart.” Friedman no doubt left his meeting full and heavy. The article he churned out after his very important meal with President Biden is beyond bloated. Although Friedman said their conversation was off-record, he was gracious enough to tell his readers...

A 65-year-old Indiana pastor has stepped down from his role in the church after admitting he had an affair with a 16-year-old girl in front of his entire congregation. Pastor John Lowe II stepped down from the New Life Christian Church after being confronted on stage by Bobi Gephart, a 43-year-old woman who came forward with a microphone to tell their church in Warsaw, Indiana, how he'd groomed her as a teen, starting when she was 16 - the legal age of consent in the state. Pastor Lowe II had just told the church that he 'sinned' 20 years ago...

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Six months after the world agreed in Glasgow to a U.N. climate pact with bold, new targets, political and business leaders facing an energy crisis, volatile markets and an economic downturn are grappling with how to cut carbon emissions. Amid soaring oil and gas prices triggered by Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, some countries have turned to other fuels, including coal, to meet their energy needs. Meanwhile, financial market ructions have complicated plans to raise the trillions of dollars needed for the energy transition away from fossil fuels. But for Amin Nasser, head of oil...

"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." "But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is...

Walls rattled and pieces of plaster fell from the ceiling of a basement converted by Ukrainian troops into a forward outpost. Russian shells hit again and again the crumpled building above. Images on a surveillance monitor, linked to a camera outside in the deserted village, showed plumes of black smoke rising all around the compound. “The Russians are very angry today because yesterday we killed two of their tanks,” said Marian, a platoon leader in the volunteer Carpathian Sich battalion deployed on the front line near the Russian-held Ukrainian city of Izyum. Like most military personnel, he is only allowed...

The US Army is proposing a policy that would allow soldiers to request a move if they do not like the local laws on gender, racism(?), or abortion. Is there a single state today that discriminates based on race? It was just last year the US Army released a recruitment ad targeting gays and kids of gays. This is the same US Army that just lost a war to 10th Century barbarians and left them $80 billion in US weapons. Military.com reported: The Army is circulating a draft policy tweak that would specify that soldiers can request to move if...

Known as the ‘Movement of Declaration of Independence in China,’ the online campaign is an effort to cripple communist rule in China by exposing Chinese citizens to the founding principles of the United States.Since its establishment in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has inflicted tremendous suffering upon the Chinese people. Whether it was the policies of Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) that resulted in the deaths of 45 million people or the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, China’s communist government has been at the forefront of squashing the natural rights of its people for decades. In the name...

What actually is the prognosis for John Fetterman, the Democratic Senate nominee from Pennsylvania who had a stroke on Might 13?The 52-year-old lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania clinched his occasion’s nomination only a few days later, organising one of the crucial consequential Senate contests of the midterm elections. However pressing medical questions stay.He was discharged from the hospital, his marketing campaign mentioned on Sunday, and Mr. Fetterman has mentioned docs assured him that he would make an entire restoration — however the marketing campaign has not mentioned when he’ll have the ability to return to campaigning.