Free Republic

When the city of Friendswood, Texas, announced on Facebook that hometown hero Haley Carter would be the grand marshal for the town’s famed Fourth of July parade, the post was peppered with excited comments. Carter, who was in the Marines and is a retired professional soccer player, was just the type of person residents wanted to see lead the parade. Then the right-wing culture warriors showed up. Conservative radio host Jesse Kelly tweeted the same day that Friendswood had appointed a “gun-grabber” who is “into drag” and “trans activism” to lead the parade. Kelly is from Ohio, ran a failed...

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has stirred controversy after she made moves to codify protections for ‘gender identity’ into the state’s constitution.

Zamfara State in northern Nigeria is suffering from a long-term conflict between mostly Muslim Fulani nomadic herders and mostly Christian Hausa farmers. Zamfara has a population of about ten million, of which about 20% are Fulani and other tribal herders. Disputes between herders and farmers have been accelerated by increasing populations, the ability of herders to breed and treat cattle for “tsetse fly” related diseases, and poor and disputed land titles.While numbers are difficult to validate, hundreds, possibly thousands, have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their lands and homes. Armed camps in forested areas, kidnapping,...

ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, ON THE JAMES RIVER, Monday Evening, June 30, 1862. Events of the gravest character have transpired within the last five days, touching the condition and prospects of the army on the Peninsula. Acting under the necessity which the Commanding General has long foreseen, the widely-extended lines of the army, with its miles of well-constructed defences, stretching almost from the James River on the left' to, and beyond the Chickahominy on the right, have been abandoned, and the army before Richmond has fallen back to a more practicable line of defence and attack, upon the James River....

These are the three brave Kentucky cops, and their faithful K9, who lost their lives during a shootout with suspected rapist and domestic abuser.

<p>If an intelligent janitor or maid cannot tell the difference between a genuine work of art and an art-world fraud then it is probably a pile of rubbish and should be treated accordingly.</p><p>I have just returned from a semi-enjoyable sojourn in London. It was only semi-enjoyable, alas, for my primary purpose in going was to attend the funeral of a good friend who made it to the Biblical span of three-score and 10, but just barely.</p>

“We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds- our own prejudices, fears and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women. To prepare for war,...

In America, be glad that you are not a citizen of Cuba, Nicaragua, or Venezuela. This Fourth of July, Americans have much to celebrate. Despite an inflationary economy and extreme polarization leading up to the November elections, the United States remains a model nation for the rest of the world. That model can be traced back to the Founding Fathers, who established institutions that have allowed American democracy to stand the test of time. The Declaration of Independence called for freedom, free markets, and equality of law in 1776, as the British empire threatened to impose control and taxes over...

The family’s four young kids (4, 7, 8 and 11) were playing on the backyard playset and dad was out working on the car when the family’s 3-year-old dog Lady snapped to attention.

A Viking sword discovered by metal detectorists in Norway is revealing new insights into voyages in the North Sea.The sword was found in three pieces in the Jåttå/Gausel area in Stavanger, an area renowned for the grave of the “Gausel Queen” first discovered in 1883...Under Norwegian law, the sword was reported to authorities and was sent to the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger for further study and conservation work.Although the blade is missing, the hilt has unique details in gold and silver and includes gilded elements of the typical animal styles found during the Iron and Viking...

President Donald Trump could be planning to make an unusually early announcement of his plans to run for president, but not all Republicans are convinced it would be the right move for the party. Trump has long teased a 2024 White House run and has continued to hold campaign-style rallies, all while stopping short of saying definitively if he plans to enter the race. However, recent revelations from the House Select committee's hearings on the January 6 insurrection are impacting his plans, according to a report from The New York Times. Now, Trump is considering announcing a run far earlier...

The story of Led Zeppelin’s 70s rock masterpiece Immigrant Song Although Immigrant Song was written to be entirely tongue in cheek... its humor was almost completely lost on listeners. In fact, this fist in the air rocker was so power-packed that legions lined up to crown its Zeppelin the lords of Rock and Roll. And by then... it was too late to convince anyone that they were more or less joking. Is this smash hit rock’s greatest battle cry anthem? Written by rock’s ultimate guitar hero Jimmy Page and masterfully sung by Robert Plant with John Paul Jones and John...

It's a class B drug in the UK - but in the US state it's led to spiralling addiction, psychotic illnesses and hospitals facing a deluge of poisonings A row of luxury 'healing' creams is guarded by a locked glass cabinet, gilded in gold trim. The packaging is stylishly minimal – clean and white with small black typeface – and beside the tubs sit decorative, artificial fruit and images of sprawling fields, with a small flyer to remind customers of the high-quality, organic nature of the products. I spot one pot – a snip at $43, or roughly £35 –...

The Bible In Paintings 2 ENCOURAGEMENT FOR APPRECIATING AND APPLYING GOD'S MESSAGE 2nd KINGS CHAPTERS 10-11 Jehu stood before all the people and said, “Know then, that not a word the LORD has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The LORD has done what he promised through his servant Elijah.” So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor. Jehu then set out and went toward Samaria. He came upon Jehonadab, who was on his way...

Ukrainian forces hit a Russian military logistics base with over 30 strikes in the Russian-occupied southern city of Melitopol on Sunday, the city's exiled mayor said. A Russian-installed official confirmed that strikes had hit the city. "At 3 o'clock (0000 GMT) and 5 o'clock (0200 GMT), there were over 30 strikes on a single military base," Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov, who is currently on Ukraine-controlled territory, said on Telegram. The military aerial logistics base has been "taken out of action" and other resistance activity caused a Russian armoured train carrying ammunition to derail on Saturday near Melitopol, Fedorov said. -snip-...

President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is roughly 270 words long. The Declaration of Independence is around 1,320 words. Those two documents alone prove the power of brevity. (Whenever I find that I am unable to write what I'm trying to say within the Lincoln-Jefferson word limit, I chuck it in the trashcan because I've most likely buried my intended message under parasitic weeds.) The whole U.S. Constitution, the shortest in the world, has only 4,400 words. Yet every two-year Congress since WWII has enacted 4-6 million words of new law. A wise man once told me that if a law can't...

Charges have been brought against an educator who was earlier this year dubbed “teacher of the year” by Athens City Schools. According to the police, Daelyn Waldroup, 26, broke into a car after scaling a fence to get to one that was impounded at a vehicle impound facility. According to an affidavit obtained, this occurred on the morning of June 6. It states that J Pro Car & Towing on Decatur Pike received a call from Athens police. According to the report, the officer discovered Waldroup there sitting in a locked car behind a fenced-in area. According to the affidavit,...

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34 (King James Version) The Pro-abortion crowd only want to kill babies and nobody else for society’s convenience. Which is what every Communist Movement around the world said right before the slaughtered over two hundred million of their own citizens for the crime of being an inconvenience. The Death in the Womb crowd only want to protect the Rights of the mother to do with her body what she wishes. Funny, how they were just the opposite for the military this week when tens of thousands of...

In 2018, archaeologists made a staggering discovery in Swaga Swaga Game Reserve in central Tanzania: 52 previously undocumented rock shelters, deliberately painted with rock art. Weathering had mostly destroyed all but a handful; but of those that were preserved, one was an absolute enigma.The site, named Amak'hee 4, was elaborately painted with a frieze of figurative art – including three mysterious, anthropomorphic figures with extremely oversized heads...The Amak'hee 4 panel is difficult to date, but in 2021 Grzelczyk was able to gauge that it's at least a few hundred years old. It's painted almost entirely in red pigment, except for...

3 July 2022 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time St Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, Claughton, UK Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingIsaiah 66:10-14 ©Towards Jerusalem I send flowing peace, like a riverRejoice, Jerusalem,be glad for her, all you who love her!Rejoice, rejoice for her,all you who mourned her!That you may be suckled, filled,from her consoling breast,that you may savour with delighther glorious breasts.For thus says the Lord:Now towards her I send flowingpeace, like a river,and like a stream in spatethe glory of the nations.At her breast will her nurslings be carriedand fondled in her lap.Like a son comforted by his...