Free Republic

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul predicted that a GOP majority in Congress would "get to the bottom" of the origins of COVID-19, something that still hasn't been fully investigated. "I think most of the mainstream media has kept off of the airwaves a discussion of gain-of-function research or the origins of the virus, but we will get to the bottom of this," Paul said on a conference call with reporters. "It's going to take control of committees ... "I've talked to Jim Jordan and others about investigating this. I think there's a great deal of interest in investigating the origins...

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Sunday said it would be “very difficult” for her to support Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) or Ted Cruz (R-Texas) after they objected to Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021. Cheney told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl that both Ivy League-educated senators “know better.” “Both of whom know exactly what the role of Congress is in terms of our constitutional obligations with respect to presidential elections, and yet, both of whom took steps that fundamentally threatened the constitutional order and structure in the aftermath of the last election,” she said. “So in my view,...

The Nazi Roots of Islamist Hate A review of recent scholarship on the shaping of the modern Middle East in the aftermath of the Holocaust BY JEFFREY HERF JULY 06, 2022 TABLET MAGAZINE In early June 1946, Haj Amin el-Husseini, also known as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, escaped from a year of pleasant house arrest in France and flew to Cairo. Husseini, by then often referred to in Egypt simply as “the Mufti,” was internationally renowned as a collaborator with Nazi Germany as a result of his meeting with Adolf Hitler in Berlin in November 1941, and his Arabic...

Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz on Sunday defended former President Donald Trump after the FBI seized documents from the former commander-in-chief’s Mar-a-Lago home. Dershowitz emphasized on Fox News Channel’s “MediaBuzz” that he voted against Trump twice and was “looking forward” to doing it again but said the FBI engaged in an “improper search” to obtain documents.

On Thursday, FOX Sports insider Jay Glazer shared a nice story about the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach. Glazer reported that Tomlin had spotted some kids fighting in the street, stopped his car and broke things up. After calming tensions, Tomlin allegedly invited the kids to Steelers camp where they met with players and even took part in some mock drills. But is that really how things went down? Several people have taken to social media to contradict Glazer’s version of events and point out that Tomlin has a long-standing relationship with The Jasmine Nyree Campus, where the kids were from....

The speaker is exactly half the ex president’s age but his speech is the full Trump. “Joe Biden has turned the southern border into the world’s capital of drug trafficking,” says JD Vance, celebrity author of Hillbilly Elegy and Trump-endorsed Senate candidate for Ohio. To cheers from a capacity crowd in Youngstown, 1,500 miles from the Mexico frontier, he adds: “We do not have to allow the poison and the sex trafficking that’s flowing into our state thanks to the open border to continue to do so. We can shut that border, we can build the wall, and we can...

It's a Wonderful Life star Virginia Patton Moss is dead at the age of 97. The last surviving adult cast member of Frank Capra's classic holiday film, Moss passed away on Aug. 18 in Albany, GA, as reported by Variety. Moss was credited in the film under her maiden name, Patton. Moss starred in 1946's It's a Wonderful Life as Ruth Dakin Bailey, the wife of Harry Bailey (Todd Karns) and the sister-in-law of the main character George Bailey, portrayed by James Stewart. Moss was the last living adult actor who had worked on the film, though several It's a...

This week Firefly Aerospace signed a deal with Northrop Grumman to replace the first stage of the Antares rocket with the first stage of Firefly Beta, this will eliminate the dependence on Russian engines and bring the manufacturing of the major structural parts into the US.Firefly Will Replace Russian Engines On Antares Rocket With Beta Booster | August 11, 2022 | Scott Manley

Youth basketball league participants in Los Angeles are still being required to wear masks while they are on the court more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic. Los Angeles Uprising, an organization that pushes back against "restrictions and mandates," tweeted a picture of a youth basketball game from Saturday which shows participants wearing masks while on the court. The youth basketball game took place at the Mar Vista Recreation Center. A flyer for the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks Summer Basketball League states that a "face mask is required at all times." In addition, participants...

Border Patrol agents caught three illegal immigrants wearing ghillie suits meant to help them blend into the New Mexico desert, the federal agency reported last week. The trio, after being caught, is seen wearing so-called ghillie suits in photos posted to the Border Patrol’s social media accounts. Ghillie suits are often used by hunters to blend in with the outdoors.

Longtime Baylor University professor Rodney Stark passed away at his home in Woodway, Texas, on July 21, 2022. One of the world’s preeminent figures in the sociology of religion, in 2004 Stark joined the faculty of Baylor as Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences. In 2005, he agreed to become co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) with Byron Johnson. Stark grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota, and began his career as a newspaper reporter. Following a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, he received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where he held appointments...

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D), running against Mehmet Oz for the state’s open United States Senate seat, is worse than failed Democrat presidential candidate Michael Dukakis when it comes to freeing violent criminals from prison, Kimberly Guilfoyle says.In an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Saturday, Guilfoyle blasted Fetterman as a “dangerous” choice to fill Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat as a crime wave sweeps the state and nation.“It’s appalling to me the number of murderers, people who have committed violent crimes that [John Fetterman] has actually let out … that’s what people don’t get — he’s a very...

6-minute video. Nose-ringed fascists giddy about using firearms and police power.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is getting another boost from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., showing the importance of the open Pennsylvania Senate seat in the midterm race for the majority. McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) is pumping another $9.5 million into the race, bringing its total funding to $34 million, and a Friday ad by the SLF exposes Democrat Sen.-nominee John Fetterman for his soft-on-crime policies amid a "violent crime surge." "Pennsylvania is a top-tier priority that is integral to our goal of electing a Republican Senate majority," SLF President Steven Law wrote in...

Charles Eisenstein is the author of “The Coronation,” a collection of essays that explore the paradigms, dynamics, ideologies, and mythologies that predispose people toward accepting narratives around safety and social control, especially during times of crisis. He argues that governments around the world were able to exploit the need to fit in and feel safe during the pandemic. “Human beings are exquisitely attuned to reading the mood of the mob. It’s a survival mechanism. In order to fit in, we instinctively adopt the correct opinions and profess those opinions, we signal the appropriate virtues, we respect the appropriate taboos that...

CHICAGO — Two years ago, as the city of Chicago reeled from a bloody battle between police officers and protesters over a prominent statue of Christopher Columbus, Mayor Lori Lightfoot launched an ambitious review of public monuments she said would be “a racial healing and historical reckoning project.” This week, the Chicago Monuments Project finally released its long-delayed report recommending a series of new public memorials across the city and the removal of several statues that the commission flagged for honoring white supremacy or disrespecting Indigenous peoples. Whether Lightfoot will follow the committee’s recommendations remains to be seen, however, as...

A woman in Houston says she was sent to the hospital after touching a napkin on her car door that was apparently poisoned. Erin Mims was at a Houston restaurant celebrating her birthday on Tuesday afternoon with her husband, but when the couple went back to get in their car, a napkin was on the door, according to FOX 26. Mims said that she threw the napkin away and didn't think much of it. "I just threw it out," said Mims. "I opened the door with the tips of my fingers. I asked my husband, did you put a napkin...

DELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida man was arrested Thursday after he tried to stash some meth under a deputy’s patrol vehicle during a traffic stop. Body cam video showed a responding deputy tell Lee Sanberg, 49, that she needed to get her written warning from another deputy who was patting down her boyfriend, 49-year-old John Schneider. While he was being patted down, Schneider was spotted dropped a bag under the deputy’s patrol vehicle, prompting the deputies to handcuff him immediately. “He just dropped a bag that looked like dope,” one of the deputies said. “Aww man,” the man’s girlfriend...

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -- COVID testing in Hawaii early in the pandemic was extremely lucrative for government contractors, experts say. They also say the city’s airport testing program meant big profits for a local non-profit and its partners. When former Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration wanted to set up a mobile COVID testing lab at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport two years ago, it awarded a non-bid contract worth $19.5 million to the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii and its partners. Copies of contracts and change-orders obtained by Hawaii News Now under the state’s Open Records Law show that the...

[Catholic Caucus] Hard prophecy from St. Francis of AssisiSome people have a false notion of St. Francis of Assisi. They see garden statues of Francis with birdies. They saw Brother Sun, Sister Moon. They’ve heard, or said, the prayer he didn’t write. You get the idea. Being Christian means rolling in the grass and hugging lambs as bluebirds flit around you.In fact, Francis was a serious hard ass. The writings of Francis show that he had lofty ideas about the sacrality of sacred worship – HERE – and other matters. He would have been appalled, I think, at the Novus...