Free Republic

Ranked choice voting is on the rise in the United States, with nearly two dozen places now using the system for various offices including, most recently, New York City for its mayoral primary elections. By the end of 2021, more than 20 Utah municipalities will be using this method, which lets voters rank candidates in order of preference. Two cities in Minnesota will also try it this year: Bloomington and Minnetonka. By 2022, the state of Alaska will be using a variation of the system, as will the California cities of Albany, Eureka and Palm Desert. By 2023, Boulder, Colorado,...

BIDEN, BARRON & BERGOGLIO: Rockin’ the Post-Catholic WorldDo you remember when Catholic bishops and priests were leading the charge in the culture war against ‘sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll’ last century? What happened? To paraphrase another hippy crooner, Pete Seeger, “where have all the Catholics gone?” Last week, Bishop Robert Barron proudly announced on Facebook that he’d made a pilgrimage to the boyhood home of iconic folk rocker, Bob Dylan.Apart from offering further proof that the Catholic Church has surrendered in the Culture War, what’s the takeaway? To answer that question, Michael Matt points to President Joe ‘The Catholic’...

The incident occurred shortly after 2 p.m. on Saturday at Bedrock Rapid on the Colorado River, according to the park's Twitter account, which reported that emergency medical personnel were treating and transporting injured patients. The rapid is known for a large rock island that splits the left and right portions of the channel, making it dangerous for rafters, according to the website GoRafting.com. A representative for the national park did not immediately respond to inquiries from NBC News Sunday.

The Countess of Wessex was pictured comforting Princess Anne today as members of the royal family watched Queen Elizabeth II's coffin arrive in Edinburgh to lie in rest at the Palace of Holyroodhouse overnight. Sophie, 57, the wife of the Queen's youngest son Prince Edward, 58, was seen placing her hand on the Princess Royal's back in a supportive gesture after the coffin made the journey from Balmoral to the Scottish city. The Queen's children and their spouses - Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, Duke of York and the Earl and Countess of Wessex - watched as...

When I think back to 9/11, the memories are very clear. It was the beginning of my senior year of college. It’s difficult to picture the United States responding differently than we did. A nation that was bitterly divided over a prolonged presidential election less than a year earlier united against a common enemy. “A terrorist attack designed to tear us apart has instead bound us together as a nation,” President George W. Bush observed in his radio address days after the attack. For a little while, anyway. Disagreements over the Iraq War and the 2004 election quickly tore the...

Ukraine has made some impressive progress on the battlefield, but let us hold the applause for a moment: It’s too soon to tell whether Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive heralds a Ukrainian victory in the war with Russia, but the remarkably rapid Ukrainian advance on the one hand and the equally remarkable rapid retreat by the Russians on the other do testify to Ukrainian military prowess and, perhaps more critical, Russian military incompetence. It should be amply clear by now that, expert expectations to the contrary, Russia cannot win the war. In fact, the irony is that Russian troops have responded to...

In the harsh November of 1620, a 100-foot fluyt bearing about 130 people reached the alien eastern shore of the North American continent. Their first sighting of land was a thin, hooked promontory known to early adventurers for the abundance of its fish. They meant to turn southward and establish a new settlement in the Colony of Virginia. But the winds were hard, and their vessel was beaten and overloaded, and after days of struggle they had made no meaningful headway. They turned back, dropping anchor at Cape Cod (where they had first arrived) on November 21. Of the 102...

“Journalists uncover the truth, check the abuse of power, and demand transparency from those in power. They are indispensable. And, at a time when the truth is increasingly under attack, our need for accurate, fact-based reporting, open public conversation, and accountability has never been greater.” That was President Biden in a statement on National Press Day not long after taking office in 2021. Hard to argue with the sentiment: Journalists are indispensable to a functioning democracy. The need for accountability has never been greater.

A shoplifter knocked a 77-year-old woman unconscious as he made a mad dash from a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Manhattan on Saturday with just $35 in stolen Funko Pop! toys in a shocking moment that was caught on surveillance video. New York City Police released footage that shows the thief running out the door after he snatched the popular collectibles from a display inside the Union Square location around 12:20 p.m. When loss prevention employees tried to stop him, the brazen thief forced his way through and slammed into the unidentified elderly woman walking into the store. The woman...

I think that I'd have to be an active duty Ukrainian soldier or ally to truly appreciate the humor of this video. I know that these ppl are fighting and dying for their families and countrymen so the humor factor is not all there for me. I couldn't imagine being inside that tank or outside on the offensive. War is hell. But I'm posting anyway. :O)

PHOENIX — Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake wants Arizona to join nine other states in not having an income tax — if she can make it work. “I want to eventually get rid of the income tax if we can do that,” Lake told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Thursday. “I haven’t made that promise because I don’t want to make a promise that I can’t keep. “But I want to get it down to as close to zero as possible so we can compete with some of these other states.”

Explanation: How does your favorite planet spin? Does it spin rapidly around a nearly vertical axis, or horizontally, or backwards? The featured video animates NASA images of all eight planets in our Solar System to show them spinning side-by-side for an easy comparison. In the time-lapse video, a day on Earth -- one Earth rotation -- takes just a few seconds. Jupiter rotates the fastest, while Venus spins not only the slowest (can you see it?), but backwards. The inner rocky planets across the top underwent dramatic spin-altering collisions during the early days of the Solar System. Why planets spin...

The Royal Family announced on Saturday that the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II will take place on September 19, but who exactly will make the guest list is still up in the air.

My Father was a sailor and my earliest memories are of the Navy, being on bases, seeing sailors in uniform, standing formation, marching in straight lines, counting cadence., doing the manual at arms as one, functioning like a huge living organism with one purpose..." "...When you say, “right full rudder,” the rudder better come right full or lives could be lost. You think I exaggerate? Constant bearing and decreasing range…what to do? Seconds to decide and lives are at risk. Ask the crews of the USS McCain or USS Fitzgerald, the ones who are still with us, sailors who will...

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) presented Dr. Simone Gold a flag that was once flown over the U.S. Capitol on Friday, following her 45 days in jail for being involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach and stepping inside restricted premises. “Dr. Simone Gold is a patriot and an American hero,” Gohmert said in a Sept. 9 statement. The in-person grant upon Gold’s release from the Miami Federal Detention Center was to honor the Los Angeles-based emergency medicine specialist’s “invaluable work and contributions to public health, medical freedom, and our God-given constitutional rights,” according to the Republican lawmaker. Gold, the founder...

Greek coast guard ships opened fire on a cargo vessel sailing in international waters in the Aegean Sea, the Turkish coast guard said, escalating tensions between the regional rivals that have mounted in recent weeks. There were no casualties in the shooting 11 nautical miles (13 miles) southwest of the Turkish island of Bozcaada on Saturday, the Turkish statement said. It added that after “harassment fire” from two Greek coast guard vessels, two Turkish coast guard ships went to the area and the Greek boats left. Calls to the Greek Embassy in Ankara went unanswered Sunday, and it wasn't clear...

22:22 ‘I’ve never been so nervous’ Matilda Ekeblad, chair of the MUF, the Moderates’ youth party, has told The Local’s Richard Orange that she is feeling extremely tense as the results are so far staying stubbornly close to the exit poll result. “I am really on edge. I still think we’ll take it home, but I’ve never been so nervous,” she said. Asked if she thinks Ulf Kristersson should resign if he loses the election, she laughed nervously. “I think we’ll see when we get a result. I think he’s going to be Prime Minister.” Pushed on whether it had...

President Joe Biden marked the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States by taking a swipe at his political opponents. He spoke in front of the Pentagon where he said Americans “owe it” to the victims of 9/11 to defend democracy weeks after he labeled “MAGA Republicans” a threat to democracy. Using the anniversary of 9/11 to swipe at political opponents is loathsome enough, but to do it weeks after you labeled fellow Americans a threat to democracy makes it worse. “We must be honest with each other and with ourselves,” Biden said during the...

U.S. military prosecutors are reportedly negotiating potential plea deals with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other conspirators imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. The plea deals may allow the five dependents to escape a potential death penalty, according to CBS. Mohammed is widely credited with being the architect of the 9/11 terror attacks. The other four defendants are Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, Walid bin Attash and Ammar al-Baluchi. Attorneys for the defendants reportedly say they would be willing to enter a guilty plea in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table, as well as for getting treatment...

According to The Financial Times, US senator Sen. Marco Rubio said that Apple is “playing with fire” with its plans to use chips from a controversial Chinese government-associated company. A report from a South Korean publisher revealed Apple’s plans to collaborate with Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) for the new lineup of iPhones. “If [Apple] moves forward, it will be subject to scrutiny like it has never seen from the federal government,” Rubio told the Financial Times. Another senator, Rep. McCaul, shared that YMTC has extensive ties to the Chinese Communist party and military. “Apple will effectively be transferring knowledge...