Free Republic

A statue of young Abraham Lincoln has been splashed with red paint with the words 'COLONIZER' and 'LAND BACK' written below it in Chicago. The statue, which has stood in the Edgewater neighborhood since it was donated to Senn Park in 1997, also had the words 'Dakota 38' written on it. Dakota 38 refers to Lincoln's ordered execution of 38 Sioux, who were publicly hanged for participating in the Sioux Uprising in the US-Dakota War of 1862 in Minnesota.

Church worshippers cried 'heresy' at the Dean of Trinity College as they left a sermon claiming Jesus may have been transgender 'in tears'. But the view of a transgender Jesus is 'legitimate', according to Dr Michael Banner, the Dean who stepped in to defend the claim made at a Sermon last Sunday that Christ had a 'trans body'. Dr Michael Banner, the Dean of Trinity College, was backing up junior research fellow Joshua Heath, who displayed Renaissance and Medieval paintings of the crucifixion depicting a side wound that he likened to a vagina in front of the congregation.

A train from Los Angeles pulled into Cleveland with some $355,000 worth of items missing, according to a federal lawsuit. A Hong Kong company, Orient Overseas Container Line, filed the lawsuit last month in federal court in Cleveland, saying the merchandise was pilfered from a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway train somewhere in California. The company accused the railroad company of negligence and breach of contract. Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to Burlington Northern Santa Fe officials for comment. Los Angeles has recently seen a barrage of theft from trains. Union and Pacific Railways estimated in January that...

@SenMarkey .@elonmusk could respond to my tweets but failed to respond to my letter by yesterday’s deadline and answer basic questions about Twitter verification. Congress must end the era of failed Big Tech self-regulation and pass laws that put user safety over the whims of billionaires.

The first weeks of Advent focus more on the Lord’s second coming in glory than on His first coming at Bethlehem. The gospel clearly states that we must always be prepared, for at an hour we do not expect, the Son of Man will come. “Ready” is the key word, but how should we be ready? The second reading from today’s Mass (Romans 13:11-14) gives us a basic recipe for readiness. We can distinguish five fundamental instructions in Paul’s recipe.Wake up – The text says, … you know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from...

**SNIP** The laptop has been a source of significant reporting about Hunter Biden’s personal and business life, but many news organizations have treated its contents with trepidation because it emerged late in the 2020 presidential campaign and, at the time, they were unable to verify its authenticity. **SNIP** At several points Comer referenced a deal Hunter Biden tried to strike with CEFC China Energy, an energy conglomerate. Many aspects of his financial arrangements have been examined by news organizations, including The Washington Post. But at a news conference, Comer made assertions that have not been proved, are in dispute or...

Democrats would not have had such a good election night without the support of independent voters. ...Despite plenty of polling this year showing that independents were, like Republicans, primarily concerned with the state of the economy and inflation, they ended up making nuanced decisions in key statewide races — and that worked to benefit Democrats.... ...Perhaps the most confounding result for pundits across the spectrum was how the negative perception voters, and especially independents, had of President Joe Biden’s job performance and the state of the economy did not translate into a massive swing for Republicans. But voters weren’t viewing...

20 Minute intro to the Ganymede Hypothesis Ganymede is Jupiter's largest moon. Just a bit smaller than Mars, it is an icy wasteland now but that appears not to have always been the case. There is reason to believe that a few tens of thousands of years ago, it would have been a warm, fresh-water ocean world with islands and floating bergs of pumice and luxuriant vegetation. There is a Youtube channel called Ganymede Hypothesius containing related materials.The unabridged version of the story is a free download in pdf format, around 340 pages. This theory is not exactly genesis but...

Prayers up. FR is funded solely by contributions made by the liberty loving patriots who love and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. Definitely no government subsidies or tax breaks. No 501c or other IRS non-profit status. This means no commercial ads. No annoying pop-ups. No ad tracking. No mail campaigns. No spam. No third-parties -- not even the IRS -- trying to control what we do or say. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy our freedom to speak plainly in the support of God,...

An iconic ice cream business has threatened to move its Portland headquarters out of Oregon as crime, drug use and homelessness continue to plague the woke Democratic city. Salt & Straw was created to be a community gathering place, according to its website. It was set up as a parlor in 2011, and quickly became known as one of the United States' best scoop shops, further bolstering Portland's reputation as one of America's best foodie cities.

President Joe Biden said Saturday that he'd tabled plans to discuss a 2024 run with his family during their Thanksgiving trip to Nantucket - spending the day shopping on the island instead. 'We're not having any, we're celebrating!' Biden told reporters when asked how those 2024 discussions were going as he walked from store to store downtown. DailyMail.com later asked him if he'd made a decision about launching a reelection bid.

Controversial Washington Post journalist Taylor Lorenz has slammed her own newspaper's reporting on China and its opposition of Covid lockdowns in the country. On Saturday, the Post tweeted an article about China's record number of coronavirus cases, noting how only a tiny proportion its billion-strong population are vaccinated. 'A coronavirus outbreak on the verge of being China's biggest of the pandemic has exposed a critical flaw in Beijing's 'zero covid' strategy: a vast population without natural immunity,' the post said.

“As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise. Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him” (Proverbs 27:21-22).

Elon Musk on Saturday shared slides he said were from a Twitter company talk he delivered. The slides included graphs that showed Twitter downloads and usage were at record highs.They also noted features Musk plans to implement, including long-form tweets and encrypted DMs Elon Musk on Saturday said Twitter signups and active minutes are at an all-time high as he continues to roll out his 2.0 version of the platform.Musk shared a series of slides he said were from a Twitter company talk he delivered. The slides included graphs as well as features he plans to include in Twitter 2.0,...

Maine needs to get more adults into the workforce and create affordable housing options for them if it wants to strengthen the state’s economy and quality of life, according to a report released Wednesday. The Measures of Growth 2022 examined 31 indicators, awarding Maine gold stars in areas such as entrepreneurship because the number of business starts exceeded closures by 9% in 2020. Wages are strong too, rising 0.5% in 2021. But the council, made up of business owners and lawmakers from both parties, issued red flags for housing affordability, labor force participation, mental and behavioral health and research and...

A break from politics for ingenuity in construction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGegneT9KfQ&t=1s Indiana Bell Central Office building, all 11,000 tons, moved 90 degrees while employees worked inside. Kurt Vonnegut's father was the local architect who came up with the idea.

The last time a vote for speaker went to multiple ballots on the House floor was in 1923. The longest was 133 ballots over two months.... ...In this game of chicken, if the conservatives don’t blink and McCarthy refuses to back down, it could result in a chaotic floor fight with House members taking multiple votes for speaker — something that has not happened in a century. Here are other examples throughout history where the speaker's gavel didn't come easy....

...After the predicted “red wave” failed to materialize on Nov. 8, it’s safe to believe that not only are a large number of these conservative and faith-based voters depressed, they’re also shocked that the Republican leadership — which failed so miserably — will remain in power once again.... ...With literally hundreds of millions of dollars spent, much of it donations from these constituencies, combined with an election perfectly teed up for the Republican establishment and leadership to win after two years of one White House/Democratic failure after the other, the GOP still managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws...

In December 1971, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke and her mother were traveling to see her father on LANSA Flight 508 when the plane was felled by lightning and broke apart. Considered the worst lightning strike in history, the crash ultimately led to the loss of every passenger on board - except Koepcke. The teenager plunged two miles through the air to the floor of a Peruvian jungle, still strapped to her seat. Despite this harrowing experience, she lived to tell the tale. Koepcke, who miraculously suffered only minimal harm, ventured through the forest for 11 days seeking help. Just 10 minutes...

The White House has condemned former US President Donald Trump for meeting at his Florida estate with renowned white supremacist Nick Fuentes and with rapper Kanye West, who was recently embroiled in antisemitic controversy. “Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America - including at Mar-A-Lago. Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement to CNN. According to media reports, Fuentes and West were seen dining with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Tuesday, when West said he had asked the former president to be...