Free Republic

These aren’t the most interesting cases, but they’re essential, nonetheless. The latest case heading to the Supreme Court isn’t grounded in abortion rights, which was the main attraction for the high court this past summer after a draft of the Dobbs opinion was leaked to the press. It set off a flurry of protests, demonstrations outside the homes of the justices, and even assassination attempts. Dobbs overturned Roe v. Wade, which led to a litany of hyperbolic segments from the liberal media and left-wing activists about how this decision will kill scores of women. The post-apocalyptic anecdotes about young women...

Marine archaeologists have located a "unique" ancient temple lost beneath the seabed close to the site of what has been dubbed the "Las Vegas" of the Roman Empire.The temple, thought to date to around 2,000 years ago, is positioned on the opposite side of the Gulf of Pozzuoli to Rome's "Sin City."This ancient city, known as Baiae, was the playground of the Roman elite in its heyday. A fashionable coastal resort, Rome's rich and powerful built luxurious villas at the site—including the emperors Julius Caesar, Nero, and Hadrian—attracted by its beautiful setting and healing natural hot springs, not to mention...

Five cars rented by President Joe Biden’s Secret Service detail for his Thanksgiving weekend trip to Nantucket mysteriously burst into flames a day after he left, according to reports. Footage of the burned out rental vehicles in a car park at Nantucket Memorial Airport was obtained by the Nantucket Current. The local news site reported that the cause of the fire was under investigation. No one was injured in the blaze. Footage showed firefighters dampening down the smouldering remains of several vehicles including a Chevy Suburban, a Ford Explorer, an Infiniti QX80, a Ford Expedition, and a Jeep Gladiator. In...

Visitors to Russia's first museum of LGBT culture, which opened in St. Petersburg on November 27, are greeted by a portrait of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.Tchaikovsky – the 19th century composer of the Nutcracker, among other works – is arguably one of the most famous gay Russians.Pyotr Voskresensky – a more contemporary gay Russian – got the idea to open the museum after a visit to Tchaikovsky's house in Klin. "The estate and the house interiors were completely scrubbed," Voskresensky told Radio Free Europe. "There was no hint of the composer's personal life.""The context of the opening of this museum is...

The vast majority of catacombs represent the final resting places of Christians, but there are also several of Jewish origin. One of these is situated in the gardens of the Villa Torlonia in the northeast of Rome. This villa was built in the first half of the 19th century for the wealthy banking Torlonia family. In 1929 it was taken over by the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. After his death in 1945, the villa and the gardens remained unused for many years, but have now been restored and are open to the public.In 1918, while conducting alterations in the very...

The end of France’s coal era seemed so certain last year that the operator of one of the country’s last coal-burning plants posted an upbeat educational video on YouTube titled “Let’s visit a coal plant that’s going to be destroyed!” The plant in the northeastern town of Saint-Avold indeed halted coal production as scheduled earlier this year — but not for long. This week, its workers were back at the controls, transporting coal from storage heaps and refiring furnaces, as part of emergency efforts to keep the heat and electricity on this winter. The energy crisis across Europe unleashed by...

Hi all, I think that saying that a Democrat might win the speakership is purely a scare tactic. From what I am reading, the speaker must win a simple majority of total votes cast, so 218 if all vote. If the dissenting Republicans vote for anyone other than McCarthy there is no way McCarthy can reach majority unless democrats vote for him. Representatives can vote for anyone. They are not limited to choosing between the nominees. As long as Republicans don’t vote for the Democrat nominee, the Democrat can’t reach majority either. As much as I detest the Rinos, I...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday said she “certainly” planned to stay on in her job for the duration of President Joe Biden’s term, dismissing speculation she was considering leaving after this month’s midterm elections. Yellen told an event hosted by the New York Times Dealbook she had no plans to leave Treasury. “I’m committed to staying,” Yellen said. “I’m excited about the agenda. I’m excited about what President Biden has accomplished so far, and I think there’s more to come.” Speculation about whether Yellen, 76, will remain in the job has increased in recent months, and the Republican takeover...

There was a time when Oscar heat meant big bucks at the box office, when Oscar talk would boost a movie no one was paying attention to into profitability and beyond. Again and again, what was known as the “Oscar effect” would kick in, and cash registers would clang. Why?Well, believe it or not, there was a time when the Oscars were trusted as an imprimatur of quality, a reliable signal of something special, and as guaranteed bang for the hard-earned buck.As Oscar talk increased in intensity, interest and box office receipts would grow. Hey, look at all the nominations/wins/talk....

TUCKER CARLSON: Unless you read The Daily Mail, which is an English paper published online, you probably didn't know that Chinese President Xi Jinping sent tanks into a major city last night in order to put down protests against his rule. Virtually no American media outlets even acknowledge that that happened, and that's pretty weird if you think about it. Imagine, for example, that Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán put tanks into Budapest to crush his political opponents. Would our media notice? Oh, yeah, they would. It'd be on the front page of The New York Times. "Morning Joe" would lead...

Shocking revelations about Gov control, harassment and of religious groups and peoples.Sometimes an article is so well written, so on point - that there is little to be added. Such is the case with “It’s not too late to stop being a tool of oppression,” written by Professor Jem Bendell on November 21, 2022. There is also an audio version available on the link above. So, lets begin this Substack by quoting the opening paragraphs:Death rates are still above normal in many countries of the world. The medical experts don’t know why. It could be from the long-term complications from...

Photo: AlamyPresident Trump has urged Georgians to cast their ballots for GOP U.S. Senate nominee Herschel Walker as early voting in the heated Senate runoff election kicks off in the Peach State. “Georgia, get out and vote for the GREAT Herschel Walker,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “HE WILL MAKE YOU PROUD!!!”In the wake of the 2022 midterms, Walker’s race with incumbent Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock was notably tight, prompting a runoff election.NEW: @andoverpoll | 11/26-27 | 862 LV GA SENATE Herschel Walker (R): 48% (+1)Raphael Warnock (D-inc): 47%https://t.co/VMKXOH6quW pic.twitter.com/KohBb12MMp— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) November 28, 2022Walker is holding a...

“The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick,” President Biden claimed on Thanksgiving Day. “It has no socially redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.” With mass public shootings in just the last week in Colorado and Virginia, people naturally want to do something to stop these attacks. But semi-automatic guns provide critical self-defense benefits. After each shot, a semi-automatic gun reloads itself. A single-shot gun, by contrast, requires manual reloading. This can prove a liability, especially against multiple attackers.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) filed paperwork on Wednesday morning to run for Indiana governor, leaving his Senate seat open in 2024. A filing from Indiana’s Secretary of State office noted the paperwork was filed on Wednesday morning, putting to rest speculation over whether Braun would either choose to run for a second term in the Senate or to replace term-limited Gov. Eric Holcomb (R). “Mike Braun has filed his paperwork to run for governor and will be making an official announcement of his candidacy very soon,” Josh Kelley, chief of staff and senior political advisor to Braun, said in a...

CNN began a long-expected round of layoffs on Wednesday as president Chris Licht and other executives at WarnerBros. Discovery trim costs at the struggling cable news network. Licht informed CNN employees of the cuts in a memo and acknowledged “it will be a difficult time for everyone” at the company. “It is incredibly hard to say goodbye to any one member of the CNN team, much less many. I recently described this process as a gut punch, because I know that is how it feels for all of us,” Licht said in the memo, which was shared on Twitter by...

Here's something nice to watch: The team is standing, each player with his hand on his heart. They're singing along. One even has his hair dyed red, white, and blue. The national anthem plays for the third time at the 2022 FIFA World Cup pic.twitter.com/VYf9z48X85— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) November 29, 2022

That The Washington Post can claim with a straight face that there was “no proof” of Twitter censoring conservatives when the Media Research Center has been documenting individual cases of censorship for over two years is simply ridiculous. A Nov. 27 Post article written by three reporters brazenly claimed “[t]he right wing and conservatives for years have accused Twitter of censorship with no proof.” That’s despite the fact that Twitter owner Elon Musk stated unequivocally days before the article’s publication that it was “correct” when conservative podcaster Dinesh D’Souza said that Twitter “[c]ensorship has been deployed as a one-way operation...

French President Emmanuel Macron is due to meet Vice President Kamala Harris for a visit to NASA headquarters on Wednesday as he kicks off his state visit to the US. Macron and his wife are also due to meet US President Biden and his wife for a private dinner later in the day. On Thursday, Macron will attend an official welcoming ceremony hosted by Biden at the White House. The same day, the leaders are slated to talk about Iran's nuclear program, China's increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific and the growing security concerns in Africa's Sahel region. Following the talks,...

Along with TV ads, McAllister and Eghigian reviewed print ads in databases from the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times over 40-plus years. The ads were analyzed for symbolic function and the characteristics flying saucers/UFOs played in advertising. Ads with similar functions were noted and those functions were then collated with each advertisement's year of circulation and with developments both in the advertising industry and ufology, or the study of UFOs. McAllister said his background in advertising history complemented Eghigian's knowledge of Cold War events and UFO cultural meaning. The thematic analysis and grouping of findings into theme areas...

The government is running out of prison places and has had to ask police for 400 cells to make sure there is enough accommodation for the prison population. Prisons minister Damian Hinds told MPs there had been an "acute and sudden increase in the prison population" in recent months and, as a result, the Operation Safeguard contingency plan had been launched for the first time since 2007. He said the government had "long anticipated" the rise due to bringing in additional measures to tackle crime, and had been "planning ahead" for it. But Mr Hinds blamed strike action by the...