Free Republic

Ranked: The World’s Richest Billionaires Over the Past 10 YearsThe last decade has seen a number of changes in the world’s richest billionaires list.For one, there are new faces at the top of the leaderboard that were never there before. One of the most obvious changes though, is that the richest billionaires have accumulated a lot more wealth in recent years.Using annual data from Forbes on the richest billionaires, we’ve visualized the wealth and ranking of the top 10 billionaires over the past decade.Who are the World’s Richest Billionaires?While the pecking order has fluctuated, the leaderboard remains very exclusive. Out...

It wasn't just Democrat operatives from Biden campaign who were directing Twitter to censor posts unfavorable to Joe Biden's presidential prospects behind closed doors.Arizona Democrat gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs, whose job at the time was sitting secretary of state, also got in on the act.According to the Post Millennial:Arizona Governor-Elect Katie Hobbs is facing backlash as proof that her office requested for certain tweets to be censored came out of Elon Musk's release of the "Twitter Files," the internal documents showing collusion between government officials, campaign teams, and other like actors with the social media giant to silence political dissent.On...

Friday, December 2, AD 2022 was one of those Big News Days – that is, a day on which some really big news dropped, a story big enough to dominate headlines for weeks. Elon Musk, as Twitter’s new boss, decided the time had come to reveal the hard evidence about what Republicans have been shouting for two solid years, and he worked out a gradual reveal through journalist Matt Taibbi to publish “The Twitter Files.” In the fall of 2020, just weeks before the presidential election, the story of Hunter Biden’s “laptop from Hell” was finally fully confirmed, fully authenticated,...

English is a glorious language that has developed over a thousand years, borrowing from every other tongue as it goes, and developing strict rules to maintain maximum coherence. It is spoken around the world and is, therefore, the language of money and power. But to a White, middle-aged leftist English teacher, the English language she’s responsible for teaching to all students, regardless of race, color, creed, etc., is nothing more than an ugly White supremacist means of controlling people. More than any language in the world, English is a portmanteau language—that is, it has cheerfully borrowed from every language with...

Having spent decades as a health policy analyst, I know one thing for certain: Everyone has at least one personal story related to health care, either their own or a close relation’s, which often informs their opinions about the system.In my case, an evolving mini-saga over the last several months confirmed my prior belief: Health care costs too much in part because no one can find out exactly what it costs — and few people have any incentive to do so.Low-Ball EstimateOver the summer, lingering discomfort from an ankle sprain prompted my orthopedic surgeon to suggest an MRI. I went...

An election integrity group ran a full-page ad in one of Georgia’s most notable newspapers on Sunday demanding that The Coca-Cola Company apologize for lying about the state’s 2021 voting law that enhanced the overall security of its elections.Run by the Honest Elections Project in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the ad highlights the soda company’s role in smearing Georgia’s election law as “‘a step backward’ that would ‘diminish or deter access to voting’” in the state.“After Georgia made it easier to vote and harder to cheat, the state saw its most successful election in history, shattering records for early and absentee...

A study concludes that the use of portable home air purifiers can improve markers of cardiovascular health in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. People suffering from COPD often experience shortness of breath, chest tightness and chronic cough. Cardiovascular diseases commonly accompany COPD. The new research is a secondary study of the CLEAN AIR study. The CLEAN AIR study found that people with COPD experienced improved symptoms after using portable air purifiers indoors. First, researchers had trained technicians take air samples of indoor particulate matter of varying sizes. These indoor air pollutants are composed of such things as...

If you missed this story last week, the summary is that there are some real estate experts who believe the pandemic may have created a new normal, one that has major implications for our cities. I can summarize this in three steps.First, when the pandemic hit, there were lots of white collar workers who decided to leave the city and ride out the storm in their 2nd homes in the Hamptons or Vermont or wherever they could go that was away from lots of other people. On top of this, you had the lockdowns which forced many corporations to be...

In June of this year, Nicole Pytlinski Pimentel from Fort Mill, South Carolina, gave birth to her first child at home. She told me of the decision, “If you had told me five years ago, even a year ago, that I would have done this, I would have said absolutely not, this is crazy.” Pimentel is part of a growing trend of American women choosing to give birth at home in the years post-COVID-19. Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing that home births are at their highest level in 30 years. The Associated...

Point of order: Didn’t we learn that in 2013 when James Clapper perjured himself before Congress? And didn’t we learn that the American media enthusiastically facilitated that disinformation potential by hiring Clapper and former FBI executive Andrew McCabe after getting fired for lying to investigators? Among dozens of others?We did indeed, but the editors of the Wall Street Journal want to underscore that point in the release of Twitter’s files on the Hunter Biden laptop story. They also note the media’s complicity in promoting this “disinformation,” even in the face of independent corroboration:Recall that former Democratic intelligence officials James Clapper...

I’m unabashedly gay, and I certainly support gay marriage. But I nonetheless side with the Christian wedding designer who’s before the Supreme Court right now because she refuses to design a same-sex wedding website. I’m going to explain why, but first, here are the facts.What’s This Case All About?On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case called 303 Creative LLC v Elenis. The case centers around Lorie Smith, a Christian who owns a website design business. She wants to expand her business and start designing custom wedding websites, but due to her religious beliefs, is unwilling to...

Amidst all the rightful focus on government censorship and election interference, another major story is brewing over at the Supreme Court. On Monday, the Justices heard oral arguments in a case centering on a web designer who has religious objections to making websites for same-sex couples.Naturally, Lorie Smith, who runs a company called 303 Creative, is based in Colorado. That state has become ground zero for religious liberty cases, made infamous by its persecution of cake baker Jack Phillips.During oral argument, the conservative justices seemed to lean toward siding with Smith, who has asserted that it violates her religious beliefs...

Monday, the US Supreme Court heard a major religious liberty case from Colorado called 303 Creative v. Elenis. The issue to be decided is: Whether applying a public-accommodation law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment.The case is similar to the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, which was settled unsatisfactorily in 2018. In that case, Jack Phillips, the proprietor of Masterpiece Cakeshop, refused to make a wedding cake that was decorated with two grooms. While the case is often portrayed as Phillips refusing to provide service to a homosexual “couple,” all...

A rot is eating away at many of the United States’ urban areas. Once thriving centers of culture, food, art, and music, our cities have become infested with a liberal groupthink that has made them dirty, dangerous, and full of beanie-wearing, latte-scoffing hypocrites. You know the type — they flout their fancy degrees, wax on (and on and on) about their (intolerant) political pedigrees, applaud the members of their echo chamber, yet lack even a shred of common sense or self-awareness.Nowhere is this more true than in Richmond, Virginia. Yes, Glenn Youngkin has taken up residence in the Governor’s Mansion...

It was quite head-spinning to see how instantly and gleefully many Republicans of the high forehead class leapt to blaming Donald Trump for the less-red-wavy-than-expected 2022 Midterms. And leapt from there to condemning his 2024 presidential run. But before lifting new champion Governor DeSantis to their shoulders, the Trump-trashers would do well to praise Caesar rather than burying him. The Trump magic is clear in the Midterm numbers - 92% of Trump’s endorsees won their primaries, as did 86% of his general election picks. The nay-sayers claiming his 2020 coattails were toxic in 2022 - even though he had no...

Healthy diets are rich in antioxidants like amino acids, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin C, but exactly how beneficial these micronutrients are for cardiovascular health has long been controversial. Now a new meta-analysis provides some clarity. Researchers reviewed 884 studies available on micronutrients taken as dietary supplements. They identified several micronutrients that do reduce cardiovascular risk—as well as others that offer no benefit or even have a negative effect. "We developed a comprehensive, evidence-based integrative map to characterize and quantify micronutrient supplements' potential effects on cardiometabolic outcomes," said Simin Liu, MD. Antioxidant supplementation has long been thought to play a...

Harmeet K. Dhillon @pnjaban If elected to RNC Chairwoman role, one of my first job offers will be to @ScottPresler — if he will have us — to inspire and train our ground forces on voter registration and getting every ballot to the ballot box by all legal means!

On Jackson's Island, Huck Finn found peace in nature: "I laid there in the grass and the cool shade thinking about things, and feeling rested and ruther comfortable and satisfied. " Beauty and trees in the modern Australian police state give me rest too. Connected deep In God's sweet call, When I pray, He saves me ......... God Bless Mark Twain, the joy of gazing at human beauty and being free.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued that stupid people are more dangerous than evil ones. This is because while we can protest against or fight evil people, against stupid ones we are defenseless — reasons fall on dead ears. Bonhoeffer's famous text, which we slightly edited for this video, serves any free society as a warning of what can happen when certain people gain too much power.CHAPTERS0:00 The Darkest Chapter0:55 Letters from prison4:29 About Bonhoeffer5:19 Our Patrons5:28 Subscribe and supportScript based on the work of Dietrich BonhoefferEditor: Jonas KoblinArtist: Pascal GaggelliVoice: Matt AbbottColoring: NalinEditing: Peera LertsukittipongsaProduction: Selina BadorProduction Assistant: BiankaProofreading: SusanBonhoeffer's Theory of...

At a private event over the weekend, Governor Ron DeSantis said that his administration intends to hold vaccine manufacturers accountable for making false claims about COVID products that have caused injuries and death. The governor said he would be working with Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo “to hold these manufacturers accountable for this mRNA [shot] because they said there were no side effects and we know that there have been a lot.” DeSantis made the comments at a Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) event on Saturday at the Florida Governors Mansion. American Greatness reached out to both the RPOF,...