Free Republic

A decade ago, then-Vice President Joe Biden shocked the political world and preempted his boss by suddenly declaring his support for gay marriage — one of the country’s most contentious issues — on national television. But not everyone was surprised. A small group had attended a private fundraiser with Biden weeks earlier in Los Angeles where he disclosed not only his approval but his firm conclusion about the future of same-sex marriage. He predicted, “Things are changing so rapidly, it’s going to become a political liability in the near term for someone to say, ‘I oppose gay marriage.’” “Mark my...

In 1903, a student named Arthur Lamb checked out "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens from the Toowoomba Grammar School library in Queensland, Australia. In December 2022, his grandson, John Lamb, returned the book to the library. Only 119 years after it was first checked out! The school, which has been around since 1875, shared on its Instagram: Dr Lamb kindly returned it to the School for display - 120 years overdue!!! A huge thank you to the Lamb family. The book was in a box of things belonging to the Lamb family. At least they thought they belonged to them...

A man was zip-tied at gunpoint and set on fire by at least three people who stole his vehicle in Northern California, according to the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office. The man called law enforcement around 10:55 p.m. on Wednesday night, telling deputies that his vehicle had been stolen in an area southwest of Yuba City, about 42 miles north of Sacramento, sheriff’s officials said. Responding deputies found that the man had been assaulted and burned, and emergency personnel took him to a hospital, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. The man told deputies that he was driving...

Multinational automaker Stellantis, which formed last year in a merger between Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group, is shuttering a plant in Illinois that produces the Jeep Cherokee. The company dropped a statement for local media: Our industry has been adversely affected by a multitude of factors like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the global microchip shortage, but the most impactful challenge is the increasing cost related to the electrification of the automotive market. Stellantis has taken a number of actions to stabilize production and improve efficiency at its North American facilities to preserve affordability and...

Joy Morales-Bartlett could finally see an end to her decadeslong student debt by the end of this year. But her ability to pay it off now rests in the hands of the Supreme Court. More than 40 million borrowers like Morales-Bartlett were eligible to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt under President Joe Biden’s one-time student loan forgiveness plan. But instead, her debt and that of roughly 16 million applicants who were also approved may never be forgiven if the Supreme Court sides with lower courts in Republican-led states that blocked the program. A ruling is expected...

In a January 7, 2021 blog, I wrote that “Yet another effort to discard the per-country cap for employment green cards fizzled in the waning days of the 116th Congress. But it's sure to come back in the new 117th Congress.” Every year since 2011, some members of Congress have attempted to discard the per-country cap for employment green cards, which was designed to provide temporary relief to employers when no American worker could be found to fill a position. The original bill designed to provide a never-ending flow of foreign workers to employers was titled the Fairness for High-Skilled...

A group of lawmakers in Niger has backed a motion seeking to criminalise same-sex relationships in the country. The vast majority of Niger’s population is Muslim, but it has a secular government and there is currently no specific law on same-sex relationships. The MPs say same-sex relationships are against the religious and cultural beliefs of the people. The proposal was presented to the Speaker of parliament by Nana Djibou Harouna, a lawmaker from the southern region of Maradi. She told a press conference on Thursday in the capital, Niamey, that the move was meant to protect the “rights and interest...

RAND PAUL: "You look at the other intelligence agencies and you had.. John Brennan the guy who was a Communist when he was a college kid. How did all these people from the left get together to occupy the highest positions of authority and abuse those positions in our intelligence agencies? It's remarkable..."

At the center of this debate was Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule, whose latest book served as the ostensible subject of the symposium. In conservative legal circles, Vermeule has become the most prominent proponent of “common good constitutionalism,” a controversial new theory that challenges many of the fundamental premises and principles of the conservative legal movement. The cornerstone of Vermeule’s theory is the claim that “the central aim of the constitutional order is to promote good rule, not to ‘protect liberty’ as an end in itself” — or, in layman’s terms, that the Constitution empowers the government to pursue conservative...

A team is preparing to defend Hunter Biden against an expected onslaught of investigations by House Republicans. Allies of the president's son gathered for a private strategy session last September in California where they discussed going after Hunter's accusers and critics with defamation lawsuits, according the Washington Post. Hunter's attorney and friend Kevin Morris suggested at the meeting the suits be filed against Fox News, Eric Trump and Rudy Giuliani, along with a probe into the repairman who handed over his laptop. Morris told the group he was crucial for Hunter's camp to be more aggressive and also 'outlined extensive...

Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) warns about continued massive government spending, debt, and deficits.

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that “it’s tough to say” if federal guidance to close down for the coronavirus pandemic went on for too long in light of states like Florida that opened up before the federal government recommended and did relatively fine. Host Judy Woodruff asked, “We’ve heard people say, in particular, that you and others who were in charge of getting the word out to the American people sent the message that we needed to keep things closed for too long and that there were states like Florida that opened...

Yoel Roth, ex-Twitter Content Moderation Chief (left):Elon Musk today replied "This explains a lot" to a Twitter user who highlighted this tweet by ex-Twitter Content exec Yoel Roth: Can high school students ever meaningfully consent to sex with their teachers? http://bit.ly/bbpH68 And Elon linked to Roth's PhD thesis:

VIDEO I had originally intended to put together a compilation of liberal reactions to Senator Kirsten Sinema ditching the Democrats. However, I changed gears when I began doing a YouTube search for such videos. What came up on the search results filtered for the past day was an OCEAN of nothing but liberal outlets with a couple of obligatory Fox News videos tossed in there in order to give YouTube the lame excuse that their search results are not biased because of the inclusion of Fox News. I hope the new Congress will look into the scandal of YouTube presenting...

Well, “Wreck-It” Biden and his minions struck again. In a moronic move, the American hating, National Anthem kneeling, Brittney Griner was released from a Russian prison in trade for a....wait for it...a convicted arms dealer nicknamed the “merchant of death.” Britney will be back in the good old US of A just in time for Christmas to open her presents. Soon she will appear on The View and vomit hatred for all things American. Britney will probably write a book blaming TRUMP, TRUMP, and TRUMP for her incarceration, thank Mother Russia for her release and be revered as a hero...

All non-critical infrastructure in Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa was without power after Russia used Iranian-made drones to hit two energy facilities, officials said on Saturday, with much of the surrounding region also affected....A statement posted by the city administration on the Telegram app said that Russian strikes hit key transmission lines and equipment in Odesa region in the early hours of Saturday....Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure with large waves of missile and drone strikes, with Kyiv acknowledging on Friday that every single thermal and hydro-electric power plant in the country had been damaged.

“‘The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away’” (Matthew 13:20–21). Shallow acceptance of the gospel can be encouraged by shallow evangelism that promises blessings of salvation but ignores the costs of discipleship. If people just “make a decision” for Jesus Christ without accepting all His claims on their lives, they can become insulated from genuine salvation. When...

God’s prophet wrote, “Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; he will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.’…” (Isaiah 2:3, NKJV), and “Even them I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer…” (Isaiah 56:7). The message of the Holy Spirit today to all God’s people is “Get back to the mount. Get back into his holy presence.” Many are now hearing that call and making time for prayer...

Unless you are having trouble sleeping, I do not recommend trying to read Dr. Anthony Fauci’s 363-page testimony in a federal lawsuit about how U.S. government officials colluded with Big Tech to censor online speech about COVID. It is positively soporific to parse Fauci saying, “I don’t recall” over and over again in response to questions ranging from the research he was funding at the Wuhan lab to whether his inspiration for lockdowns came from China. In all, President Biden’s Chief Medical Advisor drew a blank on a couple hundred occasions during his late-November deposition detailing crucial government efforts during...

SAN FRANCISCO – While millions of California families struggled financially in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pacific Gas & Electric’s CEO made over $50 million for leading the reviled utility with a history of bad investments and punitive energy bills. the same time that CEO Patricia Poppe was raking in the money through direct compensation, the monopoly power company triggered the second largest wildfire in California history, estimated to cost more than $ 1 billion in damages, much of it from homes and entire communities burned to the ground Documents filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission show...