Free Republic

PHOENIX (AP) — Mecca Patterson-Guridy wants to learn, but for some subjects, she isn’t always comfortable asking her teachers. So she has been turning to TikTok. Online, the 17-year-old high school junior in Philadelphia has found videos on social media platforms about protests over police shootings, civic engagement and Black and Latino history in the U.S. The accounts she checks regularly feature segments including “Fast Black History” and “Black Girl Magic Minute.” The videos, Mecca said, address “things that get overlooked in the classroom.” Scrutiny from conservatives around teaching about race, gender and sexuality has made many teachers reluctant to...

appy Birthday to Dick Van Dyke! Born on December 13, 1925, the actor is turning in 97 today and fans are celebrating his birthday across social media! Mr. Van Dyke is known for many years of acting, which started in 1947 in nightclubs. Then he went on to appear in numerous television shows and films including Disney’s famous “Mary Poppins” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

How Lockdowns Made Us Sicker Early during lockdowns in 2020, when the whole of the media marched in lockstep with the most appalling reach of public policy in our lifetimes, two doctors from Bakersfield, California went out on a limb and objected. Their names: Dan Erikson and Artin Massihi from Accelerated Urgent Care. They held a press conference in which they claimed that lockdowns would only delay but not finally control the virus. Moreover, they predicted, at the end of this, we would also be sicker than ever because of our lack of exposure to endemic pathogens. You could say...

Answer: nope. Even if it might be accurate this time. Which it might be … or may not.The BEA will publish the consumer price index report for November tomorrow morning. Economists expect it to drop, as did the producer price index in last Friday’s report. But they’ve expected it to drop significantly all year, and yet here we are:At this time last year, economists were predicting that inflation would swiftly fade in 2022 as supply chain issues cleared, consumers shifted from goods to services spending and pandemic relief waned. They are now forecasting the same thing for 2023, citing many...

Research published Monday has confirmed a link between a Covid infection and a debilitating heart condition called POTS, or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, that has been diagnosed in some patients with long Covid. The findings, published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research, are in line with earlier reports from physicians that Covid may trigger POTS, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system often characterized by a rapid heart rate, low blood pressure, fainting and lightheadedness. Physicians often fail to recognize the condition, experts say, because it can be confused with a myriad of other health problems, including anxiety and dehydration....

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - After all-night negotiations, the European Union struck a political deal on Tuesday to impose a carbon dioxide emissions tariff on imports of polluting goods such as steel and cement, a world-first scheme aiming to support European industries as they decarbonise. Negotiators from EU countries and the European Parliament reached a deal at around 5am in Brussels, on the law to impose CO2 emissions costs on imports of iron and steel, cement, fertilisers, aluminium and electricity. Companies importing those goods into the EU will be required to buy certificates to cover their embedded CO2 emissions. The scheme is...

Every four years, the World Cup comes around and Americans become interested in soccer until the men’s team loses. Then it is back to football. There is women’s soccer, too, but it attracts little interest, in large part because it is woke.The rest of the world is soccer mad because it is three minutes of action packed into three hours of drinking beer. Americans have baseball for that.Soccer also has a political side, which Alain Destexhe of the Gatestone Institute explored in this year’s celebration in Belgium — the de facto capital of Europe. The cheering was raucous and illuminating.Destexhe...

Luka, a 20-year-old woman who began identifying as transgender in adolescence, now regrets taking cross-sex hormones and having a double mastectomy at 16; she says doctors pressured her into medically transitioning. Her story is a microcosm of what’s happening across the U.S.: thousands of teen girls are undergoing irreversible biomedical interventions to resolve gender identity issues they would likely outgrow on their own, experts say, and doctors are encouraging the medicalization of these minors despite health risks the treatments present. “My parents were told the same thing so many other parents in these situations are told, ‘Would you rather have...

A leftist nonprofit group that funded the private takeover of government election offices during the 2020 presidential election just announced its new round of beneficiaries for the 2024 cycle. The Center for Tech and Civic Life — one of two groups that funneled $328 million (colloquially termed “Zuckbucks“) from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the blue counties of swing states to mobilize potential Democratic voters and swing the race for Joe Biden — has said it will distribute $80 million in election grants in the next five years to the following counties and cities: Contra Costa County, California Shasta County,...

Those ‘under the age of 50 who took the vaccine now have a 49% higher mortality rate,’ and individuals who received just one dose of the shots, ‘have an approximately 145% worse mortality rate,' said analyst Josh Stirling. ‘That ends up being something like 600,000 excess deaths per year in the United States.’A highly acclaimed insurance analyst reported that “the best statistics we have” reveal those who accepted the experimental gene-base COVID vaccine “have a 26% higher mortality rate,” including 49% for those under 50, and 145% for those who accepted just one dose of a two-dose regimen.Josh Stirling from...

The Epoch Times reported, "Canadians are now waiting longer than ever before if they need to see a specialist, obtain diagnostic procedures, or undergo surgery, according to a new survey."This year, an estimated 1,228,047 Canadians are waiting for procedures in 10 provinces. This is roughly 3.2% of the country’s population, assuming each person is only waiting for one medical treatment."The Fraser Institute says that in the nearly 30 years it has been documenting how long it takes for patients to receive necessary medical treatment, this year’s wait time of 27.4 weeks is the longest."Reading that, I wondered what the wait...

The Government Conspired with Big Tech to Infringe on Free SpeechThe defenders of censorship hate the sunlight from @elonmusk. They complain “but Twitter was a private company!” US case law throws cold water on this defense! “A fundamental principle of the First Amendment is that all persons have access to places where they can speak and listen.” Packingham vs NC.Bottom line: the government conspired to remove valid public health messages and social media posts by myself and others, because they disagreed with the viewpoint which contradicted the federal government’s COVID-19 public health message and views.OpEd in the WSJ about Twitter...

Joe Biden is only in second place – so far. A new report reveals that the economic decline for Americans was both huge and fast under Biden's economic strategies. But he's only in second place, with the fall in wealth faster coming just as Barack Obama, for whom Biden served as vice president for eight years, was beginning his term in the White House. The Gateway Pundit was blunt in its report, explaining, "The U.S. household wealth is down $13.5 trillion in 2022 the second fastest decline on record. Only the 2008-2009 financial crisis was worse than the Biden 2022...

The results of a global poll are sure to shock those who claim that the “science is settled” on climate change – nearly four out of ten people believe it is natural, not man-made.The worldwide IPSOS survey asked people in 30 countries across five continents to give their views on what they thought was causing climate change.37 per cent of respondents said they believed it was “mainly due to the kinds of natural phenomena that the Earth has experienced throughout its history.”In the seven countries where political leanings were recorded, 28 per cent of leftists said they were climate skeptics,...

Dozens of athletic competitions for women and girls have been upended by the participation of males identifying as transgender women, who benefit from a host of biological advantages over female competitors, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found. Transgender-identified males have competed in a variety of women’s athletic competitions, from school sports for young children to top college events and Olympic competitions. Differences in an average woman’s strength, stamina and physique compared to the average male are sustained even when a male undergoes testosterone suppression, according to the Sports Councils’ Equality Group. “There is no equity, fairness, sportsmanship or opportunity...

For refusing the experimental coronavirus jab, Lt. Col. Michael Berry was punished and disrespected by unelected military bureaucrats.The Covid-19 vaccine requirement for military service members is hopefully nearing its end after the House of Representatives bipartisanly passed the National Defense Authorization Act with a provision to repeal the mandate last Thursday.The news is a win for a handful of congressional Republicans who have been diligently fighting the military mandate. For many service members, though, it marks a weary and hopeful end to over a year of battling unelected bureaucrats for their right to bodily autonomy. Noncompliant military members have suffered...

Paul Revere and the Raiders said it best about The Federal Reserve. Take a look at yourself. Mickey Levy of Berenberg Capital and Charles Plosser wrote a great op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Federal Reserve Needs a Hard Look in the Mirror.” Here is a Fed Reserve St Louis paper by Levy and Plosser entitled “The Murky Future of Monetary Policy.” Abstract In August 2020, the Federal Reserve unveiled its new strategic framework. One major objective of the Fed was to address its concerns over the potential consequences for the conduct of monetary policy when the policy...

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that he expects a year-end omnibus spending package to include the Electoral Count Act, which clarifies the vice president’s role in certifying a presidential election as ministerial, and more funding for Ukraine. Congressional negotiators have been deadlocked for weeks over the top-line defense and non-defense discretionary spending numbers, but Schumer on Tuesday said he is optimistic a deal will be reached soon. “I expect an omnibus will contain priorities both sides want to see passed into law, including more funding for Ukraine and the Electoral Count Act, which my colleagues in the...

The Endicott Branch of the Dedham Public Library in Dedham, Massachusetts disappointed some residents by deciding against putting up a Christmas tree this year. Library supervisor Lisa Desmond said "I was told that it made people uncomfortable." The absence of a Christmas tree has made other people uncomfortable. "I've been coming here for 30 years, even when my son was little, and just like most buildings at Christmastime, especially places where there are children, you expect to see Christmas trees," one resident said. "It's sad that I won't see the decorated tree in the library," another resident said. "The library...

COMENDADOR LEVY GASPARIAN, Brazil (Reuters) - When four federal police officers came to arrest Roberto Jefferson, a close ally of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the veteran politician made clear he was going nowhere. "Run," he told them. "You're going to get hurt." The former federal lawmaker then threw three adulterated stun grenades at the police and sprayed their armored car with over 50 shots from his Smith & Wesson 5.56 mm assault-style rifle. The high-profile Oct. 23 shootout, just a week before Bolsonaro lost his re-election bid, underscored one of the most daunting challenges facing his leftist rival, Luiz Inacio...