Free Republic

Whatever Happened to Saint Nicholas?How did a fourth-century, heretic-slapping bishop from Southern Turkey wind up being a fat, Coca-Cola-swigging American elf?Saint Nicholas was born into a wealthy Christian family in the third century. His parents died in a plague, and having inherited the family fortune, he decided to obey the radical call of Christ and give it to the poor. So he became famous for his generosity to those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.Bishop Nicholas was exiled and imprisoned during the persecutions under the Emperor Diocletian, and after his release, attended the...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is again making some free COVID-19 tests available to all U.S. households as it unveils its contingency plans for potential coronavirus surges this winter. After a three-month hiatus, the administration is making four rapid virus tests available through covidtests.gov starting Thursday, a senior administration official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the program. COVID-19 cases have shown a marked increase after the Thanksgiving holiday, and further increases are projected from indoor gathering and travel around Christmas and New Year’s. The administration is putting personnel and equipment on standby should...

While political polling is an art, statistically rigorous polls are generally within the ballpark—yet Arizona 2022 election results don’t make sense (See here, here, and here). For those seeking integrity in elections, the Arizona midterm election is a hill worth dying on.Maricopa County, Arizona, was problematic in the 2020 election. Maricopa County officials stymied legislative and court oversight. The Board of Supervisors and others allegedly obstructed Arizona’s Senate 2020 election audit: “In every way imaginable, the county refused to cooperate with the Senate’s designated auditors, the Cyber Ninjas.”A lawsuit prevented the Cyber Ninjas from directly reviewing any signatures. However, months...

14 Signs of TotalitarianismSome of these techniques are playing out before our eyes.We all know the cons of Twitter, but one of the pros is discovering new and interesting people.One of my favorite new follows is Benjamin Carlson, a public relations guru and former editor at The Atlantic. Carlson’s tweets are among the best you’ll find on Twitter, and he clearly has a keen understanding of the intersections between media and government, power and propaganda (both current and historically).One of his recent tweets caught my eye, and I share an adaptation of it below.1. Dissent is equated to violence2. Media...

PM 4Liberty, if you want On/Off this listhttps://pluto.tv/live-tv/americas-voicehttps://americasvoice.news/Tune in via Roku/AppleTV/AmazonFire with the America’s Voice App https://americasvoice.appLIVE STREAM all Bannon shows & find past episodes here: https://rumble.com/c/BannonsWarRoom | https://americasvoice.news/playlists/the-war-room/

On an October morning in the living room of a modest family home in this coastal town, Miles Pitcher, 17, received a message that would change his life. “Finally,” he said. “Something being done.” Miles, assigned female at birth, has identified as male since he was 14. Yet until he got that message, he was stuck in limbo for three years, one of at least 8,000 young people in England and Wales waiting to receive gender care from the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) as of October, a Reuters review of NHS documents shows. Young people like Miles say their...

There has always been a political element to dictionaries. After all, as George Orwell explained when he created Newspeak, he who controls language controls thought. That’s why it shouldn’t be surprising that the people behind the online Cambridge Dictionary have decided to include fake genders in the definitions of “man” and “woman.” Once again, the intellectual spawns of academia are spreading the rot. Dictionaries have guided the English language since the mid-18th century when Samuel Johnson published his ground-breaking Dictionary of the English Language. It was, he explained, intended to standardize and rationalize spelling, trace word originals, give pronunciation guidance...

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Trust “The Science”? No.Here is Chapter Two of Gone Viral by Justin HartThanksgiving weekend came and went in 2021. The soothsayers of Team Apocalypse were wrong again—the sky didn’t fall. Whole populations of families who dared to get together to celebrate were not wiped out. But that didn’t stop NAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. The Covid fatality rate doesn’t hold a candle to the risk of standing between Dr. Fauci and a camera. After a few softball questions the television host of CBS’s Face the Nation asked Dr. Fauci about recent criticism of him from various corners. He replied:So, it’s...

Max Fennell, a 35-year-old businessman and former professional triathlete, told the committee the money should be given to all black California residents. He argued that black-owned businesses should receive grants of about $250,000 and 15-20 acres of land to help further boost black wealth during the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals' public hearing. "It's a debt that's owed, we worked for free ... we're not asking; we're telling you," he told the panel, the Daily Mail reported. "The tangibles of what I'm asking for is $350,000 per black American in California — that's tangible, small business grant...

FIRST ON FOX: The half-brother of slain 6-year-old pageant contestant JonBenét Ramsey on Wednesday weighed in on the Moscow Police Department's handling of the unsolved, Nov. 13 murders of four University of Idaho college students. "Moscow PD are in a near impossible position," Andrew Ramsey told Fox News Digital. "They simply don't have the experience to run a complex homicide investigation." He added that most local agencies can handle a typical murder when the motive is apparent, but "it's an entirely different ballgame" if they are "dealing with a violent psychopath who has no known relationship with the victim."

While we wait for an official inquiry into the possible correlation between the COVID vaccine and sudden death syndrome, a more pressing COVID-related probe was recently taken on by a group of Canadians whose research linked vaccine hesitancy with a high likelihood of — are you ready? — traffic accidents.Research studies are fine, but making a statistical correlation between COVID vaccination and car accidents is about as convincing to the sane as blaming Amtrak derailments on people with toenail fungus or oil spills on tinnitus. What next? Vaccine status will dictate who gets a driver's license? Yup.Published this month in...

Democratic California Rep. Katie Porter said Wednesday during a Congressional hearing on anti-LGBTQ violence that the term “pedophile” brands people as criminals because of their “sexual orientation.” Survivors of the Club Q shooting, activists and others testified Wednesday about anti-LGBTQ violence before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Porter said the phrase “groomer” is a “lie” used to position members of the LGBTQ community as a “threat.” “It denies them access to public spaces,” Porter said, before asking one witness whether Twitter allows posts calling people “groomers.” Human Rights Campaign (HRC) president Kelley Robinson said Twitter does not allow users...

How to Destroy a Nation by Undermining Trust (Part 2)Why Truth is Foundational for Civil SocietyIn the previous article of this series I quoted the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, who told his disciple, Tzu-kung, that a stable society can only exist when the people trust their rulers. Accordingly, he taught, a ruler’s most necessary resources are weapons, food, and trust. If one must forego one of these, he should first forgo weapons. After that, the ruler should forego food. But never, under any circumstance, must a ruler forego the people’s trust, since “without trust we cannot stand.”Why can’t a ruler...

A border-state House Democrat ripped President Biden on Wednesday for not showing enough urgency about the immigration crisis at the southern border — claiming the situation will be out of control. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that communities in his state will soon be “overwhelmed” by migrants crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into Texas and that the 80-year-old president needs to “show up” at the border to in a demonstration of support for the impacted communities and the beleaguered members of law enforcement. “I don’t know why they keep avoiding the border and saying there’s other...

Joe Biden on Wednesday hosted most of Africa's leaders in Washington for the first time since 2014, reviving a summit begun by Barack Obama Biden said his country and Africa were united by America's 'original sin', and the 'stolen men and women and children brought to our shores in chains' Rattled by China's massive investment in Africa, Biden on Wednesday announced $55 billion to be spent on health, climate change and trade Paul Kagame, Rwanda's president, was asked before Biden's speech whether anything has come from the 2014 summit, and said they had achieved little Joe Biden on Wednesday apologized...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is taking public shots at Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s (Ky.) plan to pass an omnibus spending package before Christmas, fueling tensions between Senate and House GOP leaders. McConnell’s Senate allies say that McCarthy’s criticisms are “not helpful” to their efforts to pass a year-end spending package and avoid a government shutdown. And they worry this could be a preview of a potentially “challenging” working relationship between McConnell and McCarthy in the next Congress. McCarthy told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday evening that he hopes Senate Republicans won’t vote for the omnibus...

The Bible In Paintings ~ Encouragement for Appreciating and Applying God's Word ~ JESUS' APOSTLES: Peter, Andrew, James, John ֎ Featuring 16 Paintings, 8 Statues, 7 Windows and 1 Mosaic ֎ S I M O N , Called Peter 1 PETER PAUL RUBENS "St Peter" 2 GUERCINO "Saint Peter Crying" 3 EL GRECO "The Penitent Saint Peter" 4 PAOLO EMILIO BESENZI "Saint Peter" 5 Source 6 KAREL VAN POUCKE "Saint Peter" 7 Source 8 Source A N D R E W 9 PETER PAUL RUBENS "St Andrew" 10 JAMES TISSOT "The Calling of St. Andrew and St. John" 11...

Dressing like a slob is the new NEW political style. The NY Times is a parody of itself these days. 93 people made their STYLE list. John Fetterman was one of them. Yes, you read that correctly. John Fetterman with his slobby hoodies and shorts is stylish according to NY Times ‘journalists.’ I can’t decide whether this list is a total troll or they are serious. Lizzo stylish? Not hardly. Heidi Klum’s ‘the worm’ halloween costume? It’s A COSTUME people! And Fetterman is classed as stylish alongside the Spotted Lantern fly?