Free Republic

Thomas More Society attorneys have secured a settlement of the lawsuit filed against David Daleiden and the University of Washington (“UW”) over Daleiden’s public records requests for documents relating to UW’s national clearinghouse for the fetal tissues and organs of aborted babies. The federal district court allowed the settlement yesterday, clearing the way to end a six-year legal battle that included three appeals to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The lawsuit was originally brought by an anonymous group of abortion and aborted fetal tissue workers in August 2016, in response to Daleiden’s February 2016 request for documents about their...

Are you a kind person? If so, what motivates you to be kind to others? A travel blog posed the following question along with their answer: “Who are the top five kindest people on earth?” 1. Thai2. Scots3. Kiwis (New Zealand)4. Moroccans5. BraziliansYou have undoubtedly met plenty of kind people over the years. After all, God created man in his own image, and so it is no wonder that many human beings practice kindness.Obviously, you don’t have to be a Christian in order to demonstrate kindness. In fact, some unbelievers show more kindness than certain Christians. So what’s up? The...

Years ago, when I got off work, I went to this little restaurant in town. It was short on ambiance, but there were plenty of regulars. The wings were great and it had several beers on tap from what was then a smaller brewery in Utah. I used to go and get a plate of wings and a pale ale and watch “Pardon the Interruption” on ESPN. Yes, this was back in the days when ESPN did not suck. Oh, the memories. The joint was managed by two lesbians. I think they went on to start a restaurant of their...

I've noticed that the price of paper towels has jumped up about 60+% over the last four months. Wondering if there will soon be another run on paper products like there was during the Plandemic? Or just plain old Bidenflation?

It has now been over a week since I wrote about the abominable border bill that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) cosponsored with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and Tillis’s motivation for doing this is still a head-scratcher for me. The particulars are in that column, so I won’t rehash them here. This is going to be a broader examination of the pitiful state of congressional Republicans.Immediately after the midterms, I told my colleagues that I truly believe that the GOP has maybe two election cycles to get its you-know-what together before it is relegated to permanent minority party status. That’s the...

If you’re in the dwindling number of people who believe in the value of a college education, perhaps this will change your mind. A team of researchers, led by Lisa Whitenack, a biology professor at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, watched 272 episodes of the Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” broadcasts, spanning 32 years of shows.

News has come out regarding the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, courtesy of Judicial Watch. The watchdog group announced yesterday that it had obtained records from a FOIA lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease. The entities had failed to respond to a FOIA request filed in June of 2021 regarding “the biodistribution studies and related data for the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson& Johnson COVID vaccines.”Judicial Watch said that the records contained information……regarding data Moderna submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on its mRNA...

Over the weekend, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s new climate change documentary hit theaters and was unsurprisingly met with abysmal ratings, earning only $80 per theater. AOC’s film “To the End” was filmed over four years and followed four women, Cortez, climate policy writer Rhiana Gunn-Wright, political strategist Alexandra Rojas, and climate activist Varshini Prakash, as they try to pass significant climate change legislation in Congress. Professional critics and left-wing media praised the film, giving it an 88% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. A New York Times review said, “Representative Ocasio-Cortez offers the best onscreen antidote to despair –...

The numbers coming out today are not good. November numbers were 1) US Industrial Production was down -0.2% MoM, 2) manufacturing production is down -0.6%, 3) retail sales advanced down -0.6% (most in 11 months) and … The Empire State Manufacturing outlook was down -11.2% and the Philadelphia Fed (or Phed) business outlook was down -13.8% in November. And with all this bad news, global equity markets are dropping like a paralyzed falcon. But at least Biden traded a dangerous international arms dealer for WBNA star Brittney Griner. Possilby the worst trade in history after the Chicago Cubs traded future...

$3.1 million on private jet services $1.3 million on limousine/chauffeur services $17.1 million on donor mementos $750,000 on floral arrangements $80,000 in alcohol-related expendituresUnder the current leadership, the RNC has spent more than $150,000 on what could be considered non-essential office expenses, including $25,000 on Commonwealth Joe coffee, $7,000 on cupcakes, nearly $7,000 on candles and diffusers, and $75,000 total at Pottery Barn, West Elm, Restoration Hardware, and Crate & Barrel. In addition, the committee’s FEC reports show expenditures totaling $381,000 classified as “Furniture Expense” during the same time frame.More than $100,000 was spent at high-end clothing stores such as...

A black activist appearing before California’s first reparations task force meeting insisted that every black person in the state receive $350,000 and black-owned businesses should receive $250,000. Max Fennell, the first black professional tri-athlete, spoke in Oakland, the birthplace of the Black Panthers. “It’s a debt that’s owed, we worked for free,” he demanded while speaking at Oakland’s city hall. “We’re not asking, we’re telling you.” “The tangibles of what I’m asking for is $350,000 per black American in California that’s tangible, small business grant $250,000, and land 15-20 acres,” he added. The task force is considering five areas in...

A group of scholars at Concordia University in Montreal have dedicated themselves to “Decolonizing Light.” The effort is not about banning flashlights, but rather advancing other ways of knowing about light, science and physics. The group’s tagline is “Tracing and countering colonialism in contemporary physics.” The effort, funded by the Canadian government, seeks both to explore “ways and approaches to decolonize science, such as revitalizing and restoring Indigenous knowledges” and to develop “a culture of critical reflection and investigation of the relation of science and colonialism,” according to the project’s website. Led by Tanja Tajmel, a special equity, diversity and...

A California law that prohibits new oil and gas wells from being drilled near homes, schools and hospitals could face a referendum in the 2024 election. Stop the Energy Shutdown, a campaign organized by oil and gas industry groups, said Tuesday it has collected enough signatures for a referendum to overturn SB 1137, the law that banned new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet (975 meters) of highly populated places. It was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in September. The passage of SB 1137 was the result of years of effort from environmental justice groups across California...

For years now, Leftists have waved away freedom of speech concerns over Big Tech’s censorship of voices that dissent from the Left’s agenda. Twitter, Facebook, Google and the rest are all private companies, you see, and so they can set any speech policies they want. Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter, that argument has been consigned to the dustbin of history, as it might suggest that Musk is free to restore the freedom of speech on his platform. But evidence is piling up that the FBI was actively involved in getting pre-Musk Twitter to censor patriots, and it may...

Miranda Galbreath, a licensed professional counselor who provides evaluations and treatment to sex offenders in prison and in her community, called for the destigmatizing of pedophiles in a YouTube video posted in July. Galbreath, who is a member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), called pedophiles “minor-attracted persons,” claiming they are “probably the most vilified population of folks in our culture” in the video. “Most folks are making incorrect assumptions about them [pedophiles] without actually knowing much about them, and those assumptions create harm for an already marginalized population,” Galbreath said. “You may have noticed...

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...