Free Republic

Part of the adventure in luring your friends out to the high desert terrain in Northern California, where a valley floor spills from the northern backside of Mount Shasta, is that precious moment when they look at you as though you’ve led them into danger. Having discovered Pluto’s Cave from a map, I was prepared for some sagebrush whacking. What I wasn’t prepared for was that reaching the trailhead required navigating a maze of dusty roads. The cave is considered an easy hike — no serious spelunking experience necessary — and located less than 20 minutes from Interstate 5. Pluto’s...

"Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" John, Chapter 8 1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. 2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all...

There are two things keeping the toy industry afloat right now: inflation and a consumer group known as “kidults.” These kids at heart are responsible for one-fourth of all toy sales annually, around $9 billion worth, and are the biggest driver of growth throughout the industry, according to data from the NPD Group.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House, hailing him as “Man of the Year” during a meeting in the Oval Office. “By the way, we have a famous thing that occurs once a year, we pick the man of the year in Time Magazine,” Biden said. “You are the man of the year in the United States of America.” Zelensky’s trip to Washington, DC, is the first time he has left Ukraine since Russia invaded his country.

The shipment of the BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines comes after China agreed to allow German nationals in the country to get the shot.Berlin has sent its first batch of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to China to be administered initially to German expatriates, a German government spokesperson said on Wednesday (Dec 21), the first foreign coronavirus vaccine to be delivered to the country. No other details were available on the timing and size of the delivery, although the spokesperson said Berlin is pushing for foreigners other than German citizens to be allowed access to the shot if they want it. The shipment comes...

Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) compared Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress to when former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill’s 1941 address asked the United States to go to war with Europe. Pelosi said in her letter to lawmakers that she has “great pride and solemnity” to welcome Zelensky on Wednesday to Congress, where he will address both chambers in a Joint Meeting of Congress. The outgoing speaker, leaving a “personal note,” compared Zelensky’s congressional visit to Churchill’s historic wartime address in the Senate Chamber when he spoke before an informal meeting of Congress the...

A man whose boat capsized in stormy seas off Australia's north coast was rescued on Wednesday after he survived for almost 24 hours in shark- and crocodile-infested waters by clinging to a piece of wood. The Queensland man was found floating in the Torres Strait 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from his upturned dinghy by an air rescue crew. He was "clinging to some flotsam" and was winched to safety, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which posted images of the capsized boat and the man's rescue on social media. The man, who was not named, was "very lucky" to...

The Tour de France will start in Italy for the first time in 2024 and the opening three stages will be held there, race organisers said on Wednesday. Italy gets the honour of hosting the Grand Depart 100 years after Ottavio Bottecchia became the first Italian to win cycling's most prestigious event. The Tour will start on June 29, with the opening stage from Florence to Rimini on the Adriatic coast. The second stage will be from Cesenatico to Bologna and the third will start in Piacenza and end in Turin.

Arguments that run counter to established views aren’t always fake news, but they need to stand up to scrutiny. We must build up our foundation of critical thinking, says SUSS sociologist Omer Ali Saifudeen. SINGAPORE: We live in an age where everyone seems to claim their own version of “truth” and there is a growing mistrust of experts. The world saw this clearly during the pandemic, particularly around COVID-19 vaccination. What happens when vaccine misinformation becomes an immediate matter of life and death? On Dec 9, a New Zealand court intervened after the parents of a six-month-old infant refused to...

King George is pictured with Lt. Robert P. Riordan inspecting a heavily damaged B-17 named Wahoo. The article tells how much damage Riordan’s Fort took and still brought the crew back. Riordan flies 51 combat missions during the war and retires as a colonel… Lt. Col. James Roosevelt is pictured on page six being decorated with a Dominican Republic medal for valor. Pres. Roosevelt’s eldest son participated in the Makin Island Raid while serving with the 2nd Raider Battalion and is currently commanding the newly formed 4th Raider Battalion… ... Page 18 also mentions that two undefeated teams, the Second...

Election Day tabulators across Maricopa County were not working in this year’s midterms. Voters were told to put their ballot into a box under the tabulator so that their ballot may be tabulated at a later time downtown. 42% of the ballots (48 out of 113 ballots) examined by investigators in Arizona Election Challenge by Kari Lake were 19-inch ballots produced on 20-inch paper. These ballots all jammed the tabulators on Election Day in Maricopa County. The ballots were all printed at Runbeck Company, a printing corporation run by a very liberal Arizona family that strictly donates to Democrat candidates...

The United States for the first time will send a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine as part of a major $1.85 billion weapons package, the Pentagon revealed Wednesday. The new lethal assistance, announced in concert with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington, D.C., includes $1 billion in presidential drawdown authority, which has the U.S. military pull weapons from its own stockpiles to send to Kyiv. Another $850 million in assistance will come via the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, meaning the Defense Department will buy directly from industry. The package will include one Patriot air defense battery and munitions. The...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sources say Biden is feeling nervous after an unexpected visit from his Ukrainian boss Volodymyr Zelensky just as the White House was wrapping things up to go home for the holidays. "Oh no! Vocab Zikorsky is here! What am I supposed to be doing? Everybody, look busy!" said a frantic Biden to White House staff as Zelensky's limo pulled up. "Darnit all! Jill hates it when I have the boss over to dinner unannounced. Someone make some perogies or something. Do Ukrainians eat perogies?" Biden then sniffed a nearby staffer, something he always does when he gets...

President Biden on Wednesday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is using “winter as a weapon,” remarks he made at the top of a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who is visiting the White House. “I’m delighted you were able to make the trip and be here. And, you know, it’s an honor to be by your side,” Biden said to Zelensky at their historic meeting. He added that Putin is “escalating his assaults on civilians” and trying to “use winter as a weapon.” Russia’s war with Ukraine is now stretching into its tenth month. Biden also announced...

From the video's description on YouTube: Beautiful J&B Whiskey holiday ad. A grandfather learns how to apply makeup so he can teach his 26 year old transgender grandchild Alvaro/Ana. Love and acceptance conquers all.

Chinese telecommunications and smartphone giant Huawei Technologies Co is closing down its enterprise business unit in Russia in a further retreat that affects 2,000 jobs... Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group division in Russia, responsible for selling data storage systems and telecommunications equipment to corporate clients, will be disbanded on January 1... The move has been made to avoid the risk of secondary sanctions on the telecoms giant, which is already subject to US trade sanctions, as the systems and equipment could be used by the state, according to the report... ...Several Chinese firms have been caught in the crossfire created by...

The authorization of reparations creates a blackhole of never ending payments. If we consider reparations to black people (specifically descendants of African slaves) it opens the door for all descendants with real or imagined oppression. If we do the blacks, how about the descendants of Chinese that were imported and oppressed by the railroads and society in general. How about the descendants of Native Americans (Indians, First Peoples, etc.). Even if they were given horses, wheels, refrigeration, pickup trucks, jeans, cowboy hats and boots and Casinos, they were surely oppressed and their descendants deserve compensation. Then there were the Italians,...

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn will not be up for re-election until 2026. We asked where would readers stand on his re-election if that GOP primary were to be held today. More than 97 percent of readers selected “Cornyn has to go,” while just 2.8 percent want to “re-elect Cornyn.” Here’s a sampling from the avalanche of replies… “John Cornyn is a great argument for repealing the 17th Amendment. Or putting in place term limits.” – Tom Bartel “Nearly 6,000 GOP delegates booed Cornyn at the last state convention. Cornyn’s reply in the newspaper to this was, ‘I don’t bow to...

The situation in Kosovo is "on the brink of armed conflicts", Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabic said Wednesday, amid mounting tensions in former Belgrade province's volatile north. "We have to give our best, all of us together, to try to keep the peace. We are really on the brink of armed conflicts, thanks to unilateral moves from Pristina," Brnabic said during a meeting with Serbian NGOs. Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Belgrade still does not recognise it and encourages the territory's Serbs to defy Pristina's authority. Hundreds of ethnic Serbs, outraged over the arrest of an ex-police...

Dec. 21 (UPI) -- A Michigan woman said losing a debate about who would go to the store to buy a Thanksgiving turkey led to her winning a $4 million jackpot from a scratch-off lottery ticket. The 49-year-old Oakland County woman told Michigan Lottery officials she had not originally intended to visit the Kroger store on North Coolidge Highway in Troy on the day before Thanksgiving. "It was the day before Thanksgiving, and my husband asked if I could run to the store and buy a turkey since he didn't have time to," the player said. "After going back and...