Free Republic

Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) deprived students of National Merit awards apparently in the name of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception,” a strategy adopted recently by the Fairfax County public-school district. One local parent, Shawna Yashar, unearthed the school’s policy of withholding such awards after she learned that her son was recognized as a “commended student” for being among the nation’s top 3 percent of students. Yashar’s son could not include the National Merit distinction on his college applications because TJ senior administrators didn’t distribute the letters of commendation from the National Merit...

At a certain point, all decisions and election chances in politics come down to basic math. No matter how some consultants, pollsters or campaign managers may attempt to complicate the process to justify their fees or salaries paid by a candidate or company, it still comes down to this: Does the math finish on the “plus side” for him or her to run, and does it finish on the plus side for the candidate to win? My mother used to say, “If you can read, you can cook.” In the arena of political elections, if you can do basic addition...

Merry Christmas all!! Hope you all enjoy it to the fullest!! I started this thread for the appreciation for what music has done for society. As in, it is most joyous to witness first hand the passing of the tourch to the next generation. I honestly got a little misty watching some of these! There are not many things out there today that can form a bond with kids and parents, and especially grand parents. This thread, if it takes off, may help with some of you old farts today break that silence!! lol... as things chill later today, take...

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, mocked conspiracy theories about who was responsible for the attack on the Capitol. “This is not an Agatha Christie novel, we know exactly whodunnit,” he told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle in an interview on Friday. Raskin referred to unfounded right-wing conspiracy theories that antifa was responsible for the attack, saying the proponents of such theories should “bring the evidence forward” if they have any, but the bipartisan committee found no evidence of antifa being involved.

Many Americans are facing brutal cold this Christmas Eve. Freezing temperatures are plunging into Florida and Texas. Single-digit lows in the Plains and Great Lakes, and blizzard conditions are wrecking travel plans, while the same “bomb cyclone” is driving coastal flooding in the Northeast. Is climate change playing a role here? Weird weather and wild extremes have been the calling cards of a changing climate, and it’s almost reflexive to question how much influence the warming world has in this last angry burst of 2022. Recent advances in the science of weather attribution can offer quick insight — and believe...

The Taliban have banned women from universities in Afghanistan, sparking international condemnation and despair among young people in the country. The higher education minister announced the regression on Tuesday, saying it would take immediate effect. The ban further restricts women's education - girls have already been excluded from secondary schools since the Taliban returned last year. Some women staged protests in the capital Kabul on Wednesday. "Today we come out on the streets of Kabul to raise our voices against the closure of the girls' universities," protesters from the Afghanistan Women's Unity and Solidarity group said. The small demonstrations were...

Friday’s shooting at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, occurred around 7:50 p.m. after two groups of teens got into a fight in Nordstrom, police indicated. Breitbart News reported the shooting Friday, noting the Mall of America was on lockdown after one person was killed. The deceased individual was a 19-year-old man, whom police indicate was “was shot and killed after two groups of males got into a fight,” FOX 29 noted on Saturday.

Women's freedoms have been further curtailed in Afghanistan, after the Taliban barred them from working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The Islamist rulers said female NGO employees had been breaking Sharia law by failing to wear the hijab. It comes days after female students were banned from universities - the latest restriction on their education since the Taliban regained power. Women prevented from going to work told the BBC of their fear and helplessness. One said she was the main earner in her household, and asked: "If I cannot go to my job, who can support my family?" Another breadwinner insisted...

Looking back on it all more than 80 years later, Group Captain John 'Paddy' Hemingway starts to chuckle: 'I just wondered what would happen next — and luckily the right thing happened next!' That is one way of recalling an experience so terrifying that most of us would probably have nightmares to our dying day. One moment, on the afternoon of August 26, 1940, Pilot Officer Hemingway, aged 21, was flying his RAF Hawker Hurricane head-on towards a fleet of German Dornier bombers bound for London in broad daylight. The next, he took a bullet in the wing — then...

The FBI may have violated the First Amendment rights of Twitter users when it flagged accounts for the social media platform to review, several legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Twitter became an “agent of the government” when it worked with the FBI to silence specific accounts at the agency’s request, Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative and a senior legal fellow, told the DCNF. Ari Cohn, free speech counsel at TechFreedom, told the DCNF that while the findings of the Twitter Files were “interesting,” he doesn’t believe there are “many legal...

The continued winter woes blasting Buffalo this week reached historic proportions Friday (December 23, 2022). The day’s total snowfall ended at a record of 22.3 inches in the city, nearly doubling up the previous daily maximum snowfall record of 12.6 inches set in 1976. Precipitation across the board fell in historical totals, as Friday’s rainfall accumulation in the city of 1.98 inches broke the previous daily maximum rainfall record of 1.73, set in 1878. Blizzard conditions fell Saturday morning just outside Buffalo in portions of the Niagara frontier, due to a combination of a heavy snow band and winds gusting...

Hunter Biden’s legal defense against both the Justice Department and congressional probes could cost more than $100,000 per month, legal experts told Breitbart News, as the scandal-scarred first son faces mounting scrutiny for his mysterious business practices. According to Hunter’s previous statements, he is not cash-rich. Hunter was nearly penniless while Joe Biden was vice president, living paycheck to paycheck after out-of-control spending, according to Hunter’s ex-wife. From 2018-2019, Joe Biden even committed to wiring Hunter $100,000.

House Judiciary Committee Republicans led by incoming Chairman Jim Jordan demanded Friday that FBI Director Chris Wray turn over records of all communications and payments the law enforcement agency had with Twitter, signaling aggressive investigations of social media censorship next year, .Jordan's office said the release of internal files by Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, had unmasked an "ongoing surveillance operation" that exceeded FBI investigative authorities and that resulted in a "coordinated misinformation effort between the FBI and Twitter to suppress and censor free speech.""We are investigating politicization and abuses at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as Big...

The NFL pushed back the start time of Sunday's Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans game in Nashville one hour due to rolling blackouts in the area caused by bitterly cold weather that strained the electrical grid. Kickoff for Texans-Titans is now scheduled for 2:02 p.m. ET. "Due to the extreme weather and power outages affecting our region, kickoff for today's game has been postponed one hour to 1 p.m. CT," the Titans said in a statement Saturday. "This decision was made in partnership with the NFL, Office of Emergency Management, Nashville Electric Service and the Mayor's Office in an abundance...

@JohnCornyn The Senate voted on government funding just 3 days before Christmas because Democrats, who control the agenda, didn't do their job and pass funding bills earlier. Senate Democrats have failed in one of our most basic responsibilities. This morning, Senate Republicans demanded & I voted for amendments to: • Keep Title 42 in place • Remove earmarks • Support 9/11 victims’ families • End funding migrant transport in the U.S. While my provisions to support Sept. 11 families and to allow state & local govts to reallocate unspent COVID funds to other important priorities did pass, Senate Democrats blocked...

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that he thinks White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain deserves credit for the “good year” that President Joe Biden and the White House have had. Host Judy Woodruff asked, “So, it is just a matter of hours before Christmas, and whether you observe Christmas or not, I have to ask a question about, okay, there’s a stocking hanging by the chimney. Who are some people, who’s somebody, David, who you think should get something nice from Santa on Christmas, and who’s somebody who you think maybe needs some...

“O Holy Night” (Luke 2:1-20) It’s Christmas Eve! A night to celebrate. A holy night. For on Christmas Eve we start our annual celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Tonight we hear again the familiar Christmas Gospel. We sing the Christmas carols. We light the candles. This is a night to gather here in church with our family and to celebrate as a church family. It is a holy night indeed. And so our theme this evening: “O Holy Night.” But imagine for a moment that instead of coming here, you went out to a place where...

On the morning of December 24, 1774, the British 10th Regiment encamped on Boston Common shot a 28-year-old soldier named William Ferguson for desertion. We do know a bit about Ferguson, but the most self-evidently notable thing about him is that he was in Boston in 1774 — his regiment of redcoats a most unwelcome interloper lately brought from Quebec where it had alit after being shipped overseas years before to fight in the North American theater of the Seven Years’ War. Back in December of 1773, a year before our action, American patriots had ratcheted up the colonies’ running...

With the current power issues in the country here's an idea to help. If you voted for the dims turn your power off. The rest of us will stay warm.

Now it’s Prime Time Openly stating the CIA was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy is now mainstream news. Tucker Carlson summarized the U.S. government’s official position on the assassination of John F. Kennedy as a “lone gunman murders the president of the United States, and then less than 48 hours later, that lone gunman is himself murdered by another lone gunman”. That’s quite a coincidence. (video Tucker Carlson) Tucker reported on prime-time TV news a response to the question of CIA involvement from an undisclosed source knowledgeable of the records remaining classified today. The source reportedly replied, “The...