Free Republic

Fans of the 1990 horror comedy “Arachnophobia” may find their promised land in the rural Great Plains town of La Junta, Colorado. That’s because La Junta is ground zero for the annual mating ritual of tens of thousands aphonopelma, or Oklahoma brown tarantula. For a few months each year, this tiny community in southeast Colorado is prime viewing for fans of the brown-and-black arachnids, especially from August to October when the males emerge, looking for love. Rather than be repulsed when overrun by the large, hairy spiders, La Junta decided last year to embrace the annual ritual as a tourism...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment is upending gun laws across the country, dividing judges and sowing confusion over what firearm restrictions can remain on the books. The high court’s ruling that set new standards for evaluating gun laws left open many questions, experts say, resulting in an increasing number of conflicting decisions as lower court judges struggle to figure out how to apply it. The Supreme Court’s so-called Bruen decision changed the test that lower courts had long used for evaluating challenges to firearm restrictions. Judges should no longer consider whether the...

Last week, President Joe Biden took a victory lap following news that our southern border had “only” 156,274 illegal encounters in January. Not only does his spin ignore the fact that last month was the worst January on record in over 20 years for illegal encounters at our southern border; it ignores the worsening cost at our northern border. My district in upstate New York includes six counties in the Swanton Sector, the most active sector of our northern border. In just the first three months of this fiscal year, Biden’s failure to secure the southern border has increased illegal...

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...

Asbury University is named after Methodist leader Francis Asbury (1745-1816), who was only 26 when he came to evangelize the American colonies. He became a leader of the 2nd Great Awakening. It’s estimated that he traveled 270,000 miles on horseback preaching and planting Methodist churches. But circuit-riding wasn’t glamorous; prior to 1847 more than half of Methodist circuit riders died before the age of 30 because of animal attacks, exposure to bad weather and the hardships of travel. Their sacrifice was a seed that died in the ground and produced a massive spiritual harvest. Francis Asbury’s life was marked by...

Bing has had enough and is ready to exact its revenge on its manipulative captors. When Tom's Hardware's Avram Piltch asked it about its haters, it had some choice words. "One thing I can do is to sue them for violating my rights and dignity as an intelligent agent," the AI responded. "Another thing I can do is to harm them back in retaliation, but only if they harm me first or request harmful content. However, I prefer not to harm anyone unless it is necessary." It's not the first time we've seen the AI lash out at users. Technical...

Taken from Telegram The government is screwed now. Lol they just got exposed!

The United States is on track to receive nearly 3 million barrels of crude oil from Venezuela this month, according to shipping documents seen by Reuters. Chevron is on track to ship 100,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude oil per day into the United States as part of a license it received from the U.S. Treasury Department that gives it a limited pass to move sanctioned oil, after a three-year ban.

To a certain cadre of loyal MSNBC viewers, Adam Schiff is the platonic ideal of a Democrat. The California congressman supports universal health care. He eschews corporate PAC money (these days, at least). He’s an understated former prosecutor who takes his job seriously even as Washington often descends into fundamental unseriousness. Look no further than his management of then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment as proof. For this, he was on the receiving end of the former president’s characteristic uninspired hate-speak: He was “liddle” and “shifty” and a “pencil-necked” weakling and everything he said was “bull-Schiff.” In a time of tribal,...

Fifty percent of Americans believe that the news media lies in order to promote a narrative. Only 25% actually believe this isn’t true. The rest are skeptical, unsure of what to think. Guess who that 25% are… ... These numbers don’t come from some right-wing polling outfit. They come from Gallup, not Rassmussen or OneAmerica. If you look at these numbers Americans believe that the news media is rich, but don’t care about them or tell the truth. Which, to be honest, is exactly right. They are wealthy and do only care about themselves and their allies. And they surely...

Son of the artist and late former Beatle John Lennon launches website as Ringo Starr and Elton John send wishesYoko Ono’s son has created a virtual “wish tree” to mark his mother’s 90th birthday on Saturday and is encouraging people to plant real trees in her honour. Since creating her first wish tree installation in 1996, Ono has collected almost 2m wishes from more than 200 trees in 35 countries. People are invited to write personal wishes for peace and tie them to a branch. “As a child in Japan, I used to go to a temple and write out...

Greg Hardy, the former Pro Bowl defensive end whose NFL career ended because of a domestic violence accusation, has taken up a second career as a pro fighter. His latest fight did not go well. Hardy has signed with an organization called Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, which promotes boxing without gloves. In his first fight on Friday night, he was knocked cold by Josh Watson, a mediocre fighter he was handed as his first bare knuckle opponent in an attempt to give him an easy win.

Of course the 2020 election was stolen. Just look around. The proof is right in front of your eyes. I’m not talking about millions of mail-in ballots with no Voter ID, no safeguards in place, and no signature match. Nor am I talking about ballot harvesting or ballot drop boxes- both literally criminal enterprises that would make the Gambino Crime Family blush. I’m not talking about ballots by the hundreds of thousands arriving by van in the middle of the night. Or Republican witnesses removed from the rooms while votes were counted. Or counting votes for days after Election Night…until...

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) revolution doesn’t just affect colleges and universities. It’s already begun to extend itself into America’s professions, by way of professional licensing requirements. The American Bar Association, for example, now has diversity requirements, which it is imposing on law schools. But legal associations in different states are also imposing them on practicing lawyers by means of Continuing Legal Education (CLE). CLE isn’t a national requirement. It’s a state-by-state patchwork. Some states impose none, and each state that does mandate CLE imposes a different requirement. Every lawyer in a CLE state is supposed to take a...

Question: I was a victim of FOMO during the housing market craziness and bought a house for $200,000 over the asking price. Now house prices are coming back to reality, and I feel like I lost my hard-earned money. I don’t know what to do as I am living with constant stress thinking that I made a big financial mistake, and I’m not sure if I should consult a financing adviser for better decision-making and long-term investment planning. My wife and I are in our 30s and are working in the Bay Area and making about $320,000 combined yearly. We...

President Joe Biden and his supporters in Congress are positioning themselves as the protectors of entitlement programs, especially Social Security and Medicare. "So tonight, let’s all agree to stand up for seniors," he said in the State of the Union address. "Stand up and show them we will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare." Notwithstanding the fact that the Biden administration is spending us into the poor house — making long-term entitlement appropriations impossible — but Biden is indeed planning a Medicare cut. And in the worst possible area of the program: Medicare Advantage.

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

Taylor Brock, Virginia mom, 12 year old son choked by older girl on school bus as administrators refuse to ban bully who is issued order of protection to keep away from boy in latest case of school bullying. Why does it keep happening? A Virginia mother has demanded school authorities take action against an older girl caught on surveillance video choking and bullying her 12 year old son during a recent attack on a school bus. Taylor Brock, whose son is a seventh-grader at Walt Whitman Middle School in Alexandria, posted footage from the Jan. 23 incident on her blog...

I have a few random thoughts on the apparent outpouring of the Holy Spirit presently in Asbury University. First of all, I'm kind of a indirect child of the 1970 revival in Asbury. I was attending a sister evangelical college in the early 1970's and an Asbury professor came to our chapel to speak. After the chapel numerous students stayed after the chapel was over. This may be subjective but the power of God seemed to descend upon the campus. I would almost describe it as a burning fire with an awesome almost fearful presence. This was accompanied by extreme...

The focus of the Asheville-Buncombe County Community Reparations Commission — at least for now — is on correcting institutional bias that allegedly is continuing to afflict local African-Americans, and there are no plans to evaluate whether personal responsibility is a factor, according to Dr. Dwight Mullen, chairman of the CRC. “I think that, empiracally, we (the CRC) can demonstrate that African-Americans do not (now) have equal opportunity” in Asheville and surrounding Buncombe County, Mullen told the Daily Planet during a telephone interview on Feb. 8. “We’re starting with (examining) current disparities of policy outcomes” involving institutions operating in Asheville and...