Free Republic

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee and vulnerable Senate Democrat up for reelection this cycle, will not say if he is against allowing “drag queen story hour” for children on military bases after reports one was hosted at an air force base in his state. Republican lawmakers recently grilled Pentagon leaders on why there have been drag queen shows and drag queen story hours hosted at military bases and who is funding them. In 2021, a drag queen story hour was hosted at Malmstrom Air Force Base, which is in Tester’s state of Montana....

As the CEO of a company founded in America’s heartland more than 165 years ago, I am responsible for ensuring every consumer feels proud of the beer we brew. We’re honored to be part of the fabric of this country. Anheuser-Busch employs more than 18,000 people and our independent distributors employ an additional 47,000 valued colleagues. We have thousands of partners, millions of fans and a proud history supporting our communities, military, first responders, sports fans and hard-working Americans everywhere. We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people...

Explanation: Sharp telescopic views of NGC 3628 show a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this portrait of the magnificent, edge-on spiral galaxy puts some astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, the Hamburger Galaxy. It also reveals a small galaxy nearby (below), likely a satellite of NGC 3628, and a very faint but extensive tidal tail. The drawn out tail stretches for about 300,000 light-years, even beyond the left edge of the frame. NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the local universe with two other large spirals M65 and M66 in a grouping otherwise known...

Saul Anuzis: One of the big lessons is the fact that states like the Baltics, Ukraine, and Poland threaten the Russian system. Because people realise that there's an alternative to having a strong dictator leader and a system that basically “takes care of you” because you can't somehow take care of yourself. There's an alternative that’s the danger for the Russians. Just walk through the Soviet republics and take a look at these people experiencing free markets, free minds, education, western values coming in, westerners coming in, finding out they're not all enemies. They're not all enemies of the state....

The federal government says the COVID is over — but tell that to this upstate New York school. A private school in Ithaca is still forcing draconian measures on its students, including making them wear masks outdoors and eat lunch in silence — three years after the pandemic began, according to a report. The Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School of Ithaca (EACMSI), which costs up to $18,000 a year to attend, is currently one of the last schools in the nation to still be imposing such strict COVID measures, The Free Press reported. Dr. Beth Stein, who pulled her kids...

FRIDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER John 21:1–14Friends, today’s Gospel tells of the appearance of the risen Jesus to seven disciples by the shore of the Sea of Galilee.Peter and six other Apostles were in a boat on the sea. Seeing Peter and the disciples in a boat, we are meant to think of the Church, and the peculiar number of seven—evocative of completion or fulfillment—is meant to make us consider the eschatological Church, the community of Jesus approaching the end of its journey.On the shore (though they don’t recognize him at first) is the Lord Jesus. At his command,...

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) should lose her security clearance after she showed support for an Air National Guardsman that leaked classified military documents. “Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime,” Greene tweeted. “Ask yourself who is the real enemy?” she continued. “A young low level national guardsmen? Or the administration that is waging war in Ukraine, a non-NATO nation, against nuclear Russia without war powers?”

As the Ukrainian spring bloodily transitions into summer, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Generals are trying to manage a stalled, if not, failed winter offensive in the Donbas that has left as many as 75,000 Russian soldiers and Wagner Group mercenaries dead. As the Kremlin’s overall casualties continue to mount, upwards of 200,000 according to the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense, it is becoming increasingly clear we are likely seeing the beginning of the end of Putin in Ukraine – especially as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his Generals draw nearer Kyiv’s much-anticipated counteroffensive. Ukraine is a vast Texas-size...

"The slides show that this is not Ukraine's war. It's our war. The United States is a direct combatant in a war against Russia. As we speak, American soldiers are fighting Russian soldiers. So this is not a regional conflict in Eastern Europe. This is a hot war between the two primary nuclear superpowers on Earth." Tucker Carlson: "And yet this war has never been formally declared. It has not been authorized by Congress. And for that reason this war is a violation of American law. It is a crime." "The second thing we learned from these slides is that...

Democrats in Washington state have passed a new law that would allow shelters that take in runaway children to not notify the parents if the child is seeking sex change procedures or an abortion. The bill, which passed the Democrat-controlled House on Wednesday by a vote of 57-39, had previously passed in the state Senate, meaning it could soon head to the desk of Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee. Before that, the state Senate needs to vote on an amendment that the House added. The bill adds text to Washington state law meaning that “a minor is seeking or receiving protected...

Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) told CBS News Thursday that the Republican Party’s stance on abortion will cost them votes in 2024. Mace said, “I think it’s going to mean more losses, and I don’t believe that my party has learned anything from 2022 from the midterms. We saw this issue rear its head after Roe was overturned. I was one of the few Republicans that was doing national media talking about and need to build consensus. I read multiple op-eds. I’ve done multiple interviews on the issue. I’m in a bellwether district, and I see the pulse of everyday Americans...

If reactors are retired, polluting energy sources that fill the gap could cause more than 5,000 premature deaths, researchers estimate. Lukáš Lehotský / Unsplash Nearly 20 percent of today’s electricity in the United States comes from nuclear power. The U.S. has the largest nuclear fleet in the world, with 92 reactors scattered around the country. Many of these power plants have run for more than half a century and are approaching the end of their expected lifetimes. Policymakers are debating whether to retire the aging reactors or reinforce their structures to continue producing nuclear energy, which many consider a low-carbon...

Bombshell accusations of Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) allegedly physically abusing her ex-husband surfaced on Wednesday, which come on the heels of her pattern of aggressive interpersonal interactions in recent years. Porter was the first of three prominent House Democrats to announce their candidacies for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) seat as she heads to retirement at the culmination of her term. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), both of whom have held House seats for at least two decades, have also launched bids in the high-stakes race.

'Arcturus' is a spin-off of the Omicron variant and is believed to be the most contagious variant yetA new Covid variant which has ripped through India and seen the country bring back face masks has been detected in the UK with 50 cases now reported. MailOnline has revealed that a new Covid variant called 'Arcturus', which has been wreaking havoc in India, has already been detected in Britain. Hospitals in India are on red alert, with some states reintroducing compulsory face masks to curb the rocketing infection rates, which have increased 13-fold in the past month. 'Arcturus' is a...

Insufferable New York Times economics columnist Paul Krugman apparently didn’t think his strategy through before he tried to caricature Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as some kind of rich elitist. Krugman’s latest drivel celebrated the George Soros-funded ProPublica’s so-called “remarkable” attack piece against Thomas for his allegedly luxurious relationship with billionaire Harlan Crow. The ProPublica piece tried to artificially generate a phony scandal over things related to Thomas’ “lavish” trips on Crow’s yacht and private jet. Krugman used the report to pontificate about inequality: “It turns out that over the years Thomas, who has portrayed himself as a man of...

An important new study on climate change came out recently. I’m not talking about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Synthesis Report with its nonsensical headline, “Urgent climate action can secure a liveable future for all.” No, that’s just meaningless sloganeering proving yet again how far the IPCC has departed from its original mission of providing objective scientific assessments. [emphasis, links added] I’m referring instead to a new paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres by a group of scientists at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) headed by Cheng-Zhi Zou, which presents a new satellite-derived temperature...

"I thought it would be really cool to strip off in the cave. It took me a while to get undressed. I looked out at the sea and everything was so peaceful. I only managed four photos"An OnlyFans model taking naked shots in a cave had to be rescued by the coastguard after the tide trapped her. Michaela Ogilvie was watching the sea “sparkle” as the tide came in, while taking nudes for social media, before noticing waves had encircled her. Lifeguard crews were there within 30 minutes of her distress call to save her from a watery grave. They...

The Church is the Cross through history. St. Paul wrote that he had determined to restrict his preaching to the Cross. (1 Cor. 2:2) This was not an effort to diminish the gospel. Rather, it was an effort to rightly understand the gospel. One of the great temptations of Christianity is to allow itself to become a “religion,” that is, to serve whatever role that religions of any sort play within a culture and the life of an individual. Despite every atheist protestation, religion abides – and if there is not one that is inherited, then a culture will invent...

Sure, in the past eunuchs didn’t actually consent to the practice for some unknown reason, but they had beautiful voices, could be trusted to protect harems, and even gained political power. We could use more of them, and some surgeons and trans activists want to bring back the practice... Their relentless push to mutilate minors–and it is minors, not adults, who are the focus of the effort to stop this horror–is appalling. The president, his spokesmen, and even his health advisors are attacking anybody who opposes surgery on minors.

For the first time, the world is seeing two simultaneous outbreaks of the Marburg virus – one in Equatorial Guinea, the other in Tanzania. The Marburg virus is just as deadly as Ebola, to which it is closely related, but it has been extremely rare until now. The situation with the Marburg virus entered uncharted territory on March 21, when Tanzania announced an outbreak of the disease in addition to the one in Equatorial Guinea, on the other side of the African continent. Five people have died out of eight confirmed cases as of April 6, according to the US...