Free Republic

The ancient Greek philosopher’s ‘know nothing’ credo could be the balm for our polarized timesA common complaint in America today is that politics and even society as a whole are broken. Critics point out endless lists of what should be fixed: the complexity of the tax code, or immigration reform, or the inefficiency of government. But each dilemma usually comes down to polarized deadlock between two competing visions and everyone’s conviction that theirs is the right one. Perhaps this white-knuckled insistence on being right is the root cause of the societal fissure – why everything seems so irreparably wrong. As...

Conservative syndicated columnist Jonah Goldberg said Wednesday on CNN’s “The Lead” that Republican “closet normals on the Hill” want to move beyond former President Donald Trump but are waiting for their voters to do so.Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Do you think that, assuming that Jack Smith does go forward and bring some sort of charges related to this, do you think that will have any impact whatsoever on Trump’s standing among must be members of Congress, Republican officials and voters?”Goldberg said, “Those are different constituencies, to be sure. I think there is a possibility, if not one that I think...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) tweeted Thursday that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wanted to see Rep. Jamal Bowman (D-NY) lynched like Emmett Till after she claimed Bowman made her feel threatened. Greene complained about Bowman after he confronted her on the steps of the Capitol Wednesday, saying he had been “aggressive” and that he had previously called her a “white supremacist.” Video of the confrontation went viral, and appeared to show Bowman interrupting Greene to urge Republicans to expel Rep George Santos (R-NY). Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene outside the Capitol after George Santos had press...

Report: American Self-Government Is CollapsingWithout a civic life shaped and guided by Christian moral virtue, our republic will eventually descend into tyranny.Yesterday in these pages Margot Cleveland rightly noted that the most damning finding in the 306-page report from Special Counsel John Durham is not necessarily the FBI’s scandalous Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the Trump campaign in 2016, but that the egregious abuses of power detailed in the report cannot be remedied “absent a curing of the corrupted hearts and minds of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”For all the FBI’s blatant partisanship, its disregard of exculpatory evidence, and its outright...

Examining the Most Profoundly Absurd Contradictions of Liberal Catholicism “Yes, truly, Vatican Council II is the ratification of liberal Catholicism. And when it is remembered that Pope Pius IX, eighty-five years earlier, said and repeated to those who were visiting him in Rome, ‘Be careful! There are no worse enemies of the Church than the liberal Catholics!’ — then can be measured the catastrophe that such liberal Popes and such a council represent for the Church and for the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, They Have Uncrowned Him, p. 222) All around us today we see...

a close up of a pill with a spiral of wire around it Credit: MIT MIT researchers have developed an electronic pill that allows them to hack the powerful gut-brain axis — and it could one day be used to treat everything from anorexia to obesity to diabetes. Your second brain: Your gastrointestinal tract is lined with more than 100 million nerves, known as the “enteric nervous system” (ENS). This system is so complex it’s been nicknamed the “second brain.” While the ENS controls digestion autonomously, without input from your real brain, the two can and do communicate with one...

It’s another day of tragic news. We are sadly reporting that the popular Disney show Even Stevens actor, and Hayden Panettiere’s brother, Jansen Panettiere, has died. The actor passed away at the young age of 28. Both the Panettiere siblings rose to fame as child actors and were particularly successful with Disney.

Business leaders warn that New York City’s summer tourism season could become a hot mess if asylum seekers take over too many hotel rooms. “I’m worried about summer tourism. We’re 30 to 45 days out from summer tourism internationally,” said Queens Chamber of Commerce president Tom Grech. “My concern is that asylum seekers will take up space normally reserved for tourists. I’m concerned we’re going to lose tourists this summer. This is ridiculous.” Even hotels in Queens near Kennedy and LaGuardia airports that typically serve tourists are sheltering migrants — at least temporarily. Earlier Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams reported that...

Laura Miniard, 26, was slapped with a felony charge of desecration after she allegedly pooped on the altar of a chapel at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati on Saturday, Fox 19 reported. The scatological suspect then wiped herself using a fabric runner and used a picture from the chapel to smear her feces on the table, according to court documents cited by the outlet. Miniard was booked into the Hamilton County Jail with a bond set at $2,500 and is set to appear in court on May 25.

The government revoked a decree that served as the legal basis for the commemoration just hours before Slovenia was due to mark National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Communist Violence on Wednesday, triggering sharp criticism from the right and talk of a ‘new civil war’. In a brief statement after a correspondence session, the Robert Golob government said that the memorial day had been declared without a “public and expert debate”. The national memorial day was declared by the Janez Janša government by decree on 12 May 2022, just days before its term ended, with the reasoning being...

On May 13, 2023, during a meeting with the Pope, Volodymyr Zelensky presented the pontiff with an “icon” of the Mother of God with a black void instead of the Infant Jesus. The image is called “Loss of 2022-58”, its author is Ukrainian artist Oleksiy Revika, reports the Ukrayina Moloda resource. Despite the fact that journalists call Revika's work a "painting", it is very reminiscent of a parody of the Iberian Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. Revika himself claims on his Facebook page that “this is a work about the loss of Ukrainian children in the aggressive war unleashed...

Garland Nixon has gotten to be one of my favorite commentatorsNixon notes that you don't change a working plan and certainly there is no basis for expecting Russians to do that. I.e. don't expect Russians to do anything other than what they are doing. We're being bled white and they could keep it up for ten or twelve years.

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) as his campaign manager on Thursday, bringing a credible voice of the anti-war movement into his growing team. In a statement, the Kennedy campaign said: Mr. Kucinich has long been known as one of the foremost progressive voices in American politics. In 1977 he became, at age 31, the mayor of the city of Cleveland and one of the youngest big-city mayors ever. In 1996 he was elected to the House of Representatives, where he served for 16 years. During his time in Congress, Kucinich led the...

America might still be a military and economic superpower. The dollar might be the world’s most powerful currency (and we think it’s likely to remain so). America is still a country with high salaries, and coming to America is still a decent way to make a fortune, if one has the right skills and the right connections. And yet, for the average person on the ground, America is no longer really a First World country in the sense of being a country where a high-quality way of life can be had for an affordable price. For young people, the “American...

Ralph Lee, the celebrated puppeteer and theater artist who masterminded the Land Shark character on Saturday Night Live, has died at age 87 following a monthslong illness. The Westbeth Artists Housing and Center for the Arts, where Lee lived, shared the news in a statement. "Ralph Lee, Westbeth Master Puppeteer and founder of the Village Halloween Parade and the Mettawee River Theater Company, among many other accomplishments, passed away on May 12, 2023," the organization wrote. "He was a gentle, beloved figure of immense creative vision in the Westbeth community and the world — which is now a lonelier place...

As Ukraine prepares for what is said to be the Spring Offensive against Russia, a debate has sprung up about why Europe’s contribution to the war is not getting due recognition as compared to that of the United States. The debate is based on the age-old maxim that the quality manpower (in this case, the soldier’s quality and competence) is as important as quality weapons in fighting a war. Accordingly, the point is being made that while the United States may have contributed more than half of the $160 billion in economic, humanitarian, and military aid that Ukraine has received...

Ever since he was a child, Jonny Kim, a highly decorated Navy SEAL and a graduate of Harvard Medical School, said he had always wanted to go to the moon. Kim, 39, was among the 18 people NASA chose to take part in the training for its Artemis program, which has plans to put the first woman and possibly first person of color on the lunar surface in 2024. Kim, who served as a combat medic for the Navy SEAL, could become the first Korean American to land on the moon. “I wanted to go to space since I was...

Sister of Bob Lee's accused killer who 'attended sex and drug parties' with him arrives at court to support her brother WITHOUT her plastic surgeon husband: Suspect, 38, pleads not guilty and is denied bail Khazar Momeni arrived at the San Francisco court this morning after her brother was arrested for allegedly stabbing Bob Lee to death Cash App founder 43, was killed on April 4. Nima Momeni has pleaded not guilty The glamorous sister of Bob Lee's accused killer, who allegedly attended drug-fueled sex parties with him, has arrived in court to support her brother for his arraignment. Khazar...

Just listened at hour news break on Dan Bongino Show.

Skynet. Ultron. HAL-9000. These are but a few artificial intelligence systems that have gone rogue in films. Whether The Creator can produce a fictional AI that would make a mark on popular culture remains to be seen, but it is another movie that pits humanity against artificial intelligence. Its official website says the movie is about Joshua, an ex-special forces agent recruited to hunt down the Creator. That's the architect behind the advanced AI that was developed to protect humanity only to detonate a nuclear warhead in Los Angeles. The Creator apparently also developed a weapon with the power to...