Free Republic

Their faces were twisted with hatred as they jabbed their fingers at me. They waved placards denouncing me as a hate-speaker, a bigot, someone unfit for public life. This was Oxford University in 2018, where I had been invited to give an after-dinner speech at Queen’s College. When I arrived, however, I was greeted not by the reasoning intellects you would expect to find at one of the world’s great universities, but by a mob of blue-haired, red-faced woke censors. They were assembled outside the building where I was due to give my speech, hurling all manner of abuse. I...

A lawyer for former President Donald Trump reportedly said he was “waved off” of searching his Mar-a-Lago office for classified documents after the feds issued a subpoena demanding their return. Attorney Evan Corcoran told two colleagues he was barred from looking for secret documents in Trump’s personal office at the Florida resort club as he sought to respond to the subpoena, the Guardian reported Tuesday. The new report did not say whether it was Trump himself or some other aide who told Corcoran not to search the office, or why he complied with the request. Corcoran wound up searching only...

The top Chinese official who led Beijing’s COVID-19 response admits he can’t rule out that the deadly virus leaked from a lab. “You can always suspect anything. That’s science,” Dr. George Fu Gao, who was China’s equivalent of Dr. Anthony Fauci, told the BBC when asked about the ongoing theory about his own nation’s scientists. “Don’t rule out anything,” he told the podcast “Fever: The Hunt for Covid’s Origin.” The scientist’s admission, no matter how vague, is stunning given how forcefully Beijing has always denied the possibility that researchers at the now-notorious Wuhan Institute of Virology may have leaked the...

Count Dodgers legend and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw among those upset about the team’s bungling of their Pride Night. Kershaw recently announced and publicized that the team would be re-launching their “Christian Faith and Family Day” after the team invited, then un-invited, then re-invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a queer and trans group that uses religious imagery and mocks Catholicism to call attention to sexual intolerance. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Kershaw admitted that the timing of the announcement was, in some part, related to the Pride Night controversy. “I think we were always...

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) declined to run for U.S. Senate, clearing the path for the Donald Trump-aligned businessman and candidate Bernie Moreno.Davidson told supporters he would run for the House again instead of running for higher office.Davidson’s decision not to run for Senate clears the path for businessman Moreno to seize the Republican nomination.Recently, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) endorsed Moreno’s bid for the U.S. Senate.Vance said the Ohio businessman was an outsider “committed to securing our southern border, getting tough on China, and taking the fight to the woke corporations waging war against our conservative values.”Former President Donald Trump has...

One Michigan school official admitted his district’s move to using electric buses was less than the government has touted it to be. Emile Lauzzana, the environmental sustainability director of Michigan’s fourth-largest school district, recently told the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education that the district’s electric bus fleet has had “a lot of downtime and performance issues.” “It’s been a tough 2 1/2 years with this program,” Lauzzana said. “We’ve been learning a lot about this technology,” Lauzzana also said. “Electric buses are approximately five times more expensive than regular buses, and the electrical infrastructure, which was originally estimated...

Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) said Tuesday on ABC’s “The View” that if he became president, he would not pardon former President Donald Trump should he be convicted of crimes.Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said, “Governor, it takes courage to get in when you are taking on someone with as strong as a presence as Donald Trump. You’re taking him on directly, criticizing him for things like January 6, saying it should disqualify him from seeking the White House. Why are you speaking out so forcefully when others haven’t? Do you think the Republican Party would benefit from...

Bud Light has been hit with another blow after fans at a George Strait concert were caught on camera deliberately avoiding the beer – and plumping for other options. The brand, owned by Anheuser-Busch, teamed up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for an advert during March Madness. But the decision backfired, causing the Belgian brewing giant to tank $19billion from its market value since the advertisement on April 1. Footage posted on Twitter showed dozens of cans of Bud Light and other Anheuser-Busch products remaining on the shelves in Columbus, Ohio, while fans of the ‘King of Country’ bought other...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday voiced his strong and unequivocal support for the deal unveiled over the weekend by President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to raise the federal debt limit through January of 2025 and cap spending over the next two years. Schumer urged the House to quickly approve the bill and promised he will try to move it through the Senate as quickly as possible. “I support the bipartisan agreement that President Biden has produced with Speaker McCarthy. Avoiding a default is an absolute imperative,” he announced on the Senate floor. “Nobody is getting...

A majority of Republican voters believe former President Donald Trump is the best Republican presidential primary candidate to defeat President Joe Biden in 2024, a Monmouth poll found Tuesday.The poll asked respondents, “Regardless of whether you currently support Donald Trump, which of the following statements comes closest to your view about which Republican has the best chance to win in 2024”Donald Trump is definitely the strongest candidate to beat Joe BidenDonald Trump is probably the strongest candidate to beat Joe BidenAnother Republican would probably be a stronger candidate than TrumpAnother Republican would definitely be a stronger candidate than TrumpOverall, 63...

Location of Kaylu archeological site (a no 1), Jebel (a no 2), and Dam-Dam-Cheshme 1 and 2 (a no 3); view of the rockshelter (b1); location of the two burials (b2 and b3); Caspian Sea view from the site (c); human remains state of preservation (d and e); lithic industry from layer 7 of Kaylu (f) – point (1), lunates (2, 3), end-scraper (4), splinted pieces (5, 6), cores (7, 8). Credit: Open Archaeology (2023). DOI: 10.1515/opar-2022-0289 Stone Age humans may have made extended maritime voyages on the Caspian Sea, according to a new study published in the journal Open...

“We understand that the path toward Better at Together looks different for every business,” the statement says. “At Chick-fil-A, Inc., our commitment is to approach this work with intention and humility, always believing the best in one another and striving for common ground. We’re early on in our journey, but we’re honored by the opportunity to steward our organization’s greatest asset – our people – and are energized by the road ahead.” The statement was accompanied by another set of remarks from Erick McReynolds, Chick-fil-A’s Vice President and Executive Director of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Chick-fil-A restaurants have long...

A 2-year-old Canadian girl was found dead down a well after going missing from her daycare — with staff only realizing when the mom came to pick her up, according to reports. Little Vienna Rose Irwin was discovered missing Thursday afternoon when mom Claire arrived at Watch Me Grow Day Care in Cobourg, Ontario, according to the Toronto Sun. After a frantic search, she was found dead down an open well about an hour later, Global News said. A fundraiser called her the “most beautiful and sweetest little girl” who “gained her angel wings in a way parents only think...

Explanation: Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The first hint of our Sun's future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky and visible with binoculars toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula). It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27, featured here in colors emitted by sulfur (red), hydrogen (green)...

President Donald Trump’s all-business approach to fixing the sinking American economy is preferred by GOP voters by a wide margin in several key battleground states, new data from National Research has found.In a summary from Interactive Polls, National Research found that Trump was the overwhelming favorite when asked who was “best to improve the economy” between the 45th president and newly declared presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla.On this issue, Trump dominated GOP primary support in South Carolina by a whopping 49-point spread. He also snagged overwhelming support in New Hampshire (+41 points), Iowa (+42 points) and even in DeSantis’s...

About 20 years ago I read a piece about the North Miami police department eliminating the swimming requirement for the police. With a working knowledge of geography and having visited Miami many times, I thought this was a bit odd and kind of a bad idea. After all, North Miami has hundreds of miles of canals, lakes and beaches. Predictably, the reason the requirement was being dropped was because “blacks are less likely than whites to know how to swim because of economic disparities between the groups…” Basically because not enough blacks were qualifying to become police. That was long...

Joe Scarborough just made your search for the perfect Christmas gift for him a lot easier: make it a mirror! Because in a moment of utter obliviousness on Tuesday's Morning Joe, he praised President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy for acting like "grown-ups" in reaching a deal on the debt limit, Scarborough said: "We live in this . . . political world that's designed to promote discord, division, hatred, where our political opponents are actually our sworn enemy....And here, you know, the nation's economy was on the line. And, you know, he behaved responsibly. Biden behaved responsibly. They were grown-ups....

An 11-year-old was arrested Monday and charged with armed robbery and armed assault in connection with a crime spree that began on May 21. The initial May 21 crime was one in which the 11-year-old allegedly approached someone and demanded they “hand over their belongings.” When the individual refused to hand them over, the 11-year-old allegedly pulled a gun to force compliance, USA Today reported. FOX 5 noted the May 21 robbery occurred on Lamont Street and was allegedly followed by “an assault with a dangerous weapon on Irving Street on May 24, and a robbery on Luray Place on...

Russian legislators are targeting transgender people in a move that mirrors US GOP politics.A new bill in Moscow would ban gender affirming care for any reason other than birth defects.According to state media, the bill would also ban gender changes in public record information.A new Russian bill could ban transgender healthcare in the country, a move that mirrors legislation being proposed and enacted by Republican lawmakers across the United States.The bill, put forward on Tuesday, would ban gender-affirming surgeries and care, according to Russian state media outlet TASS.

Tamara Press was a phenomenon, winning gold in the shot put and discus in Rome, as well as gold in the shot put in Tokyo. She was a large woman, and as American gymnast, Ron Barak, told me in an interview, a hulking woman, fortunately with an equally hulking sense of humor. “I was in line one day in the Olympic Village cafeteria, and right behind me, Tamara Press was waiting in line with a couple of Soviet teammates. My wife, who was fairly tiny, came rushing in. US officials had given wives of the gymnastic teams sweat suits so...