Free Republic

"The meaning of peace,” Karl Marx said, “is the absence of opposition to socialism.” To the Soviets, peace was the state in which resistance to their territorial and philosophical ambitions was not only futile, it was fatal. If Democrats were as straightforward as their philosophical consigliere, they would define democracy, which they refer to in worshipful tones, as the absence of any challenge to their political power. Given how that party has continually revealed its authoritarian core, there can be no other explanation. We’ve argued before that the Democrats don’t want to govern under constitutional limits but instead rule without...

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A man was shot by a nine-month pregnant woman and her husband after surveillance video shows him attacking the couple in front of a north Houston gas station Tuesday evening."No, they were not taking out my baby daddy before July 11," the woman said, referring to her due date.The shooting happened at about 5:25 p.m. Tuesday at 8605 Fulton Street.The couple asked ABC13 to conceal their identities, fearing retaliation. The woman said she parked in front of the All Season Food Store on Fulton Road, near Berry, to deliver food for her husband, who works at...

Pray For The Peace of JerusalemLuke 18 The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector 9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector...

Too hot to handle! A hapless visitor to Yellowstone National Park’s world-famous hot springs got a thermal surprise after dunking her hand in the spring’s steaming-hot waters. In a video that has gone viral, a man and a woman defy legal restrictions and common sense when they dismount a park boardwalk at Silex Spring on the Fountain Paint Pot Nature Trail in Wyoming. The pair then scurry down a grassy embankment and approach the 174-degree hydrothermal pool.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) criticized the U.S. Supreme Court for being “extremist” after the Court ruled that racial preferences in college admissions violate the Constitution. “An extremist Supreme Court has once again reversed decades of settled law, rolled back the march toward racial justice, and narrowed educational opportunity for all,” Warren tweeted. “I won’t stop fighting for young people with big dreams who deserve an equal chance to pursue their future.” An extremist Supreme Court has once again reversed decades of settled law, rolled back the march toward racial justice, and narrowed educational opportunity for all. I won't stop fighting...

Michigan's House of Representatives has passed a hate speech bill, known as HB 4474, which criminalizes causing someone to feel threatened by words, including the misusing of their pronouns, with the possibility of a hefty fine or even jail time. The bill introduces hate crime penalties for causing someone to 'feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened,' with 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity or expression' included as protected classes. Offenders could face up to five years in prison for such a felony offense or a $10,000 fine. The bill reads as follows: 'Intimidate' means a willful course of conduct involving repeated or...

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...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The target of keeping long-term global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) is moving out of reach, climate experts say, with nations failing to set more ambitious goals despite months of record-breaking heat on land and sea. "We've run out of time because change takes time," said Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climatologist at Australia's University of New South Wales. Global warming is the major factor, said Piers Forster, professor of climate physics at the University of Leeds, but El Nino, the decline in Saharan dust blowing over the ocean and the use of low-sulphur shipping fuels were...

Yesterday the Supreme Court of the US ruled that affirmative action, or race-based college admission decisions of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina were unconstitutional. According to Chief Justice John Roberts: Because Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points, those admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause. Harvard University officials reacted negatively to the Supreme Court's decision, releasing a statement declaring We write today to reaffirm the fundamental...

As in several parts of the world, the use of "night soil" to fertilise crops was once common in Japan. However, the advent of sewage systems and treatment facilities, as well as chemical fertilisers, saw it fall out of fashion. About a decade ago, Japanese treatment facilities wondered if they could revive interest to avoid sewage sludge disposal -- a costly and potentially environmentally damaging process. But enthusiasm was limited until Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent the cost of chemical fertilisers soaring. That has been a bonanza for a facility in northern Japan's Tome, where sales of shimogoe were up...

During an interview with CBS Mornings this week, Anheuser-Busch Brendan Whitworth opened up about the controversy, admitting that “the conversation has become divisive.” ... While Whitworth did not give a clear answer on whether or not he would have partnered with Mulvaney in retrospect, he did make it clear that Bud Light will continue to support the LGBTQ community. “Bud Light has supported the LGBTQ since 1998, so that’s 25 years. And as we’ve said from the beginning, we’ll continue to support the communities and organizations that we’ve supported for decades,” he said. “But as we move forward, you know,...

"In the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead" (James 2:25-26). True faith willingly makes whatever sacrifices God requires. It's understandable that James would use Abraham as an illustration of living faith—especially to his predominately Jewish readers. Rahab, however, is a different story. She was a Gentile, a prostitute, a liar, and lived in the pagan city of Jericho. How could such a person illustrate true faith? Rahab...

Abraham didn’t stagger in his faith. Rather, he was “fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform” (Romans 4:21, NKJV). He recognized that God is able to work with nothing. Indeed, our Lord created the world from a void. With just a single word, he creates. In the same way, he can create miracles for us out of nothing. When all else fails, when your every plan and scheme has been exhausted, that is the time for you to cast everything on God. It is the time for you to give up all confidence in...

A top Trump campaign adviser — who apparently was shown classified documents by the former president — has a top post at a lobbying firm serving Chinese entities that potentially pose a national security threat and help Beijing commit human rights abuses. Susie Wiles works on Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign and is co-chair of Mercury Public Affairs, which has taken millions of dollars in recent years from Chinese companies such as Yealink, Hikvision and Alibaba.

The world is currently filled with government-, corporate-, and billionaire-funded organizations advocating for a transformation of the energy system to “clean” and “abundant” renewables. In my post a week ago, I described the International Energy Agency — a consortium of governments (now 40+ of them, including all the major ones) originally formed in the 70s to combat the OPEC oil embargo of the time, but since transformed into a “a center of advocacy for elimination of fossil fuels from the world’s energy supply.” For today, here’s another one you may or may not have heard of — the Energy Institute....

A professor at a Maryland college has been fired for sexual harassment after 'making at least 11 female students remove their shirts and stand in their bras so he could inspect their breasts'. The Montgomery College professor also allegedly commented on the students' half-naked bodies in what he called a 'medical demonstration'. Soon after, the students reported the harassment and the school forced him to take paid leave pending a Title IX investigation. He was then fired within three months. In a summary of the case, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) cited evidence that the professor...

Keep calm and keep drinking Diet Coke experts have urged Brits in the wake of a bombshell leak linking a commonly used sweetener to cancer. Aspartame, a sugar alternative using in diet drinks, juices and lighter versions of chewing gum, yogurt and jellies, is set to be listed as 'possibly carcinogenic to humans' by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to insiders. The news prompted some people on social media to swear to 'never' touch Diet Coke, or other products containing aspartame, ever again. But experts today told MailOnline that the WHO leak was causing unnecessary panic and urged people...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an alarming candidate for many reasons, but one has gone strangely undiscussed: His treatment of women. Since gaining traction in the polls - he's consistently at 20 per cent against President Biden - RFK Jr. has given no shortage of interviews. Time magazine, The Atlantic, ABC News (which edited out his factually incorrect COVID vaccine claims), the New York Post, CNN, Tucker Carlson, Bill Maher, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk - all have interviewed Kennedy at length. Yet no one asks. A recent Daily Beast column on the 69-year-old Kennedy's ripped physique explored with great...

The real life succession drama of the Soros family was greeted with a few media puff pieces including at Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The passage of the $25 billion Open Society network which topples governments, uproots societies and funds the leftist internationale to the next generation of the Soros clan garnered media press releases. But there’s plenty of succession drama in the family of the leftist billionaire.

A Washington state councilman accused of using racy photos to promote speaking engagements and using campaign funds for luxury personal items is facing a recall. Lynnwood City Councilman Josh Binda, 23, could lose his job after being charged with four counts of misbehavior including lying to the council. Lynnwood City is located just north of Seattle. In a post from April, Binda share a photo of him showing off a new tattoo while topless and announcing he was starting a public speaking business. 'To all the students I've inspired, talked too [sic], helped, coached, or impacted this 'Love Conquers All'...