Free Republic

The singer has the political talent to take stands – on gay rights, or child literacy – without losing her conservative heartland fans At 77, Dolly Parton is justly being celebrated, along with her more established virtues, for an ability to unite disparate groups. She has, it’s claimed, an equally strong fanbase in the Trumpian “Rust Belt” as among the gay clubbers of New York City, to pick two of America’s polarised stereotypes. Her London visit to promote a new rock-influenced double album and a book is proving just how broad that Parton cultural spectrum is. Gathered in a grand...

Three students are among the fatalities following the attack in Lianjiang county.Six people were killed and one wounded in a stabbing at a kindergarten in China's Guangdong province on Monday (Jul 10). "The victims include one teacher, two parents and three students ... and one suspect has been arrested," said a spokesperson for the city government in Lianjiang, where the incident occurred. SNIP A tall, thin man with his hands pinned to his back is seen being shoved into a police car in a video published by Sanxiang Metropolis Daily, run by the government in neighbouring Hunan province.

As I was reading Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (aka The Little Red Book), I came across a particularly stunning quote in Chapter 2: Classes and Class Struggle: In the final analysis, national struggle is a matter of class struggle. Among the whites in the United States, it is only the reactionary ruling circles that oppress the black people. They can in no way represent the workers, farmers, revolutionary intellectuals and other enlightened persons who comprise the overwhelming majority of the white people. "Statement Supporting the American Negroes in Their Just Struggle Against Racial Discrimination by U.S. Imperialism" (August 8,...

Our Friends frequently write here about the loss of their dogs. I hope I’ve been sufficiently sympathetic as I’ve seen the loss of my own Lucy approaching. Now Lucy is gone after 14 years, and the pain is overwhelming to us. There are so-called experts who suggest that dogs don’t have the emotional capacity to be genuinely attached to people; that they have only a conditioned response to being fed and treated well. I think this is nonsense. Our dogs obviously have genuine emotional attachment to us. My Lucy wanted to be best friends with everyone she met because. She...

"We Don't Want to Convert Young People to Christ or the Catholic Church": Francis's New Cardinal Denies The Great Commission"Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Known as "the Great Commission," spreading the Gospel and making converts is a basic duty of all Christians, as set forth by Our Lord in sacred scripture. At the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis reiterated this call in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.But the results of the Church's evangelization efforts during Francis's pontificate have been disappointing,...

A new study finds that whole-fat dairy — including cheese, whole yogurt and whole milk — can help to prevent heart attacks, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. What’s more, the study found that unprocessed red meat “can be part of a healthy diet.” Those are the surprising results from experts who created a dietary ranking named the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiological Healthy Diet Score. The PURE diet finds six food groups — fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, fish and whole-fat dairy — can lower the risk of heart disease.

Explanation: When stars form, pandemonium reigns. A textbook case is the star forming region NGC 6559. Visible in the featured image are red glowing emission nebulas of hydrogen, blue reflection nebulas of dust, dark absorption nebulas of dust, and the stars that formed from them. The first massive stars formed from the dense gas will emit energetic light and winds that erode, fragment, and sculpt their birthplace. And then they explode. The resulting morass can be as beautiful as it is complex. After tens of millions of years, the dust boils away, the gas gets swept away, and all that...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Hill Harper, an actor known for his roles on “CSI: NY” and “The Good Doctor,” announced on Monday that he is running for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat and challenging U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin for the Democratic nomination. We can all feel it: D.C just isn’t getting things done for people. We need representatives who'll take on special interests, get money out of politics, and make our government work for all of us. That’s why today, I’m announcing my campaign for U.S. Senate in Michigan! ✊🏾 pic.twitter.com/lv11ncDcsK — Hill Harper (@hillharper) July 10, 2023 Harper is...

The Federal Reserve is printin’ the night away! Yes, as The Fed printin’ the night away, the US Treasury yield curve (10Y-2Y) is still inverted, but at -86.616 basis points. The 2 year US Treasury yield is down -8.2 BPS, the largest decline in the world … after Greece! Greece? The fiscal wreck on the Aegean! Opa!!

Nearly a dozen current and former officials serving in the White House and Biden administration, including the president's national security adviser and the secretary of state, have extensive ties to Hunter Biden, who is accused by Republicans of selling access to his father, dating back over a decade. A Fox News Digital analysis reveals the extent of Hunter's potential reach in the White House, while the embattled first son is expected to make his first court appearance on July 26 for two alleged misdemeanor tax violations and a felony gun charge. The Justice Department announced last month that Hunter had...

[Catholic Caucus] The Synod, Just Once More, for NowAs we’ve seen in previous synods, they can be subtly, and not so subtly, rigged. Our American bishops nominated moderates as delegates: Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop Broglio, Bishops Barron, Rhoades, and Flores. This week, Pope Francis chose Cardinals Cupich, McElroy, Gregory, and O’Malley (Tobin participates as one of the synod organizers), and Fr. James Martin, S.J. And Victor Manuel Fernández, ghostwriter of Amoris Laetitia, whom he also named to head the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith – a confusing but reliable Argentinian gatekeeper.Some people have begun arguing that this is all...

The U.S. Air Force is cutting the list of jobs that qualify for its special bonus pay and has so far released few details about which jobs will fall victim. An Air Force board, formed to review Special Duty Assignment Pay, reduced the number of jobs that qualify for the bonus money last month, slashing the number of jobs that qualify for the pay from 103 to 70 ahead of fiscal year 2024, and has refused to disclose which jobs will no longer qualify for the bonus, according to a report from Military.com. Special Duty Assignment Pay can range anywhere...

Six people, including a former NYPD cop, have been indicted in a straw donor scheme allegedly cooked up to try to curry favor with then-mayoral candidate Eric Adams. Ringleader Dwayne Montgomery — a former NYPD inspector and current head of integrity for a municipal workers union — used friends and relatives as straw donors to Adams’ mayoral campaign to cash in on the city’s generous matching fund system for political donations, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office alleges. Neither Mayor Adams nor any current city workers are accused of wrongdoing in the case. Adams’ campaign has denied any involvement in the...

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Ana Cabrera Reports,” Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry stated that green transition investment has been undercut by the fact that money managers “have a fiduciary responsibility, an obligation to the people they manage it for not to lose the money, but to produce returns on that investment.” And the fact that pension funds “are very careful about those investments in order to make certain they have the money to pay out to the pensioners who work for that money all their lives.” Kerry also said that he has urged those who manage large...

Of all the distortions and paranoia that Tucker Carlson promoted on his since-canceled Fox News program, one looms large: a conspiracy theory that an Arizona man working as a covert government agent incited the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol to sabotage and discredit former President Donald Trump and his political movement. What’s known about the man — a two-time Trump voter named Ray Epps — is that he took part in demonstrations in Washington that day and the night before. He was captured on camera urging a crowd to march with him and enter the Capitol. But at...

The benefactor behind The T.W. Lewis Foundation, Tom Lewis, set the record straight on Friday about his decision to pull funding from the ASU-Barrett Center for Personal Development. Lewis’ decision to pull the funding comes after the executive director of the Center said, in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal, that she was being fired and the Center was closing because she organized an event featuring Charlie Kirk, Robert Kiyosaki and Dennis Prager. Ann Atkinson noted that the February event “outraged” faculty members at ASU’s honors college, Barrett, which houses the center. Lewis’ statement appears to support...

Soon-to-be Cardinal, the confessor who apologised to Jesus for forgiving too muchFather Luis Dri, 96, a Capuchin friar who has been confessing for years at the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii in Buenos Aires, in the evening, used to ask for forgiveness before the Tabernacle for the many absolutions, saying: "It was You Who gave me the bad example!"

… As climate change intensifies, future generations will inherit a profoundly altered planet. They will inhabit a planet with poorer air quality, heightened risk of illnesses like Lyme disease, and a myriad of other detrimental medical conditions. Given its drastic effects, climate change can prompt understandable feelings of anxiety about the future. A recent worldwide study found that 84% of 16- to 25-year-olds expressed at least moderate worries about climate change. In Canada, more than 78% of young people have reported that climate change has impacted their mental health. Children with such anxious feelings are more likely to feel depressed,...

A Ukrainian veteran who lost his leg in the war was booted from a flight as he sobbed asking for help getting home from Israel. A viral video published on TikTok Saturday shows the veteran, who has not been publicly identified, standing with crutches at the front of the plane, speaking with crew members before the Wizz Air flight was set to take off from Tel Aviv to Warsaw, Poland. According to the uploader, @mbbddk, the flight crew for the Hungary-based airline said the man could not take his seat because of his prosthesis. The veteran desperately tried to explain...

In the past, it was a disease that primarily affected older white men. Now, kids and teens — particularly girls — are being diagnosed with kidney stones. The demographic of those most likely to suffer from kidney stones has changed in three decades, according to a report from NBC News. According to a study conducted by the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, kidney stones among children doubled from 1997 to 2012, with the research noting that black children and adults suffered kidney stones at a higher rate than their white counterparts.