Free Republic

Against the enormity of climate change, it’s easy to see individual efforts as futile. But tiny acts add up. Not only do we profoundly influence friends and family, our actions and example act as billboards advertising social norms. We have the power to change what’s “normal.” Just look at why your neighbors install solar panels. Based on the response to this column over the past year, millions of you want to do more in your own life about climate change. Here are seven things I discovered in 2023 that can make a difference in your new year. Lentils are the...

Conservatives and Republican members of Congress were swatted over the long Christmas weekend, with police responding to bogus calls intended to provoke a police killing of the targets. In addition to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who was swatted Christmas morning and Jack Posobiec whose parents were swatted again on Monday during a family gathering, Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY) was swatted early in the afternoon. Fortunately, no one was injured and police went away with Christmas cookies Williams posted, “Our home was swatted this afternoon. Thanks to the Deputies and Troopers who contacted me before arriving. They left with homemade...

A climate protest group backed by a cadre of Hollywood film-makers is preparing to take action against “cowards” and “criminals” of all political stripes as the 2024 election approaches. Climate Defiance, which disrupted events featuring a string of Biden administration officials this year, and targeted Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, in December, will consider protesting at events staged by both Democrats and Republicans on the campaign trail after concluding that its “very disruptive” action was bearing fruit. In an interview, Michael Greenberg, the group’s co-founder, told the Guardian it will also focus “more and more” on state-level demonstrations designed to...

They’re out to “cancel” Christmas. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters converged on Midtown Monday, lugging a blood-red mock Nativity scene and chanting, “Christmas is canceled here.” “Long live the intifada,” the crowd of about 500 demonstrators yelled, using the Arabic word for “rebellion” or “uprising,” as they mobbed the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, where revelers were enjoying the holiday. “While Ur Shopping Bombs are Dropping,” read one of the signs carried by the protesters.

A lawsuit attempting to punish the FDA for denouncing ivermectin as a COVID cure could have dangerous consequences In 2021, a bizarre cure for COVID-19 began to emerge on social media, the anti-parasite drug ivermectin. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now under fire for its efforts to refute claims that the drugs could stop the deadly virus. A group of doctors is now suing the FDA, saying the agency’s efforts to refute claims about the drug’s effectiveness against COVID caused them personal harm. Some experts fear that punishment the FDA could face for refuting false information about the...

Kwanzaa, which honors African American and Pan-African culture and traditions, is celebrated from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, The seven-night celebration stretches across millions of homes and communities around the world. Here's what you need to know about the Kwanzaa holiday. How did Kwanzaa originate? Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of the department of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach, created Kwanzaa in 1966 during the Black Freedom Movement. What does Kwanzaa mean? The Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza," means "first fruits." African culture and major religions have a deep history of celebrations around "first fruits." How...

Upon hearing the notion that Michelle Obama may be the presidential candidate for Democrats in 2024, many Republicans reflexively recite the mantra that she is enjoying her life and is not political. Let me make one thing clear: Michelle Obama is a political animal. Republicans must quickly begin to prepare for her candidacy. Michelle grew up as the daughter of a Chicago Democrat party precinct captain. She has written about making the rounds with her father from age 4, visiting homes in her area to get out the black vote for the white liberal Chicago Democrat party machine. Michelle has...

Stand-up comedian Neel Nanda died unexpectedly this week at the age of 32 as tributes flooded in for the young rising comic. “He made our audiences smile and so happy,” Jokers Theatre & Comedy Club owner Dave Curran said Sunday. The cause of his death is not yet known. Deadline reports: “Neel Nanda, a stand-up comedian perhaps best known for his appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Comedy Central’s Adam Devine’s House Party, has died, his manager Greg Weiss confirmed to Deadline. The cause of death is not immediately known. He was 32.” “I [am] deeply shocked and saddened by...

Who ever claimed Californians were full of crap? Officials in the Golden State this week approved new “toilet-to-tap” regulations, allowing water agencies to take wastewater from homes, recycle it and pump it back to households in an effort to boost the state’s dwindling water supply. “It will truly be the highest quality water delivered in the state when it’s done,” said Darrin Polhemus, director of the Division of Drinking Water ... the water will be more expensive than imported water, ... California has been using recycled water for decades on vegetable and fruit crops and for watering lawns, but this...

Russia acknowledges a missile attack on warship Novocherkassk, which Ukraine claims to have destroyed in a cruise missile strike in the early hours of Boxing Day. Ukraine appears to have come out of Christmas Day determined to make an impact, as they claim to have destroyed another Russian warship, this time with an air-launched cruise missile strike. Russia acknowledged the attack on the Ropucha-class Novocherkassk, a 1980s-vintage landing ship similar in size to the U.S.-made Freedom-class warship, saying that one person had been killed in the strike. Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk of the Ukrainian Air Force thanks his pilots for...

An English course at the U.S. Naval Academy teaches officer candidates left-wing theories of gender and sexuality, along with elements of Critical Race Theory, according to syllabi obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The course description for HE 374, Topics In Gender & Sexuality in Literature, begins by tracing the history of gender and sexuality studies from its origin in the women’s studies discipline rooted in the Second Wave Feminism of the 1970’s and 1980’s, according to a syllabus the DCNF obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. However, the English major course broadens to include studies for...

The year 2023, particularly the months after the Oct. 7 terror attacks, featured lawsuits, congressional investigations, and threats to cut federal funding from elite universities. It was the year that campus antisemitism, long bubbling under the radar on college campuses, finally got its reckoning. Jonah Cohen, a communications director at the Committee for Accuracy of Middle East Reporting in America, told Fox News Digital, "Americans are beginning to awaken to the presence of extremist and antisemitic ideologies prevailing in our universities." Israel declared war against Hamas after the terrorist group infiltrated the country on Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets...

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/island-canaries-attempts-100-renewable-grid-doesnt-meet-it-more-25-year Since January 2022, Francis Menton has proposed on his “Manhattan Contrarian” blog an interesting idea regarding the concept of transitioning the electric grid to run entirely without fossil fuels: It might be a good idea that if nations across the world are committing so much money on this transition, it might be a good idea to demonstrate with a pilot project somewhere on Earth that it will actually work. The International Energy Agency, a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation, estimates that global spending on clean energy transition away from fossil fuels to be $1.2 trillion since the start of the...

Boeing has delivered a first giant robotic submarine to the US Navy, marking a sea change in how American underwater military missions will be conducted in the future, Defense One reported. The diesel-electric-powered Extra-Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV), based on Boeing’s Echo Voyager and known as Orca, was shipped after completing a series of sea trials, the report said. Defense One says the XLUUV can be equipped with payload modules of up to 34 feet, bringing its entire length to about 85 feet. The report notes that the Orca is designed to perform long-duration critical missions to achieve undersea maritime...

Netanyahu outlines 3 prerequisites in WSJ op-ed, makes no mention of hostages or two-state solution, repeats opposition to Palestinian Authority role in ruling post-war Gaza Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that before there is peace between Israel and the Palestinians, “Hamas must be destroyed, Gaza must be demilitarized, and Palestinian society must be deradicalized.” The three prerequisites were detailed in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, in which the premier reiterated his stance that the Palestinian Authority is unfit to govern the Gaza Strip after Hamas is vanquished, a position that has put him at odds with...

Pray For The Peace of JerusalemActs 28Paul Preaches at Rome Under Guard 17 Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. 18 They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death. 19 The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar. I certainly did not intend to bring any...

"We . . . see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone" (Heb. 2:9). Jesus Christ was born to die as our substitute. At this time of year, it is difficult for us to see Jesus other than as a little baby. We of course know why He came, but we usually focus on His death on the cross at another time of year. But we must never forget...

Georgia congresswoman has been targeted multiple times by prank calls, has a security detail. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene reported her home was “swatted” Monday on Christmas with a fake emergency call, as she praised police for their professionalism as they responded to the latest in dangerous pranks targeting the Georgia Republican. “I was just swatted. This is like the 8th time. On Christmas with my family here. My local police are the GREATEST and shouldn’t have to deal with this,” she wrote on the X social media platform. A spokesperson for the Rome, Ga., police told The Hill that multiple...

It was less than three weeks ago, December 5, when the name of Claudine Gay, President of Harvard University, suddenly burst into the news. That was the day that she, along with the Presidents of Penn and MIT, testified before Congress — and could not give a clear answer as to whether it was against the policy at their schools to call for the genocide of Jews. All three women attempted to use the occasion to paint themselves as defenders of free speech, particularly important in such extreme cases. Manhattan Contrarian readers already knew that Ms. Gay was the opposite...

What do you think of the Governor of Colorado’s holiday video? 😖