Free Republic

Alabama has executed convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas, the first time the method of capital punishment has been used in the US. Smith, 58, lost two final appeals to the Supreme Court and one to a federal appeals court, arguing the execution was a cruel and unusual punishment. In 2022, Alabama tried and failed to execute Smith by lethal injection. He was convicted in 1989 of murdering a preacher's wife, Elizabeth Sennett, in a killing-for-hire. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Smith is the first person to be put to death using pure nitrogen gas anywhere...

The skeleton of a man was discovered with a nail through his heel in Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire, in 2017...The reconstruction of the man's face was revealed in a BBC Four programme, which explored details of his life.Prior to the Fenstanton discovery, the only other Roman crucified remains discovered had been in Israel, according to Ms Duhig, an osteologist from the university's Wolfson College.Other injuries were found, suggesting the man had suffered before he died, and his legs had signs of infection or inflammation caused by either a systemic disorder or by being bound or shackled.Analysis of the remains revealed he spent...

“In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught.”- Hunter S. ThompsonAccording to the FBI, you may be an anti-government extremist if you’ve:a) purchased a Bible or other religious materials,b) used terms like “MAGA” and “Trump,”c) shopped at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Cabela’s, or Bass Pro Shops,d) purchased tickets to travel by bus, cars, or plane,e) all of the above.In fact, if you selected any of those options in recent years, you’re probably already on a government watchlist.That’s how broadly the government’s net is being cast in its pursuit of domestic extremists.We’re all fair game now, easy...

Ukrainian drones attacked a Rosneft-owned oil refinery in southern Russia in the latest such strike on Russian energy infrastructure, a Ukrainian source said on Thursday. Local officials in Russia said there was a fire overnight at the export-oriented unit in the town of Tuapse, but it was extinguished. "The vacuum unit was on fire. According to preliminary information, there were neither casualties nor injured," Sergei Boiko, the head of Tuapse district, said on Telegram. Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer, has not commented. The Ukrainian source said the SBU security service hit the refinery with drones and would continue attacking facilities...

The FBI’s seizure of contents from safe deposit boxes during a raid on a Beverly Hills vault in 2021 violated the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled on Jan. 23.FBI director Christopher Wray testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee in Washington, on Nov. 15, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)Agents raided U.S. Private Vaults, a business that allowed people to rent safe deposit boxes anonymously, based on the belief that criminals were using the service. The search warrant stated that agents could only open the boxes to inventory their contents and identify the owners for the return of their...

The number of American workers hired by international companies grew 62% last year, according to the State of Global Hiring Report from Deel, an HR platform that specializes in global hiring. The report is based on 300,000 contracts between Deel customers and workers for both contractors and full-time employees, and roughly 85% of those contracts are for remote positions. American workers are most likely to be hired by companies in the U.K., Canada, France, Singapore and Australia. The spike in U.S. workers vying for remote jobs headquartered overseas “feels correlated with the elimination of remote roles” stateside, says Deel CEO...

Supercharging their efforts to gaslight America, Donald Trump’s enemies are denying the law of physics.At least since Isaac Newton formulated his laws of motion, we’ve understood that every effect can be explained by its cause. This insight was a radical break from more primeval beliefs that things just happened or resulted from the will of often inscrutable deities and phantasmatic beasts.Trump opponents reject this foundation of science and logic. Going beyond their grotesque comparisons of him to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, they now cast Trump as a mythical beast – like Golem, Leviathan, or Kraken – who wreaks whirlwinds...

The primary season begins, and thoughtful watchers of the passing scene are reminded yet again of one thing that has stuck in our craw for over 50 years now: Why do outsiders get to choose a party’s nominee for the general election? I know, this has gone without saying for so long that it may seem like a foreign concept, but it is worth reconsidering – because it wasn’t always like this. For almost the first two centuries of our Republic, there were two kinds of candidates in any election: independent candidates and those selected by a political party. You...

There is absolutely no doubt – Elements of our own government are deliberately encouraging the acceleration of illegal immigration across the southern border and they are actively sabotaging any attempts to stop the madness.There are two questions we need to ask: Why are they doing this? And, what can be done to stop them?’In a move that I think debunks any claims that the Biden Administration wants a secure border, the federal government recently challenged Texas efforts to install border fencing and barbed wire to prevent the massive influx of foreigners raiding the US. This is after several incidents in...

In an election year, candidates from both sides will generally declare that we need more domestic manufacturing, and they promise to make it happen. Different sides will propose different ways to accomplish it. Republicans will call for lower tax rates and lighter regulations; Democrats will call for open borders and higher punitive tariffs. Each side hates the other’s methods; nothing gets done. Does this really matter? There are economists, investment advisors, even politicians out there, who will say it doesn’t matter. They will say we need business, of course; but as long as there are transactions happening, that’s economic growth....

Many commentators have pointed out - correctly - that current “progressive” trends are reminiscent of George Orwell’s classic novel, “1984.” The parallels include manipulation of the English language, rewriting of history, suppression of dissent, and the omnipresence of administrative central government.In addition to which, there are the lightning-swift changes in the party line: For example, behavior traditionally deemed morally wrong or perverted suddenly becomes a theme for celebration. You’re a bigot if you don’t change instantly!Orwell wasn’t the only mid-20th century British writer to forecast those trends. Another was C.S. Lewis—particularly in his brilliant dystopia “That Hideous Strength.”Lewis is best...

It's time to "think the unthinkable" and consider introducing conscription to ready the country for a potential land war, Britain's former top NATO commander has said. General Sir Richard Sherriff, ex-deputy supreme allied commander of the military organisation, warned that the UK defence budget is not big enough to expand the armed forces alone. He told Sky News: "Conscription to most professional soldiers, and I count myself as one, is absolute anathema. "Britain's armed forces have traditionally and culturally relied on long service volunteer highly professional soldiers with huge experience - and that is really the way we would all...

"I'm leaving with love, peace and light" Some of the last words spoken by Kenneth Smith executed tonight... Hezbollah says it attacked Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system with two... US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaking with Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant... Iraq and the United States will hold talks on phased withdrawal of US and allied troops... Russia says the United States has barred its participation in a meeting... Six nuns and two other hostages kidnapped in Haiti last week have been freed... An associate of President Donald Trump Peter Navarro given a four-month prison sentence... Pakistan says that...

The search for exomoons orbiting planets outside our solar system has sparked a significant debate within the astronomical community, involving a pair of contrasting studies that presented divergent viewpoints on the existence of exomoons Kepler-1625b-i and Kepler-1708b-i. Much like Schrödinger’s oddball cat that is both dead and alive inside a box, we won’t really know until someone goes and looks. But in a new paper recently uploaded to the arXiv preprint server, a team of astronomers led by David Kipping from Columbia University takes issue with the drama surrounding the ongoing exomoon search. A DISCOVERY GETS DASHED In 2017, Kipping,...

Although the Knaresborough Hoard was discovered around 1864, there has never been any detailed analysis of the items undertaken. Nor were the circumstances surrounding its discovery fully understood...Most of the 30 items, which are now on display in the Yorkshire Museum in York, were donated to the museum in 1864 by Thomas Gott, an ironmonger who was also a Town Councillor and lived in Knaresborough. However, he was reluctant to name where they had been found or who owned the land.The research by Jessica, and colleagues at Newcastle University, suggests that the hoard was probably discovered in a boggy area...

Things we once enjoyed have suddenly gotten so much worse. Not just a little worse, but way worse. You pay more, you get less, and it sucks. Social media was on fire this week in the wake of the Claudine Gay incompetence scandal at Harvard, the 737 IKEA MAX airplane scandal at Boeing, and the ongoing scandal of fanatic, destructive DEI hiring rules at airlines, air traffic control towers, colleges, corporate America, and everywhere else that matters. Things got so wild that Elon Musk replied positively to one of my anti-DEI screeds, and Matt Walsh credited me for some of...

Last week I wrote about the concerns of a pair of North Korea analysts that something had changed in the tone of the rhetoric emanating from Kim Jong Un. Of course North Korea has a long history of belligerent talk and threats against the US but something about this seemed different and more urgent. Kim said he was giving up on reunification with South Korea. Instead, South Korea would now be considered the North’s top enemy.But it’s more than just empty rhetoric. Sometime over the past few days Kim ordered a monument meant to symbolize hope for reunification torn down.Kim...

@RepThomasMassie Roughly 10,000 listeners joined my first X space! Topic: The J6 “pipe bombs.” @DarrenJBeattie kicked it off, followed by @KyleSeraphin and another former FBI employee. We then took questions. I learned new information from the speakers & the participants. Please listen & share!

Hunter Biden's Chinese energy business partner told investigators he never had 'professional' contact with Joe Biden, but was clueless as to why the Biden family was involved in energy deals in the first place, without having experience in the sector. House Republicans hauled in former Biden business associate Mervyn Yan Thursday to answer questions as part of their impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden's alleged connections to his family's shady dealings. The GOP is narrowing in on tracing the millions of dollars that flowed between Chinese businessman Mervyn Yan and family associate John 'Rob' Walker, who they say used shell...

The CK Gold Project is on a fast track to complete state permitting and start mining land near Curt Gowdy State Park for what it believes is 1 million ounces of Wyoming gold. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Technicians with Buckley Powder Co., a Cheyenne-based explosives service company that blasts rock in quarries, helped perform seismic tests on land near Curt Gowdy State Park that U.S. Gold Corp. wants to mine for gold and copper. The technicians just loaded a 50-foot hole with explosives and are preparing for a test they performed in 2022. (Courtesy U.S. Gold Corp.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mining expert George Bee was...