Free Republic

After two women were robbed and threatened at gunpoint, in separate incidents, while walking alone in West Asheville’s Carrier Park, the Asheville Police Department has noted that, based on its investigation, it is seeking “the three main suspects,” who “are described as black juveniles between the ages of 10 and 17,” Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) reported June 25. The attacks occurred about 24 hours apart on June 18 and June 19. “One woman had her vehicle stolen and the other was struck in the head with a gun,” News 13 noted. “The woman who was hit suffered a...

On this date in 1617, Italian noblewoman Eleonora Galigai was beheaded in Paris for witchcraft. Continuing the French crown’s glorious tradition of importing dubious Italians in the train of a Medici, Eleonora (also known as Leonora or Dianora) shipped over from Tuscany with her mistress Marie de’ Medici when the latter was dynastically married off to Henri IV. Like many in its time it was a marriage of convenience: Henri brought the kingdom — and Marie the money. The coronation depicted above occurred on May 13, 1610 after ten quarrelsome years of marriage, and it was noteworthy timing (some thought...

New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd said a campaign aide working to help re-elect President Joe Biden asked her to scrub a verbal gaffe from one of his recent media appearances. In her column in the op-ed section of Sunday’s Times, Dowd wrote that TJ Ducklo, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, emailed her after she published a commentary on Saturday that included reference to the word “goodest.” Biden appeared to utter the non-word during his interview on Friday with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, but the network later revised the transcript to reflect that the president actually said...

The 2024 Republican National Convention‘s Platform Committee has adopted former President Donald Trump’s GOP platform, the Trump campaign announced on Monday, including new language on abortion and the protection of the unborn. That new platform’s abortion language is a significant departure from the party’s life messaging in 2016, since it no longer calls for federal protections for unborn babies and instead suggests that the matter is up to the states. The 2016 platform included the word “abortion” 35 times, while the 2024 platform merely includes abortion once. The new language, under the subhead, “Republicans Will Protect and Defend a Vote...

In November 1863, while traveling on a train from D.C. to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and experiencing the early stages of a mild case of smallpox, Abraham Lincoln handwrote the Gettysburg Address. Joe Biden is no Lincoln, and you can bet your bottom dollar that he’s not writing his own speeches. Instead, he has a staff that puts words into his mouth. That’s why a photo posted by the White House Director of Broadcast Media showing his communications staff goes a long way to defining the Biden White House.I believe that Revolver News published the original viral tweet: That is a fascinating...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden is not being treated for Parkinson's disease, the White House said on Monday, after reports surfaced that a doctor specializing in the malady had visited the White House eight times over the past year.Concerns that the president might be suffering from an undisclosed illness have risen since Biden's stumbled in his June 27 debate with Republican Donald Trump.The New York Times said White House visitor logs show that Dr. Kevin Cannard, a neurologist who specializes in movement disorders and recently published a paper on Parkinson’s, visited the White House eight times from last...

As a woman who carries the scars of having a chemical abortion all alone without anyone by my side, I was obviously disappointed that the Food and Drug Administration managed to avoid accountability last month at the U.S. Supreme Court for its reckless disregard for women’s health. But I am very pleased to learn that it’s not over. Three states stand ready to hold the FDA accountable—and that’s good, because the FDA’s callous removal of its original protections for women using chemical abortion drugs has harmed countless women. For now, the FDA will continue to put the abortion drug industry’s...

In the latest poll, Trump led by four points, 46% to 42%, in Arizona; one point, 45% to 44%, in Michigan; and three points, 47% to 44%, in Wisconsin, matching his leads in the pre-debate Emerson poll. His lead in Nevada increased from three points to six points, 47% to 41%, in the post-debate poll. In Pennsylvania, his lead grew from two points to five points, 48% to 43%, and in Georgia, his lead expanded from four points to five points, 47% to 42%

“We also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:11). The final link in the chain that eternally binds believers to Christ is their joy or exultation in God. Perhaps nowhere outside of Scripture has Christian joy been expressed more beautifully than in these stanzas from Charles Wesley’s hymn “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing”: O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’s praise, The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace! Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb, Your loosened tongues...

Tropical Storm Beryl is making a slow, ruinous passage out of Houston, where it is flooding highways and knocking out power lines. As of 3 p.m. local time Monday, as the eye of the storm moved over the western Houston suburbs, more than 2.7 million Texans were without power, according to tracking site PowerOutage.us. Much of the already flood-prone city has experienced 5 to 8 inches of rain, with some particularly unlucky neighborhoods experiencing more than 10, according to Harris County’s Flood Warning System. Homes in Houston’s lower-income northeast have flooded, one nonprofit told The Hill, as have many of...

I frequently receive comments about the strength of the United States economy and the unfairness of perceiving things as less than stellar. Is it really the “strongest economy ever”? It’s evident that it’s far from being the “strongest economy ever.”The United States unemployment rate has risen to 4.1%, the highest in three years, which is also significantly higher than the level seen in 2019. In June, a 70,000 increase in government jobs boosted payroll employment by 206,000. One-third of job creation is public sector jobs paid with more debt. Both the employment-to-population ratio and the labour force participation ratio are...

A closer look at the Voter Participation Center reveals how it uses harvested voter data to enhance Democrats’ election machine.In an era of U.S. elections where ballots — not voters — are the favored currency, nonprofit voter registration has become instrumental in determining which candidate comes out on top at the ballot box.While conservatives have largely failed to recognize the necessity of such operations in driving Republican voter turnout, leftists haven’t. Unlike their opponents, Democrats have amassed a well-funded machine that’s accumulated their party massive electoral wins in recent cycles, even as the head of their party remains widely unpopular...

A few years ago, in Bozeman, Montana, a brain surgeon and his wife were walking through a farmers’ market when they came across a booth selling dogs. The breeder, called Svalinn, touted them as a one-of-a-kind hybrid: military-grade protection dogs with elite danger-sensing instincts but the warmth and temperament of a conventional family pet. The surgeon, Regis Haid, took a closer look at the dogs, which did indeed seem magnificent, intelligent, and powerful. Then he saw the cost: at least $150,000 each.Haid’s wife, Mary Ellen, was interested. He told her, “There’s no way I’m gonna spend that kind of money....

Even as they attempt to force him out, Democrats are still praising the sterling character of the president, especially in contrast to Trump. But that’s always been a lie.As corporate media and a growing number Democrats try to force Biden to stand down — an effort that, at the moment, appears to be failing due to the adamant refusal of the Biden family including his wife, Dr. Jill, and son, Hunter, to give up power — the standard refrains heard on MSNBC and CNN debates about the issue always include the requisite tribute to his greatness as a president and...

The Republican National Committee on Monday embraced former President Donald Trump's 2024 Republican Party election platform to back his bid to return to the White House, placing a strong emphasis on the issues of border security and inflation that voters have said are top of mind while adapting its stance on abortion for the first time in four decades to recognize the reversal of Roe v. Wade. “Only President Trump can restore our economy, restore our Southern Border, and restore America’s standing in the world,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump said in a statement.Trump and RNC...

It got very little coverage in either the mainstream media or in conservative media, but that fact should not detract from the significance of yet another data-driven exposé that OpentheBooks.org made possible. The Illinois-based non-profit government watchdog (the one that I consider the jewel of the American transparency and accountability in government movement*) dug into the official data and found that more people are working for President Joe Biden on the White House staff than any previous administration since Richard Milhous Nixon was the Chief Executive.

It’s not perfect, but it’s also not the blueprint for authoritarianism. Far from it.Project 2025, a suggested roadmap for a second Trump Administration pulled together by the Heritage Foundation, is a nearly 1,000-page document written by a bunch of think tankers and right-wing policy experts running the gamut of conservatism.President Joe Biden says the document “should scare every single American.” Democrats, one strategist told the Washington Post, need to “instill fear in the American people.” Donald Trump and his surrogates are already distancing the candidate from the effort.So, I decided to read it. Listen, it wasn’t easy. But the chances...

A Tennessee judge on July 4 denied the release of the Covenant School shooter's writings, stating that doing so might present a security risk to the Nashville private school. The ruling came in response to Brewer, et al. vs. Metropolitan Government of Nashville, et al., in which several parties, including the National Police Association and Tennessee Firearms Association, sued the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) for access to records related to the Nov. 27, 2023, school shooting that left six dead, including Mike Hill, 61; Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and 9-year-olds Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney....

Not all fat cells are bad. Image credit: Nilang Kachare/Shutterstock.com ================================================================== Scientists have figured out a way to transform white fat cells into beige ones, effectively forcing them to burn calories rather than store them. Though the feat has so far only been achieved in mice, the researchers say their discovery could lead to the development of new weight-loss treatments for humans. We all have three basic types of fat cell - white, brown and beige. White fat cells store lipids and cause us to gain weight when we have too many of them. Brown fat cells, on the other...

Joe Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate has sparked an ongoing meltdown within the Democratic Party that has yet to subside. His ABC News interview didn’t quell any concerns about his mental health. He might have accentuated them with the gross poll denialism exhibited by the president. There have been so many stories about discord, anger, anxiety, and Joe losing his mental faculties that the primary one of concern is getting lost in the noise: who is running the country? The tales of pervasive senility are not new or lost on conservatives; we’ve seen Joe and know he’s half-dead. But an...