Free Republic

The day I took this photo of Melbourne ruckwoman Georgia Campbell being tackled by key forward Tayla Harris, the configuration of elbows, heads and hands caught my eye as something special. Together, the two players looked like a Lotus Flower - the Buddhist symbol of purity, spiritual enlightenment and rebirth. I asked Tay if she'd like a song to be written about it and she said she'd prefer a rap. So I tried (without huge ability in the art form) to make one. (click here) In Melbourne, Aussie Rules football is often called a religion. Could the game become more...

The monarch also had a 'frightening' health update.King Charles still plans to meet with US President Donald Trump. The monarch previously expressed interest in meeting him shortly after he was inaugurated. Prince Charles wrote a letter to President Trump with the intent of another state dinner. After it was shared by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump shared the contents of the letter: “Quite apart from this presenting an opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues of mutual interest, it would also offer a valuable chance to plan a historic second state visit to the United Kingdom. As you...

President Donald Trump on Thursday will visit a U.S. installation at the center of American involvement in the Middle East... Trump plans to address troops at Qatar’s al-Udeid Air Base, which was a major staging ground during the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and supported the recent U.S. air campaign against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis. The president has held up Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar as models for economic development in a region plagued by conflict as he works to entice Iran to come to terms with his administration on a deal to curb its nuclear program. The...

May 12, 2025 – Fredericksburg, Virginia) American Life League cries “foul” on Planned Parenthood’s annual report, released on May 12, 2025. One of the key reasons that the Planned Parenthood watchdog organization labels the report as disingenuous is the absence of any mention of abortion pill numbers, which in some states make up a staggering 80% of all abortions. “Leave it to Planned Parenthood to reveal their billions of dollars in abortion income on the heels of Mother’s Day weekend,” remarked American Life League national director Katie Brown Xavios, calling the move “horrifically inappropriate.” “We didn’t need any other concrete...

The South Carolina Supreme Court today unanimously upheld the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection Act that protects the lives of unborn children when a heartbeat is detected, usually by six weeks gestational age. The 27-page opinion upheld that of 5th Circuit Court Judge Daniel Coble who ruled in May of 2024 in favor of the Heartbeat Act noting that it was the will of the General Assembly to establish the fetal heartbeat at six weeks of gestation. With limited exceptions, including protections for the mother’s life and health, the Fetal Heartbeat Act protects unborn children when the fetal heartbeat can be...

A Michigan Court of Claims judge has struck down several pro-life laws designed to protect unborn babies and ensure women’s safety, ruling them unconstitutional under the state’s 2022 pro-abortion amendment. The decision, handed down Tuesday by Judge Sima Patel, eliminates a 24-hour waiting period, informed consent requirements, and restrictions on non-physicians performing abortions, prompting outcry from pro-life advocates who argue these measures safeguard both mothers and their unborn children. The overturned laws, which included a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before an abortion, were intended to give women time to reflect on their decision and receive critical information about fetal development...

There’s more to Donald Trump’s Middle East trip than billion-dollar contracts, parades of camels and a storm back home over Qatar’s offer to give the president a new Air Force One. A tour narrowly billed by the White House as a chance for Trump to show he’s a master dealmaker is jumbling the region’s geopolitical jigsaw puzzle.Wherever he goes, Trump’s brings disruption that can forge possibilities. And he takes risks – for instance, his decision on this trip to lift sanctions on Syria to give a war-ravaged nation a second chance.But the move revives a perennial question about Trump’s entire...

In his recently-published memoir, “Karen: A Brother Remembers,” actor Kelsey Grammer revealed that two of his preborn children were aborted — experiences that appear to have greatly affected him. While society parrots the idea that abortion is solely a woman’s issue, Grammer’s story of abortion regret underscores the reality that men are also impacted by the killing of their preborn children. “The abortion of my son eats at my soul” According to People, Grammer wrote that in 1974, a former girlfriend aborted their child. Though Grammer said he was “willing” to keep the baby, he “did not plead with her...

Happy times are here again at the gas pump. The price of oil keeps falling, and Americans are filling their tanks for less than $2 a gallon. The government says cheaper gasoline put an extra $100 billion into drivers' wallets last year alone. That seems like it would be good for the economy. Turns out, it might not be. "Is it possible that lower oil prices could actually hurt the U.S. economy?" asks Vipin Arora, an economist with the U.S. Energy Information Administration. "I think the answer could be yes." Arora's findings are based on his own research, so this...

For years, Democrats have decried Republicans as “election deniers,” even using the phrase to justify lawfare against then-former President Donald Trump. But as it turns out, when elections don’t go their way suddenly the process is flawed and democracy is negotiable. On Monday, the credentials committee of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) voted to overturn the results of an election that led to 25-year-old David Hogg being selected as a party vice chair. (Hogg survived the 2018 Parkland School shooting.) But the DNC committee argued the election did not follow proper parliamentary procedures. The decision “will put the issue before...

A South Los Angeles couple face federal charges for allegedly using their car to chase and block immigration officials who were serving a search warrant One of the suspects allegedly told federal agents that the couple were opposed to the immigration agents’ activities A South Los Angeles couple are facing criminal charges for allegedly using their car to try to impede and pursue federal immigration agents who were serving search warrants earlier this year. Gustavo Torres, 28, and Kiara Jaime-Flores, 34, are charged with conspiracy to impede or injure officers, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday. The couple could not be reached...

An international team of scientists has identified similarities in the mechanisms of diabetes and cancer: as the researchers show, the protein PPARγ, which is central to the regulation of metabolic processes, can also influence the growth of prostate cancer cells. PPARγ is already known to be a target of certain drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes. The results of the study indicate that such drugs could also represent a promising approach for the treatment of prostate cancer. PPARγ has been known in diabetes research for quite some time, as it has an influence on insulin sensitivity. For more than...

Iran is ready to sign a nuclear deal with certain conditions with President Donald Trump in exchange for lifting economic sanctions, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader told NBC News on Wednesday. Ali Shamkhani, a top political, military and nuclear adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is one of the most senior Iranian officials to speak publicly about the ongoing discussions. He said Iran would commit to never making nuclear weapons, getting rid of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium which can be weaponized, agree to only enrich uranium to the lower levels needed for civilian use,...

“I’m not a color! I’m a person!” #WalkAway from tribalism

As the Washington DC U.S. Attorney, Ed Martin was in position to address the known and documented activity of a variety of former DOJ officials. There’s a strong argument to be made that’s the reason why the DOJ’s corrupt allies in congress moved to eliminate the threat Martin represented. However, their collective result didn’t remove him, nor did it change the objective, it just changed Mr Martin’s title. Washington DC USAO Ed Martin carried the authority of the Attorney General, in the changed dynamic special appointee ADAG Ed Martin now carries the authority of the President of the United States...

The Feds arrested former member of Michigan Army National Guard Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said for plotting a mass shooting at a military base in Warren, Michigan. The DOJ announced that Said, 19, was charged in a criminal complaint with “attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and distributing information related to a destructive device.” “According to the complaint, Said informed two undercover law enforcement officers of a plan he had devised and formulated to conduct a mass-shooting at the U.S. Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) facility at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Michigan. In April 2025, the...

E. histolytica, shown in green, attacking human white blood cells (Credit: Katherine Ralston). ========================================================================== New analysis by scientists from the University of California, Davis has determined that an invasive ‘Skinwalker’ parasite that kills thousands of people every year uses pieces of its prey’s “skin” as a disguise to evade detection. Dubbed Entamoeba histolytica, previous studies have unlocked several clues on how this deadly parasite, which is typically found in developing countries that lack clean water, can evade the human immune system. However, this is the first to directly observe the single-celled organism donning the remains of a destroyed cell to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI agent and Pentagon contractor has sued the founder of a conservative nonprofit known for its hidden camera stings over secretly recorded videos showing the contractor criticizing President Donald Trump to a woman he thought he had taken on a date.Jamie Mannina says in his lawsuit that he was misled by a woman he met on a dating website who held herself out as a politically liberal nurse but who was actually working with the conservative activist James O’Keefe in a sting operation designed to induce Mannina into making “inflammatory and damaging” remarks that could...

SummaryTrump's Middle East focus shifts to Gulf business deals PM Netanyahu's right-wing govt at odds with some U.S. policy shifts U.S.-Israel relations strong but diverging priorities evident, say observers JERUSALEM, May 14 (Reuters) - Israel's right-wing government has maintained a diplomatic silence this week as U.S. President Donald Trump fired off a blizzard of announcements that have shaken Israeli assumptions about their country's standing with its most important ally.Trump's decision to bypass Israel during his current visit to the Middle East had already been seen as a marker of the his administration's increased focus on lucrative business deals with wealthy...

President Trump has long railed against drug traffickers. He has said they should be given the death penalty “for their heinous acts.” On the first day of his second term, he signed an executive order listing cartels as “terrorist organizations.”But many public health and addiction experts fear that his budget proposals and other actions effectively punish people who use drugs and struggle with addiction.The Trump administration has vowed to reduce overdose deaths, one of the country’s deadliest public health crises, by emphasizing law enforcement, border patrols and tariffs against China and Mexico to keep out fentanyl and other dangerous drugs....