Free Republic

Their record isn’t just spotty; it is downright awful. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 was designed to prevent “patient dumping” by hospitals of emergent patients without insurance. The unintended consequences of that law are hotly debated. What is not in controversy is the hospital lobby’s insistence that the law drives up their operating costs.That argument has done decades of service to protectionist policies that limit competition and protect prices.Then there is the Affordable Care Act. It was a compromise between advocates of “universal health care” and the “Third Way” or “New Democrats” who viewed big...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), Community Capital Partners (CCP), and several of their leaders, alleging that they engaged in an illegal land development scheme that violated Texas securities laws.Promotional materials allegedly described the development as the “epicenter of Islam in North America” and implied it would be reserved for Muslims, despite assurances to the contrary.According to the lawsuit, CCP—formed by EPIC as a vehicle to purchase and develop more than 400 acres in Hunt and Collin counties—engaged in fraudulent practices while soliciting investments for the EPIC City project. Promotional...

Rocky thinks Trump is a really great guy. From the Kennedy Center.

“Cooked.” “Low-key.” “Sus.” And now, the cryptic “6-7.” In her recent article, “What Does ‘6-7’ Mean? Maybe Tweens Don’t Want You to Know,” Callie Holtermann explores the latest slang trends baffling adults and taking over classrooms. She highlights the phenomenon of “6-7,” a phrase as ubiquitous as it is meaningless. “‘Six-seven’ feels a bit like a nonsense grenade,” Ms. Holtermann writes. She asks if today’s slang is simply “brain rot” or rather a “gleeful obfuscation” designed to keep older generations in the dark. We asked students to weigh in. Is “6-7” actually funny? Is it annoying? And what does it...

SummaryThe video is a commentary about a large-scale COVID-era welfare fraud case in Minnesota involving the Somali community.Key points covered:Nearly 90 individuals (mostly Somali) have been charged with embezzling up to $1 billion (some estimates claim up to $8 billion) in government funds intended for child nutrition, homeless services, and autistic children. Prosecutors allege none of the intended beneficiaries received aid; money was used for luxury cars, mansions, and overseas real estate.The host accuses Somali fraudsters of intimidating investigators by threatening racism accusations and lawsuits.Connections are drawn to Minnesota Democratic figures: some convicted fraudsters donated to Rep. Ilhan Omar, Gov....

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 ~ On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the Japanese launched a surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. By planning his attack on a Sunday, the Japanese commander Admiral Nagumo, hoped to catch the entire fleet in port. As luck would have it, the Aircraft Carriers and one of the Battleships were not in port. (The USS Enterprise was returning from Wake Island, where it had just delivered some aircraft. The USS Lexington was ferrying aircraft to Midway, and the USS Saratoga and USS...

A lost 16th-century ship buried deep in a Namibian desert has stunned archaeologists with a treasure haul that rewrites the story of early global trade. In Namibia’s remote Sperrgebiet—a name that translates from German as “forbidden zone”—miners looking for diamonds stumbled upon something far more valuable: the buried wreck of a 16th-century Portuguese carrack, laden with gold, ivory, and copper. Preserved beneath the hyper-arid sands of the Namib Desert, the ship, identified as the Bom Jesus, disappeared in 1533 while en route to India. Discovered in 2008 within a high-security mining concession near Oranjemund, the site quickly drew attention from...

A remarkable resistance to venom has been discovered in a frog that feasts on hornets despite their deadly stingers. This frog could potentially serve as a model organism for studies on mechanisms underlying venom tolerance. Image: Kobe University ecologist SUGIURA Shinji discovered that the black-spotted pond frog seems to be unharmed and undaunted by venomous stings from hornets such as the Asian giant hornet, the largest in the world. ============================================================== While just the sight of a hornet’s stinger is enough to fill many of us with dread, some animals, such as some birds, spiders and frogs, are known to prey...

An Islamic group hoping to build a 'Muslim city' in eastern Texas has rebranded their project after Governor Greg Abbott accused them of wanting to enforce Sharia law. Developers looking to push forward with the large community have opted to change the name from EPIC City to The Meadow, according to the Houston Chronicle. The East Plano Islamic Community (EPIC) is behind the development and have yet to move beyond the planning stages, break ground or even submit permits. The cleric behind the community, Yasir Qadhi, has a decades-old record of preaching hatred, homophobia and Holocaust-denial to his followers. In...

Dick Van Dyke revealed how he’s been able to live a long life. The “Mary Poppins” star, who’s set to turn 100 years old on Dec. 13, recently recalled giving up alcohol and smoking in his 50s. Van Dyke credited the choice for why he’s “still here.” The comments came when he spoke about working with Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer in 1966, at a Vandy High Tea event held at his home in Malibu, Calif., on Nov. 30. Van Dyke recalled that Disney “smoked too much,” per People.

Damage to the cornea from infections, injury, or genetic disorders can lead to blindness – and often requires a transplantArteum.ro / Unsplash View 2 Images In a major breakthrough in human tissue replication, for the first time ever a 3D-printed cornea has been transplanted onto a legally blind patient's eye, successfully restoring their sight. That's from Rambam Eye Institute in Haifa, Israel, which worked with a company called Precise Bio that specializes in regenerative tech and bio-fabricated tissues. This procedure, completed towards the end of October, involved a corneal implant grown entirely from cultured, living human corneal cells, rather than...

During a routine home renovation, contractors in Ollala, Washington, were shocked to come across a small case containing a plethora of explosives. Contractors renovating Washington state home discover case of live military grenades packed with TNT Mystery surrounds discovery of military-style explosives at Washington state property as authorities investigate how live grenades ended up in home. WWW.FOXNEWS.COM https://www.foxnews.com/us/contractors-renovating-washington-state-home-discover-case-live-military-grenades-packed-tnt The homeowners, who had just purchased the home, were equally surprised by the discovery and called 911 to report the explosives. The Kitsap County Sheriff's Office responded, and after inspecting the case, Sheriff's Deputies called in the bomb squad and the explosive...

A car crash on the Dumbarton Bridge near Hayward left a classic car destroyed and traffic snarled on Sunday afternoon. Four cars crashed just before 3:30 p.m. in the second and third eastbound lanes near the middle of the bridge, according to the California Highway Patrol.

In one of the worst blowouts in Super Bowl history, the Kansas City Chiefs failed their attempt to three-peat as the Philadelphia Eagles were crowned the new NFL champions. There are many factors at play in a loss like this, but no one could ignore two of the biggest missteps: In the second quarter, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw two interceptions, both of which resulted in touchdowns. Before the first interception, the score was 10-0. Shortly after the second one, the Eagles led 24-0. After the game, Mahomes could have tried to shift the blame. He could have talked about...

This week, the Federal Trade Commission issued a little-noticed letter to the Texas Supreme Court that could have a significant impact on the legal profession. The state justices are exploring a radical change in bar admissions, seeking alternatives to the American Bar Association. In their letter, FTC officials indicated that they view the ABA as an effective monopoly in bar admissions. The potential state change itself may be less important than how the ABA itself has changed in bringing about these growing calls for separation from the roughly 150-year-old organization. In the fall, the Texas Supreme Court issued a tentative...

New York City’s incoming mayor, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, released a video on X Sunday morning offering step-by-step advice to illegal immigrants on thwarting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Standing in front of a flip chart labeled “Know your rights,” Mamdani positioned himself as the defender of NYC’s “more than 3 million immigrants,” vowing to protect them from federal raids amid President Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda. The video comes on the heels of a disrupted ICE raid in Chinatown last weekend, where nearly 200 protesters blocked agents from leaving a parking garage. “Last weekend, ICE attempted to raid Canal...

The war that rages on in Burma today is fought on a multitude of fronts. In the mountainous regions of Burma, armed resistance groups are struggling to defend their communities against the bloody regime of the State Security and Peace Commission, SSPC (formerly called the State Administration Council), a military dictatorship with a track record of profiting from illicit activities. Within this convoluted conflict, a quickly expanding criminal empire has taken root. Cyber scam centers, run by established Chinese crime rings and manned by victims of human trafficking, are popping up all along the Burma-Thai border. According to a recent...

Luxury mansions, duffel bags stacked full of cash, and a golden toilet. These are just some of the excesses that members of Volodymyr Zelensky's inner circle enjoyed as Russian missiles rained down on civilians, according to Ukraine's top anticorruption agencies. The scandal had old-school elements: its co-conspirators are accused of employing code names for each other such as 'Professor', 'Sugarman', 'Karlson', and 'Rocket' as they lined their pockets amid Moscow's years-long invasion. The corruption crisis sweeping Zelensky's government could not have occurred at a more pivotal moment in the country's history, as it thrashes out a peace proposal that will...

Stealth Palestinianism: sneaky virusStealth PalestinianismHow academics sneak anti-Israel propaganda into unrelated research papersDecember 07, 2025“Stealth Palestinianism” is the practice of inserting strident anti-Israel claims—most commonly the unqualified accusation of an ongoing “Gaza genocide”—into scholarly articles whose stated subject has nothing to do with Israel, Palestine, or the Middle East.A Recent ExamplePaper: “Ethics, power, and responsibility in qualitative psychology: a duo-ethnographic inquiry” Authors: Chiara Fiscone, Guido Veronese, Desmond Painter & Ashraf Kagee Published online: 11 Nov 2025 – Qualitative Research in Psychology (See EoZ)The abstract and main discussion are entirely about research ethics.Israel/Palestine is never mentioned in the abstract.Yet the paper...

Join together with Fellow FREEPERS to Pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.'And this is the Confidence that we have in Him, that, if we Ask Anything According to His Will, He Heareth us.' 1 John 5:14 Religion Forum Threads Labeled [Prayer] are Closed to Debate of Any Kind.