Free Republic

For otherwise healthy plebs in the Roman world, survival depended on four Fs: farming (the sole source of food and money), fighting, family and friends. Everything else that made life worth living meant having some degree of political control over your own existence, which could be summed up in a fifth F: freedom, or political equality. But the elite had little time for such goodwill towards men. For the plebs, there was the rub. In the 20s BC Livy began writing a history of Rome from its foundation in 753 BC. It was first ruled by a series of seven...

Two people have reportedly been found dead in the mansion of filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner, which the LAPD is reportedly investigating as a murder. Multiple law enforcement sources told NBCLA that the bodies of a 78-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman had allegedly been discovered inside the home, which is located in Los Angeles' Brentwood neighborhood, a haven for celebrities. Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department Robbery Homicide division were said to be on the case, and LAPD detectives reportedly told ABC7 said the deaths were being investigated as a homicide as a large number of officers were...

The Iranian foreign ministry on Sunday denounced a “violent attack” in Sydney that targeted a Jewish celebration and killed 11 people. “We condemn the violent attack in Sydney, Australia. Terror and killing of human beings, wherever committed, is rejected and condemned,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on X. Relations between Iran and Australia have significantly deteriorated this year.

Paul Wiggin, the former Stanford and Cleveland Browns star who was on the losing end of "The Play" as the coach of star quarterback John Elway and the Cardinal, died Friday. He was 91. Wiggin's death was announced by the Browns, the Minnesota Vikings and the National Football Foundation. He was the fourth-oldest living NFF Hall of Famer. Wiggin was on the Stanford sideline in 1982 for "The Play" when California scored the winning touchdown in a 25-20 victory in the "Big Game" after Stanford's band prematurely took the field. It is considered by many the most incredible finish to...

Koshary – a spicy dish of lentils, rice and pasta available at countless Egyptian food stalls – won recognition as a cultural treasure from the UN’s cultural agency on Wednesday, as Cairo makes a broad push to promote its cultural and historical identity abroad. Egypt’s nomination of koshary for UNESCO’s “Intangible Cultural Heritage” list comes a little over a month after its opening of a sprawling new antiquities museum – another move officials hope will highlight the country’s rich history and lure more tourists.

One of the world's richest men has rewarded the hero who tackled and disarmed one of the Bondi Beach attackers by grabbing his gun. Naveed Akram, 24, and his father, 50, allegedly opened fire on a Jewish Hanukkah event shortly before 7pm on Sunday, killing at least 15 innocent people and injuring a further 40. Father-of-two and fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, 43, has been identified by relatives as the man seen fighting one of the terrorists in a video widely shared on social media. Shortly after the terror attack, Bill Ackman, a Jewish investment banker, worth more than...

A Sydney fruit shop owner who wrestled a gun from one of the alleged attackers during the mass shooting at Bondi Beach is recovering in hospital after undergoing surgery for bullet wounds to his arm and hand, his family said. Forty-three-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed was identified on social media as the bystander who hid behind parked cars before charging at the gunman from behind, seizing his rifle and knocking him to the ground. Australian police on Monday (Dec 15) said a 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son carried out the attack at a Jewish celebration at Bondi Beach on Sunday...

805 Patriots, a conservative activist group in the 805 area code west of Los Angeles staged its 100th rally, featuring cars festooned with flags and signs, on Saturday, December 13. A convoy of cars formed up at Pepperdine University in Malibu. Then it proceeded down the Pacific coast to the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, 40 miles to the southeast.

A US Army sniper has been taken into custody in connection with the Brown University mass shooting. Erickson, originally from Wisconsin, was apprehended in connection with the Saturday shooting that left at least two dead and nine injured, according to the Washington Post. He was taken into police custody early Sunday morning at the Hampton Inn in Coventry, around 15 miles from Brown University campus in Providence after federal authorities received a tip from local police and used 'geolocation' to locate him. It was later revealed that Erickson was not a resident of Rhode Island or a student at the...

Beloved, this day, December 15, 2026; spiritually arm up in force to do battle in prayer in JESUS' NAME against Charlie and Erika Kirk and Turning Point USA's DEMONIC ENEMIES, especially Candace Owens Farmer, who has been a demonic tool against the Gospel outreach of Jesus Christ through Charlie and TPUSA! Beloved, fast and pray Psalm 64 and pray offensively against these demonic forces that seek to derail Almighty God's working through Turning Point USA and Gospel outreach on college campuses. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than...

Please join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.1 Timothy 2:1-2 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.Religion Forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

The ultra-conservative former congressman José Antonio Kast has been elected as Chile’s next president. With more than 99% of polling stations counted, Kast took 58.16% of the vote, against 41.84% for the leftist Jeannette Jara, a former labour minister under the current president, Gabriel Boric. The son of a Nazi party member, an admirer of the dictator Augusto Pinochet and a staunch Catholic known for opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, Kast built his campaign on a promise to expel tens of thousands of undocumented migrants. “Here, no individual won, no party won – Chile won, and hope won. The hope...

A year after Luke Littler became the youngest winner of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Darts Championship, 71-year-old Paul Lim on Dec 13 became the oldest winner of a match in the tournament’s history. Roared on by the usual raucous Alexandra Palace crowd in London, the Singaporean veteran stunned Dutch-born Swede Jeffrey de Graaf. The previous oldest player to win a round was Northern Ireland’s John MaGowan in 2008 when he was 67. Lim turns 72 in January. Said the Singaporean: “A moment like this has kept me going for all these years.

Two people were found dead at a home in a West L.A. house owned by Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Sunday ... TMZ has confirmed. The Los Angeles Fire Department was called to the home around 3:30 PM PT for medical aid ... and, authorities found a man, approximately 78, and a woman, approximately 68. We've confirmed the house does in fact belong to the "This Is Spinal Tap" director ... though we do not know the identities of the deceased at this time. The Los Angeles Police Department arrived about 10 minutes after LAFD and has opened an...

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Roomba vacuum cleaner maker iRobot said on Sunday that it had filed for bankruptcy protection, and would go private after being acquired by Picea, its primary manufacturer. The company, which raised concerns about staying in business in March, filed for bankruptcy in the District of Delaware as it grapples with macroeconomic and tariff-related uncertainties. iRobot faces competition from Chinese rivals such as Ecovacs Robotics, which offer advanced features at lower prices.

Our Troops Rock! Thank you for all you do! For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today! ~ Hall of Heroes ~ The Berlin Airlift Part 1: The Beginning All info and photos from this website. For the next few weeks, on Mondays, the Hall of the Heroes threads will be about the Berlin Airlift and its heroes. I hope the story inspires you like it does me! The Berlin Airlift PRELUDE TO CONFLICTAt the end of WWII, a...

My previous immediate Substack column was titled, “Holiday Warnings.” However, unfortunately, we’ve graduated to “Holiday Terror.” This weekend we received chilling news about two mass terror attacks. The first was a shooting on Brown University’s campus and the second was against Jews attending an open-air Chanukah celebration on an Australian beach. We are grieving for all the victims and their families. But lost in this dark weekend was also an explicit warning by the federal government’s Director of National Intelligence that there may be as many as 18,000 terrorists living in our midst. Yes. This extraordinary disclosure by DNI chief...

Valero is taking a $1 billion dollar loss just to get out of California by April 2026. The company will not comply with Gavin Newsom mandates and instead is willing to lose a billion dollars to leave. “When a company takes a billion dollar loss just to leave, you know something is seriously broken.” “Valero just wrote off $1.1 billion. That is the cost they are taking to walk away from California rather than keep operating their Benicia refinery past April 2026. — This facility processes 145,000 barrels of oil per day, representing 8.6% of California's entire gasoline production. 400...

DELIVERING A WIN FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES AND AUTOMAKERS: Today, President Donald J. Trump is delivering major relief to American families by resetting the Biden Administration’s costly and unlawful Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.President Trump is returning CAFE standards to levels that can actually be met with conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles. The Biden Administration standards imposed unrealistic fuel economy targets that effectively resulted in an electric vehicle (EV) mandate.The Trump Administration’s reset of the CAFE standards ensures the program’s fidelity to the legal restrictions set forth by Congress.The Biden standards broke the law by going far beyond the requirements...