Free Republic

In this episode of "Try to Control Your Shock and Amazement..." There's no doubt that Minnesota governor and erstwhile Democrat vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz is, shall we say "different"? And if you're like me, you still shudder at the mere thought of what would have become of the country we love if the equally *brilliant* Kamala Harris had not been decisively mauled by President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Apparently, a group of nearly 100 Minnesota mayors has already learned. So yeah, 98 mayors across Minnesota have sounded the alarm in a no-nonsense letter to Walz and state...

Former GOP Sen. Ben Sasse revealed Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and does not have long to live. In a lengthy statement on X, the 53-year-old said bluntly: “Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.” “Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all,” the former senator from Nebraska added. “Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad.” The announcement drew an outpouring of support for...

Lawyers for former CIA Director John Brennan want the Justice Department to be prevented from steering an investigation of him and other former government officials to a “favored” judge in Florida who dismissed the classified documents case against President Donald Trump. The request Monday is addressed to U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga, the chief judge in the Southern District of Florida, where federal prosecutors are pursuing a criminal investigation related to the U.S. government assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Brennan and other former officials have received subpoenas, and Brennan's lawyers say he's been advised by prosecutors...

The latest recall impacts Washington state-based Direct Source Seafood LLC products sold at various locations. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed a recall of more than 83,000 bags of raw frozen shrimp for potential radioactive contamination, expanding actions taken against shrimp products that were imported from Indonesia. According to an announcement last week, Washington state-based Direct Source Seafood LLC is recalling 83,800 bags of frozen raw shrimp sold under the Market 32 and Waterfront Bistro brand names “because they may have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with” radioactive cesium-137,...

An Israeli man was violently assaulted and lost an eye in a horrific attack overnight in Limassol, Cyprus. According to media reports, the victim was apparently overheard speaking Hebrew on his phone outside his hotel when a group of local youths allegedly recognized the language, hurled insults, before viciously attacking him. Cyprus police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. Photo of victim

A Palestinian doctor living in County Meath, whose family members have been killed in the war in Gaza, has called for more aid for the people of the enclave. Four of Dr Mahmoud Abumarzouq’s close relatives were killed in an Israeli strike earlier this year. At his home in Navan, Dr. Abumarzouq is going through some family photos. He knows more than most about the misery the war has brought. […] The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said 70,000 people have been killed, since the outbreak of the war and the 7 October attacks. …

It’s the benchmark of success, a milestone of responsible adulthood, a time-tested way to amass wealth for you and your progeny. Homeownership, we’re told again and again, is a status that every right-thinking person should aspire to — the white-picket-fence-fronted embodiment of the American Dream. But what if it’s also a little overrated? For generations it has been taken as a near article of faith across the country that ownership is both the financially and socially superior way to inhabit a home and that public policy makers should always promote it. California legislators and housing advocates spent this past year...

VERY well done, passaround worthy.Merry Christmas

Californians will see the minimum wage increase to $16.90 per hour starting Jan. 1. The adjustment — a boost of 40 cents per hour — was calculated in August by the Department of Finance as part of its minimum wage annual review required by state law. California has been raising its minimum wage over the past decade. Former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016 signed a watershed law to increase minimum wage from $10.50 per hour to $15 per hour, plus annual adjustments for inflation. The current rate of $16.50 per hour suggests that a minimum wage worker needs to work...

For many of us who grew up in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, Britain had a distinct identity—one rooted in tradition, culture, and a shared sense of belonging. But over the past few decades, that Britain has slowly transformed, replaced by a new, complex reality. From the days of neighborhood corner shops, Sunday roasts, and traditional family values, to a country that now feels more fragmented and uncertain. This video takes you through the journey of how Britain’s identity evolved and why so many of us feel like we're losing touch with the country we once knew. The slow disappearance...

Accused double murderer Nick Reiner once admitted he got hooked on heroin only after his parents put him in a New Age rehab facility in the Utah wilderness when he was just 16. Reiner, who is accused of stabbing to death his dad, Hollywood legend Rob Reiner, and his mom, Michele, claimed in a newly resurfaced podcast interview that he only became exposed to the harder drugs after his stint at an expensive, nature-based therapy program for teens. “I went to a wilderness program in Utah. It was called Second Nature, and I met a kid there from LA and,...

Just as a related fight is hitting the U.S. Supreme Court, the lower 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has confirmed that talk therapy for minors with gender confusion issues is, in fact, protected speech. "The Sixth Circuit has rightly ruled that laws restricting counselors and clients to only one viewpoint violate the First Amendment. Talk therapy is speech, and the government has no authority to restrict that speech to just one viewpoint," explained Mat Staver, chief of Liberty Counsel, which repeatedly has fought such First Amendment violations. "The ruling allows therapists to engage in professional, compassionate counseling giving children...

CHRISTMAS BIBLE-ART EPISODE #11 of 33 SHOULD JOSEPH MARRY MARY? M A T T H E W CHAPTER 1 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and...

The White House/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain. Not only did the Obama and Biden Administrations go to great lengths to protect Hillary Clinton, they went to unconstitutional lengths to get Trump. The Obama-Biden Administration prevented agents investigating Hillary Clinton from reviewing some eight thumb drives of intel based on purported concerns over executive and congressional privilege, newly released documents reveal. This reality renders last month’s revelation that the Biden Administration approved Special Counsel Jack Smith’s subpoenaing of congressional Republicans’ toll records even more appalling — and the Democrats’ weaponization of the criminal justice system even more obvious and outrageous. Last week, Sen....

Authorities are searching for two men who went missing after leaving on a fishing trip from Fort Myers on Friday morning. The missing men were identified as 57-year-old Randall Spivey and 33-year-old Brandon Billmaier. The two left early Friday morning on a 42-foot Freeman boat from a residence in the 15000 block of Intracoastal Court in Fort Myers, the Lee County Sheriff's Office said. The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed it is working on the case and gathering additional details. Search and rescue crews are working from the surface to the skies and are advising all aircraft to maintain situational awareness...

Non-crime hate incidents should be scrapped and replaced with a "common sense" system, police leaders are set to recommend. The scheme would mean only the most serious incidents are recorded as anti-social behaviour. The recommendation is part of a review by leaders at the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and College of Policing, which is set to be published next month and given to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. Non-crime hate incidents are perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards certain characteristics, such as race or gender, but do not meet the threshold of a criminal offence. Rather than...

Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and a staunch defender of unborn children, is weighing another run for president in 2028 as he positions himself within the evolving Republican Party. Cruz, who finished as runner-up in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, has been fielding requests from supporters urging him to launch a bid in 2028. During a recent meeting near Washington, D.C., Cruz noted he had received requests to run. Should he launch a bid, he would be expected to face a primary against fellow pro-life advocate Vice President J.D. Vance and potentially other contenders. The Republican nomine could eventually...

A convicted Oregon killer is back on Salem’s police oversight board following a narrow city council vote that opponents say jeopardizes public trust and ignores warnings from law enforcement about his violent past.

Pete Hegseth’s Saturday begins with personal training. The Secretary of War, @SecWar on your socials, is very fond of working out with the troops – something most defense secretaries have done without someone dutifully filming the experience for Instagram. Then he heads off to the Reagan National Defense Forum, the annual gathering of war hawks, policy nerds and defense contractors in Simi Valley, California. Hegseth, the veteran of the Global War on Terror, is there to fulfill his mission of denouncing the neocons. “Out with idealistic utopianism, in with hard-nosed realism,” he declares, insisting the United States will no longer...

A Washington woman angry with pro-life protesters outside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility struck one of them with her SUV after an argument, authorities said. Sierra D. Godfrey, 32, of Richland, is accused of swerving toward two men standing near the exit of the Bonnie Avenue abortion facility on December 1 with the intent to scare them. Instead, she hit one in the leg and hip, knocking him down before fleeing the scene. Godfrey, who allegedly admitted to police that she hit the protester and drove away, was arrested December 15 and booked into the Benton County jail on suspicion...