Free Republic

Few topics are more distorted in public debate than slavery—especially its relationship to Scripture and Western history. When viewed through the lens of Scripture and credible historical research, the picture becomes far more complex—and, in many cases, radically different from the cultural narrative promulgated by many far-left progressives. Here are seven myths that need to be challenged, each grounded in biblical truth and supported with historical data. ===================================================================== The Bible Condones Slavery Scripture’s storyline consistently moves toward liberation, human dignity, and equality in Christ—not the perpetuation of bondage. Slaveholders in the American South understood this, which is why they forbade...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has claimed that President Vladimir Putin's state residence in the Novgorod region was the target of a Ukrainian drone attack overnight into Monday, and said it would have implications for the peace negotiations.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the claim as "typical Russian lies" made because Moscow does not want to end the war.The allegation comes as U.S. President Donald Trump hailed progress toward peace following his latest talks with Zelensky at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday.Securing a long-sought deal on Ukraine would be a crowning moment for Trump, the self-styled global...

Let's Wrap Up This Quarter Soon!

Independent journalist Nick Shirley released a viral video on December 26, 2025, documenting visits to several state-funded daycare centers in Minneapolis. These centers, many catering to the Somali immigrant community, were found empty during operational hours, with no children present and signs of disuse, despite receiving substantial public funding through Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). Shirley’s investigation has uncovered over $110 million in suspicious payments in a single day, building on prior scandals like the Feeding Our Future fraud. The revelations have fueled criticism of Democratic Governor Tim Walz, with Republicans like Rep. Tom Emmer demanding answers and linking...

Minnesotans begged House Majority Whip Tom Emmer more than a decade ago to halt the flood of Somali refugees to the area, but the lawmaker scolded them for their concerns. Minnesota’s Somali population is back in the spotlight after YouTuber Nick Shirley posted a video canvassing multiple Somali-run childcare centers accused of fraud. However, A resurfaced audio clip from “This American Life” shows that voters were concerned about mass Somali migration long before the recent controversy. In an episode that aired in October 2016, journalist Zoe Chace narrated portions of the story, including a reflection on a July 2015 town...

A new analysis of July temperatures in Death Valley between 1923 and 2024 suggests the world record near-surface air temperature of 134 F measured in July 1913 may be erroneous. ============================================================== Death Valley has held the record for the hottest air temperature ever measured near Earth's surface for 112 years, but now scientists are calling for the title to be rescinded. According to U.S. Weather Bureau data, the air temperature at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley reached a scorching 134 degrees Fahrenheit (56.7 degrees Celsius) on July 10, 1913. This is still the highest air temperature on record, but its...

Posted on December 27, 2025 by Bill Glahn in Crime, Illegal immigration, Judiciary Rule No. 4 I spent countless hours in 2025 sitting in the back of federal courtrooms in Minnesota observing two types of cases play out: illegal immigration and welfare fraud. The one thing that both had in common was the application of Saul Alinksy’s Rules for Radicals Rule No. 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” It’s a distillation of the Cloward-Piven “overwhelm the system” strategy. Federal bureaucracy was designed to handle a system where we had a few thousand illegal immigrants...

I’m absolutely flabbergasted, and you will be too. So, before I started writing for the day, I was looking for value in sports bets just to get a few in before the evening grind. One of the ways that I do this is by scrolling down my Twitter timeline, scanning for numbers and seeing if anything pops. From there, I get all scientific with it, but that’s another story for another day. I want to tell you what I came across while doing this, and it will absolutely blow your mind. (I actually took a break from looking for bets...

Activists’ claims that illegal aliens commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans do may appear convincing, but new data from New York state shows that those here illegally commit crimes at a rate more than three times higher than that of legal residents. And it’s costing us billions. It’s true that if you lump all immigrants together, relatively few of them are accused and convicted of crimes committed here in the United States. Legal immigrants commit crimes at very low rates, so combining their crime data with that of illegal immigrants masks the latter’s higher criminal activity.

ORLANDO, Fla. — In the past week, 12 swans were found dead at Lake Eola Park, according to Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan. The first two swans were found dead Dec. 23, and over the past five days, that number has risen to 12. Sheehan explained that the deaths happened during the holidays, and specialized veterinary experts were not available at the time. However, she said the deaths are suspected to have been caused by an avian flu outbreak. "We can't be certain until tests are completed," Sheehan said. The swans are currently stored in a secure location, awaiting necropsies...

Ace Frehley, 74 – Lead guitarist band Kiss Bernie Kerik, 69 – New York City 9/11 police chief Bill Moyers, 91 – Broadcaster Boris Spassky, 88 – Russian chess champion Charles Rangel, 94 – U.S. politician Chuck Mangione, 84 – U.S. flugelhorn player known for hit “Feels So Good” Connie Francis, 87 – U.S. singer who topped the charts in the 1950s and 1960s David Johansen, 75 – Lead singer of band The New York Dolls Diane Ladd, 89 – U.S. actor Garth Hudson, 87 – Keyboardist of rock group The Band Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, 63 – Bassist of band...

The most recent iteration of the “Battle of the Sexes” only hammered that point home after the 671st-ranked male, Nick Kyrgios, beat the top-ranked female in the world, Aryna Sabalenka, on Sunday in the United Arab Emirates. And, as Reuters noted, it wasn’t especially close, with Kyrgios winning 6-3, 6-3 in the highly publicized exhibition match at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai.

Explanation: This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only tremendously complex but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The featured image was taken by an amateur astronomer in Leesburg, Florida, USA over three nights last month. It was captured in three primary colors but with extra detail provided by specific emission by hydrogen gas. The Crab Nebula spans about 10...

As 2025 comes to a close, Donald Trump’s favorable approach to cryptocurrency has not proven to be enough to sustain the industry’s gains, once the source of market-wide optimism and enthusiasm. The last few months of the year have seen $1tn in value wiped from the digital asset market, despite bitcoin hitting an all-time-high price of $126,000 on 6 October.The October price peak was short-lived. Bitcoin’s price tumbled just days later after Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on China sent shockwaves across the market on 12 October. The crypto market saw $19bn liquidated in 24 hours – the largest liquidation...

This is a list of those notable entertainment figures who passed away in 2025. They are in order of date of death (and alphabetically within each date), except for the first entry, which will be the most globally high-profile death to date. To see the most recent additions first, select "Date Added" in the Sort by drop-down box; to view the list in reverse chronological order, toggle the "Ascending/Descending order" button next to the drop-down box. Among the most notable showbiz vets we lost this year are: Georgio Armani, fashion designer Brigitte Bardot, actress/singer Claudia Cardinale, actress Richard Chamberlain, actor...

An African-heritage lawmaker in France has sparked outrage by seemingly hailing the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ of the native people of the country by foreigners. Carlos Martens Bilongo, a member of the National Assembly for the far-left La France Insoumise (France in Rebellion/LFI), in an appearance on the “African Bookstore” podcast, appeared to boast that minorities are outbreeding the native French people, Le Journal du Dimanche reported. Without explicitly stating the groups he was discussing, the Val-d’Oise MP, who was born in France to Congolese (DRC) and Angolan parents, urged people to “show them that we are more numerous and that...

Waymo is shipping a software update to help its robotaxis navigate disabled traffic lights during power outages “more decisively,” the company said Tuesday in a blog post that explains why its self-driving vehicles got stuck at intersections during a blackout in San Francisco this past weekend. Waymo said the self-driving system in its robotaxis treats dead stop lights as four-way stops, just like humans are supposed to. That should have allowed the robotaxis to operate normally in spite of the massive outage. Instead, many of the vehicles requested a “confirmation check” from Waymo’s fleet response team to make sure what...

President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied allegations by Russia that Ukraine launched a drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin's residences, and accused Moscow of trying to derail peace talks. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Kyiv had launched an attack overnight using 91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Putin's state residence in Russia's northwestern Novgorod region. Russia said it would now review its position in peace negotiations. It is not yet clear where Putin was at the time of the alleged attack. Zelensky dismissed the claim as "typical Russian lies", intended to give the Kremlin an excuse to...

Actor-comedienne Rosie O’Donnell broke her pledge to quit her attacks on President Donald Trump once again when she returned to social media this weekend to call for his removal via the 25th amendment. “He’s making crazy posts. Like someone with temporal frontal lobe dementia. When are they going to do the 25th Amendment? When are they going to say that this is no longer manageable for anyone? He needs to be stopped. I wish I could say that I don’t think about him a lot, but I do,” she said. Rosie then said that Trump may start a war and...

Fox News host Mark Levin escalated a public feud with MAGA influencer Jack Posobiec after a video circulated showing "Fresh and Fit" co-host Myron Gaines shouting antisemitic insults at a Jewish woman outside a Turning Point USA event. Levin took to X (formerly Twitter) to condemn Posobiec for associating with Gaines and accused him of having a "long record of Woke Reichism." What Sparked the Exchange The confrontation intensified after a photograph and video surfaced showing Gaines and Posobiec together and a separate clip of Gaines directing antisemitic slurs. Levin posted on X that Posobiec was keeping "lowlife pals," writing...