Free Republic

An Olive Garden cook has died after he dunked his own head into a searing hot deep fryer — as his co-workers frantically tried to thwart his gruesome suicide, authorities said. The employee, who hasn’t been identified, stripped his clothes off and thrust his face into the fryer at the chain’s restaurant in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, last Friday afternoon, the Smoking Gun reported. “A male victim went head first into the fryers,” dispatchers could be heard saying in grim 911 audio. “I don’t have a lot of details, lot of people screaming, some kind of a burn victim,” another operator could...

Compassion and Tolerance Without Faith and Virtue Can Be DeadlyIt’s often said that “tenderness leads to the gas chambers.”Derived from a passage in Flannery O’Connor’s work, “Mystery and Manners,” the full quote in context gives a solid lesson on how compassion untethered to virtue can lead to disaster and ruin:If other ages felt less, they saw more, even though they saw with the blind, prophetical, unsentimental eye of acceptance, which is to say, of faith. In the absence of this faith now, we govern by tenderness. It is a tenderness which, long cut off from the person of Christ,...

PENSACOLA, Fla. --The United States Attorney's Office announced Thursday that five previously deported illegal immigrants in Northwest Florida have been indicted for illegal reentry into the United States. Meanwhile, 11 illegal immigrants in Northwest Florida were convicted of federal crimes in the month of January. According to court records, five illegal aliens indicted in the month of January include: Pedro Vasquez-Guerra, 26, of El Salvador, allegedly reentered the United States illegally and was located in Okaloosa County in December 2025, after previously being deported in 2017. Jose Perez-Perez, 42, of Mexico, allegedly reentered the United States illegally and was located...

Our current society can have trouble showing acceptance — especially to conservatives. If you're a young conservative who has kept your political views a secret from your family, knowing how to tell your parents can be difficult. The Babylon Bee is here to help you closeted folks with the following list of ways to come out as a conservative to your liberal parents: Go on a date with someone of the opposite sex: Seeing blatant displays of heterosexuality will make it obvious to them. Get a job: Another child lost to capitalism. Put up a "Fat JD Vance" poster...

[Catholic Caucus] An Open Letter to US DiocesesThe Annual Appeal was launched in our diocese this weekend, as it has been or will be in many other dioceses, with a sound-tracked video at every Mass and a step-by-step walk-through of the completion of pledge cards. While I sympathize with the committee that came up with that tedious line-by-line approach, it doesn’t wear well on adults.Instead, maybe give us an honest accounting of where our money has gone, the steps taken to protect and report it, and a picture of the accounting best practices that assure us the money is spent...

@RepThomasMassie The President of the United States called me a moron at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning because I’m still fighting for what he promised the American people: Reduce big spending, DOGE, no new wars, end foreign aid, defend 1A 2A 4A, prolife, and expose sex traffickers.

Daily Readings from the USCCBMemorial of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. Mark 6:10–13During the first half of Jesus’ public ministry, despite the religious leaders growing increasingly hostile, He accomplished many things. Numerous conversions took place, many began to believe He was...

As the hype builds for the reported $1.5 trillion IPO of Elon Musk’s SpaceX later this year, there will be plenty of critics who argue the company’s marketing has more hot air than one of its rockets. It has been claimed by some that the IPO will be worth more than the top seven companies currently listed on the London Stock Exchange – including century-old giants such as Shell, HSBC and AstraZeneca – combined. And yes, sure, there is probably an element of wishful thinking in these reports, as there often is with Musk. But SpaceX also has the potential...

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr issued an apology for claiming that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are not 'rooting out violent criminals'Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr walked back his previous comments that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are detaining legal citizens and “five-year-old kindergartners” instead of “rooting out violent criminals.”

Maryland’s state flag, one of the most recognizable and widely embraced symbols in the nation, has drawn renewed attention after Gov. Wes Moore referred to it as a “contradiction” during a recent podcast appearance — remarks that appear rhetorical rather than reflective of any policy direction. Moore made the comments while discussing mid-decade congressional redistricting during an appearance on The Press Box podcast on Jan. 28, 2026. In that context, he invoked the state’s history and identity, tying it to broader themes about division and reconciliation. “Do I understand the history of this country? Absolutely,” Moore said. “You can’t look...

Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT) publicly undercut President Donald Trump’s push to federalize America’s elections on Thursday, flatly warning he did not support the idea, which would require a constitutional amendment. The proposal, first floated by the president on Tuesday in a podcast interview with Dan Bongino, his former FBI deputy director, came alongside Trump’s familiar unsubstantiated claims that he won states where he was officially defeated in past presidential elections, which he again branded “crooked.” The president said Republicans should “take over the voting” in at least 15 jurisdictions. Trump repeated the claim on Wednesday night in an interview with...

Gov. DeSantis explains why Florida has avoided the unrest seen in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, pointing to strong state laws and cooperation with federal authorities.

Billie Eilish - "Dumb Girl" (The Brutally Honest "Bad Guy" Parody) Funny parody.

A glossy brochure labeled “Qatar City, Arizona, USA” has begun circulating online. It shows a 6,000-acre state land auction and a massive proposed development project strategically placed near Arizona’s TSMC high-tech zone. The name? Qatar City. The plan? Unclear. The funding? Opaque. The timing? Disturbing. The proposal was submitted under the name Khaled A. Shair, listing a contact email at kshair@lasaintl.com and a Nevada phone number. At first glance, it looks like a standard development pitch. But peel back even one layer, and the warning signs multiply. There is no public record of where Khaled A. Shair is actually from....

The House Judiciary Committee’s recent findings present a simple but unsettling conclusion. American speech is being curtailed in the United States, not because Congress has changed the First Amendment, but because foreign governments have learned how to route around it. Europe’s Digital Services Act, presented as a domestic regulatory framework, has in practice become a lever for global speech control. Its effects now reach deep into the American public square. To see how this happens, begin with a basic fact about the modern internet. Major platforms operate with global content moderation rules. They do so not out of ideology but...

VIDEOThe Democrats and their media mouthpieces are in such a state of PANIC over the FBI seizing 700 boxes of Fulton County ballots to be used as possible evidence of 2020 election fraud that creepy CBS reporter and self-described PTSD survivor Scott MacFarlane dropped his guard as well as any hint of professionalism and angrily called President Trump a LIAR as you can see in this video.How long will CBS continue to employ a supposed reporter who demonstrates such a pathetic lack of professionalism due to overbearing bias?

The New York City Police Department released body camera footage showing the moment an officer shot a mentally ill man who was allegedly charging him with a knife amid calls from Mayor Zohran Mamdani for mental health treatment instead of criminal charges. Jabez Chakraborty, 22, was holding a large kitchen knife and charged at officers who responded to an emergency call from his family in Queens on Jan. 26, according to the NYPD. The footage, released by the NYPD on Tuesday, shows an officer entering the living room of the home, where Chakraborty was allegedly brandishing a knife. Officers are...

SNIP Yet “personal protection dogs” like Cassidy are bought, sold and trained every day in the UK. At the top end of the market, purpose-bred animals trained to bite, hold and release on command are sold for tens of thousands of pounds, marketed as family pets that double as live-in security solutions. Demand for these dogs, once the preserve of the ultra-rich and security professionals, seems to be growing, fuelled by celebrity endorsements, social media and widespread anxieties about crime. This is also a largely unregulated corner of dog ownership, raising difficult questions about public safety, animal welfare and where...

Waymo‘s Chief Safety Officer disclosed Wednesday that some of the remote operators who assist its self-driving vehicles in navigating difficult scenarios are based in the Philippines. Mauricio Peña, the company’s Chief Safety Officer, confirmed under questioning that the Alphabet subsidiary employs human operators abroad to provide guidance to its robotaxis when they encounter challenging driving situations. Ad ends in 5 Peña noted that the vehicles remain in control of all driving tasks at all times. “They provide guidance. They do not remotely drive the vehicles,” Peña told the Senate committee. “The Waymo vehicle is always in charge of the dynamic...

Michelle Obama opened up on “Call Her Daddy” about whether she believes the U.S. is ready for a female president. The former first lady discussed a wide range of topics during her interview with Alex Cooper on the Jan. 21 episode of the podcast, including the scrutiny she faced while in the public eye and the media’s focus on her appearance during Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Obama also expanded on comments she made last November about whether she would ever consider running for president herself and what that says about the country’s readiness for a woman in the Oval...