Free Republic

David Gilmour's “Black Strat” $14,550,000 World Record Jack Kerouac's Original Typescript Scroll for “On the Road” $12,135,000 World Record Jerry Garcia's custom-built Doug Irwin guitar “Tiger” $11,560,000 World Record Kurt Cobain's “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video Fender Mustang $6,907,000 World Record Eric Clapton's 1939 “MTV Unplugged” Martin 000-42 $4,101,000 World Record John Lennon's Broadwood Upright Piano $3,247,000 World Record Eric Clapton's Gibson SG “The Fool” $3,003,000 World Record Ringo Starr's Beatle logo drum head used in the Ed Sullivan Show $2,881,000 World Record Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics for “The Times They Are a Changin” $2,515,000 World Record Ringo Starr's First...

Explanation: What would it look like to leave planet Earth? Such an event was recorded visually in great detail by the MESSENGER spacecraft as it swung back past the Earth in 2005 on its way in toward the planet Mercury. Earth can be seen rotating in this time-lapse video, as it recedes into the distance. The sunlit half of Earth is so bright that background stars are not visible. The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft orbit around Mercury from 2011 to 2015 has conducted the first complete map of the surface. On occasion, MESSENGER peered back at its home world. MESSENGER is...

The morning after the Iranian missile hit Arad: 115 injured were evacuated to Soroka, including 18 children. A huge crater in the heart of the neighborhood, 18 children hospitalized and deep shock in a city that until now thought it was protected • "We saw a child fly out of the window because of the impact," residents recall the moments of terror when a half-ton missile turned nine buildings into ruins • Residents of Arad are trying this morning to pick up the pieces and digest the night when the war penetrated deep into their homes. Inbar Tvizer. N12. Published:22.03.26....

Newly released bodycam footage from the Fall 2025 ICE raid at Nutrition Bar Confectioners warehouse in Cato, NY is now public. Homeland Security investigators obtained employee records from the New York State Department of Labor showing that at least 134 of the 224 workers were using fraudulent Social Security numbers—including SSNs belonging to deceased individuals, according to the sworn affidavit. The question many are asking: how are illegal aliens obtaining and using Social Security numbers in the first place? We were told that they aren't and cannot obtain Social Security numbers. All the more reason to get the SAVE Act...

It's a reaction/commentary video (uploaded around March 22, 2026) responding to a segment from Caleb Hammer's "Financial Audit" series. In the original clip, Hammer interviews a blue-haired woman (described as a liberal) who has accumulated significant debt and expresses a desire to leave the U.S. to escape "Trump's America," believing Europe (e.g., Germany) offers better opportunities, especially for artists, easier side hustles, stronger social safety nets, and less excessive capitalism. Main content summary: Hammer challenges her views head-on, arguing that: The U.S. federal budget actually allocates far more to social programs (Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, veterans' benefits, etc.) than to military...

A Bradenton woman who admitted to a long-running identity-and-benefits fraud is headed to federal prison, after a judge said her scheme siphoned off nearly $185,000 in government money. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland sentenced 69-year-old Rosario Alaniz to 15 months in federal prison on March 17, 2026, and ordered her to pay $184,904.75 in restitution, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Florida. Prosecutors said Alaniz pleaded guilty in December 2025, admitting she used a fraudulently obtained U.S. passport to collect Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and Social Security disability payments. U.S. Attorney...

3,000 Jewish children vanished from the face of Nazi-occupied Europe. They weren't deported. They weren't found in concentration camps. They simply evaporated. And the most unlikely place on earth became the perfect hiding spot: a small Protestant village in the heart of occupied France, where pastors and farmers transformed their homes, barns, and schools into underground sanctuaries. But here's the detail that will make you question everything you know about World War II. These children weren't hidden in secret basements or distant forests. They walked the streets. They attended classes. They played in public squares. And the Nazis, with all...

A California sheriff and top Republican candidate for governor seized over 650,000 votes from the state’s November elections this weekend. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco launched an investigation into the state’s November 2025 special election on Proposition 50 after a third-party organization, the Riverside Election Integrity Team, claimed it found roughly 45,000 excess votes. California elections officials have dismissed the team’s findings, but Bianco says his office will conduct another count. “This investigation is simple: Physically count the ballots and compare that result with the total votes recorded,” Bianco told reporters at a Friday press conference. Proposition 50 was a...

A man who admitted to fatally shooting a pregnant woman was found not guilty by reason of insanity. As previously reported, a pregnant woman was shot and killed in her car at a Seattle intersection in June 2023. Eina Kwon, 34, a mother of a 2-year-old child, was senselessly murdered while sitting in her car with her husband. Her unborn child died following the shooting.

Donald Trump shared a video clip from the U.K.’s version of Saturday Night Live on Truth Social Sunday morning depicting Prime Minister Keir Starmer cowering in fear of the U.S. president. The skit opened on the prime minister’s residence at Number 10 Downing Street, where a worried-looking Starmer sat at his desk making a phone call. “Oh, woah. Oh, golly!” Starmer exclaimed. “What if Donald shouts at me? What do I say?” “Just be yourself, prime minister,” Starmer’s aide advised. “Yourself is whom everyone likes.” When a voice that sounded like Trump answered the call, the Starmer character yelped, “Ah!”...

Lindsey Graham on Kharg Island: "We did Iwo Jima. We can do this."

Michael Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., said Sunday that the Iranian people must mobilize to overthrow the Islamic Republic regime.“I think that we need boots on the ground, but they have got to be Iranian boots, and I think they’re coming,” Leiter told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He noted that the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran will only end when there is “not an entity in Tehran that’s going to threaten the region.”

“There could have been kids at this kindergarten,” said Rishon Letzion Mayor Raz Kinstlich. Cluster bombs from an Iranian ballistic missile damaged this kindergarten in Rishon Letzion, south of Tel Aviv, on March 21, 2026. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90.

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron explained today that the French Army simply could not help open the Strait of Hormuz as all fifteen of its soldiers have already been deployed to defend Greenland. Though expressing their sincere desire to help, Macron stated that France simply did not have the military resources to help open the Strait while maintaining its protection of Greenland. "All of France's military might, specifically the one unit we have with fifteen soldiers, is already deployed," said Macron. "They cannot be relocated as they are bravely defending the shores of Greenland. Specifically, the one shore that's...

https://larrys.substack.com/p/a-short-musical-bio Sometime in the late 1970s I abruptly became a history professor. Prior to that, I was a rocker who was "almost famous." Here is a little of my drumming bio, experiences, and influences.

The offices of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance had people of all ages on Wednesday night waiting for the end of the nightly Ramadan fast, from children sitting at tables doing math homework to cab drivers just getting off their shifts. Just before it was time to pray and eat, someone announced a special guest was coming to their iftar, the evening meal to break fast during Ramadan. “I know who it is,” shouted a boy from the back of the room to laughter. Mayor Zohran Mamdani soon entered and joined them.

A 37-year-old Florida woman named Mandolyn Shaffer-Brockwell was arrested after allegedly unleashing a violent road rage tirade in Orlando, beating a pregnant driver, attacking an elderly bystander, and biting a police officer who tried to arrest her.(snip) According to police, the incident occurred on February 23 in the middle of a busy Orlando roadway near the Mall of Millenia. Shaffer-Brockwell is accused of repeatedly stopping her vehicle abruptly and refusing to let the pregnant victim change lanes, leading the victim to honk her horn. This allegedly triggered Shaffer-Brockwell, who then burst from her car, charged at the victim's SUV, and...

Israel launched a major attack on an Iranian gas field this week, prompting retaliation by Iran against Gulf States, a threat to global energy supplies and a surge in fuel prices. President Trump first insisted the United States “knew nothing about” the strike, then later backtracked and said he warned Israel against attacking the complex. His attempt to distance his administration from the strike underscored the diverging aims of the United States and Israel as their war against Iran grinds on. As a superpower with global responsibilities, the United States cares deeply about global energy supplies and the safety of...

A Muslim preacher calls on Muslims to show themselves during a banned demonstration in support of Palestinians at Richardplatz, Neukölln, Berlin on October 11, 2023, four days after the October 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel. JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP. The last thing Berlin needs is a day against Islamophobia—what it does need is better politicians. Last Sunday, March 15th, was Berlin’s first “Day of Action and Commemoration against Islamophobia”—an event the city’s senate claimed was intended to strengthen “diversity and social cohesion.” It might better be described as a ‘day of intimidation’ directed at the many Berliners who disagree with...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at airports could “brutalize” or “kill” Americans.Host Dana Bash said, “We just heard from the white House about President Trump’s plan to deploy ICE agents to airports tomorrow.”She asked, “What’s your response to what Tom Homan revealed here?”Jeffries said, “Well, good morning. Great to be with you. There are three things that have been true since Donald Trump and Republicans came back into power last January. Life is more expensive. Life is more chaotic, and life is more extreme. The last...