Free Republic

WHEN Malcolm X visited Mecca in 1964, he was enchanted. He found the city “as ancient as time itself,” and wrote that the partly constructed extension to the Sacred Mosque “will surpass the architectural beauty of India’s Taj Mahal.” Fifty years on, no one could possibly describe Mecca as ancient, or associate beauty with Islam’s holiest city. The dominant architectural site is the obnoxious Makkah Royal Clock Tower hotel. The skyline is no longer dominated by the rugged outline of encircling peaks. Ancient mountains have been flattened. The city is now surrounded by the brutalism of rectangular steel and concrete...

Spencer Pratt’s LA mayoral bid surged on Election Day, only to be reversed as California’s entrenched political machine reshaped the final count after the vote. Bill de Blasio appeared on NewsNation on June 2 and was asked to comment on Spencer Pratt’s campaign. De Blasio smugly described Pratt’s ads as “inappropriate” and wondered, “Who is behind them?” If de Blasio hadn’t actively participated in the decline of New York City during his disastrous eight years as its mayor, his arrogance might just be dismissed as unwarranted and clueless. But de Blasio is part of a machine that profits from urban...

Bear spray proponents claim bear spray can be deployed faster than handguns, rifles, or shotguns. This is not obvious or certain. The claim is simply made and assumed to be true.It is not true.The truth is all four systems can be reasonably fast *if* the users train and practice with the system.This correspondent believed handguns to be the fastest method. An experienced trainer in Canada showed bear spray could be practically as fast as holstered handguns.A reasonably fast response is to access and use a defense against bears system in under two seconds. Very fast is to effectively utilize the...

An [terrorist]-linked gang who stabbed and battered a British couple to death then threw their bodies to crocodiles have been found guilty of their murder. World renowned botanists Rod Saunders, 74, and wife Rachel, 63, were ambushed in South Africa whilst out searching for rare gladioli flowers in remote mountains. The devoted couple who were married for over 30 years and lived in Cape Town met a bad end whilst setting up camp beside a forest dam in a national park. A court heard how they were viciously tortured for Rachel's gold credit card PIN number and bank account details...

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is reportedly being prepared to run for president in 2028 by former President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, who also worked with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra on their respective campaigns. Sources familiar with the matter told Politico’s Playbook this week that Khanna has caught the attention of Ron Klain, an attorney who was an appointee of former President Barack Obama as the White House Ebola Response Coordinator. Klain, who was named Biden’s chief of staff after working as a senior adviser on his 2020 campaign, is now a...

QE AEC FMILZ XK CYI NEEA, VEZ FYI SYLAJIF SEAFCLACWK. CYIA KEBZ WERI MEBWQ LWFE SYLAJI. -- MOWWOLN FYLTIFDILZI, ZENIE LAQ HBWOIC Clue: Change M to W

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - FOX 9 has learned the Department of Justice will not seek the death penalty against Vance Boelter, the man accused of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses, after prosecutors determined the crimes he faced were not eligible under federal law. Vance Boelter will not face death penalty The backstory: Boelter is accused of shooting House Speaker Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman in their Brooklyn Park home, as well as shooting Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman in their Champlin home on June 14, 2025. Prosecutors also allege that same morning...

Johannesburg — Multiple attackers killed 12 people and wounded at least nine in a late-night mass shooting in Johannesburg, police said Wednesday, the latest in such attacks that have shaken the South African city. Police said they believe more than 10 suspects were dropped off in a minibus in an informal settlement in the Cleveland suburb of Johannesburg late Tuesday night and started shooting. The attackers "moved through the area, opening fire on residents and community members at multiple locations before fleeing the scene in the same vehicle," police said in a statement. The victims were nine men and three...

Silicon Valley’s AI millionaires are paying eye-popping rates of up to $6,000 an hour — and $23,000 a day — for escorts who can discuss GPUs, artificial intelligence and the future of humanity before heading to the bedroom. A small but lucrative class of so-called “nerd-first” escorts is cashing in on the tech industry’s wealth explosion by marketing themselves as intellectually curious companions who can match clients’ obsession with AI, cryptocurrency, longevity and other futurist pursuits. There are only a handful of escorts operating in the niche, according to Forbes, but some are commanding rates that dwarf those of traditional...

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is investigating what happened to $30 million it sent to a Muslim nonprofit to help resettle Afghan refugees in the US, The Post has learned. The department is the latest to look into the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) amid accusations it has ties to dangerous groups in foreign nations including terror group Hamas. In letters to the governors of California and Washington, where the $30 million was sent, HHS — headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — claims it has received information that “raises concerns about the business practices and...

Click on link

Summary Houses, cars, and a bus were set on fire in Belfast last night in a night of violence that followed a knife attack on Monday One pastor in north Belfast says black people's homes were targeted, while an MP tells the BBC there was a "race-based pogrom" On one street, hundreds of masked men carrying bottles and bricks set bins on fire and shouted "foreigners out", our reporter says Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill says "groups of masked men" were "burning families out of their homes" The fire service says it was called to 62 incidents last night,...

An official United Nations report published on Tuesday details how Hamas terrorists and domestic police forces in the Gaza Strip subjected dozens of locals to public executions, severe beatings, and physical mutilation during the conflict with Israel, classifying the actions as war crimes, reports The Associated Press. The findings, compiled by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, cataloged hundreds of instances of extrajudicial enforcement across the territory. The report noted that these acts were frequently recorded and broadcast to terrify the local population intentionally. “These cases involved executions, kneecapping, bone-breaking with metal pipes or cement bricks...

"If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was" (James 1:23-24). Always respond immediately to what you know to be God’s will for you. Men, have you ever been at work and touched your face, only to realize that you forgot to shave? Perhaps you were distracted by your wife's call to breakfast or by one of the kids. Ladies, have you ever...

A poll shows many Democrats would rather live in a different country and wave goodbye to the United States of America, the news coming as more in the party view socialism favorably. The Elon University/YouGov America 250 National Survey that was performed between April 30th and May 4th asked respondents, “Is there any other country on Earth you would rather live in than the United States today?” to which 55 percent of Democrats said yes. Thirty-eight percent of Independents said yes while only 10 percent of Republicans gave the same answer. The survey targeted U.S. adults with a sample size...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.” Matthew 5:17–18Sometimes it can be challenging to reconcile the Old Testament with the New Testament. In addition to the Ten Commandments, the Old Testament is filled with countless other commandments. The Pharisees, in their attempt...

A son who was told his ‘missing’ dad had died more than 40 years ago has exhumed the body – and found they buried the WRONG person. Mark Wells, 52, has spent decades wondering what really happened to his dad, Dale Wayne Wells, who disappeared aged 38 in February 1985. After becoming frustrated at a lack of answers from the authorities, he paid to get his dad’s remains exhumed in the hope that new DNA could help solve the mystery. But Mark was stunned when the results came back — and revealed the man he buried and mourned as a...

A series of shocking videos show homeless residents on Los Angeles’ Skid Row claiming they were paid to vote for Mayor Karen Bass and councilwoman Nithya Raman. The California Post obtained copies of the videos after they were published Tuesday on the TikTok account LaneNeedsSpencerPratt. The footage, recorded near 7th Street and Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, has since been provided to the Department of Justice. It also follows The Post’s revelations that thousands of homeless voters were registered to shelters where they didn’t live. One shelter in Venice, where 185 Raman voters were registered, received...

Melvin Van Peebles kick-started the Blaxploitation genre with a gritty movie and a great soundtrack.Let’s be clear from the beginning: Melvin Van Peebles is not a traditional singer. And Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, released in June 1971, two months after the film, is very much a soundtrack album, not a straightforward Stax collection of soulful songs. Kicking off with a bizarre mixture of gospel and sex on “Sweetback Loses His Cherry” (including a snip of “Wade In The Water,” which EWF’s leader, Maurice White, would have played night after night as a drummer with Ramsey Lewis), it rapidly becomes apparent...

May is now Osteoporosis Awareness Month in IllinoisOsteoporosis is a huge threat to women as they grow older, and a Chicago doctor is hoping a simple scan can help patients avoid catastrophic injuries. Mary Driver is still recovering from a nasty fall she took on a sidewalk near the train station in suburban Lake Forest last fall, after a four mile run with a friend. She knew immediately her wrist was broken. "And, I broke it really badly. I had never broken a bone that seriously before in my life," said Driver. The active 71-year-old turned down a DEXA scan...