Free Republic

In 1972, Singapore's Health Minister called having a fourth child irresponsible. Newspapers ran it on their front pages. Then came the poster. Two girls under one umbrella, sharing one apple. "Girl or Boy, Two is Enough." It was on buses, in hospitals, in primary schools, on television. They stripped income tax relief from any fourth child. Hospital delivery fees went up on a sliding scale punishing each additional birth. If you refused to stop having kids, your family dropped in the public housing queue. Nurses at Kandang Kerbau Hospital chided women carrying a third child as if they'd committed a...

Inside a majestic domed church at one of Russia's oldest monasteries, bearded priests in red-and-gold frocks recite prayers calling for "victory" in the four-year war against Ukraine. But on the cobbled streets of the Pskov-Pechersky grounds -- close to the border with NATO and EU member Estonia -- some Orthodox pilgrims were more concerned with bringing the conflict to an end, as soon as possible. "The Church prays for the soldiers. We pray for only one thing right now: we pray for peace," said Valentina, a 69-year-old pensioner. Institutionally, the Russian Orthodox Church has stood full-square behind President Vladimir Putin...

According to data contained in the latest trustees report, the main retirement fund for Social Security is now projected to run off in the fourth quarter of 2032, which is a date in the not-so-distant future, which stresses the need for younger folks like millennials and subsequent generations to start focusing on building a retirement nest egg on their own. The 2026 Social Security Trustees Report revealed that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, which doles out retirement and survivor benefits, will be completely depleted in the last quarter of 2032. When that happens, the program would still be...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.This is the confidence we have in approaching God: That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14)Religion Forum threads labeled *Prayer* are closed to debate of any kind.1 John 5:20 "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true...

(The Center Square) - No friend of the court briefs will be allowed in America’s attempted prosecution against its former FBI Director James Comey in a North Carolina federal courtroom. In the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Judge Louise Flanagan on Friday gave a one-page order explaining the discretion available to the court and the route she’s chosen. Comey, facing charges tied to his posting of an image of seashells spelling out 86 47 on the Outer Banks, is scheduled for arraignment on Sept. 30 in New Bern and trial Oct. 21. He is facing...

President Trump lashed out at Rhode Island U.S. Sen. Jack Reed on social media Sunday, hours after Reed criticized the president’s handling of Iran during a national TV interview. Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, reiterated his longstanding criticism of Trump’s Iran policy on “Fox News Sunday,” arguing that the U.S. was now “in a much worse position” than under President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, which Trump pulled out of during his first term. “I think the precipitating issue today is the president wants to give himself a birthday present,” Reed said. “And we have paid for...

1:11: Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. There's a lot of confusion, controversy, and disagreement about the latest phase of the so-called Iran war. Remember we bombed kinetically 38 to 40 days then we had 60 days of negotiation and here we are in mid June in which Donald Trump has announced yet another time there is going to be a peace deal coming with a 60-day um period for all the elements of the deal to be enacted. A lot of people are upset. They feel that Iran was on the ropes. they're going broke...

Last week in Frisco, Texas, 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison. No one in the jury believed his claim of self-defense and instead found that Anthony provoked a confrontation with student Austin Metcalf by going into his school’s tent during a track meet, taunting the students there, refusing to leave despite repeated requests, and finally plunging a knife into Austin’s heart after being nudged. It remains a mystery why exactly Anthony did this, which might explain why so many people even entertained his claim of self-defense. But the facts of the...

Normally, nobody should cheer when a Wisconsin business loses its stock. Jobs, rent, suppliers, and familiar faces that sit behind every taproom door. But Minoqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad has spent years turning beer into a vessel for political contempt, and now the state says the rules caught up with him.Officials seized canned beer from his business, alleging Illinois-brewed beer had been brought into Wisconsin without the required permits or licenses. Bangstad said the state took about $25,000 worth after he failed to pay Wisconsin taxes on beer sold and stored at his Minocqua and Madison, Wisc. locations, as...

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, New JerseyThe Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) conducts research, development, test, evaluation and sustainment for all United States Navy and United States Marine Corps aircraft and aircraft systems. It operates a test wing and ranges, facilities, laboratories and aircraft in support of military operations worldwide.The NAWCAD Lakehurst Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (ALRE) Department executes the timely development, acquisition and sustainment of ALRE systems for the Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (PMA-251) Program Office. The department is responsible for all systems and equipment used for...

A Milwaukee police officer resigned after investigators found he had used automated license plate reader technology to track a woman he was dating nearly 180 times in the span of two months. The Institute for Justice points to a Kansas police chief who allegedly ran an ex-girlfriend's plate more than 200 times. In Kentucky, another officer reportedly tracked an ex hundreds of times over a two-month period. In each instance, the searches were entered into the systems as investigative activity, which means databases built for legitimate criminal work were allegedly repurposed for deeply personal surveillance.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom went public Monday with a dramatic claim: President Trump, he said, had directed the Department of Justice to investigate him and his wife. But the update that followed makes the story much bigger than Newsom’s video. Reporting now points to multiple federal probes around Newsom’s circle, including one related to Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s taxes and another connected to a former Newsom chief of staff that began under Joe Biden’s Justice Department. Eric Daugherty posted the update with the Newsom video as the story started moving: ============================================================= Newsom’s office posted an official transcript of his remarks on...

Irony alert: Baseball players who wore Bible verses on ‘Pride’ caps accused of ‘weaponizing rainbow’The rainbow never belonged to the LGBT movement. It is the LGBT movement which repeatedly weaponizes it.After Christian players for the San Francisco Giants cited verses from Genesis chapter 9 on their team’s specially issued “Pride Night” ball caps, they were accused of hatefully “weaponizing” the rainbow against members of the LGBT community.LGBT sports site Outsports published a commentary lamenting, “Three SF Giants pitchers disgraced themselves at the team’s Pride Night, weaponizing the Pride rainbow and attacking the LGBTQ community.”Outsports’ co-founder Cyd Zigler went further: “As...

🚨JUST IN: Was just on a media briefing call with a senior US officials who confirm the MOU with Iran has been signed and outlines the following from their POV: "In general terms, the deal says if you're willing to behave like a normal country, we're willing to treat you like a normal country. It's performance based." - Strait of Hormuz is open, but it will take a few weeks to get travel back to normal. - A signing ceremony on Friday in Geneva including JD Vance, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, and others, and a large Iranian contigent. - The...

The Karmelo Anthony murder trial morphed from a nationally recognized criminal case to a test of whether an American courtroom can protect the integrity of a trial from online mobs. The case centered on Anthony’s fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a Frisco, Texas, high school track meet. On June 9, 2026, a Collin County jury found Anthony guilty of murder. He received a 35-year prison sentence. I joined “Fox Report” with Jon Scott to discuss Judge John Roach’s decision to keep cameras out of the courtroom during Anthony’s trial. Roach defended the integrity of the trial afterward, saying...

The amount of oil in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve plunged last week to the lowest level since 1983 as the Trump administration continues to deploy emergency oil to minimize the damage from the war with Iran. According to federal data released Monday, US officials released another 8.9 million barrels from the SPR last week alone. That leaves the US emergency oil reserve with 340.3 million barrels of crude, taking out the prior low set in July 2023 under President Joe Biden after Russia invaded Ukraine. The last time the SPR had less oil than today was July 1983, when...

Minnesota is now the latest test site for one of the most radical election experiments in America: voting by phone. A bill introduced in the Minnesota House this spring, HF4962, would write “mobile voting technology” into state election law, defining it as an application on a mobile device used to “complete and submit a ballot” in a secure and encrypted manner. It would also allow voters in jurisdictions that authorize the technology to receive ballots, instructions, and certificates of voter eligibility electronically, then return the ballot electronically through the same system. Translated out of legislative jargon, Minnesota lawmakers are being...

CNN’s Paula Reid pumped the brakes on Monday after California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) took to social media to call himself a victim of President Donald Trump’s revenge tour. In a statement on Monday, Newsom announced the following: In recent days, federal agents have knocked on the doors of family friends and former employees. Not because they found a crime. Because they are simply trying to find one. They are demanding records. They are abusing the grand jury process. Digging through years and years of random documents. Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets. He’s...

Taiwan’s newly acquired American attack drones struck maritime targets for the first time last week along the island’s west coast during live-fire drills designed to validate long-range strike systems that would play a crucial role in a potential invasion of the self-governing island.According to Taiwanese military media, the drones successfully struck their offshore targets following a simulated engagement loop where troops rehearsed detecting and identifying the threat. At least three towed flatbed launchers equipped with four Altius drones each were deployed for the exercise.The Republic of China Army received around 2,000 Altius-600 loitering munitions from American defense firm Anduril Industries...

Local businessman Mike Shehadi has purchased a 37-acre property on Ann Arbor Trail and Telegraph in Dearborn Heights to establish a non-profit Islamic cemetery, aiming to provide relief to families during times of grief.