Free Republic

This has been a debate for decades. Did this man survive his parachute hijacking attempt? After years of studying the case files on this crime, I believe that he lived and provide my reasons behind thinking this.

Rise Collective, a late-term abortion business in Boulder, Colorado, which reorganized under a new banner after the retirement of well-known, late-term abortionist Warren Hern, is following in Hern's footsteps. The business offers "injection only" abortions (feticide to kill the baby) through 34 weeks of pregnancy, which some experts claim can place women at risk. The woman is then advised to see her physician to deliver the dead baby, which some speculate may amount to insurance fraud. But this idea isn't new. In a 2024 New Yorker interview, Hern himself stated that he had lethally injected a preborn child with a...

The proposed benefit, a top policy priority for Vice President JD Vance, would apply only to married couples and tap a fund intended to provide federal child care subsidies to working parents. The Trump administration is moving to allow married couples with a stay-at-home spouse to collect child care subsidies, a policy championed by Vice President JD Vance, using funds from a federal program intended to assist working parents, according to people familiar with the discussions. The change would create the only federal subsidy to pay parents to stay home and raise their children, one of the most significant efforts...

Simultaneously with contacts conducted by US President Donald Trump’s representatives Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner, a delegation of prominent American political scientists visited Moscow. Professor John Mearsheimer, a faculty member at the University of Chicago who took part in the delegation, answered questions from the Russian daily Kommersant on the sidelines of a round-table meeting jointly organised by the Russian Council on Foreign and Defence Policy and the Higher School of Economics. Mearsheimer said that while the Washington administration possesses the potential to play a constructive role in ending the war in Ukraine, it has not yet translated this capacity...

The gathering was held three days before the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, focusing community opposition against the DSA and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Demonstrators and community activists gathered outside the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) headquarters in downtown Manhattan for a rally organized by the EndJewHatred movement and the Lawfare Project on Tuesday. The rally, titled “Unite Against Terror,” took place at the corner of Essex Street and Straus Square near the DSA offices. The gathering was held three days before the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, focusing community opposition against the DSA...

President Donald Trump’s Department of Commerce is seeking to significantly change the 2030 Census by excluding illegal aliens and foreign visitors from the count so that apportionment of congressional districts is more accurate.This week, the Trump administration issued a proposed federal rule to exclude illegal aliens from the census when deciding how many congressional seats a state secures. The number of congressional seats a state has also determines how many Electoral College votes each state gets in presidential elections.

When Britain confirmed last September that it would recognize a Palestinian state, it was pulled in the wake of France, which had signaled a few months earlier that it planned to take the symbolically freighted step. On Tuesday, almost a year later, Britain was the one to seize the initiative. The British government announced, followed by France and Canada, that it would stop trading with Jewish settlements in the West Bank. It went so far as to accuse some settlers of engaging in the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians. This diplomatic sequencing speaks partly to domestic politics in each country. Last...

Democratic lawmaker incorrectly reported assets of between $6 million and $30 million A nonpartisan entity charged with reviewing misconduct allegations has cleared Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) of wrongdoing in connection with documents she submitted to Congress that dramatically overstated her wealth.The Office of Congressional Conduct, which reviews allegations concerning House members and staff, made the determination after opening an investigation into Omar earlier this year. The findings, marked confidential, were viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The OCC’s board, in a 5-1 vote, recommended the House Ethics Committee dismiss allegations against Omar that she reported false or incomplete information...

An emergency slide deployment on the Qatari-gifted Air Force One raised questions at Joint Base Andrews Wednesday before President Donald Trump revealed it was part of a safety check. "They were checking it before, and they just wanted to make sure," Trump told reporters on the tarmac after exiting Marine One. "So they’ve, I guess, already put it up. They want to make sure everything works perfectly." The unusual scene unfolded after Marine One rolled to a stop near the presidential aircraft, with Trump remaining aboard the helicopter, and the slide could be seen extending from the plane. The White...

Cute parody song called Lake America

In a few days, America will be marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11. The observances will be muted here, because it's too sad: we lost the war, not only in the narrow military sense (the Taliban are back in power in Kabul, etc), but in the broader defeat represented by the post-Motoon surrender on free speech, the nightly invasions by Muslim men of English and Continental ports, the ugly security procedures that now attend the bollard-encircled ancient German Christmas markets, and ultimately the reorientation of the generally useless post-9/11 surveillance state as a tool of domestic control. As I wrote...

George W. Bush was president during the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, and he is marking the 25th anniversary of the day that changed America forever by hosting a solemn remembrance event in his home state. The event, called “A Legacy of Service: America at the 25th Anniversary of 9/11,” will take place at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas, and kicks off at 6:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday evening. It will feature a conversation between former President Bush and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who “will share their reflections on the legacy and meaning...

Trajan's Baths in Oppian Hill will host a new museum where visitors to Rome can admire the Great Mosaic and the Painted City, two massive ancient artworks buried near the Colosseum that are estimated to date from the 1st century... The "Painted City" fresco and "Great Mosaic" were discovered in an underground gallery during excavations in the 1990s of the Baths of Trajan on the Oppian Hill near the Colosseum. After being hidden underground for centuries, its blues and terracotta colors are still clear but faded... The Painted City is a ten-square-metre fresco belonging to a building that predates Trajan's...

We have uncovered new information and accusations about the cargo airline operating the Amazon Prime Air plane that crashed in Miami on Sunday, killing five people in a van inside the airport perimeter and in a Toyota Corolla outside the perimeter. This cargo airline, called 21 Air, has a documented history of hiring foreigners who can’t follow instructions from air traffic controllers, as well as a reputation for hiring incompetent pilots who can’t pass basic training at other airlines, according to industry professionals who say they have first-hand knowledge of the company’s operations. We’re going to go through the evidence...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the U.S. Congress prepared to return to work next week, one major lingering question was answered as the Senate approved a request from Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell that will allow him to work remotely from the grave. McConnell, who hasn't been present to attend to any Senate business at the Capitol since mid-June, submitted a request through his office to be able to perform his duties remotely from the comfort of his grave, which Senate leadership officially granted. "It'll be just the same as he was when he was here in person," said Senate Majority...

Vice President JD Vance is everything, everywhere, all at once, lending a hand to midterm candidates around the country, headlining MAGA Inc., fundraising dinners, and taking questions in the White House briefing room. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been a repeat visitor to the early caucus state of Iowa, he hosts a podcast and syndicated radio show, and he has positioned himself as a different kind of Republican from Donald Trump and Vance. And what is Marco Rubio doing to lay the groundwork for a potential 2028 presidential run? Almost nothing. So while Cruz and Vance will both be appearing...

Recently, Luke Burgis, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Catholic University of America, posed a provocative question: “What is the strongest argument from the political Right AGAINST Great Books programs?” In my view, the Great Books is a fine program for lifelong learning. 15,000 people a year participate in discussion groups affiliated with the Great Books Foundation. By contrast, a parallel lifelong learning project—the daily two-pages-a-day study program of the Babylonian Talmud known as Daf Yomi—drew over 90,000 people (almost all of them men) to the official completion celebration of its seven-year cycle at MetLife Stadium, with a further 7,000 at the major...

Explanation: Is this star winking at us? The central object in today’s animation is not one but two stars. XZ Andromedae, indicated by the bold lines, is an Algol-type eclipsing binary with a nearly edge-on orbit from Earth’s perspective. The bottom light curve shows the amount of light from the system dim and brighten as the cooler star eclipses its hotter, brighter companion. Analysis of several XZ Andromedae light curves indicates there may be two other stars orbiting the system. This particular light curve was created with Citizen Astronomy, an open-source software for differential photometry. The software takes the difference...

A recent story out of North Carolina confirmed that women are self-administering the abortion pill far beyond the FDA-approved 11 weeks — and it's had devastating results. Key Takeaways: * The FDA has been relaxing safety rules on the abortion pill for over a decade, leading to a lack of oversight and a lack of care for women who take it without medical supervision. * Easier access to the abortion pill via telehealth has led to horror stories of babies found in toilets and in dumpsters. * Taking the abortion pill after the first trimester, outside FDA-approved limits, increases the...

After an Amazon cargo plane crashed at Miami International Airport, killing five people, one of the pilots reportedly told his wife over the phone that his "career was over," according to a new report. Abraham Altamar told CBS News that he had witnessed the fiery wreck on Sunday while he was working in a nearby building. He did not identify which of the two pilots he spoke with. Altamar was on FaceTime with his wife when he said the pilot approached him. "He was, like, shaking and, and a little injured in his forehead and his hand," Altamar said. "I...