Free Republic

Henry Hyde had the rare gift of making a grave argument without becoming a grave man. He could thunder on the House floor and charm a room with humor. When Congressman Hyde spoke about unborn children, he did it with a tenderness that never sounded rehearsed. He was brilliant, warm, funny, stubborn when he needed to be, and absolutely clear about why he had come to Washington. He came to defend life. As we prepare to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his Hyde Amendment, the proper tribute is not praise alone, but a clear account of the man who forced...

New York marks the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on Friday, with President Donald Trump attending a ceremony at the Pentagon while Vice President JD Vance and four former presidents join commemorations at Ground Zero, where victims’ relatives will read the names of those killed.

My latest song. IYKYK.

Oil tanker rates have jumped to record highs as escalating risks to shipping in and out of the Middle East are prompting traders and tanker operators to undertake inefficient and more expensive trade routes. While the crude oil supply is actually there, shipping it through the Strait of Hormuz remains a very risky endeavor, especially in light of the escalating U.S.-Iran tanker war in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, while Saudi Arabia has started to move crude cargoes out of the region through the north of the Red Sea and from Egypt’s Mediterranean ports. The much longer...

Christopher Rufo @christopherrufo EXCLUSIVE: A Nigerian chieftain billed Medicaid more than $36 million, then snapped up luxury properties in California and built a magnificent palace in Abatete, Nigeria—including a golden statue of himself. The experts told us it has all the red flags for fraud.

Houthis HUMILIATE Saudi Arabia, Massive BREAKTHROUGH To Bab el-Mandab! - video at link

A solemn tribute to Charlie Kirk was just unveiled. @TPUSA revealed an 8-foot-tall statue of Charlie Kirk outside its Phoenix headquarters today. The statue was dedicated exactly one year after its co-founder was assassinated.

Satellite imagery and fire-detection data are raising questions over whether Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement has struck Saudi Arabia’s strategically important East-West oil pipeline. There is no independent confirmation that the pipeline itself was hit. A large smoke plume was reportedly visible over the desert southeast of Medina, along the general route of the pipeline toward Mahd adh-Dhahab. NASA’s FIRMS system also showed clustered thermal anomalies in the area. FIRMS provides near-real-time satellite detections of active fires, but its data do not by themselves identify what is burning or establish who caused it. The reported fire comes as the Houthi-Saudi conflict...

Mr. Vance, who opposed the war from the outset and was charged by President Trump with helping to end the conflict, wanted the commanders’ individual judgments, in their own words, before they were consolidated into a Pentagon view. ...commanders were blunt. They were most worried about their depleted stocks of Patriot interceptors. The war had also exhausted the theater’s supplies of the Army Tactical Missile Systems, along with stores of the Precision Strike Missiles. Stocks of critical munitions were the lowest they had ever seen. Mr. Vance came away from some of his conversations with deep concerns about the overall...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus told his disciples a parable: “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?” Luke 6:39As we continue reading from Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, we encounter what is arguably the shortest parable in all of Scripture—just two brief rhetorical questions: “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?” Though concise, these lines present a powerful metaphor. Jesus places this parable within a broader moral discourse that warns against rash judgment and exhorts us to mercy. Just before today’s Gospel, He commands,...

The acting U.S. Navy secretary Hung Cao said that the Iranian military severely damaged a major Navy installation in Bahrain, acknowledging the extent of damage sustained by the base during the conflict. “They blew the hell out of Bahrain,” Cao said in an interview with The Epoch Times, which was published Thursday, referring to the Naval Support Activity Bahrain (NASB), which serves as the headquarters for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the U.S. Fifth Fleet. The base has been heavily targeted by Iran after the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against the Islamic Republic in late February. The Navy...

Alison Krauss & Union Station have announced today the cancellation of all remaining shows on their 2026 tour. In a statement earlier today through management, we learn… “It is with great regret that Alison Krauss & Union Station have announced the cancellation of our upcoming tour dates. After consulting with medical professionals, Alison has been advised to take a period of vocal rest to ensure a full and healthy recovery

Iran has resumed production of ballistic missiles, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, contradicting the Trump administration’s claims that Tehran’s military capabilities have been destroyed in the months-long conflict with the U.S. Iran has assembled new missiles using existing components in more limited quantities than before the war in several underground sites, including the Khojir missile facility in southeastern Iran, U.S. and Middle Eastern officials told the Journal. The regime is also working on new underground assembly sites to avoid renewed American attacks. The U.S. and Israel have damaged several of Iran’s industrial facilities, and the U.S. naval blockade has...

W. provided us with a helpful reminder of how the warning signs for the biggest terrorist attack on American soil were missed. Because not only did Americans "forget," New York City has an Islamist running the city. As if it were Bush's dutiful mission to push a narrative in stubborn defiance of the facts, he appeared at his presidential center with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, where he pushed the fact-free talking point that "Islam is the religion of peace." "I also made it clear that Islam was a religion of peace, not a religion of war, and that...

Join with fellow FREEPERS across the world to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, Technology, Religious Freedom and the Media. "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." (1 Timothy 2:1-2) Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. "Finally, brothers, rejoice. Set things in order. Be encouraged. Agree with one another. Be at peace. And the God...

The only thing more cataclysmic to America than the 9/11 attacks has been the stunning erosion of patriotism and kinship we’ve seen in the quarter-century since the mournful cleanup. While foreign flags fly proudly in street protests, the American flag has made some feel “triggered and unsafe.” Meanwhile, the New York mayor’s actions and associations rightly turn the stomachs of 9/11 families and undoubtedly millions of others, as he and other elected officials pal around with radicals who excrete on the memory and say we deserved 9/11. “Some people did something,” is how Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, remembered the attacks....

Josefina Aguirre grew up among the piñatas hanging from the ceiling of Little Mexico Meat Market, the store her parents opened in New York City's El Barrio in 1997, three years after her father crossed the border from Mexico at 17.She has a bachelor's degree in business management, a qualification her parents, Oscar and Guadalupe Aguirre, insisted on. But she came back to work at the store anyway - to the same three coolers of fresh cheese and cilantro, the same shelves of jalapeños and tomatillos, and the same customers who still bring in their mail so she can read...

The prevailing narrative from entertainment, academia, and other creative spheres is that Israel is the villain of all villains. And one of the words we see most often is “genocide.” A massive contingent of creative and political figures has lent their names to an open letter calling out the narrative. The letter is the brainchild of the Creative Community for Peace, and it begins, “We the undersigned are outraged and sickened by the latest blood libel to be inflicted on the Jewish people: the lie that Israel committed ‘genocide’ in Gaza. We reject this accusation with contempt.” "Central to the...

United cancels 9/11 Denver flyover with plane, fighter jets citing public concerns by: Parker Gordon Posted: Sep 9, 2026 DENVER (KDVR) — A United Airlines 9/11 commemoration flyover has been canceled due to “concerns in the community.” The commemorative flyover, which was set to feature a United Boeing 777 followed by four fighter jets, was initially scheduled for the 25th anniversary of 9/11 on Friday at Denver International Airport. Friday’s flyover was strategically planned for 9:03 a.m., the exact moment terrorists crashed United Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. However, the company said in a...

Reading The Economist often reminds me of listening to David J. Bier of the CATO Institute blather about the wonders of open borders. I keep meaning to write about Bier and will get to it soon, but the essential quality in both cases is a stubborn determination to build cases on theoretical principles, unleavened by any grasp of the real-world realities that shape how those principles play out once implemented. Bier caught my attention several times, but the most emblematic moment that stuck with me was that many of the objections we have to open borders leading to masses of...