Free Republic

Mesquite ISD’s $600 Million Bond Would Cost $1.1 Billion With Interest School district property taxpayers are already on the hook for $979 million in bond debt principal and interest. Yet the district’s bond marketing claims the billion-dollar debt will have minimal impact on Mesquite ISD taxpayers, who are already on the hook for $979 million in outstanding bond debt principal and interest. All this while only 42% of the district’s 38,000 students meet or exceed grade levels across all subjects

Tennessee saw just 13.9% of registered voters cast ballots in the Aug. 1 primary, down from 24.5% in the 2020 primary and 14.1% in 2016. The turnout is the lowest since before at least 1996, with the state averaging 17.9% turnout for the August primaries in a presidential election year, according to ThinkTennessee. The primary included one U.S. Senate seat, all nine Tennessee U.S. House seats along with 99 state House seats and 16 state Senate seats, those in the even-numbered districts. The Nov. 5 ballot, however, will include candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties facing off for...

Researchers have found an over-the-counter natural health product may help counteract negative effects of heavy cannabis use among adolescents aged 12 to 17, including depression, anxiety and diminished motivation in adulthood. Marta De Felice and Steven Laviolette demonstrated in animal models that interventions using antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) can mitigate the detrimental mental health effects of chronic cannabis use later in life. Sometimes referred to as "amotivational syndrome," chronic cannabis use in adolescents can result in a lack of motivation, diminished enjoyment from daily activities and other depressive effects. Currently, there is no known intervention strategy available. The study found that...

…and hollow women, too.I’ve been writing for years about the rise of toxic ideologies on America’s college campuses – totalitarian, anti-Israel, outright anti-Semitic – but still have been surprised by what has happened in these places since October 7. We need to discuss the reasons why it’s gotten so bad.A few days ago, someone republished an essay, written in 2016, by a professor who has taught at several ‘elite’ colleges. Excerpt:My students are know-nothings. They are exceedingly nice, pleasant, trustworthy, mostly honest, well-intentioned, and utterly decent. But their brains are largely empty, devoid of any substantial knowledge that might be...

Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Men, it is time to put the full armor of God on and enter the battle of your lifetime. This is not a battle for women it is where God has sent you and if you are in Oregon, you are in the heart of the heart of America’s spiritual war. You do not have to go to deepest darkest Africa, you are already in the most pagan land...

The dust from the US midterm elections is beginning to settle and experts are struggling to understand the implications. While most Republicans are disappointed, for Christian leaders, the results are particularly concerning. It is clear that the elections seemed important to voters as turnout was relatively high by midterm standards. Voter turnout was the second-highest of any midterm, only slightly less than the elections in 1970. In addition, the 2022 midterm elections were the most expensive in the history of the United States. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate...

Their “Love in the Time of Covid” cards in each save-the-date envelope spelled it out clearly: This October wedding would be a vaccinated-only event. After all, the groom’s father, who is vaccinated against covid-19 but immunocompromised, needed to be sure he could safely attend... The couple didn’t expect...someone who hadn’t been vaccinated showing up anyway. But then a family member disclosed some shocking intel: Michelle’s father and stepmom were planning to lie about having gotten the vaccine. “That obviously threw everything completely for a loop,” she says. Not only are Michelle and her father very close, but he’s also helping...

As my listeners and readers can hopefully attest, I have been on a lifelong quest to understand human nature and human behavior. I am sad to report that I have learned more in the last few years, particularly in 2020, than in any equivalent period of time. One of the biggest revelations concerns a question that has always plagued me: How does one explain the “good German,” the term used to describe the average, presumably decent German, who did nothing to hurt Jews but also did nothing to help them and did nothing to undermine the Nazi regime? The same...

As my listeners and readers can hopefully attest, I have been on a lifelong quest to understand human nature and human behavior. I am sad to report that I have learned more in the last few years, particularly in 2020, than in any equivalent period of time. One of the biggest revelations concerns a question that has always plagued me: How does one explain the "good German," the term used to describe the average, presumably decent German, who did nothing to hurt Jews but also did nothing to help them and did nothing to undermine the Nazi regime? The same...

A pair of Great Danes killed an Ohio woman who kept the rescued animals over her husband’s objections, authorities said. Mary Matthews, 49, was found dead Friday in her Waynesville home by her husband, Dale Mark Matthews, some two years after she rescued the aggressive dogs ... I never wanted Great Danes but she wanted to rescue them,” Matthews told the newspaper. “She loved animals so I let her get them. I probably should have put my foot down and said no, obviously.” Matthews said he was bitten by one of the massive dogs last month, leading him to worry...

Our society is sick, not in a twisted and deranged way, but in a manner that’s more subtle, much more dangerous and self-destructive to the moral fabric of our social construct.   Experts have been screaming from the rooftops for years about the detachment children and adolescents feel in today’s modern age of social media.  We’re assaulted 24/7 with a relentless drumbeat of political noise and continuous news coverage that would beat a dead horse not just into the next life but into another dimension eight times removed.  So when something like what happened to me last week occurs, I...

TRENTON, N.J. – Anyone frustrated with Phil Murphy’s rocky, far-left first term in office – and their fellow residents ambivalence to it – won’t be comforted by the results of a new Fairleigh Dickinson Poll. According to the pollsters, one-third (1/3) of adults polled couldn’t identify Phil Murphy as governor without prompting.

The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death was accidental, police said Wednesday. Diaz said no one will be charged in the incident. The male pit bull — 3 or 4 years old — was raised by the family since it was a puppy, police said. Its sibling and mother, both pit bulls, were also family pets. All were removed from the home the day of the attack, but the dog owner has only surrendered Thor,...

Between Sept. 14-20, the Russian armed forces will conduct a major exercise, ZAPAD 2017. Employing forces from various Russian commands, the exercise will test the military's ability to conduct a combined arms offensive. That's exactly the kind of operation Russia would use to invade Europe. While there's nothing new in the Russians carrying out a military exercise, this situation is different due to the scale and location of the forces involved. Russia claims under 10,000 personnel will be involved but as many as 100,000 Russian soldiers are actually expected to deploy. Their number will include armored and artillery units, and...

---snip--- David, 31, New Jersey: ‘I regret not voting, I never thought Donald Trump would win’ I would have voted for Hillary Clinton, but I didn’t. I thought she would win the White House. I feel heartbroken for those disenfranchised Americans who voted for Trump, not because of his divisive rhetoric, but in spite of it. Hillary is a genius diplomat, but she proved, once again, to be an ineffectual communicator. She could not reach those desperate to put food back on their table. I used to drive past the front-lawn Trump signs in my town and dismiss the homeowner...

MILWAUKEE — Four barbers and a firefighter were pondering their future under a Trump presidency at the Upper Cutz barbershop last week. “We got to figure this out,” said Cedric Fleming, one of the barbers. “We got a gangster in the chair now,” he said, referring to President-elect Donald J. Trump. They admitted that they could not complain too much: Only two of them had voted. But there were no regrets. “I don’t feel bad,” Mr. Fleming said, trimming a mustache. “Milwaukee is tired. Both of them were terrible. They never do anything for us anyway.”

Surveillance video shows more than a dozen people doing nothing to help a Chicago bartender as he is attacked, left unconscious on the street and accidentally run over by a taxi. Marques Gaines later died at a hospital. The family of 32-year-old Gaines has filed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit against several businesses and taxi companies in his Feb. 7 death. …

Our nation’s impending illiteracy and apathy, were the principal causes for electing the likes of a Barack Obama to the presidency of the nation as well allowing for a Hillary Clinton or a Bernie Sanders to contend for the presidency If you are like me, a political enthusiast of sorts, you probably have not missed any of the political debates that have taken place in the last few weeks, just as you might have followed the overwhelming blitzkrieg of national polls with last-minute details on how candidates are doing in their presidential races. By now, I am almost sure, you...

THERE ARE ONLY 29 DAYS UNTIL THE NEXT FREEPATHON BEGINS!!!

CBS NEWSMarch 16, 2015 Clarissa Ward On 4 Years Of Civil War In Syria Sunday marked four years since Syria plunged into chaotic civil war. As the conflict enters its fifth year, President Bashar Assad remains resolute in the face of a rebel movement determined to remove him from power. The consequences of the war are staggering: more than 215,000 people have been killed and nearly 4 million are now refugees. The change was precipitated by the formation of the Free Syrian Army, and with it, the militarization of the conflict, said Ward. "The fiercer the bombardments came from the...