Free Republic

<p>CLAYTON, N.C. (WTVD) -- Every time a car passes through these North Carolina toll collection sites while driving the NC Expressway, a camera takes a picture of your license plate and the state sends you a bill. Mona Raymond's husband got one of these bills.</p>

In the wake of the mass shooting in Buffalo by an avowed white supremacist, a number of people on social media are working overtime to tar various people and groups with the label of white nationalism. Accusatory fingers are being pointed, primarily at various conservatives, without even attempting to find out what actually influenced the gunman. (I am purposely not using his name in this essay.) If we are serious about wanting to confront and defeat this evil — as I hope we are — then it would be helpful to do so from an informed position. Then we could...

A Jeep Wrangler with a manual transmission was taken to a Michigan car dealership for an oil change and tire rotation, but after the work was complete, court records say the vehicle “lurched forward” as a lube technician tried operating it. Jeep Wrangler with a manual transmission was taken to a Michigan car dealership for an oil change and tire rotation, but after the work was complete, court records say the vehicle “lurched forward” as a lube technician tried operating it. The red 2019 Wrangler then crushed mechanic Jeffrey Hawkins against a cabinet on March 13, 2020, records say. He...

I have a new noun for your vocabulary: Holoportation. It's an amalgam of "hologram" and "teleportation," and though it may seem like it, it isn't just a niche sci-fi term buried somewhere in Isaac Asimov novels and Star Trek episodes. NASA flight surgeon Dr. Josef Schmid gives a space greeting Oct. 8, 2021, as he is holoported on to the International Space Station. In October, NASA used this mind-boggling, futuristic mechanism to bring NASA flight surgeon Dr. Josef Schmid onto the International Space Station while he was safely planted on our planet. No rockets necessary. Schmid was joined on this...

The New York Times decided to publish a guest essay heavily criticizing God on Good Friday and the start of Passover. Shalom Auslander composed a piece insisting that this Passover, we should stop paying attention to God: "In this time of war and violence, of oppression and suffering, I propose we pass over something else: God," he began, before claiming God is "hateful," full of "brutality," and, if mortal, "would be dragged to the Hague." Auslander criticized God whose "wrath" and "plagues" harnessed against the Egyptians during the original Passover story from the Book of Exodus, remind him of what...

What if every excuse for vaccinating every living person against COVID-19 is wrong? If so, how should that change things? Let's play what if. What if the long-term harm to children being vaccinated is unknown? It is. What if the short-term harm to people, in general, may be great, even deadly? Both are true. What if the COVID vaccinations don't prevent contracting or transmitting the virus? They don't. What if only about 5% of deaths attributed to COVID showed only COVID to be the cause of death on the death certificates? They do. What if the remaining 95% were just...

The Lone Star State conjures images of the Old West, such as rugged individualism and frontier justice. So, it’s not surprising the opponents to Texas’ new pro-life law, the Texas Heartbeat Act, characterize the statute as an example of vigilantism. Like bounty hunters, the law permits any Texan to earn at least $10,000 and court costs by successfully suing any person or organization that provides or assists an abortion after the detection of “cardiac motion” by ultrasound examination. A fetal heartbeat is usually detected around the sixth week of pregnancy. Private citizens growing rich by snitching? This is outrageous! Un-American!...

The Taliban have reportedly seized biometrics devices used by the US military that could help identify Afghan nationals who worked for the US government and aided coalition forces, raising concerns the Taliban could use the information to retaliate in the wake of the collapse of the US-backed government. The devices, known as HIIDE, for Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment, were seized last week as the Taliban went on an offensive march to overtake Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, sources tell The Intercept. Information stored on the devices include iris scans, fingerprints and biographical information, the news outlet reported Tuesday. They can also...

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said Sunday that the Senate will move “without delay” to confirm a replacement for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg but that he has taken himself out of contention for the position. Cotton, along with his Senate colleagues Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), are on Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court picks, though all four would be out-of-the-box picks.

If you're a "cisgender straight white male," the Democratic National Committee doesn't want you. In an email obtained by the Daily Wire, the DNC's Data Services Manager, Madeleine Leader, sent an email to staff announcing eight new positions on the DNC's IT team. But in the name of diversity, she asked employees on the email chain not to send links to job postings to cisgender straight white men. Cisgender refers to people whose gender identity matches their sex at birth. "I personally would prefer that you not forward to cisgender straight white males, since they're already in the majority" of...

Question: Can the President pardon someone for a crime they have not been arrested for? Can the President pardon someone for a crime they have not been convicted for? Should I have ended these sentences with prepositions?

With the raging war between the Sunni and the Shiites in Iraq, and with the presidents apparent animosity toward the Iraqi government it seems important to understand if Obama has ties to the Sunnis or to the Shiites. Does anyone on FR know the answer to this?

A Riverside County sheriff’s deputy was hospitalized Wednesday after accidentally shooting himself in the leg when a large dog approached him at a Riverside home.

On this day in 1788, Federalist Paper No. 65 is published. Publius discusses the Senate’s role in impeachment/conviction of executive officers. Why do I suspect just a few of you are interested in this paper?! Publius notes the inherent difficulties in prosecuting the “misconduct of public men” or the “abuse or violation of some public trust.” Finding a “well-constituted court for the trial of impeachments” is difficult, to say the least! The “passions of the whole community” are stirred. People take sides, and these sides may align with pre-existing political parties. “[I]n such cases,” Publius concludes, “there will always be...

On this day in 1724, the “Sam Adams of the South” is born. You may not know this Patriot’s full name, but you have certainly seen the flag named after him! Christopher Gadsden was nothing if not a fiery patriot. He was among the first to see the need for a declaration of independence. He led the Sons of Liberty in Charleston, S.C., and he rallied his fellow citizens to oppose the Stamp Act passed by the British Parliament. In 1766, he wrote a column in the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal. At the head of his column, in bold...

There has been a fair amount of commentary on my Facebook page in the past week or so about this very question. I started to put much of this in a comment to someone, but then decided to post it for everyone instead. Since several of you keep asking! Perhaps the most important thing to understand about the Electoral College—and the Constitution in general—is that the Founders were not trying to create a PURE democracy. They wanted to be self-governing, of course. They had just fought an entire Revolution in part because they had no representation in Parliament. The principles...

Do You Eat Beaver Butt?

I'm looking for a good basic cell phone. I have an Aspergers son who needs a phone for safety purposes, but I don't want him to have texting, email or internet access with it. Believe me, that would be a major mistake. Where can someone obtain an inexpensive, basic cell phone plan. I'd like to be able to restrict calls to selected numbers. An added bonus would be if I could track his location.

On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs - Dave Grossman By LTC (RET) Dave Grossman, author of "On Killing." Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always,even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending? What is worth dying for? What is worth living for? - William J. Bennett - in a lecture to the United States Naval...

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. (Yeats, The Second Coming) Evil struck again. And while I would prefer a solemn silence—the only good thing Job’s counselors offered him—so many unhelpful things are being said and suggested around the Newtown massacre I found myself compelled to write. Because the question of evil may be the greatest question the world faces today. How do we deal with...