Free Republic

Where’s the beef? The better question may be what’s in the beef. What’s believed to be the world’s oldest McDonald’s Quarter Pounder is about to celebrate a milestone birthday. Casey Dean and Eduards Nits purchased the Quarter Pounder — since dubbed the “Senior Burger” by its keepers — from a Golden Arches location in Australia back in 1995, and this November, the old burger turns 30. Dean and Nits have kept the Senior Burger carefully wrapped in its original, McD’s-stamped beige paper packaging all this time — though it looks like it hasn’t aged a day. Despite having never been...

illiam F. Buckley Jr. once quipped that he would rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. New York City is about to be governed by the Columbia University student body. A city that used to think of itself as grown up has just elected a mayor who seems the very embodiment of the American college student: uninformed, entitled and self-important, enjoying a regal quality of life that depends parasitically upon a civilization about which he knows nothing, yet for which he has nothing but scorn. American college students regularly...

Gold has entered its third major breakout in the past half-century, and investors are divided on what’s really driving it. The last two run-ups in the 1970s and early 2010s ended badly for late buyers. Yet this year’s explosive move has sparked a wave of optimism rooted in one assumption: this time is different.That phrase has a dangerous history. Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff used it as the title of their book on recurring financial disasters, a reminder that bubbles often disguise themselves as “new eras.”Gold, traditionally viewed as the antidote to reckless governments and unstable currencies, has doubled over...

We will never get the cost of housing down until we go back to the levels of per capita construction that we had in the 1960s and 1970s. Current zoning laws make that impossible.

Tens of thousands of Jeep vehicles are being recalled due to a potential fire risk. Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, says the issue has to do with potential battery failure in certain plug-in hybrid models. The company said an investigation found 19 reports of fires, with one injury. The recall covers 2020 to 2025 Jeep Wrangler 4xes as well as 2022 to 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xes. In total, more than 375,000 of the SUVs are under the recall, with the bulk of them being in the U.S. Stellantis is cautioning vehicle owners not to recharge their batteries regarding...

@RepThomasMassie Maybe it suggests not alienating independents and shrinking the GOP tent… which has been done through attacks on the non-interventionist liberty wing of the party and by calling the Epstein situation a hoax.

The former White House chief strategist has long preached the idea that populism is the engine of modern politics. And he sees Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City as proof of its staying power — and a sign of the growing anti-establishment force on the left that Republicans would be foolish to ignore. “Tonight should be a wake up call to the populist nationalist movement under President Trump,” he said in an interview with POLITICO Magazine just after midnight on Wednesday. “These are very serious people, and they need to be addressed seriously.” Bannon seemed impressed by the...

On October 26, Zohran Mamdani held a rally at Forest Hills Stadium—a venue that sits right across the street from my apartment. It was hard not to despair as tens of thousands of New York’s most caffeinated and clinically unstable activists flooded my quiet, tree-lined Queens neighborhood like a swarm of earnest locusts. I decided to treat the ordeal as fieldwork. Stepping outside with what I told myself was a neutral disposition, iPhone Notes app at hand, I talked to his devotees, observed their rituals, and tried, against all odds, to understand what gospel this man was preaching that could...

Earlier this year in March, the book War Memories of an Army Chaplain by Henry C. Trumbull was completed as audio. I don't always make a fuss out of every single work we finish around here, I sometimes choose to avoid feature creep and some works I pick up simply for collaborative reasons. This work was recommended to me by an acquaintance at church and I am very strongly oriented toward home schoolers so it stirred my thoughts. That said, it has come to my attention that in the last six months the popularity of this work has ballooned, and...

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., is demanding the resignation of Charleston Airport CEO Elliot Summey and threatening legal action after airport officials accused her of mistreating staff. "My lawyers are examining EVERY LEGAL OPTION," Mace wrote in a post to X. "Elliot — I’m waiting for that resignation letter. Tomorrow morning. Get your computer ready and start typing. You’re completely and totally COOKED."

The establishment’s supposed love of democracy ends exactly when democracy—as expressed by the popular vote—stops loving the establishment. And so, with the AfD looking increasingly likely to gain power in one or more German states after next year’s elections—especially in Saxony-Anhalt, where it recently crossed the 40% mark in a regional poll for the first time—mainstream figures are preparing to make it as difficult as possible for the party to govern. That is, if they can’t simply strip the AfD of its hard-won power altogether. Politicians are considering destroying documents before the opposition enters office, and even handing state power...

We knew Zohran Mamdani was going to win, and it was to all our horror. At the same time, we deserve to lose that race. If the best we could muster to fight Mamdani’s leftist clown show is Eric Adams, Curtis Sliwa, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, we deserve to get creamed. Mamdani, like most of the races last night, was declared the winner quickly. He wasn’t at the victory party initially, opting to stay home and watch the returns with his family, but someone did hijack the screen with a hilarious post that read, “Trump is your president,” which...

A teen hurled water at two renowned centuries-old paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and ripped tapestries off the wall in a bizarre tantrum, authorities and law-enforcement sources said Tuesday. Joshua Vavrin, 19, of Texas appeared to be under the influence of an “unknown substance’’ — and was turned over by his mother, sources said.

A second monkey that escaped from a transport truck last week was fatally shot along a Mississippi highway early Tuesday morning as authorities warned that one more primate is still at large. A truck carrying 21 rhesus monkeys overturned in a ditch near Heidelberg, Miss. on Oct. 28. The truck was wrecked and several loose primates were able to escape through a hole in the back door. On Tuesday, Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson confirmed that a second monkey was shot and killed by a civilian who spotted it crossing a highway.

My sometimes co-poster and daughter Jane Menton has been absent from these pages, and from political commentary, for a couple of years. In her defense, she has three little kids on her hands. However, this morning, just in time for today’s election, she had a piece published in the Daily Wire. The subject of the post is Zohran Mamdani’s position on our local electric heat mandate, known as New York City Local Law 97. The Daily Wire has graciously agreed to allow me to repost the article. Here it is (with an introduction by the Daily Wire editors): Zohran Mamdani...

Shocking video captured the moment a massive fight broke out between customers at a Texas Bass Pro Shop that was allegedly sparked over a restroom argument. The fists began flying at the outdoor superstore’s grand opening weekend in Odessa around 3 p.m. Saturday, when two men waiting in line for the restroom got into a verbal altercation that quickly turned physical and spread to multiple rowdy customers joining in on the violence, Fox 4 News reported. Investigators found that the confrontation ignited after a man waiting in line with his wife and child became agitated after another individual took too...

In the German town of Overath (North Rhine-Westphalia), this year’s Christmas market has been cancelled. The cost of protecting visitors from potential terrorist attacks exceeds the organizer’s budget. The city refuses to cover the expenses. A capitulation to Islamism. It wasn’t long ago that Christmas markets were among the social highlights of the year. Whether in small towns or major cities -- they were meeting points for friends and family, for mulled wine, sausages, and quiet conversations wrapped in winter’s cold and early darkness. Places of TogethernessThere was this special peaceful coziness. A place where community was celebrated -- joyful,...

At least seven people were killed and 11 were injured when a UPS plane crashed in a colossal fiery explosion — leaving a long trail of flames and destruction — shortly after taking off from Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport Tuesday evening, according to officials and wild footage. Four people on the ground were killed and the three people who were onboard the flight are presumed dead, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said. The numbers were expected to grow as emergency crews combed the far-reaching scene for additional victims through the night, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned. UPS Flight 2976, which...

There are good reasons why homeschooling is on the rise. I am an enthusiastic supporter of homeschooling. When parents are in a position to prioritize their children’s education, young minds learn more information more quickly. A young person who excels in mathematics, for instance, is not forced to follow the regimented schedule of the state’s curricula, in which geometry belongs to a certain grade level, an introduction to calculus must be kept secret until the final years of high school, and summer vacations interrupt the accumulation and application of new knowledge. Those who show promise in mathematics — especially those...

Will & Grace actress Debra Messing has courted backlash after sharing on election day a political meme suggesting that New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is a "jihadist." As Americans headed to the polls Tuesday, the 57-year-old Emmy winner reposted an image on her verified Instagram Story from another account called The Persian Jewess. The original image showed an edited ballot that listed two candidates: One that read, "A Democrat. Just a Democrat," and the other that said, "An actual communist jihadist. A literal Karl Marx-quoting, America-hating jihadist."