Free Republic

Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico was ruthlessly fact-checked by a Catholic voter during a Texas town hall Wednesday after he claimed the Bible doesn’t take a stance on abortion. Talarico, a Christian seminarian and state lawmaker, attempted to convince the self-described “one-issue voter,” Jody Hunt, that his pro-choice position is compatible with her faith because “the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion.” Hunt, respectfully, wasn’t buying it. She allowed Talarico to finish his point that “certain policy levers” — absent banning the procedure — can reduce abortions nationwide, before her mic-drop moment. “I just want to add that...

A survey of the world’s largest free-roaming giant tortoise population has discovered that the once endangered species is thriving. A population of Aldabra giant tortoises lives on an island in Seychelles called Aldabra Atoll. The most recent survey, led by Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF) and the University of Exeter, revealed there were approximately 180,000 tortoises living on the island. This is the highest figure ever recorded for the species and far exceeds the human population of Seychelles. The new figure was obtained by a team who analysed five years of tortoise counts between 2018 and 2022. It is the first...

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Has climate hysteria finally run its course? I ask because the latest Hollywood blockbuster on the subject seems to have bombed. Digger, in which Tom Cruise plays an oil tycoon so intent on drilling that he causes an ice shelf off Greenland to collapse, provoking climatic disaster, took only about $8 million in its first weekend, not great when it needs $280 million of box office takings just to break even. According to seasoned observers it is on course to lose Warner Bros $245 million, which would make it one of the worst cinema disasters of all time. Not even...

“PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — A crew cleaning homeless encampments found human remains in downtown Portland on Tuesday morning, police officials said. Officers responded to a “suspicious priority” call near SW Harvey Milk Street and SW Naito Parkway just after 9:15 a.m. "Anytime human remains are found, our homicide unit will take it seriously. They want to look into this to see how this happened, where it happened," PPB spokesperson Mike Benner said, adding that as of Tuesday afternoon the death has not been ruled a homicide.….”

Limitations on Ukraine’s access to military-grade Starlink terminals sparked panic among its officials and several U.S. lawmakers In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Denys Sienik, the top Ukrainian diplomat in Washington, D.C., sent a frantic message to U.S. lawmakers: Ukraine was suddenly facing restrictions on its military-grade Starlink terminals, and he didn’t know why. The change, Sienik warned, would give Russia an upper hand in the war and make it tougher for Kyiv to intercept strikes against Ukrainian civilians. By the time Washington’s morning rush hour was under way, other Ukrainian officials were already suspecting the worst: that President...

A young woman reported that she was raped in a frat house bathroom at the University of Chicago — as a group of men cheered “when’s my turn” and “let me in,” outside the door. The shocking report at another elite university fraternity house comes weeks after the “Cornell 7” gang rape allegations. The alleged assault at UChicago took place in the early hours of Sunday during a rowdy party at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house in Hyde Park, The New York Times reported. The woman, 21, was not a student of the university but attended the party alongside...

A sickle to the back! Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s allies are publicly breaking with him over his handpicked police commissioner — and Hizzoner is livid that the socialist House candidate he went out on a limb to endorse is leading the charge. City Hall staffers have been openly whining about alleged ally Darializa Avila Chevalier — whom Mamdani endorsed just a few months ago during the primaries — after she led a crusade to slam NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch after ICE agents shot an illegal migrant in the Bronx. “They were pissed about what she did on social media and her...

US Central Command on Wednesday announced that US Military forces destroyed an Iran-affiliated ship targeting US Navy ships in the Gulf of Oman on October 6. Two US Marine Corps Apache helicopters fired missiles at the dhow. Crew members were evacuated from the vessel prior to the destruction. Full statement from CENTCOM: On Oct. 6, U.S. forces destroyed an Iranian-affiliated dhow conducting surveillance and targeting U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Oman. Over the past seven months, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has continued to indiscriminately target thousands of civilian mariners transiting regional waters in addition to U.S. Navy...

I love this. I hate that. Really? Is it necessary to exaggerate? If everything is huge or outrageous or unprecedented, then how will we express things that are truly out of the ordinary? Florid language is the enemy of clear, concise speech. Like putting exclamation points and emojis after every sentence, it pervades modern media and makes everyone sound like adolescent twits. I don't dislike the following expressions, nor do I hate them. I detest them with a burning rage that disrupts the very fabric of space and time. - Amazing/Amazed: People say this when they really like something, but...

Funny how accountability only works one way. It’s always Trump’s fault when Islamic Republic of Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, but never genocidal-Hamas Gaza leaders’ fault when their October 7 attacks trigger a war in Gaza. Funny how accountability only works one way.

The Russian Revolution — commonly conceived of as the communist overthrow of the Romanovs — actually took place over the course of two steps. First, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in March 1917. Then, that fall, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks decapitated the left-wing government led by the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries in what came to be known as the October Revolution. That’s the one that was celebrated as a holiday in the Soviet Union, and is now by socialists everywhere. Not the left’s triumph over the right, but the bloodthirsty left’s defeat of the far-left. History is repeating itself in the...

Luna, the 10-year-old Jack Russell terrier from California who was lost in Yellowstone National Park since early September, has been reunited with her owner and is going home. Rescuers caught the dog Wednesday after she managed to survive the cold, feed herself and avoid coyotes in the wilderness for more than a month. “The dog that was loose in the Canyon Village area has been captured and is alive and well,” Yellowstone National Park spokesperson Linda Veress confirmed to SFGATE. At a veterinarian’s office Wednesday with Luna and the dog’s owner, rescuer Katie Boucher gave SFGATE an update on Luna’s...

Marist Catholic High school announced that Zach Loboy has been removed as head football coach of the Spartans. The decision came after Friday's win over Cottage Grove where the coaches and officials decided to not play the second half after being down 63-0. The first half included at least two on-side kicks as the Spartans ran up the score. Marist Catholic Principal Bob Fraley wrote in his statement to the football parents and guardians, “We determined that a change in leadership was necessary to reflect our school’s mission and values. "Our priority is to support our players, maintain a positive...

Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered the remains of two colossal statues believed to depict Ramses II after a local landowner reported finding an inscribed stone block in the village of Behbeit El-Hagar. The discoveries were made by an archaeological mission from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). According to Dr. Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of the SCA, the first find was a stone head more than five-feet-high from a massive statue. It depicts a man wearing a double crown, a symbol of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt worn by ancient Egyptian rulers. Nearby, archaeologists found part of the statue’s...

Former Vice President Kamala Harris called for institutional changes to the Supreme Court and the Electoral College during an interview Tuesday, calling for more justices on the highest court in the nation. "The work that we can do about winning back the House and the Senate is going to be on a number of things. For example, I believe that we need to expand the Supreme Court. We need more justices on the Supreme Court so that we can have a court that actually reinforces the spirit and principles behind the Constitution of the United States," Harris told podcast host...

Space Force electromagnetic warfare systems are playing a key role in U.S. military operations around the world. WSJ’s Shelby Holliday visited a base in Colorado to learn more. An array of U.S. Space Force electromagnetic-warfare systems is playing a key role in protecting American troops and degrading enemy satellites around the world. The Wall Street Journal was granted rare access to a Space Force base in Colorado to learn how those systems work, and to speak exclusively with Guardians who flew them overseas to support operations in both Venezuela and Iran. Hours after Tech. Sgt. Joshua Lomax jammed satellites to...

Iran's vice president for executive affairs, Mohammad Jafar Ghaempanah, said Wednesday that talks with the U.S. require approval from Iran's top security body and the Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. "If the decision is to fire missiles, we will fire missiles on the orders of the commander-in-chief. If the leader deems negotiations appropriate, we will negotiate," Ghaempanah said, according to Iran International. Ghaempanah said all decisions must be guided by Iran's national interests, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The news agency also reported that Tehran is prepared to launch missile strikes if ordered by Khamenei but is open...

A Ventura County man is facing federal charges after allegedly using his access as a civilian contractor to secretly photograph and film sensitive military equipment and operations at a Southern California naval base, then share the footage with others. Todd Jeremy Senff, 46, of Camarillo, was charged with 14 federal misdemeanors, including 11 counts of violating defense property security regulations and three counts of entering military property for an unlawful purpose, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Senff allegedly took photos and videos of military aircraft, equipment and training exercises at Naval Base Ventura County’s Point Mugu installation between...

After a week in the Bahamas, I’m baaack, and I’ve got quite a few things to write on, but I’ll start with this one: I had the pleasure of meeting several white South African citizens while there, but interestingly enough, they had radically different versions of what’s going on in their nation. We flew into Nassau, but then spent a majority of the trip in the Exumas, which is a long island chain to the east, and it was there in a small grocer that we met a wonderful South African man named Dewet, who’d been in the area for...