Free Republic

Ann Coulter Tries to Debunk Ray Epps "Conspiracy Theory" by Invoking NY Times

Home schooling has become — by a wide margin — America’s fastest-growing form of education, as families from Upper Manhattan to Eastern Kentucky embrace a largely unregulated practice once confined to the ideological fringe, a Washington Post analysis shows. The analysis — based on data The Post collected for thousands of school districts across the country — reveals that a dramatic rise in home schooling at the onset of the pandemic has largely sustained itself through the 2022-23 academic year, defying predictions that most families would return to schools that have dispensed with mask mandates and other covid-19 restrictions. The...

Richard Roundtree, star of the genre-defining blaxploitation series Shaft, has passed away at 81 years old, according to his agency. Per Deadline, Roundtree died Monday afternoon surrounded by family, after a brief bout with pancreatic cancer. A statement from his representatives reads: “Artists & Representatives Agency mourns the loss of our friend and client Richard Roundtree,” the agency said in a statement. “His trailblazing career changed the face of entertainment around the globe and his enduring legacy will be felt for generations to come. Our hearts are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time.” ....Snip..... At the...

A naked selfie of Joe Biden's brother Frank has been discovered on a gay porn site. The photo was uploaded to GuysWithiPhones.com in 2018, when Frank – who has a long-term female partner Mindy Ward – was 64. *** When approached by DailyMail.com, Frank, 69, conceded he was the man in the photo but denied he was the one who posted it. 'I've absolutely no comment. I could care less. I haven't even looked at it,' Frank said Monday morning when asked about the shot at his Florida home. 'They must have hacked my phone,' he added. 'Anything that is...

Twitter sparked backlash this week after some users noticed it had quietly removed language in its hateful conduct policy that explicitly protected transgender people from online harassment. The social media platform had prohibited the targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender people since 2018. Some online noticed this month that the sentence had been plucked from Twitter’s section on slurs and tropes, while all other descriptions of policy violations remained intact. Archives captured by the Wayback Machine showed the previous version still existed April 7, the day Twitter announced it had updated its abuse and harassment policy to redefine “targeted harassment.”...

Before the COVID pandemic, Dr. Paul Marik became well-known for his development of a highly effective sepsis protocol using intravenous vitamin C, which resulted in a dramatic reduction in mortality rates. Then, in 2020, he cofounded the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) and subsequently published one of the most comprehensive and effective protocols for treating COVID-19. Despite a stellar career up to that point, the sin of insisting on early treatment for COVID-19, and sharing that information with the public, resulted in him being vilified, discredited and ultimately forced to resign. I’m a veteran of this too, so...

One of Hollywood’s leading Native American figures is being accused of faking her claims of Cherokee heritage, The Post can reveal. Award-winning Heather Rae, 56, serves on the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Indigenous Alliance, previously headed up the Sundance Institute’s Native American program and claims “my mother was Indian and my father was a cowboy.” Multiple prior news reports have also cited her as having a Cherokee mother. But a watchdog group called the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds is now demanding the Academy and the producer drop her “false claims” while activists insist she’s at best 1/2048th Cherokee. The group...

"I've had hiccups," the "Frasier" star admitted to USA Today. "I've had some tragic times." He continued, "I have wrestled with those and worked my way through them: sometimes rejecting faith, sometimes rejecting God even, in a period of being pretty angry about it, like, 'Where were you?' That kind of thing." "But I have come to terms with it and have found great peace in my faith and in Jesus. It's not cavalier – Jesus made a difference in my life. That's not anything I'll apologize for."

Why is Turkey now "Türkiye" and what does it matter? This linguistics expert sheds insight.Is Türkiye’s recent spelling change about being more authentically Turkish? Or is there more to the story? In June 2022, the United Nations agreed to change the spelling of the country known in the English-speaking world as Turkey to Türkiye, heeding a request by the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In January, the United States State Department also agreed to adopt the requested change in its written communications. A number of news outlets have reported that Türkiye has changed its name, but that’s not...

The French publishers of Roald Dahl on Tuesday (Feb 21) ruled out any changes to the late British author's translated books after reports that English editions were being rewritten for modern audiences. The Daily Telegraph said last week that publishers Puffin had made hundreds of changes to characters and language in Dahl's stories for children including making the diminutive Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory gender-neutral and calling Augustus Gloop enormous rather than fat. Twit in The Twits is also no longer ugly, but beastly instead, while the Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach are now Cloud-People.

The IBM chief said that fields like customer service, human resources and positions within finance and health care could all see automation - not years from now but in the current day. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) trend has taken the world by storm. From passing medical and law exams to delivering speeches, AI has evolved so much that it even converses with users and offers solutions to their problems. Now speaking about AI systems and the explosion of language-based AI ChatGPT, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna has stated that artificial intelligence is on a rapidly progressive pace to take over "clerical...

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday said that it’s time to acknowledge that his group of Big Tech FANG companies are no longer market leaders. The acronym, which was first coined by Cramer, stands for Facebook parent Meta Platforms, Amazon, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet.

Nearly half of the passengers on two recent flights from China to Milan tested positive for COVID-19, Italian health officials said on Wednesday. About 38 percent of passengers on one flight into Milan’s Malpensa Airport tested positive for COVID-19, as did about 52 percent of those on a second flight, according to local officials in Italy’s Lombardy region. Italy will begin testing all new arrivals from China and sequencing the tests for new variants amid China’s surge in COVID-19 cases, Italy’s health minister said on Wednesday. “The measure is essential to ensure surveillance and detection of possible variants of the...

A local LGBTQ+ event was met with protesters Saturday morning in Central Fresno. Fresno's Drag Festival kicked off at 11:30 a.m. at Our Saviors Lutheran Church. The ticketed event features well-known drag performers who do family-friendly numbers, including to Disney songs. There's also a story time portion where the performers read age-appropriate books to the kids. The event had pushback from dozens of people who protested outside of the church. It also drew criticism from Fresno City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld on social media where he called the event "sickening and disgraceful." "I just feel like instead of the love that...

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, federal policymakers acted quickly and decisively to make school meals available to all children at no charge. This policy remained in effect for two and a half years. It was a game-changer. Across the country, school nutrition staff reported numerous benefits in the Food Research & Action Center’s (FRAC) Large School District Report, including removing the stigma from program participation and eliminating school meal debt to the benefit of both families and school districts. The policy also helped address household food insecurity, which rose significantly due to COVID-19 and allowed an additional...

Actor John Travolta highlighted his close relationship with Kirstie Alley in a touching tribute to the late actress after news broke Monday she had died from cancer. Travolta, who co-starred in a series of films with the stunning actress, posted two photos to Instagram Monday of Alley with a brief, but heartfelt message. “Kirstie was one of the most special relationships I’ve ever had,” he wrote. “I love you Kirstie. I know we will see each other again.” Alley, the two-time Emmy-winning star of the renowned sitcom “Cheers” was 71. Her death was announced by her two children. “We are...

The Twitter owner’s latest fight is a big one: the market dominance of Apple’s App Store. Elon Musk has been unafraid of picking fights, whether with prominent politicians, political whistle-blowers or his own employees. But in taking on Apple on Monday, the Twitter owner was trying to start a brawl that could have ramifications stretching from Silicon Valley to Washington. Mr. Musk complained that Apple had paused most of its advertising on Twitter, continuing his berating of companies that have done so. But it’s his allegation that Apple “threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store but won’t tell us...

A third of global glaciers located at World Heritage sites will disappear by 2050, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) warned on Thursday. Among the glaciers to vanish will be those at Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and Mount Kilimanjaro, according to UNESCO. While those glaciers will melt regardless of efforts to limit temperature increases, it is possible to save the remaining two thirds of glaciers at these 50 sites, the organization stressed in a new report. But to do so, the authors cautioned, global heating must not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit,...

'What has happened to me has only furthered the cause of Christ, and for that I rejoice,' said Pastor Tim Stephens ... Canadian pastor who was arrested twice in 2021 for continuing to congregate with his church in Calgary, Alberta ... The Provincial Court of Alberta tossed out charges against Pastor Tim Stephens alleging he violated provincial public health orders regarding physical distancing .... Stephens was imprisoned twice last year for keeping his Fairview Baptist Church open. .... Stephens' acquittal comes weeks after Danielle Smith, Alberta's new premier, promised a plan to pardon COVID offenders in the province. Her administration...

Joy Behar told her co-hosts Thursday on ABC’s “The View” that Republicans were “flooding the airwaves with nasty, nasty lies about the Democrats,” as Nazi chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels did during World War II. Behar said, “So, you know, the only reason these Republicans are surging the way they are, I talked about this in the meeting this morning, is because of this dark money that’s going into the Republican candidates. They’re buying the Senate races, and then they’re flooding the airwaves with nasty, nasty lies about the Democrats, and that’s it. People are fooled by that. You know, if...