Free Republic

When I showed up for Army basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, back in those long-lost days of the Cold War, one of the first things I learned, along with my fellows, was that no matter what we ended up doing in the Army, we were riflemen first and foremost. That lesson wasn't lost on us; not with the emphasis placed on basic rifle marksmanship. A few years later, I ended up teaching basic rifle marksmanship to ROTC cadets, and that was the lesson I tried to instill in them, as well. Back then, we were using the good...

Top White House officials on Thursday morning bade farewell to a jet that has carried U.S. presidents around the world for 35 years, as the Trump administration prepares to replace it with a Boeing 747 donated by Qatar to serve as Air Force One. As President Donald Trump and his staff returned from France after 3 a.m. on Thursday morning, White House communications director Steven Cheung and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino posted photos of one of the highly customized, heavily fortified Boeing 747-200B jumbo jets that are called Air Force One when carrying the president. “Well...

According to a report in La Brújula Verde, a second intact Etruscan tomb has been discovered in central Italy's San Giuliano necropolis by a team of researchers led by Davide Zori of the San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project (SGARP) and Baylor University. More than 600 tombs have been identified in the area, but most of them have been looted since the Roman conquest of the region in the third century B.C. The slab closing this tomb had remained in its original position, with no signs of tampering. The remains of at least two individuals have been found inside the tomb,...

This isn't the kind of news liberals generally see fit to print. The New York Times Magazine this week published a mammoth look at the last days of life for sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, apparently aimed at establishing firmly whether the official finding that Epstein committed suicide actually holds water On that front, the effort is a failure, but the notoriously liberal publication did manage to cement one fact -- and it's not the kind of fact its liberal readership craves when it comes to President Donald Trump. Jeffrey Epstein was obsessed with trying to take down Trump before suicide,...

BREAKING: the American "online right" has discovered Reasonable Blackman and are enjoying memes about him. The left will never recover from this. "Oh, this McDonald's is out of sweet and sour sauce? No need to cause a scene, I'll just dip my McNuggets in honey mustard instead." — Reasonable Blackman “Oh this gentleman has asked me to leave the premises. I will do so without causing a scene or violently stabbing him.” - Reasonable Blackman “By heavens, this is a most excellent motion picture. I shall take especial care not to converse during its exhibition, lest I spoil the enjoyment...

I always liked Jay Leno; his jokes would make you groan but begrudgingly chuckle during his 21-year reign as Tonight Show host, which started in 1992 (with a brief break as Conan O’Brien took over for a bit, but that’s another story). Compared to the toxic bile spewed by today’s wastes of airtime like Jimmy Kimmel and the thankfully cancelled Stephen Colbert, however, he was a genius. That being said, I could have done without this latest bit from “Jay Leno’s Garage,” which I will describe shortly. But if you’re ever feeling down about the current news cycle or cynical...

According to a report in the , more than 3,000 artifacts were recovered during environmental work in the Nieuwe Drostendiep stream valley in the northeastern section of the Netherlands. The objects include tools from the Paleolithic period and the Bronze Age; medieval jewelry and jewelry dated to the second century B.C.; and materials from the Eighty Years' War, fought in the sixteenth century, and World War II. In particular, archaeologists found a gold ring dated to the third or fourth century A.D. and a fibula dated to the tenth or eleventh century A.D. "We are proud of the rich history...

Live Science reports that a new study of Viking coins from the Damhus hoard, a cache of 226 pennies unearthed in Denmark near the site of the Viking town of Ribe in 2018, suggests that they contain silver recycled from Islamic coins. The 1,000-year-old coins, known as pennies, bear a face on one side thought to represent the Norse god Wodan or Odin, with a stag on the reverse. Thomas Birch of the National Museum of Denmark said that each coin would have been enough to buy ale, bread, or simple tools. Analysis of the coins also shows that when...

MANY PICTURES AT LINK.................... A family of tourists’ picturesque outing in a Central Park carriage turned into a nightmare Wednesday when an 18-year-old from India died after an out-of-control horse pulling the carriage he was riding in suddenly bolted, sending the carriage careening onto its side as onlookers watched in horror. The precise circumstances of the 2:47 p.m. crash at Cherry Hill near Bethesda Fountain were still coming into focus late Wednesday. Early reports indicated the 18-year-old was in the carriage when it flipped over, but another source familiar with the situation told The News he fell out as the...

For the longest time, Seattle has held a terrible grudge against police. It all started back in 2020, when the whole “defund the police” campaign was in full swing following the death of George Floyd. The Seattle City Council acted quickly, slashing the police budget by a whopping 20%. This, in turn, led to less support for our officers, resulting in hundreds of officer resignations. And where has that gotten them? Nowhere…fast. Several businesses have closed down in the area due to the increase in rampant violence. And now a new report suggests that, under the leadership of a Democratic...

The History Guy remembers the battle of the Meuse Argonne, the largest and deadliest battle in the history of the United States army. The episode discusses events and shows photographs depicting a period of war, which some viewers may find disturbing. The History Guy uses images that are in the Public Domain. As photographs of actual events are often not available, I will sometimes use photographs of similar events or objects for illustration. The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered (formerly "Five Minutes of History") is the place to find short snippets of forgotten history from five to fifteen...

Most visitors hit the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Vatican, then leave Rome thinking they have seen it all. This guide goes deeper. You will discover 10 hidden gems in Rome that most tourists miss, including secret viewpoints, underrated museums, underground Rome history, and quiet local corners you can actually enjoy without the crowds.From the haunting Non-Catholic Cemetery and the Pyramid of Cestius to the Aventine Hill Orange Garden and the Knights of Malta keyhole view, this is off the beaten path Rome at its best. We step into Baroque Rome at Chiesa del Gesù, explore the Baths of...

Happy 17th of June, marking independence from Denmark in 1944!

New details have come to light about the alleged terror plot that was intended to target the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House on Sunday, including the identity of the ringleader, a foreign national named Abraham Alvarez of Omaha, Nebraska. The Department of Justice announced in a press release on Sunday, "According to the charges, Tycen C. Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio; Bryan Omar Roa, 24, of Calimesa, California; Michael Alan Thomas, 32, of Pinon Hills, California; Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Missouri; and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Omaha, Nebraska, conspired to plan and execute a...

Voters in Alameda County were back at the polls Tuesday — just two weeks after the primary election — to decide who will replace disgraced ex-congressman Eric Swalwell, whose career imploded after disturbing allegations of rape and sexual assault derailed his candidacy for California governor. Despite months of controversy surrounding the Democrat, voters in deep-blue East Bay aren’t breaking their habit. With 80% of ballots counted as of 8:32 p.m., Democrat Aisha Wahab led the field with 42.6% of the vote, short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff under California’s top-two system. Trailing the frontrunner, Melissa Hernandez held...

What took them so long? Reports are surfacing that White House aides are suddenly alarmed over the likelihood that top secret conversations on national security were taped and leaked to the New York Times. Axios quotes an administration source as saying that, “We’re afraid some of our most sensitive conversations were being recorded, and we have no idea which ones.” The outlet also writes that, “We hear President Trump is furious about the blow-by-blow accounts.” The president has every right to be furious, but he shouldn’t stop there. Situation Room meetings are classified, and the mere possibility that details of...

Rapper Mystikal — best known for his 2000 hit “Shake Ya Ass” — has been sentenced to two decades behind bars over a 2022 rape case. According to ABC affiliate WBRZ, the Louisiana hitmaker was handed down a 20-year sentence on Tuesday for third-degree rape. Per the outlet, the rapper, whose given name is Michael Lawrence Tyler, responded in court Tuesday after the victim requested the maximum sentence. “If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence,” he said. The Grammy-nominated rapper pled guilty in March in an Ascension Parish, Louisiana court — though on Friday, ahead of...

Hillary Clinton bashed former President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection bid as a “terrible mistake” that had major repercussions for the country and his legacy. Clinton contended that Democrats would’ve been able to defeat President Trump if Biden had stepped aside and allowed a new generation of political talent to emerge. “He made a terrible mistake,” Clinton told New Yorker editor David Remnick at a 92nd Street Y, New York event. “He made a terrible mistake for himself, his legacy, and for the country.” “We would have had a real contest,” she mused about what would’ve happened if Biden didn’t run....

There's a reason they call the lands surrounding the North Pacific the "Ring of Fire," and no, it's not because of a Johnny Cash song. No, the reason for that appellation is that the northern coasts of the lands on the Pacific are hotbeds of tectonic and volcanic activity. Nowhere are Americans more aware of this than in California, which has been hit by some pretty serious temblors in the past. Now, it looks like another big one may be on the way. Geologists are looking at the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults, and they are a tad worried...

The plot to attack the White House’s UFC Freedom 250 event Sunday involved at least 12 suspects across the US who adhered to an “accelerationist” ideology and hoped to bring down American capitalism, according to federal law enforcement sources. The FBI foiled their plans by infiltrating a Signal chat group planning the explosive attack — with a parent of one kid in the messaging platform reporting it to the police, sources told The Post. The suspects are in at least four states — California, Ohio, Missouri and Nebraska. They were plotting to gather in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to launch an explosive...