Free Republic

Former President Joe Biden’s long career in politics allowed him to retire with the largest taxpayer-funded pension of any ex-prez in US history — $417,000, or more than his presidential salary, an expert says. Biden, 83, was in line to rake in the massive amount from two pension funds in his first year as former president, according to an analysis by National Taxpayer Union Foundation Vice President Demian Brady. “It’s pretty unusual, historically unusual, to have such a large pension amount,” Brady told The Post. “I would have to say that it’s the largest,” the taxpayer advocate said when asked...

What does the future hold? Let’s turn back the clock to the end of a year over a century ago. Posting this article has become an annual tradition ever since the grim end of 2012. It’s a reminder that the end of each year ushers in unknowns, but also opportunities for heroism. History does not stand still, and we should never assume that we know how it will come out. The next year sweeps around the earth like the hand of a clock, from Australia to Europe and across the great stretch of the Atlantic it rides the darkness to...

A great crisis in 2008, followed by an even greater one in 2020, as an "authoritarian, severe, unyielding" leader from the baby boomer generation resists a historic moment of change afoot in the US. Would you believe this was all predicted almost 25 years ago? In a book championed at the highest levels of the Trump administration, no less? Oh, and it was also written by the guys who invented the term "millennial." It was all prophesied in 1997 in Neil Howe and William Strauss' "The Fourth Turning," and, depending on who you ask, it was either a breakthrough in...

Just an interesting old soul living life

In the years preceding the advent of central heating and high-precision weather forecasting, winter brought with it a definite sense of unease and danger. Whereas today a tough winter might just mean spending a bit more time inside, for years, a brutal winter could bring with it death, disease, and total isolation. Whether it be through cataclysmic volcanic winters or historically unprecedented blizzards, these devastating winters had far greater consequences than mere travel delays and hours spent shoveling snow. The Great Frost of 1709 Known as Le Grand Hiver (the Great Winter) in France, the Great Frost was a winter...

This past season, I’ve had the opportunity to teach a Bible Study examining what is known as the “intertestamental period” or more notably, the period in history which we call “the 400 silent years”. This is the period of time between the book of Nehemiah and Malachi (who were both contemporaries of each other), up until the time Jesus Christ was born. What is so interesting about this historical period is both the designated time of the fall of empires, the rise of new empires, sophistication in philosophy, art, and the art of war, descent of man (spiritually and morally),...

Skeptics will sometimes claim that the canonical Gospels are mythical accounts with little or no basis in historical fact. According to their logic, we shouldn’t trust what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John said about the life of Jesus any more than we should trust what Homer said about the fall of Troy or what Virgil said about the founding of Rome. In this article we’ll explore the reasons why the skeptics are almost entirely wrong, as well as one way in which their theory actually highlights the beauty of Christianity.The Gospels Are Historical AccountsSomething that immediately sets the Gospels apart...

IntroductionThe announcement of the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord from the Roman Martyrology draws upon Sacred Scripture to declare in a formal way the birth of Christ. It begins with creation and relates the birth of the Lord to the major events and personages of sacred and secular history. The particular events contained in the announcement help pastorally to situate the birth of Jesus in the context of salvation history.This text, The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, may be chanted or recited, most appropriately on December 24, during the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours. It...

The infamous Black Death -- a pandemic that killed as many as one third to one half of Europeans within just a few years -- may have been aided in its devastation by an unknown volcanic eruption.That's the hypothesis presented in research published December 4 in Communications Earth & Environment, which argues that the eruption triggered several seasons of climate instability and crop failures. That instability, in turn, forced several Italian states to import grain stores from new sources -- specifically, from regions surrounding the Black Sea. Riding along on those grain stores, the researchers posit, were fleas infected with...

Archimedes, one of ancient Greece’s most famous and influential physicists and engineers, left a legacy of writings that had been thought to be lost to time. Much of his work only survived through copies and translations by scribes. One of the most famous fragments of Archimedes’ writings was the Palimpsest, a manuscript which by the 12th century a monk had overwritten and repurposed as a book of prayers. To discover the writings of Archimedes in the manuscript, scientists recently used the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center to reveal the iron content of the ink written under the monk’s prayers. The method...

Those on the left who label Robert E. Lee a traitor and call for statues of him to be torn down have no interest in the historical facts or good faith debate.On Tuesday, the Commonwealth of Virginia installed a new statue to represent the state in the U.S. Capitol. Virginia is one of the most storied states in the union. Some of the most prominent Founding Fathers were Virginians, and four of the first five presidents hailed from the Old Dominion. Out of countless worthy figures, Virginia chose … Barbara Rose Johns. Never heard of her? Well, don’t feel bad....

A new trailer for MELANIA dropped on Wednesday, a behind-the-scenes movie that follows first lady Melania Trump of her life as she prepares to enter the White House once again in the 20 days before her husband's second inauguration… "For the first time, global audiences are invited into theaters to witness this pivotal chapter unfold—a private, unfiltered look as I navigate family, business, and philanthropy on my remarkable journey to becoming first lady of the United States of America," Trump told Fox News.

.... 1 January 1915 was a holiday for the mining community of Broken Hill. It was the height of the southern summer and about 1,200 men, women and children were looking forward to a picnic organised by the Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows. They were to take a train the 15 or so miles from Broken Hill towards Silverton. Unbeknown to the miners and their families, two men had, for varying reasons, prepared an ambush. ..... AmbushAs the train, comprising forty open carriages, pulled up a hill two miles outside Broken Hill, it came into sight of the two men...

How Doubling the Workforce Doubled Government Revenue and Compressed the American Family SOLD AS: THE LIBERATION OF WOMEN Operational Pattern Beginning in the late 1960s and accelerating into the 1980s, cultural, political, and economic incentives pushed women into the full time workforce. The messaging framed this shift as empowerment, but the structural result was a dramatic increase in taxable labor. More workers meant more taxable hours. More taxable hours meant more state revenue without raising official tax rates. Observed Outcomes • Cost of living rose faster than wages • Dual income households became mandatory rather than optional • Time available...

The Tower of David Museum has recently undergone comprehensive renovation work and in the process, an astonishing archaeological discovery has been unearthed. Just in time for the Hanukkah holiday, when we remember how the Hasmonean Maccabees fought and gained victory over their Greek oppressors 162 years before the birth of Yeshua (Jesus), a huge section of ancient wall from the Hasmonean era has been found underground. The Tower of David is an iconic part of Jerusalem’s old city skyline, and has been made into an impressive museum. The Israel Antiques Authority (IAA) have been carrying out excavations at the historic...

Because of the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in the 1500s, Christmas ended up being celebrated 11 days earlier than before. When the change reached America in the 1750s, some people continued to observe December 25 as sacred and also marked January 6 as “Old Christmas.” This tradition held on strongly in Appalachia and remained part of Kentucky's holiday heritage as a parallel celebration alongside the newer Christmas date. The Forgotten Holiday Called 'Old Christmas' | 5:57 KET - Kentucky Educational Television | 44K subscribers | 47,374 views | November 26, 2025

The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 was not the only amazing feat of American railroad engineering in history. In 1886, railways in the south managed to convert the gauge on an estimated 11,500 miles of track in a period of just 36 hours. The History Guy remembers the 1886 Southern Railroad Gauge Change, an important moment in railroad history. The Day The Gauge Changed | 10:05 The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered | 1.61M subscribers | 1,173,812 views | June 16, 2018

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Serenate ex C, also called "Ganz kleine Nachtmusik" (A Very Little Night Music) on the steps of the Leipzig Opera. The spectacular rediscovery of a previously unknown Mozart composition attracted hundreds of interested listeners to the Leipzig Opera, where the work was previously ceremoniously presented to the international press. The trio consisting of Vincent Geer, David Geer and Elisabeth Zimmermann also play top positions in the youth symphony orchestra of the Leipzig School of Music "Johann Sebastian Bach". W.A. Mozart - Serenate ex C - Ganz kleine Nachtmusik KV648 (official release) | 11:26JSO Leipzig | 3.81K...

At an off-the-record meeting held on November 21, 1962 with NASA Administrator James Webb, NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans, and Special Assistant to the President Jerome Wiesner, President Kennedy states clearly that his administration's priority is for the United States to land on the Moon before the Soviet Union. Listening In: JFK on Getting to the Moon (November 21, 1962) | 4:04 John F. Kennedy Library Foundation | 136K subscribers | 931,620 views | October 11, 2012

An on-site tour of the spectacular Villa San Marco in the town of Stabiae near to Pompeii. The villa was destroyed int he eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which helped perserve its fabulous art and archaeology. Preserved in Ash: The Villa San Marco Near Pompeii | 13:26 Archaeology with Flint Dibble | 77.5K subscribers | 5,673 views | October 10, 2025