Free Republic

The death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and accusations that Vladimir Putin was behind it have once again raised the spectre of Kremlin assassinations. World leaders and commentators instantly pointed the finger at the Russian president when the news of Navalny's death broke on Friday, with questions around the cause of death fuelled by officials delaying the release of the body. Some have suggested the 47-year-old dissident was poisoned - as he was in 2020 in a previous assassination attempt - while one source inside the prison colony where Navalny died has claimed he was likely killed by a...

There is a little known, and less understood, mental affliction, which I will call transfixion. It is to the mind what setting is to concrete. When freshly mixed with water, concrete is malleable. Once it sets, however, it hardens irreversibly and can no longer be reshaped, or corrected, unless it is cut or broken. The transfixed mind is like that. Before you go leafing through your DSM (psychiatry’s diagnostic manual), don’t bother; transfixion is not there. It is, however, very real. One can observe it when attempting to reason with any committed leftist. The condition is common and has been...

https://patriots.win/p/17rTBKm7nT/heres-why-no-muslimmajority-nati/c/ 4 min video

* At least 20 people were shot, one fatally, during a Juneteenth celebration early Sunday morning in Willowbrook, Illinois * The gunfire erupted during an illegal street takeover attended by at least 300 people overnight outside of the Willowbrook shopping center * At least five people were killed and dozens injured in several other shootings across the country during the holiday weekend ****************************************************** Five people were killed and at least 42 were injured in multiple shootings as violence erupted across the country over the holiday weekend. A shooting at a Juneteenth celebration in a suburban Illinois town left one person...

At least 20 people were injured, one fatally, when gunfire erupted early Sunday at a Juneteenth celebration in suburban Chicago, authorities said. The shooting unfolded about 12:30 a.m. in the parking lot of a strip mall in Willowbrook, about 23 miles west of Chicago, according to the DuPage County Sheriff's Office. The gunfire erupted during a large gathering to commemorate Juneteenth, Battalion Chief Joe Ostrander with the Tri-State Fire Protection District told ABC Chicago station WLS-TV. Victims were taken to multiple area hospital with gunshot wounds, according to the sheriff's office. One person was pronounced dead and at least two...

At least 21 people were shot, one of them fatally, at a Juneteenth celebration in gun-controlled Illinois on Sunday morning around 12:30 a.m. CNN reported the shooting occurred “in a parking lot in Willowbrook, about 21 miles west of Chicago.” FOX 32 pointed out two of the wounded remain in critical condition. FOX News noted DuPage County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Eric Swanson indicated that deputies patrolling the area near the parking lot heard the gunshots and responded. Swanson said, “The motive behind this incident is unclear and this is still an active investigation.”

The newest federal holiday, “Juneteenth,” is observed this year on the actual date of June Nineteenth — Juneteenth being the combination of those two words. As with most federal holidays, in order to give federal employees a three-day weekend, it would have been observed on Monday anyway. So, what is Juneteenth all about? When I first heard of Juneteenth, while working at a summer job during my college days, I presumed that since it had something to do with the end of slavery in the United States, it must have been the date the 13th Amendment — which ended legal...

At least 20 people were injured and one person has died in a shooting overnight at a Juneteenth celebration in Willowbrook, Illinois, police say. -excerpt- Witnesses say the shooting took place around 12:30 a.m. in a parking lot in Willowbrook, about 21 miles west of Chicago. The motive behind the shooting is unclear and it is still an active investigation, Swanson said.

For years, artificial intelligence has proven it can best humans at analytical tasks, but is less capable at skills like intuition and inference. Scientists from Stanford University investigated if neural networks like GPT-3.5 can master Theory of Mind (ToM) tests designed to analyze cognitive ability to predict the actions of others. Results show that GPT’s ToM ability arrived spontaneously in the last couple of years and the latest iteration delivered results comparable to a 9-year-old human.

One of the oldest religious publications in the United States, America Magazine, published an article stating that the Catholic Church needs LGBT saints. Almost every Catholic has a saint who looks like him, but the Catholic Church has no saints of non-traditional orientation, nor do it have patron saints of LGBT parishioners, writes the article's author, associate editor and openly gay Jim McDermott. "Our actual existence in the history of the Church has never been acknowledged, and there are no blessings that we can recall. Nowhere do we find statues of people like us. We are not depicted on any...

In an unprecedented meeting on December 28, 2021, at the private residence of Benny Gantz in Rosh Haayin (central Israel), Israel’s Defense Minister hosted Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmud Abbas. Gantz approved significant trust-building concessions to the Palestinians. Aiming at bolstering the failing fortunes of the PA and Abu Mazen’s in particular, against the increasing influence of Hamas in the West Bank. Gantz approved the addition of 600 entry permits to Israel for Palestinian businessmen, as well as Palestinian vehicles. Dozens of Palestinian officials will receive VIP permits. Moreover, Gantz agreed to provide the PA with advanced tax payments...

A renowned UFO investigator claims to have debunked the US Navy footage of pyramid-shaped objects flying off the coast of California — saying it “in every way, matches a plane.” Mick West, who is the author of “Escaping the Rabbit Hole,” said that there are plausible explanations for the three, flashing UFOs seen hovering over the USS Russell in July 2019. “What we’ve got to go here with here is the simplest explanation and really the simplest explanation is that it’s just a plane. It moves like a plane, it acts like a plane,” West told The Post. He said...

This morning, I received two robocalls from a Georgia number. The recording, a female voice with an oddly foreign, non-southron accent, said my SS account has been suspended and to call a phone number immediately. IMO, clearly a scam call. I believe the SS Admin would contact me by mail if there were any problems, not by phone.

Picturing how our species might appear in the far future often invites wild speculation over stand-out features such as height, brain size, and skin complexion. Yet subtle shifts in our anatomy today demonstrate how unpredictable evolution can be. Take something as mundane as an extra blood vessel in our arms, which going by current trends could be common place within just a few generations. Researchers from Flinders University and the University of Adelaide in Australia have noticed an artery that temporarily runs down the centre of our forearms while we're still in the womb isn't vanishing as often as it...

Just as Democrats carve out certain parts of the 2nd Amendment while intentionally ignoring the rest that clearly says "shall not be infringed," this time they attempt to carve out the Impeachment Clause from the rest of the U.S Constitution that effectively: 1.) Causes a part of the Constitution to not be subject to checks and balances. 2.) Elevates the House above the co-equal branches of the Executive and Judiciary through their claims yesterday they don't need the courts to be the arbiter over whether or not witnesses must comply to summons, papers and information they deem to be pertinent...

The Coinage Act of 1965 marked the end of silver coins, contrary to what LBJ promised. July 23 marks the 50th anniversary of the Coinage Act of 1965, which stripped U.S. coins of silver and made legal tender out of base metal slugs. It’s an anniversary that comes at an apt time, as Congress considers monetary reform. ... The anniversary of the 1965 Coinage Act is a reminder of why reform is needed. Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, President Lyndon B. Johnson called the law he signed a “very rare and historic occasion.” It certainly was; it superseded...

A priest in Argentina has been defrocked after voicing support in public for gay marriage. Nicolás Alessio was suspended in 2010 when the Government's same-sex marriage legislation was being debated. The legislation was bitterly opposed by the Church in Argentina, led by the then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio who was elected Pope last month. A statement from Mr Alessio's local archdiocese of Córdoba said the decision to defrock him was made by the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy in February, during the pontificate of Benedict XVI. "Thirty years of service to God's people mean nothing," Mr Alessio said in response. "I...

Ten years after the worst terrorist attack in American history, the Muslim terrorist is almost entirely absent from movies and television shows. He will show up on the evening news, when there’s no way around it, but when it comes to entertainment, the American TV viewer is fed a steady diet of movies and shows featuring positive depictions of Muslims. And that’s not just liberal bias at work. cont.

Together with my good friend and occasional courtroom adversary David Boies, I am attempting to persuade a federal court to invalidate California's Proposition 8—the voter-approved measure that overturned California's constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex. My involvement in this case has generated a certain degree of consternation among conservatives. How could a politically active, lifelong Republican, a veteran of the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, challenge the "traditional" definition of marriage and press for an "activist" interpretation of the Constitution to create another "new" constitutional right? My answer to this seeming conundrum rests on...

She’s young, she just moved into the district and she is taking on an established and popular House Democrat in a primary bid she concedes is a huge gamble. She’s also a hedge fund lawyer, and proud of it. All that may not exactly excite liberal primary voters. But Reshma Saujani, 34, has won the backing of some prominent Democratic donors for her bid to topple Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a challenge that is turning heads on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and antagonizing some of New York’s best-known feminists. It is a campaign steeped in identity politics —...