Free Republic

When Nancy Pelosi appeared on ABC’s Sunday morning talk show “This Week,” the former House Speaker made a dubious claim that would undoubtedly come as a surprise to many of the key decision-makers on Capitol Hill during the events of January 6. Former Speaker Pelosi, who has been less than forthright about her controversial role in the leadup to and during the Capitol Riots, has added a new wrinkle to her story about what she did to secure the Congress on that fateful day. “It’s very clear what happened that day,” she claimed. “And at that same time, from the...

Ruh-ROH … sounds like Adam Kinzinger may have some ‘splainin’ to do. From The New York Times: Last spring, a volunteer group called Ripley’s Heroes said it had spent approximately $63,000 on night-vision and thermal optics. Some of the equipment was subject to American export restrictions because, in the wrong hands, it could give enemies a battlefield advantage. Frontline volunteers said Ripley’s delivered the equipment to Ukraine without required documentation listing the actual buyers and recipients. Recently, the federal authorities began investigating the shipments, U.S. officials said. In his defense, the group’s founder, a retired U.S. Marine named Lt. Col....

Kel-Tec has announced an optical mounting system for their Kel-Tec P17 pistol. The plan appears to have the optic mounted at the factory on a Kel-Tec slide manufactured for the pistol. The entire system would quickly be interchanged with the existing slide. The optical system on the pistol at the Kel-Tec booth is a Crimson Trace, probably a CTS 1550 red dot sight. The suppressor does not come with the system. Above is shown a GemTech Alpine .22 LR suppressor, privately owned by a Kel-Tec employee. It is not certain, at this time, that the Crimson Trace optic will be...

Looking for a good spotting scope in the $600 range, for sighting in at 100 to 150 yards. Also, some nature watching. I want something in the 60 x50mm range. Lots of new brand names to navigate out there. Leupold and the like are good but expensive and a bit of overkill for what I need. I know the glass (lenses) are a critical factor. Suggestions?

Foreign bigwigs looking to attend the Queen’s funeral have been asked to leave their private jets at home by the UK government. Those dignitaries looking to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II have been reportedly asked by the UK government not to come to the event in a private jet, and that they will also be required to leave their personal cars and helicopters at home for the state occasion. While justified with reference to logistical concerns, the request may also avoid negative headlines about the environmental impact of traffic jams in the skies of private planes on one...

Concerns over the prospect of Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev winning Wimbledon - one of sport's most iconic tournaments - with members of the Royal family in attendance on Centre Court was one of the key reasons that the nation's players were banned from competing. Wimbledon announced on Wednesday that they have banned all players from Russia and Belarus from this summer's Championships in light of the ongoing atrocities in Ukraine. Medvedev, the World No 2 and reigning US Open champion, was among the favourites to win Wimbledon this summer. But organisers will have been mindful of the genuine possibility...

There was a peculiar moment during a news segment last fall, at the height of the Ebola scare in the United States, between the nation’s two most recognizable medical figures. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s household-name medical correspondent, was standing next to Thomas Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in front of CDC headquarters in Atlanta on October 1. Frieden assures Gupta that if one of them had Ebola, the other would be at no risk of infection: “It’s not like the flu, not like the common cold. It requires direct physical contact.” A CNN anchor interjects:...

With positives and negatives, deciding if a red dot sight is right for you boils down to your handgun’s mission. So, in the form of a disclaimer, I am old. Fifty-one years old, to be exact. As a soldier and a cop, I’ve been making a living with a gun for nearly my entire adult life. I can say, with some degree of distinction, that I have carried just about every variety of AR/M-16 that has ever been used by the US military: M-16A1, M-16A2, M203, M4 and the AR-15 patrol rifle. With age comes a certain amount of suspicion...

Operating principle of a spaceplate. a, A spaceplate can compress a propagation length of deff into a thickness d. For example, a beam incident on the spaceplate at angle θ will emerge at that same angle and be transversely translated by length w (resulting in a lateral beam shift ?x), just as it would for deff of free space. b, Adding a spaceplate to an imaging system such as a standard camera (top) will shorten the camera (center). An ultrathin monolithic imaging system can be formed by integrating a metalens and a spaceplate directly on a sensor (bottom). Can you...

The National Guard's deployment in Washington, D.C. will end Sunday after troops were called to the Capitol following the Jan. 6 riot. More than 2,000 National Guard troops are set to return to their home bases this week after the Department of Defense did not request an extended stay for the force to guard the nation’s capital. Capt. Chelsi B. Johnson of the D.C. National Guard Public Affairs told WUSA 9 that operations will “return to normal.” The Capitol Police have not requested the Guard to stay past May 23. Once the mission concludes, D.C. National Guard will return to...

In an interview with Good Morning America Tuesday morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted to having continued to wear a mask indoors for appearance's sake, not based on the science surrounding the protection of the vaccine. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Responding to questions on how the new mask mandates have changes his own personal mask wearing tendencies, Fauci responded, "I'm obviously careful because I'm a physician and a healthcare provider. I am now much more comfortable in people seeing me indoors without a mask. "Before the CDC made the recommendation change," Fauci admitted, "I didn't want to look like...

Washington D.C. is on edge in advance of the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, with violent riots expected should the verdict not give the desired result. Because of this, city officials say they have prepared for the worst and the Secretary of the Army has approved the activation of the National Guard. However, the 250 D.C. National Guard troops that are being activated to support the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department won’t be armed. They, instead, are expected to assist with street closures and to keep areas around the city safe. The President is the only one who can authorize...

Vice President Harris is being slammed over her decision to appear with former President Clinton for a Clinton Foundation event focused on empowering women amid the Covid-19 pandemic, given Clinton’s alleged history of sexual abuse. The Clinton Global Initiative event will take place on Friday and will be hosted by Howard University, of which Harris is an alumni. A press release promotes it as “a one-on-one conversation” between Harris and Clinton “on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, and empowering women and girls in the U.S. and around the world.”

A SWAT Officer puts Vortex's 1×8 Low Variable Power Optic through its Paces at Two-Day Carbine Class. Holographic optics have come a long way in a very short time. They went mainstream in the late 1990s, and by the early 2000s were extremely popular with the military, law enforcement and civilian shooters. In the beginning there were a few major brands: Aimpoint, EO Tech, Trijicon. But the Global War on Terrorism turned holographic optics from “nice to have” into “must have,” as American troops were routinely outshooting their opponents armed primarily with iron sight weapons. In the field of magnified...

Thousands of US flags have been placed at the National Mall in honor of the nearly 200,000 Americans who were not able to be present for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. The display, which is called the 'Field of Flags,' is comprised of 191,500 US flags and 56 pillars of light. Images taken on Monday showed the flags carefully placed in rows near the US Capitol. The flags are representative of the Americans who cannot travel to Washington, DC, to attend the inauguration in person due to the coronavirus pandemic.

We can all boast life lessons that have taught us certain principles. For me, the optics lesson happened years ago. Ed Sweet, the host of Kid Outdoors, and I would take a lot of kids bear hunting. I'd write articles about the hunts and he’d film them for his show. On one of our first hunts we saw 10 bears in two afternoons. Only once did I spot the bear before anyone else. That's because my partners had good glass. I had an average pair of binoculars and have realized over the years that I had been missing a lot...

Biden was in the middle of speaking when his eye appeared to fill with blood, and he seemed not to notice.

What should you top that AR-15 with? Scope selection varies by region, usual range to target, time of day you're afield. Hunting a natural predator can be an exhilarating and rewarding experience. There's nothing quite like hunting something that can be just as clever and canny as you are. Coyotes fit this bill nicely. They're smart, fast, tough creatures that also happen to be destructive to livestock and other game animals like pheasant and quail. All of this combines to make coyote hunts a popular and enjoyable pastime. That is, if you can actually hit the sneaky suckers. Coyotes are...

Hello, all. I'm no stranger to shooting. I hunted for small game, growing up, I qualified, in the Army, as an "Expert" rifleman, and I occasionally take the family out shooting now. Though I was an Expert in the Army, that shooting was limited to 300 yards, and since I was in the Signal Corps, I really only shot once per year to retain my qualification. I've recently become interested in long range shooting. I've been looking at optics that would lend themselves to that pursuit. I know that brands like Leupold and Nightforce are the heavy-hitters in this arena,...

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, by The Trail Band, to Steve Grimes creating Christmas decorations in his basement machine shop. For those curious about the machine shop, I also put up an extract of the raw footage that shows what he had. Machine Shop