Free Republic

Planning a vacation in Hawaii? Might be better to make it sooner rather than later as local lawmakers are ready to hike a tax imposed on travelers staying in hotels, vacation rentals and other short-term accommodations. AP reports the first-of-its-kind impost will earmark the funding boost for programs to cope with “climate change” with the politicians responsible pointing to the wildfires that devastated parts of Hawaii in 2023 as evidence that something must be done. State leaders highlight projects like replenishing sand on eroding beaches, helping homeowners install hurricane clips on their roofs and removing invasive grasses as a starting...

During a portion of an interview with Portland, Maine ABC affiliate Channel 8 WMTW released on Thursday, Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) said that the opposition to allowing biological men to play women’s sports “is driven, in large part, by a lot of lack of information or misinformation.” Frey stated, “I think some of the public sentiment is being driven by a lot of half-truths or untruths, right? There have been transgender athletes — student athletes in Maine for years, for years and years and years. Safety, privacy have always been a consideration, not just for transgender students, by the...

Democratic strategist James Carville argued that political actors in his party should “play possum” right now, as grassroots organizing pops up across the country, noting that the “freight train is moving.” Carville joined MSNBC’s “The Beat” on Monday, where host Ari Melber asked him to weigh into the nationwide protests against the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). “This is happening all around the country. So, the question is, how should Democratic politicians respond to this? And I think they should do is, what we call in rural America, play possum. Just let it go. Don’t...

President Donald Trump is an avid golfer hitting the greens, sometimes playing a round on his own courses. Last week, Trump was seen golfing with Tiger Woods at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The president is reported to have a 2.5 handicap with his home club set as Trump National Golf Club Bedminister, according to the United States Golf Association's Golf Handicap Information Network. The Trump Organization has a total of 18 courses with 11 of the courses located in the U.S. While all international courses are open to the public, two courses in the U.S....

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) said Monday on MSNBC’s “Inside” that Vice President Kamala Harris could possibly win the state of Texas in November. Host Jen Psaki said, “I want to ask you, you’ve seen a lot of presidential candidates run. Vice President Harris and Tim Walz are clearly creating a lot of excitement out there. Do you think this is enough? Is Texas a pipe dream or should people hold their hope out for Texas in 2024 or is it going to take a little longer?”

A play telling the harrowing stories of victims, and heroes, of the October 7 attacks on Israel opened in New York this (my stupid tablet deleted a bunch of words in 1st paragraph; Sorry...) leer and Ann McElhinney as “a cultural mo The show, which is being put on in Midtown Manhs the blood-curdling accounts of the worst attack in Israel’s history, in the exact words of those who experienced it, collected in a series of interviews conducted by McAleer and McElhinney. The venue is under permanent police protection. “What we have in this theatre is a piece of magic,...

Neither Timber Creek High School sophomore saw Keller ISD’s decision to cancel their performance of “The Laramie Project” — which included more than 70 students — coming. Students plan to voice their concerns to the school board Feb. 29. “I was a little blindsided,” Sampson, 16, told the Fort Worth Report. “It was a role I really wanted to perform. I was a little dejected when I heard it was being canceled.” “The Laramie Project” is a play that recounts the aftermath of the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten and tied to...

Leftist actor Robert De Niro is ready to move past his portrayal of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Saturday Night Live. “[A]s Robert Mueller vanishes from public scrutiny, my opportunities to play him will fade, as well,” he wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post on Monday. “It’s okay. I’m ready to move on. I think I could do a really good Jerry Nadler, my own great congressman and the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.”

NEW YORK - "Roseanne" star Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow of "The Crown" are poised to star as Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton in a new Broadway play. "Hillary and Clinton," by Lucas Hnath, author of "A Doll's House, Part 2," is slated to open on Broadway in spring 2019. The play is set in New Hampshire during the early days of 2008 as Hillary Clinton tries to save her troubled campaign for president.

A new attempt by Hamas to entice Israeli children to play with incendiary balloons includes choosing colorful balloons and attaching lights and toys to them, Yediot Ahronot reported. According to the report, a cluster of balloons recently found in the Eshkol Region was attached to an explosive toy. The balloons, found late at night, were colorful and included colorful flashing lights. Kibbutz Be'eri's secretary, Yaniv Hagi, told Yediot Aharonot: "Incendiary balloons land in our kibbutz at all hours of day and night. They arrive with flashing and sparkling lights, and some of the balloons have smiley faces on them, so...

A local theater group is putting on a play, "Church and State," "A topical look at gun violence, religion and politics that is simultaneously funny, heartbreaking, and uplifting." "In the wake of a school shooting in his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, a Republican U.S. Senator running for re-election candidly questions his belief in God to a blogger, perhaps crushing his re-election hopes. There are no easy answers in this topical look at gun violence that is simultaneously funny, heartbreaking, and uplifting. Interested in the in-depth Backstory? Read it here. We'll also have copies at the theater." I'd go and...

Once again partisanship is rearing its disgusting head at the pre-confirmation debate over Brett Kavanaugh.  Long gone are the days when a judge’s qualifications were the only factors considered.  After all, Antonin Gregory Scalia was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 1986, and in 1993 Ruth Bader Ginsburg had only three dissenting votes. A play about Scalia, The Originalist, shows how Americans should be willing to accept a viewpoint other than their own, something the Senate is unwilling to do. It is now playing in New York, and is also available to stream.  With all the divisiveness going on...

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” This famous quote attributed to Dr. Seuss applies to many things in life, but NBC’s high school drama Rise is not one of them. If anything, we should cry because it happened, and smile now that it is finally over. Unlike the show’s title Rise, every episode in this debut season continued to sink to new lows, so we can also smile over the news that the curtain has been lowered for good on the series. The show takes place at Stanton High School, where theater teacher Mr. Mazzuchelli (Josh Radnor),...

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. - The Douglas County school district is investigating a complaint that a 7-year-old girl played a racist character in a school play. In a video of the play, Anastasia Bertram can be seen holding up a sign saying, "Please go home" on one side and "Cursed is the man who integrates" on the other side. Anastasia's parents said she was asked by her teacher, Jamila James, to fill the role of a white girl opposed to school desegregation during a March 2 play at Burnett Elementary School. Her teacher told the parents Anastasia volunteered after another student...

The Fragile Generation Guest Post by Lenore Skenazy & Jonathan HaidtBad policy and paranoid parenting are making kids too safe to succeed One day last year, a citizen on a prairie path in the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst came upon a teen boy chopping wood. Not a body. Just some already-fallen branches. Nonetheless, the onlooker called the cops.Officers interrogated the boy, who said he was trying to build a fort for himself and his friends. A local news site reports the police then “took the tools for safekeeping to be returned to the boy’s parents.”Elsewhere in America, preschoolers at the...

Ithaca High School’s spring musical was “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” A story whose message is one of inclusiveness and acceptance should be welcomed and encouraged. A white actress was cast for the role of Esmerelda, prompting a student black actress to quite the play, saying, “It shows you that theater wasn’t made for you. And it shows you that, if you can’t get the parts that are written for you, what parts are you going to get?” The resignation prompted Students United Ithaca to make a list of demands for the school, one of which was, “STOP the racist...

Even though the modern world isn’t any more dangerous than it was thirty or forty years ago, it feels like a more perilous place. Or, more accurately, we inhabit the world today in a way that’s much more risk averse; for a variety of very interesting and nuanced reasons, our tolerance for risk, especially concerning our children’s safety, has steadily declined.So we remove jungle gyms from playgrounds, ban football at recess, prohibit knives (even the butter variety) at school, and would rather have our kids playing with an iPad than rummaging through the garage or roaming around the neighborhood.Unfortunately,...

Published on Jul 18, 2017 Occurred on October 6, 2015 / Pedrinópolis, Brazil "One day we decided to record the animals because we like to see the friendship of the pitbull and the parrot. The dog's name is Perigo and the parrot is Cassio."

Normally, when we get a press release from a local theater company about its latest work, the press release includes, you know, the name of the play. But Philly theater company Lightning Rod Special bucked that trend this week went they sent us a notice announcing its musical comedy about abortion, which debuts in August at the Painted Bride. “We were going with ‘Fetus Chorus,’” explains co-creator Alice Yorke, pictured below. “But there were a lot of mixed feelings about it. The best comment we got was, ‘I understand you want to provoke your audience, but do you want to...

Liberal hacks at CNN were outraged Sunday after President Trump tweeted out a video of himself body-slamming and beating CNN outside a wrestling ring. CNN officials believe mock elbow jabs on reporters is out of bounds. CNN Condemns Trump Wrestling Tweet – But Parent Company Sponsored Trump Assassination Play Jim Hoft Jul 3rd, 2017 7:42 am 12 Comments Liberal hacks at CNN were outraged Sunday after President Trump tweeted out a video of himself body-slamming and beating CNN outside a wrestling ring. CNN officials believe mock elbow jabs on reporters is out of bounds. CNN released a statement condemning the...