Free Republic

After Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) defeated Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate last month, it wasn’t surprising that Republicans launched a barrage of attacks against Democratic nominee James Talarico. What was surprising, though, and troubling, is that they attacked not Talarico’s record or past rhetoric, but his masculinity. Paxton got things rolling on election night, calling him “Tofu Talarico,” “James Tala-freako,” and “low-T Talarico.” Trump aide Stephen Miller piled on, suggesting that Talarico was transgender. Others insinuated that he was secretly gay and that his girlfriend was fictional. (This is a bold strategy, because...

Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, which launched ChatGPT, is not overweight. Gay tech billionaires rarely are. Even so, as he explained in a recent interview, he was keen to try a GLP-1, one of those drugs that have revolutionised weight loss in the past five years. You can understand why he was curious. Ozempic or Mounjaro might appear to have nothing in common with artificial intelligence, but both phenomena have created a sensation that we’re entering an era of accelerating and uncontrollable change. Alas, he screwed it up. He had someone inject him with a megadose, puked all night...

At thirty-seven, Ned Dougherty seemed to have it all: a Mercedes-Benz, a private jet, and a well-known nightclub in the Hamptons. Then he met death, and nothing was ever the same. On July 2, 1984, after a fight with a business associate, Dougherty collapsed on the sidewalk. He felt like he was falling into a dark, endless pit. Medical records show he had respiratory and cardiac arrest and was clinically dead for an hour and six minutes. “I was literally dead in every sense of the word at that point,” Dougherty told The Epoch Times. “And my journey on the...

Yes, you can build your very own nuclear fusion reactor in your house! But first, a few warnings: -This project includes lethal voltage levels. Make sure you know your high voltage safety or have a qualified electrical advisor. -Potentially hazardous levels of x-rays will be produced. Lead shielding of viewports is a must! -Deuterium, an explosive gas, will be used. Make sure to check for fuel leaks. -All the other inherent dangers of a home engineering project of this degree (a wide gamut of potential injuries, damage to the checking account, and the loss of general sanity) ========================================================================================== Here are...

The Atlantic magazine recently announced the People’s Choice for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination. “Trump Voters Like Marco Rubio More and More (And J.D. Vance Less and Less)” the headline proclaimed, a ruling that deserves respect considering that this is the magazine that has spent the past decade ferociously denouncing Trump as a “racist,” “fascist kleptocrat,” “warped,” “corrupted,” an “authoritarian,” a “demagogue,” a “xenophobe” and a “liar.” The piece was written by Sarah Longwell, whose career as a Republican consists almost entirely of loathing Trump, calling him an “incomprehensible lunatic,” “an insane madman,” “corrupt” and an “authoritarian.” So you can...

James Rogers, the former CEO of Apeel Sciences, is seen at its headquarters in Santa Barbara, California. (Yuri Hasegawa/Redux) All it took was two Facebook posts to turn an online mob against Apeel Sciences and its booming business of keeping food fresh longer. ============================================================ The eureka moment for James Rogers arrived while driving past some California farmland in 2011. He was a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, focusing on world hunger, and the drive got him thinking about a huge problem with fresh produce. Growing it wasn’t the problem. Keeping it fresh was. Working out of...

CALL TO ACTION — JUSTICE FOR JEFF WEINHAUS After 12 years in prison… new evidence has surfaced that could change everything. Not opinions. Not theories. Actual evidence that was never shown to the jury. Video. Audio. And facts that directly contradict what was presented in court. This is evidence you need to see for yourself.

As we cross the one month mark of the Israeli-American war on Iran, a sufficient corpus of data is emerging to contemplate the kinetic dynamics of the conflict. This is a very strange war. It is not merely the fact that the roster of combatants and associated parties - Netanyahu, President Trump, Lindsay “Holden Bloodfeast” Graham - comprise the most polarizing figures in world politics today. As if to punctuate this fact, I fully anticipate angry comments berating me for using a sanitized and emotionally titrated word like “polarizing.” But we digress. Far more interesting than endless apoplexy over Israel...

Right now, if you scroll long enough through conservative Christian feeds, you will see two very different tempers about Israel — two extremes; two ditches. One says this: God told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.” That settles it. End of discussion. If you are a Christian, you (your country) must support the modern state of Israel in all things and give them as many resources as they want. To hesitate is to risk standing under God’s curse. The other says this: Christ fulfilled the promises. The covenant is over....

Qualified immunity, a doctrine the Supreme Court created in 1967, bewilders ordinary citizens who run headlong into it after government officials trample their constitutional rights. In plain English, the doctrine often blocks lawsuits against officials unless a prior court decision “clearly established” that the specific conduct at issue violated the Constitution. That standard leaves many victims without a remedy and lets many constitutional wrongs go unanswered. That is not right. The Constitution exists to protect individual rights, not to insulate officials who violate them from accountability. Recent years have also supplied fresh reasons to question the doctrine’s scope. Abuses tied...

THE DEBATE AMONG DEMOCRATS over how to win back disaffected voters has touched on virtually every aspect of campaigns, policy, and politics. But what if the answer is so primal, so shallow, so inherently biological that to hear it out loud would make you uncomfortably chuckle? What if the key to winning was to run more “hot” people? Don’t laugh. The idea that the Democratic party has a hotness deficit it needs to address has come up repeatedly in conversations I’ve had over the past few months as I’ve talked to strategists about what the party can do to improve...

Are congressional Republicans absolutely determined to forfeit this November’s midterm elections? It sure looks that way. The GOP would hardly be acting any differently if it were secretly run by its enemies. The election-security provisions of the SAVE Act enjoy overwhelming popular support. According to CBS/YouGov polling, requiring photo ID to vote is literally an 80-20 issue, commanding the support of four out of five voters. Yet the Republican Senate, with a 53-47 majority, is struggling to pass the law. Yes, the filibuster gives Chuck Schumer a powerful weapon to use against the GOP, but there are ways around that...

It was a regional election palooza in France and Germany this weekend. In France, it was Round Two of the march toward the national presidential elections, with a lame-duck Emmanuel Macron's presidency up for grabs. In Germany, it's waffling and wounded German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's desperate bid to avoid losing more Christian Democrat (CDU) seats in regional parliaments to either Alice Weidel's populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party or, even more inexplicably, a resurgent Green party.In France, Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) went into the second round of elections hoping to win major cities' mayoral races, but, much as...

Gold is supposed to be one of the first assets investors run to when the world gets dangerous. War in the Middle East, oil supply disruptions, rising inflation fears, and a more hawkish interest rate outlook should, in theory, create a near-perfect backdrop for the precious metal. Instead, gold has done the opposite. It has sold off hard, leaving many investors wondering whether one of the market’s oldest safe-haven trades is starting to fail when it is needed most. That disconnect matters. Gold is not just another commodity. For many investors, central banks, and households around the world, it represents...

Here we go again. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, current Republican governor of Arkansas and White House press secretary during the first Trump administration, has once again found herself on the receiving end of intolerance from the left, this time at a croissant cafe near her children's school. Sanders was apparently enjoying lunch last week at The Croissanterie in Little Rock alongside a group of fellow moms when she and her security were approached by staff and asked to leave "due to concerns that her presence was making employees feel threatened and uncomfortable due to her political views." When she stood to...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NNZ2u2WDD0&t=883s SUMMARY >>> 2. Cost asymmetry **************** Mine: ~$1,500 Destroyer: ~$2 billion Ratio: 1 : 1.3 million This makes mines one of the most cost-effective weapons ever created. 3. Geography of the Strait of Hormuz ************ Only a 6-mile-wide shipping corridor actually needs to be mined. Iran doesn’t need to block the whole strait—just the key lanes. 4. Psychological & economic impact ************ Mines act as an “insurance weapon”: One explosion → insurers withdraw coverage Tankers stop entering the region Trade halts without further attacks Critical insight: ************* The goal isn’t to destroy ships—it’s to trigger fear and shut down...

America should not play global judge, jury, and executioner. This role is bad for us. It harms our economy and rots our national character. Moreover, foreign wars distract from much more important goals here at home. Trump’s decision to pursue the Iran war, for instance, distracts from his much more important domestic policy goals on immigration, inflation, and dismantling leftist-controlled institutions. The political capital required to wage this war of choice is simply too high. The downside risks of being sucked into a months- or even years-long war are too great. The threat to the global economy from a sustained...

Let me begin by putting all my cards face-up on the table. No one wishes the SAVE Act, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo-ID in order to cast a ballot, to become law more than I. Currently, in my home state of California, it's actually illegal here to both ask for ID at polling places and to show ID. Elections are held open for weeks until enough stray mail-in ballots, which for some reason break for Democrats every single time, flow in to swing a total that at one point showed promise of sanity in...

Isaac’s energy level, enthusiasm, and talkativeness were too much—at least for a traditional classroom.He had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); one psychologist explained that he had a high IQ but low maturity.Illustration by Lumi LiuIt wasn’t until Heather Rodden began homeschooling him in fifth grade that she realized what years of frustrated teachers couldn’t put their fingers on—what looked like a liability in one setting can flourish in another.Like Rodden, other parents, researchers, and professionals are moving away from treating ADHD purely as a disorder that 1 in 10 kids have.The word “deficit” in ADHD, they argue,...

As wellness conversations broaden beyond abstinence, new research explores cannabis through a harm-reduction lens and what it could mean for moderating alcohol consumption.-A 2025 Brown University study found that inhaling cannabis with active THC reduced short-term alcohol consumption and delayed drinking among heavy drinkers in a lab setting. Participants also reported a decreased urge to drink compared to a placebo. -The study used cannabis containing 7.2% THC and does not address long-term drinking habits or effects in people who don’t already use marijuana. -Experts warn that replacing alcohol with cannabis poses risks, including dependency and psychiatric side effects, especially with...