Free Republic

There is growing alarm about the pace and prospects of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, with few signs of progress in recent weeks and Russian lines holding strong.Those concerns picked up steam in the past week after Ukraine launched a second push in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and has still come up mostly empty in the eyes of Western allies.U.S. officials told CNN on Tuesday that significant progress was “highly unlikely,” especially with fall and winter fast approaching. And another U.S. official told NBC News, “There is a frustration that they have not used more of the combat power that they have.”The Quincy...

We have yet to hear a good reason why it’s become so important to the Left (and to the Principled Conservatives™) to bring children and drag queens together. Public schools are now hosting Drag Queen Story Hour, and recently at a family-friendly drag show in Texas, Antifa militants with pride flags and AR-15s stood guard over the performance just in case any crazed right-wingers showed up to cause trouble. Fox News’ Bill Melugin is still watching the border, but he’s reporting Wednesday that the Biden administration’s State Department has awarded a cultural center in Ecuador $20,000 to host “drag theater...

Critics of the public school system, myself included, often disparage government schools for failing to teach kids. Yes, it’s alarming U.S. students continue to lag academically behind their international peers (only about one-third of high school graduates are prepared for college), and it’s pathetic most students test very poorly in geography, civics, reading, and math. As bad as it is that schools aren’t teaching our kids important areas of learning, it’s what they are teaching that should really frighten us. Increasingly, more schools are adopting an aggressively progressive curriculum. In Minnesota, “School leaders adopted the ‘All for All’ strategic plan—a...

The hotline, run by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, is available 24/7 for detained individuals to phone if they think they “may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime.” The hotline will have translation services available in several different languages. ICE personnel will gather the caller’s information and send it to a field office for immediate action, according to the press release. The purpose of the hotline and other measures, including a new detainer form, are “to ensure that individuals being held by state or local law enforcement on immigration detainers are properly notified about their potential...

First they came for the donuts, and few dared to defend partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Then they came for the soft drinks, declaring high-fructose corn syrup verboten. Now they’re after lima beans, peas, and corn, moving us ever closer to a national diet of tofu and kale. “They,” in this latest case of dietary despotism, is the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). As required by Congress, the agency recently proposed stricter nutrition standards for school-based breakfast and lunch programs. More than 98,000 elementary and secondary schools will be affected—at a cost exceeding $3.4...

Just before Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state budget with little fanfare last week, Assembly Republicans celebrated at Downtown Ford, standing before cars they said would become cheaper overnight because they blocked tax extensions. "This is a great day for California," said Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks. "The death of these taxes is the rebirth of our economy." If Republicans judge themselves by taxes alone, they scored a victory this year. But Capitol experts say they also lost for the foreseeable future their best opportunity to reduce pensions, impose a stronger spending cap, or roll back regulations that affect businesses....

Blood on the bed. That's what 12-year-old Tamar Fogel saw last week when she opened the door to her parents' bedroom in Itamar, Israel. The blood covered the blankets and the bodies of her father, Rabbi Udi Fogel, and her 3-month-old sister, Hadas. In the other room, her mother, Ruth, lay murdered. So did her brothers, Yoav, 11, and Elad, 4. Five members of the Fogel family were slaughtered in their home last week because they dared to live on historic Jewish land. They were not murderers and were not occupiers. They were people who simply wished to leave in...

You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil. The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a "preliminary commitment" letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil...

Gov. M. Jodi Rell has signed into law Senate Bill 604, An Act Concerning Hate Crimes, which makes it a crime to display a noose as a way of harassing or threatening someone. "Connecticut simply will not tolerate bigotry or racism," Rell said. "Let this bill send that message loud and clear. Using a noose -- a symbol of the racially motivated lynchings during the late 19th and first half of the 20th century -- to intimidate anyone because of their race or any other characteristic is a repugnant and cowardly act. No one should be subject to that kind...

I kid you not.Go see for yourself, to the link above, at US.GOV, the official website of the United States of America.Go to the right. Read the text closely. For oldertimer Freepers, get out your reading glasses.

All too many denizens of the city instinctively rail against corporate America as an article of their political faith but inevitably undermine the entrepreneurial spirit of the mom-and-pop tavern operators in their neighborhoods. This disconnect is played out in various areas of the city, initiated by civic association groups and the elected officials of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission. Their hubris is surpassed only by their thorough misunderstanding of the marketplace.

Tampa, Florida (AP) — County records show Hillsborough County officers spent more than $6,000 for 92 lap dances, drinks and tips in an investigation into nudity and liquor law violations at an adult bikini bar. The investigation spanned more than two years. Sheriff David Gee says sometimes that's what it takes to get rid of problems. Gee says vice detectives first targeted Lil Tootsie's nightclub after deputies responded to numerous calls ranging from violence to DUI arrests. The agency recently asked county commissioners to revoke the club's special permit to serve alcohol. Records show sheriff's detectives sought 41 misdemeanor nudity...

Call it intellectual trickle-down: Great thinkers of our time talk to Bill Moyers, then he talks to us. In the engrossing "Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason" (debuting 9 p.m. Friday on KCTS), he mind-melds with Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Martin Amis and other writers on the rise of radical Islam and fundamentalist Christianity, their similarities, their influence on politics — and the need for transcendence even among skeptics. The Emmy-winning broadcaster, 72, settled in for a spirited dialogue from the porch of his New Jersey home. Q: Why talk to writers about faith and reason? A: Because storytellers have...

Quartet to set up trust fund to meet PA salaries NEW YORK - Members of the Quartet, which is meeting at the United Nations in New York, reached a "silent agreement" yesterday to establish a trust fund that will pay the salaries of Palestinian civil servants through the office of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The initiative is meant to bypass the Hamas government and pay the salaries of 165,000 civil servants who have yet to receive payments since March. The decision stems from a realization by Quartet members that a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian Authority must be averted....

Propaganda pieces normally contain an indisputable kernel of truth, which is then artfully embellished with innuendo, distortions, and half-truths. By that standard, the upcoming PBS program, Breaking the Silence: Children’s Stories, doesn’t even qualify as good fiction. The program is so larded with Leftist fantasies and sweeping stereotypes you begin to wonder if producers Dominique Lasseur and Catherine Tatge thought they were doing a special for Sesame Street. A nice bedtime story wouldn’t be so bad, except this tale targets fathers and families. Breaking the Silence leads off with this whopper: “One-third of mothers lose custody to abusive husbands.” That...

The head of the Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that by June 2006 the flood defenses for New Orleans should be restored to the level at which they stood when Hurricane Katrina struck and overpowered them. But Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, commander of the U.S. Corps of Engineers, acknowledged that such an achievement would provide little comfort in a city devastated by storm and whose flood protection isn't as strong as it should be. Strock said that his organization currently has no authority to rebuild the city's flood protection for hurricanes stronger than a Category 3 storm. Some have...

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- The city of Knoxville used tax dollars to pay for lap dances at local strip clubs. It was part of an effort to force adult businesses to adhere to stricter regulations and the city says, in essence, it was money well spent. The city paid a private investigator nearly $100 an hour to go to adult businesses. Then the city paid for the investigator to get lap dances while he was there. On April 23rd, private investigator Greg Lundy went to the Mouse's Ear and paid a topless dancer $40 for a lap dance. He tipped her...

When Susan Peacher hung up her latex evening gown and wooden paddle for a job with the federal government, the former dominatrix thought she was done with abuse. She went to work for the Treasury Department in San Francisco, but when she arrived at her new job, she found that one of the office managers was a former client. This man wouldn't leave her alone, she said in a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit, charging that he sexually harassed her, attempting to kiss her in the elevator, telling her she had "luscious lips,'' and repeatedly asking for "sessions.'' When she...

By Dave Wedge Wednesday, June 2, 2004 Brockton authorities are probing an alleged junior high prostitution racket, including whether to charge a 13-year-old girl accused of pressuring her mentally impaired friend into turning tricks for as little as $5. Brockton School Superintendent Joseph Bage said the disturbing case that has rocked West Junior High School is being investigated by Brockton police and Plymouth District Attorney TimothyCruz's office. Bage said no disciplinary action has been taken against either girl because the incidents allegedly occurred behind a shopping plaza a half-mile from the school. ``Once they're away from the school building, they're...

With Marvin Gaye music in the air and a maze of colorful display boards, Penn State's annual Sex Faire attracted more than 200 students to the HUB-Robeson Center's Heritage Hall last night. The Sex Faire ran from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. and was sponsored by Womyn's Concerns and the Center for Women Students. It provided over 2,000 free condoms, female condoms and dental dams to visitors. Photo: Zainabu Williams/ Collegian Andrea Johnson (junior-journalism) and Kelly Wright (junior-psychology) learn about the different types of sexually transmitted diseases as they play an ?STD Matchup Game? at last night?s Sex Faire. The...