Free Republic

My End of Summer Reading List: From Eric Metaxas to ISIS By John Zmirak I know that for many of you summer is almost over. Since I live in Texas, we’ve just passed its halfway mark. We might consider putting long pants back on come Halloween. Given that, there’s plenty of time left for “summer reading.” Alas!So here are some of the books I’m partway through and want to recommend to you all through the sweltering days of October.Chance or the Dance?, by Thomas Howard My friend Eric Metaxas was a moving force behind reissuing this 1989 classic. In his...

I know little about politics.  For most of my working life I've been a tech journalist/analyst immersed in my own work and paying very little attention to the politi-sphere. But ever since Donald Trump walked down that escalator and joining FR soon thereafter I've been educated about the deep corruption of our government, media, and academia. And I've been endlessly fascinated with how Trump is fixing America step by step. From time to time, when I thought I knew enough to say something interesting, I've posted vanities, often including a graphic meme. This particular post is a relatively new...

Tiger Woods is in the news for refusing to disparage Donald Trump in response to questions posed to him after the final round of the Northern Trust about his relationship with him. This the left and its media adjunct cannot abide. Now Tiger can become the subject of CNN’s perpetual hatefest for a few hours this morning. Having answered the call to serve in the Army at the height of his car, Elvis Presley had his views about patriotism and the hatred of the United States on display in the antiwar movement of the 1960’s. His patriotism suffuses his music....

John McCain's exit from life and politics has commentators of all sorts falling into interpretive contortions. "I opposed him, but..." "I liked him in spite of..." It was McCain's gift, springing from personality and life experiences, to antagonize and enrapture, to confound and excite, often at the very same moment. He was neither wholly one thing nor entirely another: neither hardline "conservative" nor "establishment" dupe; neither the selfless public servant incarnate nor the loosey-goosey adherent to some individualistic code. I admired and twice voted for the man. Even in not-infrequent moments of disagreement, I took care to cut him some...

I'm looking for the average hourly wage (or yearly income of wages over time. Preferred by decade. Like 1950, 1960 and so on. All I can find is household income. That's that what I want as that doesn't tell what wages are. I mean the number of women working has changed over time. If anyone has a link or knows how to use google better than me I'd appreciate it. When I search I just get household income.

It was a late summer afternoon, Sally Dale recalled, when the boy was thrown through the fourth-floor window. “He kind of hit, and— ” she placed both hands palm-down before her. Her right hand slapped down on the left, rebounded up a little, then landed again. For just a moment, the room was still. “Bounced?” one of the many lawyers present asked. “Well, I guess you’d call it — it was a bounce,” she replied. “And then he laid still.” Sally, who was speaking under oath, tried to explain it. She started again. “The first thing I saw was looking...

DENVER -- Flaggers have returned to some crossings along the RTD A Line between Union Station and Denver International Airport. In June, the flaggers were removed, but they have returned as RTD tries to figure out a software problem that was discovered on a number of rail lines in the area. The flaggers have returned to the York, Steele, and Holly street crossings, a move that signifies RTD believes the automated gates are still not safe enough to operate without on-site supervision. ... RTD is only saying its contractor, Denver Transit Partners, is doing some updating and testing of the...

She fatally shot an unarmed black man. Now she’s teaching other police officers how to ‘survive’ such incidents. She calls it “The Ferguson Effect.” Two years after she fatally shot an unarmed black man in Tulsa, Betty Jo Shelby, now a police officer in an adjacent county, is teaching a course on how to “survive such events” — legally, emotionally and physically. The course, as she explained it to a local ABC affiliate, equips officers to withstand the effect — named for the Missouri city convulsed by the 2014 shooting of a black teenager — “when a police officer is...

Poor Omarosa, her fifteen minutes of fame are now long gone. Her raved about "tell-all" book on POTUS, Donald J. Trump and company is in a 100% nose dive headed for the "basement bargain book bin". It now ranks #62 on the Amazon Best Seller Books list. Omarosa, my dear...as you wilt on the vine of failed losers, keep in mind these worthy and truthful sayings: "You reap what you sow, in life." and, "In life, whatever goes around comes around., and Never, ever, bite the hand that feeds you!!! Goodbye, young lady, you have done yourself in...look in the...

“Fellow Americans' -- that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American.”So read part of Senator John McCain’s final statement, as the 81-year old Senator from Arizona joined the eternal pantheon of patriots this past weekend. After lying in state for several days at the U.S. Capitol and Arizona Capitol, he will be buried at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated from over a half-century ago before serving our nation as a decorated war hero.Senator McCain has been in our public square for so long it will be difficult to imagine...

If ‘balance’ means giving voice to those who deny the reality of human-triggered climate change, we won't take part in the debate, say Jonathan Porritt... and 57 other writers, politicians and academics We are no longer willing to lend our credibility to debates over whether or not climate change is real. It is real. We need to act now or the consequences will be catastrophic. In the interests of “balance”, the media often feels the need to include those who outright deny the reality of human-triggered climate change. Balance implies equal weight. But this then creates a false equivalence between...

I'm tired of hearing the myth that cigarettes kill people. It reminds me of the old myth that cold temperatures cause colds. The smoking issue is not as simple as the anti-smokers portray it. It can involve more than just addiction to nicotine. If smoking kills people why do so many smokers live to be over 60? Looking at substances that sometimes kill people demonstrates how substances can kill people directly. For most of us peanuts are a delicious and nutritious snack. However, for some people with a peanut allergy peanuts can be one of the world's deadliest poisons. College...

24 Jun 2018, Cape Town: Three Farmers have been Murdered in three separate attacks in South Africa in 24 hours. Saturday, 23 June 2018: In the first incident a male victim, wife and children were attacked by 5 attackers on a farm in Rustenburg in the North West Province. The Male victim was shot dead before the attackers fled in the victim's White Toyota Fortuner with registration number JTT179NW. Saturday, 23 June 2018: In the second incident a well-known farmer and owner of very popular Mooiberge Strawberry Farm Stall in Stellenbosch, Jeffrey Zetler(62) was stabbed to death. He was a...

Background: I work in the communist epicenter of Virginia. There's a bike trail that goes from my house all the way practically to the front door of my office, so I ride my bike in to work every day. I had a late start in to the office this morning due to a doctor's appointment, so I was the only one on the trail at the time I crossed the part that goes over I-66 into the swamp. I happened to notice a large upside down flying American flag zip tied to the safety fencing above the walkway, so I...

TARBORO, N.C. (KLFY) -- Parents of a fifth grader are concerned after their child was punished for referring to his teacher as "ma'am." Teretha Wilson said she noticed something was wrong Tuesday when her 10-year old son Tamarion got off the school bus from North East Carolina Preparatory School. "I asked him what happened. He said he got in trouble for saying 'yes ma'am'," explained Wilson. Confused by his response, Tamarion pulled out a sheet of paper with the word "ma'am" written on it four times per line on both sides. He says his teacher told him to write the...

Paul Gonzales pleaded not guilty to extortion, grand theft and other charges stemming from his repeated “dine-and-dash” dates with women he contacted on dating apps. His alleged crimes go back to 2016 and apparently ended earlier this year, when one of his latest victims was left to cover the $130 check for a shrimp and filet mignon dinner at Smitty’s Bar in Pasadena. Prosecutors say Gonzales, 45, has left eight women with bills totaling about $1,000.

Republican Sen. John McCain’s passing is a sad event for this country and especially for the family and friends of the long-serving Arizona senator, patriot, and Vietnam War hero. Democrats including former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are falling all over themselves to heap praise on McCain, who died Saturday. But look how differently these same Democrats talked about McCain not that long ago.

Awesome reporter!

I know it’s not “kosher” to cover obsessively mass shootings. This is a no-no procedure, according to some folks, because this works as an incentive of sorts for future losers and/or crazies who’ve never accomplished anything in their lives, to follow the rock-star-mass-shooter path of glory. Basically, mass-shooters are just psychopathic narcissists looking for their 5 minutes of fame by any means necessary (where did I read that recently?), or at least that’s one theory. This garbage was written on the Pro-Donald Trump r/The_Donald subreddit under the name “ravenchamps by Katz last year. I seriously doubt that the Democrats and...

Geneva, 28 August 2018. The ATLAS Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has – at long last – observed the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of bottom (b) quarks. This elusive interaction is predicted to make up almost 60% of the Higgs boson decays and is thus primarily responsible for the Higgs natural width. Yet it took over six years after the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson to accomplish this observation. “ATLAS is proud to announce the observation of this important and challenging Higgs boson decay," says Karl Jakobs, ATLAS Spokesperson. “While the result is certainly a...