Free Republic

Boston University did not create a new, more lethal strain of COVID-19 in its laboratory. At least that is what the University is saying after reports, such as this Fox News report which was spread widely, claimed that is exactly what researchers did at the school. Boston University is, in fact, studying the virus and it says it is doing so “to help fight against future pandemics.” And it says, too, that it did combine the omicron variant’s spike protein with the original virus for testing on mice. And, at first glance, the tests do sound a bit ominous. Because,...

I'm considering dropping cable, cutting the cord so to speak. My cable provider (Spectrum) has been to my house 3 times over the issue of dropped audio and pixelation. The issues have been so pronounced that it can make some shows almost unwatchable. They are coming again today but I spoke with a neighbor that also has Spectrum and he said they have the same issue, so I am sure it is somewhere in their lines feeding my development. I'm not much interested in going to a satellite dish, I've had both dish and direct TV before. I dropped dish...

Is time to be talking about a replacement for Rush?

The wife of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of a man in custody, has filed for divorce. Chauvin is the white officer who was seen on video kneeling for several minutes on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air until he lost consciousness. Chauvin was fired, along with three other police officers at the scene, and has been criminally charged. According to a statement released by a Minneapolis lawyer, Derek Chauvin’s wife, Kellie Chauvin, “is devastated by Mr. Floyd’s death and her utmost sympathy lies with his family, with...

“Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson revealed yesterday during his “Unashamed” podcast that he has learned he has an adult daughter from an affair he had before he became a Christian. According to People magazine, sons of Robertson received a letter from a woman named Phyliss, 45, who claimed to be their sister. Phil has four sons - Al, Jase, Jep and Willie. People reported that during the podcast Al talked about the letter. "'So basically, it was from a woman who said that by a DNA search, she thinks that dad might be her dad,' Al said, adding that he...

So, I kept hitting redial and suddenly the phone rings and rings. Then Mr. Snerdly picks up and says, please hold. So about a minute later he comes back on and says "what would you like to ask Rush?" So I said that perhaps the president is doing a head fake. "Head fake?" he asks. I said yes, didn't Rush say the other day that he isn't getting a penny for the wall but he has over $10 billion to spend south of the border? Maybe he has made a deal with the new administration where they'll build the wall...

The NFL Is Investigating Jameis Winston For Allegedly Groping An Uber Driver In 2016 “The League has been informed that you may have been the victim of such a violation perpetrated by Tampa Bay Buccaneers player Jameis Winston. The League takes allegations of this nature very seriously and has opened an investigation into this matter,” a letter to the driver from the NFL, sent Thursday, read.

Is this a scam? Two previous times over the last couple months I was called by someone (Indian accent) telling me that I was due a refund from a transaction I had with their company last year. I vaguely recalled the transaction and they knew the date and exact amount. I just needed to access my computer and checking account so they could give me the money. (red flags all over the place so...) I told them to just send me a check and we'll call it even then hung up.Well yesterday another call, this time they had enough details...

HARRISBURG — The midtown home sat quietly Thursday night with two single sheets of white paper posted to the door with a clear message: No Comment No News! No Trespassing. Hours earlier, FBI agents stormed and raided the home in the 1700 block of Fulton Street, where the U.S. District Attorney's Office said 19-year-old Jalil Ibn Ameer Aziz lived. Aziz, now held in federal custody, has been charged in supporting the ISIS terrorist organization through various means. Agents said they found a tactical backpack, high-capacity gun magazines, ammunition and a "modified kitchen knife" among his belongings in the home, according...

A startling discovery by a graduate student has uncovered what looks like a fraud remarkably parallel to the infamous “Hockey stick” graph of Michael Mann that purported to show global temperatures skyrocketing when atmospheric CO2 rose, but only did so because “hide the decline” was the operating principle in selecting data. For those who have not been keeping up with the alarmist follies, alleged ocean acidification has joined and supplemented the rapidly-fading alleged global warming threat as an urgent reason to stop emitting CO2, and hand money and power over to regulators who would control the production of energy, the...

The Food Network is currently promoting a crusade to end childhood hunger in America. Had the Food Network not been relentless promoters of the Obamas, I could almost see this as an ironic comment on the utter lack of appeal of the food being produced in schools across America in the First Lady's name. But the Food Network is serious. In their holiday promotion their spokespeople cite the much-debunked statistic that one in five children in America goes hungry on a regular basis. . Something is truly out of whack here. If one in five American children are going hungry...

What Catholics Need Now: A Letter to Our Priests and Bishops By Emily Stimpson To Our Spiritual Fathers, Please forgive the public nature of this letter. In a sense, it goes against my personal rule of not criticizing priests or bishops in print. But only in a sense. You see, this letter isn’t meant as criticism, although I know some will take it that way. It’s more a cry for help, a plea or a prayer. After the Supreme Court rulings on marriage, I don’t know what else to do. Or where else to go. So I’m coming to you,...

By Christopher Elliott From the February/March 2013 issue of National Geographic Traveler Like it or not, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an unavoidable presence at American airports, from the full-body scanners and “enhanced” pat-downs to shoes on the conveyor belt and ziplock bags filled with trial-size toothpaste. But it’s becoming almost as difficult to avoid the TSA outside the airport, too. Today, you can be pulled over at a highway checkpoint staffed by TSA agents, courtesy of the agency’s VIPR program (that’s short for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response team, and pronounced “viper,” by the way). Its most high-profile...

Meleanie Hain, the pistol-carrying Lebanon mom who received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter’s soccer game, was shot to death Wednesday night with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide, police said. Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. at their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street, police said. The couple’s three children were home at the time and were not injured, and are staying with relatives and friends, police said. Autopsies were scheduled for Thursday, police said. No other details...

ATCHISON, Kan. - It was payday. Money, at last. Twenty-two-year-old Robert Iles wanted to celebrate. "Tonight, chimichangas!" he announced. He was on his way out of the store where his full-time job pays him $7.25 an hour -- the rate that is likely to become the nation's new minimum wage. Life at $7.25: This is the life of Robert Iles, and with $70 in a wallet that had been empty that morning, he headed to a grocery store where for $4.98 he bought not only 10 chimichangas but two burritos as well.

Lately I’ve been hearing more and more about people living a carbon neutral lifestyle. Recently the owner of an upscale restaurant wrote an “As I see it” column (the local paper’s term for a glorified letter to the editor) explaining that her gift (Christmas I assume) to others is that she is going to do her best to live a carbon neutral lifestyle. She’s been on the globalwarming bandwagon for a while, earlier in the year she lectured us (in a letter to the editor) that she now owns a Prius to help us out. So after reading her missive...

By Randy Hall and Marc Morano CNSNews.com Staff November 09, 2005 (CNSNews.com) - A Fox News Channel documentary on "global warming," set to air Sunday night, provides only the liberal take on the controversial issue and was approved after environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reportedly "dragged" Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes to a lecture by former Vice President Al Gore, "kicking and screaming." Clay Rawson, the Fox News Channel producer of the hour-long special titled "The Heat Is On: The Case of Global Warming," told Cybercast News Service Wednesday that the project "was a little bit different for us. "Often...

I have been contemplating once again dieting. I am 5' 9" and weigh about 220 lbs. Ideally I would like to get to 175 but would settle for 185. I'm looking for advice on the Nutrisystem diet plan. Currently they are running a - buy 4 weeks get the 5th free. My concern is that they won't taste any better than the crap I can buy in the frozen food isle at the local grocery. They say their system keys on glycemic index so I would assume if I bought some of the South Beach frozen foods I'd be getting...

Subpoena stopped Request for records of partial-birth abortions halted Story originally published February 9, 2004 A move by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to subpoena the medical records of 40 patients who received so-called partial-birth abortions at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago was halted-at least temporarily-when a Chicago federal judge quashed the information request. The ruling is the first from a series of subpoenas by the U.S. Justice Department seeking the medical records of patients from seven physicians and at least five hospitals, Modern Healthcare has learned. Besides Northwestern, Ashcroft is seeking patient records from University of Michigan Hospitals and...

Dear Sir or Madam: I am Dan Dawodu, and I hope my business proposal will be a pleasant surprise to you, as we have had no prior business relationship. I am from Monrovia, Liberia in Africa. I am sixty-five years old and a Vice President in a major bank in Monrovia where I stumbled on this remarkable discovery I am about to share with you. On June 6, 1997, a Canadian Oil consultant/contractor with the Liberian National Petroleum Corporation (LNPC), Mr. Barry Kelly made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for twelve calendar months, valued at US$125,000,000.00 (One hundred and twenty-...