Free Republic

SAN ANTONIO – Proposition A was defeated by a large margin of 28-72 Saturday night. The measure was the biggest turnout driver this election: more people voted on the contentious proposal than in the San Antonio mayor’s race. Called the “San Antonio Justice Charter” by supporters, Prop A would have decriminalized marijuana possession and abortion, expanded the city’s expanded cite-and-release program, created a new “justice director” position, and embedded bans on choke holds and no-knock warrants in the city charter. The cite-and-release expansion proved to be the most controversial element, with opponents arguing it would increase crime. The proposition would...

Over the past six decades, the 007 franchise has put its stamp on cinema like no other movie run of films. Arriving in the midst of the Cold War, it invented and continued to define the Hollywood action movie. There were groovy gadgets, sensational set pieces, luscious locales, sinister seductresses, venomous villains, and, of course, Bond…James Bond as the straw that stirs the drink (a vodka martini shaken not stirred, naturally). During that time, only six men have played the British superspy, and each brought their own unique interpretation to the role—often for good, occasionally for ill. Now on the...

Our military has descended into this kind of morass of failure before – maybe not this deeply, but deeply enough that the last time we also allowed a pack of medieval throwbacks to giggle at us in front of the world. That was at Desert One, the smoldering Iranian debris field where Jimmy Carter’s post-‘Nam military announced to the world that the U.S. armed forces were no longer ready for primetime. Yet, just over a decade later, that same military dismantled an entire national army not far away in southern Iraq in 100 hours, taking casualties that barely amounted to...

Ignore those pictures of the Afghan army that our military senior leader geniuses spent 20 years and zillions of dollars on disintegrating in the face of a pack of glorified mountain banditos from the Seventh Century – the real story is that, finally, America’s fighting men and women are fully aware of the urgency of accepting and validating the trans experience. And it's even better if said trans people are BIPOC. Plus differently abled. Our broke, woke armed forces would be a hysterically funny punchline if the joke wasn’t, “The greatest military in human history walks into a bar, puts...

Will 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' get canceled? All signs seem to point to the possibility as the long-running talk show continues to drop in ratings following scandalous rumors about the host, whom both guests, as well as employees on her show, have accused of being "mean." According to TVNewsCheck, the show has recently plummeted to an all-time low when it comes to ratings. As the 62-year-old talk show host refuses to address the rumors against her, the ratings of DeGeneres's show reportedly fell 14% as the latest Season 17 recorded a low viewership of 1.2, which put her show behind...

The cancelations around the sports world continued to mount Wednesday as the number of reported COVID-19 coronavirus cases climbs in the United States. Organizational leaders in athletics have gone from discussing potential moves and making small modifications to being forced by local governments to make bigger judgements, like keeping fans from games. At a press conference Monday, Gobert attempted to make a point about overreaction and fear by touching everything in sight before he left. He leaned over and touched all of the microphones and recorders.

It is passing strange that this outspoken figure, normally so willing and able to comment on injustices in the United States, has no thoughts whatsoever on Hong Kong’s uprising. He was asked for comment last night and … total blank: It’s not as if Kerr doesn’t keep up on current events, or as if western media hasn’t covered Hong Kong, or as if the NBA has no presence in China that might make major political developments there of some interest to him. Somehow this issue ended up in his blind spot. Does he have any thoughts generally about how China...

Did climate change already kill all the aliens we've been searching for? According to astrophysicist Adam Frank, it's certainly a possibility — and whether humans are doomed to the same fate may already be out of our hands. Frank, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester in New York, is the lead author of a new paper published May 1 in the journal Astrobiology that aims to take what Frank calls a "10,000-light-year" view of anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. Using mathematical models based on the disappearance of a real-life lost civilization here on Earth (the former...

The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, putting the United States in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium. Public debt subject to the official debt limit -- a slightly tighter definition -- was $14.53 trillion as of the end of Tuesday, rising from the previous official cap of $14.29 trillion a day earlier. The official limit was hiked $400 billion on Tuesday and will be increased in stages over the next 18 months. With the latest borrowing, the United States joined a small group of countries whose...

WASHINGTON – House Democrats are aiming to scale back the cost of their health care bill to well below President Barack Obama's preferred price tag by giving the government a strong hand in selling insurance in competition with the private market. Obama has sought to spend no more than $900 billion over a 10-year period. The initial cost of the House bill was more than $1 trillion. On Tuesday, House Democratic leaders received a new cost estimate of $871 billion from congressional budget umpires who measured a robust version of a so-called public option for health insurance, according to a...

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Lindsey Ellerson Report: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Planned Parenthood Tuesday that sex education for kindergarteners, as long as it is "age-appropriate," is "the right thing to do." "I remember Alan Keyes . . . I remember him using this in his campaign against me," Obama said in reference to the conservative firebrand who ran against him for the U.S. Senate in 2004. Sex education for kindergarteners had become an issue in his race against Keyes because of Obama’s work on the issue as chairman of the health committee in the Illinois state Senate. "'Barack...

I was watching the Big Oil execs testifying before Congress. That was my first mistake. If memory serves, there was lesbian mud wrestling over on Channel 137, and on the whole that's less rigged. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz knew the routine: "I can't say that there is evidence that you are manipulating the price, but I believe that you probably are. So prove to me that you are not." Had I been in the hapless oil man's expensive shoes, I'd have answered, "Hey, you first. I can't say that there is evidence that you're sleeping with barnyard animals, but I...

On the eve of Independence Day, the people of this great republic declared their independence from the United States Senate under the stirring battle-cry, "No legislation without explanation!" The geniuses who'd cooked up the "comprehensive" immigration bill's "grand bargain" behind the scenes in the pork-filled rooms had originally planned to ram it through in 48 hours before Memorial Day. And, right to the end, the bipartisan Emirs-for-life of Incumbistan gave the strong impression they regarded it as an affront to be required by the impertinent whippersnappers of the citizenry to address the actual content of the legislation.

For Senior Jonathan Goldstein, Monday nights from 9-10 p.m. are off limits for everything except FOX’s hit drama, “24.” “My friends know not to call me during that hour,” he said. “It’s not that I’m anti-social about it, I’ll watch it with other people. I just want to be fully focused on what’s happening.” As most people familiar with the show already know, Goldstein is hardly alone. Since its debut in 2001, “24” has become one of the most popular and compelling shows on television. Its debut this season garnered 33 million viewers and the DVD sales of its past...

Wellington, Jan 3 (DPA) New Zealanders shivered in December, with the capital recording its coldest start to the southern hemisphere summer for 78 years, according to official figures released Wednesday. The National Climate Centre said that Wellington's average temperature was 12.9 degrees Celsius, 2.4 degrees below normal and the lowest since records began in 1928. Even Kaitaia, the country's northernmost town, suffered a 2.5-degree drop in the average December temperature to 15.6 Celsius, the lowest since records were first taken there in 1948. The chill has continued into the New Year as most New Zealanders are taking their summer vacations....

Across Vermont and Massachusetts and even parts of New Hampshire the bumper stickers proclaim confidently: “WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER.” And they have a point. War isn’t the answer so much as a question: What are you? And is what you are worth defending? There have been two answers to that recently. Jens Orback, Sweden’s Minister of Democracy, said on a radio discussion: "We must be open and tolerant towards Islam and Muslims because when we become a minority, they will be so towards us." Who knows? Maybe he’s right. In Malmo, where the Muslim population is 40 per cent,...

TEL AVIV, Israel - The Israeli military began preparing to reoccupy southern Lebanon on Thursday, and Israeli officials conceded that their three-week bombing campaign has had no significant impact on Hezbollah's ability to fire short-range rockets into northern Israel. The dispatch of thousands of Israeli soldiers to retake as much as one-fifth of Lebanon - the operation must still be approved by the Israeli Cabinet - would mark a major expansion in Israel's Lebanon campaign and would reverse Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon six years ago after a troubled 18-year occupation. It also would complicate efforts in the United Nations to...

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a sadist. Sometimes I like to wander over to Daily Kos and Democratic Underground and see what the wacky liberals are saying. As you know, America, the greatest country on God's green earth, will celebrate its 230th birthday tomorrow. And here's what liberals have to say about it today. I believe it's against FR policy to direct links to DU and Kos, but I've cut and paste these quotes without any editing. DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND "America, America, God shed His grace on thee...what a ridiculous song" - Philosoraptor "the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in...

HH: Mark Steyn joins me as he does most Thursdays, Mark, it is reported at this hour that President Ahmadinejead of Iran is writing a letter to Benedict. What do you think he's going to talk about? MS: I should imagine it will be another 18 page masterpiece, full of great rhetorical flourishes. But basically, it's a kind of wind up. I mean, he's got...a lot of these fellows that we think of as just kind of primitive guys, they're not really media savvy, they're not tuned in to spin cycles and things, they're actually quite ingenious at hitting all...

HH: Joined now by Mark Steyn, Steynonline.com, columnist to the world. Mark, your reaction to the President's speech, and the Majority Leader's comments? MS: Well, I think the President has, in fact, actually not damaged himself, but I wouldn't say he's done anything that is going to reassure people who take this issue seriously. I think the overall tone, that sort of moderate tone, will appeal to people who are uncommitted on this issue. But I think it aggravates those of us who were hoping for a bit more daddy party talk, rather than the kind of mommified, family values...