Free Republic

Do you ever feel like you didn’t make the most of your time as a 4-year-old? Like you failed to appreciate how awesome life was when “gift shopping” meant bringing home a macaroni necklace? Like you’d give anything to see nap time on your schedule again? Your inner child is in luck — but only if your outer adult can afford to enrol in “adult preschool,” which is an actual thing now. No jokes. Based in Brooklyn, N.Y., Preschool Mastermind is a one-month long program that purports to help grown-ups over the age of 18 “re-learn the basics and experience...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMuSYlKCMO4

The pilot was locked out of the cockpit. That phrase finally revealed the full horror of the crash of Germanwings flight 9525. Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz waited for the pilot to leave the cockpit, then locked the door to prevent his re-entry. After which Lubitz, for reasons unknown and perhaps unknowable, deliberately steered the jet into a harrowing 8-minute plunge ending in an explosive 434 mph impact with a rocky mountainside. One hundred fifty men, women and children met an immediate, unthinkably violent death. Lubitz, in his single-minded madness, couldn't be stopped because anyone who could change the jet's disastrous course...

Brutal, but true, the little-known account of the U.S. Army paying for beheadings during the ferocious Apache Wars.

Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the author of Rolling Stone's much-maligned story about a gang rape at the University of Virginia, plans to formally apologize for her mistakes, according to CNN's Brian Stetler.

Seated at the head of a table for 12 with a view of the city’s soaring skyline, Peter Thiel was deep in conversation with his guests, eclectic scientists whose research was considered radical, even heretical. It was 2004 and Thiel had recently made a tidy fortune selling PayPal, which he co-founded, to eBay. He had spent what he wanted on himself — a posh penthouse suite at the Four Seasons Hotel and a silver Ferrari — and was now soliciting ideas to do good with his money. Among the guests was Cynthia Kenyon, a molecular biologist and biogerontologist who had...

And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen; Remember how He spoke unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’” And they remembered His words. – Luke 24: 4-7

Israel has gone through one of the driest winters in its history, but despite the lean rainy season, the government has suspended a longstanding campaign to conserve water.The familiar public messages during recent years of drought, often showing images of parched earth, have disappeared from television despite weeks of balmy weather with record low rainfalls in some areas. The level of the Sea of Galilee, the country’s natural water reservoir, is no longer closely tracked in news reports or the subject of anxious national discussion. The reason: Israel has in recent years achieved a quiet water revolution through desalination. With...

A punishing drought is forcing a reconsideration of whether the aspiration of untrammeled growth that has for so long been the state’s engine has run against the limits of nature. ... a punishing drought — and the unprecedented measures the state announced last week to compel people to reduce water consumption — is forcing a reconsideration of whether the aspiration of untrammeled growth that has for so long been this state’s driving engine has run against the limits of nature. Can Los Angeles continue to dominate as the country’s capital of entertainment and glamour, and Silicon Valley as the center...

Babel was the origin of an idolatrous system that swept the world. The Bible says of her, “Babylon… the nations drank her wine; Therefore the nations are deranged” (Jeremiah 51:7). idolatry originated in the area of Babylonia—the most ancient of religious systems.”[8] Basically, almost every vile, profane and idolatrous practice you can think of originated at Babel with Queen Easter/Ishtar (Semiramis), the Mother Goddess and Nimrod. As the people scattered from Babel with their different languages, they, of course, used different names for Nimrod (Tammuz) and Semiramis. Some called the Mother Goddess “ISHTAR” (originally pronounced “Easter”).[9] In other lands, she...

The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate needs to make a couple of additions — namely, a comedy wing and a laugh track. Lest we forget, for decades Ted Kennedy was the Norm Crosby of the Democrat party, mangling not just Oldsmobiles and blondes, but also the English language. But political correctness now demands that all avert their eyes from the train wreck, er, automobile accident, that was Teddy’s life. Presumably the Fox News Channel anchor’s tongue was firmly in cheek as he mentioned Ted’s ability to “inspire new generations.” But Scott Pelley wasn’t kidding last week when...

“We have come to be kill and be killed,” the Muslims screamed out as they shot the Christians. Where did they get the idea to scream out something like that? From the Qur’an: “Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed.” (9:111) Not that this has anything to do with Islam! Piles of bodies and pools of blood running down the corridors: survivors of the Kenya university massacre described how laughing gunmen taunted their victims amid scenes...

Right-wing televangelist Pat Robertson tackled the recent controversy over Memories Pizza, which became Indiana's first business to publicly declare that they won't cater to same-sex weddings in the wake of the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act this week. "Most gays, if they're having a wedding, don't want pizzas -- they want cake," Robertson told "700 Club" viewers, according to Right Wing Watch. "It's the cake-makers that are having a problem." Still, he warned Christian business owners of all types that gay customers will eventually "make you conform to them." "You're gonna say that you like anal sex, you like oral...

"Christian Man Gets Denied Service By THIRTEEN Gay Bakeries After Requesting Pro-Traditional Marriage Cake" I know it must come as a shock to many to discover that the oh-so-“tolerant” left does not practice what they preach, but it seems that those who call for bakeries to be compelled to render services for those with whom they disagree are not always willing to abide by the same principle. According to Buzzpo.com, a whopping thirteen bakeries turned down business from pro-traditional marriage supporters when they wanted a pro-traditional marriage cake made. When gay activists target Christian bakeries, everybody gets up all up...

Man who stole wedding ring off dying woman’s finger at Taco Bell sentenced to 11 years A Wichita man will spend more than 11 years in prison for stealing a wedding ring and other items from a woman who was dying from a brain aneurysm in a Taco Bell drive-through in December 2013. Sedgwick County District Judge Christopher Magana ordered Daquantrius Johnson to serve the 136-month term consecutive to other sentences he received for crimes committed while on felony probation in a 2013 burglary case. The sentences in those cases totaled 111 months, which means Johnson, 21, will be incarcerated...

Christians are not the only ones looking for meaning in the plethora of signs aligning in the heavens. A rare alignment of four blood moons and a total solar eclipse unfolding during a Shemitah year and on biblical feast days, has a Jewish rabbi in Israel asking for special prayer. Rabbi Amram Vaknin, described as a “mystic rabbi living in southern Israel,” is urging all Jews to pray and repent as the third Blood Moon of a tetrad cycle approaches, according to a report in Breaking Israel News. Vaknin is not easily dismissed because he reportedly predicted the events of...

The world is becoming more religious, as the number of agnostics and others who don't affiliate with a certain religion shrinks as a percentage of the global population. By 2050, just 13 percent of people in the world will say they are unaffiliated, compared with 16 percent who said the same in 2010, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The United States is an exception, where more Americans are expected to flee organized religion. Numbers for all of the world's major religions, except Buddhism, are expected to rise as the population does the same. Islam will grow faster...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State has taken control of 90 percent of a Palestinian refugee camp on the Damascus outskirts where 18,000 civilians have suffered years of bombing, army siege and militia control, a monitoring group said on Saturday. The hardline group's offensive in Yarmouk gives it a major presence in the capital. Islamic State, the most powerful insurgent group in Syria, is now only a few kilometers from President Bashar al-Assad's seat of power. The United Nations has said it is extremely concerned about the safety and protection of Syrians and Palestinians in the camp. Civilians trapped there have...

FRESNO, Calif. -- The Fresno Fire Department has released the name of the firefighter who was injured while battling a house fire on Sunday afternoon. Officials say Fire Captain Pete Dern was leading his crew across the roof to provide ventilation, when he fell through the roof and into the fire. Other firefighters rescued him within minutes, but he suffered second- and third-degree burns across his body. The fire department says he is heavily sedated and breathing on a respirator.

School President Harris Pastides said in a statement: Today, the unfortunate and disappointing act of a student in a study room has challenged the Carolina community to reflect on our values and tell the world what we believe. Respect for all is at the heart of the Carolinian Creed, the code by which we agree to abide. Racist and uncivil rhetoric have no place at the University of South Carolina. We have taken appropriate actions to suspend a student and begin code of conduct investigations.