Free Republic

Photographer Eliot Dudik captures breathtaking images in a beautiful region of South Carolina known as the “Lowcountry”.

How do you think 2015 will be for you? If you’re typical, you’ll be pessimistic; and, if you’re typical, you’ll be wrong. Only 21 percent of Americans agree with the proposition that “life for our children’s generation will be better than it has been for us” — 76 percent disagree. Well, barring some unforeseeable calamity — what Nassim Taleb would call a “black swan,” or Donald Rumsfeld an “unknown unknown” — the 76 percent are mistaken. The next generation of Americans will lead healthier, happier, more fulfilled lives than the present one. That sentence could have been written at any...

""Manspread" - the habit some male NY subway riders have of spreading their legs beyond the confine of their hips to take up two, or even three, seats - is a source of increasing irritation for polite riders concerned about the comfort of others."

If you are an American, then odds are you are spending some significant chunk of today [Black Friday] fighting your way through unpleasant, stressful, and chaotic shopping lines. There's a better kind of line. And it's in Japan. Watch this time-lapse video of patrons lining up at Comiket, a regular comic book festival in Tokyo, and just marvel at the order of it all. (They're lining up to enter the festival, one chunk of people at a time.) The experience looks easy, even downright pleasant, and most amazing of all appears entirely self-organized. I challenge you to find a single...

Before he checked into rehab in September, Michael Phelps was having a steamy affair with much older blonde, Taylor Lianne Chandler. But the most shocking aspect of their relationship wasn’t the 12-year age difference. RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal that Chandler, 41, was actually born a man! Chandler, born David Roy Fitch, tells Radar in an exclusive interview that she was an intersex baby.

According to a survey by tech giant Cisco Systems, about a fourth of professionals ages 18 to 50 would leap at the chance to get a surgical brain implant that allowed them to instantly link their thoughts to the Internet. The study was conducted on 3,700 adults working in white-collar jobs in 15 countries. Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/November17/171.html#CRwG8spidOWI60L4.99

(Please read before posting.) Informed people know that it is going to take more than just a team of new leaders to save the USA, if it is still possible. It is being said that repentance needs to begin with the Christians, with the Church. Of course, the importance of repentance is relevant to all people. The next purpose of this article is to encourage the American people to see the need for electing the right leaders in all levels of our American government. Responsible citizens are focused on campaigns and the pending results of this November election. When considering...

A goofy guy named Adam Weinstein writing for a goofy website called Gawker has called for the jailing of those who deny global warming. Weinstein says, “there is the body of purulent pundits, paid sponsors, and corporate grifters who exploit the smallest uncertainty at the edges of a settled science.” Those who disagree with Weinstein on a scientific and political point are criminally negligent and should face not just fines but even prison.As goofy as he is, he’s not the only one.Just this past weekend serial adulterer Robert Kennedy Jr., who may have driven his second wife to suicide—and...

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel is famously outspoken and sharp-tongued, and on CNBC on Wednesday he did not disappoint. In a "Squawk Box" interview.Thiel trashed Twitter, Uber and Apple, among others, "Twitter is hard to evaluate. They have a lot of potential. It's a horribly mismanaged company—probably a lot of pot-smoking going on there. But it's such a solid franchise it may even work with all that," the co-founder of PayPal and early Facebook investor said.

Welcome. We have arrived in the Great Society foisted on us by liberals from FDR to LBJ, who holds title to the vision. It is marked by: •a race-based underclass with 13-18% black unemployment and 109 million people overall on welfare across the country • broad disrespect for the legal process and institutions such as the church •lawlessness in school classrooms and on our streets •75-80% of the homes in the ghettos with children are fatherless As we slouch toward Gomorrah, there is a segment of our society—increasingly affecting all of our culture—that has no concept of objective moral values...

Model aircraft able to do what dogs, volunteers, and helicopters could not After authorities spent three days searching for a missing, elderly man in Wisconsin, a hobbyist launched his personal drone in a volunteer search effort and was able to locate the lost individual 20 minutes post launch. During the initial search phase, authorities used dogs, helicopters, and employed local volunteers to comb the Fitchburg countryside in search of Guillermo DeVenecia, an 82-year-old man suffering from Alzheimer’s. David Lesh, a drone enthusiast who uses his personal model aircraft to make videos for his skiing and snowboarding business, was in town...

These terms -- duty, ability, and rights -- are often conflated, as a result of French and American influences. In this show, I break down the differences between them, how they relate, and how they should be respected on a practical level, all within the Christian context. LISTEN ON YOUTUBE.(Alternative link, via Vimeo.) Summary:I start with quotes from Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Abraham Lincoln, then transition into the corrupted philosophies found in American and French history. I define the terms, then lay out how they can be applied, especially in the case of anti-Christian persecution in the Middle East. I...

Everyone bashes Maryland so I wanted to show folks where I live in Maryland and PROVE that it is NOT a communist state. Read every word before you call me a liar.....lol. Arnold is a medium-sized coastal town (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Maryland. With a population of 23,106 people and five constituent neighborhoods, Arnold is the 47th largest community in Maryland. Housing costs in Arnold are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don’t compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in...

The distinguished political philosopher Leo Strauss was supposed to have said that the only two things in life really worth talking about are God and politics. That’s because at a most fundamental level they are inextricably intertwined. A skewed notion of the very nature of God and whether man acknowledges him—or tries to substitute himself for God—is at the crux of the turmoil, fanaticism, and destructiveness of the politics of our day and of much of the last hundred years.This is seen well in two books of the last decade. Robert R. Reilly’s The Closing of the Muslim Mind...

Much has already been written about Elliot Rodger and his horrific acts of murder in Isla Vista, California last month. And some may wonder why an economic policy writer would take up such a subject. But one must remember that economics is a study of human behavior, generally about financial decisions but also the underlying reasons behind those decisions. Many have speculated that Rodger was simply a troubled kid, suffered from depression and/or was just pure evil. I personally do not share that view. I believe that there was a reason why Rodger became the person who he was because...

The daughter of former President Bill Clinton and ex-secretary of state Hillary Clinton explained in a new interview why she left lucrative professions and opted for working with her family’s philanthropic foundation. ‘I was curious if I could care about (money) on some fundamental level, and I couldn’t,’ she said.

[Editor's note: Warning: this surveillance video contains graphic content that some may find disturbing.] A River Valley man is behind bars after police said he attacked a woman with a baseball bat at Walmart on Sunday night (June 15). Fort Smith police said the incident happened at the Walmart on Rogers Avenue. Police said a man identified as Corey Mosley got a running start and struck a woman identified as Ashlyne Rogers in the head with a bat inside the store. “I couldn’t be happier based on the situation of how she’s doing and holding up,” said the victim’s father...

Transgenderism has been a frequently discussed topic over the past few weeks. On May 30, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services review board ruled that Medicare can pay for the "reassignment" surgery sought by the transgendered. A few days later Time magazine's cover story on the "transgender tipping point" declared the social movement is "poised to challenge deeply held cultural beliefs." And last week the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest Protestant denomination, overwhelmingly passed a resolution titled “On Transgender Identity.” Since the topic will be coming up for some time to come, here are nine things you should...

Things NOT to Learn in School by R.J. Riggins modifications made by H. Geller] Do not -- repeat -- do not learn these lessons. If we're teaching you these things, we're sorry. If you've learned any of these already, forget them fast, before you get out of school! 1. YOU ONLY NEED TO GET A 70 70% is NOT OK. 70% stinks. Name one occupation in which it is OK to be right only 70% of the time. What job lets you be totally wrong three times out of every ten -- and keep your job more than a week...

Plato worried that the new media called “writing” would ruin our memories – and he was right. “If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.” Martin Heidegger and other philosophers worried that the typewriter would make our thinking more mechanical. They were right, too.Each new medium has diminished man a little – radio made us expect to be entertained all the time; television hurt our ability to concentrate...