Free Republic

Anyone who pays the slightest bit of attention to academic sociology these days knows there are serious problems. I have been writing about this phenomenon now for a number of years, pointing out, e.g., sociology’s drift from its origins and how its journals and conferences clearly illustrate its biases. The discipline has become captured by an ideology and has given up on its earlier scientific promise. A glance at the titles of conference papers and journal articles, or indeed at the course offerings in sociology at any institution of higher learning, reveals the transformation. Even some Marxist professors have come...

Escorted by police, a group of about 25 people walked across the Temple Mount esplanade to the steps leading up to the Dome of the Rock, the site where the First and Second Temples once stood. They climbed a few steps toward the mosque, singing “Yedid Nefesh” (“soulmate”), usually sung on Friday nights. “Are you with us?” a policeman asked this reporter.

It's uploaded by the channel Dr. Josh C. Simmons on February 13, 2026 (today, based on current timing), and has quickly gathered around 5,285 views and 323 likes so far. Key Points from the Video The core argument is that major tech companies (Microsoft, Alphabet/Google, Amazon, and Meta), which are NVIDIA's largest customers for AI chips, collectively announced roughly $690 billion in AI-related capital expenditures (CapEx) planned for 2026. Despite many of them beating earnings expectations recently, the market reacted negatively — wiping out about $1 trillion in combined market capitalization in a short period (described as "one week"). CapEx...

Lawmakers are not yet finished with Attorney General Pam Bondi. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) led a new charge on Friday morning, demanding Bondi testify before the House Oversight Committee while raising concern about Bondi’s appearance before the House Judiciary panel on Wednesday. During the hearing, a photographer captured an image of Bondi with a document appearing to show Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s (D-WA) searches on the Epstein Files — which she and other members of Congress were given access to two days earlier. “In the Judiciary Committee, she had a folder open, and you saw an image of a search history...

If a Sweetwater County judge won’t dismiss the animal cruelty case against Cody Roberts, his lawyer wants to bar any testimony about how Roberts allegedly ran a wild wolf down with a snowmobile and taped its mouth shut. Those are “prior acts” to what the state of Wyoming has outlined in its case against the Daniel man — namely, Roberts taking the wolf to the Green River Bar in Daniel and allegedly subjecting it to torment there, attorney Robert Piper writes in his motion filed Monday in Sublette County District Court. “Such alleged conduct occurred prior to the wolf’s alleged...

A new report claims that the death of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain was not by suicide, rather he was a victim of homicide. But police in Seattle are standing by their original findings. According to a report in The Daily Mail, a private forensic team compiled by independent forensic specialist Brian Burnett said that Cobain’s death was a homicide. Burnett’s team looked at the evidence and came to that conclusion. But the Seattle Police Department disagrees, saying the suicide ruling is correct. “Our detective concluded that he died by suicide, and this continues to be the position held by...

Elon Musk revealed the future of quantum computing will be on the Moon's permanently shadowed craters Quantum computing need extreme cold and near-perfect isolation to work The Moon’s permanently shadowed craters offer exactly that - Temperatures stay below −200°C, keeping qubits stable without massive Earth-based cooling systems - No atmosphere, no weather, no day–night cycles. Hardware stays in a steady, undisturbed state - No air, no vibrations, no human electromagnetic noise - meaning quantum information survives longer with fewer errors The Moon is not just for exploration It is actually a perfect home for the future of computing

The owner of an Ethiopian-Israeli restaurant in Harlem says she has been forced to close her establishment for regular dining due to alleged harassment and antisemitism. Beejhy Barhany, owner of the Tsion Cafe, told the New York Post that hate directed at her restaurant intensified after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which prompted the country’s war with Hamas. Barhany also told the outlet that the alleged hate and harassment have left her “demoralized.” “I answered the phone once at the restaurant and the caller said, ‘You dirty Jew. We should erase you from the map,'” Barhany said. “I...

Representative Lauren Boebert has joined several lawmakers in expressing outrage over what she was able to view in unredacted versions of the Department of Justice’s documents on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “Terrifying language in the Epstein Files I viewed yesterday,” the Colorado Republican posted to X on Wednesday. “Emails about torture. Frequent talk of ‘consumption’? A restaurant called ‘The Cannibal.’”

Ran across this podcast outlining that viewership of the NFL halftime show collapsed 39% compared to last year. This from a ratings source used for advertising (and thus much more reliable as companies use this for real-$$ decisions.) It's pretty plain that profanity laws were also violated, so we'll see if LEO will give lawlessness a pass or hold them accountable.

SpaceX opened February 13 with a dual milestone at Cape Canaveral, featuring a successful Crew-12 astronaut launch to the International Space Station (ISS) and the first Falcon 9 booster landing at the company’s newly designated Landing Zone 40 (LZ-40). A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off at 5:15 a.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, placing the Crew Dragon Freedom into orbit on the Crew-12 mission. The spacecraft is carrying NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, as noted in a report from Space News....

VD for Valentine’s Day? In case you needed a reason to stay celibate this weekend, there’s a sexually transmitted fungus making the rounds and leaving its mark. Experts say the public should be aware of the nation’s “largest known outbreak” of Trichophyton mentagrophytes genotype VII. Known as TMVII, the nasty business is the only known fungal-based sexually transmitted infection. Cases of TMVII have been on the rise in Europe for the past several years, especially among men who have sex with men. In 2024, an NYC man became the first reported US case of TMVII, and it seems the icky...

The Tesla Model Y was Europe’s most popular electric car in 2025, leading all EV models by a wide margin despite a year marked by production transition, intensifying competition, and anti-Elon Musk sentiments. The result highlights the Model Y’s continued strength in the region even as Volkswagen overtook Tesla as the top-selling EV brand overall. As per data compiled by JATO Dynamics and reported by Swedish outlet Allt om Elbil, the Tesla Model Y recorded 149,805 registrations across Europe in 2025. That figure placed it comfortably at No. 1 among all electric car models in the region. The Model Y’s...

VIDEOWatch carefully the face of Kate Bolduan's face as Matt Egan delivers very positive news about the inflation rate coming down. Happy news! Right? And yet a great SADNESS fell across Kate Bolduan's face. This wasn't how it was supposed to be in her world. Liberal world had been guaranteeing that Trump's tariffs would cause massive inflation due to soaring costs by now with the result that an economic crash would also crash Trump's popularity. That thought might have flickered across Kate's face as the bitter reality of the success of the Trump economy caused poor Kate to suffer extreme...

President Donald Trump has pardoned five former NFL players convicted of various offenses ranging from counterfeiting to drug trafficking*** Johnson revealed on social media Thursday that Trump has granted clemency to former New York Jets defensive lineman Joe Klecko, former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Nate Newton, former Baltimore Ravens running back Jamal Lewis, former Buffalo Bills running back Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon. “As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again,” she wrote and added, “So is our nation.” Johnson also credited Cowboys owner Jerry Jones with relaying the news...

Tesla engineers deflected calls from Apple on a daily basis while the tech giant was developing its now-defunct electric vehicle program, which was known as “Project Titan.” Back in 2022 and 2023, Apple was developing an EV in a top-secret internal fashion, hoping to launch it by 2028 with a fully autonomous driving suite. However, Apple bailed on the project in early 2024, as Project Titan abandoned the project in an email to over 2,000 employees. The company had backtracked its expectations for the vehicle on several occasions, initially hoping to launch it with no human driving controls and only...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has a clear lead in the Lone Star State’s Senate Republican primary over incumbent John Cornyn — putting the two on a collision course for a May runoff, according to a new poll commissioned by Paxton’s principal campaign committee. The Pulse Decision Science survey found that 36% of likely GOP primary voters support Paxton, 27% back Cornyn and 15% prefer Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas). Another 22% said they were undecided about who to support.Early voting for the March 3 primary starts next week, with a runoff between the top two candidates set for May 26...

It refers to the circle of self-enrichment through which political donors and special interests bag cash from government spending — then kick some of that cash back to politicians’ campaigns. That’s the only way to explain why the high-speed rail project persists in the Central Valley, even though almost nobody wants it and nobody is even pretending the state can afford it. Fraud is also the only way to explain how California spends nearly half a billion dollars on an overhaul of the 911 emergency system, only to find that the project doesn’t work. And when you double state spending...

A father who posted a video of himself pulling his son out of a "walkout" protesting operations by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tore into the Highline School Board in Washington state on Wednesday. Hundreds of students in the Seattle-area school district took part in the Feb. 2 walkout, some of whose parents backed the protest, according to the Seattle Times. Vance Glawe, who drove to the protest to pull his son, a seventh-grade student at Cascade Middle School, out of the event, confronted members of the school board with fiery remarks during his two-minute address. "My name...

Portland’s economy is not working for the majority of residents and businesses. Housing is too expensive. Companies are shrinking their presence in the city. Job numbers are going down. And the city’s most promising indicator of growth can’t be relied upon in today’s political climate: international in-migration. Those are some of the findings from ECOnorthwest, a research and consulting firm headquartered in Portland. The city’s business advocacy group, Portland Metro Chamber, partners each year with the firm to research and analyze economic indicators in the region. In the latest report released Thursday, economists at ECOnorthwest looked at population, housing affordability...