Free Republic

Given the worthlessness of American reportage/legacy media, I have been watching Firstpost/Vantage out of India. The reportage is sharp and on point and about as objective as one might hope for. For example, they consider Hamas a terrorist organization but do express sympathy for the Gazan population caught up in the fighting. One of their reporters commented , “Hamas considers the Gazan population human shields, the Israelis consider them collateral damage”.

During the conversation, Biden warned his Russian counterpart that the West would develop large-scale and unprecedented sanctions in the economic and military spheres should the crisis on the Ukrainian border continue to escalate. In response, Putin pledged to sever relations between Russia and the USA if new restrictive measures are implemented. "Our president immediately responded to this by saying that if the West still decides to introduce the above-mentioned unprecedented sanctions under certain conditions, then all this could lead to the complete termination of relations between our countries. In addition, serious damage will be caused to Russia's relations with the...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville man facing multiple felony charges, accused of trying to kill a mayoral candidate, faced a judge Tuesday morning. Quintez Brown, 21, was in 9 a.m. arraignment court to formally hear the charges against him, which are attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment. His bond was raised to $100,000 full cash. Police said he tried to kill democratic candidate Craig Greenberg on Monday morning at his campaign headquarters in Butchertown Market.

When China put in place its one-child pol­icy four decades ago, pol­icy mak­ers said they would sim­ply switch gears if births dropped too much. That has turned out to be not so easy. “In 30 years, the cur­rent prob­lem of es­pe­cially dread­ful pop­u­la­tion growth may be al­le­viated and then [we can] adopt dif­fer­ent pop­u­la­tion poli­cies,” the Com­mu­nist Party said in a 1980 open let­ter to mem­bers and young peo­ple. With the num­ber of births de­clin­ing year af­ter year, China is now rac­ing in the op­po­site di­rec-tion, clos­ing abor­tion clin­ics and ex­pand­ing ser­vices to help cou­ples con­ceive. But a legacy of...

According to the police report, Riddle had just exited the school with her own daughter after a meeting with the vice principal about her 8th grader’s “hostile outbursts” at another student. Rather than leaving the campus after the meeting, First Coast News says Riddle’s daughter went to the cafeteria to start a fight with the other child. Riddle’s daughter threw some punches on the victim before Riddle joined in, throwing punches herself. Riddle had a boxing glove on her hand when she arrived at the school and had told officials it was super glued to her wrist and unable to...

The leader of the "Not F***ing Around Coalition" (NFAC), a Black militia that demonstrated in Louisville during last summer's social unrest, was arrested Thursday on a federal charge. John Johnson, 57, commonly referred to as "Grandmaster Jay," was charged with "assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees," according to court documents.

A leaked email from a former top official at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says that the department has “overwhelming intelligence” that the extremist violence in Portland was “organized” by individuals with an ideology categorized as “Violent Antifa Anarchist Inspired” (VAAI).

Mayor Greg Fischer said the Louisville Metro Police Department releasing its rules of engagement will be beneficial to protect everyone, whether protesting or not. After a press conference Monday, Fischer addressed weekend protests and LMPD’s announcement that the department would more strictly enforce existing laws. He said it is important to define what is permissible in order to prevent “unnecessary interaction” between police and protesters.

The Not F***** Around Coalition is making its way to Louisville on Saturday. Its leader said it’s a militia exercising its constitutional right to assemble and bear arms. It expects 5,000 of its members to participate. Grand Master Jay, also known as John Fitzgerald Johnson, is the leader of the group and said the NFAC’s only concern is expeditious movement for justice in the Breonna Taylor case. Taylor was shot dead by LMPD officers serving a warrant at her home back in March. Jay said its members are coming to Louisville in peace, and has no intentions of creating or...

WESLEY CHAPEL — Two armed intruders were shot dead and a third was wounded when a homeowner fired on them early Friday, according to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office. The homeowner said he was inside his home playing video games when at about 12:43 a.m. he heard the glass of his laundry room door shatter, according to a sheriff’s report. He saw an arm reach inside to unlock the door. Then the homeowner said he saw a masked man walk in and aim a gun at him. The homeowner said he grabbed his Glock 9mm pistol, which was just a...

Recently I saw a live performance of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot", a story about two hobos who are, oddly enough loitering around waiting for a visit from a person named Godot. They are interrupted by Pozzo, a cruel and pompous man, and Lucky, his hapless slave led by a noose around his neck. Lucky performs demeaning tasks on command. At the urging of the hobos, Pozzo commands him to dance, and then to "think". What follows is a run-on rambling speech/rant lasting about four minutes of half-developed themes, nonsequeteurs, stuttering, random interjections, and entertaining nonsense. Here is the link...

US production of CO2 has declined over the last decade, while China’s production has risen 137%. American workers (the ones who are employed) earn good wages, while Chinese workers are paid crap. American workers are reasonably content. Chinese workers commit suicide when they fail to meet production goals. Therefore, OccupyWallStreet should rightfully be protesting in China. We should provide them with airfare to Tienanmen Square. Then they can experience the gracious response of a fully Communist administration. Let's all chip in for their airfare. One way, of course.

Well placed but unnamed sources close to anonymous high-ranking members of the Democratic campaign speaking confidentally have revealed a new line of attack against Governor Sarah Palin (R), John McCain's vice-presidential running mate. "It's true that our polling data shows we are really taking a bitch-slapping right now, and we're looking to staunch the hemorrhaging. Anything that puts us on the attack and gets the enemy's panties in a wad is seen a a giant plus. "For the first time in history the American people have the opportunity to elect to the vice-presidency someone who is menstruating. And if there...

My disclaimer is that I have of course changed enough details of the occurrences to maintain confidentiality, but not enough so that the basic truth of the occurrences is obscured. In the finest tradition of northeast mainstream media journalism, you might say that these stories are "fake but accurate". I live in a community which is large enough to be considered a city but small enough not to have any major-league sports teams. As an exercise in pain and penance, I went through the "Attorney" section of the Yellow Pages and marked every lawyer or firm that advertises that they...

My disclaimer is that I have of course changed enough details of the occurrences to maintain confidentiality, but not enough so that the basic truth of the occurrences is obscured. In the finest tradition of northeast mainstream media journalism, you might say that these stories are "fake but accurate".I used to believe that malpractice lawsuits were handled like traffic tickets. Just keep your record clean for five years and it will be removed from your record. Silly me. The liability carriers take a "once-sued always-sued" approach; that is, each and every lawsuit, no matter how frivolous, stays on your record...

About ten or twenty years ago the New England Journal of Medicine published an article written by an anonymous Midwestern family physician. In this article the author reviewed what he regarded as the biggest mistakes and professional blunders of his career. Sharing this type of information almost never happens in medicine, not your worst nightmares with your very best friend (who just might turn out to be a referring physician). The author clearly wanted to perform a very public mea culpa and clear his conscience of cases that had haunted him. The cases he described weren't the wanton negligent "Oops,...

The patient shifts uncomfortably in his seat as I enter the room. Glancing this way and that, he works up the nerve to pop the question: "Doc, why did you go into gastroenterology? I mean, sticking scopes up people's (you know) seems a little gross to me". For a moment I thought he was going to hit me up for an Oxycontin prescription that would take care of him, his family and his friends for about three months (I never prescribe the stuff, by the way). Instead he just wants to know what kind of pervert I am. Most of...

A worthy observation in a newspaper article adapted from a speech by Tony Abbott: If it is self-evident that an Anglo-Saxon police force can't deal with ethnic crime, or that English-speaking-only administrators can't mastermind the reconstruction of Iraq, or that a celibate priesthood can't fully grasp the stresses of family life, why isn't it equally self-evident that a left-leaning media will never really understand the workings of a conservative government or the instincts of a conservative electorate? This observation applies well to America, but it's actually about Australia, where Abbott is a federal cabinet minister. The speech extract appears in...

Random thoughts on the passing scene: The very people who were telling us to "get over it" and "move on" during the Clinton scandals of the 1990s have been completely unable to get over the 2004 elections -- and some of them haven't even gotten over the 2000 elections yet. A church in Monterrey, Mexico, has installed equipment that jams cell phone calls, so that church services will not be disturbed by phones ringing. This equipment should be installed in every school, restaurant, auditorium, etc. Incidentally, the equipment used by this church was manufactured in Israel. Let's hear it for...

Rather than give Immigration Minister Judy Sgro a hard time about whether or not she greased the pole, as it were, to fast-track the process to allow a Romanian stripper to stay in Canada, we need to be taking a look at the bigger issue: Why is Canada unable to meet the demand for exotic dancers on its own? What is lacking in our national character that we cannot turn out enough people who can figure out how to take off their clothes? Are we so lacking in skills that we do not know how to pull down a zipper,...