Free Republic

World leaders were quick to condemn the “reckless” attacks on Israel by the Islamist regime in Iran, which they said “crossed a new line” in launching dozens of drone and missile strikes against the Jewish state on Saturday. The international community, including leaders in Britain and the European Union, swiftly condemned the strikes on Israel by the Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which marked a dramatic escalation in the conflict between Tehran and Jerusalem from previous attacks carried out by Iran’s terrorist proxies in the region to direct strikes.

Voyage Data Recorders (VDRs), also known as “black boxes” for ships, are designed to record various data related to the operation of the vessel, including ship instrument data, audio recordings from the bridge, and other relevant information. However, the specific capabilities and requirements of VDRs may vary depending on the regulations and standards set by maritime authorities such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Three men in Israel Defense Forces uniforms patrolled on Jan. 8 in Hurfeish, a Druze town of 7,000 in the Galilee, just 1 1/2 miles from the Lebanese border. The trio drove that night not in a military jeep but a Chevy Blazer bearing civilian license plates. They weren’t in active-duty service (18–21 years old) or even in reserves (through age 45), but were far older—the youngest of them being 54. These older Druze men are in another tier of Israeli military service: kitot konenut, first-response teams for security threats. Most Israeli communities have kitot konenut, which are locally run....

Critics of the Biden administration on social media appeared grateful after the "Community Notes" feature on X, formerly Twitter, hit White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre with a crowdsourced fact-check. Conservative X users celebrated the feature for attaching context to Jean-Pierre’s statement about President Biden’s economic policies - dubbed "Bidenomics" - being the cause for "good economic news." The fact-check asserted that it’s not Biden’s doing that the economy looks better, but rather that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy are continuing to dissolve. Jean-Pierre shared the X post after the U.S. jobs report dropped on Friday....

A transgender, queer man who gave birth to a healthy boy last year says he feels isolated among the LGBTQ+ community, questioning, “where do I fit?” according to a report. “Every time I walk into a room, I feel alone,” Ja’Mel Ware said during a workshop attended by nonprofit news site The 19th. Ware, from Atlanta, gave birth to his child in May 2022. But he said has struggled to fit in the LGBTQ+ community as a new father who is also transgender. “It’s like, where do I fit? Because a lot of trans men don’t want to be open...

CHICAGO -- Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed into law two measures aimed at safeguarding the rights of LGBTQ+ people as other states move to restrict the community, just days after the Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans. One of the new laws will update language in existing acts to be more gender inclusive in order to affirm LGBTQ+ youth in foster care, and the other will make it easier for LGBTQ+ couples to marry. The laws will be effective on Aug. 8 and on Jan. 1, 2024, respectively.

Does having fun in your life protect you from becoming a sociopath? Since 2020, we have witnessed charming, well-educated, “civilized” people all around us — especially from what my husband calls (as others do) “the laptop class” — reveal, during ‘lockdowns” and medical tyranny — a side that is, bare teeth and all, nakedly sadistic. Now, as our stunned society slowly tries to set itself upright from having wallowed for nearly three years in an irrational, animalistic seizure of hatred and cruelty — as it struggles to settle its hat and to brush the dust and mire of the gutter...

Indigo, a new community outside of Houston, is a different type of residential development. Led by farmers, the project will be anchored by a 42-acre working farm. When Scott Snodgrass and Clayton Garrett started their CSA in 2015, the Houston metro area wasn’t that familiar with the concept. They say their initial 350 CSA members roughly doubled the CSA membership in the area. With their 60 acres of vegetables, they became one of the biggest direct-to-consumer farms in the area—and they relished the opportunity to get more folks connected with their food and teach them about agriculture. The pair ran...

An eight-year-old Arkansas boy helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for his favorite Waffle House server after finding out the man lived in a motel room with his family. Kayzen Hunter, 8, often dines at a Waffle House restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas. That’s where he met a friendly server named Devonte Gardner, THV 11 reported. “I come with a positive attitude. I treat everybody with positivity. I love to see everybody smile,” Gardner explained to the outlet. TODAY reported when Hunter learned Gardner had been living in a motel room with his wife and two daughters for eight...

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office said the Black Lives Matter at School toolkit released by a Virginia teachers union “will not be tolerated.” The Virginia Education Association’s Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action toolkit champions BLM’s 13 principles in the classroom. It uses kindergarten through 12th grade lesson plans made by the education branch of the Southern Poverty Law Center to teach students principles including “transgender affirming,” “queer affirming,” “restorative justice,” and “globalism.” The principles promote critical race theory, a racial lens that teaches students to deconstruct American society on the premise that its institutions are “systemically...

A bartender at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colo., said early Monday that he believes the gunman who committed a mass shooting there over the weekend was targeting the LGBTQ community. During an appearance on “CNN This Morning,” Michael Anderson noted that the gunman came to one of only two gay clubs in the city. “I don’t know what was wrong with this man,” Anderson said. “I don’t know why he needed to act in this way, but he obviously had some some feelings towards — I don’t know if it was transgender people, gays, lesbians, I don’t know —...

President Joe Biden claimed he was “raised in the Puerto Rican community” during his visit to Puerto Rico on Monday. “I was sort of raised in the Puerto Rican community at home politically,” Biden said. The president commented about his experience with the Puerto Rican community during his visit to the island to tour the devastation from Hurricane Fiona. He informed the audience that in “relative terms” there was a large Puerto Rican population in his home state of Delaware.

— Anthony Grande moved away from Fort Myers three years ago in large part because of the hurricane risk. He has lived in southwest Florida for nearly 19 years, had experienced Hurricanes Charley in 2004 and Irma in 2017 and saw what stronger storms could do to the coast. Grande told CNN he wanted to find a new home where developers prioritized climate resiliency in a state that is increasingly vulnerable to record-breaking storm surge, catastrophic wind and historic rainfall. What he found was Babcock Ranch — only 12 miles northeast of Fort Myers, yet seemingly light years away. Babcock...

Chick-fil-A scrambled to explain itself after a reply to a customer with the phrase “your community” sparked allegations of racism. The social media backlash began last Friday after one user tweeted the message “grilled spicy deluxe but still noooo spicy nuggets” to the fast-food giant’s official account.

“Many people need desperately to receive this message: ‘I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.’”-Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1997, in his final book, TimequakeI have been hearing from people who feel very much alone. People who are grateful that I and many others are speaking up and out. We who speak up are publicly analyzing trends and claims. We refuse to kowtow to authoritarians, including the ones who wear lab coats or have fancy degrees or work at legacy...

The appearance of camouflage-clad militia members in the small Sierra foothills town of Mariposa as the Oak Fire raged nearby has sparked a furor in Mariposa County, with the local sheriff’s department praising the group for its help while some residents accused the militia of exploiting the disaster. The California State Militia 2nd Regiment — whose website features pictures of men in military fatigues, helmets and assault-style rifles preparing for “the unrest yet to come” — set up a mobile kitchen trailer from Saturday evening through Monday morning in the parking lot of a lumber store in Mariposa, just southwest...

This is Black Health Matters, a series shedding light on the health realities of Black people in America. Akilah Cadet, DHSc, MPH, in partnership with Healthline, aims to educate about inequities to inspire a world where everyone can attain their full health potential, regardless of the color of their skin. Imagine living in a constant state of stress. You repeatedly ask people not to touch your hair. You pretend it’s not hurtful when people say “you talk white.”

The Department of Energy on Friday announced a target of the equivalent of five million homes powered by community solar energy by 2025. The target would save $1 billion and contribute to administration goals of fully renewable electricity by 2035, according to the department. “Community solar is one of the most powerful tools we have to provide affordable solar energy to all American households, regardless of whether they own a home or have a roof suitable for solar panels,” Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement. “Achieving these ambitious targets will lead to meaningful energy cost savings, create...

Source: Greg Burton, the head of Westrock Rescue Squad, teaches local first responder volunteers how to quickly and safely extract crash victims after an accident. Photo credit Salena ZitoHOT SPRINGS, Virginia -- Where the tidy brick sidewalks end at the edge of the business district, the carnage was jarring. Two cars had their roofs sheared off. Shattered glass was strewn everywhere. In the distance, an older van was upturned, on its roof, alongside two vehicles on their sides and another car in a ditch, completely upside down and touching the creek. Known colloquially as Sam Snead Highway, the winding road...

Left leaning commentator Matthew Yglesias, who’s Jewish, tweeted today: “Think I’m becoming a Straussian/Putnamist who instrumentally wants to get everyone to go to church again.” Columnist Ross Douthat, who’s Catholic, responded: “Be the change you seek.” Yglesias retorted: “Not gonna sell out the chosen people like that! But I’m gonna go neocon and root for the Christians vs the post-Christians.” (Political philosopher Leo Strauss is considered a father of neoconservatism. Robert Putnam wrote Bowling Alone about declining social capital and civic life in America.) Although personal religious faith remains strong for many Americans, institutional Christianity is declining, with a minority...