Free Republic

The new Roseanne Conner was unrecognizable, a once proudly feminist freethinker that was conned into voting against her family’s best interests (not that the show wanted to get into that), and a survivor of parental abuse that went from vowing to never strike her kids to championing spanking a teenager. It felt like the Roseanne revival was written by people working from glancing at Wiki summaries of old episodes; the characters were all there, but their personalities had been edited by randos. Now, in the kind of scientific sitcom experiment that we practically never see conducted, we get to witness...

In Cinncinatti, President Donald J. Trump rankled the mainstream media yet again this weekend with seemingly complimentary comments regarding Confederate General Robert E. Lee as a "great" military leader. Yet, a full tale of the tape reveals that the commander-in-chief only made such comments as a preface to heralding Union General and United States President Ulysses S. Grant as a truly exceptional leader who was finally able to help President Abraham Lincoln defeat the South.First, NBC News tweeted an edited clip without context that made it appear as if President Donald J. Trump were discussing only Robert E. Lee. In the...

A now-former Ohio University student senator was charged Monday by the OU Police Department with three counts of “making false alarms,” after reporting that she had received a series of threatening messages, including a death threat targeting her as an LGBTQ person. After Anna Ayers, 21, of Ligonier, Pennsylvania, reported that she had received those threatening messages two weeks ago, the OU Police investigated her claims and found that she had “placed the messages herself, prior to reporting them,” according to an OU Police news release issued early Monday evening. Ayers resigned form her position on Student Senate as Senate’s...

Some time ago, Kyle S. Reyes, CEO of a company called the Silent Partner Marketing, got sick and tired of dealing with prospective employees who were a poor match with his business philosophy. “We get hundreds and hundreds of people reaching out to work for us,” he said. “I … realized it was a time suck on my staff and me to be weeding through endless piles of paper trying to find the handful of people who actually want to hustle for a living and would be a great fit for our company. So I’ve implemented something that is going...

Pepsi's slogan may have once been "The Choice of a New Generation," but one grocery store owner has chosen to no longer sell its products because they feature the NFL logo. A Facebook post from S&Z Grocery in Athens, Alabama, stated the store would not sell the products until the logo is removed. “This may cause me to lose some business, but here goes. S&Z supermarket currently will not be selling 20 ounce Pepsi or Diet Pepsi. These two items are currently produced with the NFL logo on them. I refuse to sell the product until the logo is removed....

It must be exhausting. The idea that everyone is out to get you is classically thought of as extreme paranoia. However, some people probably do have some grounds to be concerned about their safety. After all, there are those in the world who receive death threats by the dozens. But even one death threat is enough to make anyone concerned. It doesn’t help when you go out of your way to piss people off, either. Perhaps that’s why anti-gun activist and Parkland kid Emma Gonzalez decided to admit that she’s terrified someone with a gun sticker on their car will...

The conservative national security community in Washington is not known for its enlightened thinking on gender identity. Yet, so far, Giselle said, she has received nothing but support from her bosses at the American Enterprise Institute, where she works as a resident fellow in defense and security studies. AEI President Arthur Brooks and Vice President for Foreign Policy Danielle Pletka told me their decision to support Giselle was a simple one, since she’s the same person dedicated to the same principles that made her a good fit for the institution all this time. “We are proud that she is part...

A longtime foreign policy expert and conservative scholar is re-introducing herself to Washington. Giselle Donnelly is publicly acknowledging her gender identity after a career built as Thomas Donnelly, according to a report in the Washington Post. Donnelly, who spent decades hiding her gender and years in self-reflection, is now living openly as a trans woman. The 65-year-old is a resident fellow in defense and security studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, has been supportive of her transition. AEI executives said that Donnelly is the same person with the same principles that had always made her a...

WEST YORKSHIRE, United Kingdom, October 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A biologically male rapist who “identifies” as a woman has received a life sentence for sexually assaulting four female inmates at an all-female facility, as well as for his previous offenses. Stephen Wood, a 52-year-old man and convicted sex offender and pedophile who now goes by the name "Karen White,” was incarcerated at the all-female New Hall Prison. He had previously pled guilty for raping one woman in 2003 and another in 2016, and was awaiting sentencing for stabbing a neighbor last year. Soon after arriving at the facility, he allegedly...

Baby mice have been made with two mums and no dad, say researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It took a substantial feat of genetic engineering to break the rules of reproduction. The scientists said the "bimaternal" (two mammas) animals were healthy and went on to have pups of their own. But there was bad news on the all-male front. Mice with double-dads were attempted, but died within days of being born. Why even try?The researchers were trying to answer fundamental questions about why we have sex. Mammals, including us, can make babies only through sexual reproduction - aka...

ROME - On Wednesday the Vatican released the list of figures who will shape the concluding document of the Oct. 3-28 Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment, and based on the composition of the group, conservatives in the Church may feel anew that they’ve been given a cold shoulder. Elected by region, the five prelates chosen by a vote within the synod hall to draft the final document are: Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, Archbishop of Mexico City, a papal delegate to the synod; Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, Prefect of the Vatican dicastery for Integral Human...

The Little Sisters of the Poor took their fight to not have to pay for abortions in their health care plan all the way to the Supreme Court and won. So that should be the end of the battle right? Not so much. Last year, pro-abortion attorneys general in Pennsylvania and several other states filed lawsuits to overturn new religious protections issued by the Trump administration. The new rules protect the nuns and other religious employers from having to pay for drugs that may cause abortions in their employee health care plans. A federal judge blocked the rule in response...

Actress Rosie O’Donnell might just be engaged to Worcester Police officer Elizabeth Rooney, according to reports. Rooney, 33, and O’Donnell, 56, have been reportedly dating for about a year, and went public with their relationship in November of 2017 after O'Donnell's second marriage ended in divorce. According to the Dailey Mail, O’Donnell proposed to Rooney over the summer, but kept it quiet due to Rooney’s job with the Worcester Police. This would be Rooney’s first marriage, after she updated her Instagram profile to show a ring next to the letter "R."

Francis’ glowing send-off of Wuerl signals he’s ‘not the Pope to clean out the stables’: scholar WASHINGTON, D.C., October 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis’ praise of Cardinal Wuerl for his “nobility” and “docility to the Spirit” in his letter accepting the Cardinal’s resignation signals that Francis is “not the Pope to clean out the stables” of the abuse crisis that is rocking the Church, a Catholic scholar said.  Oxford University’s Dr. Joseph Shaw told LifeSiteNews that Pope Francis’s Oct. 12 letter accepting Cardinal Wuerl’s resignation “makes it very clear” that he doesn’t want to punish his subordinate.  “In...

A member of student government at Ohio University has been charged with a misdemeanor after she allegedly made false statements to police about receiving threatening messages. Anna Ayers, who is a member of the OU Student Senate, was arrested Monday and charged by the Ohio University Police Department with three separate counts of “making false alarms.” It is alleged that Ayers falsely reported multiple threatening messages, including a “death threat,” which she claims was because of her being a member of the LGBTQ community. “Ayers previously reported receiving a series of threatening messages, two of them in the Student Senate...

How can we help “transgender school children” (i.e., school children with gender dysphoria)? The necessarily frank answer is by keeping them away from the overreaching, uncompromising assertions made by the most vocal — though by no means most representative — trans activists. That’s the conclusion I’ve come to after debating a trans “celebrity” for The Spectator podcast about my cover story last week. You can listen here. In my essay, I examine the situation in schools both in the U.K. and the U.S. I start by sharing how, as a teacher in Scotland, I was trained by a government-funded campaign...

The editorial board of the New York Times declared it had identified the source of “The Catholic Church’s Unholy Stain.” It names pedophilia and asks: “How have so many pedophiles been allowed into the priesthood?” The question was purely rhetorical because the board had an answer ready. It cited the usual grounds: “the all-male priesthood and the celibacy imposed on Catholic priests; the elitism, careerism and clericalism of the church hierarchy; the lack of transparency or accountability among bishops.” Most damning is “the power a man of God has over a child.” Every parent knows instinctively that sexual abuse of...

A retired Sycamore Junior High School drama teacher who was on trial for allegedly molesting five of his students apparently took his own life as his attorney and a prosecutor were preparing to begin closing arguments Wednesday morning. David Michael Bruce, 68, was found dead in his home in an unincorporated area of Anaheim, said Carrie Braun, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Neil Patrick Harris and Whoopi Goldberg had an awkward exchange on Wednesday’s episode of “The View.” The actor talked about working with Goldberg on “Clara’s Heart” in 1988 and recalled an exchange that caught him off-guard. “You know, I did my first movie ever with Whoopi Goldberg. A movie called ‘Clara’s Heart,’” Harris said. “She told me, I was 15, 16 years old, she told me on my last day of shooting that in 10 years’ time she was going to have sex with me,” he said. The audience erupted with a mixture of shock and laughter. Goldberg, 62, who...

If Tom Arnold was ever relevant, he’s working overtime to recapture that nanosecond. And his tactics are brilliant: act like a petulant baby. He was belligerent during his interview with Megyn Kelly, and quite combative during a recent sit-down with Ben Shapiro. Most recently, Arnold has been recorded being a complete jerk to Gosnell star Dean Cain, using politics as an excuse to smear and yell at him. During a guest slot on Larry King’s show, Arnold ran into Cain and things got a little heated to say the least. This was their first meeting since a prickly social media...