Free Republic

President Joe Biden tried to emphasize the importance of the January 6 Committee hearings on Capitol Hill on Friday but admitted he was too “busy” to watch them himself. “It’s important the American people understand what truly happened and to understand that the same forces that led to Jan. 6 remain at work today,” Biden said.

Cargojet Airways. This 33-year old jet (C-FCAE) had racked up a staggering 140,249 flight hours as of April 2021. Flying for German leisure carrier Condor, the busiest of these 28-year-old veterans (D-ABUC) had amassed 138,671 hours as of April 2021. Meanwhile, D-ABUA had 137,969 hours, and D-ABUB had 136,325. This de Havilland Dash 8-100 turboprop belongs to Norwegian regional carrier Widerøe, and had completed a staggering 109,976 flight cycles in its 28 years of service as of March 2021. This works out at an average of 3,930 a year!

The Sins That Come From Being a Busybody – A Meditation on a Teaching of St. Gregory By: Msgr. Charles PopeFaults in others I can see, but praise the Lord there’re none in me!The term “busybody” usually refers to one who is intent on the matters of others but looks little to his own issues. Busybodies also tend to focus especially on the faults, foibles, and troubles of other folks. Seldom are they chattering away about good news related to other people; more often it is the scurrilous and scandalous that occupy their minds.Merriam-Webster online defines a busybody as  “a person who...

All is Calm, All is Bright…Really? Maybe This Video Will Help By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe video below was produced by the Archdiocese of Washington for our “Find the Perfect Gift” Christmas outreach. It is an attempt to refocus Catholics and non-Catholics on the truest and most perfect gift of Christmas, Jesus Christ. It also invites each of us to give the perfect gift, the gift of our very self to God and to one another.The video illustrates well a problem that we can all have at Christmas: hectic, hurried lives, made even busier by “holiday” requirements and traditions. These traditions,...

WASHINGTON - Colorado Sen. Mark Udall, who was to appear with President Barack Obama in Denver at a Democratic fundraiser Wednesday, says he's too busy with legislative business in Washington to attend. In a statement, Udall said that "due to last-minute votes and legislative activity" he will be unable to make the trip back to Colorado for the event. ...

Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry Relax. This won't last long. Or if it does, or if the lines make you sleepy or bored, give in to sleep, turn on the T.V., deal the cards. This poem is built to withstand such things. Its feelings cannot be hurt. They exist somewhere in the poet, and I am far away. Pick it up anytime. Start it in the middle if you wish. It is as approachable as melodrama, and can offer you violence if it is violence you like. Look, there's a man on a sidewalk;...

Attorneys representing former Alaska governor Sarah Palin have written to Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, serving notice of possible litigation for defamation in connection with Joe McGinniss’s recent anti-Palin biography, and warning the company not to delete or destroy relevant documents.

President Obama keeps trying to turn attention to “jobs, jobs, jobs,” as his chief of staff has put it. But he is finding that it can be hard to focus on any one issue when so many demand attention, often unexpectedly. And as the lackluster employment report on Friday suggested, showing concern is not the same as showing results. The president and his party have now entered a midterm election year in which they expect to lose seats in Congress after big gains in the last two cycles. Just how many they lose will probably hinge more on pocketbook politics...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush expressed remorse that the global financial crisis has cost jobs and harmed retirement accounts and said he'll back more government intervention if needed to ease the recession. "I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said in a wide-ranging interview with ABC's "World News," which was airing Monday. "Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."...

5/17/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Aircraft pack the flightline here and operations are non-stop and intense. C-130 Hercules, MQ-1 Predators, F-16 Fighting Falcons and HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters all call this busy base home. The men and women who support the aircraft say Balad has the busiest single-runway airfield in the Department of Defense. One look and anyone can see this is probably true. “The benefits of this forward operating airfield are immeasurable,” said Capt. Brian Chandler, 332nd Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron airfield operations flight commander. “Without this airfield, it would be much more difficult to be...

Several hundred protesters in Tijuana, Mexico blocked vehicle traffic heading to San Diego on Monday, turning the world's busiest border crossing into an empty parking lot. U.S. authorities responded by closing the metal barriers in front of vehicle inspection lanes for "security purposes" about 1 p.m. at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, which links Tijuana with San Diego. However, Angelica De Cima, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Customs Service, which runs the port, stressed that the port remained open to the few vehicles that were able to make it through the crowd. "We are there to do our law...

Weather Experts Predict Busy Storm Season Tuesday March 21, 2006 12:46 AM NEW YORK (AP) - The 2006 hurricane season will be more active than normal but not as busy as 2005, and the Northeast will be hit by a major hurricane within five years, a private forecaster predicted Monday. Experts at AccuWeather, based in State College, Pa., predicted this year's hurricane season won't quite top last year's record number of named storms and 14 hurricanes. A normal season consists of 11 named storms, with five or six hurricanes, said Ken Reeves, senior meteorologist and director of the company's forecast...

SACRAMENTO - The Legislature acted on a wide range of bills Monday in its final two weeks, focusing on such diverse topics as paper trails for electronic voting machines, pocket bikes, e-mail spam, Internet hunting, teen drivers, Viagra and the governor's finances. Taking direct aim at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Assembly Democrats passed a bill that would force politicians to disclose more detailed information about outside income. Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez, D-Mission Hills, said her AB 534 would close the loophole that would have allowed Schwarzenegger to earn money -- at least $1 million a year -- from a muscle magazine publisher...

`NAWA, Afghanistan (Army News Service, Aug. 22, 2005) – It wasn’t even noon yet and already Sgt. Christopher Turner had been hit in the face by concrete fragments, forced to deputize a chaplain to man his under-strength aid station, and given emergency CPR to an officer who had stopped breathing. “I’m just managing the chaos,” Turner said cheerfully as he prepped another IV bag for use. Turner, 29, originally from Glenrothes, Scotland, is a medic attached to the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment. He has been busy since the battalion began combat operations in Eastern Afghanistan...

Legal wars stirring over election 2004 Concerns about voter enfranchisement and the system's integrity have lawyers busy already. By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor 10/21/2004 WASHINGTON – For weeks, reports of potential trouble have been trickling in from around the country. There are the suspicious - or clearly fraudulent - signatures on voter registrations. There are the allegedly unreliable electronic voting machines, controversies over lists of ex-felons, and conflicting court rulings over provisional ballots. And, as always, there is human and mechanical error. Chances are, the 2004 election will not be close enough in key...

Church-state rats in pews by Terry Mattingly Call it church-state espionage. Unitarians and other activists on the religious left have been slipping into evangelical pews to endure altar calls, praise songs and sermons against gay marriage. The Kansas-based Mainstream Coalition has a simple reason for doing this. If preachers openly endorse President Bush, its agents can report these crimes to the IRS. Reacting to these watchdogs on the left, the Religious Freedom Action Coalition promptly launched Big Brother Church Watch -- www.ratoutachurch.org -- to infiltrate churches that might back Sen. John Kerry. Big Brother agents will, for starters, target Unitarian...

Easley, Bowles sit out Democrats' gathering By J. ANDREW CURLISS, Staff Writer Published: Jul 27, 2004 Modified: Jul 27, 2004 3:46 PM Missing from this week's giant gathering of Democrats in Boston are two of North Carolina's most high-profile Democrats: Gov. Mike Easley and Erskine Bowles, who is running to replace Sen. John Edwards. Easley and Bowles are staying home while their party's leaders and foot soldiers rally around presumptive nominee John Kerry and his running mate, Edwards. Spokesmen for Easley and Bowles said the two are not running away from Kerry but will be busy in North Carolina and...

Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly. -------- snip! ---------- Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report. ...

Wed Nov 19, 2:49 PM ET Voicing off : An anti-Bush protester screams through a burnt American flag outside the Mall at Buckingham Palace in London to protest US President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s four-day state visit to Britain. (AFP/Jim Watson) British police officers clash with demonstrators outside Buckingham Palace in London, during the visit of President George W. Bush , November 19, 2003. (David Bebber/Reuters)Reuters - Nov 19 2:59 PM Anti-war protesters dressed up as Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and President George W. Bush lead a demonstration through central London, November 19, 2003. The march was a...