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Benedictines of Mary, Queen of ApostlesLatest album, Angels and Saints at Ephesus,will be released in stores on May 7, 2013.

9. Chandler, Ariz. > Violent crime per 1,000 people: 2.86 (14th lowest) > Poverty rate: 8.2% (6th lowest) > Adult population graduated from high school: 91.5% (13th highest) > Credit rating: Aaa (stable outlook) > Population: 236,775 Chandler is one of the newest large cities in the U.S. The city was incorporated in 1951, but the population did not truly expand until very recently. In 1980, Chandler, which is located within the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, had a population of 30,000. Now, it has a population of 247,000. There are countless examples of cities that experienced this level of growth,...

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system. 2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system. 3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system. 4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks. 5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full...

Well this is it folks. Make sure your seat belts and safety restraints are secure and snug. Keep your arms, hands, legs, feet and head inside the ride vehicle at all times.

Robbie Middleton was doused in gasoline and set on fire on his eighth birthday in 1998He died 13 years later from cancer caused by the burns covering his bodyIn a video recorded on his deathbed he accused his alleged attacker Don Collins of raping him two weeks before he was set on fireDon Collins, now 27, is to be charged with felony murder

My older brother underwent surgery for a disk problem four days ago. The surgery apparently went well but the recovery is going very poorly. Your prayers are appreciated.

Vanity -- Why haven't we seen the stats on the number of viewers of the Veep debate? Hmm?

I sat down to a meal with some of my fellow Americans today. - I went to the Sikh temple in Durham, NC. I showed up at about 11:30 and went inside. - The Sikh speakers, especially the President of the temple, exceeded me in patriotism by a long shot. - Thomas Jefferson might have had a problem understanding the accents, but not the sentiments. - The guys I was sitting next to were both Sikh and gun owners. We talked about guns, and we’ll be getting together sometime soon to go shooting. - In short, it was a discussion...

If this analysis is anything like Hugh's constitutional knowledge, follow this analysis closely. That means Hugh is on to something. On the other hand, if this analysis is anything like Hugh's sports picks, stop reading this post immediately. Hugh realizes that some of the polls out there are basically meaningless, as they are using only registered voters with a big overwhelming sample of Democrats. That just doesn't meet the reality of the political landscape today. So, those polls following that model cannot be anywhere close to accurate. Hugh knows that Governor Romney has his own internal polls that clearly give...

I may have an opportunity to purchase a Springfield XDM 3.8 in 9mm to replace all my other firearms which I lost in an unfortunate boating accident. Does anybody here have experience with this firearm, and if so, could you give me your impressions.

If you have experience and/or knowledge of tactical flashlights please share with us. BrandsModelsLumensBattery TypePrice

In any event, some interesting aspects of the decision stand out: 1. The abuse of the commerce clause of the federal constitution appears to have been recognized, and an attempt has been made to end it. That is perhaps the least reported aspect of this decision, and it is an event that should inspire some hope. 2. That the penalty for not purchasing health insurance is a tax, is, however, a genuine worry. The full implications of this designation are hard to predict, but they certainly do not place effective restrictions on authoritarian, even totalitarian, governance. It seems the court...

Vanity posts are all the rage today so here's mine.

The core issue is whether Muslims shall be permitted to import into the West the teachings, ethics and demands of their religion. Those who answer in the affirmative do so from within a context that respects the right of the individual to profess his chosen spiritual teaching. Of course religious Liberty is fundamental; that noble sentiment is enshrined in the US constitution. It is one of the foundational tenets of a federal democratic republic that imposes absolute restrictions on its central government: hands off freedom of speech, press, and religion. This respect for human rights leads to an inescapable conclusion:...

Obama, the collectivist-authoritarian-Peronist-guide to Utopia on earth, fully understands the threat posed by his rivals, the collectivist-authoritarian-visionaries who preach Utopia as a postmortem goal. The similarities between Obama and jihadis are striking — and incendiary. Just as Jehovah’s Witnesses and conservative, Bible-believing Christians recognize each other as irreconcilable enemies, Obama and the lunatics who would impose a universal caliphate know each other well — and hate each other with a steady, instinctive ferocity. Each sect knows how steadfast and dangerous the other is because each knows itself. Call it the fear/hatred of the twin. That’s very different from the emotions...

After a contentious court hearing with convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin, conservative blogger Aaron Walker was taken into custody, The Blaze reported Tuesday. [snip] In 1981, Kimberlin was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for a long list of crimes, including the 1978 terrorist bombing that brutally maimed Vietnam veteran Carl DeLong. He served 17 years in prison before being released. Since then, he has become a liberal activist whose work has been funded in part, by George Soros' Tides Foundation, Barbra Streisand and Teresa Heinz Kerry. On May 25, The Blaze published a lengthy expose on Kimberlin, detailing his...

"I think it's a generational issue," syndicated columnist and FOX News contributor Charles Krauthammer said about the Lugar-Mourdock Senate primary in Indiana. "I think Lugar is a lion of the Senate. I think he's served very well, he's been very important in foreign affairs over these years but that doesn't appeal to voters. He's been in there for very long time. He's had a lot of moderate opinions. He's not a Tea Party favorite and I think his time will likely will have come. I'm not sure that there is anything he could have done differently in campaigning. He is...

t’s not every day that you start a business and quickly decide to say “no” to 70 percent of your potential customers. In retrospect, this turned out to be 4ormat’s secret weapon. At 4ormat, our goal is to provide an easy way for creative professionals to create and manage an online portfolio website. Although the portfolio itself looks great in all browsers, to this day, the portfolio building interface does not support Internet Explorer. And we don’t just mean IE6 or even IE7. We mean every version of Internet Explorer.

The constitutional challenge to the law’s requirement for people to buy health insurance — specifically, the argument that the mandate exceeds Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause — is rhetorically powerful but analytically so weak that it dissolves on close inspection. There’s just no there there.

What should you say, or what should you NOT say if you’re involved in a shooting? Massad Ayoob shares the 5-points to cover when the police arrive.

An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, a Latvian, a Turk, a German, an Indian, several Americans (including a southerner, a New Englander and a Californian), an Argentinean, a Dane, an Australian, a Slovakian, an Egyptian, a Japanese, a Moroccan, a Frenchman, a New Zealander, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Guatemalan, a Colombian, a Pakistani, a Malaysian, a Croatian, an Uzbek, a Cypriot, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Chinese, a Sri Lankan, a Lebanese, a Cayman Islander, a Ugandan, a Vietnamese, a Korean, a Uruguayan, a Czech, an Icelander, a Mexican, a Finn, a Honduran, a Panamanian, an Andorran,...

Explosion Destroys 2 Homes in Chandler Updated: Monday, 30 Jan 2012, 7:46 AM MST Published : Monday, 30 Jan 2012, 4:44 AM MST CHANDLER, Ariz. - An explosion near Cooper and Chandler Boulevard destroys two homes. People in the area said they heard loud explosions and debris from the first home scattered to the house next door. The Red Cross says a woman living inside the second home was able to get out of the burning house safely. The owner of the first home could not be found. Police are describing him as an older man who lives alone and...

A house in my neighborhood just blew up . The house next door to it caught on fire and is probably gone. The fire department has things under control.

Bishop Olmsted's Letter to Catholics: Coercive HHS Ruling Mandates Sterilization, Abortion-Inducing Drugs and Contraception by Bishop's Office on January 28, 2012 Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted asked that this letter be read at all Masses this weekend. This effort to alert the faithful is being conducted nationwide through the coordination of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and addresses a vital issue regarding religious liberty and our fundamental rights as U.S. Catholic citizens. Read the letter in English.Read the letter in Spanish.

This morning was the first time I shot a .460 S&W magnum round and I thought I would report my impressions: I like it.

Share your Christmas joy with your FreepFriends. Tell us what firearm related Christmas present you received.

A surprising piece of news was buried in an article this week. Friday, The Mercury News reported the three top executives at Google, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt, are offering to pay $33 million to finish the restoration of the historic airship hangar at Moffett Field. The giant structure, built in the 1930s and called Hangar One, sits a few miles from the Googleplex and it’s well known the Google executives have special permission from NASA to park their jets at Moffett.

Eric Schmidt has an idea for Congress: Do what the President wants. Google's chairman urged lawmakers to pass the $447 billion stimulus plan during an interview with Christiane Amanpour. "The economy is, today, stuck behind the power curve -- it needs a lot of encouragement,” Schmidt, who was a big supporter of Obama during his campaign and was rumored to be a candidate for the Secretary of Commerce post, told the host.

Good Morning FReepers. . . . . . . . Go to the link.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sidestepping controversy, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., declined to take sides Monday on a proposal for higher taxes backed by fellow Republicans on Congress' supercommittee, yet expressed confidence the panel would agree on a deficit-reduction plan of at least $1.2 trillion by a Nov. 23 deadline. A proposal for $300 billion in higher taxes has stirred grumbling within the ranks of congressional Republicans, for whom opposition to such measures has been political bedrock for more than two decades. One prominent conservative, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, said in a published commentary during the day that "our...

A foreigner, a Muslim and a Marxist walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What can I get you, Mr. President?"

Game with Giants delayed.

By J.D. Long-García | Sept. 23, 2011 | The Catholic Sun Plans are underway in the Diocese of Phoenix to implement new local norms for the distribution of Holy Communion that will bring the local Church in line with universal Church guidelines.As a result, the Precious Blood will not be offered at every Sunday Mass, but instead be reserved for special occasions, left to the determination of each parish pastor. The change will bring local Catholic celebration of the Eucharist into union with the practice of the faithful around the world. Receiving Communion under both kinds is uncommon in most...

I'm passing this on because it worked for me today. A Dr. on TV said to have inner peace we should always finish things we start & we all could use more calm in our lives. I looked around my house to find things I'd started & hadn't finished, so I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bodle of Vodka, a butle of wum, tha mainder of Valiuminun scriptins, an a box a chocletz. Yu haf no idr how fablus I feel rite now. Sned this to all who need inner piss. An telum u luvum..

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 6, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - While surveying the landscape for inroads to push the homosexual agenda into Poland, American embassy officials under the Obama administration complained that the Catholic Church teaching is a major source of “homophobia” in the heavily Catholic country, according to private cables recently published by Wikileaks. The cables from the American embassy in Warsaw, marked “sensitive but unclassified,” were part of a dump of over 250,000 official government documents last week by Wikileaks. One cable from the American embassy in Warsaw dated August 2009 pointed to the Catholic Church as central in promoting “homophobia”...

oogle Android captured 48% of the smartphone market in Q2 of 2011, hitting an all-time high, according to a report by market research firm Canalys. The platform has been making big strides during the past year, overtaking Symbian in Q4 of 2010 to become the top smartphone platform, representing a 32.9% market share at that time. Smartphone adoption continues to grow rapidly across the world, reaching a total of 107.7 million units shipped in Q2 of 2011, a 73% year-on-year growth. Android was the biggest driver of smartphone shipments in Q2, as Android-based smartphone shipments were up 379% year-over-year, coming...

The Budget Mess Is there a more tiresome, complex and confusing subject? Perhaps, but The New Terrapin cannot imagine it. The mere thought of being involved in “negotiations” with a cynical ideologue who spouts untruthful, jargon-laden slogans and makes demands that cannot rationally be met is immensely fatiguing. Just getting a man like Obama to understand the logic of one’s contrary viewpoint must be a Sisyphean task, for all ideologues find it almost impossible to suspend the self-censorship imposed by their partisan faiths. They don’t recognize the world out there, and they can’t deal with it without using force. For...

I've been watching a friend of mine, George Lind, in the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship. Out of 128 players, he's number 14 and hanging on by a thread. The last tournament I watched him in he came in second.

NEW Statement from SOLT on Father John Corapi Tuesday, July 05, 2011 Here is the statement that I received this morning: July 5, 2011 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE From: Rev. Gerard Sheehan, solt Regional Priest Servant Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Robstown, Texas Fr. John A. Corapi submitted his resignation from the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity ("SOLT") early in June. SOLT is a Society of Apostolic Life of Diocesan Right with its regional office in Robstown, Texas. While SOLT does not typically comment publicly on personnel matters, it recognizes that Fr. John...

World history is the progress of the consciousness of freedom. Stunning The New York Times has published a bitter, whining screed that has to be one of the most amazing pieces ever to appear in its pages. Written by a journalist, it is, in essence, a complaint with a purpose: it decries a politician’s view of the news media, and then does all it can to disqualify that politician as a candidate for public office. Just how goofy or extreme would a politician’s denunciation have to be to provoke a journalist into reacting that strongly? It seems reasonable to assume...

A parish music director in Phoenix has recently completed a major project in the renewal of sacred music, one that could have a revolutionary impact upon the celebration of the Ordinary form of the Mass all over the English-speaking world, as the latter prepares for the renewal of sacred language on its way this winter, courtesy of the new translation of the OF Roman Missal.Adam Bartlett, director of music at St. Joan of Arc parish, is the composer and compiler of the Simple English Propers, an anthology of music for the Mass that is unlike anything else available in English...

Inflation Part Three: The New Deal, The Great Depression, And Today Two major themes dominate the overview of how FDR attempted to cope with financial and economic disaster: first, he tried hard to increase governmental control of the economy by increasing regulation and regimentation, and second, he tried to inject money into the economy by hiring people. The push for a centrally-controlled economy was a huge mistake. At first, it pitted the president against the supreme court, which tossed out some of his vital legislation. Furious, FDR threatened the court, which backed down (“the switch in time that saved nine”)...

I just heard a caller on the Rush Limbaugh show who claimed to have been studying the phenomenon of Sarah Hatred among women. Her observation is that Sarah is a "10", and that the women who hate her do so out of jealousy because they are "8"s or under, including the Republican women who hate Sarah, because they are women first and Republicans second. Sarah has it all and women hate women who have it all. If Sarah were frumpy and had cankles like another well-known female politician, they might not hate her. She also said that Sarah has machismo,...

Tough on Crime Protecting Children On the Internet In early 2007 my office did a study that found that over 85% of registered sex offenders in New York City live less than five blocks from schools, and 670 sex offenders live within just two blocks. Some offenders are even closer, permanently residing less than 500 feet away from unwitting parents, educators and children. Along with several colleagues in Congress, we introduced & passed the KIDS (Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators) Act of 2007, a bill to require sex offenders to register their e-mail and instant message addresses with...

It's all the rage!

On the day of the Beatification of Pope John Paul II, the world witnessed an incredible miracle the likes of which it may never see again.

Mystery surrounds the ATF Gunwalker scandal. Who authorized the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ stingless sting operation that allowed, indeed enabled thousands of U.S. guns to flow to Mexican drug cartels? Why is the Obama administration stonewalling the Congressional investigation of Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious? What else are they hiding? And here’s another one: why has Mexican President Felipe Calderon remained on the sidelines of this story, continuing to cozy-up to President Obama when it’s clear that Uncle Sam supplied weapons to the narco-terrorists plaguing his country? Well, it looks like we might have an...