Free Republic

A theme that dramas and soap operas have dwelled on is the spats people can have over what their ancestors may leave for them. Life imitates art has been my experience seeing relatives squabble over the dead carcasses, but some have taken the issue to heart in a new television series on the Fox Business Network (FBN) called Strange Inheritance. The episodes I watched did not involve fisticuffs, but they incorporate many of the same decisions that one has to confront upon the death of a loved one. First, there are the wishes of the dear departed. What did the...

The Night Prayer of the Church as a “Rehearsal for Death” By: Msgr. Charles PopeSome years ago I was addressing a group of young adults at a “Theology on Tap” gathering. I was asked by an attendee of some ways to avoid temptation. Among the things I offered was to meditate frequently on death, especially at night before going to bed. The bar got very quiet and everyone looked at me as though I had just been speaking Swahili. “What did he just say?…Could you repeat that?” Perhaps my remarks were the right answer but the wrong answer at...

Remembering Andrew Breitbart

(CNN)Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said his office has received death threats since his controversial comments accusing President Barack Obama of not loving America.

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Thursday called on nations around the world to expand human rights, religious tolerance and peaceful dialogue as they struggle to combat a spate of terrorism that has recently struck places as far afield as Australia, Canada and Europe. In an address to world leaders on the final day of his summit on violent extremism, Mr. Obama said that poverty and political grievances fuel alienation that can lead to bursts of killing like those seen in Paris, Copenhagen, Sydney and Ottawa. In addition to building up security forces, he said nations must “put an end to...

Four-year-old Adelle Biton, who passed away following a rapid deterioration in her condition due to a bout with pneumonia, will be buried in her hometown of Yakir in Samaria, the family announced on Tuesday night. The Biton family said that the funeral will take place on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., despite the difficulties imposed by the Civil Administration, which denied the request to bury Adelle in Yakir, citing the lack of a master plan for a cemetery in a 20 dunam area set aside by the Shomron Regional Council. Adelle was critically wounded in March 2013, when the family car...

The clip, meant to stress the importance of paying attention in church and meetings, has been criticized for insinuating that not fully focusing during such gatherings can result in dying, even connecting the concept to the story of Noah’s Ark. JW.org has not yet responded to the backlash. A Jehovah's Witness promotional cartoon has been slammed for appearing to threaten children who don't pay attention in church with death. Viewers have dubbed the controversial animated clip, posted to YouTube by JW.org, as "stupid," "dumb" and "mind control." It begins with two youngsters attending a service with their parents. A little...

The number of people driving under the influence of alcohol on U.S. roads continues to decline, but the number of drivers using marijuana and prescription drugs that can affect road safety is climbing, according to two studies released by the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. One study found that the number of inebriated drivers has declined by nearly one-third since 2007, but that same survey found a large increase in the number of drivers using marijuana or other illegal drugs. In the 2014 survey, nearly one in four drivers tested positive for at least one drug that...

WASHINGTON — The military’s Tricare health insurance is a broken system that is now in a “death spiral” and must be replaced, a congressional review commission told the House on Wednesday. The insurance has been veering toward less choice and access since it was created and now falls far behind other networks in its number of providers and ability to incorporate new types of medical care, members of the Military Retirement and Compensation Modernization Commission testified before an Armed Services subcommittee. The testimony is the beginning of hearings on Capitol Hill so lawmakers can consider legislation to overhaul the health...

Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, When I’m 64? A Refutation of the Latest Assisted Suicide Bill By: Msgr. Charles PopeA bill has been introduced in the Washington D.C. City Council to legalize assisted suicide. And thus yet another battle is before us in the cultural meltdown of our land. Unpleasant though it is, dear reader, consider with me the proposed legislation and why we, as both Christians and those dedicated to Natural Law and the common good, must vigorously oppose it.As a tool for reflection, I am using an article published recently on the website DCist.com. I...

Sober Scriptural Wisdom on Avoiding the Whirlwind of Lust By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere is a marvelous chapter in the Book of Proverbs that ought to be studied by every young person who must live in this lustful world. Its sets forth plainly the stance that any son or daughter of God should have regarding the lust so often celebrated by this age.Many preachers and teachers wince at the Book of Proverbs on this topic since it tends to portray seduction and lust as coming from women.However it must be recalled that Proverbs features a father speaking to his son....

He was a small business owner in Kent, WA and loved his family, work, clients, traveling, the Seahawks and life. We blame the Seahawks lousy play call for Mike's untimely demise. Mike was greatly loved and will be dearly missed.

An instant candidate for the so-bad-it’s-sort-of-great hall of fame, “Jupiter Ascending’’ is totally bonkers, a sort of black-velvet-Elvis mash-up of “Star Wars’’ and every other sci-fi/fantasy movie of the past half-century right up to “The Hunger Games.” Look, there’s Mila Kunis as another chosen one, spending 10 percent of the movie cleaning toilets! A shirtless Channing Tatum in Mr. Spock ears, trying to pretend he doesn’t love Kunis! And poor Eddie Redmayne — up for Best Actor for “The Theory of Everything” — flamboyantly camping it up (oops, Oscar voting begins Friday) as an intergalactic real-estate mogul-cum-mass-murderer bent on marrying...

After a debate of more than an hour, Lexington's Board of Adjustment voted 6-1 Friday to allow an Islamic community center on Armstrong Mill Road. The existing Islamic Center, on South Limestone, had applied for a conditional use permit for a worship center on a 9-acre site on Armstrong Mill Road currently zoned agricultural.

BLUFFTON, Ind. (WANE) – Court documents outline gruesome details in the death and treatment of a 3-year-old whose presumed disappearance prompted an hours-long community-wide search on Sunday. Three people are being held by police in the death of Owen Collins. The child was apparently dead, in the home, for almost an entire day before his body was put in a cardboard box, dumped in the woods and set on fire. The mother of Owen Collins, 21-year-old Breanna J. Arnold and Zachary S. Barnes, 30, were each arrested and preliminarily charged on two felonies: neglect of a dependent resulting in the...

As the old saying goes, there are two things that are certain in life, death and taxes. Tomorrow night during his 2015 State of the Union speech, President Obama will announce that people paying taxes their entire lives just isn't good enough. The President wants the current 40 percent death tax rate increased to 60 percent. Americans for Tax Reform breaks down the details: 2. Stealth increase in the death tax rate from 40% to nearly 60%. Under current law, when you inherit an asset your basis in the asset is the higher of the fair market value at the...

After a terminally ill woman made headlines when she moved to Oregon so she could end her life under a doctor’s care, two State Senators are hoping to bring a similar law to New York. “There are only five states in the country that allow for people to make end of life decisions similar to what Oregon does, and New York is not one of them,” State Senator Diane Savino told the Observer. Brittany Maynard, 29, was suffering from brain cancer when she ended her life November 1 with a lethal dose of secobarbital prescribed by her physician. In New...

Multiculturalism fosters and perpetuates myths that Islam is the religion of peace, not death; that it is benign like other world religions and improves Western civilization. In Obama's world, such fantasies are reality. They are principal bases of His foreign policies.IslamI argued here and here that adherents to Islam, not to "radical" or "extremist" Islam, but to Islam, are the perpetrators and supporters of the Islamic slaughter of those with whose ideologies and actions they disagree. They demand submission and will tolerate nothing less. In His January 4, 2009 address in Cairo, Obama proclaimed: America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap,...

WASHINGTON – During the weeks before he was killed in a car crash in Los Angeles, reporter Michael Hastings was researching a story about a privacy lawsuit brought by Florida socialite Jill Kelley against the Department of Defense and the FBI. Hastings, 33, was scheduled to meet with a representative of Kelley next week in Los Angeles to discuss the case, according to a person close to Kelley. Hastings wrote for Rolling Stone and the website BuzzFeed. Kelley alleges that military officials and the FBI leaked her name to the media to discredit her after she reported receiving a stream...

Lou Cannon has a nice remembrance in RealClearPolitics of Martin Anderson, the economist and adviser to Ronald Reagan who died last week at 78. He touches on all of Anderson's accomplishments, from his successful advocacy in the Nixon White House to abolish the military draft to his unearthing, with his wife Annelise Anderson and Kiron Skinner, the handwritten drafts of Ronald Reagan's radio speeches, which show the impressive breadth of Reagan's reading and depth of his thinking. Let me add one more item to the list: Anderson's 1964 book "The Federal Bulldozer: A Critical Analysis of Urban Renewal 1942-1962." When...