Free Republic

“There are but 155 years left … at which time … the world will come to an end,” wrote Christopher Columbus in his book “Libro de Las Profecias,” composed in 1502 between his third and fourth voyages. Columbus continued: “… The sign which convinces me that our Lord is hastening the end of the world is the preaching of the Gospel recently in so many lands.” Though his predictions were off, Columbus’ writings revealed his motivation for setting sail on his first voyage Aug. 3, 1492, with the Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria. He sought to find a sea...

"Who has the key to the liquor cabinet? I've got 25 people lined up over there!" yelled one worker at the store. Shoppers were lined up down every aisle waiting to check out. At Costco stores around the area, people stocked up in bulk, apparently specifically on liquor. "Hat tip to the lady in front of me at Costco. 18 bottles of wine, 2 cases of Fremont IPA, & cherry tomatoes. Godspeed, ma'am," wrote MS Kalara on Twitter. At Fred Meyer, shoppers described a "war zone" of "combat shopping."

PARIS -- The "yellow vests" in France are worrying greens around the world. The worst riots in Paris in decades were sparked by higher fuel taxes, and French President Emmanuel Macron responded by scrapping them Wednesday. But taxes on fossil fuels are just what international climate negotiators, meeting in Poland this week, say are desperately needed to help wean the world off of fossil fuels and slow climate change. Macron said the higher tax was his way of trying to prevent the end of the world. But the yellow vest protesters turned that around with the slogan: "it's hard to...

Climate change isn’t just about extreme heat waves in distant future decades, or melting glaciers far away from the neighborhoods, forests and farms of Virginia. Storms are dropping heavier rainfall, summer nights aren't cooling off as much, tides are creeping higher than before – and it’s already happening in our backyards. Those trends are likely to continue and intensify by the time a child growing up today gets to retirement age. The scenarios and the evidence are laid out in a new report called the Fourth National Climate Assessment, which was composed by hundreds of experts across 13 federal agencies.

Another MAGA Conservative kicked off Twitter. I was on Twitter posting and retweeting today for the first time in many months as a result of the arrest of the Florida False Flag bomber. (Yeah, I'm calling it a False Flag operation because Sayoc sure isn't a good MAGA pro-Trump Republican is he?) Anyway, I did a bunch of tweeting and retweeting today (and did a pretty good job of flaming libs if I don't mind saying so) but was locked out due to "unusual activity" on my account. I then had to do the identify stoplights and cars test to...

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – GOLDMAN SACHS EXECUTIVE DINA POWELL HAS WITHDRAWN FROM CONSIDERATION TO SUCCEED NIKKI HALEY AS THE U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS, A SOURCE FAMILIAR WITH THE MATTER SAID ON THURSDAY.

CNN's political director suggested Thursday that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is likely to be confirmed after Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voiced approval of how the FBI conducted its supplementary investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against the judge. "I think the ballgame’s over here," CNN political director David Chalian said on the network after Collins said the FBI's review appeared to be "very thorough." "I think that’s why … Susan Collins's statement is a hugely significant moment, because the entire argument from the Democratic side about the investigation was that it wasn’t thorough, that it wasn’t complete," Chalian added.

Swedish rock band Europe, best known for their 1987 arena hit "The Final Countdown," are enjoying their biggest chart success ever - thanks to GEICO. Placement in the insurance agency's current "It's What You Do" campaign, where a bunch of office workers wait around as an employee heats up a burrito while the band rocks out in the corner, has vaulted the song to Number 1 on multiple Billboard charts. Last month, Billboard reported that "The Final Countdown" spent four weeks atop its Hard Rock Digital Songs chart, giving the band their first Number 1 in their career. "The Final...

A British woman says she has finally found the true meaning of marriage now that she has divorced her husband and married her dog. Amanda Rodgers and her dog/wife Sheba appeared on British television's ITV's "This Morning" Tuesday to discuss why she decided to wed her pet in a ceremony attended by 200 people in Croatia last week, reports the Mirror. "She was two weeks old and she was new to the world — but I fell in love with her," Rodgers, 47, told the show's hosts. "I knew that we were meant to be." RELATED: BRAZILIAN MAN PLANS TO...

The White House’s budget office has notified federal agencies that the government is shutting down Tuesday, after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a temporary spending plan. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said late Monday in a memorandum to agency heads that there was no indication Congress would approve a short-term funding measure before the midnight deadline. She said federal agencies should execute their plans for an orderly shutdown. The deadline for a shutdown came and went at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, after a lengthy battle between the Republican-controlled U.S. House...

Global average temperature has been flat for a decade. But frightening myths about global warming continue. We're told there are more hurricanes now. We're told that hurricanes are stronger. But the National Hurricane Center says it isn't so. Meteorologist Maria Molina told me it's not surprising that climatologists assumed hurricanes would get worse. "Hurricanes need warm ocean waters," but it turns out that "hurricanes are a lot more complicated than just warm ocean waters." Computer models have long predicted nasty effects from our production of greenhouse gasses. But the nasty effects have not appeared. As far as hurricanes, more hit...

Archbishop prays while topless gay activists shout curses and douse him with water BY JOHN-HENRY WESTEN Wed Apr 24, 2013 16:44 ESTComments ()Tags: Andre-Joseph BRUSSELS, April 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an astonshing display of gentleness in the face of a vile attack, the head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, remained calmly seated with eyes closed in prayer Tuesday as four topless women attacked him with shouts and curses and doused him with water. It’s not the first time the bishop has been attacked for standing up for the Church’s teachings on homosexuality and expressing his...

A Catholic’s Guide to Surviving the End of the World As We Know It By Emily Stimpson Does anyone else feel like one night, not too long ago, they went to bed in a reasonably normal world and woke up to a world scripted by Albert Camus?My hand’s up. Way, way up. I know I’m still supposed to be bubbling over with Easter joy (and believe me, I’m doing my due diligence in the chocolate-eating department), but the culture’s rapid and violent pivot to absurdism has me too disoriented for bubbling. Spinning is more like it.I mean, we’ve got George...

Remember back in 2011 when radio broadcaster and end-of-the-world prognosticator Harold Camping predicted the world’s end on October 21 yet the day passed with nary a sign of Armageddon? Last year, the ancient Mayans and a few North American self-proclaimed prophets like Warren Jeffs had various dates in December pegged for the end. Imagine the surprise of their true believers when the sun came up the next day. Did they feel relief? Disappointment? Skepticism (somewhat overdue) toward their leaders? Some no doubt have left the cult while others wait in trepidation for their prophet to predict a new date of...

George Noory hosts. Tonight's topics: "Apocalipticism" and "End of the Mayan Calendar".

SAN DIEGO - With his gas mask on and machete in hand, Nikko Sanchez is ready for December 21. "It does possibly mean the end of the world," said Sanchez. "I do know about the Mayan calendar, I have done some research." The Mayan calendar only extends to December 21, 2012. Some people interpret that as a prediction for the end of the world on that date. "I've seen how horrific people can be when they really want to be," said Sanchez. Sanchez is a Gulf War veteran and he's ex-law enforcement. Now, he's a "prepper" -- prepared to survive...

Hotel owners around the pyramid-shaped Mount Rtanj, in the east of the Balkan country, say that bookings are flooding in, with believers in the prophecy hoping that its purported mysterious powers will save them from the apocalypse. Adherents of the end-of-the-world scenario think the 5,100ft-high mountain, part of the Carpathian range, conceals a pyramidal building inside, left behind by alien visitors thousands of years ago. Arthur C Clarke, the British science fiction writer, reportedly identified the peak as a place of "special energy" and called it "the navel of the world". Doomsday cultists believe that it emits special energy that...

For those of you who’ve been living under a mainstream media rock the past ten years, then the following sentences are simply the chorus to a song by the famous rock band R.E.M. It’s the end of the world as we know it. It’s the end of the world as we know it. It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. But to those of us with an apocalyptic bent, the chorus to that song takes the form of an acronym. TEOTWAWKI. And we refer to the acronym on a daily basis, because we...

A massive explosion on the sun's surface has triggered the largest solar radiation storm since 2005, hurling charged particles at Earth. (NASA / May 4, 2012) A stream of highly charged particles from the sun is headed straight toward Earth, threatening to plunge cities around the world into darkness and bring the global economy screeching to a halt. This isn't the premise of the latest doomsday thriller. Massive solar storms have happened before — and another one is likely to occur soon, according to Mike Hapgood, a space weather scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, England. Much of...