Free Republic

Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse recently told people gathered in New York City that global warming “denial” hurts U.S. soldiers in the field and that the “main problem” with the military is its reluctance to join the climate crusade. “The problem has been that the uniformed military has been reluctant to put its voice into – or its image into this fight,” Whitehouse said, according to a YouTube video posted Thursday. [dcquiz] “But, it’s hard to put a panel of people in uniform in front of the Environmental and Public Works Committee and say, you know, I’m a general,...

[Original text, a sermon, had no title/headline. The above headline was tacked on by the BeautySoAncient Blog] Homily preached by the Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., on 3 July 2016, the external Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (Extraordinary Form), at the Church of the Holy Innocents, New York City. “On this past Wednesday, the Church Universal (all 23 of her rites) and the Orthodox Churches as well celebrated the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul. This morning, we are observing its so-called “external” solemnity for the benefit of those who were not able to participate in...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Climate change. We have more on that today. John Kerry, the former Vietnam War veteran who served in Vietnam, has come out and finally admitted that ISIS is a bigger threat than climate change. This... I know it's funny, but Kerry admits that all this time he and Obama and everybody in the Regime have been claiming that climate change represents the biggest threat. But now it's ISIS! Now, why change? Why do this? I mean, climate change and the Democrat Party are inseparable. And the Democrats are making it the number-one issue. There are reasons --...

Hillary Clinton, courting young voters and the broader Democratic base, has promised to one-up President Obama on climate change, vowing to produce a third of the nation's electricity from renewable sources by 2027, three years faster than Mr. Obama, while spending billions of dollars to transform the energy economy. A half-billion solar panels will be installed by 2020, she has promised, seven times the number today, and $60 billion will go to states and cities to develop more climate-friendly infrastructure, such as public transportation and energy-efficient buildings. She would put the United States on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions...

The activists, including Naomi Oreskes and Bill McKibben, recently coordinated with attorneys general (AG) culminating with a March 29 press conference, led by New York AG Eric Schneiderman and joined by former Vice President Al Gore. There the “unprecedented coalition”—as Schneiderman’s press release called it—was announced: the newly formed AGs for Clean Power. Though “vague” on their specific plans, 17 AGs (16 Democrats and 1 Independent) have, as the Huffington Post reported: “committed to pursuing an all-levers approach” to, as Gore said: “hold to account those commercial interests that have been, according to the best available evidence, deceiving the American...

Over the last 8 years, Michelle Obama has evolved into an exemplary world traveler. Compliments of the struggling U.S. taxpayer, the FLOTUS consistently indulges in at least five or six multi-million dollar vacations per year.In March, if things get boring, Michelle, mother Marian, and daughters Sasha and Malia, either fly solo or use Dad (if he’s not golfing) as an excuse to pamper their weary bones with an all expense paid “working vacation.” Like clockwork, the girl gang jets off to destinations such as Cuba, China, Japan, Qatar, Argentina or Cambodia. Predictably, there’s always a June pre-Martha’s Vineyard vacation where...

July 4, 1876 was the grandest day San Francisco had ever seen. For weeks, the city prepared for the young nation's centennial. They draped American flags and bunting on every doorway and balcony in town. In glowing terms, the San Francisco Bulletin reported that huge paintings of Revolutionary War heroes were placed in "conspicuous places here, there and everywhere." Businesses were on their third straight day of celebration closures. Reverends in the town's Protestant churches gave centennial-themed Sunday sermons. Catholic churches held a special High Mass. On the bay and on land, revolutionary battles were reenacted for thrilled crowds. Thousands...

The willingness of progressive Democrats to fight for every political yard with the tenacity of a Spartan warrior marks a stark contrast between the two political parties. Democrat politicians plow through the Republican lines wielding their political swords on every agenda item, mowing their opposition down with sheer ruthlessness and a winner=take=all attitude regardless of the facts or truth. Far too often, Republicans cower at the sight of Democrat fighters and throw down their weapons even though they hold the principled high ground and Congress. Recently, in the face of the worse terrorist attack in the U.S. since 9/11, Democrats...

TONY Abbott must return as leader of the shattered Liberals after Saturday’s election disaster. ..... True, Abbott ideally needs months more to repair the image that a smart-arse media tore to shreds, feeding off his sometimes dumb mistakes. But who else but Abbott could hope to fix what Turnbull has just smashed? This election result has been a near-total catastrophe for the Liberals, who have been left without a mandate, platform, unity, honour or real power after letting Turnbull hijack their party last year. Turnbull, a man of the ABC Left, then ditched the Liberals’ base, Liberal principles and even...

Pope Francis delivers his blessing during the Angelus noon prayer he celebrated from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, July 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) In a new interview with an Argentine journalist, Pope Francis says there's a wing of the Catholic Church that "says no to everything," and while he's going ahead, he has no intention of launching a crackdown: “I don’t cut off heads. That was never my style. I’ve never liked doing that," he said. ROME-Pope Francis has vowed in a new interview that he won’t be slowed down by...

The two bloggers who have perpetuated this misinformation are Robert Scribbler, who describes himself as ” a progressive novelist, non-fiction writer and emerging threats expert,” and Paul Beckwith, who is working on a PhD with “a focus on abrupt climate system change” at the University of Ottawa. Scribbler says the cross-equator flow is a manifestation of man-made global warming, supported by the hypothesis that disproportionate heating of the Arctic is destabilizing the jet stream. “The Hemispherical Jet Streams have moved out of the Middle Latitudes more and more,” he writes. “More and more it has invaded regions both within the...

VATICAN CITY, July 1 (Reuters) - Former Pope Benedict says in his memoirs that no-one pressured him to resign but alleges that a "gay lobby" in the Vatican had tried to influence decisions, a leading Italian newspaper reported on Friday. The book, called "The Last Conversations," is the first time in history that a former pope judges his own pontificate after it is over. It is due to be published on Sept. 9. Citing health reasons, Benedict in 2103 became the first pope in six centuries to resign. He promised to remain "hidden to the world" and has been living...

The Pope Emeritus reportedly admitted to the diary in a book-length interview to be published in SeptemberBenedict XVI kept a diary throughout his papacy but plans to destroy it, according to an Italian newspaper. The retired pope apparently admitted to the diary in a new book-length interview to be published in September. The historic book, called The Last Conversations, follows the format of previous book-length interviews Light of the World and Salt of the Earth and shares the same German author, Peter Seewald. The Corriere della Sera newspaper, which has acquired the rights to publish excerpts of the book in...

A short history of Obama administration accountability: 1. No one fired at ATF or the Justice Department over Fast and Furious gun walking scandal 2. No one fired at IRS, two employees temporarily demoted over targeting scandal 3. Only 6 managers at the VA fired or allowed to resign over falsifying wait time records 4. No HHS employee fired over Obamacare exchange fiasco 5. No senior officers have been demoted or removed from CENTCOM for "cooking the books" on ISIS intelligence 6.. No EPA employee disciplined for toxic spill at Colorado mine As for that last scandal, Interior Secretary Sally...

You may not have noticed but our sun has gone as blank as a cue ball. As in, it’s lost its spots. According to scientists, this unsettling phenomenon is a sign we are heading for a mini ice age. Meteorologist and renowned sun-watcher Paul Dorian raised the alarm in his latest report, which has sparked a mild panic about an impending “Game of Thrones”-style winter not seen since the 17th century. “For the second time this month, the sun has gone completely blank,” Dorian says. “The blank sun is a sign that the next solar minimum is approaching and there...

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh recently joined 16 other state Attorneys General to launch, in their own words, “an unprecedented, multi-state effort to investigate and prosecute the ‘high-funded and morally vacant forces’ that have stymied attempts to combat global warming—starting with holding ExxonMobil and other industry giants accountable for fraud and suppression of key climate science.” In explaining his support of “AGs United for Clean Power,” Frosh said: “There is no doubt that climate change is an existential threat to our society and to our entire planet….I am deeply troubled that oil companies have contributed to the problem by intentionally...

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia's outback Aborigines will be among the worst affected by climate change as soaring temperatures likely cause more disease and spur distress about the changing landscape, a new report shows. The expert report, published in the latest edition of the Medical Journal of Australia, argues that the country's remote indigenous communities are the most vulnerable to changing environmental conditions. "Their vulnerability to climate change is intensified by the social and economic disadvantage they already experience -- the result of factors that include decades of inadequate housing and public services, and culturally inappropriate medical services," the journal said...

President Obama scolded “those of you who are buying gas-guzzlers” during remarks about clean energy at the North American leaders’ summit in Canada on Wednesday. Obama said he viewed the clean energy sector as an “enormous opportunity.” The United States, Canada, and Mexico made a pledge to use clean energy sources to generate half of their electric power by 2025. Chuckling, Obama warned that oil was a “finite resource.” “Oil is cheap right now, but it’s not going to be cheap,” Obama said. “I’ve said this before. Those of you who are buying gas-guzzlers, I’m telling you, because it is...

The Bramble Cay melomys has become more famous in extinction than it ever was in life. A mouse-like rodent, the melomys amazingly survived on a 3.6 hectare grass-covered cay (a low-lying island in a coral reef) in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef like a ratty Robinson Crusoe for thousands of years. There, it thrived off just a few plant species until human-caused climate change—in the form of rising sea levels and increasing inundations of sea water on the low-lying island—wiped it off the planet. But, while the extinction has been reported widely, articles have missed an important point: the scientists who...

CO2 is only a bit-player in the drama of world climate, while the main characters are ice, dust and albedo....Ice age cycles have something to do with precession: the slow wobble of the axis of the Earth. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks knew of precession and called it the Great Year, because it gives warm and cool seasons over its approximate 23,000-year cycle. But there is a problem with invoking the Great Year as the regulator of ice ages, because we should really get an interglacial warming every 23,000 years or so. And we don’t – they only happen every...