Free Republic

John Boehner is back. The former House speaker will spend late July and all of August on a cross-country bus trip raising money and campaigning for House Republicans, according to multiple sources familiar with his plans. The trip — on Boehner’s bus, dubbed “Freedom One” — will begin after the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and end Labor Day weekend. Boehner has done these trips for years, but it is especially significant that the former speaker — who left Congress after being targeted by House conservatives — is spending his summer campaigning less than a year after leaving office.

Pregnant, female, Navy SEALs was something many of us used to joke about as a way of exaggerating the absurd social engineering in the military. Yet, placing women in special operations and direct combat units has now become a reality under the Obama-led Pentagon. Sadly, not only have Republicans like John McCain refused to use their perches on the Armed Services Committees in the House and Senate to block this social engineering, they are now codifying it with a provision that could lead to a mandatory draft of all women. Earlier this week, I noted that the final House version...

It seems hard to bury the notion that Ohio Gov. John Kasich will end up as Donald Trump’s running mate. Kasich, for one, has said there is “zero chance” he will accept the No. 2 position on the Republican ticket coming out of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. “Never. No chance,” his campaign spokesman said

“Tribulation and Peace, Guaranteed” (John 16:23-33) There are very few guarantees in life, very few things you can be sure of. For instance, there are no guarantees about the success of your baseball team. The Chicago Cubs were riding high in April, but who knows if they will be shot down in May? No guarantees. You have no guarantee that you’re going to be rich, or, if you are, that you’re going to stay that way. Things could go south in a hurry. You have no guarantee about your health. You could be fit as a fiddle one year and...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Gov. John Kasich was helping his wife carry some clothes to the basement of their home in Ohio on Wednesday when they broached the subject that many Republicans have been wondering about. Should he continue his presidential campaign? After all, Mr. Kasich has not won a single state aside from Ohio. He has fewer delegates than Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who ended his own bid more than a month ago. And on Tuesday, Mr. Kasich even lost to Donald J. Trump in McKees Rocks, the Pennsylvania community where he grew up. “I said, ‘What do you...

PITTSBURGH — Gov. John Kasich often speaks about mental health in his campaign for president. He has defended his decision to expand Medicaid in Ohio by highlighting its benefits for mentally ill residents. He is probably the only Republican candidate this year to ask a crowd, “Do you know what it’s like for somebody to live with depression?” The question, posed at a rally in upstate New York recently, threw a hush over a room of 1,000 people. Mr. Kasich went on: “There are people here who know exactly what I’m talking about.” Mr. Kasich is one who knows. His...

“Our Guiding, Guarding Good Shepherd” (John 10:22-30; Acts 20:17-35; Revelation 7:9-17) Today is “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Every year on this Sunday in the Easter season we focus our attention on Jesus as our good shepherd. On this day every year our psalm is Psalm 23, “The LORD is my shepherd.” On this day every year the Holy Gospel is a portion of John 10, the chapter in which Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Every year on this Sunday the other...

“Not One of His Bones Will Be Broken” (John 19:31-37) It’s Friday, and darkness falls over the land. On a cross, a man who has been nailed there is dying a shameful and agonizing death. Yet this is no criminal. This is the most righteous and innocent man who has ever walked the earth. Indeed, this is the very Son of God, come in the flesh. Why is this happening? Why is God allowing this to happen? And couldn’t this man Jesus, who displayed such amazing power on other occasions--couldn’t he have stopped this? So was this one gigantic screw-up...

“Love One Another, as I Have Loved You” (John 13:1-17, 31b-35) “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” So said Jesus to his disciples on the night when he was betrayed. “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” So says Jesus to his disciples here on this night, as we are gathered in his name and he is here with us. Thus our theme for tonight, Jesus’ commandment to his disciples both then and now: “Love...

John McAfee, better known in recent years for his brushes with the law in Belize and Guatemala than for his anti-virus software, filed to run for United States president as a Libertarian candidate. McAfee told USA Today he plans to run on a platform of pardoning all marijuana users in prison and and to "stop the U.S. from being the world's policeman." Doug Craig, a national board member of the Libertarian Party, said,"He fits right in with our political philosophy.: Earlier this year, McAfee vowed to run as a member of the Cyber Party to "disrupt the political status quo"...

Photos and more than 350 "intense" letters from Pope John Paul II to a married woman he corresponded with for more than three decades have been found at the National Library of Poland, Deutsche Welle reports, via a BBC documentary. The notes and images—often showing the pontiff, who was made a saint in 2014, in casual wear—reveal a friendship between himself and American philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka that included holidays spent together and an intimate relationship that historians are trying to figure out. "Here is one of the handful of transcendentally great figures in public life in the 20th century, the...

John Lott: Even Liberal Academics Are Turning Pro-Gun Ownership From the left and right, people are bombarded with diametrically opposing claims on guns. But most of this bombardment isn’t coming from the National Rifle Association. Michael Bloomberg is spending far more money — hundreds of millions of dollars — trying to convince Americans that guns should be kept out of the hands of even law-abiding citizens. And yet, by double-digit margins, Americans say that they feel safer if more people in their neighborhood own guns. The answer is the same on concealed carry. Most of the media are doing their...

"The Wedding at Cana" (John 2:1-11) It is sometimes the case with a biblical text that one can draw various points from it without exhausting all the points that are there to be had. I think that is the case with our text for today, Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana, from John chapter 2. There are a number of points or sub-points we can draw from this passage without getting to what I think is perhaps the main point. So let's see how that goes now with this story of "The Wedding at Cana." So...

"The Word Became Flesh and Tabernacled among Us" (John 1:1-18) "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." This verse, John 1:14, is one of the most profound sentences ever written. Because it expresses and puts into words one of the most profound mysteries that has ever occurred in human history: that the eternal Son of God, through whom all things were created, at a certain point in time took on human flesh, became our brother, and that this...

Is the Story Scriptural or Not? So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. John 8:8 (NKJV)This Sunday, the Gospel reading in the Roman Catholic Lectionary will be the famous story of “The Woman Caught in Adultery” (John 8:1-11). Some scholars and a few pastors, both liberal and conservative, have questioned the veracity of this unique and beautiful story of God’s mercy and love. This blog post is my feeble attempt at defending the historical truthfulness and canonical faithfulness...

You could have bought an ancient religious text online for less than $100. That text was an ancient Greek papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John (likely John 1:50-51), and was listed on eBay with an opening bid of $99, according to The New York Times. The papyrus -- called the "Willoughby Papyrus" since it belonged to Harold Willoughby, a University of Chicago professor, according to the eBay listing -- didn’t stay there for long. Dr. Geoffrey Smith, who researches Christianity at the University of Texas, contacted the seller and asked if he could research the fragment, The Times reported....

Donald J Trump= Donald John Trump

The Wall Street Journal somehow got its hands on internal GAB e-mails regarding the John Doe. The Journal Sentinel reported on the revelation but decided to make the thrust of its story the belief of one GAB staff attorney, Shane Falk, that Scott Walker really was a target of the investigation. This contradicted a public statement by Special Prosecutor Fran Schmitz that he was not. There was, apparently, bickering among the prosecutors. I think the paper missed the story. Completely. The more significant revelation - completely unreported by the Journal Sentinel - was that Falk was concerned about the impact...

“Wisdom for Your Walk” (Proverbs 9:1-10; Ephesians 5:6-21; John 6:51-69)If I had to sum up a theme running through our lessons for today, and one that will be helpful for you, it is that here you will find “Wisdom for Your Walk.” You see, the Old Testament lesson from Proverbs is the call of wisdom to walk in the way of insight. The Epistle reading from Ephesians calls us to walk as children of the light and to look carefully how we walk, not as unwise but as wise. And in the Holy Gospel for today, from John 6, we...

Maybe it’s because he is still feeling his way as a late entrant into the GOP presidential campaign, but Ohio Gov. John Kasich did a fairly dramatic about-face over the weekend on the politically charged issue of climate change. Kasich, a devout Christian, declared during the two-hour debate sponsored by Fox News that climate change is a real problem requiring government and society to protect the “creation that the Lord has given us.” While the vast majority of Republicans on Capitol Hill and the campaign trail are highly skeptical of President Obama’s campaign to curb industrial carbon emissions to prevent...