Free Republic

The Strangest of Kings! A Homily for the Feast of Christ the King By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe reading today on this Feast of Christ the King evokes three images of Christ as King. All of them are to some extent paradoxical, for they emphasize things about a king that we don’t usually think of in relation to a king. They also tell us that we have already met King Jesus, even if we didn’t know it. Let’s look at these three images of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of all Creation.I. Caring King - The first reading, from Ezekiel...

It should have been Mike Pence's strongest moment as Indiana governor -- a chance to showcase his style of executive leadership on the national stage. Instead, the week turned into a calamity of Team Pence's own making. The leaked details of a bizarre proposal to create what sounded like a state government-run news agency sucked all the oxygen out of Indiana's political media, right when Pence was supposed to explain a complicated conservative approach he's taking to expanding Medicaid. Pence immediately backtracked, but the damage was already done. (SNIP) Indiana's Republican House speaker, Brian Bosma, even taunted Pence a bit,...

Jordan confirmed on Wednesday that “The Jordanian King Abdullah II will participate personally on Thursday in conducting air strikes against the shelters of the terrorist ISIL organization to revenge the execution of the Jordanian pilot Maath al-Kassasba by the ISIL.” Media outlets reported the King Abdullah II as saying “The war against ISIL will not end and we will fight them in their shelters.”

It wasn't long ago that Sen. Jeff Sessions was waging a lonely battle against comprehensive immigration reform. ABC News called the Alabama Republican a "lone wolf" in his dogged quest to kill the Senate's immigration reform bill, which passed the upper chamber in June 2013 on a 68-32 bipartisan vote. At one point, Sessions introduced an amendment to slash the number of immigrants allowed to enter the country legally—not even Texas firebrand Ted Cruz voted for it. (SNIP) Not long before his nomination, Sessions had prosecuted three civil rights activists, a group known as the Marion Three that included a...

A big endorsement for the insurgent campaign of former Adams County Republican Party chairman Steve House for chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, via a letter to the Colorado Statesman–Attorney General Cynthia Coffman would like current GOP chairman Ryan Call to hold this icepick for her. In his back. I write today to encourage your support of Steve House for Chairman of the State Republican Party. (SNIP) Steve House's stated willingness to forgo the generous salary Call had enjoyed could be a major selling point with central committee members, who have groused for years about Call and predecessor Dick Wadhams...

The people who run the Republican party want two things heading into the 2016 election. They want the new, unified Republican Congress to “show the party can govern,” avoiding the shutdowns and debt default threats and vote-counting calamities on the House floor, while perhaps even working with the president to pass a significant achievement like corporate tax reform. (SNIP) If King were from Kansas, his nuttery could be avoidable and isolated. He would be a Tim Huelskamp, a highway tourist trap that’s not worth the lost driving time. (SNIP) And before the State of the Union, he introduced the word...

President Obama should think before bowing to Saudi Arabia's new king in his Tuesday visit. King Salman has a history of funding al-Qaida, and his son has been accused of knowing in advance about the 9/11 attacks. When it comes to jihadism, Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud is more of a hardliner than his older brother, King Abdullah, who died last week of a lung infection. As such, any commitment he makes to helping the U.S. destroy al-Qaida and Islamic State terrorists should be viewed with great suspicion. The 79-year-old Salman once ran a Saudi charity tied to al-Qaida and...

United States President Barack Obama will travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to meet with new King Salman to pay respects after the death of King Abdullah, the White House said on Saturday. The White House had originally planned that US Vice President Joe Biden would lead a delegation to Saudi Arabia, but now that Obama will travel to Riyadh, Biden will remain in Washington. “The President is very much looking forward to this visit. It is a genuine honour to be invited as the guest for Republic Day” and Obama “is looking forward to see the festivities associated with...

The longtime king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, passed away on Friday. But the death of the 90-year-old monarch didnÂ’t seem to come as much of a shock to the Saudi establishment. When royal officials acknowledged AbdullahÂ’s death, it was also revealed that Crown Prince Salman would succeed his brother. For the time being, the succession process seemed to have preserved stability in the Saudi Kingdom. Within hours, traders who speculated that the new king may take a critical look at Saudi policies, which have allowed crude prices to collapse in recent months, created a rally in the...

DUBAI - A Saudi journalist and a member of the royal family denied rumors on Thursday that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, in hospital since December suffering from pneumonia, had died, according to messages on social media. "All that is being reported about King Abdullah's death is far from the truth," Ibrahem al-Rawsa, identified as a journalist at state-run Saudi Press Agency, wrote on his Twitter account. A member of the royal family wrote: "I give you good news. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques is fine and there is no truth to the rumors going around." He was referring...

Martin Luther King was never himself a Communist—far from it. But the FBI's wiretapping of King was precipitated by his association with Stanley Levison, a man with reported ties to the Communist Party. Newly available documents reveal what the FBI actually knew—the vast extent of Levinson's Party activities On October 10, 1963, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy committed what is widely viewed as one of the most ignominious acts in modern American history: he authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation to begin wiretapping the telephones of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy believed that one of King's closest...

In our Oct. 24 endorsement of Republican Steve King for a seventh term in the U.S. House, we said he would be better-positioned to represent the wants and needs of Iowa's 4th District than his Democratic opponent for the next two years because the GOP likely would retain control of the chamber. (SNIP) Yes, King is entitled to his opinion of Boehner and should be entitled to his choice for speaker, but ... Political realities suggest our congressman should exercise some care in pursuit of opposition to House leadership or risk marginalization. In a National Journal story last week headlined...

Since Barack Hussein Obama hasn't yet declared himself our first black Muslim President, maybe he dreams of becoming more of a tyrant than King George of England was to the colonists. Right now, he is proposing a huge tax increase on the American people just like King George did with his burdensome taxes.

Martin Luther King and Black Privilege! Don Boys, Ph.D. No evangelical or Bible-believing church would support their pastor if he espoused even one of the heretical teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. And it is not sufficient to say as the film “Selma” does that King was flawed. Everyone is flawed and the film and other media are willing to admit some flaws, foibles, and failures of King without dealing with him in totality. That is not done with King because he is special; that is Black privilege. Revealing the very crass, crude, and corrupt King would destroy the hero...

With a lifetime Marxist rating of 72%, Raul Labrador is one of the most anti-American Republicans ever. In the mid-2000’s, Labrador ran a website called rapidimmigration.com which provided “easy to understand advice for illegal immigrants seeking amnesty”…

A flock of 2016 presidential hopefuls will be attending a major GOP event in Iowa this month co-sponsored by anti-immigrant gadfly Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has made outreach to minorities part of his appeal, won’t go. His office says there is a scheduling conflict. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush also begged off. What to make of all this? (SNIP) He is no David Duke, but his distasteful and flamboyant attacks on illegal immigrants are well known. (SNIP) New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie headlined a fundraiser for King and reportedly announced, “I will be a supporter...

Group asks High Court to affirm the limits on the executive branch’s ability to disregard federal statutes, reaffirm separation of powers (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on December 24, 2014, it filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the IRS and the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Treasury over a decision by the agencies to ignore a key provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The lawsuit seeks specifically to prevent the IRS from providing refundable tax credits to individuals who purchase health care coverage through...

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who has pushed comprehensive amnesty legislation as a “Gang of Eight” member, is trying to advance the notion that a Republican cannot win the White House without supporting comprehensive amnesty legislation. He even suggested that pro-amnesty 2016 Republican presidential candidates former Florida Governor like Jeb Bush ignore voters in Iowa (home of conservative stalwart Rep. Steve King) and entirely skip the first-in-the-nation nominating caucuses to avoid having his pro-amnesty views scrutinized. In an interview with the Daily Beast, Flake reportedly called Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status on the presidential primary calendar “one of the very unfortunate parts of...

Iowa’s Steve King reasons that since Jesus dined with tax collectors, Steve Scalise was fine keynoting a white supremacist rally. Steve King (R-Iowa) jumped to Scalise’s defense. “Jesus dined with tax collectors and sinners,” he said according to the Washington Post. “I know his heart, I’ve painted houses with him post-Katrina, and I know he is a good man.”

The 93-year old King of Saudi Arabia was sent to hospital on Wednesday for “medical checks” according to the Royal Court. King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who has ruled Saudi Arabia since the death of his half-brother King Fahd in 2005, was admitted to the King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, the latest in numerous trips to hospital by the aging monarch in recent years. The King underwent two operations in October 2011 and November 2012 due to "ligament slackening" in the upper back. The news of his entry to hospital prompted a 5 percent fall in Saudi Arabia’s main equities...