Free Republic

Thirteen years ago Jim Cardosi’s wife, Cindy, discovered she had little time left to live.In 2002 she experienced symptoms resulting from a neurological illness that by 2005 would be identified as frontotemporal dementia or Pick’s Disease, which Cindy developed in her mid-40s.She required full-time care, so Jim retired from the military. They raised five kids together and built their lives around each other.Jim’s faith kept him poised throughout the illness, and he felt the call to the priesthood before her death. He cared for Cindy until her passing in July 2008 at 51 years old in their Jacksonville, Florida home.“I...

By BI: Linda Holtzman, a lesbian, is the senior rabbi at Mishkan Shalom, a synagogue in Philadelphia, and author of My Life as a Lesbian Rabbi” in Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation. Holtzman, who has made a career of liberal activism, ventured into new territory when she began slapping black-and-yellow ‘hate speech’ stickers on the back of Adolf Hitler’s head. Philly.com Hitler is featured in an anti-Islam ad displayed on SEPTA buses this month, and Holtzman and other Jewish activists have launched a campaign of guerrilla protest. Holtzman, 62, is on the faculty of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote...

Okay, some new names for cities affected by rioting or probably soon to be affected. Baltimore - Baltitroit Charleston - CharlesWatts Atlanta - Detrantla Birmingham - Birmingtroit Philadelphia - Philatroit Pittsburg - PittsWatts

Starting in late summer 2014, a protest movement known as Black Lives Matter convulsed the country. Triggered by the fatal police shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, the movement claimed that blacks are still oppressed by widespread racism, especially within law enforcement. The police subject black communities to a gratuitous regime of stops and arrests, resulting in the frequent use of lethal force against black men, according to the activists and their media and academic allies. Indeed, America’s police are the greatest threat facing young black men today, the protesters charged. New York’s mayor Bill de Blasio announced...

A security video showing a mob of students brutally beating two high schoolers in a Philadelphia subway station on Tuesday is being investigated by the city’s transportation officers. “It’s an outrageous event. This is so dangerous, it’s not even funny,” Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Police Chief Thomas J. Nestel III told Philly.com. “We have operating trains down there. There are passengers waiting for the train ... it’s horrendous.” The video, which was time-stamped around 3:15 p.m., shows about a dozen teenagers either participating in a one-minute assault on two male students, or cheering it on. One of the assailants falls...

According to Jay Feely, Tim Tebow is a great man and a great competitor, but Feely still believes Tebow is the “worst quarterback” ever. But do Tebow’s stats agree with that assessment? In a related report by the Inquisitr, in the past some have claimed that Tebow was “blackballed” from the NFL due to Christian beliefs, not NFL stats. At the same time, Joe Theismann insists Tim “can’t throw the football” and referee Jim Daopoulus once used Tebow as an example of the uncatchable rule. Rush Limbaugh might agree that more men like Tebow are needed in the NFL, but...

Looking for ways to save money, SEPTA has paid about $2.8 million to a Boston-based consulting firm, including payments of more than $500 an hour to some specialists. In the process, FTI Consulting Inc. has used 24 of its staffers, some of whom have collected more from SEPTA than the transit agency’s highest-paid official, general manager Joseph Casey, who makes $273,000 a year. The meter is still running, with additional payments expected to continue through the end of the year. SEPTA hired FTI in February 2013 through a no-bid contract to help the transit agency reduce legal costs arising from...

The feminist groups "Pussy Division" and "Feminist Apparel" are now posting signs over Philadelphia proclaiming that the area is a "no catcalling" zone. Signs like these are under stop and parking signs in the city: Pussy Division and Feminist Apparel are proud of their work, asking people on the signs to follow them on twitter @PussyDivision and @FeministApparel. Feminist Apparel has a picture of another mass-produced sign that they've put up, which features stick figure men yelling at a cat and grabbing their crotch: They also have another tweet about another sign featuring a cat, this time with it driving...

[...] If Belichick, the best coach in the NFL over the past 15 years, doesn't see an NFL quarterback in Tebow, then that would seem to settle the issue. Except that Kelly, who worked Tebow out last month, sees the skills and the physical presence and he can't help himself. It's not just about ego. There's a challenge in finding ways to utilize a player's talents, and Kelly enjoys that challenge. [...] The point is, Bradford is the presumed starter with Sanchez as the very capable No. 2 quarterback. But if Tebow is able to click in Kelly's offense --...

Now that the Philadelphia Eagles have signed a 4th quarterback -- Tim Tebow -- and talk is being bandied about re: Tebow's potential "role player" status...perhaps a review is in order to ponder a potential paradigm shift that the NFL is perhaps beyond the need to acknowledge. And for that, we need a quick review of another professional sport: Major League Baseball...and specifically the history of pitching: 1901-1968: For the first 68 years of the 20th century, Major League Baseball didn't even track "saves" by relief pitchers. Yankees pitcher Waite Hoyt was retroactively credited with "eight" saves in 1928. But...

He’s baaaaaaaaaack. At least, for some offseason workouts, and — who knows? — possibly much more. Tim Tebow, the decorated Florida quarterback whose first stint in the NFL was as brief as it was closely scrutinized, has reached an agreement to join the Eagles, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Philadelphia Coach Chip Kelly has spoken highly of Tebow in the past, and apparently he saw enough of the quarterback during a March workout to add him to a depth chart that currently includes Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez, Matt Barkley and G.J. Kinne. The Eagles had reportedly been trying to trade...

The roster move the Eagles are expected to make Monday shot straight to the top of the publicity charts. A lot of people might have been Tebowing that it was not true, but it is. The Eagles are adding a Heisman Trophy winner to their crowded quarterback depth chart. Oregon's Marcus Mariota remains a long shot to be in Eagles green after the NFL draft. Tim Tebow, on the other hand, will be on the practice fields at the NovaCare Complex after he signs a one-year deal with the team Monday. He'll be one of five quarterbacks on the roster,...

The Philadelphia Eagles have signed Tim Tebow to a one-year deal. The 27-year-old quarterback joins three other signal callers, Sam Bradford, Matt Barkley, and Mark Sanchez, likely competing for three roster spots. The line behind center in Philadelphia may be long. But it’s not terribly accomplished, allowing Tebow a solid chance to make the team and, unlike his try in New England, to enjoy an opportunity on the field should injuries or ineptitude result from Bradford or Sanchez starting. Bradford, the top man on the depth chart, endured injuries and struggled to live up to his potential in St. Louis...

The Eagles have reached an agreement in principle with quarterback Tim Tebow, according to multiple media reports Jay Glazer of Fox Sports, who first reported the news, said that Tebow will be in Philadelphia Monday to sign the contract. Glazer also reported that the Eagles are convinced he has improved since the last time he was in the NFL after spending time with his quarterback coach Tom House.

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- Action News has obtained video of the moment a SEPTA commuter stumbled onto the subway tracks after getting too close to the edge Wednesday night. Seconds later a Good Samaritan springs into action, risking his own life to save a stranger. It happened around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on the westbound Market-Frankford El tracks at 15th Street Station. 28-year-old Charles Collins of South Philadelphia can be seen in the video wearing an Eagles jacket, walking away from the camera. Moments later an older man, identified as Alfred McNamee, is seen walking near the SEPTA platform's yellow line....

Philadelphia might mean the City of Brotherly Love in Greek, but the sentiment of the name apparently doesn't always doesn't apply to Philly's female residents. At least five women got into a large-scale brawl that lasted for multiple minutes at a Zara clothing store on Friday afternoon. The fight broke out at a store location in the city's Rittenhouse Square neighborhood.

PHILADELPHIA — A disgraced ex-police officer testifying against his drug squad colleagues acknowledged Tuesday that he stole drug money, planted evidence and lied on police paperwork too many times to count. Jeffrey Walker told jurors that the Philadelphia Police Department drug squad targeted white "college-boy ... khaki-pants types" who were "easy to intimidate." That matches the description of some of the drug dealers who have testified at the six-week police corruption trial that the squad stole as much as $110,000 at a time during violent, no-warrant raids. Lead defendant Thomas Liciardello always got a cut of the stolen money, while...

Mother arrested after 'leaving quadriplegic son in the woods for five days' while she visited her boyfriend Nyia Parler, 41, allegedly left her 21-year-old son in woods on Monday and traveled to Maryland where she was taken into custody early Sunday Her son was found under rain-soaked pile of leaves on Friday night and police say he would have died if passers-by hadn't spotted him He was lying on the ground 10 feet from his wheelchair and a Bible A Philadelphia mother accused of abandoning her quadriplegic son in the woods before skipping town to see her boyfriend has been...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A woman has been accused of leaving her quadriplegic son in the woods in southwest Philadelphia for several days and then going to visit her boyfriend in Maryland. Authorities say the 21-year-old son has cerebral palsy. They say he was found lying in leaves covered with a blanket next to a wheelchair and a Bible near Cobbs Creek Park on Friday night. Police describe the son as severely disabled and say he was unable to communicate how he got there. Their investigation indicates he was left there Monday.

ORANGE, N.J. – A teacher in New Jersey who assigned her third-grade class to write "get well" letters to a sick inmate convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer was suspended Friday, the school superintendent said. Orange School Superintendent Ronald Lee said in a statement that school administrators "vehemently deny" any knowledge of Marilyn Zuniga's assignment. Preliminary inquiries found that Zuniga did not seek approval from administrators nor were parents notified, Lee said. The letters were delivered to Mumia Abu-Jamal in prison following his hospitalization last month for what his family said was treatment for complications from diabetes. The former...