Free Republic

The Belgian Senate voted today 50-17 to extend euthanasia to children with disabilities, in a move pro-life advocates worldwide had been fearing would come and expand an already much-abused euthanasia law even further. The vote today in the full Senate comes after a Senate committee voted 13-4 to allow minors to seek euthanasia under certain conditions and the measure also would extend the right to request euthanasia to adults with dementia. There is still a chance to stop the bill in the House of Representatives, though pro-life campaigners fear it will become law. “Currently the Belgian euthanasia law limits euthanasia...

Barbara Branden, the first biographer of Ayn Rand with her penetrating and humanizing The Passion of Ayn Rand (1986), has died at age 84. Branden and her then-husband Nathaniel Branden were Rand's closest associates and friends during the years she finished writing Atlas Shrugged and the years when the Nathaniel Branden Institute began teaching the principles of Rand's Objectivism in lecture form to a wider world.

The collapse of the barrier between popular culture and decadence has released a toxic mudslide of vulgarity into the nation’s family rooms—and just about everywhere else. There is almost no remote corner of this culture that is not marked by the toleration of vulgarity, or the outright celebration of depravity. Lee Siegel has seen this reality, and he doesn’t like it. “When did the culture become so coarse?,” he asks, adding: “It’s a question that quickly gets you branded as either an unsophisticated rube or some angry culture warrior.” Siegel wants us all to know that he is neither unsophisticated...

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 11, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood performed 327,166 abortions last year while collecting more than half-a-billion dollars from U.S. taxpayers, according to its most recent annual report. The numbers represent a modest decrease from 2011 levels, when Planned Parenthood performed a record-setting 333,964 abortions and collected $542.4 million, or 45.2 percent of its total revenue, from government funding. “In 2012, abortions made up 93.8 percent of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy services, while prenatal care and adoption referrals accounted for only 5.6 percent (19,506) and 0.6 percent (2,197), respectively,” the Susan B. Anthony List noted in a fact sheet....

Police in South Africa say retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s home was robbed while he was away to attend a memorial honoring Nelson Mandela. … The 82-year-old Tutu had his home robbed in August as he and his wife slept inside. Both were unhurt. …

So no, you’re not imagine that Pope Francis is preaching Marxism to the flock. He is a product of his time and place: namely the Catholic Church in Latin America from the 1950s through to the present. The Church there is a Marxist institution and he has absorbed those teachings. What we are seeing is simply another example of the Left’s march through institutions. The Quakers, once pacifists, now promote the Palestinian’s genocidal ambitions against Israel. The Girl Scouts of America, once a youth organization promoting wholesome values for children, now sponsors pro-abortion speakers and is basically run by a...

HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. (December 9, 2013) – A 16-year-old Noblesville girl who was shot in the chest Sunday evening died from her injuries. Noblesville Police and Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene in the 8200 block of River Run Place at 11:20 p.m. They found four people inside the residence and the victim unresponsive. She was transported by ambulance to St. Vincent Hospital (Indianapolis) where she later died. The victim, Aubrey Peters, was a Noblesville High School student. FOX59 viewers may remember her for rescuing two children from a pond in March 2010, a heroic act that earned...

Phil Robertson, the patriarch of AMC’s mega-hit show “Duck Dynasty”, said recently the family was told to quit praying to Jesus because it might offend Muslims. Robertson told Sports Spectrum: So when we pray we say “In Jesus name, Amen.” …It’s a very good idea, I think. So, they would have me say, “Thank you Lord for the food. Thank you for the blessings. Amen.” So, I said, “Why would you cut out ‘in Jesus name?’” And they said, “Well, these editors they think they don’t want to offend some Muslims or something.” Via Free Patriot: (VIDEO-AT-LINK)From the video: In...

MIDDLETOWN — Graveyards are sacred, but for many Native Americans their journey into the spirit world was interrupted when their ancient burial grounds were dug up in the name of science. For example, in 1948, the University of California Berkeley boasted to Life magazine that the university held in storage "more than 10,000 Indian skeletons, many of them complete." Wesleyan University too collected Native American relics, but the university recently announced that it was returning the human remains of some 15 Native Americans held for more than 100 years. Wesleyan has been discreet about returning the remains, revealing its intentions...

If you are a national reporter writing on the Girl Scouts and you call their national office in New York City, you will talk to a guy named Josh Ackley. If you are a Girl Scout wanting regular advice or information on the Girl Scouts and you turn to the Girl Scout blog, it’s Josh Ackley (pictured, center) you’ll be reading. If you are a Girl Scout mom concerned about the sometimes-troubling drift of the Girl Scouts in recent years, Josh Ackley may be the one you’ll meet with. To many key groups, Josh Ackley is the public face of...

A Centerville pastor accused of child molestation was released on $25,000 bond Friday. The Houston County jail web site said that Wiley Leverett was released around 8 a.m. His attorney,William Noland, said Leverett will not make any public statements, but will return to work at Solid Rock Community Church and his auto dealership. "He'll be working and taking care of his family and his church," said Noland. "He denies all of the allegations against him, and he denies doing anything inappropriate with anyone. He's going to fight these charges in court." Leverett pleaded not guilty Thursday during a hearing before...

Three members of a self-styled "Muslim Patrol" vigilante group have been jailed for harassing, intimidating and assaulting people on the streets of east London while claiming they were enforcing sharia law. A judge at the Old Bailey had heard that Jordan Horner, 19, Ricardo MacFarlane, 26, and a 23-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons, had terrorised a couple for walking through Bethnal Green holding hands, told a woman in Stepney that she would be punished in "hellfire" because of the way she was dressed, and attacked a group of men who were drinking in Shoreditch. Horner –...

Washington, DC — At a press conference today, President Obama announced plans for the first ever federally funded Muslim outreach program. The program will be available nationwide for all elementary school students grade K-12 beginning February 1st, 2014. The program is designed to educate children about the fundamentals of the Muslim religion and Islamic belief.

The last time I saw a first-run movie was in England, when we watched the final Harry Potter film. What this means is that I pay very little attention to news about upcoming movies. Since I’m not going to watch them, why pay attention?I was vaguely aware, though, that Hollywood was producing a Biblical epic about Noah, of Ark fame. Since it’s not a movie by a true believer — unlike The Passion of the Christ– I didn’t have high hopes for it, but I have to say that it apparently has succeeded in sinking below anybody’s lowest expectations.To understand...

The police have knowingly exposed us to violence and aggression by angry Muslims and have only towards the end, when very many attacks had already happened, somehow done their job – but by their inaction, they have consciously put health and life of our demonstrators to a severe risk. About 50 people came to support us on this difficult matter (see announcement), which was organized in Cologne by our non-party, independent alliance against persecution of Christians. As distinguished speaker we could welcome Michael Mannheimer. In addition, councillor of the City of Cologne, Jörg Uckermann from Pro Köln, joined us for...

An elementary school in Frisco, Texas is believed to be the first in the state to violate “The Merry Christmas Law” after they banned Christmas trees and the colors red & green from an upcoming “winter” party. Boys and girls who attend the Nichols Elementary School “Winter Party” will not be able to make any reference to Christmas or any other religious holiday. Christmas trees are also banned—along with the colors red and green. … Ironically, the school is located in the district of state Rep. Pat Fallon, the author of a bill signed into law in June that codifies...

Pope Francis (real name: Jorge Mario Bergoglio) has shaken up the Catholic church with some plain speaking about faith and about life in the 21st century. He has had an impact on other faiths, as well. Welcome to “pope envy.” I first encountered the term in an essay by Jana Riess, a liberal Mormon writer. “I’ve delighted in seeing this beautiful revitalization of hope in the Catholic Church,” Riess wrote, “but I’ve also felt twinges of (an admittedly un-Christian) envy.” Why wouldn’t a Mormon, or anyone for that matter, envy the un-self-conscious spiritual leadership of a prelate who warns nuns...

A sixty-seven year old proud atheist friend of mine recently interjected the sweeping statement “all religion is irrational” into one of our conversations. I replied, not with a direct rebuttal but, instead, with the unexpected question, “who is Jesus Christ?” He replied, “I don’t know.” If I were to ask some of you why I pulled that question out of left field you might also reply with a bewildered “I don’t know.” So keep reading. Please. If you have never really pondered the question “who is Jesus Christ?” then you simply cannot consider yourself to be a committed intellectual –...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipatGHIF4Z0&feature=youtu.beA group of neighbors and concerned citizens gathered in a home in east Provo Nov. 22 to discuss concerns about proposed anti-discrimination legislation, the so-called “Bathroom bill.” The citizens oppose the bill, which they believe infringes on their “First Amendment rights” to free exercise of religion by imposing a “sexual rights” mentality on the state of Utah. Many were parents and grandparents who said the bill, if passed, would infringe on children’s safety at school and right to privacy. Utah Sen. Steve Urquhart, a Republican, is sponsoring the bill, which adds onto existing non-discrimination legislation. A law passed in 2009...

The American Civil Liberties Union and its Michigan affiliate are suing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops charging that its anti-abortion religious dictates resulted in a Michigan woman’s dangerous miscarriage. The ACLU filed the lawsuit Friday on behalf of Tamesha Means, a pregnant woman whose water broke 18 weeks into her pregnancy and who sought medical aid at Mercy Health Partners in Muskegon, Mich., a Catholic hospital. According to the ACLU, while Means’ baby had virtually no chance of survival, the hospital sent her home twice without offering termination as an option, “even though [Means] was in excruciating pain; there...

Our Lady Queen of Peace of Medjugorje’s December 2, 2013 Apparition and Message Given through Mirjana on the Day for Nonbelievers The following is the message Our Lady gave through Mirjana during her apparition: “Dear children, with a motherly love and a motherly patience I am looking at your ceaseless wandering and how lost you are. That is why I am with you. I desire to help you to first find and come to know yourself, so that, then, you would be able to recognize and to admit everything that does not permit you to get to know the love...

Steve McQueen, who committed to Christ late in life, TV show 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' is now featured each weekend on the MeTv Network From 1963 to 1978, Steve McQueen was considered by movie fans and big screen insiders as one of the main leading actors in Hollywood. The rugged faced actor's roles defined "cool" and his persona was idolized by men and women alike, yet he remained unfazed by Hollywood's glitter. Late in his life the famous actor finally realized his need for God and decided to commit his life to Christ. Terrance Steven McQueen was born in Beech...

Did it happen? I've heard nothing one way or another here in Northern California. A few days ago, the courageous author and activist Pamela Geller said word was out on certain Islamic related web sites. Word was that defenders and supporters of the erstwhile deposed President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi, were planning a public demonstration to protest the U.S. involvement in his overthrow by the Egyptian Military. I want to know if they ever got close to making this happen. It is ironic that the Muslim Brotherhood contemplates a public expression of distain and disagreement with the Obama Administration, when...

We have been saying for some time here that there needs to be a sustained effort to change our culture through prolife films, books, music and other artistic efforts.  I am glad to see this guy, Richard Clark Jr., has the same idea: Introducing Producer Richard Clark Jr.      Hello! My name is Richard Clark, Jr., and I am a Producer on Discover Zac Ryan. This is my fist message to you. Thank you in advance for giving me a few seconds of your time.   Our passion is not focused on changing the laws when it comes to abortion....

When a women goes swimming, as the word for sea is masculine, when "the water touches the woman's private parts, she becomes an 'adulteress' and should be punished." — Summary of Al Ahzar Fatwa Committee, reported in Al Masry Al Youm Meanwhile the Salafis -- who, in the light of the Bortherhood's ouster have become Islam's standard bearers there -- continue successfully to push for strict interpretations of Sharia law in Egypt's new constitution. As the full ramification of the Muslim Brotherhood's year in power continues to be exposed, a new study by Al Azhar's Fatwa Committee dedicated to exploring...

A 12-year-old girl will be expelled from a Florida school unless she gets her hair under control, school officials have told her. Vanessa VanDyke, an honors student and violinist at the Faith Christian Academy in Orlando, tells WKMG that administrators have given her one week to decide whether to cut and shape her hair or leave the school, which she has attended since the third grade. Faith Christian Academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Yahoo Shine. And VanDyke’s mother, Sabrina Kent, could not be reached for comment. But WKMG reports that the school’s handbook includes...

CHELSEA, MICH. — Kristi and Michael Burns have a lot in common. They love crossword puzzles, football, going to museums and reading five or six books at a time. They describe themselves as mild-mannered introverts who suffer from an array of chronic medical problems. The two share similar marital résumés, too. On their wedding day in 2011, the groom was 43 years old and the bride 39, yet it was marriage No. 3 for both. Today, their blended family is a sprawling, sometimes uneasy ensemble of two sharp-eyed sons from her two previous husbands, a daughter and son from his...

“Islam is a lie, Muhammad a criminal, the Koran is poison.” [Flag of Saudi Arabia modified to declare truth and liberation.] Geert Wilders is the leader of the PVV (Partij voor de Vrijheid, Party for Freedom) in The Netherlands. In recognition of an important anniversary this month, Mr. Wilders has undertaken an ambitious project, which he explains below. Let us raise a flag of truth and liberation, by Geert Wilders Nine years ago this month, in November 2004, policemen wearing bullet proof vests and carrying machine guns picked me up at my home and drove me to a safe place....

They unearthed a 6th Century BC timber structure buried within the Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini in Nepal. The shrine appears to have housed a tree. This links to the Buddha nativity story - his mother gave birth to him while holding on to a tree branch. Its discovery may settle the dispute over the birth date of the Buddha, the team reports in the journal Antiquity. Radiocarbon Every year thousands of Buddhists make a holy pilgrimage to Lumbini - long identified as the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha. Continue reading the main story Lumbini Located in...

Very good interview of him explaining his conversion from liberal to conservative. 35 minutes long.

RAISE A FLAG OF TRUTH AND LIBERATION on every continent. Geert Wilders is the leader of the PVV (Partij voor de Vrijheid, Party for Freedom) in The Netherlands. In recognition of an important anniversary this month, Mr. Wilders has undertaken an ambitious project, which he explains below. Let us raise a flag of truth and liberation by Geert Wilders Nine years ago this month, in November 2004, policemen wearing bullet proof vests and carrying machine guns picked me up at my home and drove me to a safe place. This happened two days after the filmmaker and Islam-critic Theo van...

Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but the day also marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of famed authors C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley. Test your knowledge of these three historical giants with this quiz.

In 1963 President Kennedy recognized Berkeley Plantation as the site of the first official Thanksgiving when the small ship the Margaret landed at Harrison Landing on the James River (upstream from Jamestown) in 1619, carrying 38 men after a perilous journey from England. The small group of carefully chosen craftsmen immediately marked their arrival on Dec. 4, 1619 with an act of Thanksgiving, led by their Captain, John Woodlief. They fell on their knees on the riverbank, and Captain Woodlief ordained that this day should be commemeorated annually as a day of Prayer and Thanksgiving. This was not Captain Woodlief's...

FULL TITLE: Sex, drugs, blasphemy, depravity, arrogance: The Crystal Methodist 'who didn't believe in God'... in his own brazen texts to his dealer Paul Flowers kept up an astonishing stream of sex and drug obsessed texts, even after his humiliating recent performance before the Commons Treasury Select Commitee and as The Mail on Sunday prepared last week’s revelations about his drug use. The texts are littered with references to ‘coke’ (cocaine), ‘ket’ (ketamine), and crack, as shown by this selection from exchanges with dealer Peter Wilson (whose name we have changed). They provide an insight into how he was leading...

I have a funny sort of personal connection to C.S. Lewis, who died 50 years ago today. It’s through my mother: she was born in London and is just old enough to remember the Blitz, and like the Pevensie children in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, she was sent to the countryside to escape the bombing. Unlike them ...

Now this is my kind of American. In a packed courtroom, 52-year-old Ernie Tertelgte told the judge “I am a living man protected by natural law and I have the right to forage for food when I am hungry… You are trying to create a fictitious, fraudulent action.” Charged with fishing without a license and resisting the arrest for fishing without a license, Mr. Tertegte says he’s being wrongly prosecuted for trying to feed himself. Tertelgte, 52 years old, was arrested on Monday and is accused of fishing without a license and then resisting arrest.

Pope Francis expressed new concern Thursday for the situation faced by “Christians who suffer in a particularly severe way the consequences of tensions and conflicts in many parts of the Middle East.” “Syria, Iraq, Egypt and other areas of the Holy Land sometimes overflow with tears,” he told a gathering at the Vatican of leaders from Eastern rite churches that have links with the Roman Catholic Church. “We won’t resign ourselves to a Middle East without Christians who for two thousand years confess the name of Jesus, as full citizens in social, cultural and religious life of the nations to...

Religion is one of the most divisive forces in the world's history. Maps of War is a website that creates fascinating visuals of the world to show how movements spread, wars begin and civilizations fall. They have turned their expertise to religion, focusing on five major faiths to see how they have spread and how wars have determined the influence and stronghold of various religions in a 90-second video. Beginning with the birth of Krishna, the time-lapse video covers 5,000 years of religion. The map slows down for the births of key religious figures and major wars, showing the decline...

Few can have failed to notice that this day marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of C.S. Lewis (1898-1963). Throughout the summer, Lewis has featured prominently in literary festivals across the length and breadth of England. His home church - Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry, Oxford - arranged a modest celebration of the anniversary in September, and found themselves swamped by the public interest. ...

http://www.iamsecond.com/seconds/the-robertsons/ Phil Robertson life story

An exploded star some 3.8 billion light-years away is forcing scientists to overhaul much of what they thought they knew about gamma-ray bursts – intense blasts of radiation triggered, in this case, by a star tens of times more massive than the sun that exhausted its nuclear fuel, exploded, then collapsed to form a black hole. Last April, gamma rays from the blast struck detectors in gamma-ray observatories orbiting Earth, triggering a frenzy of space- and ground-based observations. Many of them fly in the face of explanations researchers have developed during the past 30 years for the processes driving the...

Why didn’t Albuquerque vote for the late-term abortion ban? Why would they? People won’t value life if they don’t know they’re valued by God. If we’re just the result of an accident, what difference does partial birth abortion make? None, really.

"....Tom Waits (on Jim Wilson): "Wilson, he's always playing with time. I heard a recording recently of crickets slowed way down. It sounds like a choir, it sounds like angel music. Something sparkling, celestial with full harmony and bass parts - you wouldn't believe it. It's like a sweeping chorus of heaven, and it's just slowed down, they didn't manipulate the tape at all.

Costco has apparently had a “Come-to-Jesus” epiphany. The national warehouse chain has apologized for labeling Bibles in a Simi Valley, Calif. store as fiction, calling it an error that they are working quickly to correct. “We deeply regret the mislabeling of the Bible and meant no offense to anyone,” the company wrote in an email received by several customers. “The buyer has let us know that this was an error and the books are being pulled off the shelves to be re-marked.”

The anti-corruption stance of Pope Francis has riled Italy’s powerful mafia groups, according to a prosecutor who specializes in mob cases. State prosecutor Nicola Gratteri – who works in the southern Italian region of Calabria, where the ‘Ndrangheta mafia is active – told the Italian daily Fatto Quotidiano that Francis’ statements on transparency and dismantling economic power in the Vatican are making mobsters “nervous and agitated.” “I cannot say if the organization is in a position to do something like this, but they are dangerous and it is worth reflecting on,” Gratteri said. “If the godfathers can find a way...

A cleric dubbed the “bling bishop” for his luxury lifestyle is unlikely to return to his diocese after Catholics in the area said he could not come back. An assembly of the diocese of Limburg decided on Saturday that their bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst had “so damaged” the relationship of trust between him and his congregation, that his return “did not seem possible”. Tebartz-van Elst became the subject of severe criticism for spending €31 million on a new headquarters in western Germany with €783,000 going on a garden, €25,000 on a table and €15,000 on a bath tub. …

What do the Bible, "The Hunger Games" and "Fifty Shades of Grey" have in common? All three are works of fiction, according to the booksellers at Costco. Pastor Caleb Kaltenbach made that shocking discovery last Friday as he was shopping for a present for his wife at a Costco in Simi Valley, Calif. “All the Bibles were labeled as fiction,” the pastor told me. “It seemed bizarre to me.” Kaltenbach is the lead pastor at Discovery Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in southern California. He thought there must be some sort of mistake so he scoured the shelf for other...

It’s that time of the year again folks, when two lucky turkeys come to Washington, spend time at a swanky hotel, get some facetime with President Obama at the White House, before spending the rest of their days at a historic Virginia farm. But those days are always short. Gobbler and Cobbler—last year’s set of turkeys who attended the annual Presidential Turkey Pardon—have both died, Whispers has learned. Gobbler, Cobbler’s understudy, died in February. … Cobbler, 2012’s official pardoned turkey, lived through the summer and was euthanized on Aug. 22. …

.....What do you feel about this article?. . REACT .happyinformativedepressingoddboringangryinterestinginspiring Loading... ........'Duck Dynasty' Family Reveals Pre-Fame Infidelity, Alcohol Struggles ..By ABC News .Posts .By ABC News | ABC News Blogs – 1 hour 49 minutes ago ....Email 0Share 272Tweet0Share0Print..... ..... They're the duck-calling, bird-hunting, ratings-busting phenomenon known as "Duck Dynasty." The patriarch, Phil Robertson, leads the down-to-earth millionaires for the everyman clan into the homes of millions each week, and ever by his side is wife Kay. But now, audiences are getting a rare glimpse at their life before fame and fortune, seeing the demons that preceded the dynasty in...