Free Republic

Last year, I had to replace a failing wallet. Transferring the contents from the old to the new included the Arizona Concealed Carry permit. A glance at the expiration date showed the transfer was serendipitous; the card was to expire within a month. Eventually, a helpful lady at the Department of Public Safety made arrangements for a renewal form to be sent, the necessary money order was obtained; and a renewal card received. All hinged on the happenstance of seeing the card was about to expire. No notice of the expiration was sent out by the Department of Public Safety.If...

President Joe Biden called for the renewal of monthly government payouts to families, noting its success at reducing child poverty. “That child tax credit was really helpful and we gotta get that renewed,” Biden said Sunday, during a visit to Philabundance, a hunger relief organization in Philadelphia.

There isn’t a worldly creation that doesn’t need continual upkeep and renewal. Examples abound. Without regular maintenance to our autos, homes, marriages, bodies and souls, they will degrade and eventually cease to operate, or will ill-serve their intended purposes. As applied to government, look no further than a congress that rarely serves its designed Constitutional purposes. Our government in general, and congress in particular, are in dire need of renewal, of restoration to their free government designs. Patriots know their forebears created the world’s best free government, yet the American republic is not the longest lived. At about 450 years,...

Law raises concerns about extent feds can spy on AmericansPresident Trump has told congressional Republican leaders that he will not support a clean reauthorization of surveillance laws without significant reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court system that was abused during the Russia collusion probe, a senior White House official says.The surveillance provisions are set to expire on March 15, and the White House indicated to Republican leaders Tuesday that it would support only a temporary, 30-day extension to allow Congress to iron out the reforms. House Democratic leaders have indicated publicly they are open to bipartisan compromise.“Just got back from the...

After a last-minute announcement on Friday, thousands of people gathered to worship with Kanye West in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. With no stage, lights, or fancy audio equipment, Jonathan Stockstill, the pastor of Bethany Church, introduced the rapper to the crowd. “Can we hear it for Jesus?” Stockstill asked. “He is king tonight.” West, standing between wooden crosses, opened with “Closed on Sunday,” with his daughter North sitting on top of his shoulders. “You my Chick-Fil-A,” West rapped. “Hold the selfies. Put the ’gram away. Get your family. Y’all hold hands and pray. … Raise our sons. Train them in the...

“In contrast to the United Methodist Church, RCRC dismisses the value of unborn human life” -UM Action Director John Lomperis Portland, OR—United Methodists have voted to require church boards and agencies to withdraw immediately from an organization that advocates for abortion on demand. Delegates from across the 12.1 million-member denomination adopted a proposal concluding affiliation with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) on a vote of 425 to 268 (61 percent to 39 percent) during their quadrennial General Conference meeting in Portland, Oregon. Two United Methodist agencies, the General Board on Church and Society (GBCS) and United Methodist Women...

Marriage can be a long and difficult journey, full of obstacles trying to keep you from being happy in your relationship. But don't be discouraged or distracted. If you want to keep your marriage and family together, learn to recognize and avoid these six pitfalls: < excerpted questions: >1. Your heartbeat speeds up but not because of your spouse.2. Your spouse is a little worse for wear.3. Someone else is a more preferable option. 4. You deserve better.5. There is no physical romance. 6. The honeymoon stage is over. < snip > We are constantly told how divorce and infidelity...

After contentious negotiations between Sony and AMC over Breaking Bad, AMC has renewed the show for 16 episodes and the series will end after that. Because sixteen episodes is a little longer than normal, it is not yet clear whether AMC will air one last season of 16 episodes or break it up into two mini seasons. Given reports that AMC originally wanted to go with a shortened episode count for season five, this is probably a win for fans — you might be getting a short season five, but there will be a short season six to go along...

The end of the year -- and the expiration date for a Treasury grant program that buoyed the renewable energy industry during the economic slowdown -- is just around the corner, and solar and wind power leaders are bracing for the blow. A one-year extension proposed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus was shot down over the weekend. This week’s tax agreement between President Obama and congressional Republicans doesn’t include a lifeline for the Treasury grant program. The program grew out of a federal tax credit that covered up to 30% of the cost to build a renewable energy...

Several years ago I had the privilege of being given a tour of the grounds of what would later become the campus of “Ave Maria University”. I was given this tour by its President, Nick Healy. The College was already in operation, utilizing the buildings which now house the Law School in Naples, Florida until the campus was built. The tour was of vacant, undeveloped land in what was then a part of the town of Immokalee, in Collier County, Florida. During the tour and over lunch afterward I heard the hopes, the vision and the dynamic mission of this...

(Eph 6:12) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

ON THE FOURTH DAY G-D CREATED THE SUN, and it began to function as the center of our solar system. After approximately 365 1/4 days, the sun would be at its original place in the sky and a new year would begin, in a cycle that still continues without change. Tradition teaches that the sun's first appearance in the newly-created heaven is reckoned from Nissan, the month of Passover and springtime. A quarter of a year later — after about 91 days, 7 1/2 hours — the next season would begin and so on. If that very first year began...

Simple, but not obvious. In her state - Wisconsin - with a Democratic governor and state senate, as well as an assembly that has just "turned blue" after 14 years as a Republican strong-hold - what could be done by conservatives to: make headway on their agenda, revive the morale of their adherents...raise their stature in the public eye, and develop and sustain the momentum needed to renew their drive to take back the legislature and Governor's mansion?

Many Catholics in North America are aware of the new (or renewed) “orthodox” Catholic institutions of higher education that have sprung to life on this continent over the past two decades. Franciscan University in Steubenville, Christendom College in Virginia, and Ave Maria University in Florida head the list of those institutions seeking to be fully faithful to the Church’s magisterium. Now the west coast of Canada can boast its own addition to this line-up: Redeemer Pacific College, in Langley, just outside the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Redeemer Pacific College (RPC) opened its doors in the fall of 1999 with...

After more than five years of work, the Holy See has approved the Statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way, thus confirming the praxis in more than 105 nations for over thirty years. The decree of approval, dated the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, was solemnly consigned on June 28 to the initiators of the way, Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez together with Father Mario Pezzi, by Cardinal Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, the Dicastery entrusted by the Holy Father with the task of guiding the preparation of the statute. The Neocatechumenal Way has not been approved...

"A Visit Which Has Opened our Eyes to Once Again Look Upon Jesus" (original title "Una visita che ha aperto di nuovo lo sguardo verso Gesu") by Father Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J. from the journal Il Volto Santo di Manoppello Vol. XCII, no. 2, December 2006. (Translation by Raymond Frost, University of San Francisco) After a long period of waiting which lasted centuries and centuries a Pope has visited Manoppello for the first time. After only a very brief time following his election to the throne of Peter: Pope Benedict XVI. And I am convinced that many of his predecessors already...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2007 – Iraqi and coalition forces have largely purged extremists from urban areas in Iraq’s Anbar province over the past 10 months, allowing renewal efforts to flourish with reduced meddling by terrorists, a coalition commander in the region said today. During a video teleconference from Fallujah, Iraq, Marine Col. Stacy Clardy, commander of Regimental Combat Team 2, told reporters at the Pentagon that the combined force is achieving peace in the western Iraqi province. “I would simply say that we -- the Iraqis and the Americans -- are now winning, and for us, winning is peace,” he...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican central bank governor Guillermo Ortiz on Wednesday urged the government and food companies to renew price caps for tortillas that have acted as a buffer against inflation. Tortillas, thin corn patties, are a staple of the Mexican diet. After a price rise began fueling inflation toward the end of 2006, the government pressured food producers and retailers to limit prices for corn flour and tortillas. "For consumers, the price containment so far has been a success, and from my point of view it is important that this containment continues," Ortiz told reporters, according to a...

The War on Drugs has now been extended to the counter of your local pharmacy. Buried in the Patriot Act renewal bill that passed this week are provisions that would impose new restrictions on purchasing medicines that contain pseudoephedrine. Many cold and allergy medications contain the chemical pseudoephedrine which is used to as an ingredient to manufacture methamphetamine. In typical, heavy-handed fashion, Congress is placing limits on how much medicine containing pseudoephedrine one person can buy during a given time period. The purchase limits would go into effect 30 days after the president signs the bill. A person would be...

WASHINGTON - As the clock runs on Congress' short-term extension of the Patriot Act, President Bush met with federal prosecutors Tuesday and contended that the domestic anti-terror law is vital to keeping Americans safe. Many key provisions of the law were to expire Dec. 31. Amid a debate over whether the act sufficiently protects civil liberties, most Senate Democrats and a few Republicans united against legislation that would have renewed several provisions permanently while extending others for four years. In a move the White House adamantly opposed but later accepted, Congress approved a one-month extension of the law in its...