Free Republic

Full title: 'Christmas is a charade': Pope says atrocities such as Paris massacre have made festivities meaningless in a world which has chosen 'war and hate'... The Pope has called Christmas a 'charade' during a sermon in which he reflected on recent atrocities around the world. Among the acts of inhumanity he denounced were the Paris attacks, which left 129 dead, and the bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt, which killed all 224 people on board. Christmas festivities will seem empty in a world which has chosen 'war and hate', Pope Francis said yesterday at the Vatican.

A student at Georgia Southern University was reportedly fired from her job after dozens of her classmates called to complain about a Facebook post she wrote criticizing some protesters at the University of Missouri and Black Lives Matter activists. Emily Faz, a senior st GSU, shared a Nov. 14 Washington Times article that highlighted how some Mizzou and Black Lives

Small Brooklyn Venues Should Prepare For Terror Attacks, BP Eric Adams SaysDOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — In the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Borough President Eric Adams is urging Brooklyn restaurants, colleges and music halls, both large and small, to prepare for unexpected threats to safety. On Friday, Adams met with NYPD officials and representatives for 21 Brooklyn venues, including Brooklyn Bowl, Industry City, Brooklyn Brewery, St. Francis College and Grand Prospect Hall to discuss safety and vigilance, he said at a press conference. "We would never to surrender to fear," he said, "but we would be prepared to...

21-year-old man New Orleans police described as a "person of interest" wanted for questioning about the recent robberies of Uptown restaurants turned himself into detectives Monday (Nov. 16), police said. Police say Dwayne "Butter" Winns is not a suspect in the robberies at this time, but may have critical information about the crimes. Over five weeks in August and September, three prominent Uptown businesses -- Monkey Hill Bar, Patois, and Atchafalaya Restaurant -- were robbed by armed, masked gunmen. All of the robberies occurred at night when customers were present during business hours. The New Orleans Police Department, along with...

Is the Obama Administration Trafficking in Illegals or Refugees through UPS Flights & then Moved on Buses? Is the Obama Administration Trafficking in Illegals or Refugees through UPS Flights & then Moved on Buses? In a video that appeared earlier this month, a man is claiming that he videoed several buses that are carrying people who were brought in from a United Parcel Service flight. He discusses what he saw prior to filming which he described as people who came in on a UPS flight into Harrisburg International Airport. He also claims that it was supposed to be a parcel...

Despite the fact that Mohammad “was found to have an image of the ISIS flag, a handwritten manifesto with instructions on how to behead someone, and reminders to pray to Allah,” everyone who participated was sure that his stabbings had something to do with “images of masculinity” and nothing to do with Islam, and that only “Islamophobes” thought otherwise. UCMercedEventThe “Don’t Turn Our Tragedy Into Hate” teach in, hosted by the critical race and ethnic studies faculty, focused in on subjects such as: “What does mental health have to do with this?”; “Why are men more likely to be perpetrators...

Mary Mayhew, commissioner of Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services, knows her politics aren’t always popular. “I can’t stress enough what an attack campaign it has been from the media for four and a half years,” Mayhew said Thursday at an anti-poverty forum in Washington, D.C., hosted by The Heritage Foundation. Then there are the more personalized critiques: “There is a poet, or he calls himself a poet, and he sends me poems all the time,” she added. “They are not nice poems.” Mayhew claims that detractors—who mostly take issue with welfare reforms enacted by Gov. Paul LePage, a...

[If you're into science fiction or into a lot of the new scientific breakthroughs, you'll probably find this interesting!]On Viewing 2001: The First Transhumanist FilmBy Edward Hudgins I recently saw 2001: A Space Odyssey again on the big screen. That's the best way to see this visually stunning cinematic poem, like I saw it during its premiere run in 1968. The film's star, Keir Dullea, attended that recent screening and afterward offered thoughts on director Stanley Kubrick's awe-inspiring opus. He and many others have discussed the visions offered in the film. Some have come to pass: video phone calls and...

Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) "skillfully dissected the 20th century's foolhardy efforts to create utopias by stifling individuality and economic freedoms." So said cultural critic Bruce Edward Walker. Lem was best known internationally as author of the classic Solaris - twice adapted for the silver screen - but the majority of his fiction featured damning allegories against the suppression of the human spirit.

November 2, 1922. Washington, D.C. "Girls' rifle team, Central High.

I was absolutely stunned to learn that the Baltic Dry Shipping Index had plummeted to a new all-time record low of 504 at one point on Thursday. I have written a number of articles lately about the dramatic slowdown in global trade, but I didn’t realize that things had gotten quite this bad already. Not even during the darkest moments of the last financial crisis did the Baltic Dry Shipping Index drop this low. Something doesn’t seem to be adding up, because the mainstream media keeps telling us that the global economy is doing just fine. In fact, the Federal...

Anna Marzita Shinkle is charged with drunken disorderly conduct and resisting an officer after falling asleep at the Lani Kai Island Resort's grease dumpster just before 2 a.m. Saturday, according to an Lee County Sheriff's Office report. "The female was unresponsive and covered in grease with a shirt on and her pants down at her ankles," the report states.

Gloom and doom is back in fashion for the American economy. A growing number of economists predict it is heading for another recession sometime soon, and only 1 in 5 Americans believes it's getting better, Bloomberg reports. The Commerce Department estimates the economy grew a disappointing 1.5 percent in the third quarter. To which economists at the University of Michigan say: Cheer up! Forecasters at Michigan's Research Center in Quantitative Economics said on Thursday that they expect real gross domestic product to grow 2.6 percent next year and 2.9 percent in 2017. That wouldn't be white-hot growth by any means,...

Well-known for his porn star companions, Charlie Sheen’s recent admission to being HIV-positive has sent a ripple of fear through the adult industry. There’s no protocol in place for this. There are no records of who Sheen’s hired, thus no quarantine list for the porn stars he’s been sexually active with. In the semi-regulated world of adult film, when an HIV scare is made known everyone asks, “Did I perform with the person who tested positive?” Fear turns to panic if it was a close call, relief if it wasn’t. That’s only after a name is released—or patient zero comes...

Gunmen went on a shooting rampage at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako on Friday, seizing 170 guests and staff in an ongoing hostage-taking, the hotel chain said. Automatic weapons fire could be heard from outside the 190-room hotel in the city-centre, where security forces have set up a security cordon, an AFP journalist said.Malian soldiers, police and special forces were on the scene as a security perimeter was set up, along with members of the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping force in Mali and the French troops fighting jihadists in west Africa under Operation Barkhane.The Rezidor Hotel Group,...

Keeping true to the immortal words or gun-control czar Rahm Emanuel, gun-grabbers in the European Union are not going to let a tragedy go to waste. They know that in the wake of the attacks in Paris emotions are at a high and sound reason is at a low creating an ideal environment to ram through comprehensive reforms that further disarm the citizens of Europe.Furthermore, they know that people are looking for something to blame, something to direct their ire at, and they are quick to point to the hardware that millions of good guys use to defend themselves, their...

The College Football Czar: Week 12 Week eleven in review: For those readers who are unsure about the chronology, last week's issue was published the night before Gary Pinkel announced his retirement due to his having been diagnosed with lymphoma. Had this been revealed a day sooner, the College Football Czar would have thought it distasteful to criticize the coach over the previous week's events. Nevertheless, Pinkel's unfortunate personal circumstance and his handling of the campus "hunger strike" are two separate issues. What the Czar wrote about the latter is accurate, and he retracts nothing. The number of undefeated teams...

For Stephen Colbert, the late-night honeymoon appears to be over. The dose of reality comes upon tracking the last three weeks available on the ratings front. But first, a quick review of where we were and how we got here on the late-night competition front: outside of Colbert's opening week, NBC's Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show have beaten his CBS competition every week with plenty of room to spare. No surprise there, as even CBS execs concede they had no illusions of beating Fallon as Colbert and The Late Show find their groove. But that's not to say Colbert...

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette chose to not report an online call by a local woman for "Worcester gangsters" to "Kill Donald Trump" in Massachusetts. Donald Trump was given Secret Service protection in October. Trump, the leading Republican presidential candidate, held a large campaign rally in the Massachusetts town Wednesday night. Before the event this threat was posted online via Twitter. "All you Worchester Gangs and whatnot. You clearly have a Mission on Wednesday. Kill Donald Trump." The decision to not report the assassination threat against Trump, who just recently was put under Secret Service protection, was told to The...

As he did with his tax reform proposal and his border security and immigration plans Senator Ted Cruz has introduced a plan that actually solves a problem country class Americans want solved , in this case stopping jihadi terrorists from infiltrating America as Syrian "refugees." Yesterday, Senator Cruz introduced the Terrorist Refugee Infiltration Prevention Act of 2015, which will immediately bar refugees to the United States from any country, such as Iraq or Syria that contains territory substantially controlled by a foreign terrorist organization. The bill sunsets after three years so that Congress Syrian refugeescan reevaluate the global situation and...