Free Republic

Gay couples lined up before dawn on Friday to apply for marriage licenses after an Iowa judge scuttled the state's law against same-sex marriage. Two Iowa State University students, Sean Fritz, 24, and Tim McQuillan, 21, got their license along with a waiver bypassing the usual three-day waiting period. Then they rushed off to find someone to tie the knot for them in a bid to become the first in the state to do so -- and succeeded when a Unitarian minister united them in a brief ceremony in the front yard of his Des Moines home.

The What and Why of Mortification by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. The best description of mortification was given by Our Lord. He said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mat 16:24). Mortification, therefore, is self-denial. And self-denial is doing the will of God, even when the Divine will crosses at right angles to our will. Mortification is the imitation of Christ in the surrender of what we naturally like in order to please God. Self-Denial to Make Up for Past Sins There is...

The Washington Post scorned President Truman as a “spoilsman” who “underestimated the people’s intelligence.” New York Times columnist James Reston wrote off President Eisenhower as “a tired man in a period of turbulence.” At the end of President Reagan’s second term, the New York Times dismissed him as “simplistic” and a “lazy and inattentive man These harsh judgments, made in the moment, have not weathered well over time. Fortunately, while contemporary observers have a habit of getting presidents wrong, history tends to be more accurate. So how might history view the 43rd president? I can hardly be considered an...

It is, as always, a great joy to be here at the Church Teaches Forum, and to be able to greet everyone who is here and participating. In a very special way, I want to greet again the many wonderful friends that, over these last several years, I have had the opportunity to meet at this Forum, and I want to salute in a particular way, Mr. Smith, whose generosity and Catholic zeal is so largely responsible for a great deal of this forum's activities. I also want to say a word of gratitude to His Excellency, the Most Reverend...

Two Egyptian students at the University of South Florida were indicted Friday for carrying explosive materials across states lines and one of them was charged with teaching the other how to use them for violent reasons. Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 24, an engineering graduate student and teaching assistant at the Tampa-based university, faces terrorism charges for teaching and demonstrating how to use the explosives. He and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, an engineering student, were stopped for speeding in Goose Creek, S.C., on Aug. 4, where they have been held on state charges. The two men were stopped with pipe bombs...

UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday ordered an investigation into the discovery of a potentially hazardous Iraqi chemical warfare agent stored at a U.N. office in New York City. The inquiry will examine the circumstances under which the substances were brought to U.N. headquarters from Iraq in 1996, the reasons why the discovery was only made in 2007, and safety procedures at headquarters and in the field, said a statement from Ban's spokesperson. "The secretary-general takes very seriously the late discovery ... of potentially hazardous material" at the office of U.N. weapons inspectors, the statement said. "He has given...

HOUSTON (AP) - A school district suspended a police officer as it investigates his distribution of a "Ghetto Handbook" and the three-month lapse before top district officials were informed of it. The eight-page booklet, subtitled "Wucha dun did now?", was handed out to about 15 Houston Independent School District police officers at a May meeting, district spokesman Terry Abbott said. Officials declined to identify the officer who handed them out, but said he had been ordered to attend diversity training. A supervisor immediately collected the booklets, Abbott said, but district officials said they didn't learn about the incident until someone...

There has been no end to the speculation about why Fred Thompson has waited to officially announce that he will be a candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2008. Many have opined that it all has to do with contract obligations to NBC for the "Law & Order" series in which he was a cast member. Sounds reasonable, but it's wrong. Backers of some of former Sen. Thompson's opponents are saying that Fred picked September 6 over Sept. 5 so he could avoid the GOP presidential debate in New Hampshire. They say that Fred is "afraid" of facing...

Appeals court OKs Navy use of sonar By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago The Navy can use high-power sonar during exercises off the Southern California coast, despite the technology's threat to whales and other marine mammals, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. National security interests outweigh the possible harm to marine life, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined in overturning a judge's order banning the practice. "The public does indeed have a very considerable interest in preserving our natural environment and especially relatively scarce whales," Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote for the...

A month-old Islamic dig on Jerusalem's Temple Mount to replace faulty electrical cables has damaged an ancient wall that is likely a remnant of the Second Temple, Israeli archaeologists said Thursday. The work, which is being carried out with the approval of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the state-run Antiquities Authority, has been repeatedly condemned by independent Israeli archaeologists, who are calling for its immediate halt. "The Israeli Government is lending a hand to the destruction of one of the most important archaeological sites in the world," said Bar-Ilan University archaeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkai at a Jerusalem press conference. Barkai...

The Loss of Shaming and the Rise of Youth Crime - with Implications for Schools (and ceremonial events) The Pasadena Pundit - August 31, 2007 Excerpted from John Braithwaite, Crime, Shame and Reintegration, 1989. 1. Crime is committed disproportionately by males. 2. Crime is perpetrated disproportionately by 15-25 year old males. 3. Crime is committed disproportionately by unmarried people. 4. Crime is committed disproportionately by people living in large cities (or highly impersonal downtown settings). 5. Crime is committed disproportionately by people who have experienced high residential mobility and who live in areas characterized by high residential mobility (where there...

Jiang Ming of Chengdu city promised his wife, He Ling, that he would not go on the internet anymore, and would instead spend more time at home to take care of their newborn son. But after a short time he started to sneak into nearby internet cafes again to have video chats with girls. "I was on the internet, and suddenly felt a numbness in my right hand. The arrow on the screen stopped moving," says Jiang Ming. "Then I found that my right hand was on the mouse pad, and blood was shooting out." In court, the husband pleaded...

On August 26, Islamist websites hosted in Minnesota [SiteGenie, LLC, Rochester, MN] posted an item titled "How to Join Al-Qaeda." It is not clear when the item was written; it was produced by the website Al-Thabitoun 'Ala Al-'Ahd, which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda in Egypt and is currently inactive. The item calls on every Muslim to regard jihad as a personal duty and to take initiative to establish a jihad cell without waiting for recognition from Al-Qaeda. It goes on to elaborate on how to form and run the cell, how to raise funds, and how to select a target,...

Maryland knocked New Jersey out of the top spot this year, while Mississippi and West Virginia were the poorest states in the Union. Maryland is now the wealthiest state in the union, as measured by median household income, according to the latest stats from the Census Bureau.

EDMONTON -- When Brenda Martin's hair recently got infested with lice, she didn't have money for medication, so jailers shaved her head to stop the infestation from spreading to the 11 other women, and a two-month-old baby, crammed together in a 2 1/2-by-3 1/2-metre Mexican prison cell. The week before, Martin, who now weighs less than 100 pounds, refused to eat, saying she intended to starve herself to death. Disoriented and too weak to stand, she was taken to the prison infirmary, shackled to a bed and fed intravenously until the veins in her right arm collapsed, she said. The...

In today's Washington Times "Inside The Ring" column Bill Gertz reports three Republican presidential candidates are considering retired Army General Tommy Franks as a vice presidential running mate. General Franks, commander of U.S. Central Command from June 2000 until he retired in 2003, led American and Coalition troops in two strategically unprecedented campaigns in two years – Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq. Franks would boost Republican prospects in the South and provide an articulate spokesman for winning the global war against Islamist extremism and a counter to the Democrats' current defeatism: "All Democratic candidates...

Iraq's Sunni tribes began turning against al Qaeda when the largely foreign-run terrorist organization tried to arrange forced marriages with local women to secure their foothold in the country, according to a top counterterrorism adviser to the U.S. coalition in Iraq. Australian Col. David Kilcullen, who just completed a tour as senior counterinsurgency aide to U.S. commander Gen. David H. Petraeus in Baghdad, said in an extensive analysis that the decision by the Sunni tribes to break with al Qaeda could prove a major — if unanticipated — boost to President Bush's surge strategy in the country. "The uprising represents...

Toronto police have shut down part of two key highways in the city to transport several improvised explosive devices found in a vehicle. Police say the three bombs are linked to the arrest of a 37-year-old man taken into custody Thursday night. The man is the subject of an ongoing investigation into letter bombs mailed to two residences in Toronto and one in Guelph. Police have not said how many bombs were found in the car. The bombs were discovered in the trunk of a silver sedan car at an Esso gas station near Overlea Boulevard near Thorncliffe Park Drive,...

Dana Perino will replace Tony Snow as WH press secretary.

Viacom isn't the only organization involved in sending out "bass-ackwards" DMCA takedown notices; the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (abbreviated, for complicated reasons, as the SFWA) is in on the fun as well. The group has issued DMCA takedown notices for sci-fi reading lists drawn up to aid teen literacy, freely-distributed webzines, and Creative Commons-licensed material. The debacle began a few weeks back when the SFWA contacted Scribd, a site that allows users to post documents in the same way that YouTube allows people to post videos. SWFA alleged that numerous works on Scribd violated copyrights of SWFA...