Free Republic

HYANNIS PORT, Massachusetts, August 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The public Catholic funeral of Senator Ted Kennedy - whose long career of abortion advocacy helped sever the American Catholic identity from the Church's pro-life teaching - will be a source of immense scandal, says Human Life International (HLI) president Fr. Tom Euteneuer. In addition, he said, Obama's scheduled eulogy at the event amounts to a "perfect absolution" whitewashing Kennedy's opposition to Catholic moral teaching.

"I believe the explanation lies in the Obama administration’s fondness for transnationalism, a doctrine of post-sovereign globalism in which America is seen as owing its principal allegiance to the international legal order rather than to our own Constitution and national interests. "Recall that the president chose to install former Yale Law School dean Harold Koh as his State Department’s legal adviser. Koh is the country’s leading proponent of transnationalism. He is now a major player in the administration’s deliberations over international law and cooperation. Naturally, membership in the International Criminal Court, which the United States has resisted joining, is high...

I voted for Obama because he promised change. I wanted to see George Bush and Dick Cheney sent to prison for the crimes they committed, but Obama gave them a free pass. I wanted to see the bailout of London and Wall Street thieves reversed, but Obama continued the same policy. I wanted to see America restored as the industrial power it once was, but Obama did nothing. I wanted Obama to say that as an industrial power, we could afford good health care for all, not health insurance, and the Congress would have the same health care as the...

My argument is that if corporate taxes were eliminated, then there could be fairer price competition among businesses. (CALGARY, Alberta) - Houdini was able to make an elephant disappear in a crowded theatre. How was he able to do it? Misdirection. Misdirection is the primary process in our tax system and no one wants to explain it. I’ve tried more than once over the last thirty years, but the mainstream media (the little people who are the gatekeepers) will not touch it. Here it is. A press release from The Oregon Center for Public Policy published elsewhere on this site...

While I do not agree with everything Richard Bauckham argues for in his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, I wholeheartedly agree with his fundamental premise: the Gospels are not the product of a long process of anonymous traditioning (as the Form-Critical model suggested). In this awesome video, Bauckham lays out a summary of his thought: http://www.thesacredpage.com/2009/08/bauckham-gospels-as-eyewitness.html

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq – Gen. Douglas MacArthur had his signature corncob pipe. Soldiers got cigarettes in their C-rations during World War II. Even today, America's war on tobacco seems to have largely bypassed the military. Now a proposal to make the forces smoke-free is drawing strong reactions from troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though the Pentagon itself says any ban is a long way off. The troops' fears — and, in some cases, hopes — were triggered by a study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department that recommends moving toward a...

The United Nations Nuke Watchdog, IAEA director Dr. Mohammed El-Baradei has a history of appeasing terrorist powers looking to become nuclear, for example the Wall Street Journal described El-Baradei this way: The IAEA director seems intent on undercutting Security Council diplomacy. Just weeks after President George Bush toured the Middle East to build Arab support for pressure on Tehran, Mr. El-Baradei appeared on Egyptian television on Feb. 5 to urge Arabs in the opposite direction, insisting Iran was cooperating and should not be pressured. And as he grows more and more isolated from Western powers intent on disarming Iran, Mr....

Monday and Thrsday mornings, 8/31 and 9/3Kohen--Deuteronomy 26:1-3Levi--vs. 4-11Yisra'el--vs. 12-15 Strday 9/5--Shabbat Parashat Ki-Tavo'MORNING Kohen--Deuteronomy 26:1-11Levi--26:12-15Shelishi--26:16-19Revi`i--27:1-10Chamishi--27:11-28:6Shishi--28:7-69Shevi`i--29:1-8Maftir--29:6-8Haftarah--Isaiah 60:1-22 EVENING Kohen--Deuteronomy 29:9-11Levi--vs. 12-14Yisra'el--vs. 15-28

Now there is the absurd possibility of the loathsome and contemptible Muammar Qaddafi coming to the United Nations, and staying in somewhere in the United States beyond the property donated to the UN. He wanted to stay in New Jersey, a situation that would be intolerable, and Jersey officials nixed that. Good for them. Just in case you don’t know, here’s the knock on Qaddafi, in part of a report from Arab News: “A former Libyan agent jailed for life for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people [most of them Americans] flew home to a joyous reception Thursday...

S.I. baseball-bat wielding neighbor rescues girl from abductor in woods A baseball bat-wielding Staten Island homeowner was hailed as a hero after he chased away a man who dragged a 15-year-old girl into the woods, police and witnesses said. Patrick Klatt, 51, was inside his Great Kills home Thursday night when he heard the young girl's screams from a wooded area across the street. "He kept telling her to be quiet," Klatt said about the sicko. "[But] she yelled just loud enough for me to hear." Klatt grabbed a baseball bat and ran out his door. As he crossed the...

Mourners gather at the coffin of Sen. Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009. Kennedy, 77, died Tuesday, Aug. 25 more than a year after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

A transgender driver's return behind the wheel of a taxi has lasted just a month. Andre Edwards, 51, walked out of her job at Leyland-based Eco Cabs following a series of rows with her new bosses – and they don't want her back. The move comes less than a month after the Evening Post revealed how the company, based on Mellor Road, had given her a chance to work two months after she was sacked from Leyland Taxis

Super-high quality vid of Apache vaporizing 5 jihadis. Fun starts around the 1:20 mark. Note: Flying-jihadi on the first strike, watch the guy on the left (1:27 mark).

Some scholars squabble about the particulars, but there is no question that democracy's roots go back at least 2,500 years to practices developed in the Greek city-state of Athens. But the adoption of a key pillar of democracy — the secret ballot — came far more recently. In England in the 1830s, disenfranchised working-class men and sympathetic members of Parliament launched the Chartist movement. The most crucial of its six objectives was universal suffrage for all men over 21, but not far behind was the secret-ballot provision. It took decades, but eventually the secret ballot became the democratic norm —...

Imagine how the families of those 240 dead feel now? The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal. Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards. (Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...

Here is video of Sen. Ted Kennedy being laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery alongside his brothers John and Robert. (Watch Video)

Europe has offered to buy a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to continue manned flights after the US retires the Shuttle in two years. The European Space Agency, which is based in Paris, said a space vehicle of its own would enable European astronauts to continue working at the International Space Station even if the American shuttles cease operating. The scheduled launch of the first Russian Soyuz from the ESA base in French Guiana was postponed on Wednesday to 2010. To deliver the module the Russian space programme would have to increase production of the vehicle to five units per year. Simonetta...

“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable—a most sacred right—a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.” —Abraham Lincoln The battle lines continue to be drawn, and in this article I will discuss one that you can, and should, draw now. Glenn Beck ought to get the Medal of Freedom, and Fox News deserves America’s heart-felt gratitude. Without Fox News, and Beck in particular, we would largely be...

Unbelievable. I watched it three times and still cannot believe what I saw and heard. Roll the tape: [VIDEO AT SITE] These people are shameless. Absolutely shameless. You would think that after the Paul Wellstone memorial went so far off the tracks that they would have learned. Seems that isn't so. Rush said last week that the services for Uncle Teddy would be a spectacle to behold because the Democrats cannot help themselves. Once again, Rush was right. As Allah at Hot Air said: Enter this poor little boy, charged with politicizing a prayer because the gutless pols around him...

The U.S. Forest Service is apologizing for warning that national forest campers who eat tortillas, drink Tecate beer and listen to Spanish music could be armed marijuana growers. The warning was issued Wednesday to the media by Forest Service law enforcement officials who are investigating illegal marijuana plantations in Colorado's national forests. Tortilla packaging and Tecate cans were among the items authorities found recently when they broke up a pot-growing operation in the Pike National Forest southwest of Denver. "I think that's the most entertaining story that I've heard on Latinos in quite a while," Jose Armas, a longtime Latino...