Free Republic

by Kent Ponder, Ph.D.          Many say that religious faith and reason are essentially incompatible -- that theological faith and sensible reason function as largely separate modes of mental and emotional behavior. LDS people, though, very often say that the Mormon faith is unusually reasonable and sensible.         Is it? As a test, let's consider the Jaredites and their ocean-going barges, described in Ether of the Book of Mormon. If you've read it, did you do it with the "eye of faith," or with the "eye of reason" (and common sense)? The LDS...

2009 has been unkind to millions of workers in America. Thanks to the recession spawned by the Chris Dodd Bear Market and the stock market crash precipitated by horrendous mortgage-lending practices promoted by Sen. Dodd and other Democrats and liberals in and out of Congress, unemployment is up to 9.7 percent, almost no one is hiring, pay freezes and cuts are the norm, and job insecurity continues to rise. 2010 isn't shaping up to be any great shakes, either. Economists say the recession should end next year, but they expect joblessness will be above 10 percent for most of the...

After an August where we were blessed to witness many of our representatives getting their figurative heads handed to them, and the miracle of 9/12, I am still not sure they or the administration really “gets” it.

<p>The White House has a message to the tens of thousands of protesters who railed against big government during a rally in Washington Saturday: You're wrong.</p> <p>White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday that the protesters, part of the "tea party" movement, do not represent the views of the broader public when it comes to health care reform.</p>

(In this weekly column, Tom and April Hoopes share family-friendly ways of observing the liturgical year and celebrating the Sunday readings.) Sept. 13 is the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, Cycle I). Family Monday, Sept. 14, is the Triumph of the Cross — a great day to take the whole family to Mass. The feast recalls the value of the cross in our lives — it originally marked the discovery of the true cross by St. Helena in the Holy Land. Take the opportunity to remind your children — and yourself — why we make the Sign...

Far-Right Supporters Confront Pro-Palestinian Marchers In London DAILY MAIL REPORTER 13th September 2009 Hundreds of people on a pro-Palestinian rally in London were met by a group of far-Right protesters holding Union Jacks as police held the two sides apart. The supporters of the English Defence League turned up at the annual Al-Quds Day demonstration in Central London held to show support for Palestinians. There was a heavy police presence as the procession was met with a small but vocal crowd at Piccadilly Circus. Clash: Scenes from the pro-Palestinian demonstration in London today where counter demonstrations where held by members...

Lawmakers are calling for an increase to Social Security payments that would cost the government billions of dollars. The congressional push comes after the Social Security Administration reportedly indicated there will be no inflationary adjustment to Social Security benefits next year. It would be the first time since 1975 that Social Security benefits would not be subject to a cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA). Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation this week that would provide seniors and others who receive Social Security payments a one-time $150 payment to make up for the loss of the COLA. The bill has 14 Democratic cosponsors. Social...

President says independent panel of doctors, ethicists, and scientists needed to make "difficult" choices Barack Obama's health care speech of Wednesday September 9 accused his opponents of lying, "plain and simple," when they said his health care plan included "death panels" that would cut off health care to senior citizens, chronically ill people, and other forms of Lebensunwertes Leben ("life unworthy of life"). House Bill 3200 does not, contrary to various allegations on blogs and talk radio, call for the establishment of such panels. Barack Obama, on the other hand, did, and Sarah Palin's allegation about "death panels" is therefore...

There is something terribly wrong with using these words, “The president warns his critics and tries to seize the reins of the health care debate at a rally,” to described a news headline on the healthcare “debate.” Since when is “warning” the other side part of debating? I guess that’s how the machine-politicians debate in Chicago. Clicking the Yahoo! link took me to the Sept. 12 AP story, “Obama says status quo no solution on health care.” The story covers Obama’s healthcare campaign rally in Minnesota where he fired up the crowd. Maybe the cold weather has frozen one too...

EL PASO — A body found with its severed arms crossed and placed on its chest in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was identified by authorities Wednesday as a Texas man kidnapped from his home. Sergio Saucedo, 30, was kidnapped from his Horizon City house outside El Paso last Thursday. His mutilated body was found Tuesday, said El Paso County Sheriff's spokesman Jesse Tovar. "It's apparent that the spillover has occurred," Tovar said of the drug violence plaguing Juarez and much of Mexico. Saucedo, who has a long criminal record including convictions for drug possession and money laundering, was kidnapped by three...

Please offer your health care ideas Editor: As the congressional representative for New York's 20th District, I am committed to upholding a high standard of openness and transparency as I work to make decisions on key issues. Health insurance reform is one of the most important issues our nation is addressing. Over the past few months, Congress and the American people have embarked on a critical discussion that may shape the future of our health care system. One is hard-pressed to locate an individual with no opinion on his/her health care options, and Americans are vocalizing these opinions with extraordinary...

It appears that the marginal-at-best Green Party will go to any lengths to thumb its collective nose at the American voting public. A report from The Hill suggests that the party whose platform is equal parts ecological wisdom and social justice has extended feelers to disgraced former Green Jobs Czar, Truther Jones. Having garnered a thimbleful of plausibility with the nomination of perennial Presidential candidate Ralph Nader as their choice in 1996, the party received nearly 2.7 % of the votes in the 2000 Presidential election. By 2008, the political geniuses at Green Party central had whittled their share of...

ORLANDO, FL, September 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Speaking to a room full of prominent US Catholic leaders Friday night, Senator Rick Santorum was challenged to run for the Republican Presidential nominaion.  Responding to a room already thick with applause, Santorum revealed that he was indeed "thinking about it" but asked for prayers and detailed his thinking on the matter.His remarks came after his address to the closing dinner of the 12th annual Catholic Leadership Conference - an invite-only gathering of Catholic leaders from academia, law, media, medicine, and politics, as well as leaders of movements within the Church such as...

For those of you who are conservative and have long known that the State Media is biased against those who oppose their philosophy, the tone of the reporting is exactly what you would expect. I myself try to avoid the American counterparts of Tass and Pravda as much as humanly possible, preferring news to commentary. However, when I heard the report from ABC News Radio on Sunday morning, I had to do the audio version of a double-take. “As many as 75,000 protesters marched down Pennsylvania Avenue,” the report began. “75,000?” I wondered aloud. “How are they going to pull...

The passing of Senator Edward Kennedy was truly the end of an era. He had been extolled as the "lion of the Senate." Understandably, given the impact of his life, the news media were filled with stories about Kennedy, his family, his trials and tribulations and his contributions. I was most surprised to read that a month before his death Senator Kennedy had written a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, which was delivered to him by President Obama. As a practicing Catholic, I took great interest in Kennedy's thoughts about his Catholicism at the end of his life.

Parents Who Claimed Their Disabled Daughter Had Been Kidnapped Are Charged With Her Murder By PETER ALLEN 13th September 2009 Victim: Marina Sabatier's body was found three days after she was reportedly abducted [Pic in URL] The parents of an eight-year-old schoolgirl have been charged with murder after beating her to death and hiding her corpse in a trunk load of cement because she was ‘greedy’. The Mafia-style disposal of the body of Marina Sabatier, from the French city of Le Mans, followed months of abuse by Eric Sabatier, 37, and his partner Virginie Darras, 30. Prosecutors today told how...

Psalm 116:4,5 God is Gracious; it is He who Makes Things Right, Our Most Compassionate God. God Takes the Side of the Helpless; When I was at the End of my Rope, He Saved me.

Attorney Taitz battles Attorney Generals — Discovery to Begin! September 12, 2009 by John Charlton IN TWO SEPARATE CASES, AGs WORK TO FORESTALL by John Charlton(Sept. 12, 2009: 9:45 PM Eastern DLST) — Just minutes ago Niel Turner issued a public announcement, based on his personal communications with Attorney Orly Taitz, who is presently in Washington, D.C.; regarding Taitz’s two cases, Captain Pamela Barnett vs. Obama, and Captain Connie Rhodes, M.D., vs. McDonald.In the more recent case, Rhodes vs. McDonald, in GA Federal Court, which regards Capt. Rhodes request for an emergency stay of her deployment to Afghanistan, on the...

Forget Bipartisanship, Comity or Civility - Schieffer Says Mindless Meanness Has Invaded the Public Commons (CBS) That was not a State of the Union speech we heard the other night, but it had all the trappings - and when that Congressman hollered "You lie!" at the President, we did get a snapshot of the nation's state. It was not a pretty picture. The country is in an angry mood - people are frustrated, tempers are short, congressmen are being shouted down at town hall meetings (where constituents sometimes show up with guns), and at rallies like the one yesterday in...

Troubles Brew For House Dems In 2010 Election Ongoing job losses and slipping support for Obama among issues Sept . 13, 2009 NEW YORK - Despite sweeping Democratic successes in the past two national elections, continuing job losses and President Barack Obama's slipping support could lead to double-digit losses for the party in next year's congressional races and may even threaten their House control. Fifty-four new Democrats were swept into the House in 2006 and 2008, helping the party claim a decisive majority as voters soured on a Republican president and embraced Obama's message of hope and change. Many of...