Free Republic

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) today delivered the following statement on the bipartisan framework for comprehensive immigration reform released today with Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ):  “The introduction of these principles is the first step in what will be a very difficult, but achievable, reform to our immigration system.  “No one here needs reminding that the last major attempt at immigration reform was over six years ago. Now we will again attempt to commit the remaining resources needed to secure the border, modernize and streamline...

McCain Suggest A Pro-Life Catholic Could Have Won In 2012 Update; "The Catholic Bandita" AT THIS LINK headlines "best wishes to Sarah Palin as she leaves Fox news". An interesting take as full support to Sarah is given as a person but not politically because of her endorsement of Rand Paul in his senate race. I would be confident the political support would return if Sarah ran though. *************************************************************** Original post; If Sarah Palin's latest Tweets and the announcement of her next speaking engagement are examined it is very clear that the religious aspect of her focus has, at least...

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Pastor Miller and his family January 25, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "I have time for just a short note," wrote Mennonite pastor Kenneth Miller to his supporters as he awaited his inevitable arrest yesterday, "'...Whom having not seen ye love, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.' (1 Pet. 1:8-9)  He is risen. His Kingdom reigns forever. All is well." Hours later, Miller faced federal judge William Sessions III, and informed him that he would not testify before a...

While John McCain was playing kissy face with John Kerry in Kerry’s confirmation hearing, Dianne Feinstein was pushing gun control, Obama was planning immigration legislation, and Leon Panetta was lifting the ban on women serving in combat. There was so much SGO in Obama’s full court oppress last week, we need to take some time and sort it all out. (For those just joining us, “SGO” is an acronym for “s*** going on,” a comprehensively useful term coined by former SEAL Al Clark.) If John Kerry were Barry Obama, he’d spend the next four years blaming his predecessor for the...

The Department for Transport has unveiled its plans for the northern section of the controversial HS2 railway, but has faced anger from Tories representing constituencies along the route who say it will destroy large swathes of the countryside and “blight” lives. The 225-mph trains will link London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds by 2033. It emerged that plans to connect the £32-billion ($50 billion) train line directly to Heathrow have been put on hold until the Davies Commission on airport capacity has reported. …

In light of the skyrocketing popularity of Mormonism in the United States helped along by the Broadway Musical, "The Book of Mormon", Mitt Romney and your nice Mormon neighbors I thought it would be good to recycle this five year old article I wrote. The thesis? Mormons do better youth ministry than the average Protestant church! Read on and see if you agree with me… "Let's face it. Most of us look at the clean cut Mormon missionaries that peddle the streets of our city and knock on the doors of our houses as somewhat out of date. Although they...

You’ve probably heard the quotation at least a few times, most likely in a sermon encouraging people to live their faith in the world. “‘Preach the gospel at all times,’ Francis of Assisi said. ‘If necessary, use words.’” It’s a heartwarming sentiment with two flaws. First off, St. Francis never said it; second, even if St. Francis spoke these words, they aren’t true. Mark Galli puts the historical myth to rest in an article that reads, in part, First, no biography written within the first 200 years of his death contains the saying. It’s not likely that a pithy quote...

Gun sales soared at the end of last year, and the trend has continued into 2013. Since 1998, eight of the 10 highest days for gun background checks have taken place since the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, according to the FBI. Background checks are the most reliable way to track the number of gun sales, and data from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System show that over the last 6 weeks, these checks have reached their highest levels in fifteen years.

When did we decide that we wanted a law that could make unlocking your smartphone a criminal offense? The answer is that we never really decided.ADVISORY BY DECREE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS IT SHALL HENCEFORCE BE ORDERED THAT AMERICANS SHALL NOT UNLOCK THEIR OWN SMARTPHONES. PENALTY: In some situations, first time offenders may be fined up to $500,000, imprisoned for five years, or both. For repeat offenders, the maximum penalty increases to a fine of $1,000,000, imprisonment for up to ten years, or both.* That's right, starting this weekend it is illegal to unlock new phones to make them...

WASHINGTON – A central message heard from many of the speakers at this weekend's National Review Summit, "The Future of Conservatism," was that conservatives do not need to change their message, but need to do a better job at communicating their message. "I believe that conservative values, they're the right values. We don't need to change them, we need to change the way we message them," said Mia Love, mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah. Former Congressman Artur Davis, who recently switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party, agreed that conservatives have done a poor job at communicating their message....

Trying to focus on the markets for today and each day and the economic news A number of people have talked about such a thread. Lets see how it goes. This is where you can impart some investment wisdom to your fellow freepers. You can vent about the big one that got away. You can chime in how Obama is out to wreck American capitalism.

TORONTO (RNS) Talk about an unlikely course in an unlikely place. The main chapel at Jesuit-run Regis College at the University of Toronto is adorned with stained glass windows, icons of Mary and Joseph, and the Stations of the Cross. The eight-week course, which meets every Wednesday afternoon, is on atheism. Or more precisely, “Responding to 21st-Century Atheism.”Atheism “has become militant, aggressive and proselytizing,” said Lewis, a Jesuit scripture scholar, who teaches the class with three other scholars. “It’s made great in-roads and is now socially acceptable. If you’re young and educated and believe in God, you’re (seen as) a...

E. D. Hirsch, Jr. A Wealth of Words The key to increasing upward mobility is expanding vocabulary. WInter 2013 A number of notable recent books, including Joseph Stiglitz’s The Price of Inequality and Timothy Noah’s The Great Divergence, lay out in disheartening detail the growing inequality of income and opportunity in the United States, along with the decline of the middle class. The aristocracy of family so deplored by Jefferson seems upon us; the counter-aristocracy of merit that long defined America as the land of opportunity has receded. These writers emphasize global, technological, and sociopolitical trends in their analyses. But...

Cardinal Kurt Koch on the recent dialogues with Eastern Orthodox and Lutherans, and the effect of the "Arab Spring"The President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, was recently interviewed by the German Catholic news agency KNA. What follows is an English translation of selected questions and answers from that interview. KNA: Your Eminence, the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity is the occasion for an ecumenical assessment. Where do we stand today?Cardinal Koch: I hope that we are not standing but rather walking, and that we can take further steps in all the dialogues that...

Fact check: Did Obama end hot breakfasts for troops in Afghanistan?..........

Iran has successfully launched a rocket carrying a monkey into space, according to Iranian state media, in what Iranian officials call a "prelude to sending humans into space." The monkey was sent in an "indigenous bio-capsule" called Pishgam, which is Farsi for "Pioneer," according to Iran's Press TV. Pishgam reached an altitude of more than 75 miles and made a successful return, according to Iranian news agency Fars. The head of Iran's space agency, Hamid Fazeli, said that Iran decided to send a monkey "because of biological similarities between humans and monkeys," according to Press TV. Iran's space agency had...

Do you ever feel like matters become top-priority political issues practically overnight, with politicians across the country utilizing the same phrases, stories, and themes to drive their points home? In the case of gun control, there seems to be a new narrative that hunting is an activity protected by the U.S. Constitution, but that guns deemed too big or threatening for hunters will be banned. In the case of linguistic synchronization, the phrase “gun control” appears to be falling from favor in left-leaning circles, only to be replaced by “reducing gun violence.” It’s hardly a secret that top politicians meet...

Exclusive: Pamela Geller blasts 'sorry end to pathetic stint as secretary of state' History will remember Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s performance before senators and House members at the congressional Benghazi hearings as a stunning indictment of her profound failures and those of Obama administration.

This is one of the best mainstream articles I have seen trying to make sense of the point: Why are we not warming? It is rare to see work that tries to cover this much detail and nuance. The great global warming debate might finally be beginning?GWPF has a translation. Axel Bojanowski has managed to capture a concept that even if global warming has just stalled temporarily — the debate about why it has stalled is revealing in its own right. As I said in the Skeptics Handbook, “something out there affects our climate more than CO2 and none...