Free Republic

When I entered I saw what I had written. I wanted to say a word to you and the word is “joy”. Wherever there are consecrated people, seminarians, men and women religious, young people, there is joy, there is always joy! It is the joy of freshness, the joy of following Jesus; the joy that the Holy Spirit gives us, not the joy of the world. There is joy! but — where is joy born? Joy is born from the gratuitousness of an encounter! It is hearing someone say, but not necessarily with words: “You are important to me”. This...

America has a deficit of workers. Willing workers. Capable workers. Skilled, or at least semi-skilled workers, who can do a job and do it well. There are at least one million jobs that go begging day after day if only employers could find workers to fill them. This probably seems hard-to-believe. After all, how can America have a worker shortage when we have about 18 million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed? When the real unemployment rate is 12 percent? Well certainly the economy isn’t creating nearly as many jobs as it should – in large part because of regulatory...

I’m in Australia for Consilium, an annual conference which is hosted by the Centre for Independent Studies.I spoke on fiscal policy and pontificated on the need for nations to restrain government spending.That’s an important message (at least in my humble option), but I thought it was more interesting to learn more about the tax and spending policies of Australia’s current government, which is led by the supposedly right-of-Center Liberal Party (Aussies still use “liberal” in the European sense of classical liberalism).Unfortunately, I learned that the Australian Liberals (like British Tories) need some remedial work on fiscal policy.Prime Minister Abbott and his...

Sunday, 24 September 2014, 14: 43 In Donetsk, pro-Russian guerrillas held captive Ukrainians "corridor of shame" instead of the parade to the day of celebration for the independence of Ukraine. In Donetsk, the militants held a parade of prisoners " Only once hear someone shouting "glory to Ukraine!". The captives were under escort. Prisoners of war fighters in Donetsk, 24 September. Photo from ìnstagrama Alexander exactly Kotsa Prisoners DNRìvcìv The prisoners held by terrorists, Donetsk on the 53rd anniversary of independence of Ukraine. Prisoners under escort by terrorist militants fighters in Donetsk At 14.00 in the Centre of Donetsk began...

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard said it has brought down an Israeli stealth drone above the Natanz uranium enrichment site in the centre of the country. "A spy drone of the Zionist regime (Israel) was brought down by a missile... This stealth drone was trying to approach the Natanz nuclear zone," the corps said in a statement on its official website sepahnews.com. In 2010, the Israeli Air Force launched an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), dubbed "Eitan," "Heron TP" or "Heron 2", which can stay in the air 24 hours and can reach Iran. “The ‘Eitan’ marks a technological breakthrough and a...

Talk about deja vu Trayvon Martin spin all over again, I could hardly believe my eyes. During a discussion on CNN about the shooting of Michael Brown by a white police officer, in the background was a photo of Brown in a school graduation cap and gown. Give me a break! The Leftist Media and Leftist Racism on Parade in Ferguson August 23, 2014 By Lloyd Marcus 0 SHARES Share on Facebook Tweet on Twitter Ferguson Talk about deja vu Trayvon Martin spin all over again, I could hardly believe my eyes. During a discussion on CNN about the shooting...

How’s this for a depressing passage: “There’s just a lot more regulation going on,” Zelizer said. “There’s a lot of intersection between the economy and Washington.” “There’s just a lot more regulation going on.” My liberal friends, “regulation” is the mother’s milk of the crony capitalist state, the “fascist light” state. Our system of “regulation” is in most regards now just a vehicle for rent seeking. Blindly defending regulations in 2014 because liberals are supposed to be for regulation, is to give power to a vested corporate oligarchy. Am I saying that all regs are bad? No. Am I saying...

The investigation that led federal and state authorities to arrest a Seymour woman on child pornography charges started when an undercover Washington, D.C., police officer arrested a man earlier this month who had images the woman allegedly had taken of her own children. Naomi Jean Justice, 21, was charged with production and distribution of child pornography, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation news release.

A few days ago, James Foley was beheaded by an ISIS jihadist, apparently British by upbringing and passport, if not in his primary identity. The decapitation of an American by an outfit he'd previously dismissed as the "jayvees" of jihad was sufficiently serious for President Obama to postpone his tee time, although not to any useful effect. Aside from the fake, tinny chumminess (all "Jim" this, "Jim that, just as for Ambassador Stevens it was all "Chris" this, "Chris that") the commander-in-chief reserves for the victims of an enemy he assured us was on the run, Obama's remarks were fatuous...

One special little girl made an Iraqi War vet tear up with her touching act of selflessness when she heard he needed help to train his dog to become an assistance animal. Nick Bailey served two tours in Iraq and suffers from spinal injuries and PTSD as a result from a rocket bomb attack. From WCSC: “For me, it’s just amazing that an 8-year-old girl would show any interest in me or my dog,” Bailey said. * Because of post traumatic stress from his military service, Bailey finds it hard to go out in public alone, and also suffers with...

Full title: "Cornel West: 'He posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency'”No, the thing is he posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national security presidency. The torturers go free. The Wall Street executives go free. The war crimes in the Middle East, especially now in Gaza, the war criminals go free. And yet, you know, he acted as if he was both a progressive and as if he was concerned...

The public has been misinformed regarding human-to-human transmission of Ebola. Assurances that Ebola can be transmitted only through direct contact with bodily fluids need to be seriously scrutinized in the wake of the West Africa outbreak. The Canadian Health Department states that airborne transmission of Ebola is strongly suspected and the CDC admits that Ebola can be transmitted in situations where there is no physical contact between people, i.e.: via direct airborne inhalation into the lungs or into the eyes, or via contact with airborne fomites which adhere to nearby surfaces. That helps explain why 81 doctors, nurses and other...

In 1948, the argument for the creation of Israel was a moral argument; the argument against the creation of Israel was based on an assessment of America’s national interest. Almost seventy years later Israel is an economic and military powerhouse, with a rapidly growing population, while her traditional enemies are weaker than ever. At the present time, most of those who argue against the continued existence of Israel attempt to base their arguments on moral grounds. Still, a small and noisy group of conservatives contend that our support for Israel undermines our standing in the region, and threatens our national...

As the crisis in Ukraine continues with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s contempt of the west growing, it’s becoming clear that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be a key player if the crisis is to be resolved without a wider conflict. Since the crisis began, Merkel has played the stern headmaster to the United States and Russia, which appear more as squabbling students than world powers. Amid heated rhetoric coming from both Washington and Moscow, Merkel has been measured, chastising Russia when necessary, but calling for restraint from countries eager to punish Russia. Related: Putin Wants Eastern Ukraine. Let Him Have...

What a difference a year makes. Around this time last year, the West was gearing up for military action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was accused of carrying out chemical weapons attacks on his own people. That intervention never came to pass, not least because domestic public opinion in countries such as Britain and the United States was opposed to further entanglements in the Middle East. Now, the U.S. is contemplating extending airstrikes on Islamic State militants operating in Iraq in Syria — fighters belonging to a terrorist organization that is leading the war against Assad....

Chinese eye 'supercavitation' technology as future of underwater travel China has moved a step closer to creating a supersonic submarine that could travel from Shanghai to San Francisco in less than two hours. New technology developed by a team of scientists at Harbin Institute of Technology's Complex Flow and Heat Transfer Lab has made it easier for a submarine, or torpedo, to travel at extremely high speeds underwater. Li Fengchen, professor of fluid machinery and engineering, said the team's innovative approach meant they could now create the complicated air "bubble" required for rapid underwater travel. "We are very excited by...

Russian Ka-52K rivals America’s AH-1Z Russia’s latest naval attack helicopter just might be the most fearsome ever. Moscow means to deploy the navalized adaptation of the coaxial-rotor Kamov Ka-52 aboard the Russian navy’s controversial, French-built amphibious assault ships. Without doubt, the current gold standard for maritime attack helps is the U.S. Marine Corps’ Bell AH-1Z Viper, the latest and most capable iteration of the classic HueyCobra—the pioneering gunship that first saw combat during the Vietnam War. Distinguished from its predecessors chiefly by its four-blade main rotor, the Viper gained entered front-line service in February 2011. The Boeing AH-64 Apache is...

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is trying to ban smoking… Everywhere. Well, at least everywhere someone might be working, so I guess that’s not as many places as you might think. (Hat tip to Obamanomics.) The CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has suggested banning all tobacco consumption at every work place in the nation… Because, ya know, the nanny-state can never be too big, right?The ban would apply to not only office buildings, restaurants, and retail stores, but it would also apply to any outdoor location (such as construction sites, landscaping work, and...

What a beautiful salutation to call upon Our Most Blessed Mother! One may be tempted to think that these words are an exaggerated expression of piety as they apply also to her Son, whose sacrifice on the Cross obtained our Redemption. However, God’s Redemption began not with an imposition upon an unworthy humanity, but through the free gift of a woman’s fiat that first opened the door of heaven to bring down the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. This is why St. Bernard, and the Church throughout the ages echoing his words, refers to Mary as the “cause...

Three years ago, a small police department in Jennings, Mo., was so bedeviled by racial strife between its white officers and black residents that the city council fired the whole force and built a new one, the Washington Post reports. One of the fired officers was Darren Wilson, 28, accused of shooting 18-year-old Michael Brown nearly two weeks ago on a hazy Saturday afternoon outside the youth’s housing complex in Ferguson, Mo., a predominantly black community. In a step up from Jennings, Wilson, who is white, was hired three years ago by the Ferguson Police Department as a patrol officer....