Free Republic

Don’t Forget to Worship God! A Call to Better Liturgy from an Unlikely Source By: Msgr. Charles Pope We have discussed before many of the trends of modern liturgy and how the focus has shifted from God to the “assembly.” Too much of modern liturgy today is anthropocentric (focused on man).Back in the 1990’s, Thomas Day observed in the book Why Catholics Can’t Sing, that liturgy today often comes down  to “the aware, gathered community, celebrating itself.” Many modern songs go on at great length about how we are the gathered, we are the flock, we have been sung throughout all of...

Amid America’s current distemper, there’s no easier target than “big money” in politics. So it’s no surprise that Senator Elizabeth Warren and liberals would denounce the omnibus spending bill’s provision increasing the amount that an individual can give to the political parties. What is surprising is that some on the right have joined this misguided outrage. . . . conservatives have long led the fight against arbitrary limits on money in politics, not least because such restrictions are usually designed by incumbents to help incumbents. Yet all of a sudden some on the right are treating the deregulation of money...

Militants fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq have unveiled their latest terror tactic - bombs containing hundreds of live scorpions designed to spread fear among their enemies. Canisters packed with poisonous varieties of scorpion are being blasted into towns and villages, which explode on impact - scattering the scorpions and causing panic among the innocent local population.

Oh sure, they look cute and innocent.Butt look closer, they may be government agents:Or possibly even double agents. You simply can’t trust them.They may all be working for the NSA for all we know. WASHINGTON — Internal documents from the National Security Agency show that its intelligence-gathering reached far deeper into Santa Claus’s annual toy-distribution operations than acknowledged. Sources close to the agency had previously confirmed that it has been provided with the contents of Mr. Claus’s database of naughty and nice children under a confidential data-sharing arrangement. But according to the documents, which were among those leaked by Edward Snowden,...

INDIANAPOLIS -- If success at the state level were enough to recommend someone for president of the United States, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana would be among the frontrunners for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. According to the governor's office, Pence has "signed into law $643 million in annual tax relief: That includes: $313 million for hardworking Hoosiers, thanks to last year's 5 percent income tax reduction, the largest state tax cut in Indiana history." In addition, the state corporate tax rate was reduced from 6.5 percent to 4.9 percent, making it the third lowest in the country and contributing...

With Republicans threatening to shove climate change to the back seat as they take control of the U.S. Senate, state officials including Gov. Jerry Brown huddled with one of the nation’s leading Democratic donors Monday to talk up ways to keep it on California’s agenda — including legislation that could send a shiver through the coal industry. The state Senate’s top leader said at an Oakland forum organized by billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer that he’s planning to introduce a measure next year to require the state’s public-employee pension funds to sell their coal-related investments.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is filming the next season of the show Amazing America with the most recent episode taking place in Texas. It involved a hunt for feral hogs, with Palin bagging a rather large one. Of course, this was pretty much the end of civilization as we know it. While taping her reality show in Texas, Sarah Palin proudly announced her killing of a feral hog and happily posed with the dead animal.She ended up posting the picture online, and it was ultimately met with both praise and criticismÂ…Upon killing the animal, Palin took to Facebook...

A deadly, hours-long siege of a school in northwest Pakistan ended Tuesday evening with all the Taliban militants responsible killed, at least 130 people -- most of them children -- dead and a country once again grasping for answers after a horrific attack. Six suicide bombers scaled the walls of Army Public School and Degree College in the violence-plagued city of Peshawar around 10 a.m. (midnight ET) intent on killing older students there, according to Mohammed Khurrassani, a spokesman for the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan Taliban. These Taliban had "300 to 400 people ... under their custody" at...

You’ve been hunting hard, and the big buck you’ve been after finally shows up. Then he hops up on a doe and starts giving her the business. Would you shoot the buck off of the doe? See what this hunter did here.

Old and busted, legacy media edition: Layers of fact checkers and editors. New hotness: “There was this one time, in band camp …” Yet another big, splashy mainstream media story has collapsed, although the damage from New York Magazine’s tall tale of a teen-genius stock traders and the New York Post’s follow-up is entirely limited to the two publications’ reputations. Jessica Pressler wrote this weekend that Mo Islam, a 17-year-old student, had amassed a $72 million fortune during his participation in a high-school trading club, apparently without asking some basic questions about how a minor could trade and how...

Sounds impressive until you realize that Biden’s currently rocking two percent of the vote nationally in a Democratic primary involving Hillary and Elizabeth Warren. Speaking of which, Ben Carson against Hillary in North Carolina: Dead even at 44, which is two points better than Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee do against her.The Romney/Carson last-men-standing primary debate before Super Tuesday will be epic, my friends. Ben Carson leads the way for the Republicans with 19% to 15% for Jeb Bush, 14% each for Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee, 11% for Paul Ryan, 7% for Rick Perry, 5% each for Ted...

Electric cars are often touted as the most environmentally friendly vehicles out there, but the devil is always in the details. While charging tends to be the focus of environmental assessments, the entire life cycle of the vehicle needs to be considered.

[Nigeria] 7-month old feared to have Ebola in Kwara – We will know if he has it today 14 hours ago " Prof. Sunday Opabola, the Chairman, Ebola Viral Disease Control Committee, Kwara State, has announced that there is a suspected case of Ebola disease in the state. “The suspect is a seven-month old baby, who …"

Anyone skeptical about entrusting ambitious tasks to the government was not stunned by the dismal rollout of the Affordable Care Act. It featured technical snafus, cost overruns and false advertising ("If you like your plan, you'll be able to keep it."). Things got so bad that President Barack Obama apologized and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius resigned. This epic fail occurred even though the administration had more than three years to prepare for the launch and $840 million to spend developing the website. It was a textbook case of government bungling. Truth be told, a rocky start should...

Jack Phillips is a baker whose evangelical Protestant faith informs his business. There are no Halloween treats in his bakery — he does not see devils and witches as a laughing matter. He will not make erotic-themed pastries — they offend his sense of morality. And he declines cake orders for same-sex weddings because he believes Christianity teaches that homosexuality is wrong. Mr. Phillips, whose refusal two years ago to make a cake for a gay male couple has led to a court battle now getting underway, is one of a small number of wedding vendors across the country who...

Another unintended - but not unexpected - consequence of Obamacare is being felt as the program enters its second year. More than 20 million Americans who work for small businesses with less than 50 employees are covered by employer insurance. The 50 employee number is significant because if you work for a small business with more than 50 workers, your employer is mandated to cover your health insurance. But with insurance rates rising, many small businesses of less than 50 employees are opting to drop their coverage and have workers purchase their insurance through the Obamacare website. Daily Signal:...

n 1950, Detroit was America's fifth largest city and one of the most prosperous on the back of its booming motor industry. It prompted the construction of skyscrapers on the banks of the river and the development of vast suburban housing projects in the surrounding areas. But almost 55 years on, a dwindling motor industry and a dramatic fall in blue collar jobs has caused people to leave the Michigan city, abandoning their homes and businesses. These aerial photos reveal the tiny urban island that is left - a clutter of high-rises surrounded by empty housing plots now covered in...

It is time to stop thinking of John Boehner and the rest of the Republican congressional leadership as being cowardly and recognize them for what they are: part of The Ruling Class that believes it has the right to tell the rest of us how to live. Since conservative voters handed a majority in the House of Representatives to the Republican Party in 2010, there have been countless missteps and opportunities to stop Democrats. It began with that first lame duck session when Republicans gave Obama some victories that eventually boosted his popularity and washed away the memory of the...

If the supervolcano underneath Yellowstone National Park ever had another massive eruption, it could spew ash for thousands of miles across the United States, damaging buildings, smothering crops, and shutting down power plants. It'd be a huge disaster...