Free Republic

The anti-Christian Human Rights Campaign funded a meeting of dissident Catholics groups to strategize how to fight the Church over the firing of church employees who oppose Church teaching and practice. Representatives from many organizations condemned by the Church attended the meeting in Chicago including pro-abortion group Catholics for Choice, and pro-gay groups New Ways Ministry and Dignity USA. The Democratic pressure group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good also attended, as did the largely-failed grassroots reform group Call to Action. In recent months, as same-sex marriage has been imposed by courts around the country, same-sex attracted Church...

Navy Capt. John Banigan is no longer aboard the San Diego-based guided missile cruiser Lake Erie. Neither is a goat named Master Chief Charlie. Banigan was ousted from command last week after the brass lost confidence in his ability to lead, the standard explanation when a commanding officer is removed. Banigan has been reassigned to a desk job. Master Chief Charlie is also ashore, though it remains unclear whether he is on Navy property or civilian property. He is, however, in excellent health, the Navy said. The fate of the captain and the goat became mixed when the Navy began...

The DOJ initially told Judge Hanen that DHS had not yet started to issue work authorization and changes to deportation. A few weeks later the DOJ lawyers had to reverse course and admit to the court they lied, DHS already had begun the changes. Hanen was not happy. The DOJ appealed the Hanen Ruling and Injunction to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals []. Now it gets worse for the DOJ. Yesterday, in a strategic midnight filing trying to hide the content, the DOJ admitted not only did they previously lie to the court, but now, three months later, lawyers...

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul will host a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus next week to discuss criminal justice reform. The libertarian-leaning senator from Kentucky has long been an outspoken advocate for changing how the American criminal system prosecutes and sentences. Now he’s teaming up with Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), and other black lawmakers, to craft a strategy for advancing legislation as law enforcement issues have taken center stage following the death of several unarmed black men at the hands of police. “Not only is Senator Paul the [S]enate co-sponsor of the Justice Safety Valve Act, which...

Larry Pratt: Secret trade deal allows prez to 'stick it to 2nd Amendment' Congress is being urged to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade plan even though most have not read it, and a leading gun-rights activist says the plan could give President Obama the power to limit the importation of ammunition and implement his political agenda in many different ways. “Fast track authority in the context of this treaty means a blank check,” said Gun Owners of America Executive Director Larry Pratt. “By a majority vote, the Congress is preparing to give the president authorization to negotiate a treaty. When...

We knew it was a matter of when, not if, we’d be hit again by Islamist terrorists on our own soil. Just last Sunday, two ISIS-sympathizing terrorists, clad in body armor and wielding assault rifles, attacked a Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest in Garland, Texas. Luckily, they were killed before they could slaughter the people attending the event. Now U.S. military bases and installations are stepping up security, as FBI Director James Comey is warning that there are “hundreds, maybe thousands” of people across the country who are being recruited by ISIS with orders to attack the U.S. Security...

A Canadian judge ruled this week that former Gitmo detainee Omar Khadr poses no public safety threat. Tell that to the children of Sergeant First Class Christopher J. Speer and the surviving American soldiers who valiantly fought Khadr on the battlefield. In 2012, Khadr pleaded guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty and guilty to five charges related to the killing of Speer, a 28-year-old medic with the U.S. Special Forces. This young American hero died in Afghanistan in 2002 during an ambush by al-Qaida operatives. Just days before he gave his life, Speer had fearlessly walked onto a minefield to rescue two...

Full title: Trump brings South Carolina to its feet with rants on Mexico, a State Department spokeswoman's 'beautiful glasses' and the 'babies' who negotiate for the US – and says 'I don't give a SH*T about lobbyists!' Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3075065/Trump-brings-South-Carolina-feet-rants-Mexico-State-Department-spokeswoman-s-beautiful-glasses-babies-negotiate-says-don-t-sh-t-lobbyists.html#ixzz3ZgnDtFNR Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A van struck an alligator on I-10 East, police say, triggering an accident that left one man dead. The accident happened just after 4 a.m. Friday on I-10 East near Michoud Boulevard. Officers believe that a van was traveling eastbound in the center lane of the highway when the driver struck a 5-foot alligator on the road. The van came to a complete stop after hitting the alligator and was rear-ended by a second vehicle, New Orleans police say. The driver of the second vehicle, identified only as a Mississippi man, was killed in the accident....

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Happy Mother's Day 2015!! ~ Proverbs 31:10-31 10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.12 She will do him good and no evil all the days of her life. 13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. 14 She is like the merchants'; ship; she bringeth her food from afar. 15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat...

Dutch legislator Geert Wilders, a man that has stood up to Islam in the Netherlands and was an attendee at this past weekend's Muslim Art show where two jihadists were gunned down for trying to attack the event, has decided to respond to that jihad. He's forming his own Muhammad expo! That's right, he's not running. He's standing. The UK Telegraph reports: Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders said on Wednesday he wanted to stage a parliamentary exhibition of the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed that sparked a deadly shooting in Texas that left two dead. "I am going to request...

Amid a volcanic alert, satellite data show that a 200-meter-diameter area of the Owakudani hot spring district at Mt. Hakone, south of Tokyo, has been lifted by up to 6 centimeters, the Geospatial Information Authority said Friday. The upthrust is believed to have occurred between April 18 and Thursday, said the GIA, which analyzed data from the Daichi-2 observation satellite, launched in May last year by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The satellite already observed a 10-centimeter land uplift in areas near craters of Mt. Ontake after the central Japan volcano erupted last September, leaving 57 people dead and six...

The Clinton Foundation has come under scrutiny over the past few months with the scandal concerning Hillary Clinton's personal email server being used for State Department business. This week, Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann said the Clinton Foundation was nothing more than an international money laundering ring. In speaking with Newsmax TV, Bachmann said, "This is the most transparent family in the United States, right? The woman who won't hand over her server, who wasn't supposed to do her government work on that server in the first place, who violated department rules… who, in all likelihood, probably violated US federal rules,...

A new book about a young, female Army officer who routinely accompanied Ranger units on raids in Afghanistan is shining a light on a select group of American women who have made history in modern warfare. "Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield" focuses on 1st Lt. Ashley White, an incredibly physically fit soldier who joined the Special Operations Command Cultural Support Team effort in 2010. The pilot program was designed to train women and have them serve with Army Ranger and other special operations direct-action units so they could gather...

Michelle Obama gave a candid view Saturday of the challenges and emotional toll of being the country’s first black first lady. Obama, speaking to graduates at Tuskegee University in Alabama, described insensitive media questions and derogatory remarks from political pundits that she said have kept her up at night. “You might remember the on-stage celebratory fist bump between me and my husband after a primary win that was referred to as a ‘terrorist fist jab,’ ” she said. “And over the years, folks have used plenty of interesting words to describe me. One said I exhibited ‘a little bit of...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) spoke about last week's shooting in his home state to supporters in South Carolina Saturday. “We saw the ugly face of radical Islam in Garland, Texas,” Cruz said, referring to the incident in which two gunmen opened fire near the Curtis Culwell Center before being shot and killed by police. "Thankfully, one police officer helped those terrorists meet their virgins," he said, according to The Hill. He delivered the speech at the South Carolina Freedom Summit in Greenville, which drew roughly a dozen Republican candidates and hopefuls, according to the Washington Post. Cruz shared three words...

A Hungarian cardinal set to play a key role in the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family suggested Thursday that no change will result from the summit, either on Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics or on broader matters such as contraception.Cardinal Péter Erdő said that talk of revisions on those fronts is the result of “a pressure with no foundation to change Church teaching.” Erdő was the relator — more or less the chairman — of last October’s synod, and will reprise his role this year. It’s an influential post, among other things giving him the chance...

In my proverbial day, long after the Industrial Revolution but before Kim Kardashian bottomed out the Bell Curve, kids were not coddled nor were they allowed to act like disrespectful, uncouth derelicts in our nation's classrooms. If students gave teachers attitude or let alone cursed – that vulgarity which is commonly tolerated today – they were immediately sent to the office and admonished without refrain. If you refused to leave, or God forbid continued to be a disruptive force, someone would drag you out by your ear and kick your “suspended” ass to the curb; no second thoughts, no regrets,...

Never thought I'd be "that guy" seeking firearm advice on FR but here goes. Young ms. keat attends college in Colorado while the keat family lives in California. She will be doing some remote wildlife work in CO this summer and decided months ago that she wanted to protection of a handgun, both at school and on this internship. She did her homework, safety/shooting classes, range time with friends, etc... and had picked out a handgun (Springfield XD-S 3.3" 9mm but I'm not here to argue that, she's got small hands and definitely needs a single-stack). Any-hoo, she goes in...