Free Republic

You've probably heard the basic story by now: busses full of students heading home from the March for Life in Washington D.C. got stuck on a highway because of a blizzard, and while they were waiting they constructed an altar out of snow and held Mass on the side of the highway. Amazing! ChurchPOP tracked down the priest who presided over this historic Mass, Fr. Patrick Behm, and interviewed him about his experience. "It was incredible," Fr. Behm told ChurchPOP, "easily one of the highlights of my time as a priest." Fr. Behm is the parochial vicar of All Saints'...

A grand jury convened to investigate whether a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic had sold the organs of aborted fetuses on Monday cleared the clinic and instead indicted the undercover videographers behind the allegations, surprising the officials who called for the probe and delighting supporters of the women's health organization. The Harris County grand jury indicted David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, both of California, on charges of tampering with a governmental record, a second-degree felony with a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison. It also charged Daleiden, the leader of the videographers, with the same misdemeanor he had...

Following a weekend of campaigning in New Hampshire, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush plans to return to his former hometown of Houston Tuesday for a fundraiser. A spokesman declined to release details about the event, but it was advertised as a breakfast reception with a steep price of admission: $2,700 per person. -snip- It's unclear if any members of the famous Texas political family will attend Tuesday's fundraiser. His parents both live in Houston.

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump said conservative radio host Glenn Beck is “a weird dude” who is “always crying.” He also said former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is a “wonderful woman” who “likes Trump better” than Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), adding, “She likes what we’re doing.”

At least 7,000 Cuban refugees are expected to come to the border in the next coming days. The activity at the Hidalgo International Bridge continues. For 40 years, Jose Angel Rodriguez has made his living driving a cab. He said he's seeing more Cubans crossing the port of entry. "They get here every night, in the morning, and at night they get here. They go to Laredo, too," Rodriguez said. Rodriguez remembered taking a few to a hotel or store. It gets busier each week that passes by. Down the road from the bridge were a handful of 15-passenger vans....

It is 360 days, 3 hours, 41 minutes, 57 seconds until the illegal Communist gay Kenyan crypto-Muslim President "Stompy-Foot" Obama leaves office. That is: 360 days 8643 hours 518621 minutes 31117317 seconds Note: This timer is synched to January 20, 2017 at precisely 12 noon. It includes the Leap Year day.

Stavropol, January 26, Interfax - Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he still likes the ideas of Communism and that he has not ditched his party member ID card. "I quite liked, and still do, the Communist and Socialist ideas. If we look at the Code of the builder of Communism, which was broadly circulated in the Soviet Union, it is very much like the Bible. It is not a joke, there is in fact a similar passage in the Bible," he told the first inter-regional forum organized by his All-Russia People's Front on Monday. The Code proclaims very...

It’s hard to get the truth on anything from anybody anymore. Take the Flint, Michigan water crisis: now we know the rest of the story.Here is the Cliff notes version:  The Flint water crisis is the result of a Keynesian stimulus project gone wrong. Who could have figured that switching to a parallel water pipeline being built by a private company might actually cost more than staying with the Detroit water system? Documents that have just resurfaced show that the then DWSD Director Susan McCormick presented two alternatives to Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz that slashed rates for Flint by nearly...

Shanghai (AFP) - China's central bank said Tuesday it was injecting 440 billion yuan ($67 billion) into the money market, seeking to ease tight liquidity ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday when demand for funds surges. The injection through the regular open market operations of the People's Bank of China (PBoC) was the largest since 2013, Bloomberg News reported. Chinese companies typically pay salaries and bonuses before the holiday, which falls in early February this year. People also traditionally exchange cash and gifts during the period. The PBoC last week flooded the financial system with more than 1.5 trillion...

The writings of Remi Brague, winner of the 2012 Ratzinger Prize, about Islam offer the sort of unflinching and detailed analysis often missing from papal utterancesI.Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Vatican II, states that the Mohammedans "profess their faith as the faith of Abraham, and with us they worship the one, merciful God who will judge men on the last day" (par 16). At first sight, that statement appears friendly and matter-of-fact: the "faith" of Muslims is evidently thought to be the same "with us". We "agree" about a last judgment and a merciful God who...

2016 Elections: Democrats like to portray Republicans as out of touch. But a new poll shows that it’s Democrats who are fixated on issues the public could hardly care less about, and who are too trusting of government.

The betting is increasingly off Ted Cruz. Cruz, the Texas Republican senator who had led in prediction markets of the Iowa caucuses about a month ago, is cratering in those same markets with a week to go until the Hawkeye State's first-in-the-nation Feb. 1 contests. And it's not just in Iowa: Cruz's chances of winning the GOP nomination are tanking, according to prediction-market aggregator PredictWise.com. Riding high at No. 1 in Iowa and for the nomination is Donald Trump, who's been aggressively pounding Cruz over his birth in Canada. For the GOP nomination, Trump is at 47% as of Monday...

For basic background, many American corporations have offices, subsidiaries and sales in foreign countries. The difference for U.S. companies is that while their foreign competitors are generally only required to pay local/country taxes on their foreign earnings, U.S. corporations not only pay the local/country tax, but they also face a U.S. tax on foreign earnings they bring back to the United States. [snip] With regard to foreign earnings, American tax authorities add insult to already serious injury. While U.S. companies are already paying foreign corporate taxes on their earnings, they similarly face a U.S. tax if and when they return...

Disabled, divorced, with a degree, working several jobs yet making less than $10,000 a year. Struggling to pay bills. Unable to buy presents for her children. Waiting for her disability to come through. Dependent on her parents. That was the sad story that a woman told Bernie Sanders at an event in Iowa yesterday. On today's Morning Joe, after airing that clip, an obviously moved Mika Brzezinski challenged the panel as to who between Sanders and Hillary Clinton would "be there" for the woman. Mika didn't answer the question herself, though she has been a Bernie booster. View the video...

After a young Iowa voter told Hillary Clinton her campaign lacks the passionate support of Bernie Sanders and many youths find her dishonest, Clinton fired back at Monday’s CNN town hall that she doesn’t get bothered by the “stuff” thrown at her by her political enemies. “It feels like there’s a lot of young people like myself who are very passionate supporters of Bernie Sanders, and I just don’t see the same enthusiasm from younger people for you,” said Sanders supporter Taylor Gipple. “In fact, I’ve heard from quite a few people my age that they think you’re dishonest, but...

Editor's note: The views expressed here are those solely of the author.  It's been nearly one week since National Review published their special edition magazine titled, "Against Trump," a symposium of 22-diverse conservatives making a case against Donald Trump's run for the White House. I have a signed copy of "God & Man at Yale" on my bookshelf and copies of letters from William F. Buckley, Jr. written to my late great uncle tucked away in a drawer. The two were friends. In 2013, I went through the competitive National Review Institute program and had the privilege of learning from...

U.S. Treasury official said the United States considers Russian President Vladimir Putin to be corrupt and that it has known this for "many, many years," the BBC reported on Monday. Adam Szubin, acting Treasury secretary for terrorism and financial crimes, said in an interview with BBC Panorama that the Russian president has been amassing secret wealth. "We've seen him enriching his friends, his close allies and marginalizing those who he doesn't view as friends using state assets. Whether that's Russia's energy wealth, whether it's other state contracts, he directs those to whom he believes will serve him and excludes those...

Beleaguered currency has lost more than half its value in last 18 months A dazzling display of festival lights makes Moscow look magical, brightening up the dark winter night. But the image of a bright, confident 2016 is a mirage. "To tell you the truth, we are really worried for our country," says Anya Zhurova, passing by and lured in by the light show. "We feel sick for our country and we hope our president [Vladimir Putin] can sort out all the plans he's made, but it's a difficult period." Like a heavyweight boxer, the battered Russian ruble will try...

Over the last two years, the Patriarchate of Constantinople has repeatedly announced that the much anticipated Great and Holy Council will take place around the Feast of Pentecost in June 2016. When it happens, this Council will be an event of considerable historical import, bringing together the leaders of all Orthodox Churches for the first time since 787. Unfortunately, not all Orthodox leaders are equally enthusiastic about the Council and some are even trying to prevent it. Why is the idea of the Council so controversial? Who are the main players in this controversy? If the Council takes place, what...

Word For The Day, Tuesday January 26, 2015 In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". nimiety [ni-mahy-i-tee] -n1. excess; overabundance 2. an instance of this[1555-65; < Late Latin nimietās, equivalent to nimi (us) too much + -etās, variant (after i) of -itās -ity]