Free Republic

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no...

In a letter to the Palm Center issued today, 56 retired generals and admirals released the following statement as a PC, trendy rebuttal to the President’s recent transgender ban in the armed forces. “The Commander in Chief has tweeted a total ban of honorably serving transgender troops. This proposed ban, if implemented, would cause significant disruptions, deprive the military of mission-critical talent, and compromise the integrity of transgender troops who would be forced to live a lie, as well as non-transgender peers who would be forced to choose between reporting their comrades or disobeying policy. As a result, the proposed...

Staff at Felbrigg Hall refused to wear the badge in protest at a film that 'outs' the estate's last ownerThe National Trust has told workers at a historic house they are barred from meeting and greeting visitors if they are not wearing a rainbow badge or lanyard symbolising gay rights. Mike Holmes, 72, is one of ten volunteers at Felbrigg Hall facing relegation to back-office tasks for refusing to wear the badges. “There’s a group of about ten of us that have volunteered for more than ten years, and we have now been told that if we don’t toe the...

07/31/2017 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) - The liberation of Mosul came after nine hard months of fighting and three brutish years of occupation. All eyes have fixated on this noteworthy event; however, just south in Baghdad, eight churches have been closed due to the significant loss of the Christian populace. The eight Baghdad churches were closed in May of 2017, after nearly seven years of low to no attendance. After the regional Catholic Church authority visited the churches, the Vatican decided that it was best to close the doors for good. While this makes logistical sense, it represents a...

(CHICAGO) Mayor Emanuel says he’s going to sue the Trump Justice Dept on Monday over its new Sanctuary City rules. New rules just out prevent Sanctuary Cities like Chicago to get certain law enforcement grants and so the mayor says Chicago will file suit to kill the rules and get the millions in question. In an interview with WLS-AM for Sunday’s edition of “Bill Cameron and Connected to Chicago”, the mayor said “We are not going to be put in a position of choosing who we are as a welcoming city and strengthening our police dept. These are exactly the...

Trump and the Republicans need to tout the jobs report better. Even ABC radio, which carries Rush Limbaugh and many other top conservative hosts was complaining that weak wage growth was dragging down the economy. NPR said wages were very weak, "this late into an economic recovery." This is shockingly untrue. In the first quarter of the year, real weekly earnings grew two 1982 inflation-adjusted dollars; that's about six real dollars. That's as much as real wages grew during the entire Obama administration. Wage growth then doubled THAT in the second quarter. And while we don't yet know the July...

Relics of Fr Solanus Casey, who fed the hungry during the Great Depression, were collected and sent to RomeThe remains of Fr Solanus Casey were exhumed on Tuesday as part of the canonical process that precedes the saintly Capuchin Franciscan friar’s beatification Mass in November. The purpose of the exhumation, according to the Capuchin Province of St Joseph and the Archdiocese of Detroit, was to both officially identify the body and to collect relics that will be used to venerate Fr Casey after he is beatified on November 18. Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit presided over the private exhumation service,...

LOS ANGELES (FOX 11 / CNS) - The City Council on Wednesday approved a $650,000 payout for a man who successfully fought how the city of Los Angeles processes challenges to parking tickets. Cody Weiss, who sued the city in 2014 after he received a parking ticket, argued that the city unlawfully allows a private for-profit company to process challenges to tickets. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in his favor last year, and the decision was upheld by the Second District Court of Appeal. City Attorney Mike Feuer petitioned the California Supreme Court to review the appellate decision,...

CNN and celebrity gossip site TMZ could potentially be sold off after AT&T merges with Time Warner, a report claims. The $85 billion deal, which was announced in October, will give AT&T control of Time Warner properties including CNN, HBO and TMZ, as well as the film studio Warner Bros and other coveted media assets. Sources told Deadline that AT&T executives are considering getting rid of some of Time Warner's assets, including the cable news network and the celebrity gossip site. 'They don't want any controversy,' one source said of AT&T. AT&T reportedly expects the deal to be approved and...

A 5-day international cross procession to the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra in Western Ukraine ended on August 3, with the Pochaev Mother of God Icon to be celebrated on Saturday, August 5. Pilgrims report that upon the entrance to the lavra, at the end of the trek, they saw a cross in the sky, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists. A similar phenomenon took place on May 19, when believers gathered outside the Verkhnova Rada in Kiev to protest two religious bills that were to be considered by the Ukrainian parliament. A cross was seen in the sky, and a...

Michael Moore went on the View and threw around the names of celebrities who he believes could beat Donald Trump in the next presidential election. Moore, who was introduced by Joy Behar as her 'favorite agitator,' shared his ideas on why a celebrity could win the White House for the Democratic party, declaring, 'We need to run a beloved American in 2020.' 'If we ran Al Franken, ran Tom Hanks — who wouldn't vote for Tom Hanks for president of the United States? C'mon! Or Oprah!' Moore exclaimed. Hanks previously joked about running alongside Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson during an...

This week the Vatican launched an international campaign against corruption and organized crime. Well, that’s not quite right. This week the Vatican announced the campaign; it will actually be launched in September. So we don’t know exactly what it will be. If you read the full announcement, released on August 2 by the dicastery for Integral Human Development, you’ll notice that the statement is short on specifics. There will be an “international consultation group,” which will promote education and public awareness of the damage done by corruption. So far, so good. But who will be the members of this group,...

Last night’s news feed featured Bondi, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. A planning request by the Jewish community in Bondi for the construction of a new synagogue was turned down by the local council, on the grounds that it a synagogue would bring with it an increased risk of terrorism. This constitutes, of course, the voluntary implementation of sharia law by the secular authorities in a non-Muslim country. And it’s standard practice for the Great Jihad: make the infidel afraid, and then wait for him to apply Islamic rules on his own initiative in order reduce his fear (and the...

Fox News’ Eric Bolling sent pictures of male genitalia to at least three female colleagues, according the Huffington Post. The website cited 14 unnamed sources in its report, including the women who allegedly received the lewd text messages.

Let's take a moment to celebrate a religious liberty victory. It doesn't happen often so let's cherish it. In the most unexpected news of the day, the state of Wisconsin cannot legally force Christian photographer Amy Lynn to photograph same-sex weddings, a court has said. Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jonathan Scruggs said, “The court’s announcement has important implications for everyone in Wisconsin who values artistic freedom. It means that government officials must allow creative professionals without storefronts anywhere in the city and state the freedom to make their own decisions about which ideas they will use their artistic expression...

Journalists were alarmed Friday after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Department of Justice was revisiting guidelines for handling media subpoenas in leak investigations and said there needed to be limits on press freedom. “Are you saying you will jail journalists, Mr. Attorney General?” a reporter asked as Sessions exited the room. “Do you plan to prosecute journalists?” Sessions didn’t answer that question, or any, at the press conference. He “tells room of reporters he may make it easier to jail them if they don’t reveal sources,” MSNBC host and attorney Ari Melber tweeted, and “leaves without taking...

A poll conducted for Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) by her "House Majority PAC" produced consternation and confusion for this top Democrat. For one, the poll found that the political ideologies of voters were 41% conservative, 32% moderate and 19% liberal, with 37% identifying as Independents, 35% as Republicans and 29% as Democrats. For two, among white working class voters 69% favored policies that reward hard work. "These findings make no sense," Pelosi argued. "Surely leisure is preferred over hard work. The Democratic Party has enacted measures that have expanded the opportunities for people to leave the workforce and...

It’s not a coincidence that national security adviser H.R. McMaster has chosen to eliminate the pro-Israel voices at the National Security Council, three West Wing and defense officials (who chose to speak on background for diplomatic sensitivity reasons) told Conservative Review. In interviews with several current and former members of President Trump’s inner circle, a profile of McMaster has emerged as a man fiercely opposed to strengthening the U.S. alliance with the Jewish state. On Wednesday, American-born Israeli journalist Caroline Glick detailed explosive allegations concerning McMaster’s views on Israel. Glick is a well-known pro-Israel columnist and has established connections with...

<p>Is Netflix killing the multiplex? Wall Street apparently thinks so.</p> <p>Shares of AMC Entertainment (AMC) shares fell 27% to $15.18 Wednesday — hitting an all-time low of $15.15 at one point — after the nation's largest movie theater chain said it would report a net loss for the April-June period of between $174.5 million and $178.5 million, compared to profit of $24 million during the same period a year ago.</p>

Longtime liberal pollster Stuart Rothenberg apparently had a hard time handling President Donald Trump's visit to West Virginia on Thursday. During that visit, Mountain State Governor Jim Justice officially announced his switch to the Republican Party, thereby consolidating full GOP control over the executive and legislative branches in that state, and bringing the total number of Republican U.S. governors to 35.