Free Republic

Have you ever stopped to wonder exactly how much light has been produced by all the stars in the Universe, over all the time that has passed? Well, now you can wonder no more. An international team of astronomers has actually calculated the amount of starlight in the cosmos. And it's teaching us new things about the early years of our Universe. In the time since the Big Bang - roughly 13.7 billion years - our Universe has produced many, many galaxies, and many more stars. Perhaps around two trillion galaxies, containing around a trillion-trillion stars. For decades, scientists have...

The Talk Shows December 2nd, 2018 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who was Bush’s secretary of defense; James Baker, Bush’s former secretary of state and chief of staff. The panel will be Juan Williams, Karl Rove and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Cheney; Baker; Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. The panel will be Dan Balz of The Washington Post; former Gov. Pat McCrory, R-N.C.; Heather McGhee, distinguished senior fellow, Demos and Demos Action; and Andrea Mitchell of NBC News and...

Prosecutors busting into chanceries is the new normal under Pope Francis. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, whose Galveston-Houston chancery was raided this week by prosecutors in search of abuse-related files, always struck me as a pretty haunted and compromised figure. DiNardo came out of Pittsburgh and the corrupt milieu of Cardinal John Wright, who was an accused pederast and a mentor to such slimy prelates as Donald Wuerl. Google DiNardo and Cardinal Wright and a creepy picture comes up of a young DiNardo sitting next to Wright in a white tuxedo. Wright liked to dress his seminarians up in such attire, just...

Police and the Israel Securities Authority published their recommendations on Sunday within the framework of the investigation of the “Case 4000” (the "Bezeq-Walla affair"), after they completed the investigation into the affair. At the conclusion of the investigation, police and the Israel Securities Authority said that "against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a sufficient evidentiary infrastructure [for indictment] has been established over offenses of bribery, fraud and breach of trust and fraudulently obtaining an item under aggravated circumstances." In addition, against Sara Netanyahu, an evidentiary basis has formed for an indictment over offenses of taking bribes (collectively), fraud and breach of...

Put them both in the playoff. Alabama is in. But Georgia should be in as well. Yes, with two losses. Yes, as a non-conference champion. Yes, despite the résumés of Oklahoma and Ohio State. Georgia is good enough to overcome all that. The howls of outrage will echo across the Midwest, the Southwest and everywhere else where fans hate the thought of the Southeastern Conference gobbling up half the playoff for the second straight year. The political pressure against it would be immense — and let’s face it, college athletic administrators are political animals. The College Football Playoff selection committee...

A 98-year-old man has died a month after a violent robbery left him with two bleeds on the brain. Second World War veteran Peter Gouldstone was attacked in Enfield, north London, in the home he had lived in for more than 60 years. He was taken to hospital but died on Friday.

**SNIP** But Pelosi, huddled in her office in the second floor of the Capitol Wednesday afternoon, wouldn’t answer them. Instead, the California Democrat launched into a lengthy monologue about how successful she’d been throughout her career and how 2020 is a presidential year, so voters wouldn’t care who the speaker was next election. “They went in hoping to begin some type of conversation about a transition to leadership and it never even left the ground,” said one source familiar with the conversation. Pelosi and her three biggest critics are talking past each other — and it appears unlikely that they...

Happy Advent! We enter into a penitential spirit, awaiting the Messiah in anticipation of the joy of Christmas. We also celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas on Dec. 6th. Mass and Office Propers and Texts Missa Ad Te Levavi Kontakion and Troparion to St. Andrew (Byzantine) Seasonal Psalm Psalm 84 (85), Benedixisti Hymns and Carols Creator Alme Siderum Verbum Supernum Prodiens O Come, Divine Messiah On Jordan's Banks Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming Hark! A Thrilling Voice is Sounding Hymns in honor of St. Nicholas

A Harvard graduate student was told she has to move out of her apartment after her roommates found her legally owned firearms “uncomfortable” and anxiety-inducing. Leyla Pirnie, a 24-year-old Alabama native, told the Washington Free Beacon that she felt roommates violated her privacy after searching her room without her consent and then confronting her over gun ownership.

Pope Francis has been quoted in a soon-to-be published book as saying that having gays in the clergy “is something that worries me” and remarking that some societies are considering homosexuality a “fashionable” lifestyle. ... Separately, the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Francis in the book as commenting on a clergyman who had told him that having gays in Catholic religious housing “isn’t so grave” because it’s “only an expression of affection.” That reasoning “is in error,” Francis said. “In consecrated life and priestly life, there is no place for this kind of affection.” He said candidates with “neuroses or...

Police in the Northern California town of Redwood City arrested a man who was traveling on Highway 101 early Friday morning while sleeping behind the wheel of his Tesla Model S. Officers first spotted the electric luxury sedan driving south at about 70 mph around 3:40 a.m., California Highway Patrol Officer Art Montiel told Business Insider on Friday night. Montiel said the officers took action when it became clear that the driver, 45-year-old Alexander Samek, was sleeping. "The driver wasn't responding to lights and sirens," Montiel said. The officers believed the Tesla may have been operating on Autopilot, a semi-autonomous-driving...

p>Please join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for President Trump, Vice-President Pence, and for America: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (I John 5:14) Religion forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

<p>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- U.S. President Donald Trump says he will shortly be providing formal notice to Congress that he will terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement, giving lawmakers six months to approve the replacement he recently signed. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington from Argentina, Trump says: “I will be formally terminating NAFTA shortly.” Seeking to gain leverage with skeptical lawmakers to approve the revised trade pact, Trump says Congress “will have a choice” as it considers the agreement he signed with the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Friday during the Group of 20 summit. He says they can choose between the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or “pre-NAFTA, which works very well.” Trump has made renegotiating NAFTA a centerpiece of his presidency.</p>

The assumption generally held is that lower oil prices generally benefit the US economy. A closer look shows this is not necessarily the case.

To those who celebrate The Festival of Light, have a happy one. I'm making a big batch of latkes!

December 2, 2018 First Sunday of Advent Reading 1 Jer 33:14-16 The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.In those days, in that time, I will raise up for David a just shoot ; he shall do what is right and just in the land.In those days Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem shall dwell secure; this is what they shall call her: “The LORD our justice.” Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14 R. (1b) To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.Your ways,...

Six members of the ruthless MS-13 gang were indicted for racketeering in connection with the murder of a teen in Lynn, with the feds saying bail should be denied because they pose a serious threat to the public. “The nature and circumstances of the (charges) are troubling and horrific,” a federal criminal affidavit reads. That includes killing 17-year-old Herson Rivas on Aug. 2 with a large knife like they were “chopping wood.” One of the accused, according to the affidavit, stabbed the defenseless teen “with such force his knife became warped during the attack.” The teen’s body was found in a...

In an exclusive interview with UN News, Louise Arbour, the UN Special Representative for International Migration, said on Tuesday that the stated intention of several countries (including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria) to pull out of the Global Compact for migration has seriously affected the spirit of multilateralism. Ms. Arbour pointed out that the text was agreed following extensive negotiations – involving all Member States apart from the United States – that lasted for months, during which each country advanced their own interests and extracted concessions from others, adding: “I think it reflects very poorly on those who...

Christians who were the first founders of the church are on brink of “imminent extinction”, the Archbishop of Canterbury is warning. Describing the “daily threat of murder” faced in the Middle East, the Most Reverend Justin Welby says Christians are experiencing “the worst situation since the Mongol invasions of the 13th Century”.

This caravan migrant from El Salvador is seen digging his way to the US, tunneling under a metal fence at the Mexican border in California, then racing back to Mexico after agents spotted him and a cohort Friday. Cesar Jobet, 18, and Daniel Jeremias Cruz, 18, scooped away mud and dirt with their hands for about 15 minutes, American soil visible through slats in the fence, as agency photographers shot a series of them in action.