Free Republic

August 30 2019 Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Thes 4:1-8 Brothers and sisters,we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that,as you received from ushow you should conduct yourselves to please God– and as you are conducting yourselves– you do so even more.For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. This is the will of God, your holiness:that you refrain from immorality,that each of you know how to acquire a wife for himselfin holiness and honor, not in lustful passionas do the Gentiles who do not know...

China is alleged to harvest the organs of thousands of political dissidents it keeps in concentration camps, it threatens Hong Kong and Taiwan daily, it appears to be funding and assisting the North Korean nuclear missile program and is using the hundreds of billions of dollars of trade deficits to build a first-rate navy to defeat the U.S. as every year’s trade deficit pays for more than two years of China’s military spending. So why are we trading with China and underwriting this totalitarian regime and mass murder with $380 billion of trade deficits every year? That seems to be...

The Texas police officer handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when he was fatally shot at Dallas police headquarters two days after the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, died Thursday at age 99, according to family. Former Dallas police Detective Jim Leavelle was transporting Oswald to the Dallas County Jail when the assassin was suddenly shot on live television by nightclub owner and police informant Jack Ruby at point-blank range on Nov. 24, 1963. Karla Leavelle, daughter of the retired detective, confirmed her father's death to FOX 4 Dallas.

Senator Elizabeth Warren wants new taxes on wealth. Senator Bernie Sanders wants Medicare for All. Senator Cory Booker wants guaranteed jobs. Jeff Mackler wants the elimination of the military budget, the nationalization of the energy and banking industries, open borders, the creation of a state-run health-care system, and the end of capitalism in the United States.

You might not care what Keith Richards or Jimmy Page think about Pluto's status as a dwarf planet, but when Queen guitarist Brian May speaks up about it, it's worth a listen. May, who received his doctorate in astrophysics in 2007, posted his Pluto thoughts on Instagram late Wednesday after hearing about how NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine still thinks of Pluto as a full-on planet. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) tightened up its definition of a planet in 2006 and demoted Pluto to dwarf-planet status, sparking an ongoing debate that just won't rest. May is on the pro-planet side of...

The “Donald Trump/Mike Pence Prayer Vigil” and “Heroes and Nation Prayer Thread” have combined to form the AMERICA PRAYER VIGIL prayer thread! Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for our President and Vice President 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. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. Start of World War 2: September 1, 1939 The Kings Speech George VI address at the start...

Hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid has poured into Ukraine since 2014, but that could soon come to an end. This, after two senior administration officials confirmed President Donald Trump is considering blocking Ukraine's $250 million annual aid package, which is meant to curb aggression from Russia. Ukraine has been using the aid to fight an armed separatist movement backed by Moscow.

Justin Clifton just wanted to get home without causing a stir. A beeline seemed like the best route. The 34-year-old Hayden, Idaho man was arrested early Saturday inside the secure perimeter of the Kootenai County jail and charged with criminal trespassing. He’ll be arraigned next month. Clifton’s misdemeanor arraignment will be at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 16 before First District Magistrate Judge Robert Caldwell in Coeur d’Alene. Clifton wanted to make it home safely Saturday evening after having a few beers at the North Idaho State Fair and Rodeo. Instead of driving, he walked north across the fair parking lot until...

Editor’s Note: This essay was originally written in Russian by master iconographer Anton Daineko of Minsk, Belarus. It beautifully explores the paradox of creativity within iconography from the very personal perspective of a lifelong practitioner.Anton and Ekaterina Daineko regularly teach icon-painting workshops in the USA, which are highly recommended. They have upcoming workshops in October and November of this year, for which space is still available. See their website here.Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God – Matthew 16:16An iconographer once noted, “My online friends fall into two categories: artists and iconographers. The artists share photos of...

An all-black dress code, pallbearers marching in unison, and a steady stream of tears are not often associated with golf courses, zoos and Chinese takeaways. Yet according to the most extensive ever report on UK funeral trends which, the religious funeral is dying a death. Instead of services in crematoriums, churches and cemeteries, Britons are instead opting for increasingly quirky ways to mourn their loved ones. The Co-op, the UK’s largest national funeral provider which conducts more than 100,000 every year, has today published a report revealing that since 2011 there has been a 80 per cent decline in religious...

ROME - On Sunday, June 3, 2007, Bayan Adam Balah really wanted to avoid going to another Mass. She, together with her husband, Subdeacon Waheed Hanna Isho’a had already fulfilled their Sunday obligations, and “female intuition” - or survival mode - told her if they left the town of Qaraqosh towards neighboring Mosul with Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni, something bad would happen. She was right. Aziz Ganni, Hanna Isho’a, and two other subdeacons, Bassman Yousef and Gassan Issam Bidawid, were murdered by four gunmen, self-identified as Ansar Al-suna, an Islamic fundamentalist group that would later become the Islamic State group....

Mason Wilson learned through some school friends about the July 19 shooting at a house in central St. Louis, not far from where his grandmother lives. It wasn’t the first shooting Mason, 9, heard about this year, but it was the one he thought about the most. The boy who was killed, 10-year-old Eddie Hill IV, had been standing on the porch with his father at about 8:30 p.m. when shots were fired from a passing SUV. Eddie, who was so smart, relatives told reporters, that he’d skipped a grade, was hit in the chest.

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps First Grand Prix1950 Number of Laps44 Circuit Length7.004km Race Distance308.052 km Lap Record1:46.286 Valtteri Bottas (2018)

The Trump administration is preparing to take money from military construction funds more than six months after first promising to do so in order to build sections of the wall along the US-Mexico border, according to multiple administration and defense officials... Though it's unclear which military construction would be put on hold... White House officials have held talks in the last weeks to begin planning for the move, two administration officials said... The use of these additional military construction funds could invite a new legal challenge. Administration officials said the action was in the works but that it was unclear...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop granted Catholic funeral to gay right-to-die activist before he killed himself SEATTLE, Washington, August 29, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― The retiring Archbishop of Seattle gave permission for a funeral in a Catholic Church for an elderly, ailing, right-to-die activist who planned the day and hour of his suicide. His death was the cumulation of a day-long celebration that included a “marriage” to his homosexual partner, a party for family and friends, and mainstream media presence.  Archbishop J. Peter Sartain was brought into the highly publicized death of Robert Fuller after Fuller approached his parish pastor with plans...

I've seen this enough times now to know that it is not an accident. Last night we were watching FOX News and during a segment featuring Greg Gutfeld they cut to commercial. After one more or less benign commercial who comes on but Lester Holt advertising for NBC News. An ad for NBC News on FOX News? Whut??? But like I said, I've seen this before. So right after the ad finishes I click the reverse on our DISH Hopper to replay the ad and instead of the NBC ad it's an ad for the 2020 Trump campaign. DISH ran...

Former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell said Thursday that she wished for Hurricane Dorian to make a “direct hit” on President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. The strengthening storm churned over the warm, open waters of the Atlantic on Thursday as forecasts showed Dorian tracking toward Florida’s east coast — prompting Trump to warn Dorian “will be BIG!” Forecasters believe the storm will strengthen into a Category 3 hurricane by Friday, and stay well east of the southern and central Bahamas before making a turn toward Florida by Sunday afternoon. At that time, the latest NHC forecast is for the...

President Trump’s personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, whose office sits in front of the Oval Office and who has served as the president’s gatekeeper since Day 1 of his administration, resigned on Thursday, two people familiar with her exit said. Ms. Westerhout’s abrupt and unexpected departure came after Mr. Trump learned on Thursday that she had indiscreetly shared details about his family and the Oval Office operations she was part of at a recent off-the-record dinner with reporters staying at hotels near Bedminster, N.J., during the president’s working vacation, according to one of the people, speaking on the condition of anonymity...

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro on Thursday peddled a white supremacy conspiracy theory, accusing Democrats of plotting to "replace American citizens with illegals." During a radio appearance with Fox Nation's Todd Starnes earlier today, Pirro promoted the so-called "great replacement theory," a conspiracy that warns of white genocide. "They hate Donald Trump," Pirro said, referring to Democrats. "He's the one they want to get rid of." "Their plan and their plot to remake America is to bring in the illegals, change the way the voting occurs in this country, give them licenses, they get to vote maybe once, maybe twice,...

The brother of Simone Biles, the Olympic gold medalist, was charged in a Cleveland triple-homicide, it was reported. Tevin Biles-Thomas is being charged with murder, voluntary manslaughter, felonious assault, and perjury, reported the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Aug. 29. He was arrested and is now being held at the Cuyahoga County Jail. He will be arraigned on Sept. 13, the report said. “The relentless persistence of Cleveland police homicide detectives helped secure an indictment in this case,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor O’Malley said in a statement obtained by the paper. “It is through their hard work that we can begin to...