Free Republic

House Democrats, in their first hearing on D.C. statehood in more than 25 years, on Thursday advocated for the District of Columbia to become the country’s 51st state as Republicans raised concerns about recent corruption scandals involving local D.C. officials. Critics of D.C. statehood have long cited local corruption as one reason to oppose statehood. Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, said he wanted Thursday’s hearing to delve into the ongoing scandal involving D.C. Councilman Jack Evans. Evans resigned from his role as the chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority...

Full header: What politicians can learn from Tolkien, Bill Federer recounts famous author's understanding of evils of human nature The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien describes man's insatiable lust for "the Ring of Power," as Gandalf exclaimed: "Always remember Frodo, the Ring is trying to get back to its master. It wants to be found." When Frodo offered the Ring to Gandalf, Gandalf rebuked him, saying: "Don't tempt me Frodo! I dare not take it. Not even to keep it safe. Understand, Frodo. I would use this ring from a desire to do good. ... But through me,...

Following a ban on virtually all semi-automatic firearms, New Zealanders face 5 years in jail if they refuse to hand them in. A France 24 report on the government’s new buyback scheme showed a line of gun owners willfully giving up their guns in response to the Christchurch massacre earlier this year. This despite the fact that the shooter himself said in his own manifesto that provoking mass gunfiscation was one of his intended goals. Mission accomplished.

[Catholic Caucus] The Church in Self-Imposed Exile: Where is Ezra? The second reading for the Mass of Ember Wednesday in September:  “And the people wept when they heard Ezra reading the Law”. Ember Wednesday.  Most Catholics have never heard of an Ember Day, this despite the fact that the Ember Days, the Quattuor Tempora in Latin, the four seasons, are among the oldest of liturgical celebrations, at least back to Leo the Great in the fifth century.  They have their roots in the four seasons of the year, and hence before each season of the year—Autumn, Winter, Spring and...

Donald Trump is waging a nonstop, all-encompassing war against progressive culture, in magnitude analogous to what 19th-century Germans once called a Kulturkampf. As a result, not even former President George W. Bush has incurred the degree of hatred from the left that is now directed at Trump. For most of his time in office, Trump, his family, his friends and his businesses have been investigated, probed, dissected and constantly attacked. In 2016 and early 2017, Barack Obama appointees in the FBI, CIA and Department of Justice tried to subvert the Trump campaign, interfere with his transition and, ultimately, abort his...

Posted on September 17, 2019September 17, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope The Church Is a Bride, Not a Widow Venerable Fulton J. Sheen once wrote, “The Church knows after 1900 years’ experience that any institution which suits the spirit of any age will be a widow in the next one” (War and Guilt, OSV Press, 1941, pp. 138-139).This is a clear admonition to the many who demand that the Church update her teachings, particularly (1) her moral doctrines, and (2) the dogma that salvation is exclusively through Jesus Christ. Some say that the Catholic Church is hopelessly out-of-date and...

Wills County, IL – By now, most people have heard of Indiana abortionist Ulrich Klopfer and his ungodly hoard of 2,246 “medically preserved” aborted babies found stored on his property in Illinois. Klopfer was an unsavory character who operated three abortion facilities in Fort Wayne, Gary, and South Bend, Indiana, at the peak of his career. His clinics were repeatedly cited for failing to pass heath inspections. Klopfer’s Indiana medical license was suspended in 2016 for failing to report suspected child sex abuse on a 13-year old, but gave abortions to little girls as young as ten who were brought...

Cleveland, OH – Operation Rescue now knows more about what happened to a woman who was transported by ambulance from Preterm, a Cleveland, Ohio, abortion facility, on September 14, 2019. 911 records reveal that a 24-year old woman was hemorrhaging after an abortion procedure. When the Preterm receptionist, who placed the call to 911, was asked if the woman was completely conscious, she answered, “Um, in and out.” An over-redacted Computer Aided Dispatch printout included with the recording shed little more light on the incident. According to the website Healthline.com, a person can become unconsciousness after losing 30-40 percent of...

ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. - A community gathered Wednesday night to remember three teens killed by a homeowner in what police believe was an attempted robbery. Isaiah Reed, Jamie Hernandez Jr. and Branden Gresham were killed after police say they approached a home in Conyers with masks on and one of the teens fired at the residents of the home. The alleged robbery victims returned fire, killing all three teens. The boys were 15 and 16 years old. So far, no one has been charged in the teens' deaths.

There is always a bitter sort of irony in watching videos of the unveiling of a flashy new iPhone on your own scuffed and scratched years-old device. As reviews of the new iPhone 11 rolled in this week — and I watched them on my trusty iPhone SE from 2016 — I almost immediately started doing the math in my head to figure out if I could afford the shiny new phone. But this year's parade of iPhone reviews was a bit different. Where most reviews have traditionally recommended readers upgrade every two years, The New York Times, for example,...

My brother Kirk Randolph Elder died suddenly and unexpectedly 16 days before his 70th birthday. He and Tresta, his wife of 41 years, had planned a trip to Hawaii, where they were going to celebrate Kirk’s birthday. Kirk was a retired supervisor at an oil refinery, and we were extremely close. He started coming on my radio show about four years ago, reluctantly at first. We’d discuss politics, culture and sports. A registered Democrat, he and I often disagreed. Yet, week after week, I received letters from listeners who called him their “favorite Democrat.” Kirk always showed respect for Republicans...

Elizabeth Warren promises that if elected, the first thing she will do as president is push through a “sweeping” anti-corruption plan that will “take power away from the wealthy and the well-connected in Washington and put it back where it belongs — in the hands of the people.” Where have we heard such promises before? Oh, right, from pretty much every candidate running for president. Barack Obama said in 2008 that if he were elected, he would “launch the most sweeping ethics reform in U.S. history. We will make government more open, more accountable and more responsive to the...

President Donald Trump on Thursday sued Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who subpoenaed eight years of Trump's personal and corporate tax returns earlier this month. The subpoena stems from Vance's criminal investigation into the Trump Organization about payments made to two women who have alleged affairs with the president. The president has strongly denied the affairs. NBC News

On Stephen Colbert's CBS late night show, the host challenged Elizabeth Warren on the issue of single-payer healthcare, which she unequivocally supports. He attempted to nail the leftist Senator down on the question of whether or not middle class Americans' taxes would have to go up (they would, a lot) in order to fund the program she and Bernie Sanders have proposed. She ducked, he drilled down further, then she ducked again -- prompting the comedian to call her out on it, seemingly to her surprise: “You keep being asked in the debates, how are you going to pay...

Four student evangelists from Wheaton College in Illinois are suing the Chicago city government over a set of rules that they say are restricting their freedom of speech and religion at a popular park. The students are members of the Chicago Evangelism Team sponsored by the Office of Christian Outreach at Wheaton College, an evangelical institution based in the Chicago suburbs. The students contend they have faced opposition and at times have been prohibited by security from evangelizing at Millennium Park, a 24-acre downtown venue that hosts a range of activities including concerts, theatre, dance performances, art shows, and nature...

Fox News dominated in the ratings on Monday night, winning every time slot from 6 a.m. to midnight in both total viewers and the advertiser coveted 25-54 demographic.

Hillsdale College, a premier conservative Christian college in southern Michigan, has launched a graduate school of government in Washington, D.C. The college announced the new school on Constitution Day. "Today, the connection between liberty and learning is widely forgotten, and their mutual support has grown tenuous," Larry P. Arnn, president of Hillsdale, said in a statement. "Repairing the breach is a task both urgent and noble." The Steve and Amy Van Andel Graduate School of Government offers a Master of Arts in Government, combining the study of political thought, American founding principles, and statesmanship, the college explained. "Our students will...

https://www.dailywire.com/news/51960/watch-buttigieg-doesnt-want-his-ties-horrifying-ryan-saavedra?amp Democrat presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg finally responded on Wednesday to the horrifying revelation that an abortion doctor who was affiliated to an abortion clinic that Buttigieg repeatedly supported had kept the remains of more than 2,000 unborn babies at his home, saying that he hopes the story does not become too political. Buttigieg "spoke to reporters about the 2,246 medically preserved fetal remains family members found on former Dr. Ulrich Klopfer's property in Illinois after he died on Sept. 3," The Daily Caller reported. "I find that news out of Illinois extremely disturbing and I think it's important that...

One British bookmaker has more wagers on one candidate to win the Democratic presidential nomination — and the person isn’t even officially running. U.K. bookmaker Ladbrokes takes betters wager on the race, and according to Matthew Shaddick, head of their political betting division, Hillary Clinton is atop the pack, Newsweek reports. “The site currently has Clinton’s betting odds at 20 to 1, placing her alone in seventh place as far as best odds. That is ahead of most of the people actually running, including Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and former Texas Rep....

Despite the fact that natural gas is the cleanest of the fossil fuels hands down (and now the cheapest), liberals continue to oppose it. The “keep it in the ground” folks scored another victory this week when the city of San Jose California voted to ban natural gas lines and appliances in all new construction projects going forward. This is allegedly part of the state-mandated goal of going 100% “carbon-free” by 2045. Of course, as with all things, the devil is in the details. (CBS San Francisco) San Jose became the biggest U.S. city to ban natural gas in...