Free Republic

President Jed Bartlet, you were just too good for us.  It has long been known that liberals hold the television show The West Wing in a high esteem that feeds into their fantasies, especially in times where cold reality has not exactly gone as they (and creator Aaron Sorkin) would have hoped.  And this fantasy will only be intensified since this is the twentieth anniversary of the show's premiere. Another reason for liberals to fantasize ever more deeply in the parallel liberal world of The West Wing is obviously due to the the one they consider to be the intruder in...

Iran’s president called Sunday on Western powers to leave the security of the Persian Gulf to regional nations led by Tehran, criticizing a new U.S.-led coalition patrolling the region’s waterways as nationwide parades showcased the Islamic Republic’s military arsenal. Rouhani spoke from a riser at the parade in Tehran, with uniformed officers from the country’s military and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard beside him. The cleric later watched as goose-stepping soldiers carrying submachine guns and portable missile launchers drove past as part of “Holy Defense Week,” which marks the start of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980. Rouhani said Iran was willing...

It remains to be seen if the latest incarnation of Rambo will attract audiences.  Most of those who go to movie theaters these days are likely unfamiliar with all the earlier incarnations of Stallone's Rambo films.  The first was in 1982, First Blood.  It dealt, in exaggerated form, with the anger and resentment toward the returning vets from Vietnam.  The Left's intolerance for our military was as egregious then as it is now.  For inexplicable reasons, leftists loathe our first line of defense against our enemies, whom they always seem to revere or defend.  "It was ever thus," to quote Una Merkel in the original Parent Trap.So...

DEAR ABBY: I am a veteran, and something gnaws at me every time I hear it. It’s the expression, “Thank you for your service.” Having lived through the ’60s and ’70s, I remember all too well seeing many soldiers bad-mouthed and worse during those times. Since 9/11 many of the same people who were critical of us then are now thanking us. It rings hollow to many of the vets I have talked to. We did our job, some to the ultimate level. We never asked for thanks, and we still don’t. We respect the rights given to those who...

We know that the Democratic Party is filled with ironic hypocrites but the 2020 presidential candidates are taking the cake this weekend. More than 11,000 people flocked to a steak fry at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday to hear from the 17 candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, CBS News reported. The event was put on by the Polk County Democrats and included more than 10,500 hamburgers and 1,000 vegan burgers. Rather ironic considering some of these candidates – like Sen. Kamala Harris and Andrew Yang – have made the case that meat consumption adds to our nations greenhouse...

Pittsburgh police are investigating a "medical situation" that left three people dead and four others hospitalized Sunday morning. All seven people were wearing orange paper wrist bands, which may offer clues, Pittsburgh Director of Public Safety Wendell Hissrich said. He said all are believed to be middle-aged men. Authorities responded to a report of an unconscious man around 2 a.m. Sunday on the city's south side. They found a man dead at the scene, Hissrich said. Shortly later, paramedics responded to another man who was "somewhat conscious" and had symptoms similar to that of the first man. He was taken...

I’m still laughing….though I doubt Mayor De Blasio or the New York City businesspeople he shook down because they need permits and approvals his loyal followers found it as amusing as I did.

On Tuesday, the East St. Louis’ firefighter pension fund demanded that Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza intercept more than $2.2 million of East St. Louis city revenues so they could be diverted to the pension fund. The fund trustees said the city shorted firefighter pensions by $880,000 in 2017 and another $1.3 million in 2018. Under a 2011 pension law, the state comptroller gained the powers to intercept city revenues on behalf of police and fire pension funds shorted by their municipalities.

Dr. Kawas and her team of doctors and professors analyzed data from a long term study conducted at the UC Irvine’s Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders. They dubbed this study the “90+ Study” which has been following people over the age of 90 since 2003. The research covered everything from daily exercise to sleep schedule to diet. As a result, the researches concluded that people who drank two glasses of wine or beer per day saw an 18% drop in their risk of early death. On the other hand, those who exercised 15-45 minutes per day only saw...

Teenagers have been bursting into the conversation surrounding climate change — passionately advocating for the planet and their future living on it. But this college student is making her activism even more personal by pledging not to have children until leaders take action. Canadian teen Emma Lim told CBS News she made the decision a few months ago not to have children in the future due to the climate crisis. "Because even though I want to have children more than almost anything, what kind of a mother would I be if I brought a baby into a world where I...

Ivanka Trump was all sparkle and smiles on Saturday night in a photo she posted to social media of herself and husband Jared Kushner heading out for night two the Mikey Hess and Misha Nonoo wedding festivities. That sparkle came courtesy of her Bob Mackie dress, which fit perfectly with he night's theme - Dazzling. What's more, Ivanka did not have to shell out the five-to-six-figure price tag that would normally come with a Mackie piece, and instead got the dress for free - from her mother's closet. Ivana Trump wore the very same dress back in 1991, and her...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-seven percent (47%) disapprove. The latest figures include 37% who Strongly Approve of the job Trump is doing and 39% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. (see trends).

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has fallen and is engaging in “mob behavior.” Brooks said, “[T]he fall of Giuliani is one of the great stories of our age. I covered him a lot when he was mayor, extremely brilliant, extremely sharp, not the man I see today. The one continuity is that he would sit around with his staff and watch the ‘Godfather’ movies over and over again. And the mob behavior — this really is mob behavior. It’s like, let’s dig up dirt on this guy.”

“The majority of our youth—63 percent—are believers,” commented the head of the Дepartment for External Church Relations, His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, citing a VTSIOM survey, according to which only 37% of young Russians aged 18-24 consider themselves unbelievers, reports Foma. “It’s another question how they believe? There are young people who are churched. There are young people who are seeking, who consider themselves believers but haven’t yet decided which religious community they should join,” Metropolitan Hilarion said. According to the survey, only 16% of 24 to 34-year-old respondents consider themselves unbelievers. “The percentage of believers increases with age—this...

He announced on Twitter that he’s finished. “Will not be playing in the (NFL) anymore these owners can cancel deals do whatever they want at anytime we will see if the (NFLPA) hold them accountable sad they can just void guarantees anytime going on 40m 2 months will see if they pay up !” the tweet read. Brown was recently released by the Patriots.

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Roger Thornhill. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Celebrating its 60th anniversary, Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest is an iconic movie, starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, back in an age when movies were brilliantly produced and written, while roles were played by actors with both intelligence and emotion. This quote was one of the many quips played by Grant's character, Roger Thornhill. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental...

Ethiopian Christians took to the streets after morning mass on Sunday to protest multiple attacks on Ethiopian Orthodox churches in the country.The protests were mainly centered in the Amhara region and parts of Addis Ababa, and follow a year-long spate of attacks on both Orthodox and Protestant churches in the country. Protestors are demanding an end to what they view as “a planned and orchestrated attack on the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church”, according to a report on Borkena.com. * Thousands protested despite church organisations announcing on Friday that the action was postponed in favour of dialogue. * Diaspora communities are...

State appeals court says transsexual man can sue Mercy San Juan Medical Center for refusing to perform hysterectomyThe 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled that a Sacramento-area transgender man can sue Mercy San Juan Medical Center over the last-minute cancellation of his hysterectomy, overturning a lower-court ruling that dismissed the case. Dignity Health, which operates Mercy San Juan, arranged for Evan Minton to have the procedure at Methodist Hospital in south Sacramento within 72 hours of the denial, court records state. The procedure was canceled, the lawsuit stated, after Minton mentioned to a nurse that he is...

Chairman of finance council: 'Claims come forward every time you turn around'CHICAGO (ChurchMilitant.com) - A prominent sex abuse attorney announced at a press conference on Sept. 17 that he recently settled cases for long-ago sexual misdeeds for more than $80 million for 160 victims over the last two decades. The more than $80 million the Chicago archdiocese has paid since 2001, attorney Jeff Anderson of Jeff Anderson & Associates said, represents a large chunk of the estimated $220 million that the archdiocese had spent in total to settle such claims. The financial toll of priest sex abuse on the Chicago...

Posted on September 21, 2019September 20, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope On Being Faithful in a Few Things before Being Ruler over Many Things - A Homily for the 24th Sunday of the Year In this Sunday’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus gives a penetrating analysis of the state of the sinner and some very sobering advice to us would-be saints. Let’s look at the Gospel in two stages:I. ANALYSIS OF THE SINNER – In the opening lines of the Gospel, Jesus describes a sinful steward.DELUSION (of the sinner) – Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a...