Free Republic

Consumer Reports said the condoms given out by Planned Parenthood are defective According to Consumer Reports, the condoms given out by Planned Parenthood are defective.Below is a screenshot from Consumer Reports. (You can see a bigger version of the image by clicking on it twice.)Both of the two condoms at the very bottom of the ratings are from Planned Parenthood. Both had a score of “poor” (the worst possible score) in the category called “strength.” One of them also scored “poor” in the category called “reliability.”For an organization that makes money by selling abortions, it’s a very clever business strategy for...

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a legal opinion on Thursday saying that President Trump's administration broke the law by withholding defense aid to Ukraine — the issue at the heart of the president's impeachment trial. That money, $214 million which had been allocated to the Department of Defense for security assistance, was appropriated by Congress and therefore the administration did not have the right to hold it back just because it disagreed with its allocation, the opinion from the nonpartisan government watchdog said. "Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities...

The total of U.S. federal, state, and local debt, in combination with future spending commitments, foreshadows the most predictable financial disaster in human history. Washington’s obligations, growing at an estimated $1 trillion annually, now exceed $23 trillion, while neither of America’s two largest entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare, are on sound footing.Going down to the state and local levels, a May 2018 report by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government reveals that public pension funding in New Jersey and Kentucky is already at “high risk of insolvency,” with California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and several large cities close behind....

Environmental advocates have sounded an urgent alarm about the climate crisis for decades. In recent days, the business community voiced a similarly strident tone. In a newly released interview, longtime environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr. warns it’s nearly too late. Kennedy Jr. castigates fossil fuel companies, throws his support behind the Green New Deal, and says that every Democratic presidential candidate has an environmental agenda better than that of President Donald Trump. “There are going to be major disruptions not just to humanity, but ultimately to civilization,” says Kennedy Jr, the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy and...

The team used a 3D sand–hydrogel scaffold that they inoculated with Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 (Synechococcus) — a photosynthetic cyanobacterium that converts CO2 to sugars during photosynthesis. Cyanobacteria are well known to survive extreme environmental conditions, including high and low temperature, salinity, and humidity, making them ideal candidates for living materials. These new materials are also capable of being regenerated from one parent “brick” using temperature and humidity switches. This corresponds to cycles of incubation at 37 °C, followed by low-temperature storage, where the gelatin matrix solidifies and encapsulates the bacteria. Splitting one brick in half and extending its shape...

What happens when a Democratic speaker of the House — second in line to the presidency, according to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 — is suddenly thrust into the Oval Office, succeeding a Republican president and vice president who resign, embroiled in scandal? Such a scenario is attracting attention — #PresidentPelosi was trending on social media this morning. When I woke up with this news I couldn’t believe my eyes, but after a while, I realized that it’s impossible for a politician with a record like Nancy to get such an important position. This is just another distraction of...

Posted on January 15, 2020January 15, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope A Glimpse of Liturgy and Parish Life in the 1920s I have said the Traditional Latin Mass for all of my many years of priesthood. Back in the late 1980s, only a few priests were “permitted” to do so and there were few resources available to learn it. About the only visual help was the Fulton Sheen film from the 1940s describing the Mass. So, I trained under a few older priests during my seminary years. I moved from being part of the schola in the choir loft,...

The German government and regional leaders have agreed on a plan to phase out coal-fired power stations by 2038, involving compensation of about €40bn (£34bn; $45bn). The end date for burning brown coal (lignite) - the dirtiest type of coal - could be brought forward to 2035, depending on the progress made. Germany has more than 250,000 workers in renewable energy sectors - far more than in the coal industry. Coal is a big driver of global warming. The €40bn compensation will target four German states which have lignite mines and coal-fired power plants: Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg....

Eighty-six percent of Democrats consider President Donald Trump "racist," according to a July 2019 Quinnipiac poll. By contrast, 91% of Republicans do not consider him "racist." Perhaps more disturbing, a November 2018 online Axios poll by SurveyMonkey found that a whopping 61% of Democrats believe Republicans are "racist/bigoted/sexist." A comparatively small 31% of Republicans feel the same way about Democrats. For a party that considers Republicans racist/bigoted/sexist, how do Democrats somehow, someway manage to tolerate, if not embrace, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn? For a congressional first-termer, her list of cringeworthy, insulting and anti-Semitic remarks is impressive. Omar's latest occurred shortly...

Elephant Island, Antarctica - A new U.S. government report found the last decade was the hottest ever recorded on Earth, and 2019 was the second hottest year ever measured. The data has raised new concerns, and one of the places most seriously affected is Antarctica, at the bottom of the planet. CBS News correspondent Roxana Saberi traveled with a group of scientists working to determine how the warming weather is affecting one particular species; the chinstrap penguin. Few humans have ever set foot on the remote, rocky shores of Elephant Island. It took Saberi and her team three days of...

A 21-year-old Texas man has been indicted in New Jersey for posting a comment calling for racial violence in an online group chat, prosecutors in Burlington County, New Jersey said Wednesday. According to authorities, Kenneth Petersen of Stephenville was arrested in September after a multi-agency investigation that stemmed from a message Petersen allegedly sent in a group chat with New Jersey high school students in May 2018. Prosecutors say a Northern Burlington high school student had created a group chat to discuss senior pranks using the messaging app GroupMe when she received a message from a sender she did not...

The Christian Post recently published my article "Financial Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice", which deals with the idea that God cares about the morality of the source of the money that we give back to Him as an offering, as taught in scriptures such as Deuteronomy 23:18, and the implications for investors regarding the profits we earn from our investment choices.In reply to this article, one reader posted a comment under the name "Christian Commenter" and expressed some thoughtful questions that I have found to be very commonplace among believers when first presented with the scriptural teaching around investment stewardship...

‘Earthquake’: Book by Benedict XVI and Cdl. Sarah on Priestly Celibacy Church may be on path to 'suicide' The new book written by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Cdl. Robert Sarah, From the Depths of Our Hearts, has caused an earthquake even before it has been published, as well as an unhinged and angry barrage from certain Bergoglianists, as if Benedict does not have the right to speak; Bergoglio himself, in the past, has invited him to express himself. The book that caused the "earthquake." The earthquake was caused by the preview published in newspapers of their defense of priestly celibacy (which...

Disturbing evidence in Jeffrey Epstein’s autopsy points to his murder: pathologist effrey Epstein’s eyes had burst capillaries after his body was found in his Manhattan jail cell, suggesting that the convicted pedophile was likely murdered through manual strangulation and did not hang himself, a forensic pathologist says in a TV interview. In a clip provided to The Post from a “Dr. Oz” special set to air Thursday, former New York City Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Baden discusses his theories and examines graphic photographs. Among them are the burst capillaries and the fact that Epstein’s lower extremities were pale and not...

The startup, Mojo Vision, showed off a very early prototype in meetings at CES last week and is now ready to start talking about the product’s development. Mojo Vision hopes to first create a smart contact lens that can assist people with low vision by displaying enhanced overlays of the world, sharpening details or zooming in to help them see. But that reality seems to be a ways away. The prototype shown at CES included a green, monochromatic display that was wired to a large battery, and the company still needs to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration...

The next name that is going to be on the lips of every pundit and talking head in Washington, D.C., is Lev Parnas, who went on the Rachel Maddow Show Wednesday night to allege that he was sent to Ukraine at the behest of Rudy Guiliani and President Trump to dig up dirt on the Bidens. This interview came on the very same day the impeachment articles were delivered to the Senate, and if you think that was an accident, I have a bridge to sell you. This is the October surprise delivered in January that everyone should have seen...

If they don’t know it by now, they will soon enough. Iran’s official response to the three European signatories of the JCPOA for filing a notice of dispute within the rules of the treaty is to warn them of a potential military retaliation. The remarks from Iranian president Hassan Rouhani likely also references NATO’s interest in transitioning the US out of Iraq, when Tehran would rather have it all to themselves.So much for negotiations, eh, Boris Johnson? Actually, there’s more to that angle of the story, but first let’s focus on Rouhani’s threat: The president of Iran warned Wednesday...

The Presbytery voted to “prevent the proliferation of Teaching Elders publicly identifying themselves with a ‘gay identity’.” “Grace Presbytery believes the concept of “Celibate Gay Pastor” to be contrary to the teaching of Scripture and the constitutional standards of the Presbyterian Church in America, and that the churches of Grace Presbytery should not presume to think that candidates for our pulpits who identify themselves in this (or similar ways) will be approved for admission to Grace Presbytery.” At its January 14, 2020 stated meeting, Grace Presbytery acted on a communication from the Session of the Thomson Memorial Church of Centreville,...

Can Lindsey Graham be Trusted? Why do the Dems move with Urgency and the GOP Senators just let things flounder?

West VA to join with VA over gun rights.