Free Republic

The city and neighborhood police officers, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to release information, said the man took a gun from his base and drove to the Terminal 21 mall, shooting along the way. The city is also known as Korat. Video taken outside the mall and shared on social media showed people taking cover in a parking lot as gunshots were fired. The mall was shut down and the street outside was closed while the authorities tried to arrest the gunman and rescue shoppers inside. Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Kongcheep Tantrawanich identified...

Man who threw Pachamama in Tiber fires back after prof says he ‘damaged’ Catholicism Alexander Tschugguel said he remains “convinced that Christ’s saying will always be true, ‘No one comes to the Father except through me.’” VIENNA, Austria, February 7, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Alexander Tschugguel, the young Austrian founder of the Saint Boniface Institute who threw the Amazon Synod’s Pachamama idols in the Tiber river last October, has fired back after a professor of dogmatic theology accused him of falling behind the Second Vatican Council. “I’m convinced that Christ’s saying will always be true, ‘No one comes to the...

Probably my favorite line in the movie Moneyball is uttered in the wonderful scene where Billy Bean (Brad Pitt) is trying to teach his protégé (Joshua Hill) how to cut a professional baseball player. Bean explains that delivering bad news works best if done with a detached, businesslike manner. He compares the unpleasant task to the job of a hired assassin by asking, "Would you rather get a bullet to the head, or five to the chest and bleed to death?" Hill replies, "Are those my only two options?" Therein lies the problem for Democrats come November. There are only...

The Camas High School principal has resigned after backlash over a post she made on Facebook about the death of Kobe Bryant. The Camas School District announced Friday that administrators had accepted the resignation of Dr. Liza Sejkora. District staff will communicate with families regarding a transition plan in the coming days. Sejkora was put on administrative leave earlier in the week, after threats were made against Sejkora. The situation began when Sejkora made a social media post to her private Facebook page in the aftermath of Bryant’s death. Sejkora wrote, “Not gonna lie. Seems to me that karma caught...

The Editor The Highland Recorder I just might be one of the poster children for “The Come Heres,” those folks who deliberately chose to live here in this remote wonderland. As a teenager fifty years ago I started describing a place in my mind, a place that eventually became known to me as Highland County, Virginia. We bought property here twenty years ago and escaped the Peoples’ Republic of Maryland permanently in 2014. I feel more at home in Highland County than anywhere I have ever been. Unfortunately, recent developments in the state’s social and political climate have led me...

Expedition 61 Flight Engineer Christina Koch of NASA returned home to Ellington Field in Houston, Texas Feb. 7 aboard a NASA plane some 24 hours after a parachute-assisted landing in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in Kazakhstan. Koch set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman – 328 days – in a mission on the orbiting laboratory that spanned 5248 orbits of the Earth and 139 million miles, roughly the equivalent of 291 round trips to the Moon. Koch performed six spacewalks during her mission and saw the arrival of a dozen visiting vehicles and the departure of...

The U.S. Senate has 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats (including two independents). There are 35 seats up in 2020 - including special elections in Arizona and Georgia - of which 23 are held by the GOP. Democrats will need to gain 3 or 4 seats to take control. Currently, the U.S Senate is controlled by the Republicans. As of January, 2019, they control 53 Senate seats, Democrats 45, with 2 independents caucusing as Democrats (effectively giving them 47 seats). In 2020, 34 Senate seats are up for election, 22 held by Republicans, 12 by Democrats. As the Vice-President will break...

President Donald Trump's campaign strategy came into sharp focus during the State of the Union address, and the Democrats are horrified at the mirror held up to their faces. The campaign strategy has three components. The president will tout the incredible record of achievement hidden by the media. He will engage in sustained and aggressive outreach to minority voters who have been victimized the most by Democrat policies. Finally, he will force the Democrats to defend the indefensible. It is those last two components that left the Democrats stuck on stupid. Frozen Face, whose attempt to be the equivalent of...

Sen. Bernie Sanders made quite the claim about racism in America during the Democratic debate Friday night in New Hampshire. “We have a racist society from top to bottom impacting healthcare, housing, criminal justice, education, you name it,” he said. “And clearly this is an issue that must be dealt with.”

EXCLUSIVE: Vatican bishop defends giving Communion to pro-abortion Argentine president and mistress It’s a ‘problem’ only for U.S. Catholics and Cardinal Raymond Burke, Bishop Sorondo said. Pope Francis meets Argentine president Alberto Fernandez and his mistress, Fabiola Yanez ROME, February 7, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A Vatican bishop has defended giving Holy Communion to the pro-abortion president of Argentina and his mistress during their recent visit to the Vatican, saying it is a “problem” only for U.S. Catholics and Cardinal Raymond Burke.  The bishop accused this journalist of being a “fanatic” for challenging him on it. In comments to LifeSite...

It wasn’t 2012 Presidential loser Mitt Romney’s faith that caused him to vote to impeach President Trump, whom he once begged to rescue him from political oblivion. While Romney, who undoubtedly entertained visions of succeeding a President Trump after his vote helped remove from office, says it was his faith that caused him to believe Trump really did abuse his power to pressure the Ukrainians to dig up dirt on the Bidens, more likely it was because that Romney wanted to put an end to an administration that might expose his link to the Bidens and Burisma,

Enjoying the luxury of business class seats on an 11-hour flight back to Auckland was meant to be a treat for Renell and Tere after undergoing weight-loss surgery in the city of Bangkok. Instead, the sisters and their mother, Huhana, were left ''traumatised'' by Thai Airways staff who came at them with tape measures telling them they were ''too big'' for their business class seats. Six months on from that ''disgusting'' experience and Huhana, 59, is still bitter about the experience. ''The staff were shouting 'too big, too big' at us repeatedly. Rows of people watched as they measured us...

Mary Grabar's book, 'Debunking Howard Zinn,' takes aim at the celebrated historian who is as influential as he is ideological and dishonest. Howard Zinn’s book, The People’s History of the United States, is one of the most famous American history textbooks ever written. His goal was to change the way Americans saw their own history by writing from the perspective of those he called “underdogs.” In doing so, he thoroughly distorts the true historical record and paints America as an inherently unjust nation.Mary Grabar believes that at the root of his agenda is a desire to see America turned into...

There was nothing enjoyable, moving, or engaging about 'Joker,' which decided to trade an interesting story and compelling characters for a grim tone. “Joker” may be the best-made film that I actively hated. With brilliant acting, excellent cinematography, and phenomenal source material, this movie should have been amazing. I really wanted to love it, too. I’ve always held deep affection for comic book movies, and the more serious, artistic tone sounded exciting.Unfortunately, there was nothing enjoyable, moving, or engaging about “Joker,” which decided to trade an interesting story and compelling characters for a grim tone and a dearth of anything...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

The pilot of the helicopter that crashed and killed Kobe Bryant and eight others was almost out of blinding clouds when he suddenly plunged and crashed into a Southern California hillside, investigators and aviation experts indicated. Ara Zobayan had told air traffic control he was climbing to 4,000 feet and he rose to 2,300 feet, according to an investigative update released Friday from the National Transportation Safety Board. The helicopter was just 100 feet from the cloud tops and conceivably would have broken through into clear air in a matter of seconds. Air traffic controllers had advised Zobayan that the...

In his State of the Union address, President Trump renewed his pledge to ensure that all Americans benefit from the “most affordable, innovative, and high-quality health care system on Earth.” Under his leadership we’ve seen the end of the costly individual mandate; more-flexible insurance offerings at lower premiums; billions of dollars in savings on prescription drugs, with faster approval of generics; and our veterans empowered to choose doctors and hospitals beyond the VA system, so that they no longer need to wait to receive the care they deserve.Most recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has introduced the...

Yes, Russia Once Had Its Own Version of the SR-71 Blackbird How did it end? ...Still, brilliant Soviet engineer Pavel Tsybin came close to developing a “Soviet Blackbird”—though it, in fact, predated the A-12/Blackbird by several years and was originally conceived as a nuclear bomber. By 1957, OKB-256 had built an NM-1 three-quarter-scale demonstrator equipped with two Mikulin AM-5 turbojets instead. After multiple delays, the subsonic test model made the first of 32 test flights on April 7, 1959. These revealed the airframe’s unstable takeoff handling and flight characteristics—meaning the jet needed to be re-engineered. Supposedly, three or five RSR-020s...

The Democratic National Committee announced new rules for getting on stage for the party's Feb. 19 debate in Nevada — and they have the potential to shake up who is on the stage. The new qualification standards scrap the grassroots funding support threshold that candidates have had to meet for prior debates. That means former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who is self-funding his campaign and is not soliciting donations, could make his first appearance on stage. The DNC said Friday that candidates have three paths to the Nevada debate stage. They could reach 10% support in a...

Saint Josephine Bakhita Giuseppina Margherita Fortunata Josephine was a twin, child of an African family of property. When she was kidnapped into slavery, Sudan wasn't yet a country. She saw one of her group of fellow slaves severely beaten and abandoned to die. She suffered great cruelty from Turkish owners and was viciously, ritually scarred all over her back. She became the nanny of the daughter of Italian owners. While her mistress returned to Africa, she was left with the baby girl at a convent in Italy where she became Catholic. When her mistress returned to take her and...