Free Republic

* "We sought to inform the Court of Appeal that many minority women, especially Muslim women, are deceived or coerced by abusive husbands into only having a religious marriage, which deprives them of their financial rights when the marriage breaks down...." — Southall Black Sisters, an advocacy group for South Asian women, February 14, 2020. * In February 2018, an independent review of the application of Sharia law in England and Wales...recommended changes to the Marriage Act 1949 and the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 that would require Muslims to conduct civil marriages before or at the same time as the...

The Democratic presidential debate Wednesday night kicked off with fireworks, as every person on stage not named Mike Bloomberg attacking the former New York City mayor, who was participating in his first presidential face off. The first hit at the NBC/MSNBC two-hour debate here came from frontrunner Bernie Sanders, who ripped Bloomberg for his record as mayor. Next to swing at Bloomberg was Elizabeth Warren, who took aim at the mayor's past critical statements about women. "I'd like to talk about who we're running against. A billionaire who calls women 'fat broads' and 'horse-faced lesbians,' and, no, I'm not talking...

Masonic Grand Master hails pronouncement as breakthrough in reconciliationVIENNA (ChurchMilitant.com) - Eight popes over 200 years in a barrage of 20 legal interdicts have condemned Freemasonry, pronouncing automatic excommunication against any Catholic who becomes a member of a masonic lodge. Now, a new book by an official of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue is claiming that a practicing Catholic can simultaneously be a Freemason and that the penalty of excommunication may "certainly not" be applied to "Catholic Freemasons." Father Michael Heinrich Weninger launched his 500-page study Loge und Altar: Über die Aussöhnung von Katholischer Kirche und regulärer Freimaurerei (Lodge...

Utah recently codified an administrative rule that bans “any practice or treatment that seeks to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of a patient or client” under the age of 18. This made it the 19th state to ban the practice, frequently labeled “conversion therapy.” Some call this a milestone in protecting vulnerable children, but the reality is more complicated. Advocates describe so-called conversion therapy as a “discredited practice” linked to physical abuse, drug use, and suicide, and they point to politicized statements from medical associations and activist groups to support these claims. Although it is possible to find...

St Hilda’s College will abolish its chapel from next year, replacing the space with a multi-faith room. The announcement makes St Hilda’s the third undergraduate college in Oxford not to have a dedicated Anglican chapel. The announcement follows months of debate around the presence and need for a chapel at the college. According to a JCR motion debated in Michaelmas, a number of fellows at St Hilda’s moved to reallocate any religious spaces within the college.The issue has been raised as part of extensive development plans due to be completed in 2020. As part of preparations for St Hilda’s 125th...

A large crowd comprised of Oberlin College students, employees and community members gathered Feb. 19 inside the campus’ King Hall to protest the institution's recent announcement that 108 college workers could lose their jobs. The protest, consisting of roughly over 800 people, took place during an Oberlin College faculty meeting.

February 17, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Jewish leaders in the U.K. have stated that they will oppose educational authorities and not allow their schools to teach about homosexual and other “lifestyles” that are “prohibited by the Torah.” Chinuch U.K., an organization that represents Britain’s main strictly Orthodox Jewish communities, has “issued a defiant challenge to the government by insisting their schools cannot discuss LGBT-related issues with pupils,” according to The Jewish Chronicle. The statement was reportedly prompted by recent visits to Jewish schools by government inspectors, who made it clear that primary schools have to teach children about LGBT “equality.” In...

The scientist who cracked the 150-year-old mystery of the the sinking of the H.L. Hunley Confederate submarine has revealed the painstaking steps she took to demonstrate what killed its eight-man crew. Rachel Lance, a biomedical engineer and blast-injury specialist, describes her breakthrough in the forthcoming book In the Waves: My Quest to Solve The Mystery of A Civil War Submarine, due out April 7. The Hunley was the first combat submarine to sink an enemy warship, but as soon as it succeeded in its mission targeting the USS Housatonic in Charleston harbor in 1864, it mysteriously sank with all hands...

The ’emergency meeting’ of federal judges to discuss the intervention by Attorney General William Barr in the sentencing of Roger Stone and President Trump’s criticism of the proposed sentence was indefinitely postponed Wednesday. The teleconference meeting of the leadership of the 1,100 member Federal Judges Association, comprised of sitting federal judges, was originally set for Tuesday, then was put off a day until Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. EST. The group’s president, Judge Cynthia Rufe (a Bush 43 appointee), had initially said the meeting “could not wait” until the FJA annual meeting in April.

President Trump on Wednesday signed an order in California to re-engineer the state’s water plans, completing a campaign promise to funnel water from the north to a thirsty agriculture industry and growing population further south. The ceremonial order comes after the Department of the Interior late last year reversed its opinion on scientific findings that for a decade extended endangered species protections to various types of fish — a review that had been spurred by the order from Trump. Trump said the changes to the “outdated scientific research and biological opinions” would now help direct “as much water as possible,...

Happy watching!

Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg said in campaign ad released Wednesday that he led New York City through 9/11, though he did not take over as mayor of the city until several months after the devastating attacks. “I led a complex, diverse city through 9/11, and I have common sense plans to move America away from chaos to progress,” Bloomberg said in a 30-second campaign ad called “It Won’t Work.”

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) signature "Medicare for All" health care plan ahead of Wednesday night's Democratic presidential primary debate in Las Vegas. While Reid said during an interview with ABC News's Rick Klein that he thinks "the world of Bernie Sanders," he called the progressive senator's health care plan "impractical." "There’s not a chance in hell it would pass," Reid said in the podcast interview. Reid has spoken out about Medicare for All in the past, telling Vice last year he didn't think the plan could pass and that Democrats should instead...

Police Chief Richard Lee said he was forced to leave Town Hall in his underwear Tuesday after the board of selectmen voted to dissolve the town’s one-man police department. “I was told that I had to turn over the keys to the cruiser and my uniform immediately. I had no other means of transportation, as the cruiser is a take-home vehicle, and I have no spare clothes in the office, so I did as ordered,” Lee said Wednesday. Lee said he started walking toward his home in Newport during a snowstorm wearing boots, a hat and his underwear, before his...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ MEDITERRANEAN DRILLS An air-cushion landing craft debarks the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp for drills in the Mediterranean Sea, Aug. 25, 2016. The Wasp is supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Nathan Wilkes Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. SLINGLOAD HOOKUP Soldiers attach a slingload hook onto a UH-60 Black Hawk...

An Alabama senator laughed off a question about protecting unborn babies from late-term abortions this week in an exchange caught on video. U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, an Alabama Democrat, laughed and called the question “stupid” when asked how he would vote on the upcoming Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, according to the Susan B. Anthony List. “Senator Doug Jones has proven once again that he is no moderate when it comes to abortion on demand through the moment of birth. Alabama’s Democratic senator may think it is ‘stupid’ to question his abortion extremism, but rest assured, his constituents take respect...

On February 19, a video spread on social media showing an armored vehicle of the U.S. military pushing a vehicle of the Russian Military Police off a road in northeast Syria.

Trump rape accuser E. Jean Carroll has been fired by ELLE after having her name 'dragged through mud' by the president seven months after she accused him of raping her. Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1980s in June last year. She sued him ever since, the pair have been entangled in a legal back and forth. On Tuesday, Carroll tweeted that she had been fired by ELLE, the magazine she wrote an advice column for for 26 years. 'Because Trump ridiculed my reputation, laughed at my looks, & dragged me through...

This will be the forever thread.

A new law in California bans the use, in official documents, of the term “at risk” to describe youth identified by social workers, teachers, or the courts as likely to drop out of school, join a gang, or go to jail. Los Angeles assemblyman Reginald B. Jones-Sawyer, who sponsored the legislation, explained that “words matter.” By designating children as “at risk,” he says, “we automatically put them in the school-to-prison pipeline. Many of them, when labeled that, are not able to exceed above that.” The idea that the term “at risk” assigns outcomes, rather than describes unfortunate possibilities, grants social...