Free Republic

Pope Francis today urged followers to give up trolling people on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook for Lent. He said there was too much 'verbal violence' in the world which was 'amplified by the internet'. Francis added that Lent was 'a time to give up useless words, gossip, rumours, tittle-tattle and speak to God on a first name basis.' He was addressing tens of thousands of worshipers in St Peter's Square, Rome, on Ash Wednesday - the start of the 40-day season of Lent leading up to Easter. Francis said: 'We live in an atmosphere polluted by too...

Buckle up, we’re going on a road trip with this one, but I promise if you stick with me it will be worth it…In this article I am going to lay out five non-technical tips for the Linux beginner. These are things I wish someone had told me twenty plus years ago when I started to tinker with my first Linux installation. 1) Ask Questions, But Ask the Right Way I belong to a lot of Linux forums, user groups, and social media groups. There is often a ton of good conversations in these groups about all things pertaining to...

PARIS -- If the UK allows Chinese multinational Huawei to participate in building a new-generation cellular communications network, the CIA is going to take its ball and go home. That's the message Mick Mulvaney, U.S. President Donald Trump's acting chief of staff, delivered in a speech at the Oxford Union last week just before his meeting with British officials. Mulvaney and Trump are concerned that your selfies and your mom's Facebook rants about the neighbor could be laughed at by some military intelligence officer in Beijing via secret backdoors installed in Huawei equipment. Those who don't know any better say...

Elmore County, Alabama — A man is in critical condition after being shot multiple times by the homeowner he tried to rob, according to the Elmore County Sheriff. The suspect has been identified as 39-year old Charles Bowne, who spent time in jail in Indiana for currently unknown offenses. At sometime around 5 on Monday morning, the homeowner woke up hearing noises. He said he didn’t really know what was happening, but grabbed his 9mm handgun. He was then confronted by Bowne in the living room where he said “give it up,” to the homeowner. The homeowner then fired 4...

“As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honour to a fool. As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. The great God that formed all things both rewardeth the fool, and rewardeth transgressors. As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly” (Proverbs 26:8-11).

There’s even an acronym for the way teachers feel about these late winter and early spring months: EDOFMA, the eternal darkness of February, March and April. It’s a time when education seems like an endless slog, with little visible progress. As one blogger puts it, “For the first few weeks back from the holidays in January, things seem OK, but then reality sets in. Hard.” It’s much the same with education reform. But as dedicated teachers know, foundations are being laid even when progress isn’t visible. That’s how improvement often happens; incrementally, through persistence and dedication. What seemed like a...

President Trump said in an early-morning tweet on Wednesday that he will hold a news conference at 6 p.m. to address his administration's response to the coronavirus outbreak. In the post, he continued to blame the media and Democrats for overstating the danger of the disease, even as health experts have warned of its spread. Trump accused MSNBC and CNN of "doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible." The president initially misspelled the name of the virus. He insisted the U.S. is "in great shape" in its handling of the...

With outbreaks raging in Italy, Iran, South Korea and other countries, U.S. authorities now predict coronavirus will strike Americans here, causing "significant disruptions to our lives." The warning came from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official Nancy Messonnier at a Tuesday briefing. If the virus -- now dubbed COVID-19 -- starts to infect large numbers of people inside the U.S., here's what you need to know. Is the virus spreading here now? The only known U.S. cases are travelers to China, their spouses and cruise ship passengers. But people carrying the virus entered the U.S. before the Trump administration...

New social security rule will block people that speak limited or no English from getting benefits through the system’s disability insurance program. The change would remove the “inability to communicate in English” from the list of educational categories that are considered when the Social Security Administration’s administrative law judges determine who qualifies to receive disability insurance through the program. “It is important that we have an up-to-date disability program,” Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul said. “The workforce and work opportunities have changed, and outdated regulations need to be revised to reflect today’s world,” he added. The Hill reported that the...

Study enrolling hospitalized adults with COVID-19 in Nebraska A randomized, controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the investigational antiviral remdesivir in hospitalized adults diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha. The trial regulatory sponsor is the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. This is the first clinical trial in the United States to evaluate an experimental treatment for COVID-19, the respiratory disease first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The first trial participant...

A Feb. 22 ceremony in South Sudan's capital, Juba, brought two enemies face to face. That's one reason the ceremony may prove to be a major political step toward ending the country's terrible six-year-long internal war. Terrible doesn't adequately describe South Sudan's war. The conflict, which still flickers, has killed an estimated 400,000 people, though no one knows precisely. Accurate body counts involving forensic analysis of mass graves require peace. However, 400,000 dead and over 3 million displaced are conscience-shocking numbers. They are big enough to demand attention. The Juba ceremony made senior rebel leader Riek Machar South Sudan's first...

In yet another window into the country’s polarized political environment, in 2017 the Pew Research Center surveyed Americans regarding their views of major civic institutions. While there were divisions in how Republicans and Democrats viewed churches, banks, and labor unions, the largest gap was reserved for “colleges and universities,” with 72 percent of Democrats viewing them positively versus 58 percent of Republicans having the opposite opinion. Many on the left took the results as an illustration of a supposed broader anti-intellectualism on the right. Looking at the survey outcomes, Salon’s Sophia Tesfaye wondered, “Has America hit peak anti-intellectualism?” Citing the...

The "Medicare for All" legislation that Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced in Congress expressly prohibits discrimination based on "gender identity" but not religion. This may not be an accident. A reasonable reading of the bill -- which is neither succinctly nor precisely written -- raises the question of whether it would still be possible for Catholic (and other religious) hospitals to continue operating within its single-payer system. On April 10, 2019, Sanders introduced S. 1129, his "Medicare for All" bill. Title II of this bill enumerates the "comprehensive benefits" it would cover. Item No. 7 is: "Comprehensive reproductive, maternity, and newborn...

South Korean coronavirus cases jumped again Wednesday and the U.S. military confirmed its first case among soldiers based in the Asian country, with his case and many others connected to a southeastern city with an illness cluster. South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 216 of the 284 new cases were in Daegu, where the government has been mobilizing public health tools to contain the spread of the outbreak, and in neighboring towns. The U.S. military said the 23-year-old soldier was in self-quarantine at his off-base residence. He had been based in Camp Carroll in a town near...

According to CNN, Bernie Sanders “has been consistent for 40 years.” Some find this reassuring. Bernie is not a finger-in-the-wind politician who tacks this way or that depending upon what’s popular. On the other hand, if someone has never changed his mind throughout 78 years of life, it suggests ideological rigidity and imperviousness to evidence, not high principle. Why make a fuss about Bernie’s past praise of Communist dictatorships? After all, the Cold War ended three decades ago, and a would-be President Sanders cannot exactly surrender to the Soviet Union. It’s a moral issue. Sanders was not a liberal during...

ACC president: Bernie Sanders’ MI records omit measures of LVEF Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has refused to release further medical information about an MI he suffered last October, leaving much of the public with questions about his heart health. By Anicka Slachta February 25, 2020 Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has refused to release further medical information about an MI he suffered last October, leaving much of the public with questions about his heart health. Now, the president of the American College of Cardiology, Richard Kovacs, is arguing some of those questions could be answered with one simple metric: left ventricular...

The "news" media routinely exhibit a badly disguised loathing for social media. Journalists calling themselves "mainstream" expect social media platforms to bend to their liberal talking points. Any rogue information that doesn't match the liberal narrative must be flagged and demonized as "misinformation." The Washington Post published a 4,100-word attack on Facebook. Tech reporter Craig Timberg trashed Facebook as "a platform that gives politicians license to lie and that remains awash in misinformation, vulnerable to a repeat of many of the problems that marred the 2016 presidential election." Timberg found anonymous sources to summarize Facebook's relationship with Republicans. A former...

Ok, I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I watched the Democrat debate last night. What a damn circus. – I suppose the best thing to say about this one was that at least they didn’t spend ten minutes promising to ban fracking, blot the global landscape with millions of 700 ft. tall windmills, and use Unicorn breath to power their fantasy-based energy plans. But while the panel of pedantic CBS moderators at least spared us from that indignity, every other Democrat fantasy was played out once again for all to see on national television. Here are some of the highlights:...

Democrats appear to be walking the same walk that Republicans walked in 2016. They want something new and completely different. Former Vice President Joe Biden must be in shock that he is taking a far back seat to a 78-year old socialist who recently had a heart attack. He may not even be able to rely on black voters, whom he assumed would be there for him. According to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders are running neck and neck with black voters in the upcoming South Carolina primary, where 60% of Democrat voters are...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bernie Sanders’ Democratic presidential rivals warn that nominating the self-described democratic socialist will ensure President Donald Trump’s re-election, but a growing number of the party’s voters see the senator as their best chance of winning in November. Sanders’ dominating performance in last week’s Nevada caucuses, powered by growing support across age, race and ideology, has set off alarm bells among Democratic Party officials who believe putting the progressive stalwart at the top of the ticket will harm the party’s chances up and down the ballot. Sanders’ electability was a prime topic at Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate...