Free Republic

Editor’s note: LifeSite is here publishing an important text issued today by Bishop Athanasius Schneider commenting on some key questions that have been vexing many faithful Catholics in the midst of the current crisis in the Church under Pope Francis. On the question of the true popein the light of the opinion of the automatic loss of the papal office for heresyand the speculations about the resignation of Benedict XVI The hypothesis of the possibility of a heretical pope derives from the Decree of Gratian (dist. XL, cap. 6, col. 146) from the 12th century. According to the opinion...

"We just could not generate much interest," a researcher said of the difficulty in getting funding to test the vaccine in humans. ===================================================================== HOUSTON — Dr. Peter Hotez says he made the pitch to anyone who would listen. After years of research, his team of scientists in Texas had helped develop a vaccine to protect against a deadly strain of coronavirus. Now they needed money to begin testing it in humans. But this was 2016. More than a decade had passed since the viral disease known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, had spread through China, killing more than...

The Arizona House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill that, if enacted, would bar trans-identified athletes from competing in girls' sports. On Tuesday, the House approved House Bill 2706, also known as the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” in a vote of 31 to 29. Sponsored by 23 Republican legislators, the bill would require any interscholastic and intramural sports overseen by schools to designate boys' and girls' sports on the basis of biological sex. “Athletic teams or sports designated for females, women or girls may not be open to students of the male sex,” reads HB 2706 in part. “If disputed,...

Question: Should our elected political leaders pray, and call for the nation to pray, or is that a violation of “separation of church and state?” This seemingly endless debate in modern America has erupted once again as Vice President Mike Pence, in his capacity as leader of the federal government’s Coronavirus Task Force, called the nation to pray for wisdom for the task force and for the task force to be enabled to protect the U.S. from grievous harm from a potential pandemic. At first I had decided to just ignore the snickering and mockery with which he was immediately...

The site Fivethirtyeight, which correctly predicted on Monday night Biden's sweep and Bernie's collapse on Super Tuesday, including the surprise win in Texas, has revised the Democratic Nomination forecast. Biden: 87.5% No nominee (brokered convention): 10% Bernie: 2.5%

A Christian apologist laid out three ways Christians can judge whether an idea is “biblical or bogus” in a speech that was part of a student-centered apologetics event in Allen, Texas.Alan Shlemon, author and speaker with the apologetics group Stand to Reason, gave remarks at the reTHINK Apologetics Student Conference, held last week at Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen. During his talk last Friday, Shlemon laid out three steps that help guard against false religious ideas.1) The first step is to “seek to study scripture,” which involved reading the Bible. Shlemon told students that when they “come across an idea...

In November 2019, as the Democratic presidential candidates prepared for the primaries that had been taking place unofficially for more than a year and that would begin in earnest in February, FiveThirtyEight’s Clare Malone profiled Pete Buttigieg. In the process, Malone spoke with two women at a Buttigieg event in New Hampshire. One liked Joe Biden, but felt he was a bit too old for the presidency. The other liked Buttigieg, without qualification: “I feel he’s well positioned,” she explained. “The country is ready for a more gentle approach.”

A firestorm has erupted over remarks about the coronavirus made by Donald Trump last night on "Hannity." He claims he has a "hunch" that the official death rate of 3.4 percent released by the WHO earlier this week is "false."As usual, much of the coverage exaggerates the stupidity of Trump's remarks. The president's off-the-cuff thoughts about the coronavirus have been twisted to be shown in the worst possible light. What's new?In fact, Trump should keep his mouth shut and let others brief the public about the disease. His mixed-up facts, inexact statements, and ignorance could cause confusion -- exactly...

New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft, was arrested Thursday night after attempting to board a flight at LaGuardia Airport with a gun, according to The Athletic’s Connor Hughes. At issue is Williams’ permit for the gun, which was reportedly valid for Alabama. Williams was reportedly arrested for criminal possession of a weapon by New York’s Port Authority Police Department.

According to MSNBC’s Brian Williams and the New York Times’s Mara Gay, 500 million / 327 million = 1 million https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_i0QrK2814

This term, as the Supreme Court wades into the troubled waters of perhaps the most controversial of social issues, abortion, a look back at recent history may provide guidance and a warning to leave policy to the policymaking branches of government. Before the Supreme Court of the United States’ ruling in Obergefell v Hodges attempted to summarily end the cultural debate on the issue of same sex marriage, eleven states had already redefined marriage to include same sex couples. The remaining 39 states’ resistance ranged from voter-rejected propositions to include same sex relationships in their state's marriage law(s) to state constitutional...

NEW YORK — A 15-year-old girl was brutally beaten by a group of people Thursday afternoon on a Brooklyn sidewalk, video shows. The suspects chased the victim, then pummelled her, punching and kicking her multiple times around 4 p.m., WCBS reported. Video shows the victim being beaten as more people run up and participate in the assault.

The Bots actually respond like a Live Adversary - For the gun enthusiasts that want more out of just shooting at paper targets or moving targets. How about moving robot targets that moves autonomously? Check out Robotic Human-Type Targets from Australia’s Marathon Targets, they’re basically dummy mannequins on wheels with a computer embedded. The bots can be programmed to various scenario whether the bots is hit or not. The idea is to deploy human-looking dummies that can “look, move, and behave like people,” with a degree of networked autonomy. For example, when one bot goes down in a hail of...

After a year of mostly mediocre job-creation numbers, the US economy has regained its 2017 feel over the last four months. Today’s job report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the US added 273,000 jobs in February, the third time in the last four months that job creation has exceeded 250K. The unemployment mark went back to 3.5% as labor-force numbers settled back down after a notable shift last month: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 273,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 3.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today....

MSNBC "Eleventh Hour" with Brian Williams reports: "Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. Population, 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and have had lunch money left over."

How to Install The AR-15 Barrel and Gas SystemBuilding an AR-15 upper piece by piece? Upgrading your barrel? Maybe you're swapping 5.56 or .223 for 300 Blackout like we are today. This guide illustrates how to install the AR-15 barrel and gas system. Virtually all AR-15 barrels ship with the extension already threaded and torqued. The headspace must be perfect, the index pin must align with the gas port perfectly, and torque requirements are high, usually well over 100 ft-lbs. We don't recommend trying to install the extension onto the barrel yourself. We're putting together a 300 Blackout pistol upper...

When airlines are cutting back on flights, when cruise lines are canceling cruises, when shipyard traffic drops significantly, when factories in China are down for a month or more, all in response to or in anticipation of coronavirus ripple effects -- there is going to be an economic downturn in the coming months. That’s pretty much a ‘duh’; how could there not be a downturn when all these factors are heading south at the same time? More specifically, there will be layoffs in affected industries, and the Fed acting to lower interest rates isn’t going to change that fact. The...

On Thursday night, President Trump participated in a Fox News town hall in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the city that Joe Biden frequently boasts about as his hometown. Pennsylvania, of course, was one of the pivotal states that, unexpectedly, gave the majority of its votes to Trump in the 2016 election. During the town hall, one of the people who got the microphone was David Hines, the Director of Operations for the City of Pittston. Martha MacCallum described Hines as a “lifelong Democrat who crossed over and voted for Trump in 2016.” David asked a substantive question about controlling the EPA’s excessive...

The Trump administration plans to begin taking DNA samples from migrants crossing the border or held in detention for use in a federal criminal database, a significant expansion of immigration laws that is certain to raise privacy concerns. The new rule, posted by the Justice Department on Friday and set to take effect in April, will require immigration officers to collect cheek swabs from what could amount to hundreds of thousands of unauthorized immigrants taken into federal custody each year, including migrants at the border and people asking for asylum. The move, which is sure to face court challenges, injects...

The Supreme Court could soon overturn the temporary protections for people who came to the country illegally as children. President Donald Trump will consider protecting Dreamers who came to the country illegally as children as part of a larger immigration deal later this year, thrusting the contentious issue into the heart of election season, according to five people familiar with the situation. Trump told Republican senators at the White House Thursday that he will punt on a proposal until after an upcoming Supreme Court ruling that could overturn the temporary protections for Dreamers the Obama administration implemented, known as the...