Free Republic

( Waters opening first 8 minutes of this video is a good listen)

The NBA put its best and shiniest presents under the tree of the American television viewer on Christmas Day and America said, no thanks. The NBA, which uses Christmas Day to showcase their best games and talent to jumpstart their season, had their gifts returned by viewers who were less than enthused. According to DEADLINE Hollywood: The National Basketball Association’s day-long celebration of sports led the demos, scoring a 1.1 and 3.74 million total audience for its hours-long programming for ABC and ESPN. That’s the good news – the bad news is that’s down massively from past performances. In a...

Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger is firing back after Donald Trump's latest unfounded claims of election fraud. Trump sent a flurry of tweets Saturday morning, including one which read: 'The 'Justice' Department and the FBI have done nothing about the 2020 Presidential Election Voter Fraud, the biggest SCAM in our nation's history, despite overwhelming evidence. They should be ashamed. History will remember. Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January 6th.' The tweet was labeled by Twitter as a disputed claim.

Don’t do it AOC! That’s the warning New York’s Democratic party boss has for the sophomore Congresswoman, who is rumored to be mulling a primary challenge to US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. “I think it would be a primary driven by ambition more than by need,” Jay Jacobs told The Post. “Chuck Schumer has been a progressive force in the state for decades,” added the chairman of the state Democratic committee. “She has a constituency that admires her and supports her, and they’re in her community, and I think it would be a loss for them if she were...

Power struggle at the head of the ruling regime in Iran Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, understanding the structure of the ruling system in Iran and the decision-making mechanism, at times, has sometimes been challenging and difficult to understand and analyze. Although the "Vali-Faghih or the Supreme Leader" is at the top of the system's pyramid of power, the president holds the executive power. Still, the order of decision-making institutions in Iran is not clear, and this has long led to a dispute over authority between leaders of the regime who are at the center of its influence and...

Three Nigerian Christians were murdered, and a woman abducted, during a Fulani militant attack on a community in Plateau State on 1 December. Dalyop Davou, 75, who worked as a private security guard, was shot and fatally wounded by the militants in their assault on the Gura Pana community, in Kaduna Vom, about 12 miles south-west of Jos, the state capital. Responding to Dalyop’s cries, Joseph Swanta, a 20-year-old church choir member, left his home to help when he heard a lull in the gunfire, but was also shot dead. Joseph’s mother, Ruth, warned her son not to venture out...

(Video) [snip]On election night, on Nov. 3, an assortment of anomalies were observed, followed by a large number of specific allegations of election fraud. As the integrity of the election continued to be questioned and evidence continued to emerge, most mainstream media stuck to a one-sided narrative by calling the (2020 election) most secure in American history, and sought to silence opposing voices.The results of the 2020 election will not only decide the future of the United States, but also determine the future of the world.Following election night, The Epoch Times’ investigative team quickly went to work. In an attempt...

A Christian maid was shot dead, reportedly by her Muslim suitor, on 30 November after refusing to convert to Islam in order to marry him. Sonia Bibi, 24, was shot in the head in a street in Rawalpindi, Punjab province, and died on her way to hospital. Her father, Allah Rakha Masih, a sanitary worker, said his daughter was murdered for refusing the marriage proposal of her Muslim suitor, Shehzad, who had been following her for the past five months along with his friend, Faizan. After being refused, Shehzad threatened to kill Sonia, said her father. It is unusual for...

The Muslim man who allegedly kidnapped Pakistani Christian girl Arzoo Raja, before forcing her into marriage, is to face a charge of rape, a magistrate ruled on 9 December. The court also ordered the police to reinvestigate the legality of the forced conversion to Islam of Arzoo, who was 13 when she was allegedly snatched from her family home in Karachi’s Railway Colony on 13 October. Cases were registered by the judge against Arzoo’s “husband”, Azhar Ali, as well as against cleric Qazi Abdul Rasool Naqshbandi, the justice of peace, and facilitators and witnesses involved in the marriage under section...

Eleven Armenian prisoners of war have been killed by their Azerbaijani captors, and more than 70 Armenian soldiers taken captive following Azerbaijan’s violation of the ceasefire which had halted the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh on 10 November. Footage emerged on 15 December showing the shooting of the eleven prisoners. Azerbaijani forces have also taken control of four Armenian villages in addition to territory gained during the fighting which took place from September to November this year. These incidents come amidst allegations of Azerbaijani war crimes committed during that fighting, including the beheading of two elderly men and an attack on Ghazanchetsots...

“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished” (Proverbs 27:12).

Boko Haram jihadists have seized around 40 loggers and killed three others in northeast Nigeria near the border with Cameroon, militia sources and residents told AFP on Saturday. The hostages were rounded up by the insurgents on Thursday in Wulgo forest near the town of Gamboru where they went to collect firewood, the sources said. The jihadists have increasingly targeted loggers and farmers in the northeast, accusing them of passing information to the military and local militias. "A group of more than 40 loggers left Shehuri on the outskirts of Gamboru on Thursday and never returned by evening as usual,"...

The 12 days themselves are simply the time between the two major Christmas feasts: the Nativity of the Lord on December 25 and Epiphany on January 6. Since Christmas was the major “birth” feast in the ancient Western churches and Epiphany was the biggie for the Eastern churches, the days between them inevitably gained significance. The exact origins of particular observances and festivals, though, are a little harder to nail down. Like many Christian festivals, the roots of the Christmas season can be found in pre-Christian religions and folk customs. The date of Christmas, for example, is likely connected to...

December 27 2020 The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph Sagrada Familia Church, Barcelona, Spain from visitBarcelona - http://barcelonasights.blogspot.com/2011/01/visit-la-sagrada-familia-for-free.html Lectionary 17Reading 1 SIR 3:2-6, 12-14 God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons. Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and preserves himself from them. When he prays, he is heard; he stores up riches who reveres his mother. Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children, and, when he prays, is heard. Whoever reveres his father will live a long life; he who obeys his father brings comfort to...

Critics fear Trump could pressure William Barr’s successor for big favors William Barr’s abrupt move to leave his post as attorney general this week has spurred fears among Department of Justice veterans that Donald Trump will put new pressures on Barr’s successor to do him big and potentially risky political and legal favors. Former justice department officials say they are worried Trump will lean on Barr’s less experienced successor, the acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, to push policies which Trump has suggested he backs, including naming special counsels to investigate President-elect Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and using the DoJ...

LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – Muslims who employed two young Christian women as live-in house cleaners in Lahore, Pakistan have forcibly converted them to Islam and are not permitting Christian relatives to see them, sources said. Nasreen Bibi, a Christian aunt of 18-year-old Maham Manzoor and 20-year-old Anum Manzoor, told Morning Star News that the separate employers of each of the sisters forced them to convert to Islam and are holding them against their will, and that police and courts have allowed it. “Both Anum and Maham have been forcibly converted to turn them into slaves, and the police...

A 28-year-old Muslim man by the name of Qasim Khan has been receiving death threats from his own community members after he willingly left Islam and embraced Hinduism. While talking to the media, he said, “My name was Qasim and after I converted people from Muslim community are threatening to kill me & my family. I need police protection.” Aligarh Superintendent of Police (Crime) Arvind Kumar informed that a case has been registered based on his complaint. He added that Qasim is being threatened by some people and that security has been deployed outside his house in Aligarh. As per...

The Kremlin's security service says it thwarted a plot to carry out an attack in the country's southern republic of Dagestan. The FSB found "weapons, a large amount of ammunition and an explosive device." Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said Saturday it had prevented an attack by a terrorist group with links to the Islamic State (IS) armed group. The FSB said it had arrested four people who were set to carry out the offensive in the troubled southern republic of Dagestan. "Members of the group planned to detonate an explosive close to an administrative building belonging to security services,...

CHICAGO -- A man was shot and killed by an employee while trying to commit a robbery at a store Saturday on the West Side, police said. He walked in to a cell phone store about 6:50 p.m. in the 3200-block of West Chicago Avenue, pulled out a gun and demanded property, according to Chicago police. A store employee, a 29-year-old man, pulled out his own gun and fired shots at the robber, striking him in the chest, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The 29-year-old has a valid concealed-carry license, police said....

Former US treasury secretary Larry Summers told Bloomberg on Friday that $2,000 stimulus checks for Americans would be a "pretty serious mistake." Summers, who was reportedly an adviser to President-elect Joe Biden's campaign, said boosting consumer spending was the wrong route to economic recovery. The checks could overheat the US economy, he told Bloomberg.