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In a new essay published Thursday, Capt. Kristen Griest, the first U.S. Army infantry officer, said lowering Army fitness standards could hurt the Army’s combat readiness and reduces the trust female soldiers can expect from their fellow soldiers. In her essay for West Point’s Modern War Institute, Griest, who also became the first of three women to earn the Army Ranger Tab, said creating a separate fitness standard for women would reduce the overall effectiveness of Army combat units. Referring to a proposed standard for women to run a two-mile test in under 21 minutes, Griest said “the presence of...

Just to be clear, I'm not a germaphobe anymore. But I was raised to be one. I was in ICU as an infant and sick a lot as a child so it made some sense back then. Growing up as the only kid in the lunchroom with a HandiWipe in her lunchbag, I knew about germs. It became like my super power. I used to brag, "I can follow a germ from here to the Great Wall of China," a flippant cliché that took on ironic meaning when the China Virus hit our shores. Maybe it's this "super power" that...

Country music is at an impasse. The genre’s two biggest stars — who also happen to be two of the nation’s best-selling artists —couldn’t be more different: one, an ebullient gay Black man; the other, a loutish-behaving, drunk white bigot. Lil Nas X has upward of 20 million singles sold of his genre-blending song “Old Town Road,” while Morgan Wallen’s double album, Dangerous, is preparing to reach two consecutive months atop Billboard’s Hot 200 chart. This comes after Wallen uttered the word “ni**er” out loud while being filmed on the first day of 2021’s Black History Month. Despite the 27-year...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A new executive order handed down from President Joe Biden will allow service members to select camouflage that reflects their chosen gender identity. Soldiers, Marines, and sailors deployed to the front lines will be given the choice of which kind of uniform to wear. Options range from transgender flag colors and rainbow colors to lesser-known gender identity flags, such as tater-tots and dragonkin. You can even choose a furry suit, if you so desire. "Rather than being stuck with patriarchal desert, forest, or urban camouflage, U.S. service members can now select camouflage that matches the flag of their chosen...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he requested a meeting with the head of the U.S. Marine Corps after one of its units tweeted statements insulting Tucker Carlson, along with unusually bellicose comments about the Fox News host.

During a White House briefing early last month, the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, recommended to President Trump that he shut down a four-year-old effort to arm and train Syrian rebels. The president swiftly ended the program. The rebel army was by then a shell, hollowed out by more than a year of bombing by Russian planes and confined to ever-shrinking patches of Syria that government troops had not reconquered. Critics in Congress had complained for years about the costs — more than $1 billion over the life of the program — and reports that some of the C.I.A.-supplied weapons had...

FBI Uses SWAT Tactical Team, Armored Vehicles and Armed Troops to Arrest Man Who Attended January 6 Capitol Hill Protest Just as the FBI used a heavily armed tactical SWAT team to arrest Roger Stone, the FBI deployed the same tactics in Naples, Florida to arrest a man who attended the January 6th DC protest march. Military tactics, armored vehicles, automatic rifles and a no-knock raid. Essentially the FBI continues to send a message to the larger electorate. They use these aggressive tactics against people based on their politics. There are no honorable “rank and file” in the modern FBI;...

Tim Burgess has teamed up with Flare Audio to launch a set of custom earphones for his Twitter Listening Parties. The project will help raise money for UK grassroots music venues. The announcement coincides with Burgess’ appointment as patron of Music Venue Trust (MVT), which has helped raised millions for UK grassroots music venues struggling during the pandemic. The Charlatans frontman and Flare have announced that £5 from every set of the earphones sold via Flare’s website will be donated to the Music Venue Trust. Tim Burgess’ Twitter Listening Parties have emerged as one of lockdown’s most meaningful shared experiences...

The Archbishop Emeritus of Minsk celebrates the feast of St. Casimir in a church destroyed during the Soviet era and rebuilt last year.Moscow (AsiaNews) - The world needs "sages and saints", not "reformers" or "revolutionaries" says Msgr. Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, celebrating the consecration Mass of the new church of St. Casimir in Stolbtsy, in the province of Minsk on 7 March. It is one of the first public gestures of the Archbishop Emeritus of Minsk, who had spent months in exile and then retired on January 3, after difficult negotiations with the Belarusian authorities. Quoting the French theologian Marie-Dominique Chenu, he...

It follows an ominous warning last week by the commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific that China may launch a military operation against Taiwan "in the next six years". This would likely lead to military reprisals from the US Navy and allies including Britain, which is sending its new carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, to lead a multinational strike force to the Far East in May. China commands the world's largest military, with 2.18 million soldiers, sailors and aviators on active duty. And after a recent 6.8 percent rise it will command a £200billion military budget this year. But it...

Angel Harrelson from Florida contacted The Gateway Pundit last week. Angel’s husband, Retired Army Sgt. Kenneth Harrelson, was arrested last week and is currently being held in jail for attending the January 6th protests in Washington DC. The feds may move him to Washington DC this coming week for trial. Kenneth is a retired Army Sergeant and US veteran. He suffers from serious physical maladies including high blood pressure. The US government locked down the family bank account following the arrest. Angel lost her job. Now the family does not know how they are going to make it. Here is...

* Novavax's vaccine was 89.7% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in a late-stage trial. * Novavax said the vaccine was 86.3% effective against B.1.1.7, the variant first found in the UK. * US biotech Novavax's COVID-19 shot has not yet been approved by regulators. Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine was 89.7% effective at preventing COVID-19 with symptoms in a trial of more than 15,000 people, the US biotech announced Thursday. The shot held up against the highly contagious coronavirus variant circulating in the UK and the US, called B.1.1.7, Novavax said. The vaccine worked 86.3% of the time against this particular variant,...

One year after the first ecclesial lockdown came into effect in the Netherlands, “ordinary parish life is partly falling away” and the crisis is accelerating the already existing problem of secularization. This is the conclusion of a study by the Dutch Catholic weekly Katholiek Nieuwsblad, based on interviews with 21 priests from across the 7 Dutch dioceses. It is not just that the number of regular churchgoers is steadily declining: Several priests point out that it’s mainly those who already had a weak bond with the Church who stop attending at all, and the majority of priests know that the...

Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA) proposed stripping J. Edgar Hoover's name from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) headquarters building in Washington, D.C,, and called him a "maligned character" with a history of racism, homophobia and misogyny. On Saturday, Connolly appeared in a video message on MSNBC's The Cross Connection advocating for the change after he introduced legislation to remove the former FBI director's name on February 25...

Rome Newsroom, Mar 10, 2021 / 04:30 am MT (CNA).- Cardinal Robert Sarah on Wednesday rejected claims that he and Pope Francis are enemies, in his first interview since stepping down from his Vatican post. In an interview with an Italian newspaper published March 10, the Guinean cardinal said he has “tried to be a loyal, obedient, and humble servant of the truth of the Gospel.” “Even though some journalists continually repeat the same nonsense,” he told Il Foglio, “I have never opposed the pope.” An English translation of the cardinal’s interview was published by the National Catholic Register March...

A physical therapist died at her home in January just two days after she received a COVID-19 vaccine. Haley Link Brinkmeyer, 28, died January 21 after she received an mRNA shot believed to be either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, according to the COVID Blog. The blog, which is operated by COVID Legal USA, aims to publish articles that minimize the effectiveness of masks and vaccines amid the pandemic and helps people file litigation against companies enforcing mandatory vaccine policies. Brinkmeyer's death shocked her family, her mother Shauna O'Neill Link told the blog. In what appears to be a Facebook...

President Joe Biden declined the opportunity to call for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, suggesting he would wait until the end of the investigation before giving his verdict. When the president was asked by a reporter if he believed Cuomo should resign, he replied, “I think the investigation is underway and we should see what it brings us.” Biden spoke briefly about the scandals as he returned to the White House on Sunday after spending the weekend at his home in Delaware. Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris refused for weeks to publicly weigh in on the scandals...

In Scardina v. Masterpiece Cakeshop, Inc.,(CO Dist. Ct., March 4, 2021), a Colorado state trial court dismissed Colorado Consumer Protection Act claims against a bakery that has been the subject of extensive litigation over its refusal to design wedding cakes for same-sex weddings. In the current case, plaintiffs claimed that the bakery engaged in misleading advertising indicating that they would sell birthday cakes to LGBT individuals. The court dismissed the claim because "the most salient materials Plaintiff allegedly relied on are not advertisements," but were news articles and op-eds. However the court refused to dismiss plaintiff's Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act claim...

When senior living facilities started restricting visitations due to the coronavirus pandemic, Marvin and Rosie Hollingshead were unable to see each other. The pair has been together for 67 years after meeting in high school. They went on to have three children, 12 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. Rosie Hollingshead started living at Valley View Village, a senior living community in early 2020. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Marving Hollingshead or their children were not allowed to go inside the facility. Rosie and Marvin Hollingshead would meet outside a window twice a week while talking on the phone to be able to...

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