Free Republic

The Jesuit priest who officiated then-President-elect Joe Biden’s inaugural Mass — and has been a family friend for almost 15 years — is under investigation for unspecified allegations and is now on leave from his position as president of Santa Clara University in California, according to the college. The Rev. Kevin O’Brien allegedly “exhibited behaviors in adult settings, consisting primarily of conversations, which may be inconsistent with established Jesuit protocols and boundaries,” according to a statement by John Sobrato, chairman of the college’s board of trustees. Sobrato’s statement did not specify the allegations against O’Brien but said the trustees “support...

The Catholic priest who conducted Joe Biden's inauguration mass is under investigation over allegations of misconduct in an 'adult setting.' Jesuit priest Father Kevin O'Brien is facing claims he "exhibited behaviors in adult settings, consisting primarily of conversations, which may be inconsistent with established Jesuit protocols and boundaries," the university said.

Many Sacramento Asian-operated business owners are taking measures to protect themselves as reported attacks against the AAPI community continue to rise. "It makes me feel angry," said Jamie Cardenas, who runs Magpie Alchemy in downtown Sacramento. "I already never felt safe. Now I feel like a target."

Leading Vatican cardinal hints at way to avoid ban on same-sex blessingsCardinal Kevin Farrell, head of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, pointed to the difference in sacramental nature of various unions, and hinted at Church favor towards same-sex civil unions.VATICAN CITY, March 19, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, has signaled a way around the recent Vatican document banning the blessing of same-sex unions. He pointed to the difference in sacramental nature of various unions, and hinted at Church favor towards same-sex civil unions.Farrell made...

This provision Democrats specifically wrote into the American Rescue Plan pushes a blurred vision of ‘social equity’ by providing relief for farmers based on the color of their skin. Last week, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law. The bill, comprised of $1.9 trillion in the name of “COVID relief,” received no support from Republicans in the House or Senate, and it’s not hard to see why. The legislation includes carveouts for dozens of leftist priorities, including a bridge in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s New York and a tunnel in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Silicon...

Imagine not a white, but a green Arctic, with woody shrubs as far north as the Canadian coast of the Arctic Ocean. This is what the northernmost region of North America looked like about 125,000 years ago, during the last interglacial period, finds new research from CU Boulder.

An Indianapolis man was formally charged with murder on Thursday in the killings of three adults and a young girl he allegedly shot to death after he and a former girlfriend got into a fight because he wanted a share of her $1,400 federal COVID-19 relief money.

So, you believe in science, eh? Excellent, so do I. At the core of this science-thinking is the acceptance of the fact that there is reality. Thus, there are a finite number of things which are true and an infinite number of things which aren’t -- and our beliefs, opinions, and desires have no impact on this. All “science-folks” accept these as rather self-evident truths -- yet many of these same people also profess to holding liberal views -- even though modern progressivism is premised on many things which simple aren’t true -- which contradict reality. This isn’t a political...

The Ulysses Group says it has real-time access to 15 billion cars worldwide.. They monitor cars through GPS and sensors on equipment such as airbags.. The data may be from car makers and through manufacturers of individual parts.. The Ulysses Group has strong ties to the U.S. military and promotes its capability.. .... A South Carolina-based surveillance firm that has sold services to the U.S. military is promoting its ability to provide real-time location information about 15 billion cars every month. The company, called The Ulysses Group, says it can monitor vehicles in every country in the world, except North...

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin claimed readiness for negotiations with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden. He offered to hold an online conversation; the politician said so in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel, RBC reports. "I would rather not put things off. I'd like to spend a weekend in the boreal forest, to have some rest. Otherwise, we could [negotiate] tomorrow (Friday, March 19, - 112 International) or on Monday. We're ready at any time that is suitable for the American side", Putin said. According to the Russian leader, such dialogue "would be interesting for the people...

• In the sequel to our Wintel Wars article, we offer the ultimate deep dive into the tectonic shifts happening in the tech industry, giving unparalleled context to Karp's cryptic musings. • We lay out how Google and Facebook gradually created privatized versions of secretive DARPA programs, and why Palantir and Apple are leading a push for privacy as industry tensions ignite. • We discuss how Palantir threatens the current paradigm with software for a decentralized alternative. Europe's GAIA-X offers significant upside potential as Palantir seeks a new European hub in Switzerland. • While the last decade focused on the...

Have you ever thought to yourself, "Gosh, I sure wish I could feel extremely small and awed right now"? Do we ever have the solution for you! After over a decade of painstaking work, Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsavainio has released an absolutely jaw-dropping 1.7-gigapixel mosaic of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Metsavainio has been publishing his astrophotography online since 2007, but his work on the mosaic started in 2009, with photographing various nebulae around the Milky Way as independent compositions. The total exposure time between 2009 and 2021 is around 1,250 hours. (To load the full image in...

A scientist who led the Chinese World Health Organization team in investigating the origins of the coronavirus said the WHO will shelve the theory that the pandemic originated in a Wuhan lab when the United Nations health agency issues a report in the coming weeks.

It's a misrepresentation of Anderson's views, which is a disservice not only to him but to Boorstein's readers, who deserve accurate information.Michelle Boorstein made a simple mistake. Boorstein, a religion reporter for the Jeff Bezos-backed Washington Post, tweeted, “Some religious objectors to the Equality Act say the issue isn’t exemptions — it’s that LGBT equality is akin to ‘what gave us the Holocaust,’ a concept that humans are trying to overrule God.” She was partially quoting from a lecture Ryan Anderson gave in 2016. Boorstein’s attempt to paraphrase Anderson conveyed a verifiably false representation of his position on the legislation,...

The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is home to Harvard University, has officially recognized polyamory, making it the second city in the state to do so. Last week, the Cambridge City Council approved an ordinance amending the city’s existing statute so that domestic partnerships are not limited to only two people. The city of Sommerville, Massachusetts, the community just north of Cambridge, implemented a similar change last summer. A domestic partnership in the city that is home to Harvard University is now defined as “the entity formed by two or more persons” who are not related and "consider themselves to...

Star formation in the Orion Complex. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Megeath, University of Toledo, Ohio) What we thought may have been an off-switch for star formation doesn't appear to work that way after all. New observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show the powerful astrophysical jets and stellar winds that flow from baby stars do not have the expected effect of quenching the stellar growth process. This poses quite a significant conundrum for our models of star formation. The birth of a star is quite a long process on human timescales. It's not as if we can sit and watch a baby star...

We didn't have high hopes in the Biden administration's ability to deal with China, but what we saw yesterday is being characterized by even friendly leftist and international news outlets as a disaster. This seems to be more than just bad diplomacy. It seems very likely intentional. ======================================================================== The administration’s opening volley into diplomacy with China was an international scandal that demonstrated our worst fears being realized. Instead of opening with mutual respect in public before straight-talk diplomacy behind closed doors, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan went after China hard only to be...

A number of White House staffers were asked to resign or demoted for past marijuana use — regardless of whether those employees had been in one of the 14 states where the drug is legal, according to a report.The Biden administration had required workers to disclose past marijuana use on a background check form, but told some new hires that it would “overlook” those who answered yes, the Daily Beast reported.Despite this, White House director of management and administration Anne Filipic reportedly led a series of one-on-one calls with staffers this month, asking those who admitted to past marijuana use...

Does President Joe Biden really want the United States to cede its hard-won energy independence and leadership position in the world? Because that is precisely what will happen if the president tries to sweep away the inexpensive, reliable forms of energy that have been powering America for decades. To understand the disaster that awaits the nation if Biden makes good on his pledge to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar power, we need only look to California and Texas, two states that have already tried to do exactly that. Power outages are now commonplace in California. Its troubles are...

After taking control of the country in a military coup provoked by allegations of voter fraud earlier this year, the Myanmar military government has seized several bank accounts belonging or affiliated with George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, and has announced arrest warrants for 11 members of the organization in the country “on suspicion of giving financial support to the civil disobedience movement against the military junta.” The government will also take legal action against the Open Society Foundations, which they allege violated “restrictions on the activities of such organizations” and did not receive approval from Myanmar’s authorities for the deposit...