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Soprano Diana Damrau sings 'Der Hölle Rache', the famous Queen of the Night aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute, with Dorothea Röschmann as Pamina. Mozart wrote Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) for a suburban theatre in Vienna, the Theater auf der Wieden. He drew on the magical spectacle and earthy comedy of popular Viennese theatre. As well as being a comedy, The Magic Flute is an expression of Mozart’s profound spiritual beliefs: Enlightenment concerns with the search for wisdom and virtue are at the heart of this enchanting tale. The Magic Flute was an instant success with audiences and Mozart’s...

A Dewitt police officer is on paid administrative leave following an altercation at a Walmart in East Syracuse. A controversial social media post shows the officer punching a woman in the face on July 4th in the store on Basile Road. Town of Dewitt officer, Rory Spain, whose been on the force three years, is on leave until an internal investigation is complete. You can watch the viral video with a slow-motion below:

In this morning’s mail I received a fund raising request from Ted Cruz stating that he has officially introduced legislation to add a Term Limits Amendment to the Constitution. Now, I’ve been preaching term limits for about thirty years (see my tagline), so it definitely got my attention. BUT...this mailing is the first I’ve heard about the proposal. Have any other FReepers seen it reported?

The grisly killing of a Los Angeles rapper was captured live on Instagram after the hip-hop artist and alleged gang member began streaming moments before his death. According to reports, 21-year-old Zerail Dijon Rivera, who goes by the name ‘Indian Red Boy’, was sitting in his car with a friend in Hawthorne, a city in Los Angeles County, California, when gunshots began to ring out. Rivera, who was livestreaming at the time, was struck in the face, according to local media reports. In the video, the young rapper reportedly mumbles “get help” before slumping over. Those who saw the horrific...

A seven-point plan of how to reinstate Donald Trump as president ‘in days, not years’ allegedly circulated at the CPAC in Dallas this weekend. The so-called ‘Trump Card’ details that the former president’s best chances of retaking his seat in the Oval Office before the 2024 election is by getting him placed in the House Speakership post and ultimately leading Congress in impeaching and removing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris from office. Here’s the card: The Patriots SOAR card prompts readers to visit a 13-page document online, where a letter from Robert J. Antonellis (pictured below) details...

After a year of lockdown, museums, libraries and bookstores across America are reopening. This cultural reawakening’s beginning coincided with both the Juneteenth holiday and the one-year anniversary of the one of the largest protests in American history against racial injustice. As bookstores reopen, many are organizing displays of children's books that celebrate Black history. What you won’t find in even the biggest collections of books is the story of the dark-skinned early people who launched human civilization.

On the fifth anniversary of the Ark Encounter, which features a 510-foot-long wooden Noah’s ark, founder Ken Ham has announced the expansion of the Bible-themed attraction in Kentucky by building a Tower of Babel attraction on the park’s grounds. “Next year, we will start fundraising for a Tower of Babel attraction that we hope to open in three or four years, where among other things we will help people understand what genetics research and the Bible say about the origin of all the people groups around the world,” Ham, the CEO and founder of the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum,...

You crazy white supremacist conspiracy wackadoo! How dare you suggest President Pee-pants and the Democrats cheated in the 2020 election? Democracy ruled the day and the people have spoken. #TinFoilHatWe’ve heard it all, again and again. “There is no evidence of election fraud.” Actually there is evidence. Enough evidence to spark audits across the country. Just because Rachel Maddow won’t talk about evidence doesn’t mean it isn’t real.OpticsOptics are not evidence but it can help us sniff, sniff, sniff in the right direction. Where there is smoke, there is usually fire. Let’s look at some of the peculiar things we...

Thrill-seeking billionaire Richard Branson has reached space aboard his own winged rocket ship in his boldest adventure yet. The feat vaults the nearly 71-year-old Branson past fellow billionaire and rival Jeff Bezos, who is planning to fly to space in a craft of his own nine days from now. With about 500 people watching, including Branson’s wife, children and grandchildren, a twin-fuselage aircraft with his space plane attached underneath took off in the first stage of the flight. Aboard were Branson and five crewmates from his Virgin Galactic space-tourism company.

Facebook‘s New Extremism Warning!

Appearing on Tiffany Cross's MSNBC show today to discuss the problem of portions of the population who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid, Dr. Chris Pernell decried "people unfortunately who have become susceptible to the conspiracy theories." But ironically, Pernell floated a paranoid conspiracy theory of her own: that anti-vaxxers are white supremacists who are targeting communities of color. She seemed to be saying that the white supremacists are encouraging POC to refuse vaccination so that they'll contract the potentially fatal disease. Now that's paranoid.Said Pernell: "I don’t have any tolerance for the anti-vaxxer movement. And I don’t have any...

.....The Michigan Senate Oversight Committee might be more properly referred to as the "Sightless" Committee. What did they fail to see or address? Let's examine just three areas. In Antrim County, they dismissed the need for a full forensic audit and noted that a risk-limited audit had already been completed that had demonstrated no widespread irregularities or fraud. Were they aware that Professor Phillip Stark, who created the risk-limited audit as the gold standard for audits, resigned from Verified Voting because of concerns that this type of audit was inadequate in the evaluation of an election? A risk-limited audit can...

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Mark 6:7-13 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus sends the Twelve on their mission to announce the nearness of the kingdom. I want to say a few things about our embracing our mission and being equipped for it. What do you need for your mission? You need a keen sense of God as the absolute center of your life. In a word, you require the spiritual gifts of piety and fear of the Lord. I realize that these terms can sound fussy and puritanical, but they are actually naming something strong and essential. You need fear...

Twitter has long influenced the national conversation and media and entertainment types have embraced the social media platform as a way to keep a finger on the pulse of America, but OutKick founder and radio host Clay Travis claims that model failed ESPN and hit back at recent comments from former ESPN personality Jemele Hill. Travis appeared on Fox News host Brian Kilmeade’s radio show Saturday to address comments made by Hill on the podcast Le Batard And Friends, for a segment called “An Honest Conversation About ESPN, Rachel Nichols & Maria Taylor.”

Joshua Jered posted the video with the caption: "Running over a nonviolent protester should be illegal. Law statement: ”the driver must be ’exercising due care,’ and the person in the roadway must be there to protest and be purposefully blocking the vehicles." The jury found the woman, Jennifer Watson, not guilty of assault, but did give her a misdemeanor reckless driving charge, as Fox News reported: Watson’s defense team argued she was fearful during the May 2020 protest in Denver, saying, "she was surrounded by people who began kicking and hitting her car and taunting and yelling at her."

The family of slain Israeli terror victim Yehuda Guetta is slamming President Joe Biden after the U.S. criticized Israel last week for demolishing the mansion of terrorist Muntassir Shalabi, a Palestinian terrorist who also holds U.S. citizenship. Shalabi killed Guetta, 19, and wounded two others when he carried out a drive-by shooting on a group of Israeli teenagers at the Tapuach junction . He owns a large mansion near Ramallah. Shalabi was arrested three days after the attack at a hideout in the Palestinian village of Silwad. Three of Shalabi’s children live in the mansion, and another four live in...

Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Republicans should be “careful” about their claims on the January 6 Capitol riot. Anchor Chuck Todd said, “House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has a decision to make on the members, what Republicans to appoint…Do you think he’s going to appoint folks whose job it is to highjack this committee or at least not be unhelpful to this committee? Where is he going to fall on this?” Kinzinger said, “I think he’s going to find people not controversial, besides like maybe Jim Jorden, and that they’ll act to be...

When Ron DeSantis, Florida’s conservative Republican governor and likely presidential candidate, said recently we need to put on the “full armor of God,” the media looked at him like he was crazy—or from another planet. But his supporters gave him a standing ovation. As secular liberals, most of the press have no familiarity with the phrase, its origins, theology, or importance. They are bigots against religion and unschooled in what used to be the norms of American life, churches, and culture. The press and nearly our entire elite ruling class, in academia, sports, politics, media, business, and culture are biblically...

“You know,” Rep. Chip Roy is telling RealClearPolitics after balking at the administration’s latest COVID vaccine push and after all but telling President Biden to pound sand, “my dad had polio.” It is a surprising start to the interview given that, about an hour earlier, the congressman tweeted a black-and-white image of a syringe. Federal health officials continue to have a hard time getting all Americans vaccinated against the coronavirus, and Biden had promised to send people “door-to-door" to get doses to the vulnerable. For Roy, that is when the president went too far. Hence, the cartoon syringe, a play...

July 11, 2021 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time Abbey of Montecassino Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingAmos 7:12-15 ©'Go, shepherd, and prophesy to my people Israel'Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, said to Amos, ‘Go away, seer;’ get back to the land of Judah; earn your bread there, do your prophesying there. We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple.’ ‘I was no prophet, neither did I belong to any of the brotherhoods of prophets,’ Amos replied to Amaziah ‘I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores: but it was the Lord who took...