Free Republic

A construction manager tackles gender stereotypes daily as she shares the reality of how she is treated as a woman on a building site. Autumn Westfall, a project manager in commercial construction as well as a model, from Macomb, Michigan, discusses her bizarre experiences as a woman in a male-dominated industry. She explained to her 13,100 TikTok followers: “It’s 100% true that pretty privilege does exist and yes it is absolutely rude how when people find you attractive they are generally just nice to you for that reason and that reason only.”

(JTA) — You could call it bashert: 15 years after a landmark decision in Judaism’s Conservative movement that paved the way for gay and lesbian students to enter its rabbinical schools and for rabbis to perform same-sex weddings, it would seem like destiny that two Conservative rabbis would wed. Of course, it happened at Camp Ramah. Rabbi Ariella Rosen and Rabbi Becca Walker tied the knot at the Conservative movement’s camp in Palmer, Massachusetts, last month, with yet another queer woman rabbi, Megan GoldMarche, officiating. Rosen’s father, Rabbi Jim Rosen, also played a role. “It feels like we shouldn’t be...

Two Germans and a Chilean have been detained over the murder in Paraguay of a German man and his daughter in a crime police believe was related to the theft of rare Stradivarius violins. Bernard Raymond von Bredow, 62, a museum owner and luthier, was slain along with his 14-year-old daughter Lydia last month at their home in Aregua, east of the Paraguayan capital. Police said Von Bredow’s body showed signs of torture. Commissioner Hugo Grance, the chief investigator of the local police, said four violins believed to have been made by the revered Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari were found...

MUNCIE, Ind.–A former pastor and school nurse has been sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for molesting children. Brian Couch received a sentence of 105 years in prison on Wednesday, according to the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office. During Wednesday’s hearing, one of Couch’s victims testified. She said the sexual molestation began when she was 6 years old and happened repeatedly. “Other kids are put to bed and told that monsters don’t exist, but the victim here was forced to live with hers. Brian Couch is the proverbial monster under the bed. The victims are serving a life sentence,...

Eritrean troops involved in the conflict in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia are killing hundreds of Orthodox priests and raping their wives, the religious freedom charity Release International reported. The charity claims Ethiopian Orthodox clergy are being targeted in the fighting between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopian and Eritrean troops. Violence began in November 2020 after the Tigray People's Liberation Front, a former ruling party, refused to join a new political party set up by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Tigrayans and other ethnic groups are calling for greater autonomy from the Ethiopian Government. Conflict has spread from the fertile, semi-autonomous...

Sad news has hit Hollywood as Gavan O'Herlihy has reportedly passed away. The veteran actor, who originally appeared on Happy Days and whose memorable big screen credits included classics like Never Say Never Again, Willow, and Superman III, was 70 years old. Gavan O'Herlihy was born in Dublin, Ireland, on July 29, 1951. Classic television fans may recognize him as the forgotten Cunningham sibling from Happy Days, playing the eldest brother Chuck Cunningham in the first episode of the 1970s comedy series. The character then vanished from the series with no on-screen explanation, coining the term "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome," which...

ROME — World leaders are running out of time and must address the challenges of climate change before it’s too late, Pope Francis said. In a letter to Catholics in Scotland signed Nov. 9, where the U.N. Climate Change Conference is being held, the pope said he hoped leaders attending the summit would “meet this grave challenge with concrete decisions inspired by responsibility toward present and future generations.” “Time is running out; this occasion must not be wasted, lest we have to face God’s judgment for our failure to be faithful stewards of the world he has entrusted to our...

There were a total of 31, 793 priests in 2020 compared to 38,209 in 1990, marking a 16.5% drop in 30 years, totalling 6,416 fewer priests. But in the last ten years alone the number of clergy has dropped by 11%. This decline has been partly counterbalanced by increasing numbers of foreign priests entering Italy to serve in Italian dioceses. "These figures should be no cause for alarm. However, they should be examined seriously because they touch on the issue of vocations potential in our Italian Churches, on the prospects of youth and school pastoral ministry, and on the life...

Early this morning, Remembrance Day, Cranbrook RCMP were alerted to the fact that someone had spray painted graffiti on the Wall of Honour at the Cenotaph in Rotary Park. RCMP were called by a Cranbrook resident who was walking by the Cranbrook Cenotaph. He noted someone had left a message in bright green spray paint on the War Memorial. The resident said that no one was around at the time. “Thankfully, the Cranbrook RCMP, Cranbrook Fire Services and City of Cranbrook staff worked together and were able to quickly remove the writings before any of our war heroes and veterans...

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - The ten-year anniversary of the "House of the Egyptian Family", which sees itself as an interreligious liaison and aims to prevent or defuse sectarian conflicts, took place under the motto "10 years of love, cooperation and brotherhood". The Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church Tavadros II and Sheikh Ahmed al Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, attended the main event, which was held on Monday, November 8, at the Al-Azjar University Conference Center. The ceremony was also attended by bishops, journalists, representatives of various Christian and Islamic communities, political representatives and judge Adly Mansour, who served...

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace said Thursday on her show “Deadline” that right-wing media, former President Donald Trump and guns were fueling the domestic extremism threat level. Wallace said, “A domestic extremism threat unlike any other before in our country’s history looms over every facet of American life right now, today. It is fueled in-part by disgraced ex-president who is still lying about the fact that he lost the 2020 election fair and square. That disgraced ex-president now passes his days trying to stymy the bipartisan investigation into the worst attack on Congress in centuries, one that of course happened on...

Leading sponsors of the Beijing Winter Olympics should explain why they remain largely silent about alleged human rights abuses in China with the Games opening there in just under three months, Human Rights Watch said Friday. The rights group said in an on-line briefing that it had reached out to all but one of the IOC’s so-called TOP sponsors — and leading broadcast rights holder NBC — in lengthy letters almost six months ago. The only reply came from sponsor Allianz, which it wrote only last month. “We stand behind the Olympic Movement and our longstanding support for its ideals...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, say President Joe Biden’s reported plans to give $450,000 payouts to each border crosser subjected to former President Trump’s “Zero Tolerance” policy are “offensive to the American people.

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. We serve coffee, tea,or maybe some hot cocoa to warm the bones?Topped off with great conversation in front of a warm fire. No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup and start a conversation. You never know who you might meet in the Cafe. Glad you...

The incident occurred on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn around 4 p.m., the New York Police Department told Fox News. An NYPD Highway Patrol officer initially pulled over a Jeep Cherokee traveling east on the freeway for speeding, NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison told reporters Thursday night. When the officer approached the vehicle, the driver, who was the sole occupant, sped away, he said "The officer followed the car and positioned her unmarked car in front of his vehicle," Harrison said. The driver rear-ended the officer's vehicle and continued to flee, he said. Another NYPD highway unit pulled the...

When Xie Zhenhua, China’s top climate negotiator, took to the podium Wednesday at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow to announce a U.S.–China declaration on methane emissions and other issues, he revealed that his team had met their American counterparts some 30 times, including twice in China, in Tianjin. So a reporter asked America’s lead negotiator, John Kerry, how and whether, during his team’s nearly three dozen encounters with China’s team, they addressed Beijing’s use of forced labor and other human-rights issues in Xinjiang. The former secretary of state’s answer was unsurprising to anyone who’s listened to him...

Newly-released internal emails reveal that the National School Boards Association coordinated with the White House and the Department of Justice before sending President Biden the notorious letter that compared concerned parents to domestic terrorists. Emails provided to Fox News show that NSBA had coordinated with the White House for weeks beforehand. Viola Garcia, the NSBA president whom the Department of Education later named to a federal board, sent a memo to NSBA members on October 11 (but dated October 12), providing a timeline of the NSBA's interaction with the White House ahead of the letter to Biden, which the NSBA...

Isn’t great that America is back and the adults are back in charge? America is back, all right: all the way back to 1979, the last time we had a president so weak that enemies of the United States stormed one of our embassies and took hostages. On Thursday, the Yemeni media outlet Al-Masdar Online reported that Houthi jihadis in Yemen, which are backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, stormed our embassy in Sana’a, seizing “large quantities of equipment and materials.” Just days before that, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), they “kidnapped three Yemeni nationals...

In case there isn't enough righteous indignation to be had over the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Democratic politicians insisting on mask mandates for children, get ready for more. As Mary Kekatos reported for Daily Mail on Wednesday, the United States is just one of seven western nations with such mask mandates for children. And, even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved the Pfizer vaccine for children 5-11 years old, it doesn't look like the powers that be are ready to soften up. Megyn Kelly tweeted Kekatos' article, noting how the distinction is a "badge of...

Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder has the eyes of the nation on him right now. During trial Thursday, Schroeder made a racial comment that has caused outrage on social media. Many believe the quip, which was an attempt at a joke, was inappropriate. “I hope the Asian food isn’t coming ... isn’t on one of those boats along Long Beach Harbor," said Schroeder in response to an inquiry for a lunch break. The comment may be in regard to the situation unfolding on the west coast. A record-breaking number of cargo ships are waiting off the coast of California...