Free Republic

In modern times, we tend to link our notions of happiness and inner well-being to external circumstances and happenstance. We think that happiness will be found when the things of this world are arranged in the way we like. If we can just accumulate enough money and creature comforts, we think we’ll be happy and have a better sense of mental well-being.Yet many people can endure difficult external circumstances while remaining inwardly content, happy, and optimistic. Further, many who have much are still not content but rather are plagued by mental anguish, anxiety, and unhappiness. Ultimately, happiness is not about...

December 12th, 2021 3rd Sunday of Advent SOur Lady of the Rosary Church, South Carolina Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet First readingZephaniah 3:14-18 ©The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midstShout for joy, daughter of Zion,Israel, shout aloud!Rejoice, exult with all your heart,daughter of Jerusalem!The Lord has repealed your sentence;he has driven your enemies away.The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst;you have no more evil to fear.When that day comes, word will come to Jerusalem:Zion, have no fear,do not let your hands fall limp.The Lord your God is in your midst,a victorious warrior.He will exult...

Dayonte Resiles killed Jill Halliburton Su by stabbing her to death and leaving her lifeless body in a bathtub in her Davie home — on that much, jurors could agree. But they couldn’t agree on a murder charge, according to the jury forewoman, because three members refused to sign off on a verdict that would send a young Black man to prison for the rest of his life. For a short time, the nine who wanted a first-degree murder conviction were willing to budge. A manslaughter conviction would send Resiles to prison for 15 years, not for life. All 12...

There was a time—roughly from the mid-1960s to the rise of Donald Trump in 2015—when the American right was more or less definable. No more. Major political parties are always riven by internal disputes, but even during George W. Bush’s second term, at the nadir of the Iraq war, the Republican coalition seemed to hang together better than it has these past six years. Mr. Trump’s candidacy was a sign of that fracturing rather than its cause, but his presidency wasn’t marked by unity in the GOP. Quite the opposite. A significant faction of the party now advocates aggressive industrial...

The Talk Shows December 12th, 2021 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Anchored by Chris Wallass. Lame Duck NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio (Despicable-New York); Sen. Linda Graham (R-S.C.). Dr. Robert Montgomery, NYU Langone Transplant Institute. Panel of Wallass idiots: Guy Benson; Julie Pace, the Associated Press; Whine Williams. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Hosted by Chuck U. Toad: Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.); Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). Panel: Kimberly Atkins Stohr, Boston Globule; Brendan Buck, Seven Letter (er, A-$-$-H-O-L-E?); John Heilemann, MSNBC psychotic regular; Marianna Sotomayor, the Washington...

A special Customs and Border Protection unit used sensitive government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 U.S.-based journalists, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press reporter, according to a federal watchdog. Yahoo News, which published an extensive report on the investigation, also found that the unit, the Counter Network Division, queried records of congressional staffers and perhaps members of Congress. Jeffrey Rambo, an agent who acknowledged running checks on journalists in 2017, told federal investigators the practice is routine. “When a name comes across your desk you run it through every system you have access too,...

We have Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer, but Sweden has their Gävle goat aka Gävlebocken: “Gävlebocken is a traditional Christmas display erected annually at Slottstorget (Castle Square) in central Gävle, Sweden. It is a giant version of a traditional Swedish Yule Goat figure made of straw. It is erected each year by local community groups at the beginning of Advent over a period of two days. It has been the subject of repeated arson attacks, and, despite security measures and the nearby presence of a fire station, the goat has been burned to the ground most years since its first appearance...

First came passage of one of the nation’s most restrictive voting bills. Then came efforts to overhaul the number of elected offices in one of Georgia’s largest counties. Now, with the pending passage of a new congressional map, Republicans have taken another step toward dismantling the Atlanta-area engine that turned Georgia blue, powering President Joe Biden to victory in 2020 and flipping control of the Senate to Democrats. Just as Georgia has emerged as a pivotal swing state, the GOP-controlled legislature has gone to extraordinary lengths to overhaul election administration, rewrite election rules and redraw political lines in the fast-growing...

“This is a five-alarm fire,” said Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic secretary of state in Michigan, who presided over her state’s Trump-contested election in 2020 and may face a Trump-backed challenger next year. “If people in general, leaders and citizens, aren’t taking this as the most important issue of our time and acting accordingly, then we may not be able to ensure democracy prevails again in ’24.” In some areas, new political battlefields are opening up where none existed previously. Until this year, races for administrative positions such as judge of elections were noncompetitive to the point of being more or...

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If you are on the political right, you might view TV commentators like Chris Cuomo or Rachel Maddow as “the enemy.” In the same way, many on the political left view commentators like Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity as “the enemy.” It is no surprise, therefore, that many are on the right are gloating over CNN’s firing of Chris Cuomo, just as many on the left gloated when Bill O’Reilly had to leave Fox. But the Book of Proverbs has something to say about this, stating “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your...

@disclosetv NEW - German police start measuring distances between people with folding rulers in public. Clip...

I've worked in the halls of education for decades, and the communist infiltration of our schools and society has been aggressive the entire time. In the late 1990s, this writer took a position teaching history, government, and economics in a New York City public high school. After only two weeks, word circulated that I was a born-again evangelical and politically conservative. One of the senior teachers called me aside and, without any prior argument, said, "Communism is over in the Soviet Union, but it's alive and well at this high school." Shortly after that "welcome," it became apparent that many...

From EA (Electronic Arts) Games, to Kyle Rittenhouse; "We received a report about your account or profile name. It may be the name that you created on another platform. - This name breaks our Positive Play Charter because you may have used words or phrases that harm others or negatively disrupt the game" ... EA introduced/updated, in June of 2021, their Positive Play Charter with this; "an updated set of community guidelines with clear consequences for players who engage in racist, sexist, homophobic, and abusive acts in our games and channels."

This past week, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made headlines in the Jewish world with a sincere expression of his awareness of the “hardship” that’s been faced by Jewish communities throughout the diaspora. Countless Jews are frustrated by the on-again, off-again closure of Israel’s borders to non-Israelis. Israel has faced criticism from Jews and Jewish communities due to the prohibition of most being able to come visit, tour, and see relatives. In fact, the reality of many diaspora Jews being left out, literally, and prevented from coming to visit their relatives in Israel has been the source of some of...

In responding to the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing the Texas abortion ban to stay in place, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday said he plans to propose a gun control law that would be modeled on the Texas one. Newsom said the Supreme Court’s decision has set a precedent that will allow states to avoid federal courts when enacting laws.

Donald Trump’s greatest accomplishment as president may not have been the policies he enacted or the justices he appointed. Instead, as important as those accomplishments were and are, it is possible that the most important thing he did as president was to say to the political world, “I will not play your games. I am the champion of the people, not a member of the good old boys club.” But now that he has broken the mold, thrown out the old rule book, and forged a new path of leadership, it will be best in 2024 for another conservative leader...

It has become obvious from the multiple failings of the Biden administration military we may well see soon the world domination of China in concert with Russia, Iran and North Korea not to mention the resurgence of ISIS and/or al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic organizations. These potential multiple failures and defeats for the USA may well be by design of the liberals. Whether intentional, the result of abject ignorance or self-serving political expedience, the lack of war-fighting focus is very real as evidenced by my recent personal experiences at an Army unit. Last Sunday I had the enlightening experience of...

Handel’s Messiah, now as much a part of Christmas as mince pies and mistletoe, is one of the world’s greatest expressions of the Christian faith in music. Its composer, George Frideric Handel, was born in 1685 in what is now Germany. Although his family discouraged him from a musical career, his astonishing natural talent proved unstoppable. Acquiring a wide range of skills, the young Handel found himself in Italy, where he began writing operas. In 1712, Handel moved to London where many were fond of Italian opera and Handel could find a market for his talent. For nearly a quarter...

Author’s Note: Interested readers can find all previous volumes of this series here. News Flash: The first 56 volumes are compiled into a book titled “Bible Study For Those Who Don’t Read The Bible.” Thanks for joining us as we continue discussing topics relevant to the Advent Season culminating in the “advent” (arrival) of Yeshua — a Jewish infant with the anglicized name of Jesus. Last week we examined the conception and birth story of John the Baptist (Vol. 90), and today, we study Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, who many believe is under-appreciated. Since there are no direct...