Free Republic

This Sunday’s readings might seem bipolar or schizophrenic. We begin Mass with exultant cheering as we relive Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We end the Readings on a note of solemn silence, unable to process the reality of one of the most egregious abuses of judicial process and power in human history, in which the only innocent man ever to live is executed. What does it all mean? Despite a few mysterious prophetic texts that seemed to intimate this possibility, the idea that the Messiah could arrive and subsequently be killed was radically counter-intuitive to most of first-century Jews. Yet...

The best possible future — the one with fewer climate disasters, extinctions, and human suffering — involves limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But for this to happen, a new report warns, greenhouse gas levels must start dropping by 2025. “We are on a fast track to climate disaster,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday while announcing the new report by the United Nation’s preeminent climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “This is not fiction or exaggeration,” he added. “It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies. We are on...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday warned of fighting in Donbas that could result in the biggest war in centuries.Speaking to the German newspaper BILD, owned by Axel Springer, Insider's parent company, Zelenskyy predicted intense fighting in the coming days."It could be a big war in Donbas — like the world has not seen in hundreds of years," he told BILD reporter Paul Ronzheimer."We will go on defending our country until the end," the Ukrainian president continued.This chilling forecast echoes what Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told NATO members on Thursday."The battle for Donbas will remind you of the Second...

Jussie Smollett chided police and prosecutors and declared his innocence in a song released Friday — three weeks after he was sprung from a Chicago jail while his lawyers appeal his conviction for staging a hate crime.

Earlier this week it was reported that there are an additional 450 gigabytes of material on Hunter Biden’s laptop that have previously gone unreported. However, on Thursday the computer repairman who was given the abandoned laptop says this isn’t so. There were several news reports this week suggesting there is more on the Hunter laptop than was previously discovered. However, this notion was refuted by the computer repairman who first looked at the laptop and who made a copy of it before handing it over to the FBI. John Paul Mac Isaac claims that there 300 gigs of data on...

The President of the European Commission Usrula von der leyen tells Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky while on a visit in Ukraine that "Russia will descend in economic financial and technological decay while Ukraine is marching towards a European future." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcukOI_bzZQ&t=4s

In a discusssion the other day I had a Liberal throw out the term "Trumpism", and saying he saw "Trumpism" as the "biggest threat to democracy". He immediately went on to add that he thought Trump was an "autocrat", and after I gave him the theoretical example of the issue and use of a President's executive order that had no foundation/application under existing law as an autocratic act, and how I think a number of Obama executive orders fit that case, the discussion descended into a loud back and forth during which never led to him saying what he meant...

[Catholic Caucus] German Archdiocese Hires Self-Identified Transgender Man to Teach Religious EdA German diocese has defended its decision to grant a biological female who identifies as a transgender man permission to teach Catholic religion to schoolchildren, amid questions over whether it is attempting to sidestep canon law and the Catholic Church's teaching on sexual morality.“I can confirm that Mr. Theo Schenkel is granted a permanent teaching license for Catholic religious education in state schools,” a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Freiburg told CNA on April 7. Since canon law precluded the trainee teacher from receiving the requisite missio canonica of...

Amidst polls showing that black voter support for the Democratic Party has fallen from 87 percent to 60 percent since Biden took office, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is planning to invest $30 million to boost black turnout and support for its candidates in the Fall elections. The theme of the campaign is “we did that.” DCCC national press secretary Chris Taylor admitted that “we’ve been taking these votes for granted for too long. We need to send message reminding black folks of how much progress our Party has made since the days of slavery and Jim Crow. Granted, 99...

Moscow said Saturday Russian troops had opened fire on a Ukrainian vessel trying to evacuate commanders of the Azov battalion from the besieged city of Mariupol. "The Kyiv regime is not abandoning attempts to evacuate the leaders of the nationalist Azov regiment and foreign mercenaries from Mariupol," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement. On Friday night, Russian forces opened artillery fire on a Ukrainian cargo vessel when it suddenly changed course and tried to break through the blockade of the port of Mariupol. As a result of the strike the Maltese-flagged vessel, the Apache, caught fire and said...

It’s Saturday afternoon! Time for American Bandstand! A blast from the past - the way it used to be...

Panic has set in. As the first round of the French presidential election approaches, Emmanuel Macron’s re-election has suddenly been thrown into doubt. A series of recent polls has put the hard-right Marine Le Pen within spitting distance of the Élysée Palace. This has rattled the Macron campaign, spooked the markets and will no doubt have set alarm bells ringing in Brussels, too. The Le Pen surge feels like it has come from nowhere. A month ago, she was trailing Macron by around 10 percentage points. Now she looks the most likely candidate to face Macron in the second round...

President Joe Biden has only given a single interview with the establishment media in 2022, according to the Republican National Committee’s research team on Friday. In 97 days, Biden’s only interview with a reporter was the traditional, highly coordinated Super Bowl special on February 13 with NBC News’s Lester Holt.

At least 30 people were killed and around 100 other civilians were wounded after a Tochka-U missile hit the railway station in Kiev-controlled Kramatorsk on Friday. The Ukrainian side claimed that Russian troops were complicit in the missile strike. However, Tochka-U tactical missile systems are not operational either in Russia or in the Donbass republics.... Fragments of a Tochka-U tactical missile were found at the scene....Tochka-U tactical missile systems are actively used by the Ukrainian armed forces but are not operational in Russia or the Donbass republics. The Russian Defense Ministry highlighted that the photos from the Russia-Belarus Union Resolve...

Russian President Vladimir Putin instated a new commander to lead operations in Ukraine as officials warn Moscow is looking to shift its focus in eastern Ukraine after more than six weeks of war. Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, commander of Russia’s southern military district (SMD), will now lead the invasion, first reported the BBC late Friday. Dvornikov not only has known experience in Russia’s campaign in Syria, but also led military exercises in southern Russia last year, right along Ukraine’s border with the Donbas region. A western official told the outlet that the change in command will improve Russia’s flagging invasion after...

A team of archaeologists from the Iraqi German Mission of the State Board of Antiquities and the Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute have excavated a 4000-year-old boat near the ancient city of Uruk.Uruk, also known as Warka was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia), situated on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates River.Uruk played a leading role in the early urbanisation of Sumer in the mid-4th millennium BC, emerging as a major population centre until it was abandoned shortly before or after the Islamic conquest of AD 633–638.The boat was first discovered during a...

Each spring across Australia, its native golden wattle plants (Acacia pycnantha Benth.) burst into bloom in a riot of puffy, bright yellow flowers.A member of the genus acacia—or as Australians refer to these types of flowering shrubs, “wattles”—the plant’s distinctive yellow blossoms and green leaves evoke the Australian national colors. Sprigs of wattle have been used to represent Australia for decades, notably decorating the colonial-era Commonwealth Coat of Arms. The plant was officially declared the national floral emblem in 1988...Working with representatives from the Martu people, an Australian Indigenous group and the traditional owners of the land, UWA archaeologist Chae...

Stone spheres are found on the small island of Isla del Caño and the Diquís Delta, where over 300 stone Petrospheres have been previously identified from the Diquís culture.The Diquís culture emerged in the Valley of the Rio Grande de Térraba, where they established complex social, economic, and political systems to govern their society.During the Chiriquí Period between AD 800 – 1500, many settlements grew into large communities around the alluvial lands of the Térraba River and its main tributaries, constructing large structures using round-edged boulders, paved areas, burial sites, and circular or rectangular mounds with stone walls.The Diquís reached...

The house at Butser Ancient Farm, based on archaeological remains from Chalton, has taken nearly four years to complete after work started in 2018.Now thanks to the hard work of volunteers and staff, under the expert leadership of Darren Hammerton, the ancient house has now thrown open its doors – with Time Team’s Dr Harding present to mark the occasion.All timber used in the construction came from within a 10-mile radius of Butser Ancient Farm, with a combination of English oak, sweet chestnut and hazel used in the construction. The roof was thatched with water reeds.The settlement at Church Down...