Free Republic

The Republican poobahs in Tennessee creating rules that booted Morgan Ortagus off the primary ballot for the Fifth Congressional District... But what are those Tennessee Republicans?... Are they Chinese Communist Factory Republicans like the local poobahs bringing the Fufeng corn milling factory into Grand Forks, North Dakota?... Inflation rages in the aftermath of massive COVID spending as the world comes out of lockdowns... A US Economic Update and our US Economic Update Theme courtesy of the Beatles because between car shortages and higher prices... All these Russia hating politicians with their wasteful spending on COVID turning the US into the...

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We live in times in which mercy, like so many other things, has become a detached concept in people’s minds, separated from the things that really help us to understand it. For indeed, mercy makes sense and is necessary because we are sinners in desperate shape. Yet many today think it unkind and unmerciful to speak of sin as sin. Many think that mercy is a declaration that God doesn’t really care about sin, or that sin is not a relevant concept.On the contrary, mercy means that sin does exist. Thanks be to God for the glory, the beauty, and...

State Department spokesman Ned Price answered questions about Afghanistan and Pakistan and said Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar is not representing President Biden or the administration in a trip this week to the region. Omar visited the disputed territory of Kashmir and met with former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who accuses the U.S. government of orchestrating his fall from power. The U.S. obviously denies the allegation. Khan said last week that Donald Lu, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, led the "foreign conspiracy" to topple his government via a parliamentary no-confidence vote. Read more from Reuters: US...

April 24th 2022 Divine Mercy Sunday National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White First readingActs 5:12-16 ©The numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadilyThe faithful all used to meet by common consent in the Portico of Solomon. No one else ever dared to join them, but the people were loud in their praise and the numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily. So many signs and wonders were worked among the people at the hands of the apostles that...

A recent poll was conducted by a national polling outfit, "YOUGOV. Results to these questions asked of average people on the street. What percentage of the country is black? Answers 41%. Actual, 12% What percentage is "Latino? Answers 39%. Actual numbers 17% How many families make over $500,000 a year? Answers 26%. Actual figure? 1% (We think a quarter of the country is rich). What percent of American's are vegetarians? Response? 30% Actual? 5% What percent of American's live in NY city? Answers? 30% Actual 3%. What percentage of Americans are 'transgender? 22% Actual number, 1% (People believe this BS!)...

The citywide scourge of lithium-ion e-bike batteries injured a dozen people in four separate fires sparked in a single day, FDNY officials said Friday. The blazes - three in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn - continued the troubling trend of malfunctioning lithium-ion batteries used to power electric bicycles setting off blazes in city residences. The phenomenon was responsible for four deaths last year, the department said. **SNIP** The largest fire was in Brooklyn’s Kensington section just after 4 a.m. Thursday, when an e-bike battery sparked a three-alarm fire that gutted an E. 9th St. home near Cortelyou Road and the...

@daveweigel Rand Paul endorses @jeremymunson in #MN01; some Republicans worry about ex-state GOP chair Jennifer Carnahan winning the nomination. Paul on Munson: “I need his help in Washington to Fire Fauci, drain the swamp, stop out of control spending, and fight the DC socialists.”

@RepThomasMassie People are fed up with the CDC's mask mandate "pseudoscience." I discussed this on @foxandfriends today. Video...

The University of Wisconsin campus is mourning the death of a beloved track and cross country star. Sarah Shulze, 21, died by suicide on April 13, her family announced. “Balancing athletics, academics and the demands of every day life overwhelmed her in a single, desperate moment,” Shulze’s family said. “Like you, we are shocked and grief stricken while holding on tightly to all that Sarah was.” The California-born runner was a junior and member of the cross country, indoor track and outdoor track teams at the University of Wisconsin. Wisconsin officials released a statement Friday regarding the beloved student, who...

“The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small” (Proverbs 24:9-10).

The second round of French presidential elections opened this morning between incumbent President Emanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. According to recent polls, Macron leads by almost 10% over his rival. .....

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

“Only Jesus: No Other Name” (Acts 4:1-12; Revelation 1:4-18; John 14:1-14) Something significant, something momentous, happened in the city of Chicago 175 years ago this week. No, I’m not talking about the day I was born. I was born in Chicago, yes, but I’m not quite that old. No, but something else was born there 175 years ago. It was the birth of our church body, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It was on April 26, 1847, that representatives from fourteen Lutheran congregations came together at First St. Paul Lutheran Church on the north side of Chicago, and they formed a...

...Although I identified nearly 900 citations in the literature2 that discussed educator sexual misconduct in some format, there were only 14 U.S. and five Canadian or UK empirical studies on educator sexual misconduct. ...This analysis (Shakeshaft, 2003) indicates that 9.6 percent of all students in grades 8 to 11 report contact and/or noncontact educator sexual misconduct that was unwanted. 8.7 percent report only noncontact sexual misconduct and 6.7 percent experienced only contact misconduct...Based on the assumption that the AAUW surveys accurately represent the experiences of all K-12 students, more than 4.5 million students are subject to sexual misconduct by an...

Russian forces have failed to make any major gains over the last 24 hours in their offensive in Ukraine as counterattacks by the defenders have hampered their efforts, according to UK intelligence and U.S. analysts.British intelligence said in an April 23 operational update that Ukraine’s airspace and its Black Sea waters remain contested as Russian air and maritime forces have been unable to establish control in either domain “owing to the effectiveness of Ukraine’s air and sea defense.”“Despite increased activity, Russian forces have made no major gains in the last 24 hours as Ukrainian counterattacks continue to hinder their efforts,”...

Heart inflammation requiring hospital care was more common among people who received COVID-19 vaccines than those who did not, according to a new study of tens of millions of Europeans.Rates of myocarditis or pericarditis, two types of heart inflammation, are above the levels in an unvaccinated cohort, pegged at 38 per 100,000 after receipt of a second dose of a vaccine built on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in males aged 16 to 24—the group studies have shown are most at risk of the post-vaccination condition—researchers with health agencies in Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway found.“These extra cases among men aged...

Some recipients of Paxlovid, an antiviral pill developed by Pfizer, are reporting Covid symptoms returning after finishing their course of the drug The drug was touted by President Joe Biden and collectively offered to all Americans at his 2022 State of the Union addressThere are multiple reports of people in the Boston area suddenly feeling sick and testing positive for Covid after the drug initially helped them get over the virusOne expert described it as 'cat and mouse', with the virus being able to return after the drug suppressing it cleared from a person's system Paxlovid has been deemed one...

SALT LAKE CITY — Orrin G. Hatch, who became the longest-serving Republican senator in history as he represented Utah for more than four decades, died Saturday at age 88. His death was announced in a statement from his foundation, which did not specify a cause. He launched the Hatch Foundation as he retired in 2019 and was replaced by Mitt Romney. A conservative on most economic and social issues, he nonetheless teamed with Democrats several times during his long career on issues ranging from stem cell research to rights for people with disabilities to expanding children’s health insurance. He also...

The fact that our nation’s unemployment rate is approaching the low rate of 3.5% that was reached just prior to the pandemic should be a cause for celebration. But for a variety of reasons, the official unemployment number is misleading.The employment situation is not as rosy as it may seem. There is a wide disparity among the states that can be explained by how much economic freedom they allow, including how severely each state shut down its economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Consider that the U.S. remains 1.6 million jobs short of our February 2020 high, just before the pandemic...