Free Republic

On War Room, Steve Cortes recently declared Big Business an enemy to conservatives. Cortes could have taken it farther and announced Big Business an enemy to the people of the United States. This is not to make a statement against the wonderful economies of scale and massive social benefits provided to society by corporations. It is, instead, to criticize the overly comfortable relationship between the boardroom and Washington, D.C. Business is not the problem. Government is the problem. They are not one and the same. As Cortes astutely pointed out: Far too many conservatives — you know folks who are...

My quiet neighborhood in the capital, which is patrolled by the Metropolitan Police, the U.S. Park Police, and the Secret Service’s Foreign Missions Branch, has been the site of an unprecedented number of crimes. Someone -- identity unknown as far as I know -- tried to break into and presumably rob the Peruvian ambassador whose home is about four blocks away. Four blocks in the opposite direction, a sniper shot four people and then killed himself. The roads were blocked by law enforcement. The search for the shooter involved police helicopters circling overhead for hours. At about the same time...

WASHINGTON - A Colorado man has died after setting himself on fire in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building in the nation’s capital Friday night. Officials identified the man as Wynn Bruce, 50, of Boulder. He was airlifted to a hospital after the incident. Police said Saturday that the man had died. The incident occurred on the plaza in front of the Supreme Court building around 6:30 p.m. No one else was injured. **SNIP** The man's neighbors told Denver7 that they are unsure how Bruce made it to Washington since he was unable to drive. They said a childhood...

YENAGAO, Nigeria (Reuters) - More than 100 people were killed overnight in an explosion at an illegal oil refining depot on the border of Nigeria’s Rivers and Imo states, a local government official and an environmental group said on Saturday. “The fire outbreak occurred at an illegal bunkering site and it affected over 100 people who were burnt beyond recognition,” the state commissioner for petroleum resources, Goodluck Opiah, said. The bunkering site was in the Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo state in the Abaezi forest that straddles the border of the two states. Unemployment and poverty in the oil-producing...

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,”...