Free Republic

A South Florida Jewish congregation has challenged a new state law that blocks abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, contending the measure violates privacy and religious-freedom rights. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Leon County circuit court by Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor, seeks to block the law from taking effect July 1. Abortion clinics also filed a lawsuit this month in Leon County challenging the constitutionality of the restriction. Both cases include allegations that the law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April, violates a privacy right in the Florida Constitution that has long played a pivotal role in abortion cases in...

Cosmetics maker Revlon has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, succumbing to a rising debt load, online competition and supply chain woes. Why it matters: While corporate bankruptcies remain at some of their lowest levels since 2010, the lipstick and nail polish maker could foreshadow more upheaval in the consumer discretionary sector as the U.S. braces for a possible recession. Details: The company plans to receive $575 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its existing lenders, which will allow it to continue operating. Revlon said its estimated liabilities were between $1 billion and $10 billion, according to a court filing. What...

IPray For The Peace of JerusalemGenesis 21Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away 8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” 11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the...

Sometimes when I am grocery shopping, even if I am there just for broccoli, I’ll swing by the aisle where they stock feminine products. Because, even though most of the things that disappeared during the pandemic like toilet paper, yeast, and flour have returned to the shelves, tampons are still in short supply. It’s become a strange fascination of mine, to see the large gap on the shelf, like a missing front tooth, where tampons are supposed to be. In the last few months, I’ve visited stores in New York, Massachusetts, and California—no tampons. And it’s not just me. Dana...

CNN anchor Brian Stelter is set to be axed in a matter of “weeks if not days” as the network’s new owners push to rid the cable news outlet of its far-left propaganda reputation. Jon Nicosia, President of News Cycle Media, has been the first to report on numerous stories about the dysfunction at CNN. Nicosia had the inside scoop leading up to the collapse of the Chris Wallace-led streaming service CNN Plus. Now Nicosia says Brian Stelter has “weeks if not days” left at the network. The news of Stelter’s downfall comes as another report from Mediaite claims CNN...

A Silk Road stopover might have been the epicentre of one of humanity’s most destructive pandemics. People who died in a fourteenth-century outbreak in what is now Kyrgyzstan were killed by strains of the plague-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis that gave rise to the pathogens responsible several years later for the Black Death, shows a study of ancient genomes. “It is like finding the place where all the strains come together, like with coronavirus where we have Alpha, Delta, Omicron all coming from this strain in Wuhan,” says Johannes Krause, a palaeogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in...

“‘Do not judge so that you will not be judged’” (Matthew 7:1). Believers are not to make unrighteous and unmerciful judgment on others because it manifests a wrong view of God. With the phrase “so that you will not be judged,” Jesus reminds the scribes and Pharisees that they are not the final court. To judge another person’s motives or to stand in the place of condemnation is to play God. “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). During the millennial kingdom Christ will share some of that judgment...

The Justice Department official who investigates attacks on reproductive health care facilities has been a staunch critic of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, dozens of which have been vandalized by abortion supporters over the past month. Civil rights division chief Kristen Clarke criticized the centers following a Supreme Court decision issued in their favor in 2018. Clarke said the centers, which counsel pregnant women on alternatives to abortion, were "harmful" and "predatory" against women of color. She also referred to them with the hashtag, "ExposeFakeClinics." Clarke’s stance on the centers offers a potential explanation for the Justice Department’s refusal to investigate...

No one loves the media as much as the media love themselves Professional journalists are notorious for their preternatural levels of self-regard. They are, for example, supremely confident in their ability to accurately report on the most important stories of the day. Members of the public are far more skeptical, according to the results of a recently published Pew survey. Roughly two-thirds of journalists said news organizations do a good job of "covering the most important stories of the day" and "reporting the news accurately," the survey found. Normal, well-adjusted Americans disagreed. Just 41 percent of non-media respondents said professional...

The United States government illegally intercepts the private electronic communication of every American including emails, text messages, phone calls and social media content postings and comments. The NSA unlawfully secures that library of data in order to maintain an electronic record uniquely identifying every American in a searchable database. The government unlawfully allows the database to be searched for domestic threats as defined by the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security, the Dept of Justice and the FBI. By mutually beneficial arrangement, access portals to search the NSA/FBI database are included as workspaces inside the law offices of Perkins Coie, the...

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has called for there to be a “drag queen in every school.” Yes, really. Nessel made the comments during a civil rights conference in Lansing after she has falsely claimed that critical race theory being taught in schools is a hoax. “You know what’s not a problem for kids who are seeking a good education? Drag queens,” said Nessel.

The Russian energy giant said it was cutting supply volumes to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline by roughly another third, after an initial reduction on Tuesday. Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Wednesday it would further reduce the capacity of gas supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 67 million cubic meters (2,366 million cubic feet) per day. The decision comes into effect at 01:30 a.m. Moscow time on Thursday (2230 UTC on Wednesday), Gazprom said, adding that the halt was due to the "technical condition of the engine" at a compression station. The company had announced...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reportedly preparing to discipline border agents who were falsely accused of having ‘whipped’ Haitian illegal immigrants for “administrative violations.” The reports of coming administrative punishment comes despite the agents having been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. Not to mention the photographic evidence indicating they had done nothing wrong during the incident. Fox News is reporting that an announcement on the disciplinary actions for the border agents will be incoming soon.

June 16th 2022 Thursday of week 11 in Ordinary Time Detail of High Altar and Mural in St. Casimir Church Cleveland, Ohio. Altar made in Rigalico, marble and onyx effect, specially designed and executed in the studios of Daprato Statuary Company, Chicago Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green First readingEcclesiasticus 48:1-15 ©The spirit of Elijah fills ElishaThe prophet Elijah arose like a fire, his word flaring like a torch.It was he who brought famine on the people, and who decimated them in his zeal.By the word of the Lord, he shut up the heavens, he also, three times, brought down fire.How...

With international attention focused on the war in Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to be in a good geopolitical position to launch a new military operation against the Kurds in northern Syria. Despite US warnings, Erdogan has threatened an offensive on two strategic Syrian towns near Turkey’s southern border. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has once again started threatening a new military operation in northern Syria in a bid to create his much-wanted buffer zone along the Turkey-Syria border. Erdogan’s plan, which he was forced to shelve last year, has resurfaced in recent weeks as Ankara has calculated...

Safety in exchange for freedom is the government’s oldest con game. We may have been shocked to see the Uvalde cops protecting a school shooter from parents (and that is what they were doing) but we shouldn’t be surprised: It will always be easier, when you have a gun, to point it at someone who doesn’t have a gun. That goes for school shooters, policemen, and everyone else—including the government. That’s point number one. Point number two is that no one will fight as hard for your life, your family, or your property as you will. Jacob Albarado is the...

The duel between Emmanuel Macron's incumbent majority and Jean-Luc Mélenchon's pan-leftist NUPES coalition duly dominated the spotlight on Sunday after the first round of France's legislative elections. But far-right National Rally flagbearer Marine Le Pen had a red-letter night at the ballot box. Even at the low end of seat projections for next Sunday's run-off, Le Pen will have shored up party finances, seen off a pesky political foe and guaranteed herself a gilded soapbox for five more years. The far right is rarely a focal point in French parliamentary polls. It has long been a political truism in France...

A Lehigh County farmer recently called Kyle Kotzmoyer and said something like “I’ve got a tractor hooked up to my corn planter out here, no diesel fuel, and I can’t afford to get any.” Kotzmoyer, who recalled the conversation Tuesday, said he responded to the request for advice with a joke. Kotzmoyer, who recalled the conversation Tuesday, said he responded to the request for advice with a joke. That’s about all he could do, he said, because the crushing reality of record diesel fuel prices is pushing farmers to the brink and may affect food availability. “We have reached that...

A real committee would also investigate the other, far larger and more lethal riots on iconic federal property months earlier. Congress should investigate fully the January 6 riot at the Capitol—and similar recent riots at iconic federal sites. But unfortunately, it never will. Why not? The current committee is not bipartisan. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) forbade Republican nominees traditionally selected by the House minority leader to serve on the committee. No speaker had ever before rejected the minority party’s nominees to a select House committee. Pelosi’s own cynical criteria for Republican participation were twofold: Any willing minority Republican members...

LONDON — There are increasing signs that Western unity over the war in Ukraine could be starting to crack as the conflict drags on and leaders face public discontent over rampant inflation and the cost of living crisis. There are widespread concerns over how long the war could continue, with some strategists saying it has all the hallmarks of a war of attrition where no side “wins” and the losses and damage inflicted by both sides, over a protracted and prolonged period, are immense. The U.S., U.K. and eastern Europe appear staunch in their position that Russia must not be...