Free Republic

The worst line I ever wrote as a pundit — yes, I know, it’s a crowded field — was the first line I ever wrote about the man who would become the 45th president: “If by now you don’t find Donald Trump appalling, you’re appalling.” This opening salvo, from August 2015, was the first in what would become dozens of columns denouncing Trump as a unique threat to American life, democratic ideals and the world itself. I regret almost nothing of what I said about the man and his close minions. But the broad swipe at his voters caricatured them...

Denver Newsroom, Jul 14, 2022 / 20:00 pm The ombudsman of Spain, Ángel Gabilondo, said he is concerned that because doctors are exercising their right to conscientious objection, there are places in the country where no abortions are performed in public medical facilities. Gabilondo’s comments were revealed in a letter he sent to Mónica García, a leftist congresswoman in the legislature of the autonomous region of Madrid, which was leaked to the El País newspaper July 12. El País, whose editorial line supports abortion, pointed out that Gabilondo, a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and former minister of...

Denver Newsroom, Jul 14, 2022 / 18:00 pm (CNA). A poll released this week found that of Catholic likely voters in the U.S., half believe in the Real Presence of the Eucharist, and 37% go to confession at least annually. RealClear Opinion Research conducted an online survey of 1,757 Catholic likely voters June 15-23. Conducted in English and Spanish, the poll carries a 95% credibility level of plus or minus 2.58 percentage points. The poll asked Catholic likely voters about their religious beliefs and practices, and their political engagement. The survey found that 37% of the respondents go to confession...

When a naked man in southwestern Florida recently raised a ruckus outside his house and threatened a deputy with a kitchen knife, the SWAT team swooped in and apprehended him. Soon afterward, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno stood on the man’s driveway in combat gear for a news conference while the suspect went to the jailhouse that the sheriff likes to call the “Marceno Motel.” “He’s an oxygen-stealer and a scumbag, and I’m glad he’s outta here,” Marceno told reporters. “I’m proud to say that in this county, if you present deadly physical force ... we meet you with deadly...

The 'pro-choice' governor only supports the 'deadly choice that ends a human life,' one Republican said.LANSING, Michigan (LifeSiteNews) – Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued several line-item vetoes Thursday for the state’s $22.2 billion education budget, including cutting provisions that would have supported pregnancy support options except abortion and stem-cell research excluding the use of human embryos. The Detroit News reported that the budget contained $1 million for “pregnant and parenting student services” at community college and university campuses, with language supporting recommendations for care, delivery, foster care, adoption or family planning but forbidding abortion referrals, as well as $5...

he global monkeypox outbreak is primarily being driven by sex between men, according to the first major peer-reviewed paper to analyze a large set of cases of the virus. The outbreak, which epidemiologists believe initially began in mid-spring gatherings of gay and bisexual men in Europe, has since alarmed such experts by ballooning to nearly 16,000 cases worldwide. Now infectious disease specialists are developing an increasingly refined understanding of the predominant conduits of monkeypox transmission, as well as the typical disease course patterns. “These data point clearly to the fact that infections are so far almost exclusively occurring among men...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said he plans to meet with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in September at an interreligious meeting in Kazakhstan. The pope confirmed the meeting in an interview that aired in the United States July 11 on Univision, the Spanish-language network. “We are going to meet in Kazakhstan in September because there is a religious meeting” there that both have promised to attend, he said. Although the Vatican has not officially announced the visit, Kazakh authorities said the pope confirmed his participation at the Congress of World and Traditional Religions during a Zoom meeting in April with...

WASHINGTON — The White House confirmed on Saturday that the strain of coronavirus that infected President Biden several days ago is likely to have been BA.5, the highly contagious Omicron subvariant now comprising most new infections in the United States. “The president’s causative agent is most likely the BA.5 variant,” said a Saturday morning letter from the president’s personal physician, Dr. Kevin C. O’Connor. He added that confirmation, which came from preliminary genetic sequencing, “does not affect the treatment plan in any way.” BA.5 now accounts for eight out of 10 new coronavirus cases in the United States, and although...

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) stated that if he was a Democrat, the attack on him “would be the number one story. And it wouldn’t just be the number one story for a day, it would be the number one story for an entire cycle.” And every single House Republican would be called on to condemn the attack. Zeldin said, “Well, this keeps happening over and over again, and you could find other stations that should be covering it and aren’t. I’ve been in Congress now — this is my fourth term, and over the course of these years, when you...

SAN FRANCISCO - Runners are lacing up their shoes as the San Francisco Marathon returns this weekend, bigger than ever. Organizers say nearly 24,000 people have registered for the 2022 events, after years of virtual races and a scaled back marathon weekend last September.

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson says he will not oppose legislation to codify federal protection for same-sex and interracial marriage. The House passed the Respect for Marriage Act this week in response to the U.S. Supreme Court‘s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The court used the finding of a right to privacy in its 1972 abortion decision to support future decisions, including Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, one of the new bill’s Senate sponsors, says the legislation is needed after Justice Clarence Thomas suggested in his own written Supreme...

The state of banks in China dominates concerns about the economy and global growth. With pictures of angry crowds outside banks and tanks on the street in one city to quell discontent about being unable to withdraw funds, it bears asking what the true state of Chinese banks is. Officially, Chinese banks are in fine shape. Nonperforming loans are low and are disposed of in a controlled manner. Banks remain comfortably within their regulatory limits of loan growth, and deposits continue to rise. However, as with all things China, a look behind the official statistics gives cause for concern. First,...

A school resource officer who shot and wounded a Kansas high school student after the student shot him four times won’t face charges because he believed his life was in danger, a prosecutor announced Friday. Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said school resource officer Erik Clark shot Jaylon Elmore at Olathe East High School after Elmore shot him four times inside an assistant principal’s office on March 4. An assistant principal, Kaleb Stoppel, was shot and wounded during the exchange, “most likely” by two bullets fired by Clark, Howe said in a report. Clark and Stoppel were released from...

A large study confirms one in five Americans believes violence motivated by political reasons is—at least sometimes—justified. Nearly half expect a civil war, and many say they would trade democracy for a strong leader, a preprint posted today on medRxiv found. “This is not a study that’s meant to shock,” says Rachel Kleinfeld, a political violence expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who was not involved in the research. “But it should be shocking.” (snip) He and his colleagues surveyed more than 8600 adults in English and Spanish about their views on democracy in the United States, racial...

The blaster that helped the Rebel Alliance finally take down the Empire could soon be yours. Han Solo’s DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol from the original Star Wars trilogy will be sold next month by Rock Island Auction Company. The weapon isn’t just a lovingly crafted replica, either. It’s the actual prop that was wielded by Harrison Ford on the set of the original film in the franchise... Here's the auction page: Lot 1247: Documented Mauser Broomhandle “DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol” Prop

NUEVO LEON; Residents have been without running water for days. A truck carrying more than 4,000 gallons of not potable is distributed to residents. The water is used to flush the toilet, launder clothing, wash dishes or bathe. People rely on bottled water bought from the store to cook and drink. Garcia is a municipality located to the northwest of the Monterrey metropolitan area. Nuevo Leon, one the wealthiest states in Mexico, is facing an unprecedented water crisis, with the taps running dry in parts of Monterrey and the surrounding areas. Authorities blame a four-year drought that has almost completely...

MEDITATION ON SUCCESS "Do not let this Book of Law (The Torah) depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." (Joshua 1:8) "Great success, like disgrace, can bring great trouble. Success which advances ego can make you lose your way." (Tao 13.) A lawyer once commented to me, "If you preachers ever convince people to live by the Ten Commandments, I will be out of business". Now there is a thought: lawyers out of business! Doing God's will...

And once again, as happens often with consequential news in the United States and the West, no one has noticed and no one seems to care. If you’ve blinked over the last month, you may have missed it… China and Russia are taking their shot at the U.S. dollar. And as often happens with consequential news in the United States and the West, no one seems to notice or even care. Since the beginning of the year, I have been writing about the possibility of Russia and China challenging the US dollar’s global reserve status. Now, it’s happening. It shouldn’t...

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden’s administration said climate change can “force” military invention after once again calling it a “national security issue.” John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, said during a press conference that climate change is a “driver of actual missions” because it creates “instability” and “insecurity.” “It’s a driver of actual missions, because climate change creates instability, which creates insecurity in some places. And you can end up — the fighting in Syria started, really, as a result of a drought. And so, there’s — there’s a — it can actually drive military...

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a dire prediction about her country’s future on a live-streamed panel on Wednesday, warning of “popular uprisings” if a pipeline turbine was not delivered back to Germany. Baerbock warned that Germany could face widespread domestic revolts due to energy shortages and would be unable to continue giving Ukraine military and economic aid while speaking to RND, a German media outlet, on Wednesday. The minister’s comments come amid the growing energy and economic crisis in Germany that is being exacerbated by the reduction of Russian gas imports via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, operated by...