Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Weakland Stole More Than Money, He Stole the FaithSpeak only good things of the dead, the saying goes. The yoga division of The New York Times assumed a veritable Möbius strip of a position to attempt to write a laudable obituary for Rembert Weakland, the disgraced former archbishop of Milwaukee, who died the other day at the age of 95.It wasn’t entirely successful. The eulogist, one Robert D. McFadden, did have to mention that Weakland “paid” $450,000 as hush money to ward off a lawsuit by his former male lover, who accused him of sexual assault. I...

Experts have warned the risks of civil unrest are growing in even the wealthiest countries of Europe, particularly due to the skyrocketing energy bills and cost of living crisis. Risk consultancy firm Verisk Maplecroft warned that Germany and Norway are two developed economies that have already been facing some disruptions to daily life as a result of labour actions. Earlier today, pilots at Lufthansa went on strike, forcing the German airline to cancel hundreds of flights in Frankfurt and Munich.

NASA’s new moon rocket sprang another dangerous fuel leak Saturday, forcing launch controllers to call off their second attempt to send a crew capsule into lunar orbit with test dummies. The first attempt earlier in the week was also marred by escaping hydrogen, but those leaks were elsewhere on the 322-foot (98-meter) rocket, the most powerful ever built by NASA. Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and her team tried to plug Saturday’s leak the way they did the last time: stopping and restarting the flow of super-cold liquid hydrogen in hopes of removing the gap around a seal in the supply...

“Melania doesn’t like the idea of strangers going rifling through her things. Who knows who touched her underwear during the raid?” Trump’s friend said. “She’s never going to feel comfortable wearing those ever again.” Shortly after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump confirmed reports that the agents searched through Melania’s bedroom and closets. “Just learned that agents went through the First Lady’s closets and rummaged through her clothing and personal items. Surprisingly, left area in a relative mess,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Wow!” Melania Trump’s friend noted that she is a “bigger germaphobe” than the former president,...

A large newspaper in Tuscany, Il Tirreno, has reported on Sunday, that Zelensky rented his luxury villa in Forte dei Marmi to a couple of Russians living in London. According to its sources, the newspaper was able to show that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rented his villa in Forte dei Marmi, in Tuscany, for 50,000 euros a month to a couple of Russian citizens coming from London. As a remember, following the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Zelensky asked Italy to stop welcoming Russian tourists as well as seizing their yachts, homes and money. Il Tirreno revealed that a negotiation...

“Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Matthew 24:26-27 Years ago, I was selected by my ROTC cadre to attend the Army’s hardest and (at 11 days) shortest badge course called Air Assault School. While this school is offered at several locations across the United States, I was particularly drawn to this one in the...

Pay to play is legal in California as there are no statewide prohibitions. California Governor Gavin Newsom has quietly solicited millions of dollars in campaign donations from state vendors, key people, employees, or their affiliated corporate political action committees. While progressives decry corporate money in politics, Governor Gavin Newsom has embraced the highly unethical practice of soliciting campaign cash from state contractors. ... Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found 979 state vendors who gave $10,561,828 in political donations to Newsom during his 2010, 2018, recall election, and 2022 election cycles. Meanwhile, these companies reaped $6,201,978,173 in state payments. ... These donations...

The majority of Americans believe political divisions have worsened since the beginning of 2021, a new poll finds — and two out of five think a civil war is likely to break out within the next decade. About two-thirds — 66% — say Americans have become more split politically since the start of 2021 and they are largely pessimistic about the future of the United States, with 63% saying they expect the separations to increase and 62% predicting political violence will worsen over the next few years, the YouGovAmerica poll shows. *** Asked about the likelihood that the country will...

Labor Day marks the line in the corporate sand. Many company leaders say the end-of-summer holiday represents the best chance to finally lean on workers to return to the office this year. After months of encouraging white-collar employees to return, or attempting to coax them back with free pizza, warm cookies and catered lunches, many executives now say they feel emboldened to take a tougher stance. No longer can workers merely come to the office if they so choose; this fall, executives say, attendance is expected and the office resisters will be put on notice. Employers including Apple Inc., Prudential...

An estimated 70,000 people protested in Prague against the Czech government on Saturday, calling on the ruling coalition to do more to control soaring energy prices and voicing opposition to the European Union and NATO. Organizers of the demonstration from a number of far-right and fringe political groups including the Communist party, said the central European nation should be neutral militarily and ensure direct contracts with gas suppliers, including Russia.\ Police estimates put the number of protesters at around 70,000 by mid-afternoon. The aim of our demonstration is to demand change, mainly in solving the issue of energy prices, especially...

I provided no particular link because the fact is being generally reported.

September 3 is the feast of Pope St. Gregory the Great. This most significant of popes lived during a time of societal dissolution, when the Roman Empire in the West was in its final death agony. Though the Eastern Empire had re-established dominion in Africa and Italy in the 550s AD under Justinian, the invasion of the brutal Lombards in AD 568 proved unstoppable, leaving Italy in a state of perpetual fracture and chaos that would last centuries. Following is the opening to Gregory's work, The Dialogues. This great work was written during a period of brief respite, when Gregory...

Explanation: On August 25 Sun and Moon could both be seen in planet Earth's daytime skies. And so could the International Space Station. The ISS crossed the disk of the waning crescent Moon as seen from Shunyi district, Beijing, China at about 11:02 am local time. Some 40 kilometers to the southwest, in Fengtai district, the ISS was seen to cross the Sun's disk too. The solar transit was observed only 29 seconds later. Both transits are compared in these panels, composed of processed and stacked video frames from the two locations. The coordinated captures were made with different equipment,...

Inspired by President Biden's call to action against the enemies of our democracy, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol is asking former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga) to voluntarily testify at its hearings. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo) explained, "the President's speech reminded us that our work here is far from done. Many of the ringleaders of the MAGA conspiracy against democracy are still at large. The handful of Jan 6 insurrectionists that have been locked up in the DC jail are just the tip of the iceberg. We need to interrogate everyone linked to...

Former first lady Melania Trump reportedly bought a new wardrobe after the FBI “contaminated” her clothes when they searched her room as part of last month’s raid on Mar-a-Lago. Trump would not feel comfortable wearing any of the clothes FBI agents touched, a friend told Radar Online. “Melania doesn’t like the idea of strangers going rifling through her things. Who knows who touched her underwear during the raid?” Trump’s friend said. “She’s never going to feel comfortable wearing those ever again.” Shortly after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump confirmed reports that the agents searched through Melania’s bedroom...

This pic illustrates the irony that is gavin newsome's California. Maybe if Elon Musk threw in a trailer/generator/1000 gallons of gas for every Tesla purchase in California?

ussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned Moldova not to endanger its troops or risk an attack. Russian forces have been stationed in the breakaway region of Transnistria since the 1990s.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week warned Moldova not to endanger Russian troops stationed in Transnistria, a pro-Russian breakaway region in the country's east, saying doing so could spark military confrontation.

But the liberty at stake is moral and spiritual, not just intellectual.In the days since a brutal attack on Salman Rushdie, the world has seen an outpouring of solidarity. The phrase “We are all Salman Rushdie” appeared on Twitter profiles and in countless articles, acknowledging that threats to one person’s freedom of expression are a threat to all. In the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik anticipated efforts “to somehow equalize or level the acts of Rushdie and his tormentors and would-be executioners.” That approach is despicable, he wrote, “because the right to be insulting about other people’s religions…is a fundamental right,...

Well, that was quite the show. The Nazi background theme was an interesting choice. I'd love to know who came up with that one. Using US Marines in a thinly veiled threat against fellow Americans was in bad taste. The implication that Biden is going to use the military to eradicate MAGA Republicans is the concerning. Karine Jean-Pierre, the nitwit who masquerades as the White Press Secretary, assured us ahead of time that Biden's speech was going to be optimistic and not political. Lying is about the only thing she does well. After Biden's Hitleresque diatribe she declared that the...

LANDSBERG — President Joe Biden has announced the release of an autobiographical memoir entitled My Struggle, detailing his strategic plans for growing the power of the government and taking over the world. The book reportedly describes the reasoning for his hatred of certain people groups and why his political enemies must be crushed if the nation is to once again become a great empire. "He who would live must fight. He who doesn't wish to fight in this world, where permanent struggle is the law of life, has not the right to exist," Biden writes in the text. Biden also...