Free Republic

Robbie Coltrane, the beloved actor best known for his roles in Harry Potter, two James Bond films, and the UK television series Cracker, has died. He was 72. According to multiple reports, the Scottish actor died Friday in a hospital near Falkirk in Scotland. According to NBC News, Coltrane had been ill and wasn't active recently. Born Anthony Robert McMillan in Rutherglen, Scotland in 1950, Coltrane's acting career started in theater. He appeared on The Slab Boys before finding his way onto the big screen in films such as Flash Gordon and Mona Lisa. He also appeared in Nuns On...

A UN official claimed Russia is using rape as its “military strategy” in Ukraine — providing soldiers with drugs to sexually assault civilians. “When you hear women testify about Russian soldiers equipped with Viagra, it’s clearly a military strategy,” Pramila Patten, UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, told the AFP. Patten added that the UN has verified “more than a hundred cases” of rape or sexual assault since the invasion began in February. Victims have largely included girls and women, but boys and men have been raped, too. In September, the head of the organization’s Independent International Commission...

Whatever happened to local food? Have you ever thought about how wildly unrealistic and unsustainable our current diets are? For example, items that don’t grow within the same season are commonly consumed together. Things that don’t grow on the same continent are combined into all sorts of meals. We eat blueberries in December and drink pumpkin spice lattes in the summer. We eat tropical fruit with Midwestern grains. Without the transportation system, there would be absolutely no rhyme or reason to our “normal” diets. What is a typical breakfast in the United States? A typical start to one’s day in...

Franciscan University of Steubenville launched a 2022-23 pilot of the “Unplugged Scholarship,” which awards financial assistance to students who give up using a smartphone for the duration of their undergraduate studies.... The Schneirs expressed their hope that this scholarship will be a step in reclaiming that adventure. “We hope these brave students pioneer an unplugged lifestyle that carries into their vocations as businesspersons, educators, religious leaders, medical professionals, mothers, and fathers, and that they might be free and more capable to make their lives ‘something beautiful for God,’” said Hope Schneir.

One in five Americans are unsure if they will be able to cover the costs of Thanksgiving this year, and one in four plan to skip it to save money, a recent Personal Capital survey found. The state of economic affairs in President Joe Biden’s America is affecting Americans’ holiday plans. According to the survey, one quarter of Americans are planning to skip Thanksgiving this year to save money, and one in five “doubted they would have enough money to cover the costs of Thanksgiving this year.”

Democratic Party strategists are watching Arizona's Kari Lake with growing alarm. Why it matters: As some see it, Lake — a 2020 election denier — could easily win the state's gubernatorial race and threaten its 2024 election processes. And with the talent she's already displayed even as a political novice, they see her potential to soar to a vice presidential spot or a post-Trump presidential candidacy. Zoom in: Of this year's midterm elections slate of "ultra MAGA" candidates, Lake has perhaps the best chance of winning. The polls are neck-and-neck. Some Democrats are venting frustration that Katie Hobbs is not...

You have not considered what it would mean for you if I am right. You need to. Now. To those I care about: That you think I’m crazy is not primarily an insult to me. It makes me feel sad for you. If you feel insulted in what’s to follow, ask yourself how I must feel, having spent days, weeks, months, or longer trying to convince you to reconnect to your humanity. And please do not do yourselves or me the favor of pretending, “well, I don’t think you’re crazy, but…” I don’t care to be lied to. I do...

ATLANTA — The Atlanta police department wants to get guns off the street so they are having a gun buyback this Saturday. It’s part of mayor Andre Dickens’ One Safe City program.

I regret to inform you that the President of the United States is a creeper. I also regret to inform you that we’ve known that for far longer than anyone should be comfortable with. Joe Biden has been sniffing and inappropriately invading the space of young girls for much of his career, and that continued on Friday during a meet and greet in Irvine, CA. RedState reported on Biden’s speech at the event, but the video I’m about to share didn’t come out until later that evening. It was filmed by Kalen D’Almedia of TPUSA, and the Secret Service agents...

[Catholic Caucus] Evil Clown Is Very AfraidTough luck, evil clown… The Second Vatican Council started his official path 60 years ago. At that time: Families were intact all over the West. Divorce was banned or very rare in Catholic countries, still fairly rare elsewhere. Catholic churches were full. Catholicism was state religion in Italy, France, Spain and many other European and Southern American Countries. Abortion was forbidden over most of the West. Illegal abortions were generally rare, and very risky. Sodomy Laws were in the books (if likely not brutally enforced) in most European Countries. Most people knew so much...

I just discovered Pinochle and it’s a lot of fun.

Fifty-five years ago this week, Ernesto "Che" Guevara got a major dose of his own medicine. Without trial he was declared a murderer, stood against a wall and shot. If the saying "What goes around comes around" ever fit, it's here. "When you saw the beaming look on Che's face as his victims were tied to the stake and blasted apart by the firing squad," said a former Cuban political prisoner to this writer, "you saw there was something seriously, seriously wrong with Che Guevara." As commander of the La Cabana execution yard, Che often shattered the skull of the...

Los Angeles City Council has been rocked by a racial scandal that has already forced one member to resign. Nury Martinez, who served as city council president, initially stepped down from the leadership, but not her seat, when the 80-minute recording from October 2021 was leaked to the press, covered by The Los Angeles Times in their October 9 story. The tapes featured two council members—Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon. A top union official, Ron Herrera, the now-former president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, was also featured on the tapes and resigned on October 10. The...

Incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is widening the gap over his Democratic challenger, Mandela Barnes, in Wisconsin’s Senate race, a new poll from Marquette Law School found. The poll, whose results were released on Wednesday, has Johnson racking up support of 52 percent of likely voters, compared with Barnes’ 46 percent. The results are a jump from September, when polls showed Johnson polling just 1 percentage point ahead of Barnes, but are still within the survey’s margin of sampling error. Barnes has seen a decline in the polls over recent months after facing a slew of attack ads depicting him...

Britons are preparing for possible power cuts by stocking-up on portable generators and torches, in addition to winter clothing, thermal underwear and candles. National Grid warned this month that Britain could face three-hour planned power cuts to homes and businesses this winter if it cannot import electricity from Europe and struggles to attract enough imports to fuel gas-fired power plants.

[Catholic Caucus] Why the Traditional Catholic Faith is So Important TLM & NOMThe June-July 2021 issue of Christian Order referenced a 2019 Catholic Herald report headed, "Traditional Latin Mass attendees more devout and orthodox, study says." The study in question was a piece of research carried out by US Catholic priest Fr. Donald Kloster, which compared the attitudes of Catholics attending the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in the USA with the attitudes of those attending the Novus Ordo Mass (NOM). The research revealed huge differences between the two groups. Just 2% of those attending the TLM approved of contraception, compared...

Kelly Chang Rickert rose to TicTok fame by giving pithy advice so you don’t end up in her office asking her to litigate (or better yet, mediate) your divorce. Happily married herself, she reveals the top 5 questions you should ask before marriage so you don't end up divorced: 1. What is your credit score? (And ask to see recent credit report) ..... 2. Children ...... 3. Household chores ...... 4. Sex ...... 5. Health ..... These questions are just the starting point. It is much better to have an awkward conversation now than having this conversation in front of...

A few years back I made this query but got no answer. Thought I'd try again. In the mid 80s I compiled a library of music of over 3100 pieces. It is the only thing I listen to in my cars. So over the many years several have become my favorite. The second of which is Nana Mouskouri's Amazing Grace. This song, IMHO, best puts out her incredible voice and I have more than one of her albums. But gettng back to the piece, in the background is a choral group that sounds almost as good as her. I have...

Vatican II didn’t fail. It’s just getting started.I sometimes wish that I could travel back to see my parish in the 1950s in West Philadelphia. The great domed church, St. Francis de Sales, towering over Victorian houses and Edwardian apartment buildings, can seat 800, but back then it needed simultaneous Masses in the lower church and the parish hall to fit all the attendees. I wish I could still watch that many people streaming toward the church each Sunday. We are not now that strength which we once were. The loss of that strength is hard, but it can end...

Company partners with Merck for "new treatment paradigm." Moderna, the bio-tech company behind one of the now-ubiquitous COVID-19 vaccinations, said this week that it is actively moving forward with the development of a "personalized" anti-cancer vaccination. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company said in a press release that pharmaceutical company Merck had opted to " exercis[e] its option to jointly develop and commercialize [a] personalized cancer vaccine" with Moderna itself. "We have been collaborating with Merck on PCVs since 2016, and together we have made significant progress in advancing mRNA-4157 as an investigational personalized cancer treatment," Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in...