Free Republic

ROME, Italy — The United States Embassy to the Holy See celebrated “Transgender Day of Remembrance” Sunday, offering tribute “to those of the transgender community who have been murdered because of hate.”According to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. Transgender activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith established TDOR in 1999 as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a black transgender person who was killed in Allston Massachusetts in 1998....

ABC legal analyst Sunny Hostin told her co-hosts Monday on “The View” that she thinks “Jesus would be the grand marshal at the Pride parade.” Hostin said, “I keep on wondering if you don’t want to go to a gay club because you don’t like gay people, don’t go to the club. Why do you got to shoot up the club? If you don’t want to be a person married to a gay person, then just don’t get married to a gay person.”

"I hope and pray I will live long enough to see my name cleared once and for all," Albany bishop emeritus said of the child sex abuse allegations he facesALBANY — Howard J. Hubbard, who served as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany for 37 years, has formally asked the Vatican to permanently remove him from being a member of the clergy. Hubbard's request comes as he is facing multiple lawsuits filed under New York's Child Victims Act that accuse him of child sexual abuse — allegations that he has denied — and of systematically shielding other priests...

MSNBC national security analyst Frank Figliuzzi said Monday on “Deadline” that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Fox News host Tucker Carlson may face civil lawsuits from the victims of Saturday’s shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, CO if it is discovered the shooter is a “consumer” of Fox News or the congresswoman. Figliuzzi said, “It is it about instilling fear, and the correct response for the rest of us is to step up and push back right at them. So it’s hatred. It’s clinging to weapons. It’s ignorance of the other, demonizing the other. We said this over and...

The Saturday night shooting in Colorado Springs’ Club Q occurred despite the fact that the state adopted stringent gun controls in the months and years following the December 14, 2012, attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School. In the months immediately after the Sandy Hook attack, Colorado’s Democrat lawmakers pushed universal background checks through the legislature. Democrat Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the legislation into law on March 19, 2013. Days prior to the bill being signed, Reuters reported Colorado Republican House minority leader Mark Waller warned, “If the goal is to enhance public safety, this bill won’t do it. If a...

Fr. Hermann Backhaus works as a psychologist in a counseling center of the diocese of Münster that provides psychological support for people employed by the Church. (LifeSiteNews) — The official news website of the Catholic Church in Germany published an interview with a priest-psychologist who suggested that there are benefits to pornography and masturbation for celibate clergy. The psychologist Hermann Backhaus, who is also a Catholic priest, told katholisch.de that “[w]ith regard to celibate people, the consumption of explicit sexual depictions can have a relieving effect – this cannot be denied.” Backhaus works as a psychologist in a counseling center...

On this date in 1859,* Japan’s fading Tokugawa Shogunate beheaded samurai sage Yoshida Shoin as an enemy of the state. Inheriting leadership of an unprosperous samurai house by the untimely death of his adoptive father, Yoshida (English Wikipedia entry | the much more detailed Japanese) studied war and philosophy from the age of five but understood right away that the classics he knew backward and forward were no match for the American gunships that steamed into Edo Bay in 1853. Keen to learn the barbarian’s secrets, Yoshida and a friend named Sakuma Shozan* surreptitiously presented the American flotilla with an...

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Arnold Air Force Base, TennesseeArnold Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Coffee and Franklin counties, Tennessee, adjacent to the city of Tullahoma. It is named for General Henry "Hap" Arnold, the father of the U.S. Air Force. The base is home to the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), the most advanced and largest complex of flight simulation test facilities in the world. The center operates 58 aerodynamic and propulsion wind tunnels, rocket and turbine engine test cells, space environmental chambers, arc heaters, ballistic ranges and other specialized...

Explanation: Stars can make beautiful patterns as they age -- sometimes similar to flowers or insects. NGC 6302, the Butterfly Nebula, is a notable example. Though its gaseous wingspan covers over 3 light-years and its estimated surface temperature exceeds 200,000 degrees C, the aging central star of NGC 6302, the featured planetary nebula, has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in visible and ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. This sharp close-up was recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope and is processed here to show off remarkable details of the complex planetary nebula, highlighting...

The excise will not apply to fermented beverages, kvass with ethyl alcohol content from 0.5% to 1.2% inclusive, juices, fruit nectars, juice-containing beverages and fresh fruit drinks MOSCOW, November 21./TASS/.Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law recognizing sugary drinks as excisable items starting July 1, 2023. The published document was initiated by the government, it amends the Russian Tax Code. The excise rate is set a 7 rubles ($0.12) per liter. Non-alcoholic beverages produced with the use of sugar or other or other sweeteners containing more than 5 grams per 100 ml are recognized as sugary drinks...

The Washington Post published a story Nov. 11 reporting that current and former students claimed to have been pressured by university administrators to withdraw once their mental health problems were known, after which they were required to go through a cumbersome reapplication process to get back into the school. More than 25 current and former Yale students told the outlet they were upset by what they described as Yale's inadequate policies and services for students in the throes of a mental health crisis, despite the institution's $41.4 billion endowment. In instances reported by those who spoke with The Washington Post,...

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley hinted she could seek a bid for the presidency in 2024 during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting, potentially setting up a challenge with former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. Haley, also a former U.S. Ambassador in the Trump administration, has been considered a potential presidential candidate for years and became an outspoken critic of Trump after leaving his administration. "A lot people have asked if I'm going to run for president now that the midterms are over. I'll look at it in a serious way and I'll...

Three Oklahoma teenagers were killed when they broke into a house and were met by a homeowner with an AR-15. Now the grandfather of one of the teenagers is speaking out about his grandson’s death. According to KTUL-TV, Leroy Schumacher, grandfather of 17-year-old Jacob Redfearn, believes the death of Redfearn was unjustified because the homeowner’s AR-15 gave him an unfair advantage over the three burglars. Speaking to KTUL, Schumacher acknowledged that breaking into a house was “stupid,” but death was not the appropriate consequence. “What these three boys did was stupid,” Schumacher said. “They knew they could be punished for...

Col. MacGregor: Zelensky's made a terrible mistake by trying to pin the missiles on Russia. Everyone knows; and what he's done is sacrifice what little credibility he has left. Increasingly he is viewed especially in Europe where more and more truth is getting through to the populations. He's seen as the mayor of the the capital of disinformation and fiction. The truth is the situation that Ukraine finds itself in right now is really quite desperate. The Russians have systematically dismantled most of the energy system. People are lacking in terms of lack of heat, but lack of heat is...

Kelvin Blowe was shot and killed in Washington, D.C., on the same day the city council voted unanimously to pass a bill he advocated for that reduces penalties for serious offenses such as robbery, burglary, carjackings, and carrying a firearm without a license. The Washington Post reports Blowe had spent over five years in prison for robbery, and the experience "instilled in him a passion to right inequities he believed he encountered." After getting out, he joined DC Justice Lab, one of the groups that pushed to overhaul the city's criminal code. He testified in support of the proposed bill...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis Stokes Up German Bishops’ RebellionDefiant prelates tell Vatican they 'want to be Catholics in another way'VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - Defiant German bishops claim that Pope Francis is backing them in their rebellion against Church teaching on homosexuality, women's ordination and the abolition of priestly celibacy. A pastoral worker blesses a homosexual couple in Germany "The Holy Father made it clear to us that tension is necessary," Bp. Georg Bätzing, president of the German Bishops' Conference, told reporters in Rome on Saturday at the conclusion of the prelates' ad limina visit to the Vatican. "The audience with Pope...

Update from Ukraine | Ruzzia lost almost half of their tanks in Ukraine | Bakhmut is a black hole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o6B4sXfnq8 Follow on Instagram up to date uploads. https://www.instagram.com/denys_pilot/ Military maps here: https://militaryland.net/ Invasion Day 270 – Summary & Maps November 20, 2022 https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-270-summary/ Poltava’s paratroopers rebranded November 19, 2022 https://militaryland.net/news/poltavas-paratroopers-rebranded/

Reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley have been sentenced to 12 years and seven years in prison respectively months after they were found guilty in their tax evasion case. The couple, best known for 'Chrisley Knows Best' on USA, was sentenced Monday by an Atlanta judge to a combined total of 19 years in prison, less than two days after one of their sons was seriously injured in a car crash in Nashville. Todd, 53, and Julie, 49, will also serve 16 months of probation each upon their release, according to WBS-TV. The news comes five months after the Chrisleys...

From time to time, just one human story becomes something akin to a modern parable. David French—writer, lawyer, public intellectual—is now that person. It is no insult to say that French, in himself, contains multitudes. In two recent articles, French defends both what is wrongly called the “Respect for Marriage Act” and his own process of thinking about same-sex marriage. He says that he has written these articles as acts of personal intellectual honesty, and I have no reason to question his integrity of mind. What I mean to criticize most strenuously is the ideas he now promotes. I do...

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is reviving its criminal investigation into Trump’s ‘hush payments’ to porn star Stephanie Clifford, AKA, Stormy Daniels. Trump has been accused of paying Daniels ‘hush payments’ in a scheme to silence her about their alleged affair. Trump has denied the affair. House Democrats previously launched the inquiry into the hush payments ahead of the 2020 election cycle as a way to bog down Trump and slow down his 2020 re-election campaign. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s predecessor previously rejected the Trump ‘hush payments’ case because it wouldn’t stand up in court. Fast-forward a couple years and...