Free Republic

Christmas is almost upon us, that magical time of year when the Christian faithful can look forward to attending seasonally themed Holy Masses centering upon such traditional, comforting festive fare as the miraculous Annunciation, Immaculate Conception, and Virgin Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ…and now, thanks to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the equally sacred occasion of His Divine Abortion, too. On 20 December 2013, Eloïse Bouton, a young Frenchwoman associated with the radical global feminist movement Femen, interrupted a carol service in Paris’ La Madeleine Church dressed as a topless parody of the Virgin Mary, with the...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” Luke 1:35Try to set aside all that you know about Jesus and simply ponder these words of the Archangel Gabriel as if you were to hear them as our Blessed Mother did for the very first time. She was told she would have a child, even though she had not had relations with a man. She was...

A former Nazi concentration camp typist known as the “Secretary of Evil” has been convicted by a German court for her role in more than 10,000 murders during the Holocaust. Irmgard Furchner, 97, was found guilty on Tuesday of complicity in the deaths of 10,505 people at Stutthof, the internment camp near Gdansk, Poland, where she served as a typist and stenographer from 1943 through 1945, BBC reported. Furchner, who was tried as a juvenile because she was under 21 when she worked at the camp, was sentenced to a two-year suspended prison term. Although Furchner’s lawyers repeatedly denied she...

crypto trading looks a lot like the forms of finance we’re all familiar with. It’s made up of things called “exchanges,” “brokers,” “lenders,” “deposits” and “hedge funds.” Crypto also carries the special mystique of the blockchain, which has let traders treat critics as anti-innovation Luddites. [however] the purposelessness of the crypto trading system emulates finance the same way the board games Risk and Monopoly emulate war and real-estate investing. Crypto trading is also gambling. It performs no intermediation function to help expand the economy or improve society. Crypto trading is, as “Seinfeld’s” George Costanza might have said, finance about nothing....

Critics argue that connecting Russia’s culture with its current leadership is counterproductiveUkraine is calling on its Western allies to temporarily boycott Tchaikovsky, the Russian composer behind Christmas classic The Nutcracker, and other Russian works. In an opinion piece published in the Guardian last week, Ukraine’s culture minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, wrote that the Kremlin is using Russian culture as a “tool and even a weapon,” wielding it to “justify their terrible war.” “We’re not talking about canceling Tchaikovsky, but rather about pausing performances of his works until Russia ceases its bloody invasion,” Tkachenko wrote. “Ukrainian cultural venues have already done this...

The island of Puerto Rico becoming a state might not lead to Democrats obtaining two additional senate seats, despite the party’s high hopes. The U.S. House passed a bipartisan bill to put Puerto Rico’s territorial status up for a vote with three potential options: statehood, full independence, or sovereignty will full U.S. association. In a symbolic 2012 referendum, statehood received over 60% of the vote with the other two options included. New York Democratic Reps. Nydia Velazquez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have led the push for Puerto Rican self determination, which was included in the party’s 2020 election platform. Democratic proposals...

Tuesday 20 December 202220 December Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio Church, Rome Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet. Year: A(I).First readingIsaiah 7:10-14 ©The maiden is with childThe Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’ Then Isaiah said:‘Listen now, House of David:are you not satisfied with trying the patience of menwithout trying the patience of my God, too?The Lord himself, therefore,will give you a sign.It is this: the maiden is...

A 17-year-old boy in Ozark, Missouri, is being charged as adult for the murder of a 16-year-old girl to whom he allegedly provided a fentanyl-laced pill, leading to her at-home overdose death in September. He was charged more than three months after Jones’ untimely death and released on $50,000 bond. Now, Jones’ mother in sounding off on social media, accusing Sayre of letting her daughter die. Sayre is on house arrest under electronic monitoring and is expected back in court on Jan. 31, 2023. Victoria Jones, 16, died of a fatal overdose. Her 17-year-old alleged supplier of a fentanyl-laced pill...

Democratic California Rep. Zoe Lofgren earmarked $2 million in federal taxpayer money for the renovation and relocation of a Planned Parenthood clinic in the omnibus spending bill currently working its way through Congress, according to analysis of the federal government’s budget by Open the Books. Members of Congress sometimes agree to vote for a spending bill under the condition that it includes funding for an unrelated cause or project they’re interested in in a process known as earmarking. The omnibus bill for the federal government’s 2023 budget includes $2 million for a Planned Parenthood clinic at the request of Lofgren,...

Brussels has reportedly summoned tech-billionaire Elon Musk to the European Parliament to discuss “hate speech” problems in relation to his social media network, Twitter. Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Parliament, has reportedly invited Musk to Brussels to discuss “hate speech” concerns surrounding Twitter, reports published on Tuesday have claimed. The transnational bloc has repeatedly come to blows with the on-and-off world’s richest man over his support for free speech on the platform, with authorities threatening to ban the billionaire’s social media company from the EU entirely should he refuse to censor content Brussels deems problematic.

This year, The College Fix identified 14 campus hate crime hoaxes and six questionable claims of racial animus. Last year, The Fix identified 11 hate crime hoaxes. The hoax that attracted the most widespread attention in 2022 is the claim by Duke University volleyball player Rachel Richardson that someone at a game against Brigham Young University kept yelling the n-word at her. This is actually two hate crime hoaxes, because her godmother also claimed that someone yelled the word every single time the black volleyball player went to serve. The hoax led the University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach...

PM 4Liberty, if you want On/Off this listhttps://pluto.tv/live-tv/americas-voicehttps://americasvoice.news/Tune in via Roku/AppleTV/AmazonFire with the America’s Voice App https://americasvoice.appLIVE STREAM all Bannon shows & find past episodes here: https://rumble.com/c/BannonsWarRoom | https://americasvoice.news/playlists/the-war-room/

The soldiers were scattered across Europe with the loneliness of war. The world was caught up in a total struggle. Women had gone to the factories; children were collecting scrap metal. The “war effort” was universal. In many places, food was rationed. The madhouse of consumption belonged only to the war; everything else could wait. And there was Christmas. Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley were part of the effort as well, cranking out songs that have never gone away. The mood was one of deep sentimentality and hope. “I’ll be home for Christmas,” the radios played, and soldiers wept. Being...

That so few people are curious about the nexus between intel agencies and Big Tech should be a national scandal. ... According to the latest drop of “Twitter Files” from Michael Shellenberger, “As of 2020, there were so many former FBI employees — ‘Bu alumni’ — working at Twitter that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals.” It appears that Twitter still has 14 employees on the payroll who worked at the FBI and CIA. The problem isn’t just confined to Twitter. My colleague and Federalist contributor Ben Weingarten recently...

US housing starts plunged -16.4% since the same time last year (aka, YoY) as The Federal Reserve continues tightening its monetary policy. Since October (aka, MoM), housing starts only dropped -.049% in November. 1-unit detached starts were down -4.06%. But multifamily (5+) starts were up 4.85% MoM. Building permits were down -11.24% from October to November (baby, its cold outside!) and down -22.4% since November 2021 (aka, YoY). Now, watch as President Biden and The Fed make housing construction disappear.

WESTON, Fla. – A Weston Hills Country Club homeowner has been put on notice and told to park his new $100,000 pickup truck in a garage, out of sight, or face fines. That homeowner is gearing up for a fight, claiming the rules are outdated and ridiculous. “How long did you wait to get this vehicle?” Local 10 investigative reporter Jeff Weinsier asked. “It was ordered over a year ago,” said Weston Hills resident Glenn Gordon. Gordon’s truck was delivered just a few weeks ago. “I felt like a little kid waiting for it,” he said. “The first one I...

Some 130 salad fans in Australia got more than they bargained for when picking up grub where contaminated baby spinach was an ingredient – including hallucinations and delirium. Food Standards Australia New Zealand has yanked several products including packaged salads and stir fry mixes from shelves of retailers Costco, Woolworths, Aldi and Coles across New South Wales. The tainted veg is thought to originate from Riviera Farms in Victoria and the problem is described as "potential contamination with unsafe plant material." The company said: "It appears these products, which were grown on a farm in Victoria and shipped to stores...

HARRISBURG — If House Republicans are successful in getting the special elections for two Allegheny County-based House districts delayed until May, the results of a Senate special election could lead to a whole new level of chaos in the power struggle in the state House. Republicans are clinging to a 101-99 advantage, with three special elections looming in seats vacated by Democrats. If Democrats win all three of those races, as expected, the Democrats will reclaim the majority in the chamber for the first time in more than a decade. One of those special elections — to fill the vacancy...

Remarkably, Luke 2:39–52 is the only passage that records anything that happened during Jesus’ young years. From the time of His infancy until His introduction to Israel when He was twenty-nine, the Bible gives only this story. However, we learn much about Jesus as a young person in these few verses. JESUS DEVELOPED SPIRITUALLY DURING HIS PRETEEN YEARS. Of the first eleven years of His life, the Bible simply says, “The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40). There are four concentric rings describing the situations in...

NATIONAL SANGRIA DAY Across the nation each year on December 20th, National Sangria Day recognizes a wine and fresh fruit combination that brings a fresh celebration to the table. #NationalSangriaDay Sangria is a beverage made with wine and sweetened with fresh fruit and fruit juices. Other ingredients can include herbs, spices, carbonation, and liquor. The combinations are endless, giving sangria a place in the cocktail rotation year-round. Refreshing and light during hot summer months, bright and sparkling during the winter ones, this fruity punch is quite versatile. Sangria made with white wine is called Sangria Blanca. Use fresh fruit in...