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The One Thread By Which the Council Hangs: a Response to Cavadini, Healy, and WeinandyAbove: photos of (left) Requiem Mass for Pope Benedict XVI at the Monastère Saint-Benoît, provided by the monastery, and (right) Mass in Mexico, by marianaarias of CathoPic.“Don’t touch that! If you do, everything will collapse!” The warning is clear enough. Any sensible person would rapidly desist, lest their one seemingly minor act bring everything crashing down, undoing the work of many days, weeks, years or even decades.I am not sure whether these were the exact words used by a number of bishops at the beginning of...

An investigation by the U.S. Supreme Court has failed to identify the culprit who leaked a draft Court decision that signaled the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling the legalized abortion at the federal level. On May 2, 2022, Politico published a draft of the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the major abortion case that would eventually overturn Roe v. Wade. The unprecedented leak triggered protests across the country and at the justices' homes that continued for months.

David Crosby, the singer, songwriter and guitarist and member of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, has died. His wife, Jan Dance, told Variety Thursday, "It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away. He was lovingly surrounded by his wife and soulmate Jan and son Django. Although he is no longer here with us, his humanity and kind soul will continue to guide and inspire us." She continues, "His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music. Peace, love, and harmony to all who knew David and...

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The Secret Service admitted Thursday that it does, in fact, have information on visitors to President Biden’s Wilmington, Del., residence during the time he kept classified records in the home’s garage. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi claimed Monday that “we don’t independently maintain our own visitor logs because it’s a private residence.” But Guglielmi’s tune had changed Thursday, when he said that “the Secret Service does generate law enforcement and criminal justice information records for various individuals who may come into contact with Secret Service protected sites.” Meanwhile, Fox News quoted an unnamed source as promising that “the Secret Service...

Politicians of old wanted to persuade the public by capturing hearts and minds, but today’s pols find more value in capturing our tongues. They want all Americans to take the most paranoid position on how dangerous our majority-white nation is for its non-white citizens. Since the 2017 Charlottesville chaos involving a clash between a faction of neo-Nazis and protesters, notable Democrats (including President Joe Biden) have mimicked a broken record as they repeat the phrase that pays: White supremacy is the greatest threat to our nation. But the Democratic mission of defeating white supremacy quickly moved from decrying a fringe...

Former President Donald Trump has petitioned the fascists at Facebook to unblock his account, reports the far-left NBC News. He also intends to resume tweeting:“We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse,” Trump’s campaign wrote in its letter to Meta on Tuesday, according to a copy reviewed by NBC News.Trump’s campaign didn’t threaten a lawsuit, as some sources close to Trump thought he would. It instead talked about the importance of free speech and petitioned Meta for a “meeting to discuss President Trump’s prompt reinstatement to the platform.”A Meta...

Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska wept Wednesday over the helicopter crash on the outskirts of Kyiv that killed 14 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and at least one child. Photos showed Zelenska wiping her eyes as she attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Unfortunately it’s just another horrible day for Ukraine,” Zelenska said. “From the outside it may seem that we must be used to it by now, but unfortunately we are not.” Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi was killed when the French-made Super Puma helicopter he was riding in crashed Wednesday. The helicopter plowed into a kindergarten in...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday he had no idea why government documents were taken to the Penn Biden Center, despite serving there as managing director for two years. At a press conference, Blinken was asked if he was “aware of any reason why classified documents would have been packed and brought there while you were there, and whether you would be available for an interview if the special counsel requests.” Blinken responded, “The short answer is no.” He added, “Just as you heard from President Biden about a week ago, I was surprised to learn that there were...

Jerseys for Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov have sold out online days after the 26-year-old refused to wear a gay pride-themed jersey for religious reasons. Both NHL Shop and Fanatics have listed Provorov's jerseys as "almost gone," and there are no longer any men's jerseys with his name and number available. On Fanatics, the defenseman is listed as having the most popular men's jersey, women's jersey, and sweatshirt, and his Branded Backer shirt is being advertised as the most popular seller related to the Philadelphia Flyers, according to the online store. Provorov was blasted by legacy media outlets for refusing...

Explanation: A broad expanse of glowing gas and dust presents a bird-like visage to astronomers from planet Earth, suggesting its popular moniker - The Seagull Nebula. Using narrowband image data, this 3-panel mosaic of the cosmic bird covers a 2.5 degree swath across the plane of the Milky Way, near the direction of Sirius, alpha star of the constellation Canis Major. Likely part of a larger shell structure swept up by successive supernova explosions, the broad Seagull Nebula is cataloged as Sh2-296 and IC 2177. The prominent bluish arc below and right of center is a bow shock from runaway...

Sam Bankman-Fried cultivated ties with A-list celebrities, politicians and investors alike — but one power couple in particular was key to boosting his profile in influential and moneyed circles. Bill Clinton was paid north of $250,000 when he spoke at the disgraced FTX CEO’s Crypto Bahamas Conference in April, sources told The Post. At the over-the-top tropical shindig, the ex-US president along with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair were famously photographed onstage next to Bankman-Fried, who appeared wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Shortly thereafter, Bill and Hillary Clinton invited the 30-year-old Bankman-Fried — known as “SBF” in crypto circles...

Consumer spending slowed and household finances weakened across all income levels last month. But households earning $100,000 a year or more reported shaving more off their spending than less well-off households did, according to a report released this week by Morning Consult, a decision intelligence company. The report also found that real monthly spending among U.S. adults fell by 4.3% from November to December. Even so, 21.3% of U.S. adults said their monthly expenses exceeded their monthly income in December, up from 19.2% in November. On average, households earning $100,000 a year or more said they spent about 10% less...

She started off emailing about the deliberate undercounting of vaccinated Covid patients, but she wound up saying much more. This email came in a few days ago, after the Stack about the way hospitals misclassify vaccinated patients with Covid as unvaccinated to make the vaccines look better. It is raw and real, a cry from a nurse who is incredibly frustrated by what she’s seen since 2020. I asked her if I could run it, and she graciously agreed. (She followed up with another, even more personal email about side effects some mRNA-jabbed colleagues are now suffering, but that contains...

Over the past eight years, this man has not been left alone. A Black Massachusetts man is suing the Worcester Police Department for racial profiling after allegedly pulling him over more than 70 times in just the past eight years, per GBH News. He’s still fighting charges from one of his previous police interactions. T.J. Juty says he has been suspected of stealing cars and selling drugs before even being apprehended with a warrant. The report says he was pulled over in 2021 for not updating his new car color on his registration. By law, he wasn’t required to, but...

Matthew Salesses, an author and assistant professor of writing at Columbia University's School of the Arts, allegedly created the form as a "commitment to the process" and posted a picture of the paper to his Twitter account. "Made my grad students sign this today because if I'm going to commit to them, they need to commit to themselves," he reportedly said in a since-deleted tweet on Tuesday. The tweet also included a picture of the form, which began by notifying students that failure to uphold the contract would result in a failing grade for the course. The document first told...

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, mainly caused by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels.

Is white paint racist? Norway's University of Bergen is exploring that question, asking how the aesthetic of white paint helped the nation contribute to white supremacy and helped "[make] the world whiter." "Whiteness is not only a cultural and societal condition tied to skin color, privileges, and systematic exclusion, but materialize everywhere around us," a rundown of the study read. "Although Norway is not a conventional colonial power, this project will show how the country has played a globally leading role in establishing white as a superior color," it said. "Until now, however, this story has been lesser known to...

"A Kremlin insider warned Thursday that Russia could start a nuclear war if it lost its conventional war in Ukraine. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s security council and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, made the threat in a post on the Telegram messaging app...."

Joe Biden's public approval rating was close to the lowest level of his presidency this week amid criticism from Republicans over classified documents found in his home in recent months, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The three-day national poll, which closed on Sunday, showed 40% of Americans approved of Biden's performance as president, versus 39% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll a month earlier. Biden began 2023 buoyed by unexpectedly strong midterm election results for Democrats. U.S. inflation was also falling and the Republican Party appeared in disarray after taking days to elect a speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives....