Free Republic

FATHER MARTIN'S BRIDGE: Crossing into Critical Queer CatholicismEditor's Intro: This is the most devastating takedown of the Big Lie that is Pope Francis's Church of Accompaniment I have ever read. The fact that is written by a Jesuit-trained homosexual man -- who is calling out Father James Martin by name in order to make his case -- only makes it that much more effective. This article needs the widest possible circulation, especially during the lead-up to the Synod on Synodality. Among those who have suffered the most collateral damage as a result of the Big Lie are, ironically, people with...

Ukraine could soon face a tough decision over tactically withdrawing from Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, as the fate of the city hangs in balance. Bakhmut has been intensely fought over by Russian and Ukrainian forces for months, with Moscow viewing its capture as a strategic goal and a way to cut Ukrainian supply lines in Donetsk. Russian officials recently claimed that Moscow’s forces have almost entirely encircled Bakhmut. On Wednesday, one special forces commander said Russian troops now occupied several streets in the city. Ukraine disputes how far Russia has advanced into Bakhmut, although it concedes – in...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) praised Joe Biden Thursday for waiting until the China spy balloon had crossed the entire United States before shooting it down over water. Romney spoke to reporters after an all-senators classified briefing on the spy balloon. ..... Snip..... "My questions were satisfactorily answered and I believe the administration, the president, our military and our intelligence agencies acted skillfully and with care. At the same time, their capabilities are extraordinarily impressive,” Romney told reporters after the briefing. "Was everything done 100% correctly? I can't imagine that would be the case of almost anything we do. But I...

A bond-market gauge of impending U.S. recessions fell just shy of reaching its most negative reading since October 1981, when interest rates were 19% under Paul Volcker’s Federal Reserve. That gauge, which measures the spread between 2- TMUBMUSD02Y, 4.492% and 10-year Treasury yields TMUBMUSD10Y, 3.662%, finished the New York session on Thursday at minus 82.5 basis points. In other words, the 10-year yield was trading 82.5 basis points below the 2-year yield. Over much of the day, the spread appeared to be on track to surpass its Dec. 7 low of minus 84.9 basis points and seemed headed for the...

"But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour." "But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd." "And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and...

Mark 7:24-30,p> Friends, in today’s Gospel, a feisty woman engages Jesus in an argument. It is one of the only scenes in the Gospels where someone cajoles Jesus into doing something he wouldn’t ordinarily do.There is a long tradition that stresses the woman’s perseverance in the face of the “test” that Jesus sets for her. There is another reading that shows how the woman exemplifies the proper attitude toward God, a combination of humility and boldness, of deference and defiance.But the reading I want to emphasize is one conditioned by the philosophy of the “other.” The Old Testament speaks insistently...

After years of being a mediocre swimmer on the men’s team, Thomas woke up one morning and identified as transgender, transitioned, joined the women’s team, and started breaking records against his female teammates and tournament competitors. Since robbing real women of opportunities wasn’t enough for him, he also disrespected his teammates by exposing his male genitalia to them in the locker room. And now, Riley Gaines, a former teammate of Thomas, is calling for changes to be made by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). “We were not forewarned beforehand that we would be sharing a locker room with Lia....

On Thursday, Republican representative Matt Gaetz is introducing a resolution that will call on the Biden White House to end military and financial aid to Ukraine. The resolution will also urge all nations involved with the ongoing war to search for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.

A Brazilian lawyer tragically died after his gun was discharged by an MRI machine’s magnetic field at the hospital. The freak accident occurred on January 16 while the gun-loving lawyer, named Leandro Mathias de Novaes, was taking his mother to get scanned at the Laboratorio Cura in São Paulo, Jam Press reported. Unbeknownst to hospital staff, the attorney had a registered firearm in his possession. Staff had reportedly asked the pair to remove all metal objects before entering the MRI room, as is protocol at hospitals due to the device’s powerful magnetic field. However, Novaes decided to go in sans...

Explanation: Vivid and lustrous, wafting iridescent waves of color wash across this skyscape from Kilpisjärvi, Finland. Known as nacreous clouds or mother-of-pearl clouds, they are rare. But their unforgettable appearance was captured looking south at 69 degrees north latitude at sunset on January 24. A type of polar stratospheric cloud, they form when unusually cold temperatures in the usually cloudless lower stratosphere form ice crystals. Still sunlit at altitudes of around 15 to 25 kilometers, the clouds can diffract sunlight even after sunset and just before the dawn.

Video description: In the past six or seven months, people in Mt. Washington say small groups of juveniles have been breaking into cars and committing other crimes; KDKA's Andy Sheehan reports.

Oregon’s restrictive gun law, Ballot Measure 114, will remain blocked after the Oregon Supreme Court denied a petition to overturn a lower court ruling that temporarily restrained the measure, according to court records. The justices denied the petition to overturn the measure, saying the decision should remain in the lower courts for now, according to the justices’ opinion. If implemented, the measure would require background checks, firearm training, fingerprint collection and a permit to purchase any firearm. “Our decision today does not serve as a bar to any future challenge in this court or otherwise on appeal. Rather, at this...

Mainstream Network Radio News. Hunter Biden told Congress they have no standing to Investigate him, nor request documents, and he WILL NOT COMPLY!

Humans are artificially expanding cities' coastlines by extending industrial ports and creating luxury residential waterfronts. Developers have added over 2,350 square kilometers of land (900 square miles, or about 40 Manhattans) to coastlines in major cities since 2000, according to a new study. The study reports the first global assessment of coastal land reclamation, which is the process of building new land or filling in coastal water bodies, including wetlands, to expand a coastline. The researchers used satellite imagery to analyze land changes in 135 cities with populations of at least 1 million, 106 of which have done some coastline...

By any accounting, Tuesday’s State of the Union was short on talk of foreign policy. President Biden made scant reference to America’s role in the world, absent a brief but cadenced assertion of commitments to “the most basic of principles;” namely, “sovereignty,” life “free of tyranny,” and “the defense of democracy.” About an hour in, the address showcased Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington, but reference to American material support came only in passing assurance of “as long as it takes.” This stands in stark contrast to last year’s address, delivered during the opening weeks of Russia’s invasion, when President...

Advanced Battery Technology Breakthrough A team of engineers has made a significant advancement toward the development of fast-charging lithium-metal batteries, according to a recent paper published in Nature Energy. These batteries are capable of charging in as little as an hour, thanks to the growth of uniform lithium metal crystals that can be rapidly seeded on a surprising surface. This innovative technology holds great promise for the future of energy storage. In a new Nature Energy paper, engineers report progress toward lithium-metal batteries that charge fast – as fast as an hour. This fast charging is thanks to lithium metal...

A billionaire venture capitalist and partner at Sequoia Capital has blasted San Francisco’s seedy, drug-addled downtown — lambasting the city’s Democrat leadership that “bans plastic straws but permits plastic needles.” “It’s a strange city that bans plastic straws but permits plastic needles. Yet that’s San Francisco today,” Michael Moritz, 68, seethed in a fiery op-ed published in the Financial Times on Wednesday. “Between 2020 and 2022, 1,985 people here have died from drug overdoses compared to 1,143 from Covid-19,” he added. The former journalist-turned-investor said rampant and unchecked drug use has turned the City by the Bay into a “zombie”...

A Burger King employee has been caught on video going on a racist rant against a “white” couple in the fast-food restaurant’s drive-thru. Now, she is paying the price for her inappropriate outburst.This Burger King employee spewed racist remarks A black Burger King employee went on a racist rant against a Hispanic couple whom she assumed was white. The shocking dispute broke out between the employee and a couple at a Burger King drive-thru in North Miami Beach. The cellphone video has since gone viral. It seems the customers requested a refund for their order after another worker kept touching...

Grieving parents have vowed to keep their teen's memory alive after she died suddenly from a "silent killer". Shirley Adderley thought her daughter Fay was "messing around" when she would not wake up one morning. But after being "unresponsive", it appeared the 18-year-old had suffered a seizure during the night. The close-knit family shared everything together and now, Shirley and Neil "feel lost" without their only daughter. Since that tragic day on November 21, 2020, they have been keeping her memory alive, including by taking her photograph to concerts she should have been attending herself. For Fay's 18th, several concerts...

Credit Suisse Group (CSGN.S) on Thursday reported its biggest annual loss since the 2008 global financial crisis after rattled clients pulled billions from the bank, and it warned that a further "substantial" loss would come this year. Battered by one scandal after another, the bank saw a sharp acceleration in withdrawals in the fourth quarter, with outflows of more than 110 billion Swiss francs ($120 billion), although it said the picture has been improving. In a statement, Swiss regulator Finma said that while Credit Suisse's liquidity buffers had a stabilising effect on the bank and are being rebuilt, the regulator...