Free Republic

The Francis Revolution: Over the past 10 years, the pope has recovered the church’s true powerThe path was signposted at the start, but looking back after 10 years, it can be seen more clearly: Pope Francis has sought a transformation of the internal life and culture of the Catholic Church, at the heart of which is a conversion of power.He announced it in the homily of his inaugural Mass on March 17, 2013, when he asked us never to forget that true power is service. He was referring at that moment to the power conferred on him as pope: to...

The UK’s Prevent program, which is supposed to be protecting the Sceptered Isle from terrorism, recently came under fire for treating actual Islamic terrorism as if it were a mental illness. But that doesn’t mean that Prevent has been wanting for terrorists: like its counterparts in the FBI, it has kept busy looking for “far-right extremists” and has now published a helpful guide to spotting those dangerous right-wingers. It turns out that they’re people who read Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, 1984, and other great works of English literature. Gee, you’d almost get the idea that the Leftist culture warriors who...

This is genius from Rand Paul. PUUUUURE genius. The good senator from Kentucky has come up with a way to get Biden to support his own country. Granted, we will need to get a better mask for Dewine but the idea is solid. Hey, this might actually work. Then again, it is Biden we’re talking about, this image could well be enough for him to believe he’s helping his pal Zelenskyy: I mean, it’s worth a shot pic.twitter.com/NSsxc8bO8t — Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 17, 2023 As Rand says, it’s worth a shot. *snort* Cut the screeching: Liar! Dewine turned down...

Roald Dahl's beloved children's books are being rewritten by sensitivity gurus to remove language they deem offensive, including creating a world where no one is 'fat' and the Oompa Loompas are gender neutral. Publisher Puffin has hired sensitivity readers to rewrite chunks of the author's text to make sure the books 'can continue to be enjoyed by all today', resulting in extensive changes across Dahl's work.

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 American film noir written and directed by John Huston in his directorial debut, based on the 1930 novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and indebted to the 1931 movie of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade and Mary Astor as his femme fatale client. Gladys George, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet co-star, with the last appearing in his film debut. The story follows a San Francisco private detective and his dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers, all of whom are competing to obtain a jewel-encrusted falcon...

U.S. intelligence suggests China is considering providing arms and ammunition to Russia, an involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort that would be a “serious problem,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Blinken said the United States long has been concerned that China would provide weapons to Russia. He pointed to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s promise to Russian President Vladimir Putin of a partnership with “no limits” when they met just weeks before Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Since then, ties between the two countries have only grown stronger. “We’ve been watching this very, very closely....

In June 1986, the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office (Oregon) responded to the Quartz Creek area regarding human skeletal remains being located on a homeowner’s property. The homeowner was in the process of putting in a new septic system when the owner discovered the remains in the ground approximately 4 feet deep and notified law enforcement. The homeowner had only owned the property for approximately 10 years. With the remains, other items were located within the gravesite such as, fabric believed to be from a dress, a worn set of dentures and two rubber implements, believed to be from a walker...

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said Sunday that people were “right to be skeptical” about their safety following a train-derailment chemical spill and fire — and didn’t answer when asked if he’d be willing to drink the local water. During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Brown was asked if residents of East Palestine, Ohio, should “accept the assurances from the government” that their air and water were clean following the incident earlier this month. “Well, they’re right to be skeptical,” he said. “We think the water is safe, but when you return to your home, you should be...

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and vocal proponent of the invasion of Ukraine, praised the mercenary Wagner Group on Sunday and said he wants to create his own private military force. Before deploying in Ukraine at the outset of Putin's invasion last year, the Wagner Group was active across the Middle East, Africa, and even Venezuela. "We can say confidently that Wagner has shown its mettle in military terms and drawn a line under discussions about whether or not such private military companies are needed," Kadyrov, who has led Chechnya since 2007, wrote...

Beneath Moldova's soaring parliament building, a parade of its most precarious file slowly past - bussed in by the thousand from across the country, each with their private tale of poverty and frustration. "When we elected this government, they promised to raise salaries and pensions, but so far we haven't seen a penny," she says. Sunday's protests, organised by Moldova's pro-Russian Sor party, are being closely watched by governments across Europe and beyond. Most protesters travelled to the capital city Chisinau by bus, with their costs reportedly covered by the Sor party. Moldova, strategically located on the border with Ukraine,...

C. Kathiravan served as General Manager, Aavin, Salem; Commissioner of Corporation of Madurai; Collector of Krishnagiri and Erode districts and Managing Director of TANMAG, SalemC. Kathiravan, an IAS officer of the 2009 batch, died of cardiac arrest at a private hospital in Chennai on Friday morning. He was 52. He is survived by his wife K. Thenmozhi and two daughters. Kathiravan was serving as the Project Director of Tamil Nadu Road Sector Project II in Chennai. According to a release, the funeral will take place at his native place at Gandhipuram near Senthamangalam in Namakkal district. Kathiravan started his...

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today! ~ Hall of Heroes ~Lt. Cdr. Edward "Butch" O'Hare Info from here. Edward Henry Butch O'Hare (March 13, 1914 – November 26, 1943) was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Edward Joseph O'Hare and Selma O'Hare. Butch had two sisters, Patricia and Marilyn. When their parents divorced in 1927, Butch and his sisters stayed with their mother Selma in St. Louis while their father Edward moved to Chicago. Butch's father...

Update from Ukraine | Wagners are getting closer to Bakhmut | Biden asks for the counterstrike https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UZhs0vSXcg Follow on Instagram up to date uploads. https://www.instagram.com/denys_pilot/ ****SUMMARY Military MAPS & COMMENTS here: NEW- https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-360-summary/

European Parliament has formally approved a law that will effectively end the sale of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles in the European Union by 2035, calling for a 100% reduction in CO2 emissions for any new cars sold, according to Reuters. The 27-nation union agreed to the changes in October 2022, but has now formalized the deal, which enforces a 55% reduction in emissions for vehicles by 2030. Levels for CO2 for 2021 were set at a target of 37.5%. Vans will get a slight advantage in the market, requiring a a 50% cut by 2030, compared with 2021 levels. Just...

World Bank president David Malpass, former Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and a Trump appointee, announced Wednesday he would step down. Malpass began a five-year term on April 9, 2019, according to his bio, but is cutting his run short after Axios reported last fall the Biden administration was seeking to oust him for failing to agree with the administration on climate change. He’ll step down at the end of the fiscal year on June 30 after seeing the multilateral development organization through a global pandemic and a war in Europe that has contributed to food and...

Much noise surrounds an impending national debt default, which is being blamed preemptively in the press and among Democrats on Republican “intransigence” and “partisanship.” Of course, an actual default will never happen. We have seen this brinkmanship before, and the Republicans always do the “right thing” under the peculiar notions of right and wrong that prevail in Washington, D.C. For D.C., the right thing is obviously mortgaging our future, avoiding a serious debate, and devaluing our currency to keep the party going a little longer. These discussions are fundamentally dishonest—crude propaganda, at best. They omit that hitting the debt ceiling...

The founder of the Ahvazi Liberal Party – an organization opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran – claims to have secured a document in which the supreme leader of Iran transferred $4 billion to his son's personal Venezuelan account. According to a translation of the document by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the transfer request was sent by Mohammadi Golpayegani, Chief of Staff of Khamenei's office, to Dr. Ali Saleh-Abadi, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran. Ali Khamenei is the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The letter read: "In light of the...

Vice Media has secured more than $30 million in debt financing from a large investment group, as the media company looks to sell itself despite being millions of dollars in debt. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Vice is taking financing from Fortress Investment Group, a firm that does business in credit, private equity, and "permanent capital vehicles." The company often invests in railroads and senior living. According to a source of the Wall Street Journal, Vice owes millions of dollars to advisers and vendors, some of whom haven't been paid in over six months. Some of the companies...

A respected medical scientist whose accurate analysis on COVID-19 was improperly censored during the early days of the pandemic says the federal government and Big Tech played a "malign role" and placed public health at risk by colluding to create a false picture that all Americans faced the same risk from the virus and needed to follow identical mitigation strategies. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University medical professor, says he is now working with other scientists who were silenced during the early COVID-19 debate to build momentum for a "truth commission" on the failures of public health officials and identify...

Since 2015, the Washington Post has been carefully tracking fatal police shootings in the United States. Their database includes over 8,000 cases. If you ignore those where the race and/or sex of the victim are unknown, the demographic breakdown is as follows: • White males = 3,106 • Black males = 1,707 • Asian males = 121 • Native American males = 99 • White females = 192 • Black females = 58 • Asian females = 8 • Native American females = 6 There’s obviously a huge disparity between the sexes, which is evident in all four racial groups....