Free Republic

The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego is warning it may have to file bankruptcy in the future because of the potential fallout from hundreds of pending lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy over the last 75 years. The warning comes nearly 15 years to the day since the diocese last sought the sanctuary of the bankruptcy code, filing for Chapter 11 reorganization in the face of 144 claims of sexual abuse by clergy. The bankruptcy was dismissed eight months later, after the diocese reached a settlement with the victims for $198 million. Now the diocese might have to go...

CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot is the first to admit her bid for re-election will be far from smooth. “There’s nine people on the ballot,” Lightfoot said in an interview with NBC News. “It’s impossible not to have a runoff.” What’s appearing increasingly possible, however, is that Lightfoot will fail to make it even that far. In Chicago’s municipal election, if a candidate fails to win a majority, then the top two vote-getters face off against each other in a second round of voting in April. But with less than two weeks to the Feb. 28 election, the firecracker Democratic...

Our leaders (Biden) speak of China as being a “competitor” rather than an enemy. That’s a concession on our end, but China has no intention of merely competing, it wants to end the competition. We don’t. And that’s why we’re setting ourselves up for defeat. Globalism claims to represent everyone while representing no one. Its ambitions are as vast in scope as they are empty. Its world government of abstractions commands the loyalty of no one even while basing everything discredited theories that have never worked in the real world. China’s ambitions are equally global, but it is not globalist....

Former Biden Department of Energy official Sam Brinton claims to have been beaten by their father, who held a gun to their head and forced them into conversion therapy — but their family insist it is all lies. The non-binary nuclear engineer is best known for allegedly stealing women’s suitcases worth thousands of dollars and their contents from Minneapolis and Nevada airports in brazen caught-on-camera heists. But Brinton, 35, was first championed — and then heavily questioned — by the trans community over harrowing tales of their childhood. “I’m in this constant state of fear,” Brinton previously claimed. “My dad...

Washington D.C., Feb 9, 2023 / 13:35 pm Despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, a federal judge is claiming that the 13th Amendment, which was ratified to abolish slavery, might establish a constitutional right to have an abortion. Under Roe v. Wade, the court previously held that the 14th Amendment protects a right to privacy and a right to privacy protects a woman’s right to decide whether to have an abortion. In the Dobbs decision last June, the court revoked that precedent, stating that “the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion” and that...

Gun Owners of America Senior Vice President Erich Pratt says that the Biden administration is going after gun owners and using the ATF to try to shut gun shops down. "Biden has implemented a zero tolerance policy," Pratt said on the Wednesday edition of the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. "If a gun store makes one mistake, the ATF skips the traditional warnings and goes straight to license revocation. These could be just simple clerical mistakes. Licensing revocations are up anywhere from 300 to 500 percent. This is the most since the early 2000s." Pratt said he received...

Can’t say “queer” anymore! Authoritarians at Puffin just made hundreds of changes to Roald Dahl’s books. Here are some examples.By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)February 19, 2023This article from the Telegraph lists a huge numbers of the changes that publisher Puffin has recently made to Roald Dahl’s books.Dahl himself has been dead for decades, so he had nothing to do with these changes. I’m certain that when he wrote his original text, he put a tremendous amount of thought into the words that he chose. I’m guessing that he would probably drop dead from a heart attack if...

Air traffic control has reported the sighting of a large white balloon off the coast of northeast of Hawaii on Sunday. The Oakland Oceanic Air Traffic Control Center received a message stating that the balloon was observed over the Pacific Ocean, about 594 miles northeast of Honolulu. The object seemed to be flying at an altitude of 40,000 to 50,000 feet, according to reports. Pilots were advised to report if they spot the object. Further information about the sighting is currently unavailable. Multiple balloons have been shot down by American forces this month.

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...