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Friday after Ash Wednesday Matthew 9:14–15 Friends, in today’s Gospel, people ask Jesus why his disciples do not fast. He says that as wedding guests they will not fast while he, the Bridegroom, is with them. But “the days will come,” he says, “when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”Why do we fast? Because we have a hunger for God, which is the deepest hunger. We’re meant to get access to that hunger. We’re meant to feel it so that it can direct us toward God. Every spiritual master recognizes the danger that if...

An audience of more than 40 Historically Black College and University students at the White House were hesitant to applaud Vice President Kamala Harris during an event, Fox News Channel personalities say. During a Thursday segment of "Hannity," host Sean Hannity and other Fox news personalities Jimmy Failla, Dagen McDowell and Sean Duffy described the event as "another blunder-filled day" for Harris. "The audience had to be reminded to clap for the vice president," Hannity said. "You really can't make this up." "They still didn't clap, then it got worse with yet another rant about Venn diagrams," he continued. Hannity...

There are now two rivals to former President Donald Trump officially in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. But neither of them is sufficiently anti-Trump for the media to be excited.Writing in the Wall Street Journal, the estimable Jason L. Riley took umbrage with Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and UN ambassador, for launching her campaign Feb. 15 without challenging Trump directly.He said Haley missed her chance:Even more curious was her reluctance to mention Donald Trump by name. … Ms. Haley might think that she can pretend he doesn’t exist, or somehow play down his...

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that Russia is prepared to take the war in Ukraine as far as its border with Poland. Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, made the remarks in a statement on his Telegram channel on the one-year anniversary of the country's invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Russia must "push back the borders that threaten our country as far as possible, even if these are the borders of Poland," he wrote. In his lengthy post, Medvedev said he believed Russia will be victorious in the war. "It's been a year since...

According to new provisional data from the Scottish government, there were 7,314 deaths registered in January 2023, an increase of 17.7% compared to the average of 6,212. For the second week of January, there were more deaths in Scotland than ever before, including during the peak of the pandemic. Concurrently, there were 4,159 births registered in January 2023, a decrease of 6.8% compared to the average of 4,463. In other words, between a dearth of births and a plethora of deaths, there were roughly 1,400 fewer souls, the equivalent of roughly 86,000 in the United States. This is long after...

The Russia-Ukraine war is unlike other battles. Russia is, without doubt, the perpetrator; Putin invaded Ukraine, a sovereign country. But, make no mistake; the Biden administration was the catalyst that made Russia act. Team Biden botched things up in multiple ways, giving Moscow reasons to feel threatened. First, President Biden needlessly invited Ukraine to sign a security agreement with the West in November 2021 when there was no imminent Russian threat. Border skirmishes between the Russian majority in eastern Ukraine and Ukrainian forces had been going on since Moscow’s Crimea annexation, but these were no reasons for Team Biden to...

The moment: Frodo has been stung by Shelob, Sam takes the sword, suffers Shelob falling on him, wounding her. Viktor Orban's Hungary First speech returns us to normal statesmanship in which Presidents and Prime Ministers have not sold out as pimps for the 2,750 billionaire oligarchs, but actually keep their country's interests first. Orban has to suffer Soros, Shelob, being close at hand, ready to crush the Hungarian people. All Orban has is Galadriel's Phil of Truth to reveal the enemy, and the sword which glows in the presence of danger, Sting, his Presidency. That is enough for a small...

The group called Mama Bears claimed in the federal lawsuit that their First Amendment rights were violated. ... A school district was forced to pay over $100,000 in legal fees after banning moms from exposing pornographic material at school board meetings. Forsyth County School District [FSC] agreed to pay attorney’s fees in a federal lawsuit brought by a group of parents who were censored at school board meetings. The group, called the Mama Bears, claimed in the federal lawsuit that their First Amendment rights were violated and won the case due to the legal representation of the Institute for Free...

Shortly before he was traded to Denver, Russell Wilson lost a power struggle in Seattle. That’s the word from TheAthletic.com, which reports today that Wilson asked Seahawks ownership to fire both head coach Pete Carroll and General Manager John Schneider in February of 2022. Weeks after that, the Seahawks traded Wilson to the Broncos. Carroll and Schneider remain in their jobs a year later. The report also says that Wilson wanted the Seahawks to hire Sean Payton as their head coach if they fired Carroll. Payton is now the coach of the Broncos, so Wilson got his wish a year...

A defiant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the somber anniversary of the Russian invasion by vowing to bring his country to victory as battles raged on in the east with no end in sight to the conflict. At a solemn ceremony on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv, a visibly emotional Zelensky handed out medals to soldiers and families of those killed and held back tears when a military band played the national anthem under Ukraine’s yellow-and-blue national flag fluttering in the wind. “We have become one family. There are no more strangers among us. Ukrainians today are all fellows. Ukrainians...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)“The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Matthew 9:15Our appetites and fleshly desires can easily cloud our thinking and keep us from desiring only God and His holy will. Therefore, in order to curb one’s disordered appetites, it is useful to mortify them by acts of self-denial, such as fasting. But during Jesus’ public ministry, when He was daily with His disciples, it appears that self-denial was unnecessary for His disciples. One can only speculate that this was because Jesus was so intimately present to them...

Residents of East Palestine, Ohio, expressed gratitude for former President Donald Trump’s Wednesday visit to the town, especially in the absence of Biden administration officials for weeks after a train wreck caused massive toxic chemical exposure.“At least somebody actually showed up,” one resident told One America News.“He’s all heart…He loves everybody, you can tell,” another said.“He’s all HEART.”Ohio residents react to Pres. Donald Trump coming to East Palestine, Ohio. Trump lifted all their spirits.@OANN pic.twitter.com/9zAt6p1Z5u— Daniel Baldwin (@baldwin_daniel_) February 23, 2023After Trump arrived, residents began cheering and chanting, “Trump! Trump! Trump!”As the former president and 2024 presidential candidate walked over...

If you are a parent, you grew up in a “benighted” period when people were assessed and given opportunities on the basis of merit consisting of achievements such as grades, test scores, prizes, etc. That archaic period is now over. People today are assessed according to their race, gender, sexual preferences, disabilities, and minority status. Children of the wrong race, gender, and sexual preference are now often excluded, not admitted to university, not funded, hired, appointed or otherwise benefitted. In the past, minorities—blacks, indigenous natives, Hispanics, Asians, Jews—were discriminated against. Today, it is the majority that is discriminated against, as...

Arizona Sheriff Mark Dannels revealed, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, the true reason illegal aliens are coming to the United States is President Joe Biden’s “welcoming sign.”“The majority of people — we have an interdiction team that goes out daily — yesterday, they were out for their shift and had 15 smuggling events,” he began. “The majority of people we talk to, the majority of migrants that have been smuggled, which I call modern-day slavery what they’re doing to these people, they tell us the reason they’re here is because of President Biden and [give] a welcoming...

Scientists have identified which parts of the immune system go awry and contribute to autoimmune diseases in individuals with Down syndrome. The work adds to the research team's findings, showing that people with Down syndrome have less frequent but more severe viral infections. Studying lab specimens from volunteers with Down syndrome, the investigators identified cytokines and a B cell subtype—key players in the adaptive immune response—as the potential culprits for most autoimmunity in people with the disorder. Strikingly, the researchers found that many people with Down syndrome are in a perpetual state of inflammation comparable to those without Down syndrome...

Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A family of Welsh farmers broke their own Guinness World Record when they harvested a sunflower head that weighed 14.21 pounds. Cwbran farmer Kevin Fortey, 44, grew the massive sunflower with help from his brother, Gareth; son, Jamie; and mother, Marjorie. The sunflower weighed 2.71 pounds more than the Fortey family's previous record-breaking sunflower head, which was harvested in 2021. "I was shocked by the weight of this monster flower," Fortey told Guinness World Records. The sunflower is from a family seed line called the Fortey Giant Sunflower. The family said the line stretches back more...

These are large patches on rural property. I've narrowed it down to two methods. One is to use a burner which will cost me ~$100. The other is to use a backhoe which will cost me ~$35,000. Suggestions? This is very rural property with very large patches of blackberries.

In 1985 I was a young physician in internal medicine training. In that year, pharmaceutical companies were allowed to advertise not only to physicians as had been true in the past, but were now free to promote their medications to the general public. At the time, I wondered why Pharma would want to spend more money less efficiently. Over the years, as I have observed little evidence in support of direct-to-patient marketing, the question remained. Recent events, however, have opened my eyes. At the end of January, Project Veritas released a video featuring a senior executive physician at Pfizer caught...

The father of the 43-year-old alleged Michigan State University shooter is asking lawmakers to change laws so “nobody can buy guns no more.” The Detroit News indicated that 67-year-old Michael McRae now says he does not know where his son got the two 9mm pistols he allegedly had on his person during the February 13, 2023, attack. He had originally claimed his son bought the guns at a pawn shop.