Free Republic

So we have arrived at the sixth Sunday of Easter, and Pentecost is only two weeks away! It is hard to believe that this blessed season has traveled by so quickly. Yet we are approaching the end, now is the time to prepare more seriously than ever to be filled anew with the Holy Spirit on this upcoming Feast. Our Readings for this Sunday are filled with instruction and narrative about the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the First Reading, we have the account of the “Samaritan Pentecost,” as the Holy Spirit falls on these much-maligned descendants of northern...

Most record company executives search for hits. Chris Strachwitz, a German immigrant who founded Arhoolie Records in 1960, recorded whatever he liked. ...Mr. Strachwitz derided most of the slick popular tunes of his day as “mouse music.” His Arhoolie label, named after a term for field hollers, favored the most obscure country blues, Tex-Mex, Cajun, zydeco and other regional or local artists snubbed by bigger record companies. He liked his recordings raw, unrehearsed and unadorned. “My stuff isn’t produced,” he said. “I just catch it as it is.” “He was the last of the great musical gold miners,” said Ry...

As Title 42 came to an end last night, members of our government scrambled to find a way to address it and President Occupant told us to prepare for a “chaotic” period at the border. Never mind that the “chaos” was entirely preventable and was in fact the doing of his administration. Thanks for the heads up, Joe. We kinda saw that coming. For that matter, so did you. It’s a little late to telegraph that haymaker. Of course, this raises the specter of just who is crossing the border. I know that issue has been tackled multiple times before,...

In the service of collecting on slavery reparations, an ultra-woke Denver city council member is floating a generous (with other people’s money) tax on white-owned businesses.Racist taxation policy is Equity™, which is one of Our Sacred Values™ in Democracy™.Obviously, taxing whitey is crucial because Denver has always been a notorious epicenter of White Supremacy™.Via the New York Post:A Denver councilwoman caused a stir when she declared that white-owned businesses should pay reparations.Candi CdeBaca, a 37-year-old Democratic Socialist who is facing a run-off election in June, told a business forum Thursday that white-owned businesses should pay an additional race-based tax, which...

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga) hammered GOP opposition to the flood of immigrants flowing across our southern border, calling it "more white oppression of the Black man. Just when we are on the brink of getting reparations for the slavery and discrimination inflicted on us by white supremacists, Republicans want to cut off our access to the cheap labor we will need to support our raised standard of living." Echoing remarks previously uttered by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wa), Johnson said "I want to ask my colleagues across the aisle who will clean our mansions, cook our meals, wash our laundry, tend...

If the East Coast were to get a much-needed enema, they’d put the hose in Baltimore. If you ask someone which U.S. city has taken the biggest beating from Marxist ideologies, they’ll likely say Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland (yawwwn), Austin, Memphis, Los Angeles, New York City (I can do this all day), Washington D.C. … You get the point. But little attention is paid to Baltimore, which one website placed as the 10th most liberal city in America.FACT-O-RAMA! A former Baltimore mayor once gave her street thugs “space to destroy” the city after career criminal Freddie Gray died in...

Why is misgendering a crime? Looking at this person, I can’t tell if they’re pretending to be a man or a woman. But even if one can determine the gender of an individual on sight, why is it such a big deal if they get it wrong? Why not simply smile and tell the person who is misgendering you that they got it wrong, I’m actually he/she/they or whatever? If someone treated me with enough respect to politely correct my error, I would apologize and that would be the end of it without any unpleasantness. Not so this barista at...

DeSantis on Friday shared a fundraiser for Penny's legal defense, calling him a "Good Samaritan" and criticizing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as a "pro-criminal" and "Soros-Funded" prosecutor. "We must defeat the Soros-Funded DAs, stop the Left's pro-criminal agenda, and take back the streets for law abiding citizens. We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny. Let’s show this Marine... America’s got his back," DeSantis tweeted.

As we sit comfortably in our homes, having dinner with our families, crime rates are going up all around us. That is to say that criminals are no longer relegated to the inner cities; they've evolved to suburbs and rural areas as they seek new and more vulnerable targets. For several decades, one of the major dreams of the middle class has been to own a home in the suburbs. Now, under the guise of prohibiting discrimination based on race, religion, sex, etc., Democrats have proposed regulations that would force jurisdictions that accept HUD funding to "promote equity in their...

As a seventy-year resident of Springfield, Ill, I was amazed and amused that there was an article in the Wall Street Journal, a supposedly reputable, savvy business newspaper touting Springfield as a great place to buy a house. It is as if the reporter doesn’t know how to read, think, analyze, and ask questions before regurgitating something. WCIA TV writes:Springfield was featured in a national publication as one of the best housing markets.An article in the Wall Street Journal published earlier this month listed Springfield, Illinois as number 17 out of 300 for towns on the WSJ/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Markets...

...at Casa Del Mitreo in Merida, Spain... known during the Roman period as Emerita Augusta, was founded as a colony in 25 BC under the order of the emperor Augustus to serve as a retreat for the veteran soldiers (emeritus) of the legions V Alaudae and X Gemina.The purse was discovered at the Casa del Mitreo archaeological site, a high status domus that dates from the end of the 1st or beginning of the 2nd century AD. The domus consisted of peristyles or courtyards with columns, and numerous ornate mosaics that decorated the interior rooms. Excavations found the purse remains...

A lost climber who endured a night in an open bivy at 11,600 feet on the Whitney Glacier in California was saved in a 12-hour "mega-rescue," according to the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center and Home of the Climbing Rangers. Heightened by the weekend weather, the nonprofit organization said the incident occurred Saturday on "one of the most difficult and dangerous areas of the mountain to access." Extremely poor visibility kept aerial resources grounded, the nonprofit said. However, the United States Forest Service Climbing Rangers, in cooperation with Siskiyou County Search and Rescue, located the climber alive and in "remarkably good...

When NFL players took a knee during the National Anthem in 2016, a tradition was born at Rainbow Oaks Restaurant. Owners Duke and Jonell Maples, who remodeled and reopened the restaurant in 2009, decided to start playing the National Anthem at noon, seven days a week. "It was my way of waving my middle finger at the NFL," said the retired Marine. The restaurant is filled with patriotic memorabilia and American flags. A Marine Corps flag flies under the American flag atop the restaurant and inside, it's obvious the clientele has support for and by the military and law enforcement....

Former President Trump bashed Gov. Ron DeSantis in a new ad Friday, claiming the Florida Republican needs a “personality transplant.” “The problem with Rondesanctimonious is that he needs a personality transplant, and those are not yet available. Almost all congressmen and women that served with him and knew him well supported me, some of them surprisingly so because of their relationship with Ron,” he said in the 40-second ad, using his preferred nickname for DeSantis.

Parents in Loudoun County, Virginia, say they have become targets of violent threats on social media for speaking out against the school district’s LGBTQ agenda. Brand said her organization, which she described as a 501(c)(4) that advocates for excellence in education, school safety and parental rights, has made activists online “very angry,” leading to “threats of death.” The “Loudoun Love Warriors” group includes members who appear to be associated with Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj, County Supervisor Juli Briskman, School Board Chair Ian Serotkin, school board member Brenda Sheridan, school board member Atoosa Reaser, school board member Erika Ogedegbe,...

TWO Russian fighter jets and two helicopters have been downed close to the Ukraine border in suspected missile strikes. An Su-34 jet and a Mi-8 chopper were seen coming down near the Russian town of Klintsky within two hours of each other. The town lies in the south-eastern region of Bryansk, about 25 miles from the Ukrainian border. Another Mi-8 helicopter along with a Su-35 single seater fighter also came down, elsewhere in the Bryansk region. Horror footage showed one of the the Mi-8 aircraft plummeting from the skies engulfed in flames as it slammed into the ground. Then just...

13 May 2023Saturday of the 5th week of Eastertide St. Robert Bellarmine Roman Catholic Church, Bayside, NY Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: A(I).First readingActs 16:1-10 ©'Come across to Macedonia and help us'From Cilicia Paul went to Derbe, and then on to Lystra. Here there was a disciple called Timothy, whose mother was a Jewess who had become a believer; but his father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of Timothy, and Paul, who wanted to have him as a travelling companion, had him circumcised. This was on account of the Jews in the locality...

California Democratic state Sen. Steven Bradford is warning African Americans not to get their “hopes up” for massive reparations payments from the state. Bradford’s message comes after the California Reparations Task Force recommended over the weekend that the state pay up to $1.2 million in reparations to each eligible Black resident. The state lawmaker, who served on the task force, claimed that it’s possible that Black residents could receive cash payments “if the money’s there,” but argued that receiving million dollar checks in repayment for historical discrimination is “not happening.” The reparations panel held a public meeting in Oakland, California,...

Living in Biden Country! Where big American cities are becoming like Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago. And the sad headline of the day (other than pure chaos on the Mexican border) is that NO RENT IS BEING PAID ON 20% OF ALL US OFFICE SPACE! And small banks hold 70% of commercial real estate loans! As The Fed momentarily pauses rate hikes, office vacancy rate just hit an all-time high. Another Biden first!! And the NCREIF office property index falling as The Fed tightens.

VIDEOImagine being in Ebenezer Baptist church and everybody around you is singing an upbeat gospel song and swaying and clapping to the music? What do you do? Well, if you are Joe Biden, apparently nothing. Somehow he can't even seem to get a hint of what to do. Could it be due to an awkward lack of any rhythm?