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[Catholic Caucus] Poetry inspired by the Synod on Synodality: "Our monotonous talk"Synod.va asked for people to compose poetry inspired by the synodal process. The following, with apologies to and admiration for T.S. Eliot, was submitted by James Baresel, author of many excellent articles on the traditional Mass. -- PAKWe are the hollow synodWe are the bloated synodWalking togetherHeads filled with straw.Our monotonous talk, whenWe gather togetherIs loud and meaninglessLike Bernard HäringOr when women are wearingPriestly vestments.Religion without morals, without divine judgement,An almost spent force, Modernism in motion.Saints of past agesWho crossed into heavenThink of us as lostCruel souls and asThe...

A disturbing report from the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network suggested that a gay couple in California wanted the surrogate mother carrying their child to abort after the woman was given a grim cancer diagnosis. According to CBC president and founder Jennifer Lahl, the unnamed woman agreed to carry a child for an unidentified gay couple in California. The woman is a married mother of four who had already volunteered to be a surrogate mother once before and had a good experience, so she decided to try and help again. This time, the experience went horribly wrong, starting when...

The huge extent of damage and vandalism caused in nearly a week of nightly riots in France has been dramatically underlined with a summary of recorded burnings so far, with the toll running to thousands of vehicles and buildings. Ministry of the Interior figures taking account of damage to people and property during the now six nights of riots triggered by the shooting death by a police officer of an Algerian heritage teenager in a Paris suburb at a traffic stop reveals there have been 5,662 vehicle fires so far, reports Le Parisien.

The self-proclaimed "Never Again Trumper" Paul Ryan once praised President Donald J. Trump on CNBC's "Squawk Box," April 17, 2018 -- chatting with Joe Kernen. This is a dramatically different face than what Breitbart recently reported about Ryan, on the same Squawk Box program, with some very harsh things to say about the former president (chatting with Joe Kernan). Here is the Breitbart account of those mean-spirited comments:Ryan said, “It is a disaster if we nominate Trump. You know I think that. I have been saying that for a long time. But Liz [Cheney]is right, which is, that he could...

The Navy's tough recruiting year means that its recruiters will be working more days, and the service is considering longer tours of duty as it struggles to put more sailors into uniform. A Navy spokesman confirmed that Rear Adm. Alexis Walker -- the head of recruiting command -- has ordered all recruiters to work a six-day workweek after Navy emails announcing the change began to surface on social media. In an email that was sent to the whole of Navy Recruiting Command, Walker said the command couldn't "wait a minute longer" to make the change. Lt. Cmdr. Rich Parker, a...

Did you hear? There’s a “crisis” in the courts. Unelected justices are pushing a conservative agenda and “making up” law as they . . . make decisions with which most Americans agree. An ABC News/Ipsos poll taken after the most recent Supreme Court rulings found that 52% agree with the court’s striking down of affirmative action. Only 32% disagree, with 16% saying they don’t know. On the question of President Biden’s massive giveaway on student loans, the public is more polarized — yet more people than not agree with the court shooting it down, 45% to 40%. Biden’s reaction? “This...

In the late 1960s, affirmative action was advanced because women and minorities, with similar skills to those of White men, were being discriminated against in landing jobs. The object of affirmative action was to level the playing field for people with similar skill levels. Over the years studies have shown that women actually have benefited most from affirmative action, not African Americans. But over the years affirmative action has evolved into a matter strictly of race: Black people get preferential treatment, period. Why has it evolved so? Since its origin, liberals, both White and Black, have actively denigrated African American...

President Trump, who has now been indicted over his handling of classified records, said in 2016 that a president under an indictment would cause a constitutional crisis, statements first noted by a CNN KFile review. Trump made the comments about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a rally in Reno, Nev., on Nov. 5, 2016, KFILE noted. “We could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial,” Trump said at the rally. “It would grind government to a halt.” Trump’s remarks came just days after then-FBI director James Comey announced that the bureau was re-launching...

I was hoping that the week of July 4th would start off with fireworks, but we got bad news about the economy. US factory activity contracted for an eighth month in June, slipping to the weakest level in more than three years as production, employment and input prices retreated. The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing gauge fell to 46, the weakest since May 2020, from 46.9 a month earlier, according to data released Monday. The current stretch of readings below 50, which indicates shrinking activity, is the longest since 2008-2009. The decline in the ISM production gauge, which also stands...

President Donald Trump celebrated a big week of Supreme Court rulings that handed conservatives a slate of long-awaited victories on issues like religious freedom, college admissions, and student loan forgiveness.While delivering remarks to the Moms for Liberty: Joyful Warrior National Summit, Trump heralded the court’s decision to end race-based college admissions in their Thursday decision that deemed affirmative action unconstitutional. On Thursday, SCOTUS struck down the decades-old race-based admissions protocol in a suit involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.PACKED house here in Philadelphia for President Trump! pic.twitter.com/180plgfeC9— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) June 30, 2023Trump joked that this might...

Law guarantees Veterans receive a compensation adjustment next year On June 14, 2023, President Joe Biden signed into law the Veterans Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Act of 2023, which directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide a cost-of-living adjustment for Veterans benefits in 2024 equal to the COLA applied to Social Security benefits, as determined by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The legislation, passed with bi-partisan support in the House and Senate, is an annual procedure for Congress but an important one, as it must be accomplished to ensure Veterans receive a COLA, and that it keeps pace with...

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Steele last week said that he thought the GOP would have more power in Congress if the party “had our &*^& together.” “Do Democrats understand how freaking lucky they’ve been that the Republican Party is so bats–t, Trumpy crazy?” former Republican presidential candidate Joe Walsh asked Steele on an episode of his podcast “White Flag,” released last week, referencing former President Trump. “I don’t think they recognize that if we had our *(*( together, this wouldn’t even be close,” Steele said. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) “would be sitting there with about...

It’s been one year since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the widely unpopular Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health ruling, which ended the constitutional right to abortion, upending 50 years of precedent. Over the last 12 months, the American public’s already strong support for abortion rights has become even more entrenched, and the draconian bans imposed in Republican-controlled states have triggered a seismic shift in the political landscape — one that is advantageous to Democrats — surrounding the issue. With Republicans poised to continue their anti-choice crusade in the run-up to the 2024 election, abortion is likely to remain a...

I’m a cook who doesn’t have central air conditioning in her home, so I’ve frequently relied on my gas grill for making as many meals as I can when the weather gets hot and steamy. As the years have gone by, however, I’ve turned to my backyard firepit as another option. There’s just something fun and a little adventurous about cooking over a live fire. It can also feel a bit intimidating if you’re used to the controlled world of induction burners and the quick turn of a knob, but it’s easy to get the hang of campfire cooking once...

One of the greatest influences on both my personal philosophy and the strategy of how to promote it was Leonard Read, the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). Read founded FEE in 1946, just as WWII was ending and the US government was about to embark upon a cold war with the Soviet Union. Read must have foreseen the expansion of government that was coming – both at home and overseas – and he started FEE to spread the message of non-interventionism and freedom. You could say that FEE was the first modern libertarian organization. Leonard Read was...

Former President Donald Trump is leading among independent voters in a potential head-to-head matchup against President Biden, the latest survey from The Economist/YouGov found.The survey asked respondents who they would vote for if the election were held today if the choices were between Trump and Biden.In that scenario, Trump takes a four point lead among registered voters, garnering 44 percent to Biden’s 40 percent support.Predictably, most Democrats, 78 percent, chose Biden and most Republicans, 82 percent, chose Trump. However, Trump takes a strong lead among independent voters, specifically, besting Biden by ten points, or 38 percent to Biden’s 28 percent.Another...

Thousands of travelers are making one last ditch effort to get to their destinations for the Fourth of the July holiday after storms walloped the country, causing mass delays and cancelations. Nearly 100 flights have already been canceled as of early Monday morning and delays were at 661 and steadily climbing, according to FlightAware. More severe weather is expected to pummel at least 15 states from the Northeast and mid-Atlantic to the Southeast on Monday following a day of storms. Not only is air travel being snarled, but so it road traffic with millions of people along the Interstate 95...

The convoluted congressional budget process has few fans. But the 1974 legislation that created today’s system did have one virtue: It reined in Richard Nixon’s claims that the president could simply refuse to spend congressionally appropriated money by “impounding” funds whenever he felt like it, as Kevin Kosar explained in Politico: Presidents since the founding had [refused to spend funds], including Lyndon Johnson. It seldom was a big deal, so long as the amounts were small, the rationales for impoundment were sound, and appropriators were consulted. Nixon, however, didn’t keep it small: He impounded tens of billions of dollars, often...

Wall Street bankers, investors and economists have for months waffled over whether a US recession is coming. But for some Americans, the unforgiving economic pain typical during recession has already set in. Al Brown and his fiancée faced a tough call in May when reviewing their weekly budget: What’s a higher priority, more food or dish soap? Based in Concord, North Carolina, Brown was the main breadwinner for his fiancée and their two children. Then in April, he was let go from his job as a global director of business development at software company Cascade. He’s since quit his gym...

MSNBC host Jen Psaki claimed the GOP was "trying to recruit" Muslims into being anti-transgender, although activists from the Islamic community have disputed the claim peddled by the liberal network of a "toxic agenda" they are being accused of joining and say it is an issue of religious freedom, not politics. The former White House press secretary claimed on her Sunday show, "Inside with Jen Psaki," that the Republican Party was dividing Muslims from transgender people, and listed why she believed the GOP was a danger to the Muslim community. The comments were first noted by Kevin Tober at Media...