Free Republic

The Republican presidential candidate stirred talk of a refocus when he signaled he would visit South Carolina, which holds the first GOP votes in the South, directly after scoring second place in this week’s Iowa caucuses. Days later, a DeSantis campaign official reportedly said that most of the campaign staff would also be relocating to the Palmetto State. “So we went to South Carolina, knocked out a couple events and then did what we were planning to do in New Hampshire. That was somehow caricatured as ‘skipping’ New Hampshire when it wasn’t. It was adding South Carolina in addition to...

There are many names being floated as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, including the ever-loyal Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), whom he reportedly believes would be a “killer” pick. But Megyn Kelly named the possibility of another woman that could be chosen—one which would infuriate his base. “Is it out of the realm of possibility that he chooses [Nikki] Haley? Absolutely not. It’s not. I realize that MAGA doesn’t want it. They’ve convinced themselves that Nikki Haley is against all the things that they stand for,” she told Dave Rubin. Kelly argued he may have to just deal with the...

The US office market is NOT feelin’ alright. The national office vacancy rate rose to a record-breaking 19.6% in the fourth quarter of 2023, Moody’s Analytics said. That’s the largest quarterly increase since the first quarter of 2021, and larger than the 19.3% level reached twice in 40 years. Credit card delinquencies are near all-time high as well. And then we have Ford scaleing back all-electric F-150 Lightning production in response to weak customer demand. Ah, too much consumer debt and freezing temperatures, perfect storm for EVs.

The Loss of the Sacred in American CultureThere’s a grim scene near the end of The Iliad in which the Greek hero Achilles, because of his rage and grief over the death of his comrade Patroclus at the hands of the Trojan prince Hector, slays Hector in battle and drags his corpse behind his chariot, day after day, desecrating the body in a manner unthinkable to the ancient Greeks. In fact, the affront to the dignity of this hero and prince, as well as the violation of the sacred customs of Greek society, eventually compels the gods to intervene. They...

A prosecutor investigating the dramatic live-broadcast armed assault last week on an Ecuadoran television station was shot dead Wednesday, the country's attorney general said. "In the face of the murder of our colleague Cesar Suarez... I am going to be emphatic: organized crime groups, criminals, terrorists will not stop our commitment to Ecuadoran society," Attorney General Diana Salazar said in a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Local media broadcast images of Suarez's truck with bullet holes through the driver's window on a street in the port city of Guayaquil, the nerve center of Ecuador's war against...

I do not like the idea of using sewing machine oil in cars and some of the newer cars are supposed to be using 0-20 weight oil. Would it hurt anything to run one of those cars on 10W30 oil?

The New England Patriots have filled a gap in the organization that was left behind when Bill Belichick and the team parted ways by hiring Jerod Mayo to be the team’s next head coach. Mayo, an African American coach, focused on his race and what he considered a “problem” in the NFL. Mayo is the fifteenth head coach in the New England Patriot’s history and has big shoes to fill, following directly on the heels of Bill Belichick, one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. Mayo was a first-round draft pick by the Patriots in 2008 and went on...

Jordan Peterson is throwing down with gusto and promising that "the war has barely started" after yet another Canadian court ruled he must submit to "re-education" due to his un-woke ways. A three-judge panel with the Ontario Court of Appeal on Tuesday dismissed Peterson’s challenge against a previous decision by the Ontario Divisional Court, the National Post reported. The fight is over Peterson's past comments and speech that the College of Psychologists of Ontario reportedly said "may cause harm." A year ago Peterson said he "formally indicated" his "refusal to comply" with the CPO's demands that he undergo "re-education" over...

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) blasted GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley for her recent remarks that America is not a racist country. Speaking Friday to CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, Lee refuted Haley’s comments that America has “little kinks” to fix. “Racism, institutional racism, is in the DNA of this country,” Lee said. “When you look at what has taken place, look at our Native Americans, the genocide of Native Americans. When you look at what has taken place as it relates to African Americans, 250 years plus of enslaving African Americans, and then you look at the disparities now in our...

[Catholic Caucus] The Good News About Fiducia SupplicansFiducia Supplicans does, as Cardinal Fernández and Pope Francis hoped it would, provide clarity; it just isn’t the clarity they wanted.Well, the title alone is enough to make you read the article. Now that the dust has surged on Fiducia Supplicans, we should look at the good news about it. It does, as Cardinal Fernández and Pope Francis hoped it would, provide clarity; it just isn’t the clarity they wanted. It doesn’t clarify what the Vatican previously said on the matter. (You don’t need to clarify “No.”) But it has clarified what many...

A shocking report from Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, indicates that federal law enforcement agencies wanted financial institutions to identify potential extremists by flagging otherwise benign purchases and search terms affiliated with former President Donald Trump in the wake of the incident at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. On Wednesday, Jordan sent an alarming letter to Noah Bishoff, the former director of the Treasury Department's Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations Division of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, better known as...

Social media grenade-launcher Matt Walsh recently posted the following on his FaceBook page: "Many people claim to know for a fact that the practice of psychotherapy has been deeply helpful to humanity. To those people, I ask: If therapy is generally so helpful, and more people than ever are doing it, then why are people less able to deal with hardship and cope with suffering than ever before? Is it because our lives are really so much more difficult?" It's a fair question. It's certainly hard to make the case that our lives are so much more difficult than, say,...

The Biden administration has offered a broad interpretation for where EV charger projects can qualify for new tax credits — making those credits available in places where about two thirds of Americans live. Under the Democrats’ climate, tax and healthcare bill, tax credits for electric vehicle chargers are available to those who build chargers in low income communities or in areas that are not considered urban. In new guidance announced Friday, the Biden administration offered a wide interpretation of non-urban — saying that it applied to any census tract where at least 10 percent of blocks have not been designated...

Cori Broadus, the daughter of rapper Snoop Dogg, has said she broke down in tears when doctors told her she had suffered a "severe stroke" aged 24. Broadus shared her news with a picture of herself lying in a hospital bed on an Instagram story on Thursday, to her 657,000 followers. She commented: "I had a severe stroke this AM. I started breaking down crying when they told me. "I'm only 24. What did I do in my past to deserve all of this?"

Will white people be allowed to attend Mayor Michelle Wu’s events in New Hampshire this weekend on behalf of Dementia Joe Biden? This is a legitimate question. I mean, Wu has a record of holding separate-but-equal, no-whites-need-apply public events, as recently as last month, when she became the Democrat party’s national face of the new Jim Crow, on steroids. Overnight, the Democrats went from being the party of the Ku Klux Klan to the party of the Wu Klux Klan. At the mayor’s events this weekend, how many drinking fountains will be set up? If any of Wu’s times are...

Nikki Haley, 51, denied claims she cheated on her husband Michael before she became South Carolina governor in 2010 saying she was '100% faithful' Now, multiple GOP insiders tell DailyMail.com that they were intimately aware of Haley's infidelity at the time, saying: 'It was totally out in the open' Communications consultant Will Folks, 49, and lobbyist Larry Marchant, 61, both signed affidavits in 2010 alleging they had a sexual relationship with Haley

ABC’s corporate jester Jimmy Kimmel has fantasized about former President Donald Trump dying, saying if the Supreme Court rules against Trump’s presidential immunity argument, “it might actually kill him” — to which the network’s live audience applauded enthusiastically. Jimmy Kimmel spent most of his opening monologue on Thursday’s show attacking Trump. When he got to Trump’s legal battles, the comedian indulged in bizarrely morbid fantasies. “Let me tell you something — if those three judges he appointed to the Supreme Court take this case and rule against him, he is going to blow a whale-sized windmill out of his ass....

A 38-year-old Quebec man has been found guilty for starting a series of devastating forest fires - which lead to hectares worth of damage and displaced hundreds. Brian Paré has plead guilty to staring 14 forest fires, including fires in Chapais and Lake Cavan, at a courthouse in Chibougamau in Quebec. Paré, who has been detained since his arrest, said little during the hearing, only responding 'yes' to a series of questions from the judge. He had been charged 13 counts of arson and one count of arson with disregard for human life. It is unclear if the court has...

First lady Jill Biden spoke to teachers and students at a high school in Utah on Tuesday, but the visit came with some unfortunate optics that apparently no one who organized the event considered beforehand. The wife of President Joe Biden paid a visit to a school in West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The school chosen was Hunter High School.

19 January 2024 Friday of week 2 in Ordinary Time Turku Cathedral, FinlandReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: B(II).First reading1 Samuel 24:3-21 ©I will not raise my hand against the Lord's anointedSaul took three thousand men chosen from the whole of Israel and went in search of David and his men east of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. He came to the sheepfolds along the route where there was a cave, and went in to cover his feet. Now David and his men were sitting in the recesses of the cave; David’s men said to him, ‘Today is...