Free Republic

Leftists love to believe that churches should be run like clubs -- the majority rules. So they'll make a big deal out of polls, like the Pew Research Center finding six of ten Catholics disagree with the church's opposition to abortion. They do not ask self-identified Catholics whether they actually go to church on Sundays, or if they stopped the minute they became an adult. You would get a more conservative result. On Tuesday, NPR's newscast All Things Considered brought on reporter Katia Riddle to channel the views of pro-abortion Catholics, but what made it more shocking is touting a...

President Donald Trump said he'd make the "sacrifice" of going to jail to defend free speech amid the trial in Manhattan where the 45th president is under a gag order he has slammed as "unconstitutional." "I have to watch every word I tell you people. You ask me a question, a simple question I'd like to give it, but I can't talk about it because this judge has given me a gag order and [says] you'll go to jail if you violate it," Trump said in remarks outside the courtroom Monday afternoon. "And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is...

Palestinian news outlets say Israeli forces are pushing into the Kerem Shalom crossing, shelling the area from the air and with artillery fire. Al-Aqsa TV reports that Israeli tanks are firing at the crossing from some 200 meters (650 feet) away, destroying the terminal which has served as one of the main conduits for aid into Gaza since November. The crossing sits some 3 kilometers from the eastern edges of Rafah in the far south of Gaza. Other reports claim that ground forces are moving into the crossing area and that air strikes are hitting eastern Rafah. There is no...

A group of conservative leaders is calling on the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Kristen Clarke, to resign from her leadership position following an explosive report from The Daily Signal. “The American people have lost trust in your ability to lead the Civil Rights Division,” reads a letter to Clarke, signed by Advancing American Freedom Executive Director Paul Teller, American Accountability Foundation President Tom Jones, Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins, and CatholicVote President Brian Burch. “We request that you resign immediately.” The Daily Signal published a report on Tuesday highlighting evidence that Clarke had not disclosed...

The April 30 outreach at CVS near Baylor University is the 4th location for Pharmacy Outreach in Waco, Texas. Pro-Life Waco launched Pharmacy Outreach soon after CVS and Walgreens announced their intentions to enter the abortion industry in January of 2023. Regrettably, these corporations began filling chemical abortion prescriptions in March of 2024 in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California, Illinois, and Rhode Island. The dreadful CVS and Walgreens decisions created thousands of potential venues for ongoing public square outreach. From pharmacy public rights-of-way we can simultaneously engage the pro-life faithful, the pro-abortion hostile, and, most importantly, the undecided of the...

Chicago police abruptly canceled the city's annual Cinco de Mayo parade due to gang violence. "Out of an abundance of caution, the Cinco de Mayo parade has been canceled to protect the safety of all in attendance, including families and children," the police department stated. "This decision was made in agreement between CPD's 10th District, elected officials and parade organizers following gang violence in the area. At this time, multiple arrests have been made, ...

Hamas on Monday evening claimed to accept what it said was an Egyptian and Qatari ceasefire and hostage release proposal, but Israeli officials said the Hamas terms did not meet Israel’s essential demands. “After Hamas agreed to the mediators’ proposal for a ceasefire, the ball is now in the court of Israeli occupation, whether it will agree to the ceasefire agreement or obstruct it,” a senior Hamas official told AFP, soon after the office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had announced its acceptance. But soon after receiving the Hamas response, Israeli officials said the terms Hamas claimed to have accepted...

Rutgers University is awarding an honorary degree to the nation’s first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Admiral Rachel L. Levine has led the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps since 2021 and is the assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Levine will receive an honorary doctor of science degree Sunday during the Rutgers-New Brunswick and Rutgers Health commencement at SHI Stadium, the university said Monday. Levine served as Pennsylvania’s physician general and as state Secretary of the Department of Health, before being nominated by President Biden to her current...

I cannot think of anything in comedy in my lifetime more deeply meaningful to me than Babylon Bee. There was Mark Twain. Who agrees? Who believes that the Bee's Trump Bible is sacrilegious?

Kim Godwin, the embattled president of ABC News, abruptly announced Sunday evening that she will exit the network, capping a tumultuous three-year run at the outlet after staffers said her polarizing leadership led to plummeting employee morale. I have decided to retire from broadcast journalism,” Godwin told staffers in a memo that rocked the ABC News newsroom. “I have been fortunate and blessed enough to have done almost every job there is in this business,” Godwin added. “But after considerable reflection, I’m certain it’s the right one for me as I look to the future and prioritize what’s most important...

The combined trust funds for Social Security are projected to run out a year later than previously expected, a board of trustees of the program’s accounts said Monday. In the latest report, trustees expect the projected depletion date for the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, which pays out Social Security benefits to retirees, and the program’s smaller Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund is 2035. Biden administration officials said the projected depletion date for the OASI trust funds has moved to November 2033, seven months later than last year’s projection, partly due to economic growth. On a call with...

Explanation: This is how the Sun disappeared from the daytime sky last month. The featured time-lapse video was created from stills taken from Mountain View, Arkansas, USA on 2024 April 8. First, a small sliver of a normally spotted Sun went strangely dark. Within a few minutes, much of the background Sun was hidden behind the advancing foreground Moon. Within an hour, the only rays from the Sun passing the Moon appeared like a diamond ring. During totality, most of the surrounding sky went dark, making the bright pink prominences around the Sun's edge stand out, and making the amazing...

The president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani, traveled to Tehran on Monday to meet with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who warned him to prevent “anti-revolutionary elements” from getting too friendly with the autonomous Kurdish region. The warning appeared to be a threat intended to dissuade Kurdish cooperation with the United States and any potential cordial ties with neighboring Israel. The KRG maintains friendly relations with the United States and cooperates militarily with Washington, particularly against the Islamic State (Isis) jihadist organization. The KRG’s Peshmerga forces were pivotal in the ouster of the ISIS “caliphate” from...

Inulin, a type of fiber found in certain plant-based foods and fiber supplements, causes inflammation in the gut and exacerbates inflammatory bowel disease in a preclinical model, according to a study. The study shows that inulin, which is found in foods such as garlic, leeks and sunchoke, as well as commonly used fiber supplements and foods with added fiber, stimulates microbes in the gut to release bile acids that increase the production of molecules that promote intestinal inflammation. Feeding inulin to mice in the context of a model of inflammatory bowel disease increased the production of certain bile acids by...

Archaeologists have unearthed a sprawling ancient Roman cemetery in southern France containing 1,430 graves and evidence of funerary banquets held in honor of deceased family members.Excavations of the cemetery, called the Robine necropolis due to its proximity to a canal of the same name, began in 2017 ahead of construction work in the city of Narbonne. The funerary complex was "remarkably well-preserved," having been buried beneath a 10-foot (3 meters) blanket of silt during flooding of the nearby Aude River, according to a translated statement.The graves and artifacts date to between the end of the first century B.C. and the...

VIDEOLoony former federal Judge Michael Luttig recently turned himself into a laughable clown show when the U.S. Supreme Court UNANIMOUSLY shot down his ABSURD scheme to keep President Donald Trump off the 2024 ballots. When that extreme HUMILIATION slapped him in the face, Luttig went into a state of highly entertaining grief-stricken mourning which was covered here in the DUmmie FUnnies. However, after a brief period of hiding in shame, Luttig is baaaaaack with yet more lunacy. He now seems to think that DEMOCRACY IS AT STAKE. No, not because of all the illegal LAWFARE being thrown at Trump with...

Ahram Online reports that a fortified royal retreat has been uncovered at the Tel Hebwa site, which is located in North Sinai. Mohamed Ismail Khaled of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that the mudbrick structure was likely used during the 18th Dynasty reign of Thutmose III (ca. 1479–1425 B.C.). The structure’s entrance, located on its northern side, led to a large hall with three columns, added Hisham Hussein of Sinai Antiquities. This room connected to a smaller hall with entrances flanked by columns. The thresholds of entrances to these rooms were also uncovered, along with the thresholds for small...

Researchers have found naturally occurring compounds in the gut that can be harnessed to reduce inflammation and other symptoms of digestive issues. This can be achieved by binding the compounds to an important, but poorly understood, nuclear receptor. Said Jiabao Liu, "We found that these molecules act similarly to artificial compounds that are currently being used to regulate the constitutive androstane receptor, otherwise known as CAR." CAR plays a critical role in regulating the breakdown, uptake and removal of foreign substances in the liver, including drugs. It is also involved in intestinal inflammation. "One of the challenges with studying CAR...

Firearm-related crime is surging in heavily gun-controlled Canada, according to a report from Toronto Star contributor Shaquille Morgan. Morgan pointed to data from Canadian police, noting “there were 9,198 victims of gun-related crime” in Canada in 2022. The 2022 figures represented a ten percent jump in the rate of gun-related crime compared to 2021 and a 60 percent jump compared to 2013. Morgan zeroed in on handguns, explaining that “63 per cent of gun-related homicides were committed with a handgun.” Canada has stringent gun controls, and Morgan indicated they have gotten even more stringent during the past years. During that...

Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham won elections in areas with large Muslim populations. Both engaged with us as citizens The local and mayoral elections sawmany traditional Labour-voting Muslim voters abandon the party they’ve loyally supported for decades. One incident from one interview, and one sentiment in particular that I heard in my local area, sits front and centre: “I was disgusted when Keir Starmer supported Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza – how can I vote for someone who won’t even apologise for this?” said one man, referring to Starmer’s performance in an interview on LBC last October and...