Free Republic

I have written here before about Catholics who support people, policies, and practices that are against the faith. One example is an American President who claims to be a Catholic while at the same time promoting abortion and same-sex marriage. The ever tone-deaf Biden regime recently chose the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception to celebrate ‘Pansexual and Panromantic Pride Day’ because “everyone deserves to feel seen, respected, and supported -- no matter who they love.” No comment from Ashley Biden.Disturbingly, nearly half of all Catholics think abortion should be allowed in all or nearly all circumstances. A failure of catechesis.What...

April 12, 2024 FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Friday removed the Democratic governor from any role filling future U.S. Senate vacancies — a move supporters said was unrelated to recent scrutiny about the health of the state’s senior senator, Republican leader Mitch McConnell. The GOP supermajority Legislature easily overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of the measure. The legislation calls for a special election to fill any Senate vacancy from the Bluegrass State. The special election winner would hold the seat for the remainder of the unexpired term. “The people should decide who a United States senator...

It's a tale as old as ... well, about 20 years or so. Dad gets mad at deadbeat son, tells him to get a job, get out of the house, make some real friends. But this time, unfortunately, things take a really awful turn. That guy ... I don't want to assume anything, but he looks like he could stand to get out of the basement now and then. That's all I'm saying! Joseph Voigt, 23, was taken into custody Sunday morning after fleeing his family home, where he allegedly gunned down his father and grievously wounded his mother after...

In light of the U.S. v. Skrmetti Supreme Court case, about the Tennessee law that protects children with gender dysphoria from destructive hormone treatments and surgery, it is helpful to consider the actual issues involved. The transgender debate is not a single issue, but three issues, which to some degree bear on one another but are logically separate questions.The first issue is the broad logical, philosophical, and biological questions at the root of transgender ideology. What is a woman? What is a man? Can a man become a woman, and a woman become a man? What is gender? What is...

The New York Post, the Daily Mail, and many other websites have been reporting on a “Defund the Police” activist named Darcie Bell, who lives in San Francisco, and who recently complained that the police weren’t doing enough to help her after some evil scumbag stole her U-Haul.From Bell’s original tweets:On October 4, 2024, Jerque Cousteau@neo_antiquarian tweeted:“Defunding the police is good actually. We pay them a whole lot to do less”https://x.com/neo_antiquarian/status/1842302278272958917https://x.com/neo_antiquarian/status/1842302278272958917On December 7, 2024, Jerque Cousteau@neo_antiquarian tweeted:“Hey guys. If you see a 26 foot uhaul truck with the Arizona plate AL50003- would you let me know because it had like...

The complete game was found in a catacomb grave, but without a copy of the rules. The Royal Game of Ur, helpfully, had its rules written out on a cuneiform tablet. Image credit: Mary Harrsch/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) After thousands of years, we may finally know how to play an ancient board game, or at least a decent approximation of it. In 1977, Italian and Iranian archaeologists were excavating a cemetery in Shahr-i Sokhta in the south-eastern region of Iran when they discovered an unusual item in grave number 731. Inside the pseudo-catacomb grave was an ancient board game, coming...

... It’s uncomfortable to watch a younger version of yourself put through this, with their boundaries, privacy and dignity totally disregarded by our narcissistic dads. One day these children will look back at what their fathers put in the public domain, and it will further complicate their feelings around their father’s transition. A couple of years after I moved in with my father, who at that time was ‘living as a woman’ but hadn’t any surgery, I was brought to a pub in London for my father to discuss with another transsexual the possibility that I could be useful in...

[Catholic Caucus] Vestments for restored Notre-DameThe restoration and reopening of Notre-Dame in Paris was perhaps unthinkable to those who watched the great cathedral burn on April 15, 2019. What has been as beautiful as seeing the cleaned and restored cathedral is the fact that the general public clearly preferred making Notre-Dame look exactly as she was.However, as we have seen before, bishops from the left just can't let beauty stand on its own without doing something to destroy it. While the secular government of France heard the will of the people and heeded their desire for a traditional restoration of...

(The Center Square) – The latest federal numbers show the U.S. deficit is soaring as President Joe Biden heads out of office. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office released its monthly budget review on Monday, which showed that in the first two months of this fiscal year, the federal government has run up a deficit of $622 billion. “That amount is $242 billion more than the deficit recorded during the same period last fiscal year,” CBO said in its report. That figure means the deficit is nearly 40% higher than this time last year. “The most alarming turkey in November was...

Inflation heated back up again in November, but it likely wasn’t bad enough to keep the Federal Reserve from cutting rates next week. Consumer prices were 2.7% for the 12 months ended in November, moving higher from the 2.6% annual increase seen in October and marking the highest annual rate since July, according to the latest Consumer Price Index data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.3% after rising 0.2% for the prior four months. Economists were expecting inflation to pick up by 0.2% from October and record a 2.7% annual increase,...

Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken finally expressed remorse that the Biden administration had not done more to protect the 13 US troops who were killed in an ISIS-K suicide bombing during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. “I think today, especially of the 13 heroes that we lost at Abbey Gate. And I deeply regret we did not do more and could not do more to protect them,” Blinken said as he testified Wednesday on Capitol Hill. “And to those families who are here with us today, you’re in my thoughts and my prayers.” Blinken, 62, mixed a...

New disturbing video shows Senator Mitch McConnell hardly able to walk. McConnell suffered a fall yesterday. His condition seems to be declining

Russia could launch another hypersonic ballistic missile in Ukraine in the coming days, but Washington does not consider the Oreshnik weapon a game-changer in the war, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. Russia first fired the Oreshnik missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Nov. 21, in what President Vladimir Putin cast as a response to Ukraine's first use of U.S. ATACMs ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadows to strike Russian territory with Western permission. Putin has previously said Russia may use the Oreshnik again, including to hit "decision-making centers" in Kyiv, if Ukraine keeps attacking Russia with long-range...

The Brief Self-driving robots created by Avride will soon begin delivering small food and grocery items in the Downtown Dallas area in partnership with Uber Eats. The autonomous robots will make deliveries within a two-mile radius. They are equipped with several cameras and an animated screen for delivery. The robots, about the size of a suitcase, will have a lock that only the customer can open through the delivery app. The company says the delivery robots will be active in Dallas within the next few days. And unlike human delivery drivers, you aren't expected to tip.

Tuesday on FNC’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) weighed on the apparent collapse of the Democratic Party in the wake of the November 5 elections. He told host Jesse Watters that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was to blame for the destruction of the Democratic Party. WATTERS: Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is here. So how about that strategy? Is someone going to come for Barack Hussein Obama? MCCARTHY: It’s the only way the Democrats can save themselves. But I will tell you this, this is my prediction, Jesse, that a year from...

John Solomon @jsolomonReports Two Trump lawyers, aide slapped with 10 more felony charges in Wisconsin over 2020 fake electors From justthenews.com 9:30 AM · Dec 11, 2024

[Catholic Caucus] BREAKING: Archbishop Cordileone urges prayers for Pelosi after she boasts of receiving Holy Communion despite his ban“I would like to renew my request for prayers for the Speaker’s conversion on the issue of human life in the womb,” wrote Archbishop Cordileone about Nancy Pelosi.San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has responded to Nancy Pelosi’s rejection of his ban on her receiving Holy Communion, urging Catholics to pray for her “conversion on the issue of human life in the womb.”Late on December 10, Archbishop Cordileone issued a statement in response to a recent interview former Speaker of the House gave...

Dozens of summary executions have been reported across the country since former Al-Qaeda and ISIS leaders took control of Damascus.. Extremist armed factions across Syria are carrying out executions of civilians and soldiers amid the chaos following the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's government. Al Mayadeen reports on 10 December that a video circulating on social media shows armed militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Al-Qaeda offshoot that took control of Damascus on Saturday, carrying out field executions of unarmed men in the village of Al-Rabia in the countryside of Latakia. The militants referred to the men as...

When Social Security was established, it was intended to be a self-funding system from the employer and employee contributions. This self-funding is why Social Security is not an entitlement. The fund is, instead, a horribly managed defined benefit pension plan — horribly managed by legislation, not by negligence. The advent of DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) has provided the mechanism, impetus, and political will to challenge the status quo. Concerns about the solvency of the Social Security System have been bandied about for decades. Solutions have, unfortunately, focused on increasing the Social Security tax rates, increasing retirement age, increasing...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28One of the most delightful and healthy activities in life is sleep. This is especially the case when one is able to enter into a deep and refreshing sleep. Upon awakening, the person who has slept deeply feels refreshed and ready for a new day. Of course, the opposite is also true. When sleep is difficult and restless, the person can suffer numerous ill effects, especially when a lack of healthy sleep becomes the norm. The same is true...