Free Republic

13 March 2025Thursday of the 1st week of LentHigh Altar in Seville Cathedral in Seville, SpainReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet. Year: C(I).First readingEsther 4:17I am alone, Lord, and have no-one but youQueen Esther took refuge with the Lord in the mortal peril which had overtaken her. She besought the Lord God of Israel in these words:‘My Lord, our King, the only one,come to my help, for I am aloneand have no helper but youand am about to take my life in my hands.‘I have been taught from my earliest years, in the bosom of my family,that you, Lord, choseIsrael...

ActBlue was founded in 2004 as a Democrat Party political action committee (PAC) ostensibly to organize and raise campaign funds from “small donors.” On its website, ActBlue describes itself as “the home for small dollar donors” that “operates as a conduit, which means donations made through ActBlue to a campaign or organization are considered individual donations.” As such they are subject to considerably less legal scrutiny than large dollar donations. In 2008, essentially the first presidential election in which ActBlue participated, they raised and spent $54.6 million on behalf of Democrat candidates. In 2012, they increased the amount raised and...

MEKELE, Ethiopia (AP) — As a displaced person in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, 76-year-old Haile Tsege is no stranger to hunger. During its war with Tigray fighters that devastated the region in 2020-2022, Ethiopian government restrictions on the rebellious region reduced aid flows to a trickle. Then in 2023, U.S. and U.N. aid distributions of grain were halted for months over a corruption scandal. Now the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, has again halted food deliveries to a sprawling camp of over 20,000 people outside Tigray’s regional capital, Mekele. “We will just die...

Overview Elon Musk recently stated that “rich people” should “be caring more” about federal deficits because “if the ship of America sinks,” “we all sink with it.” This may seem like hyperbole, but a widely overlooked report from the U.S. Treasury shows it is a likely scenario unless major changes are made. The Treasury report, quietly released in January, shows that if the federal government reported its finances in the same manner that large corporations are required by law to report theirs, the primary measure of federal red ink wouldn’t be $36 trillion in national debt but $143 trillion in...

As the money flows, the Supreme Court’s failure to act enables unchecked judicial activism. The Supreme Court’s recent refusal to vacate the lower court’s order in the USAID case has sharply divided legal observers—especially conservatives. Some initially dismissed it as a mere procedural hiccup, a fleeting technical matter that would quietly resolve itself. They were wrong then. They are even more wrong now. Judge Amir Ali’s latest ruling makes that painfully clear. As someone who has served as a judicial officer on appellate review, I know how these battles unfold behind closed doors. I’ve seen colleagues wobbly in their convictions....

“‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God’” (Matthew 5:9). The apostle tells us that “God has called us to peace” (1 Cor. 7:15), that He “reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18). The ministry of reconciliation is peacemaking. Those whom God has called to peace He also calls to make peace. Today and tomorrow we’re going to look at four things that characterize a peacemaker. First, he is one who has made peace with God. Before we came to Christ, God was at war with us....

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Police in Memphis, Tennessee, arrested five men on Monday accused of blocking traffic while dancing — and even twerking — according to reports. The police report describes seeing a 2016 Chevy Malibu stopped at a downtown intersection. Despite it being a green light, the vehicle was stopped. Police then observed four men twerking around the vehicle and one man dancing on the hood.

A new report by the United Nations claims that Israel committed "genocidal acts" during the war in Gaza, including intentional harm to women's health facilities and the weaponization of sexual violence. The report claims that Israel committed sexual violence against Gazans, including making them undress in public and carrying out sexual assault as part of the procedures meant to punish Palestinian Arabs for the October 7th Massacre. It also claims that there was a surge in maternity deaths due to restricted access to medical supplies, amounting "to the crime against humanity of extermination." "Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the...

President Trump’s threat to back a primary challenger against Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is just the latest boiling point in their hot-and-cold relationship — and the Kentuckian is brushing off the attacks. “It’s temporary,” the Kentuckian told me after Trump threatened to end his political career over Massie’s “no” vote on a six-month continuing resolution, backed by the president, that would keep the government open through September. Massie was the only House Republican to vote against the legislation, which he argued does not set up Congress to make lasting cuts to government spending. The libertarian congressman sees Trump’s public attacks...

So Chuck Schumer, as leader of the US Senate for ALL of 2024, INTENTIONALLY did not work on ANY appropriations bills from January 3rd till September 30th, because he wanted shutdown hysteria, to get, at worst, a continuing resolution (CR), or at best, an omnibus bill that has ALL appropriations in one bill and one vote. On September 30th we got a CR till December, because they needed "more time" to complete appropriations bills. In December, after working on NO appropriations bills, we again needed "more time" so we got ANOTHER CR that took us to March. This annual game...

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (WTNH) — Gov. Ned Lamont hit the road on Wednesday, visiting New Britain to promote a $300 million plan he says will deliver free preschool for many of the state’s working and middle class families.“We’ve got to make sure we take the lead here in the state of Connecticut,” Lamont said in remarks delivered at a preschool center on the campus of Central Connecticut State University.

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The hidden dangers of a little-known additive in a popular children's drink have been revealed after experts issued an alarming health warning. Called glycerol, the super-sweet substance is a common ingredient in 'slushies' — bright, colourful ice cold drinks that are a mainstay at cinemas and corner shops. But medics have warned the beverages can trigger a potentially deadly condition called 'intoxication syndrome' in some children. Here, MailOnline details exactly why the sweetener is so dangerous for small bodies, and how it can trigger a lethal drop of blood sugar within minutes, with fatal consequences. Experts have warned that just...

The historian and former representative of the German Auschwitz Committee, Klaus von Münchhausen, wrote in an article for the newspaper »Zeit« in 1990: According to a rough estimate, Haj Amin directly prevented up to 100,000 Slovak, Romanian, Bulgarian, and especially Hungarian Jews from escaping the gas chambers, even though they might have been able to emigrate to Palestine, Sweden, Turkey, and even South America. Jewish children from France and Belgium were also among them. The true number must be much higher. Only in a single round of negotiations between July 14 and 23, 1944, was the figure mentioned as 40,000...

A member of Oregon's Health Authority (OHA) on best practices and policies in mental health said they identify as a 'turtle' during a state panel meeting. JD Holt, who also goes by 'JD Terrapin' on Facebook, announced that they use 'they, them and turtle' for their preferred pronouns during a December meeting. 'Hello everybody, it's JD. I use they, them and turtle for my pronouns. I'm in the Springfield-Eugene area and I get to be part of the council,' Holt said during a virtual advisory council meeting. Holt is one of roughly two dozen 'consumers' on the OHA's Consumer Advisory...

Senate Democrats haven’t even surrendered yet on a government shutdown — but already White House officials are gloating about making them eat crow, almost taunting them to vote “no.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threw down the gauntlet Wednesday, proclaiming that Republicans don’t have the 60 votes needed to keep the government open past Friday. But President Donald Trump and senior White House officials are increasingly confident Schumer will release enough centrists to put up the votes for passage, according to multiple White House officials I spoke to over the past 24 hours. “They’re 100 percent gonna swallow it,” one...

Iran, Russia & China just conducted massive naval drills in the waters of the Middle East—how concerned should the United States and Israel be? Plus, these same three charter members of what Erick calls the Gathering Storm coalition are holding talks in Beijing this Friday over Iran’s nuclear program. Is the Trump administration planning to flip Russia away from this evil axis? Watch now!

A plane carrying US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who is helping lead the discussion with Moscow, has crossed Russian border, TASS news agency reports citing, Flightradar. Developing

Alina Habba – Donald Trump's firecracker lawyer who now works as special counselor to our great president – has finally found Joe Biden's fake Oval Office room he used to virtue-signal his tuchus off for four miserable years. Like bigfoot, we all knew it existed. We just hadn't found it … until now. While Trump and Elon were shopping for Teslas yesterday, Alina put on her detective hat and started searching for clues. Alas, by nightfall, our girl found it. It's real. It exists. And, it's so lame. Sure, the Dems might think they have the upper hand right now...