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By Dr. John BergsmaIf last Sunday’s Readings were a soft-ball pitch, a nice high arc to knock out of the park, this Sunday’s Readings are a wicked curve ball for the Catholic preacher. Nonetheless, while these readings aren’t the “feel good” homiletical experience of last week’s, the truths are just as important and just as “Catholic.” We begin with a troublesome passage from the prophet JeremiahReading 1: Jeremiah 20:7-9You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped [Heb. patah]; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone...

Democrat gubernatorial candidate David Jolly is sharing the top of the ticket race with Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Senate candidate Angie Nixon in Florida, and despite acting as a moderate Democrat, Jolly shares many of the same positions as DSA. Jolly – a Republican turned Democrat – has attempted to position himself as a moderate Democrat, but that is anything but the case. He has openly said he wishes to apologize to the world for Florida’s “culture wars” and sided with disgraced former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) head Anthony Fauci during the pandemic, fleeing Florida...

Nowhere else (except maybe North Korea) will you find a town so eager to honour communist icons as Bloemfontein. The provincial government building is named after Fidel Castro. There’s a statue of him too. There are streets honouring Karl Marx and Ho Chi Minh. The ANC set out to turn into a living monument to communism — and ironically, simultaneously, turned the city into a monument of absolute decay. Here’s the story of Bloemfontein’s decline.

Leftist activists in the UK are mourning the apparent suicide of scholar plagiarist Jason Arday. Arday was a fabulist whose rich inner world would put Walter Mitty to shame. Called out for his violations of academic ethics, it quickly became apparent to anyone outside of Cambridge that his outlandish claims, both in academics and his personal life, could not possibly be true.

More than 100 companies have signed onto an open letter calling for greater cooperation and preparation of cyber defenses across governments and other institutions. The signatories include tech giants like OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft, along with financial institutions, telecoms and more. The call comes as the growing capabilities of AI models lower the barrier for hackers to be able to cause disruption with critical infrastructure, important organizations and companies."In the coming months, AI-enabled cyber attacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable," the letter says. "The companies and public services our communities...

A product of Greek mythology, the Trojan War tale includes a great deception that ended it. After a ten-year siege of Troy, residents awoke to find a massive statue of a horse outside their city gates with the Greek army nowhere in sight. Assuming the horse was a gift offering to end the fighting, the Trojans brought it within their city walls, and later that night, Greek soldiers exited the statue via a trap door and opened the city gates to the rest of the waiting army. In warfare, deception is the mother of invention—and the greatest opportunity for deception...

29 August 2026 The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist on Saturday of week 21 in Ordinary Time Front Royal, Virginia: Saint John the Baptist Catholic ChurchReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: A(II).Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst reading1 Corinthians 1:26-31God chose what is foolish by human reckoning, to shame the wiseTake yourselves for instance, brothers, at the time when you were called: how many of you were wise in the ordinary sense of the word, how many were influential people, or came from noble families? No, it was to shame the...

I'm sure there's a simple explanation, but I don't know it.

28 August 2026 Saint Augustine, Bishop, Doctor on Friday of week 21 in Ordinary Time St. Augustine of Hippo Parish - San Juan, SiquijorReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: A(II).Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst reading1 Corinthians 1:17-25We preach a crucified Christ, the power and wisdom of GodChrist did not send me to baptise, but to preach the Good News, and not to preach that in the terms of philosophy in which the crucifixion of Christ cannot be expressed. The language of the cross may be illogical to those who are not on...

A Nashville pastor is facing scrutiny after teaching that God once had a wife named Asherah who was later written out of the Bible. Zach Helton, co-pastor of Glendale Baptist Church, a congregation associated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Alliance of Baptists, made the claims during a recent sermon. Helton told his congregation that Asherah was the "female divine presence who was worshipped alongside Adonai" and the ancient consort of God before biblical authors concealed her identity. Helton's church bio states he is "deeply shaped by the teachings of Jesus, Buddhist practice, mysticism, and perennial wisdom over any...

God loves us and He created us to have fellowship with Him and choose to follow His commands. There is no true love in a relationship unless WE ARE FREE TO REJECT THAT LOVE, and end up eternally destroying ourselves! "If you're gay, you're gay. If you're straight, you're straight. AND YOU SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO BE HOW YOU ARE AND WHO YOU ARE." - Dolly Parton (Note: When pasting this document into Free Republic, it seems that most of the special formatting is lost, such as bold, italics, underlined words and embedded links. To read the document with the...

The real world — It’s full of complexities, ambiguities, unknowns, trade-offs, risks, and evils that we would prefer not to acknowledge. Perfection can be sought and approached, but nothing close to perfection can be achieved. And then there’s the world that we can imagine in our minds. In that world, we can ignore the complexities and ambiguities and the rest. Achieving perfection can be imagined as just a matter of overcoming a few simple obstacles. I often write about the musings of people who conjure in their minds imaginary scenarios of perfection that are inconsistent with anything that can be...

On Friday, August 7, 2026, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey signed a defense agreement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, referred to by many as a “(Sunni) Muslim NATO.” U.S. president Donald Trump praised the agreement without considering the consequences for America or its ally Israel, as well as how Greece and India would react to this deal. In a post shared on social media, Trump said he was “very happy” that the three countries had signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, adding that it showed the Middle East was “coming together” and would allow countries to defend themselves “in a more...

[Catholic Caucus] New bishop of West Virginia increases TLM locations from two to five By Mark Lambert via TwitterThis is genuinely encouraging news from the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. Bishop Evelio Menjívar has appointed Fr Timothy J. Grassi as Episcopal Delegate for Matters Concerning the Usus Antiquior explicitly “to foster greater unity among the Catholic faithful and provide for their various spiritual needs.”Surely Traditiones Custodes is a dead letter?Here is a bishop recognising that the spiritual needs of those who attend the Traditional Mass are real, that they belong within the life of the Church, and that pastoral care rather than...

The Department of General Services (DGS) has been directed to remove all three Confederate monuments and memorials from Capitol Square on Friday, Aug. 28, including one of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, one of Gov. William “Extra Billy” Smith, a former Confederate general and another of Confederate Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire.

Two Democrats and two Republicans have taken the top spots in Alaska’s crowded open primary for governor, according to The Associated Press. But the ballot this fall will reflect a different reality in a state that leans red, yet offers what Democrats believe is a rare opportunity this year. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a Democratic former state legislator from Sitka, Alaska, finished first in the 17-person primary, a nonpartisan election in which the top four finishers advance to November’s ranked-choice vote. Close behind Mr. Kreiss-Tomkins was Tom Begich, a Democratic former state lawmaker from Anchorage and singer-songwriter with a rich family legacy...

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A scheduled two-day Department of Homeland Security Careers Expo has been canceled after Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz intervened. On Thursday, Poloncarz, a Democrat, released a joint statement with convention center CEO Patrick Kaler, in which Poloncarz said in part: "Erie County has a long and proud history of welcoming immigrants and refugees from around the world... The Buffalo Convention Center is a publicly owned community asset, and I do not believe it should be used to support recruitment efforts that are inconsistent with the values we have repeatedly expressed as a welcoming community." Poloncarz also...

The Mystery of the Neolithic Marked Arrowheads | 10:22 MegalithHunter | 24.7K subscribers | 557 views | August 29, 2026 00:00 New Discovery of Incised Arrowheads 00:54 Where Have These Arrowheads Been Found? 02:46 Tepecik-Çiftlik Archaeological Site 06:11 Looking For A Pattern

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wine connections are raising eyebrows as his winery group becomes the only Napa operation to score a settlement after a devastating wildfire ravaged wine country. California wineries have been scrambling to recover from the 2025 Pickett Fire, which caused an estimated $56 million in wine-grape losses across Napa Valley. More than 30 winery and vineyard owners are seeking up to $90 million from Hundred Acre Winery and its owner, Jayson Woodbridge — but so far, only Newsom’s PlumpJack Group has reached a settlement.

SpaceX is pushing toward Starship Flight 14 with Ship 41 and Booster 21 completing major testing, including a spectacular 33-engine Super Heavy static fire. Meanwhile, SpaceX's Starship Plans Just Got Much Bigger, the colossal new Starbase Louisiana plans for at least ten Starship launch pads and thousands of future launches. Ship 40 has also finally been loaded aboard the massive FORTE recovery vessel for its long journey back to Texas after Flight 13. We also look at the final Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Florida, the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launch on Falcon Heavy, Ariane 6, the latest...