Free Republic

The concerted efforts now underway to derail the improved relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia established by the Trump administration are unhelpful at best and dangerous to America’s national and economic security at worst. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a reformer trying to modernize his country. The steps he has taken so far are unprecedented. Letting that progress fall victim to mistakes by his government and attacks from opponents would be a massive mistake. The death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi – a critic of the Saudi government, who has not been heard from since he...

By Lou Baldwin • Posted October 9, 2018 Some 350 friends and admirers of retired Auxiliary Bishop Bishop Louis A. DeSimone gathered at the Philadelphia Country Club on the evening of Oct. 4 where he was to receive the 2018 St. Augustine Medal, given by the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova. The guest of honor could not attend because he was in final preparation for a most important journey. Early on the following morning, Oct. 5, at the Monastery of St. Thomas of Villanova, Bishop DeSimone departed this life. It was the first Friday of the month, and...

White Double “AMONG THE MOST STRIKING PROOFS of the infinite love of our Redeemer is this, that, at a moment in which the love of the faithful was growing cold, the Divine Love proposed himself as the object of special veneration and worship, and the precious treasure of the Church was opened to enrich with indulgences the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge … In that Sacred Heart we must place all our hope, from that Heart ask and expect our salvation.� The great devotion to the...

nti-Trump crusader and Nebraska GOP Senator Ben Sasse set his sights on Sean Hannity this week; accusing him of “grotesque distortions” in his new book while failing to disclose countless interviews where the Republican widely-agreed with the Fox News host. According to recently released excerpts from Sasse’s latest cash-grab, the Senator lashes-out at Hannity for a full twenty pages; saying he doesn’t “promote a particular conservative agenda, or to encourage American patriotism, or even to offer coherent arguments against liberalism. His core cause is to rage.” “Liberals are evil, you’re a victim, and you should be furious,” he adds. Sasse...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY45z_vXbSQ&feature=youtu.be

Franciscan Media Image: Stained glass, depiction Christ appearing to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and showing her His Sacred Heart | St. Francis Xavier Basilica, Vincennes, IN Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque Saint of the Day for October 16 (July 22, 1647 – October 17, 1690)  Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque’s Story Margaret Mary was chosen by Christ to arouse the Church to a realization of the love of God symbolized by the heart of Jesus.Her early years were marked by sickness and a painful home situation. “The heaviest of my crosses was that I could do nothing to lighten the cross...

South Koreans have now found the perfect cheese to go with their wine. With craft beer becoming so popular across South Korea, the U.S. Meat Export Federation found “Beer Week Seoul” a prime opportunity to introduce the perfectly paired snack ... U.S. pork sausages. Funded by the USDA Market Access Program and the National Pork Board, the promotional effort included offering tasting samples of Johnsonville and Oscar Mayer sausages to the more than 25,000 visitors. “Our goal was to establish American pork sausages as an easy-to-cook and easy-to-eat choice that goes great with craft beer,” says Jihae Yang, USMEF director...

Details about the mishap are still limited, but a Su-27UB Flanker combat jet from Ukraine's Air Force has crashed in that country, killing its Ukrainian pilot, as well as reportedly a member of the U.S. Air National Guard. The jet had been flying a training sortie as part of Exercise Clear Sky 2018, which began on Oct. 8, 2018. The accident occurred at around 5:00 PM local time on Oct. 16, 2018, near the village of Ulaniv, which is situated approximately 185 miles southwest of the Ukranian capital Kiev. Ukraine's military immediately launched a search and rescue operation that unfortunately...

Next month marks the 40th anniversary of two landmark events of American popular culture: the assassination of pioneering gay politician Harvey Milk, and the mass suicide of 900 members of the Peoples Temple cult. If you remember anything about the mass suicide, it’s probably that cult leader Jim Jones was a fundamentalist Christian demon whose Bible-thumping berated brainwashed followers into drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. Harvey Milk, by contrast, is a folk hero. The San Francisco supervisor became a gay-rights saint because he was martyred by a right-wing fanatic. That’s the received history in both cases. But according to author Daniel Flynn,...

Less than a month after the confirmation of Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh entrenched a 5-4 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, leading law professors are urging Democrats to expand the size of all of the nation's federal courts and pack them with liberals. Far-left Harvard professors Mark Tushnet and Laurence Tribe are lending their support to the so-called "1.20.21 Project," which was launched by political science professor Aaron Belkin on Wednesday to counter "Republican obstruction, theft and procedural abuse" of the federal judiciary. That rhetoric reflects the professors' apparent surprise after Democrats lost the 2016 presidential election, which they had...

I could barely pay attention to what the commie was talking about with all of his fake Obama like gestures and Obama like speech pattern. Cruz mopped the floor with him. He is not ready to be a senator from a big state. He should move to a small liberal state. It was sad.

Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott (D) abruptly resigned Tuesday following the discovery of unspecified "inappropriate comments." "It is with profound disappointment and sadness that I accepted the resignation of Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott," Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (I) said in a statement. "Byron recently made inappropriate comments that do not reflect the sterling level of behavior required in his role as Lieutenant Governor," Walker wrote. "I learned of the incident last night. Byron has taken full responsibility for his actions and has resigned."

<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) - First lady Melania Trump will travel to Philadelphia to meet with families of children who were affected by exposure to opioids while in the womb.</p> <p>Mrs. Trump is being joined on her Wednesday visit to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.</p>

1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish....

Great views of the continental US at night are at the link. Then choose the size image you want. Note North Dakota!

Another part of Georgia’s elections infrastructure is being challenged in court this week, as two separate lawsuits are challenging parts of Georgia's mail-in absentee ballot process. … That lawsuit claims that Gwinnett County is rejecting absentee ballots at a rate higher than the rest of Georgia’s 159 counties, and that minority voters are disproportionately affected. As of Monday night, nearly 60,000 mail-in absentee ballots have been accepted according to the secretary of state’s office. 1,219 have been rejected, and 464 of them came from Gwinnett County.

I have noticed that since Trump was elected, our church and others in the area no longer pray for the president and our leaders during the Prayer of the Faithful. It is really starting to irritate me. Traditionally, this was always part of the prayer and he needs it now more than mkst presidents have. Did other Freepers notice that they stopped? What about other Christian churches?

Google’s security foibles, its “aggregate and advertise” model, its avoidance of price signals, its silos of customer data, and its visions of machine mind are unlikely to survive the root-and-branch revolution of distributed peer-to-peer technology, which I call the “cryptocosm.” Today, all around us, scores of thousands of engineers and entrepreneurs are contriving a new system of the world that transcends the limits and illusions of the Google realm. In the Google era, the prime rule of the Internet is “Communications first.” That means everything is free to be copied, moved, and mutated. While most of us welcome “free” on...

Pope’s Latest Homily: ‘Rigid’ Catholics Lack the ‘Spirit of God’ Pope Francis has returned to a common theme of his pontificate, this time in his homily for daily Mass at Casa Santa Marta, earlier this morning. The following are quotes from the pontiff, as reported by VaticanNews.va correspondent Adriana Masotti: They [the Pharisees] were truly an example of formality. But they lacked life. … They were rigid. Rigidity has been theme often repeated by the pope in connection to the rise of interest in the traditional Latin Mass among youths and young adults, as has been reported by LifeSiteNews in...