Free Republic

The origins of the Papacy can be traced to St. Peter, one of the original disciples of Jesus. The current pope, Francis I, is the 265th successor of St. Peter. Needless to say, all 266 popes are male. Yet, during the middle ages, there existed a story about a pope who was actually a female in disguise. The name of this supposed female pope was Joan. Who was this mysterious Pope Joan, and did she really exist? The statue that still stands in Rome is Joanna with a papal crown.(ericcostanzo.com)The first written account of Pope Joan can be traced to...

An Italian MP has described the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in which around 3,000 people were killed, as "an inside job" and slammed the official version of events as a "conspiracy". Bernini, an MP for the Five Star Movement (M5S) was speaking in parliament on Thursday, the 12th anniversary of the attacks. He said that the official version of the event has been "proved wrong from every point of view". "It’s clearly false and by now, the world has realized." On 11th September 2001 terrorists hijacked four planes in the US; two crashed into New York’s World Trade Centre, another struck...

Finally, what with a snow day and all, I have time to write one more installment of the history of art. Today’s “lesson” is Baroque art. Baroque art dates from 1600-1715 or so. (The dates are different with different media. The end of Baroque art coincides with the death of King Louis XIV in 1715; Baroque music ends with the death of Bach in 1750.) The expansion in Baroque artistic space reflects the expansion of political empires (into the New World) and the expansion of scientific knowledge (the invention of microscopes and telescopes: with space expanding outward and contracting inward)....