Free Republic

As the Pentagon scouts Poland and the Czech Republic for possible locations for its planned missile defense shield, locals are proving to be less than enthusiastic about the idea. With its planned new missile defense system, sometimes known as "Son of Star Wars," Washington wants to create a battery of defenses capable of protecting the United States and its allies from oncoming missiles -- nuclear or otherwise. A working version of the defense system does not yet exist and a number of tests have resulted in failure, but Pentagon officials are already scouring Eastern Europe for potential bases for the...

Back in the days of the Hapsburg Empire, there was a town in Bohemia called Budweis. The people in that town were called Budweisers and the town had a brewery which produced beer with the same name -- but different from the American Budweiser. Like many communities in Bohemia during that era, Budweis had people of both Czech and German ancestries, speaking different languages, though many were also bilingual. They got along pretty well and most people there thought of themselves as Budweisers, rather than as Czechs or Germans. But that would later change -- for the worse -- not...

St. John Nepomucene Neumann (1811-1860) HIS FASCINATING LIFE STORY The Bishop of Philadelphia lay crumpled in the snow a few blocks from his new cathedral on Logan Square.  By the time a priest reached him with the holy oils, Bishop Neumann was dead. That was January 5, 1860.  At his own request Bishop Neumann was buried in a basement crypt in Saint Peter's Church where he would be with his Redemptorist confreres. PILGRIMAGES TO BISHOP'S TOMB Almost immediately devout souls were drawn to his grave. They came from far and near.  More than a few were claiming extraordinary miracles of...

Two Czech farmers have come up with an ingenious way to get around European Union regulations which they say are threatening their livelihood. Petr Hajek and Pavel Stepanek from the southern Bohemia region used to make a good living from sales of their goats' cheese, made to an old family recipe. But since the country joined the European Union on 1 May things have become more difficult. The men are unable to meet strict EU standards and so are prevented from selling their cheese for human consumption. "If I wanted to sell goats' cheese to people officially, I would have...