Free Republic

Last week we learned that the situation in Africa is significantly worse than we thought. I am not talking about poverty. I’m talking about theft. In Nigeria alone, some US $400 billion was stolen by that country’s leaders during the last four decades of the 20th Century, according to Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. "We cannot be accurate down to the last figure, but that is our projection," said Commission spokesman Osita Nwajah. This staggering sum, equal to six times the amount that the Marshall Plan provided to rebuild Europe, was taken by Nigeria’s...

Other group helping in Iraq not prosecuted Friday, March 07, 2003By Renee K. Gadoua The same federal act used to indict three Central New Yorkers accused of illegally sending money to Iraq has not been enforced against at least a dozen local residents who openly violated U.S. law by traveling there. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act authorizes U.S. sanctions against Iraq. Four Muslims, including three Onondaga County residents, were indicted Feb. 26 on charges that include violating the act by using the Syracuse-based charity Help the Needy to send money to Iraq without a license. About 600 people have...

On Tuesday, President Bush went before cameras holding in his arms a month-old baby named Trey Jones. The picture raised a question that supporters of embryonic stem cell research would rather not answer: Would the world be better off if Trey had been killed as an embryo to advance medical research? That is what would happen to thousands of other embryos under the bill passed this week by the House of Representatives, at least if the supporters' hopes are realized -- and it would happen with the approval and help of the federal government. The measure would scrap the policy...

Religious Liberty Protection Act which was pass by the House on July 15,1999 will someday hpoefully be taken up by Senate Republicans. When they choose to act the Senate bill # will be S2081, says my Representative Jay Inslee of Washington State. We need to get the Senate Republicans move on a bill that would have the potential to expand liberty in government schools and buildings. Why do we not educate our children in all the philosophies instead of indoctrinating them to one? We should have the right of conscience; to say what we choose to say, or write what...

When the feds quickly announce they won't press charges against runaway-bride Jennifer Wilbanks, 32, when the Albuquerque police chief discusses the "stress that she's been through" and law enforcement in Georgia is still noodling over whether to prosecute her for staging a kidnapping that didn't happen, you know you live in a country where actions mean nothing. Don't get me wrong: There have been serious consequences to Wilbanks' apparently premeditated hoax -- she bought her bus ticket a week before running off, and left behind her keys, wallet and ring, which made her disappearance look like a kidnapping, or worse....

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Nearly three-quarters of American Catholics say they are more likely to follow their own conscience on "difficult moral questions," rather than the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI, according to a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll. At the same time, most of those polled said they did not know enough about the new pope to form an opinion about him

The steaks and salmon are sizzling. Mushrooms and onions are sautéed in butter and garlic. Corn is steamed; butter melted. Pasta is boiling and sauce bubbling. It smells so good. Terri Schiavo won't smell them. Salad is tossed in dressing and adorned with feta cheese. Crusty bread and butter await, and a fine wine is uncorked and left to breathe. Coffee brews and tea steeps while desserts tempt the eye and palate. Terri Schiavo won't taste them. Our lives go on. We eat and drink and sleep and wake and smile and cry and love and hate. And Terri Schiavo...

Bill Clinton didn't ask for my help, but I thought I would volunteer. If I were about to undergo more surgery, I would worry about my mortality and try to make peace with my Maker. Bill, for the sake of your soul, sign this and get it sent out. ===================================================== My fellow Americans, thank you for your kind words and prayers as I am about to again undergo surgery. Because God has given me a second chance, I must clear my conscience. I am so sorry that I disappointed many of my fans. But more than that, I am sorry...

Examination of Conscience Here is a helpful examination of conscience, based on the Ten Commandments. Perform a brief examination every night, but go through a more thorough examination before confessing your sins to the priest. DIRECTIONSThe Commandments of God Have I doubted in matters of faith? murmured against God because of adversity? despaired of His mercy? Have I believed in or consulted fortune tellers? Have I taken part in non-Catholic worship? Have I recommended myself regularly to God? Neglected my morning or evening prayers? Omitted my religious obligations because of human respect? Presumed upon God's mercy in committing sin?...

North Koreans 'eat worse than pigs' By Jeremy Kirk YANJI, China - The slow, arduous exodus of North Koreans such as Ms Moon, 34, who wants to go to South Korea, is posing increasingly vexing diplomatic conundrums between South Korea and China, as both nations grapple with North Korea's decay and the resulting, unwanted fallout for Beijing and Seoul. "Honestly, most families can't really eat well" in North Korea, said Ms Moon, working a low-profile restaurant job in this dusty city with a large population of ethnic Koreans, one hour into China from the North Korean border. "When I came...

SACRAMENTO, USA, Dec. 09, 2004 (CNA) - A leading pro-family organization, Campaign for Children and Families, issued a response to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s announcement yesterday that he will sue to block the Hyde-Weldon conscience amendment in the recently-passed federal spending bill which prohibits government entities from punishing doctors who won't do abortions, saying that Lockyer is ignoring the right to “freedom of conscience.” Randy Thomasson, president of CCF stated: "Imagine you're a baby doctor. You've said the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, and now Bill Lockyer is forcing you to participate in killing an unborn child in...

by Joseph A. D’Agostino Other Articles by Joseph A. D’Agostino Conscience Protection Amendment Draws Ire 11/29/04 Now that the state of California has forced Catholic Charities, in violation of Catholic teaching, to pay for contraceptives, a federal effort to protect Americans from having to perform abortions shouldn't surprise anyone. Congressmen Henry Hyde (R-IL) and Dave Weldon (R-FL) succeeded last week by writing a conscience protection clause into a spending bill that passed Congress. The Hyde-Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment simply forbids forcing health insurance companies, hospitals, and doctors to perform, pay for, or otherwise participate in abortions by providing abortion referrals or...

The United States of America was founded by Christian leaders. The United States Constitution was written and signed by those Christians. John Leland was a very independent-minded Baptist preacher in Orange County of the Virginia colony. Isaac Backus of Massachusetts and Virginia’s John Leland, who were eager to ensure freedom of conscience and rid the Colonies of legal arrangements that interfered with it. They directly influenced the first amendment to the constitution giving us freedom of speech and religion free of state intrusion.

NEW YORK (AP) -- In Congress and states nationwide, anti-abortion activists are broadening efforts to support hospitals, doctors and pharmacists who -- citing moral grounds -- want to opt out of services linked to abortion and emergency contraception. A little-noticed provision cleared the House of Representatives last week that would prohibit local, state or federal authorities from requiring any institution or health care professional to provide abortions, pay for them, or make abortion-related referrals, even in cases of rape or medical emergency.

Living in Fear in Falls ChurchBy Robert Spencer FrontPageMagazine.com | September 14, 2004 As the world recoils in horror at the massacres of children by Chechen jihadists in Beslan, Russia, security agencies are examining the possibility that such an attack could happen in an American school. And why couldn’t it? After all, at a conference held last weekend, security was tight because of death threats from people holding the same ideology as that of the Beslan barbarians: radical Islam. The conference was held in Falls Church, Virginia. That’s right: Falls Church, Virginia. Right here in America, converts from Islam to...

A well-placed source, at the risk of his own safety, has shared information with me that was embargoed until impeached and disgraced ex-president Bill Clinton made it safely through surgery. I am now free to tell the story. Exclusively for FreeRepublic, the predominant conservative website and teller of truth, I was told by my source that a nun who was associated with St. Patrick's Cathedral had passed away three weeks ago at the age of 91. She had performed wonderful work in her life and had made it known that, just prior to her death, she would undergo an experimental...

Natural Law in Our Lives, in Our Courts (Part 1) J. Budziszewski on the 4 Ways of Knowing It AUSTIN, Texas, APRIL 1, 2004 (Zenit) - Legal scholars and theologians debate over the details of natural law, but an expert in the field believes that the fundamentals are something that we can't not know. J. Budziszewski is professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas and author of several books, including most recently, "What We Can't Not Know: A Guide" (Spence Publishing). Budziszewski shared the four God-given witnesses of natural law: deep conscience, the designedness of things in...

Barry Goldwater, The Conscience Of A Conservative, 1960. *all italics appeared in the 1990 print edition from which these quotes were culled. All quote are presented in the order they appeared in the book. "Every great movement-social; political, or religious-in its infancy, is marked by militancy. Its faithful shine with a spirit of sacrifice, a willingness to accept defeat and humiliation rather than compromise principal. Its True Believers are impatient, to the point of intolerance, with the half-hearted and the half-committed. He who is not with us is against us. That is the way we were." - Patrick J. Buchannan,...

Surveillance Seized in Hacking Probe 14 minutes ago By PAUL FOY, Associated Press Writer SALT LAKE CITY - Police have seized surveillance equipment from the psychiatric hospital where Mark Hacking worked as an orderly and the convenience store where he was seen twice the night his wife, Lori, presumably died. Hacking, 28, is accused of killing Lori Hacking, 27, while she slept and dumping her body in a trash bin. Authorities believe the bin is at the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute, Hacking's former employer. The equipment taken from the hospital was a digital recorder for surveillance cameras, according...

J+M+J Our Bishop Writes:The responsibility to have a well informed faith life Bishop Robert J. Carlson Diocese of Sioux Falls Within the past few weeks at least two people proclaiming membership in the Catholic Church wrote letters to the editor to daily newspapers presenting flawed thinking on the Catholic teaching of abortion and their particular political beliefs. As their bishop, I have no choice but to respond to their public action. As people of faith, we are called to be in an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, accepting him as Lord and Savior. Only then will our hearts...