Free Republic

There’s a musical piece you’ve likely heard many times before—but unless you have a particularly trained ear and are also hip to the catalog of Medieval Latin hymns, you probably haven’t noticed it. It’s a musical pattern from “Dies Irae,” a haunting chant for the dead, and CBC Radio host Tom Allen has put together an impressive video history of the work.

DIES IRAE Day of wrath, day that will dissolve the world into burning coals, as David bore witness with the Sibyl. How great a tremor is to be, when the judge is to come briskly shattering every (grave). A trumpet sounding an astonishing sound through the tombs of the region drives all (men) before the throne. Death will be stunned and (so) will Nature, when arises (man) the creature responding to the One judging. The written book will be brought forth, in which the whole (record of evidence) is contained whence the world is to be judged. Therefore when the...

CHESTER, Va. — The Christian preschool teacher heard the news on her car radio: Same-sex marriage is now legal in Virginia. This is it, she thought. The end times. “It could happen today,” Pam Rives said on Tuesday, tidying her lemon-yellow classroom at the Ironbridge Baptist Church. “This is just another step in that direction. As society changes, it takes God out of it.” Rives, 57, has taught 4-year-olds for nearly a decade in this conservative pocket of the South, which is home to 20,000 residents. Her school, lined with October pumpkins and bubble-lettered prayers, is down the road from...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's web activists have been brazen critics of the President Hosni Mubarak 30-year rule online. This week's unprecedented protests across Egypt showed they are becoming formidable opponents offline too. Activists have used Facebook, Twitter and other social media to rally supporters online, coordinate protests and share tips on how to dodge arrest and deal with teargas. They blame the government for making access to the sites patchy. "Mubarak took over Twitter and we took over the streets. Good deal," one anonymous user tweeted. With two thirds of Egypt's 79 million people under the age of 30 and...