Free Republic

In another sign that the campaign of C-19 vaccination in Europe is far from over, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested last week that the appropriate response to the crisis in France’s overstrained emergency healthcare services is to “vaccinate everything that can be vaccinated.” “Vaccinate everything that can be vaccinated,” Macron said, “because we avoid the virus. That’s the best response for unburdening the healthcare system and having a healthy population. So, we’re going to continue to work on this aspect.”Macron’s word choice has attracted particular attention in the French Twittersphere and other online media, since he literally said that it...

Mentally speaking, Joseph Robinette Biden Junior is no longer with us. He lives in a world of his own. The best thing that can be said now about the Biden Presidency is that the person most likely to be elected to replace him in 2024 (if Biden lasts that long) is Donald Trump. Fortunately, Emmanuel, our God, is always with us.

O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.This hymn, originally in Latin, takes us back over 1,200 years to monastic life in the 8th- or 9th-century. Seven days before Christmas Eve monasteries would sing the “O antiphons” in anticipation of Christmas Eve when the eighth antiphon, “O Virgo virginum” (“O Virgin of virgins”) would be sung before and after Mary’s canticle, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46b-55). The Latin metrical form of the hymn was composed as early as the...

A Rwandan refugee could face up to 10 years in prison after admitting setting fire to Nantes cathedral. The 39-year-old man, who has solely been identified by his first name Emmanuel, worked as a volunteer security guard at the 15th-century Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paint which set alight last week. Three fires had been started at the site on July 18 and it took 104 firefighters to control the blaze which tore through the building and caused millions of pounds worth of damage. The Rwandan refugee was questioned for a second time yesterday by prosecutors and he was...

The 24-year-old man who threw a boy over a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America in April is appealing his conviction. On April 12, Emmanuel Aranda said he went to the mall intent on killing someone. According to the criminal complaint, he told investigators that he was angry for the way women at the mall rebuffed his attempt to talk. Unable to find an adult victim, he chose instead to grab the 5-year-old boy named Landen and throw him over a third floor railing, 40 feet to the concrete floor below. The child suffered numerous broken bones, head trauma...

Seven people have been shot during one attack on Friday night on the South Side, Chicago police said. The shooting happened about 8:05 p.m. in the 1600 block of West 65th Street in the West Englewood neighborhood, said Officer Norma Pelayo, who was citing preliminary information. Further details were not immediately available. Other Friday shootings left a 27-year-old man fatally wounded and three others wounded. A “young male’’ between the ages of 15 and 17 shot himself in the head following a foot pursuit with police in the West Side’s Lawndale neighborhood, according to Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. It...

The Rev. Gregory Livingston, of New Hope Baptist Church, said Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) has "blood on his hands," and is allegedly "sitting on" millions of dollars in Department of Housing and Urban Development funds that could be helping the affected neighborhoods. "Rahm's words do nothing for that family," Livingston said of a mother of a 17-year-old shot and killed over the weekend amid the violence. . . . "Trump, send the National Guard down here. Give us a breather so we can figure this out. Yes, let's talk, bc we have to make some changes here.

President Trump on Thursday blamed Chicago leaders for what he described as an unbelievable surge in gun violence in the city, his first public comments since more than 70 people were shot there over the weekend. Trump, who has threatened to send in federal officers to manage Chicago's crime and violence, brought up last weekend's violence during his opening remarks at a roundtable discussion on prison reform. "We must strengthen community bonds with law enforcement, including city's like Chicago that have been an absolute and total disaster," Trump told the room of governors, attorneys general and White House staff at...

On June 21, 2016, Chicago police pulled Spencer Byrd over for a broken turn signal. Byrd says his signal wasn't broken, but that detail would soon be the least of his worries. Ever since, Byrd has been trapped in one of the city's most confusing bureaucratic mazes, deprived of his car and his ability to work. He now owes the city thousands of dollars for the pleasure. Byrd, 50, lives in Harvey, Illinois, a corrupt, crime-ridden town south of Chicago where more than 35 percent of the populace lives below the poverty line. He's a carpenter by trade, but until...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel slammed President Trump's decision to rescind the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy on Tuesday, declaring the Windy city a "Trump-free Zone." DACA was implemented in 2012 as a safeguard protecting some children of immigrants who entered the United States illegally, and Emanuel's response to the safety net's removal on Tuesday was firm and critical.

The attorney general called the “open hostility” against protecting law enforcement -- while protecting criminal aliens -- “astounding” given the influx of Chicago’s violence crime. “The city’s leaders cannot follow some laws and ignore others and reasonably expect this horrific situation to improve,” Sessions continued. The grants, named for former New York City police officer Edward Byrne, who was murdered in 1988, would provide $3.2 million to Chicago, to be used for police vehicles. Funding from the grant is a small fraction of the city's budget. A requirement added to the grants would force local jurisdictions to report to federal...

(CHICAGO) Mayor Emanuel says he’s going to sue the Trump Justice Dept on Monday over its new Sanctuary City rules. New rules just out prevent Sanctuary Cities like Chicago to get certain law enforcement grants and so the mayor says Chicago will file suit to kill the rules and get the millions in question. In an interview with WLS-AM for Sunday’s edition of “Bill Cameron and Connected to Chicago”, the mayor said “We are not going to be put in a position of choosing who we are as a welcoming city and strengthening our police dept. These are exactly the...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel formally announced Wednesday the city's support of the Paris climate agreement as Chicago welcomed mayors and leaders from around the world for a three-day conference about the global role of cities. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs' gathering seeks to get civic leaders and policy makers to brainstorm on the future influence of cities on the world around us. This year's focus was economics, and the discussion including growing concern about the impact of environmental policy on cities. "The decisions we make in the next two to three years will determine what our cities look like in...

MORNING MAY 3 Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. Ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am Holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine. Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power. Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.Be diligent that...

MAY 2 EVENING Keep yourselves from idols. My son, give me thine heart. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? Mortify ... your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. For the love of money is the root of all evil:...

MAY 2 MORNING Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and...

FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS What are the "O Antiphons"? The O Antiphons refer to the seven antiphons that are recited (or chanted) preceding the Magnificat during Vespers of the Liturgy of the Hours. They cover the special period of Advent preparation known as the Octave before Christmas, Dec. 17-23, with Dec. 24 being Christmas Eve and Vespers for that evening being for the Christmas Vigil. The exact origin of the O Antiphons is not known. Boethius (c. 480-524) made a slight reference to them, thereby suggesting their presence at that time. At the Benedictine abbey of Fleury (now Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire), these antiphons...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel appeared to suggest renaming one of Chicago’s airports after President Barack Obama on Thursday, but also sounded confused about how the O’Hare and Midway got their current names. During a mayoral forum at Chicago State University, the mayor seemed a bit flustered as he answered a question about his quick about-face after he suggested naming a Chicago high school for President Barack Obama, and renaming Stony Island Avenue for the late civic leader Rev. Arthur Brazier. That’s when the mayor brought up the city’s two airports. “We have to, in some way, whether it’s President Obama or...

Mayor Bill de Blasio has spoken of conversations with his son, Dante, about the “dangers he may face” from the police. Like so many other assertions connected with the cases of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, it is a fiction — and a dangerous one. Truth is, a young man of Dante de Blasio’s age faces far more danger from violent men his age than he does from cops. Zach Emanuel found this out the hard way. Zach’s father is Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago. Like Dante, he’s 17. Last Friday, he was assaulted and mugged just a block from...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff, told CNBC on Thursday he gave President Barack Obama a "contrary opinion" on the early stages of the Affordable Care Act, which debuted with a glitch-ridden website and troubled exchanges.