Free Republic

Most Republicans have just finished what might be called the spring of their discontent. Not much went right in the first half of the year; not much to cheer about. Let us count the ways that the world has conspired to help Mr. Romney. At a time when the Republican Party is straining to find new leaders, other prominent party members who aspire to that role -- Govs. Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and Mark Sanford, and Sen. John Ensign -- have stumbled or, in the case of Gov. Sanford, flamed out in spectacular fashion. Mitt Romney now looks by comparison...

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) -- A southwest Florida woman was arrested after deputies said she assaulted her 71-year-old common-law husband after he complained about her cooking. A Lee County Sheriff's Office arrest report shows 66-year-old Meredith Hart Mulcahy was charged with battery on an elderly person Tuesday night. Deputies said the man got into an argument with her about undercooked potatoes and burnt bread.He went to the bedroom and began eating, and authorities said the woman then threw a phone at him. Deputies said Mulcahy became belligerent in the back seat of the patrol car and told them that she...

video clip ALSIP, Ill. (AP) -- Three gravediggers and a cemetery manager unearthed hundreds of corpses from a historic black cemetery south of Chicago, dumping some in a weeded area and double-stacking others in existing graves, in an elaborate scheme to resell the plots, authorities said Thursday. All four were charged with felonies. Frantic relatives of the deceased descended on Burr Oak Cemetery - the final resting place of lynching victim Emmett Till and blues singers Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington - in hopes someone could tell them their loved ones' remains were not among the pile of bones that...

A healthy diet is key when it comes to lowering your blood pressureOptimal blood pressure is at or below 120/80 mm Hg. If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, your doctor has probably already told you the basics. You can control blood pressure by getting to and maintaining a healthy weight; reducing your “bad” cholesterol (LDL) if it’s high; limiting the salt in your diet; exercising; and adding calcium, vitamin D, magnesium and potassium to your diet. The following eight foods are among the best of the best when it comes to lowering your blood pressure. Skim milk: Skim...

Amazing Juggling Finale Paul sings Nessun Dorma high quality vid... Pavarotti sings "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot . BumpTop 3D Desktop Prototype - www.bumptop.com

Twenty Years Later... This undated photo made available by the Yad Ben Zvi Institute shows a piece of an ancient parchment believed to be part of the most authoritative manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, the Aleppo Codex. The fragment, more than 1,000-years old, contains verses from the Book of Exodus describing the plagues in Egypt, including the words of Moses to Paraoh, 'Let my people go, that they may serve me'. The family of man who held a fragment of a more than 1,000-year-old manuscript of the Hebrew Bible for six decades as a good luck charm will present it...

Book Description Christianity is a religion of salvation in which believers have always anticipated post-mortem bliss for the faithful and non-salvation for others. Here, Trumbower examines how and why death came to be perceived as such a firm boundary of salvation. Analyzing exceptions to this principle from ancient Christianity, he finds that the principle itself was slow to develop and not universally accepted in the Christian movement's first four hundred years. In fact, only in the West was this principle definitively articulated, due in large part to the work and influence of Augustine. About the Author Jeffrey A. Trumbower is...

Geologists Discover Iron in Region of Nephi’s Bountiful We stood at the crest of the Dhofar mountains, in the mist, on the edge of extremes. Inland was nothing but parched desert, like the rest of the Arabian Peninsula. Yet, the coastal side of the mountains was dressed with lush forests, ‘much fruit’ and fountains of water. It is no wonder that this verdant oasis was called ‘the land Bountiful’ by Lehi and his followers when they arrived here at the end of a long journey from Jerusalem. Somewhere in these same mountains Nephi heard the voice of the Lord...

As a society, we celebrate competence. We give awards for excellence. We prize innovation. We worship individual accomplishment. God is different. He chooses the inadequate. He honors the humble. He works through the meek. He makes the last first. He prefers broken hearts to sturdy competence. Models of Inadequacy Consider the following statements by some of God's great ones: Brother of Jared: Now behold, O Lord, and do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee; ... we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; (Ether 3: 2)...

Robert J. Matthews, Professor of Religion at BYU BYU Education Week 2007 Brother Matthews discusses life after death - AUDIO

Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr., will speak at a Brigham Young University forum assembly on Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 11:05 a.m. in the Marriott Center. The forum will be presented live on BYU Television, KBYU TV, KBYU FM and byubroadcasting.org. For rebroadcast information, visit byubroadcasting.org. A question-and-answer session for students will be held in the Marriott Center immediately following the address. On September 29, 2005, John G. Roberts, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States. At 50 years of age, he became the youngest...

JOHN BATCHELOR LIVE SUN AT 7 PM – 10 PM Global & Domestic JOHN BATCHELOR LIVE SUN AT 10 PM – 1 AM Global & Domestic Click to Read Today AgendaABC RADIO At 10 AM Switch To KFI AM 640 RADIO A bigger list of streaming for John Batchelor New Sunday Night Line-up on WABC 77WABC announced today, the return of John Batchelor to the WABC lineup. John will take over the 7-10pm slot on Sunday night, which has been occupied by Brian Whitman. Batchelor hosted nights on WABC from the night after 9/11, till September of 2006 when his...

Men in the public spotlight constantly are asked to express an opinion on a myriad of government proposals and projects. "What do you think of TVA?" "What is your opinion of Medicare?" "How do you feel about Urban Renewal?" The list is endless. All too often, answers to these questions seem to be based, not upon any solid principle, but upon the popularity of the specific government program in question. Seldom are men willing to oppose a popular program if they, themselves, wish to be popular--especially if they seek public office. Government Should Be Based Upon Sound Principles Such an...

The Saturday morning session of the 177th Semiannual General Conference of the Church will begin today at 10:00 a.m. You can watch or listen to the conference on the Internet. For additional information, read about when conference materials will be available.

Religion and politics have long been the "oil and water" of any social gathering, where political correctness and polite conversation dictate avoidance, or at best, whispered interchange. But the "faith factor" in presidential politics has changed the discussion of late for American Mormons, who are now constantly confronted with questions about their belief in Christ — or the lack thereof. So as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gather today for their 177th Semiannual General Conference in Salt Lake City, it is against the backdrop of a politically charged landscape that has placed their doctrine and...

How many families, companies, churches, governments, or organizations do you know that spend less than they earn and remain debt free? There may be some, but not enough. One of the few is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose president, Gordon B. Hinckley, defined the church's financial outlook this way: We are carrying a message of self-reliance throughout the Church. Self-reliance cannot be obtained when there is serious debt hanging over a household. One has neither independence nor freedom from bondage when he is obligated to others. In managing the affairs of the Church, we have tried...

<p>Editor's Note: According to an exhibit at the United States Library of Congress, young Bedouin shepherds, searching for a stray goat in the Judean Desert in 1947, entered a long-untouched cave and found scrolls in a jar and under debris on the floor. That initial discovery by the Bedouins began a search that lasted nearly a decade, eventually producing thousands of scroll fragments from 11 caves.</p>

The time period between the Old and New Testaments is a blank in our scriptures, yet those 400 years were a very significant period in the Holy Land. In many respects the Holy Land in that era resembled a military chessboard on which two important Greek dynasties, the Seleucids of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt, fought for control after the death of Alexander the Great. When the dust settled around 200 B.C., the Seleucids, under the leadership of Antiochus III, were the victors. The fundamental cultural and religious differences between these Greeks and their Jewish subjects eventually led to...

First Sunday of September, and we had one of the most totally uplifting services I can ever remember. I can even say that the sun shone, and that has not happened very much this summer. Relief Society was as near perfect as I think we can get in this life. There was much of pure Gospel value in it for absolutely everyone, and we all left feeling as if we walked on air. There were smiles, a lift in the step and almost a crackle of excitement in the air. It would be difficult to define the subject. It...

The LDS Church has posted the contents of a new pamphlet about same-sex attraction on its Web site. The piece, titled "God Loveth His Children," reiterates the church's long-held distinction between same-sex attractions and actions, suggesting that only the latter are immoral. According to LDS doctrine, sexuality is only appropriate within heterosexual marriage. Everyone else is expected to be chaste. It acknowledges that some singles, homosexual and heterosexual, may never marry in this life, but "will be perfected in the next life so that every one of God's children may find joy in a family consisting of a husband, a...