Free Republic

SEATTLE, WA—After reading several chapters from the gospels over the weekend, local progressive believer Wendy Butler reportedly published a Patheos blog post in which she criticized Jesus of Nazareth for “not being very Christlike.” The blog post took Jesus to task for His “unloving and problematic” teachings. “He devotes entire sections of His sermons to ranting about archaic religious concepts like hell and the last judgment instead of just coming alongside the marginalized and affirming their sins,” Butler said. “Very little of what He did on earth I would describe as life-giving. Frankly, I do a better job of being...

t was on a family holiday that Kali Kushner discovered, abruptly, just how others viewed her skin. “At the end of the day I washed off my makeup,” she recalls. “My nephew said: ‘Why is your face so dirty?’ It took me a minute to realise he saw my foundation as a ‘clean face’ and acne as dirt.” Soon after, Kushner, 23, from Cincinnati, Ohio, began documenting her struggle with acne on the Instagram account @myfacestory – her experience with the drug Accutane, dermarolling, makeup, scarring, hyperpigmentation, alongside all the ways people have responded to her acne, from her husband,...

Chairman Chuck Grassley is on a roll. Senator Grassley (R-IA) sent ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) a letter demanding an unredacted copy of the letter accuser Christine Blasey Ford sent Senate Democrats in July. Grassley suggested Feinstein deployed Christine Ford’s letter strategically for political gain after sitting on it for seven weeks. Feinstein also circulated Christine Ford’s unredacted letter to her staff –which of course was subsequently leaked to the media–Grassley, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he still hasn’t seen the unredacted letter even though he has after repeatedly asked for the...

Sorry, couldn't resist.

In a decision that appears to flout Nevada election law, a Las Vegas judge has nullified the results of a Republican primary election. Jason Burke defeated Mack Miller by 122 votes in the June 12 primary for state Assembly District 5, but a judge declared Miller “the rightful winner of the election” because Burke did not file campaign finance reports in time. “This is certainly a novel case that I haven’t seen before,” said Las Vegas attorney Daniel Stewart, who specializes in Nevada election law. “But no two election contests are the same, and it seems like every election cycle...

Senate Republicans strongly signaled on Wednesday that they will forge ahead with embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation as his accuser called the rush for a public hearing next week unfair. GOP senators who fretted earlier this week about the prospects for President Trump’s pick are now largely pushing for a vote on Kavanaugh, who is accused of sexually assaulting now-professor Christine Blasey Ford when they were teenagers, amid signs that she may decline to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And Trump is more convinced he should stand by Kavanaugh than he was two days ago, people...

Behar seethed, “These people in Congress right now on that Senate Judiciary Committee, these white men, old by the way, are not protecting women.” She then skipped the "whole innocent until proven guilty" concept and declared, “They are protecting a man who is probably guilty. If you're not, Judge Kavanaugh, take the lie detector test.” Behar spat, “Or are you a coward?”

If this is what the left pulls against a sweet nerd like Brett Kavanaugh, I can't wait for the hearings to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg! Observers of the passing scene were not surprised that the same lunatics screaming that Kavanaugh is going to impose "The Handmaid's Tale" on America also announced that he had committed attempted rape and murder in high school. His accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, remembered this in a therapy session 30-plus years after the alleged incident -- coincidentally, at the exact moment Kavanaugh was all over the news as Mitt Romney's likely Supreme Court nominee. She doesn't...

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has agreed to contribute $10 million to women's organizations but will not face any other punishment stemming from what NBA commissioner Adam Silver called "disturbing and heartbreaking" allegations of harassment and violence toward female employees within the organization, the league announced Wednesday. The NBA launched an investigation seven months ago following a Sports Illustrated report in February which described "a corporate culture rife with misogyny and predatory sexual behavior" that spanned decades in the Mavericks' organization, including numerous allegations against former CEO and president Terdema Ussery, who left the Mavericks in 2015. On Wednesday, the...

In one of Brett Kavanaugh's responses to allegations that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl when he was in high school, a charge he has denied "categorically and unequivocally," he suggested that, perhaps, this was a case of mistaken identity. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a member of the Judiciary Committee reiterated this notion, saying that perhaps the accuser was "mixed up." And, on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal's editorial board also floated the possibility of mistaken identity. As crazy as that sounds, it wouldn't be unheard of. And, given the high regard in which Kavanaugh has been held throughout his...

“I’m amazed that Lorne [Michaels] has gone so low. I had to watch a little of it, and I just couldn’t f—ing believe it,” Chase told the Washington Post. “That means a whole generation of s—heads laughs at the worst f—ing humor in the world. You know what I mean? How could you dare give that generation worse s— than they already have in their lives? It just drives me nuts.” It’s not just the current cast that Chase criticized — he hasn’t liked most of the most seasons of “SNL.” “I’d have to say, that after the first two...

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker has a very interesting view of Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged actions. You might even call this a “Spartacus” moment for the Senator, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. As the world knows, Judge Kavanaugh, 17 years old at the time, is being accused of assaulting a 15-year-old Christine Blasey (now Ford) when both were in high school. Blasey did not report the incident to authorities or apparently anyone else at the time. Thus, no charges were filed much less was Kavanaugh prosecuted. Again, if the charges are true — and there is zero evidence that...

Republicans are ready to push ahead with a vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after becoming frustrated with his accuser who has now rebuffed the chances the GOP has offered her to tell her story. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said he’s sticking with his plan to hold a hearing Monday to give Christine Blasey Ford a chance to detail her allegation that Judge Kavanaugh, as a 17-year-old high school student, attempted to strip off her clothes and stifle her cries for help. The judge has vehemently denied the allegations, as have others Ms. Blasey Ford says were witnesses....

Former Vice President Al Gore compared the Trump administration to an experiment that’s “terminated early for ethical reasons,” in an interview with MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell that also touched on the upcoming election and man-made global warming. On global warming, Gore repeated to Mitchell the line he uses in nearly every speech: “Every night on the television news is like a nature hike through the book of Revelation.”

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones should pick up the phone and thank Capt. Norm Leong of the Sacramento Police Department for saving him. Leong stopped two young men, carrying placards bearing the image of a deputy killed on Monday, from confronting Black Lives Matter protesters at a demonstration in downtown Sacramento on Tuesday afternoon.

On a recent business trip to Albania, I was invited to visit the new camp of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, or the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), still being built about 45 minutes outside of Tirana, on the way to the Albanian coast. I accepted the invitation, although I must admit, I had no idea what to expect upon reaching the sprawling facility which is the new home for approximately 3,200 of the Iranian resistance movement’s personnel, after being forced out of Iraq by violence from the Iranian-backed government. I want to write more about the group and its agenda...

Cody Wilson, whose push to post blueprints for 3-D printed guns online has made him a key figure in the national gun control debate, was charged on Wednesday with sexually assaulting a child in Texas.

Democrats have an endgame in mind when it comes to thwarting Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, revealed as much in an interview this week. Speaking to Politico, Hirono said Senate Democrats will try to keep retired Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat vacant until after the 2020 elections, should Kavanaugh's confirmation ultimately fail.

Putin’s dialing down of the rhetoric is an effort to mask his intentions. He — Russia — still has the same foreign policy interests in Syria as he did before the plane was shot down, and those aren’t going to change anytime soon. When journalists asked him about the much more hostile statement of his Defense Ministry, which also vowed a retaliatory response, Putin stated clearly that it was “fully coordinated” with him (of course it was). He defined what ‘retaliatory’ meant. “The retaliatory measures will be directed above all to boosting the security of military men and installations in...

Franciscan Media Image: The Martyrdom of Saint Januarius | Neri di Bicci Saint Januarius Saint of the Day for September 19 (c. 300)  Saint Januarius’ Story Little is known about the life of Januarius. He is believed to have been martyred in the Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of 305. Legend has it that Januarius and his companions were thrown to the bears in the amphitheater of Pozzuoli, but the animals failed to attack them. They were then beheaded, and Januarius’ blood ultimately brought to Naples.“A dark mass that half fills a hermetically sealed four-inch glass container, and is preserved in...