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Photo from Vatican Radio Today Pope Francis celebrated the Holy Thursday Chrism Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, during which holy oils to be used in the sacraments throughout the year were blessed. Later today he will celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the Casal del Marmo Penitential Institute for Minors. Below, translated by Vatican Radio, is the full text of the Holy Father’s Homily from the Chrism Mass, which also includes a renewal of the priestly vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. *** Dear Brothers and Sisters, This morning I have the joy of celebrating...

Staten Island residents already suffering from the ravages of Hurricane Sandy say they are now seeing their neighborhoods infiltrated by squatters and looters. As CBS 2’s Dick Brennan reported Wednesday, when darkness sets in on Wavecrest Street in New Dorp, people say squatters make their move – crashing empty homes wrecked by the hurricane.

Yeah, yeah. I know a lot of people have a problem with Glenn Beck. To be honest, I do too, sometimes.But this is something worth listening to. He lays out how we are being intentionally distracted in order to slip the truly insidious agenda contained within the stimulus packages, Common Core and other Progressive initiatives.

Many people expected to see a Tea Party challenge to Mitch McConnell in next year’s Kentucky primary, and it could still happen. However, that challenge will not include any support from the Tea Party’s 2010 candidate for US Senate, Rand Paul. Late yesterday, Paul threw his support behind the highest-ranking member of the GOP establishment in the upper chamber: The Daily Caller has learned that Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is endorsing Sen. Mitch McConnell for re-election in 2014, ending speculation that Paul would back a tea party challenge to the Senate minority leader. “Rand Paul has endorsed McConnell,” Jesse...

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While The History Channel's miniseries "The Bible" continues to garner millions of viewers every week, one comedian has opted to poke fun at the program. Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, known for his faux conservative program "The Colbert Report," had a segment Monday evening about the miniseries and its production team. "The Word of God, the story of all creation, doesn't really have the legs to sustain an entire series; unlike The History Channel's Big Shrimpin,'" quipped Colbert. He also talked about Roma Downey, co-producer of the miniseries, being cast for the role of the Virgin Mary. "Wow, I wonder...

Uploaded on Jul 5, 2011 Want an alternative to vehicular dependence on gas and oil? Forget about electric cars - how about wind-up cars, sail cars, and pogo cars! "Bruce McCall's Energy Free Transportation Future" envisions our roads and skies as environmentally fantastical places. click on the link

Walmart is starting to look like a Soviet-era retailer. The prices are still low, but shelves are going empty for months while products sit unwrapped in storage, lines are interminable, and no one is around to help. Bloomberg reports that in-store service problems for the world’s third-largest corporation are so bad that people are willing to pony up the extra cash to shop at stores like Target and Walgreens. Walmart’s problem, says MIT retail researcher Zeynep Ton, is a shortage of cheap labor:

"If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it." -- Abraham Lincoln History is full of warnings about what happens when people follow public opinion instead of standing by their principles. In its most extreme manifestation, public opinion might well become mob rule when vigilantes take the law into their own hands. Major media have whipped the crowd into its latest frenzy over same-sex marriage, or should I say "marriage equality," the latest euphemism, likely intended to make the masses more accepting of what...

It worked last time. Last year, when oral arguments in the Obamacare case seemed to go against the administration, the left targeted Chief Justice John Roberts with a series of attacks from President Barack Obama on down. The attacks may have worked, as Roberts apparently changed his vote and upheld Obamacare by effectively rewriting the legislation itself to define the individual mandate as a tax. The attacks on Roberts last year included President Obama's general--and bizarre--assertion that the Supreme Court could not overturn congressional legislation, as well as a direct attack on Roberts by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who admonished...

A University of Maryland student awaiting trial on child pornography charges was arrested in a separate case this week after he arranged to have sex with someone he thought was a 12-year-old girl, authorities say. Court documents describe how 18-year-old freshman Akshay Rajshekar walked to class Monday while discussing final plans to have sex with the girl and her father. Rajshekar, a freshman from Salisbury, Md., was already facing charges of possession and distribution of child pornography following an investigation by the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office. He had been indicted and arrested in November, released on bond and allowed to...

Yesterday we reported on the case of United Loan and Firearm versus Comcast. The owner of that shop, Ray Reynolds, says that Comcast is censoring his TV ads that run on Comcast Cable. The cable giant is demanding that he truncate “United Loan and Firearm” to remove the reference to guns, and that he remove any imagery of guns from his ad. If he does not comply, his ad will not run. Comcast’s new policy extends beyond Georgia. Bob Viden, owner of Bob’s Little Sport Shop in Glassboro, New Jersey, told the Conservative Commando radio show on Wednesday that Comcast...

WASHINGTON--The number of Americans claiming first-time unemployment benefits rose for the second week in a row, a possible sign that the labor market lost a bit of momentum. Initial jobless claims, an indication of layoffs, increased by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 357,000 in the week ended March 23, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was above economists' forecast of 340,000 new claims. The latest week's gain came after claims rose 7,000 to a revised 341,000 in the week ended March 16. The four-week moving average, which smoothes out week-to-week volatility in the data, rose by 2,250 to 343,000. Even...

Is anyone else feeling harassed by the gay rights “equals” logo? I see it everywhere: it fills my Facebook page, it is on the news, it is everywhere and I feel pounded by it. This enormous red and pink “equals” sign is strong and effective; it is also becoming a bully club as it appears everywhere and those who bear it seem to want to beat us into submission. My job is analyzing art, so let’s look at this sign. Isn’t purple the color of the gay alliance? Wouldn’t a pink equals against a purple background be prettier and more...

Vanity: Could some of our clever artists come up with responses to the Human Rights Campaign's red equality logo, especially this variation showing the kissing Libertys. Versions with a horse, dog, child, adolescent, and multiple humans are desired.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but probably not enough to suggest the labor market recovery was taking a step back.Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 357,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Still, they remained in the middle of their range for this year.The prior week's claims figure was revised to show 5,000 more applications than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-time applications last week to rise to 340,000. Last week's report contained annual benchmark revisions to the series and...

The older brother of George Zimmerman, the man accusing of killing Trayvon Martin, says a controversial Twitter posting comparing Martin with an alleged baby killer was his attempt to correct the establishment media’s false portrayal of the Florida teen in the racially charged case. Robert Zimmerman, who spoke with WND in an exclusive interview, ignited a firestorm of debate on the Internet when he juxtaposed a Facebook photo of the 17-year-old Martin flipping off the camera alongside a Facebook photo of alleged killer DeMarquise Elkins, also 17, doing the same. The tweeted photo was headlined: “A picture speaks a thousand...

(Reuters) - Millions of Americans will be priced out of health insurance under President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul because of a glitch in the law that adversely affects people with modest incomes who cannot afford family coverage offered by their employers, a leading healthcare advocacy group said on Tuesday. Tax credits are a key component of the law and the White House has said the credits, averaging about $4,000 apiece, will help about 18 million individuals and families pay for health insurance once the Affordable Care Act takes full effect, beginning in January 2014. The tax credits are geared toward...

As I already mentioned earlier this week, President Obama just unilaterally designated five new national monuments and parks to the federal government’s keeping, and it might be easy to dismiss any partisan objections to his decision as just the complaints of those gosh darn spiteful, stubborn Republicans for whom the president can’t do anything right. After all, for what reason could anyone possibly object to something as seemingly benign as bringing a few more properties under the federal bureaucracy’s stewardship?Oh hey, here’s a pretty good reason. The federal government owns or leases between 55,000 and 77,000 vacant properties. But it’s...

MADISON – Here are some lists you don’t want to finish first on: •Worst human being •Guy with most head lice •The naughty list (well maybe you do, you kinky devil, you) •Charlie Sheen’s ‘Hey, What’s in This Punch?’ party •The Society of Actuaries list of top five states facing the steepest health care cost hikes under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Wisconsin comes close to topping the latter list. The Badger State checks in at No. 2 on the Society’s ranking of states expected to be most impacted by underlying claim costs under the ACA, derisively referred...