Free Republic

Sheriff's officials in Goshen County are touting a grenade launcher as a useful tool for keeping the peace, even though they have never used it. The Casper Star-Tribune reported Sunday that officials bought the weapon for use in the county jail, which houses 25 inmates and has not had a large fight in the past year. Lt. Jeremy Wardell says the grenade launcher, one of three the county has owned, is a less-lethal option for controlling riots. He compared it to pepper spray or a Taser. "We would use it in situations when less-lethal force is justified to get the...

“Following Jesus with St. Matthew” (Matthew 9:9-13)On the church year calendar, September 21 is the day for commemorating St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. And since this year September 21 falls on a Sunday, today we are celebrating the Festival of St. Matthew. Who exactly was this St. Matthew, you ask, and why should we remember him? Well, first of all, as to who he is, as I mentioned, we refer to him as St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. Each of those terms, apostle and evangelist, puts Matthew in pretty select company. St. Matthew is an apostle, and there were only...

Yet another megachurch has announced that it will spend millions to officially separate itself from Presbyterian Church (USA), a denomination that has, in recent years, experienced turmoil over what critics decry as an increasingly liberal theology. Nearly 89 percent of the congregation at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas, voted in October 2013 to leave the denomination and to join the more theologically conservative Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians — a decision that carries with it a hefty price tag. The church will need to pay $7.8 million in order to officially leave Presbyterian Church (USA) and keep its...

The UN's "Palestinian refugee agency" UNRWA on Sunday urged the international community to oppose Israeli plans to relocate thousands of Palestinian Bedouin from the E1 and Maaleh Adumim areas east of Jerusalem, to the area around Jericho, next to the Dead Sea. "If such a plan were implemented this would ... give rise to concerns that it amounts to a 'forcible transfer' in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention" banning involuntary population relocation in occupied territory, UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl said. "It might also make way for further Israeli illegal settlement expansion, further compromising the viability of a two-state...

EDINBURG, Texas — Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott said he is preparing to sue the Obama administration to recuperate the money spent by the state dealing with the recent border crisis. He made the claim on Friday evening when he faced off against his Democratic opponent Wendy Davis during the first gubernatorial debate which was held near the Texas-Mexico border. According to Abbott, the Obama administration failed to secure the border and prevent the immigration surge that resulted in a humanitarian crisis and became a financial burden on the state and the municipalities of the Texas border. During...

I keep getting asked about this and people keep advocating it, so let's talk about it. The issue is a Constitutional Convention, with the expressed intent being to return the United States to its Constitutional Roots. Sounds like a good idea, yes? Well, it quite arguably is, if you'd like to see the government return to its Constitutional boundaries. The problem is that this "remedy" isn't a remedy and if it comes to pass what you want won't happen. I know this for a fact and, if you think about it, so do you. I know what you're going to...

Rapper Snoop Dogg and the League of Young Voters came together to host a panel about police brutality and the chaotic events that unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri, after 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot. In addition to Snoop Dogg, the panel also welcomed Michael Brown’s father, Michael Brown Sr.; Jordan Davis’ mother, Lucia McBath; attorney Benjamin Crump and Chuck Creekmur of AllHipHop. The panel, titled No Guns Allowed: Fallout From Ferguson, took place during the BET Hip-Hop Awards weekend in Atlanta. The group of panelists discussed what the African-American community needs to do to help solve issues of racism and...

Marie A. Berry, 35, was arrested on Wednesday in Vancouver. She was also charged with possession of a stolen vehicle and two counts of theft in the second degree. Court documents said Berry had robbed seven businesses, including one bank and one credit union, since April. The suspect description was similar in all seven robberies. Berry used a stolen SMART car as a getaway car when she robbed a Vancouver Columbia Bank branch in June, investigators said. Surveillance video showed Berry casing other banks and credit unions within 30 minutes of the Columbia Bank robbery, the probable cause document said.

The inescapable impression that the administration is at war with itself over Obama’s strategy to combat ISIS in Iraq and Syria has grown difficult to ignore and impossible to paper over. The most recent example of this phenomenon came when President Barack Obama decided to devote a significant portion of a speech at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida on Wednesday to repeating his assurances that American troops returning to the Middle East would not “have a combat mission.” His insistence came just one day after Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told members of the Senate that he would...

A letter and petition accusing Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice, Florida, of authoritarian leadership will soon be on its way to Rome, asking Pope Francis to intervene. The campaign has been orchestrated by two liberal groups agitating for a more lay-directed Church. The Southwest Florida chapter of Call to Action wrote the letter, together with the support of the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful. Call to Action, a group pushing for radical reform such as the ordination of women and a relaxing of sexual ethics, has accused Bishop Dewane of employing scare tactics including bullying...

An aspiring model spent massive amounts of money on plastic surgery in order to make herself look like a real-life sex doll. French native Victoria Wild dropped $45,000 on the multiple surgeries, which the model proudly said that her goal was to look like a “bimbo doll.” She may be pleased with her new look, but in all honesty she looks like she belongs in a circus tent. Her surgical enhancements include; three pounds of breast implants, rhinoplasty, implants in her buttocks, lip implants that make her look like a sucker fish, and of course Botox to make sure she...

David Limbaugh’s latest book, Jesus on Trial: A Lawyer Affirms the Truth of the Gospel, sounds like an entertaining and informative read even if you are not especially interested in Christian theological study. From a purely historical perspective, Limbaugh’s latest work seems like a compelling one. Ed Morrissey spoke with Limbaugh on September 9 for The Ed Morrissey Show (at about the 1:06:00 mark). The host described Limbaugh’s book as a nondenominational approach to the analysis of Biblical scripture. Limbaugh noted that this was intentional. While he said that he was not endorsing “pluralism,” he found that all schools of...

Knife-Wielding Veteran Sniper Rushes White House, Wants To Warn Obama "Atmosphere Is Collapsing" Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/21/2014 Of the stories in the past two days, there is hardly anything more bizarre than that of Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, a veteran had served three tours in Iraq — and relatives said served as a sniper — managed to jump over the White House fence, sprinted more than 70 yards across the Northern Lawn, got to the front double doors of the North Portico, turned the brass knob and stepped inside the vestibule. "There he was grabbed...

In one of the great epics of Western literature, the hero, confronted by numerous and powerful enemies, temporarily gives in to weakness and self-pity. “I wish,” he sighs, “none of this had happened.” The hero’s wise adviser responds, “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide.” The old man continues, “There are other forces at work in this world … besides the will of evil.” Some events, he adds, are “meant” to be, “And that is an encouraging thought.” Indeed it is. Perhaps, today, we are meant to live in these...

GOOGLE TRANSLATION: Gennady Krotcha, 47 years old face resembles a nice doctor in the children's story. The soft look through the glasses, calm movements and this desire to fly to the rescue. But Gennady is not doctor, it is a simple small businessman of the town of Uman ', and over recent months his concerns had nothing to do with the money gain. It is voluntary, as there are hundreds in Ukraine, today everywhere, Guennadiy collection, through knowledge, packages for veterans and delivers it to the front, in the area of fighting. Unfortunately, Krotcha had not luck, he "felt by...

Breitbart News senior editor-at-Large Joel B. Pollak visited with former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) at her home in Wasilla. http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/09/21/Breitbart-Pollak-Visits-with-Sarah-Palin-At-her-home-in-Wasilla

German Islamists who join the IS have forfeited their citizenship many Union politicians say. They are planning a change of legislation. Union politicians want to avoid any german national to fight for the terrorist group Islamic State (IS). A corresponding change in the law would achieve a "huge deterrent effect," the chairman of the Bundestag's Committee on Internal Affairs, Wolfgang Bosbach (CDU)told "Welt am Sonntag". Those who join this "terrorist army" ng document their departure from the values of the Federal Republic he said.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, the new president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, has no doubt that life exists elsewhere in the universe and that when humanity discovers it, the news will come as no big surprise. He suggested that the likely discovery -- whether next month or a millennium from now -- will be received much the way that news of planets orbiting far off stars has filtered in since the 1990s. "The general public is going to be, 'Oh, I knew that. I knew it was going to be there,'" Brother Consolmagno told Catholic News...

The United States has conducted an escalating campaign of deadly airstrikes against the extremists of the Islamic State for more than a month. But that appears to have done little to tamp down the conspiracy theories still circulating from the streets of Baghdad to the highest levels of Iraqi government that the C.I.A. is secretly behind the same extremists that it is now attacking.

National Review columnist Mark Steyn blasted claims by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and others that the best strategy is to allow Obamacare to crumble under its own weight and only then seek to repeal it. Filling in as host on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show Monday, Steyn, author of “After America: Get Ready for Armageddon,” explained to a caller named “Joe” that there is no reason to believe congressional Republicans have the will to repeal anything, especially considering that Carter-era institutions like the Department of Education and the Department of Energy have managed to flourish even in times of...