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Shortened title. Full title: MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE TO NEGOTIATE A LEGALLY BINDING INSTRUMENT TO PROHIBIT NUCLEAR WEAPONS, LEADING TOWARDS THEIR TOTAL ELIMINATION To Her Excellency Elayne Whyte Gómez President of the United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination I extend cordial greetings to you, Madam President, and to all the representatives of the various nations and international organizations, and of civil society participating in this Conference. I wish to encourage you to work with determination in order to promote the conditions...

Francis explains why St. Peter was crucified head first Two days ago, Francis had an audience with the Prelates of the Canadian Assembly of Western Catholic Bishops on their ‘ad Limina Apostolorum’ visit.  One of the bishops, Michael J. Miller of Vancouver, shared with ACI Stampa reporter, Andrea Gagliarducci, some of what was discussed; Ecco di cosa ha parlato Papa Francesco con i vescovi canadesi.  One thing in particular stood out, But what did [Francis] speak about in two and a half hours?    [Francis spoke] “of many things. He spoke about Peter, about the fact that he was...

Men who dress up in women’s clothing and insist they are women are unfairly ostracized from the modern American feminist movement because feminists are overly “reproductive system-focused,” according to an op-ed in the Daily Emerald, the University of Oregon’s student newspaper. The author of the 790-word jeremiad, Taylor Griggs, trains her invective on “‘free the nipple’ campaigns” and, especially, the perky, neon-pink-yarn “pussy power hats” with which many participants in the January Women’s March on Washington festooned themselves. Griggs quotes Marie Solis in Mic for the proposition that signs at the Women’s March reading “Pussy power” and “Pussy grabs back”...

Bucknell electrical engineering professor Meriel Huggard canceled her regularly-scheduled lecture for March 29, requiring her students to attend and write about a campus summit on diversity instead.

In an extraordinary speech the EU Commission president said he would push for Ohio and Texas to split from the rest of America if the Republican president does not change his tune and become more supportive of the EU. The remarks are diplomatic dynamite at a time when relations between Washington and Brussels are already strained over Europe’s meagre contributions to NATO and the US leader’s open preference for dealing with national governments.

After Trump drew 'first blood' this morning with a tweet threatening to fight Freedom Caucus members in the 2018 mid-term elections, a pair of House representatives have fired back with aggressive tweets of their own implying that Trump's healthcare plan was evidence that he had "succumb to the D.C. Establishment." "It didn't take long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump. No shame, Mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishment." ".@realDonaldTrump it's a swamp not a hot tub. We both came here to drain it. #SwampCare polls 17%. Sad!" It didn't take long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump....

Global warming could be solved by genetically engineering or breeding cows to fart less Bill "The Science Guy" Nye said in an interview Tuesday. [Snip] Nye was responding to a question from a vegan on how eating meat could reduce the world's greenhouse gas emissions. [Snip] Environmentalists are very interested in reducing methane from cow farts, with some groups like Friends of the Earth pressuring public schools to switch their lunch menus away from beef to reduce emissions. The Obama administration released a methane plan in 2014 that called for reducing emissions from the dairy industry 25 percent. That meant...

“Yes, I do and the sources stand by it,” Napolitano said when asked if he’s sticking by the story. “And the American public needs to know more about this rather than less because a lot of the government surveillance authority will expire in the fall and there will be a great debate about how much authority we want the government to have to surveil us, and the more the American public knows about this the more informed their and the Congress’ decision will be.” He added that “a lot more is going to come” on the issue. “He used GCHQ....

By Hugh Hewitt March 25 The pulling of the GOP health-care bill this week was a big loss, and perhaps significant beyond its own costs, as it may signal that the “Area 51” sub-caucus within the Freedom Caucus is made up not so much of conservative Republicans as parties of one with no interest in an agenda shared beyond whatever exists in the space between their own ears.

Real reason media is so furious. Their ammo is being revealed as powerless, and everyone is starting to notice We’re going to get this again and again for as long as Trump is president, but that doesn’t mean we should just settle in and let the media get away with it. You can’t win with them, of course, if you’re a Republican administration. If you let them walk all over you, they will. If you give as good as you get, they’ll find a way to make that a scandal - and their easiest and most predictable path to doing...

Fr. Don Miller, OFM Image: Detail | Stained glass of Saints Lucy, Catherine of Genoa, Pope Leo the Great | Sainte Anne de Detroit Catholic Church, Detroit, MI | photo by Nheyob Saint Catherine of Genoa Saint of the Day for March 26 (1447 – September 15, 1510)  Saint Catherine of Genoa’s story Going to confession one day was the turning point of Catherine’s life.When Catherine was born, many Italian nobles were supporting Renaissance artists and writers. The needs of the poor and the sick were often overshadowed by a hunger for luxury and self-indulgence. Catherine’s parents were members...

Elizabeth Hokoana shot a protester because she believed her husband, Marc Hokoana, was in imminent danger of death or serious injury during a Jan. 20 demonstration at the University of Washington, her attorney says. The wife of the man initially suspected of shooting and wounding a protester during a January demonstration at the University of Washington has told police and prosecutors that she was the person who fired, her attorney said Tuesday. In an interview with The Seattle Times, the attorney, Steve Wells, said his client, Elizabeth Hokoana, shot the protester because she believed her husband, Marc Hokoana, was in...

California’s governor and legislative leaders on Wednesday proposed raising $52 billion to fix the state’s roads through a big gasoline tax increase, higher car registration fees and a charge on emission-free vehicles. The 10-year plan would boost gasoline excise taxes for the first time in more than two decades, raising them 12 cents per gallon — a 43 percent increase. The tax would rise automatically with inflation. For the first time, owners of zero emission vehicles would pay a $100 annual fee because they use public roads but don’t pay gasoline taxes that fund highway maintenance. The plan also includes...

Absolutely hilarious. Tracy nails an impression of Frau Merkel.

President Donald Trump sent a blunt warning Thursday morning to the Freedom Caucus, demanding the House GOP group that blocked the Obamacare repeal bill stop fighting the ‘Republican agenda’. Trump posted to Twitter, “The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!”

Arab airlines beat Trump’s electronics ban with sarcasm and jokesUS President Donald Trump's controversial ban on electronic devices on flights from Muslim-majority countries began Saturday. But instead of condemning the move, Arab carriers took advantage of it as a fun PR boost and to promote their products… The US announced, to much fanfare on March 21, a ban on electronic devices for passengers on nine Arab airlines to place personal electronic devices, such as tablets, e-readers, laptops and cameras, in their checked baggage, with mobile phones still allowed. The decision has caused indignation across the Middle East and North...

Too sad for words for American readers, television viewers and radio listeners, that the MSM couldn’t give a damn The mainstream media, including its alphabet television news networks, the New York Times and Washington Post are sitting this morning on the bombshell revelation that ex-Obama official Evelyn Farkas appears to have owned up in her own words to have participated in well-planned surveillance of the Trump team conducted by the Obama administration which buried their dirty work deep in the federal bureaucracy. Read The Swamp. Farkas, who left her position as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and...

Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend In a briefing via telephone from Baghdad, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend answered questions regarding the current situation in Syria and Iraq.Townsend first commented on the reported deaths of more than 200 civilians due to US-led coalition airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. “I’ll say this, if we did it, and I’d say there’s at least a fair chance that we did. It was an unintentional accident of war and we will transparently report it to you when we’re ready,” Townsend, commander of the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, told journalists.He stressed the coalition had set the highest...

Moscow (CNN)Russian President Vladimir Putin has described allegations that his country meddled in the 2016 US election as "fictional, illusory, provocations and lies." Asked directly on Thursday whether Russia interfered in the election, Putin said: "Read my lips: No." Putin's comments are the President's most emphatic denial of the accusations yet, and are the first he has directly made since Trump took office in January. Russian officials and spokespeople for Putin, however, have brushed off the claims several times as a political "witch hunt." The denial comes as intelligence committees from both the House and Senate in the US investigate...

The Hidden Monopolies That Raise Drug Prices How pharmacy benefit managers morphed from processors to predators David Dayen March 28, 2017 Rob Frankil of Sellersville, Pennsylvania, followed his father into the family business after college. “My entire life,” he said, “I’ve been involved with managing and owning independent pharmacies.” He now owns two stores, a traditional community pharmacy and another that caters to long-term care facilities.Like any retail outlet, Frankil purchases inventory from a wholesale distributor and sells it to customers at a small markup. But unlike butchers or hardware store owners, pharmacists have no idea how much money they’ll...