Free Republic

I'm sure I'm not the first Freeper to think about this, but I haven't seen it widely discussed. Currently the vaccinated are held up in an exalted status with some of them, mostly on the left, feeling quite smug and self righteous. What happens when they are told they must get a booster or they will lose this status and be considered as one of the despised, lowly unvacced? My opinion is that there will be plenty, again mostly on the left, that will gladly submit to boosters ad infinitum to maintain their moral superiority. But, more importantly, I think...

Just now heard about this gun. Apparently it's been around a while. Reviews pretty positive. Priced at the upper end of 1911's. I'm very intrigued. Anyone have any experience with it? http://www.coonaninc.com

The Catholic Church's recent history of sympathizing with, and even supporting, Marxist progressivism is clear, sad, and indicative of a deeply irrational and anti-individual streak within the modern Church hierarchy. Catholics who care about the Church, its history, and its future -- and also about humanity, reason and freedom -- must stop making excuses for their current spiritual leadership's collectivist authoritarian impulses.

Probably not until early 2014 when panic is really setting in among the dems. Will propose something like Medicare-for-all. Slick Willy telegraphed it

Pope Francis called for a more open-minded Church on Thursday, suggesting that when a Christian “becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith.” Francis said because ideology is rigid and non-inclusive, it pushes people away and leaves out the grace of God. “And, even worse, the Lord cannot be close to the people,” Francis said. “The faith passes, so to speak, through a distiller and becomes ideology,” he said. “And ideology does not beckon [people]. In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid.”...

As letters to the editor go, it was certainly out of the ordinary, stretching to more than 2,500 words and not one of them veering on the irate or indignant. But the missive received by Eugenio Scalfari, co-founder and former editor of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, nonetheless made it into print on Wednesday – on the front page and under the impressively brief byline of "Francesco". Sorry, Guardian articles must be excerpted

Is the saving grace of God irresistible or resistible? Moreover, is the regenerating power of God installed in the believer's life before or after the decision is made to receive Christ as Savior?

For residents of Rome, the sight of courting priests is hardly an anomaly. But a recent exposé is rocking the Catholic Church. In the basement dining room of Le Mani In Pasta, a trattoria in central Rome, a young, glossy-eyed couple stare at each other across a table for two. They smile and blush over a private joke. There is no handholding or kissing, but they are clearly more than friends, even though they are both wearing dark shirts and the telltale white clerical collar.

"Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother." "Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today." "All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother."

The ominous manifestation of "hope" and "change." We live in an age when the secretary of the Interior and the White House press secretary proudly and publicly proclaim that they will keep their "boot on the neck" of an oil company. This new manifestation of "hope" and "change" is ominous at a time when the government is rapidly escalating its involvement and control of all aspects of American society. That is especially true in the health care arena, but anyone with a neck should be concerned. If you have been wondering how the health care legislation enacted this year will...

Patients are paying record amounts out of their own pockets to buy private treatment from the National Health Service, which was set up to offer services for free. Middle-class and wealthy people now routinely receive better or earlier treatment on the NHS, including cancer diagnosis, heart bypasses and hernia operations.

Supply and demand have been allowed to work — at least in a limited way — in energy markets, resulting in ups and downs in gasoline prices. Strong demand coupled with regulatory supply restrictions that were worsened by several hurricanes caused gasoline prices to go up. Then as hurricane-damaged refineries were repaired, gas prices began to plummet. There have been no significant shortages, thanks to the absence of price controls, but Congress is working diligently to put an end to that outcome. Urged on by an economically ignorant public, Congress recently held one of its periodic Grand Inquisitions of oil...

The Conversion Of A Catholic Priest Bartholomew F. Brewer, PH.D. More Catholic Than Rome Millions—perhaps the majority—of Roman Catholics are Catholic by name, by culture, or by inertia. Our family, however, was Roman Catholic by conviction. We understood and practiced the teachings of our religion. We believed it to be the “one true church” founded by Jesus Christ. Because of this, we accepted without question everything our priests taught. In those days before Vatican II, the common belief was that “outside the Roman Catholic Church there is no salvation.” This brought us a feeling of security, of being right. We...

Here's my understanding of the Catholic view of the Eucharist: it is the re-creation or re-presentation of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. This is basically what the CCC states: 1366 The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit: [Christ], our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer himself to God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his death,...

Institutionalizing our demise: America vs. multiculturalism by Roger Kimball Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. —J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer, 1782 The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin … would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. —Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, 1913 Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because another power is trying to destroy it. —Jean-François Revel, 1970 The delicate task that...

Graydon “Quadrillion” Carter Vanity Fair's editor is so bad he makes Krugman look good. Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, may be the all-powerful arbiter of what's hot and what's not in celebrity culture. But having declared Paul Krugman a "national treasure," Carter is now trying to reinvent himself as an angry liberal, devoting his monthly editor's letter to relentless Bush-bashing in a style that is unabashedly School of Krugman. He should have stuck with schmoozing teen idols and British royalty. Just check out his letter in the December 2003 issue (unfortunately, there's no link for this). Carter's so...

Laws Concerning Food and Drink; Household Principles; Lamentations of the Father