Free Republic

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Last week I asked the question posted on billboards all over Cincinnati: "Would Pope Francis sign the new Catholic teacher contract?" I heard from hundreds of readers who wish they knew the answer. Bishop Richard Lennon and the Diocese of Cleveland want teachers at Catholic elementary schools to sign a "morality" clause that bans "public support of positions contrary to Roman Catholic teaching." That includes euthanasia, assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination and "so-called homosexual or same-sex marriage or unions..." That teacher would like to see this addendum to the contract: Role...

PetSmart is the latest major pet food retailer to say it will stop selling dog and cat treats made in China because of ongoing fears that they are making pets sick. The company plans to have the treats off all of its store shelves by March 2015. "This is something we've been working toward for some time, and feel it's the right thing to do for pets and our customers," said PetSmart spokeswoman Erin Gray. Investigators at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration haven't been able to prove that treats made in China are making pets ill. But since 2007,...

At the Holy See's first appearance before the committee, experts mainly peppered the Vatican with tough questions to be answered Tuesday. For instance, they asked why the report on its implementation of the treaty was almost a decade late, and why the Vatican believes its responsibility for protecting against torture only applies within tiny Vatican City, a nation of less than 1,000 inhabitants. "I wonder if you could tell us how you ensure that the criminal prohibition against torture in Vatican City covers all individuals for whom the Holy See has jurisdiction," asked committee member Felice Gaer. Experts said a...

John Heilprin of the Associated Press played up how the Catholic Church supposedly "sought to limit its responsibility for the global priest sex abuse scandal" in front of a United Nations committee on torture. Heilprin repeatedly underlined how the Holy See underwent a "grilling" by the UN panel for allegedly violating an "international treaty against torture and inhuman treatment" in its handling of the scandal. However, the correspondent glossed over the committee's ideologically-tinged slam of the Church's longstanding stance against abortion, which it labeled "psychological torture." By contrast, Reuters' Philip Pullella and Stephanie Nebehay mentioned this attack near the end...

When Chairman Mao was failing and about to lose his government, he initiated the Great Cultural Revolution. The documentary, Morning Sun, describes this as a Revolution on the revolution. I believe we are witnessing the "revolution" in America less than 60 years later. Yesterday's events have struck a disturbing cord within my heart and soul. While the meme is what happened to Sterling was right and just...while I still have the ability to speak freely regarding the matter, I shall raise my voice to question this idea of "social justice," as we witnessed it applied yesterday. What happened to our...

GARRETTSVILLE, Ohio - Firefighters are battling a massive 3-alarm blaze in the Village of Garrettsville. Flames swept throughout Garrettsville’s historic downtown buildings and businesses on Route 82 (Main Street), just east of the Route 88 intersection, around 1:15 p.m. Saturday. The blaze is not under control, but spreading. Buildings from the 1800's are a total loss. Sources tell NewsChannel 5 that water is being pulled from the Silver Creek River to help battle the massive fire. A person witnessing the blaze said that it feels like the whole downtown portion of the village is on fire. Auburn, Aurora, Bainbridge, Boardman,...

ST PATRICK, BISHOP, CONFESSOR, APOSTLE OF IRELAND—A.D. 464 Feast: March 17 The Irish have many lives of their great apostle, whereof the two principal are, that compiled by Jocelin, a Cistercian monk, in the twelfth century who quotes four lives written by disciples of the saint; and that by Probus, who, according to Bollandus, lived in the seventh century. But in both are intermixed several injudicious popular reports. We, with Tillemont, chiefly confine ourselves to the saint's own writings, his Confession, and his letter to Corotic, which that judicious critic doubts not to be genuine. The style in both is...

He acknowledges that he hasn’t visited the Palmer home but he deals with aggressive cats on a near-daily basis. “If you watch my show, you know that within five minutes, the human component is really identified,” Galaxy said during a phone interview. “We realize this behavior doesn’t occur in a vacuum. That’s really the important thing, is that there’s always a context.” Lux may have scratched a 7-month-old boy, but the attack began after the boy pulled his tail. When he reacted by scratching the child, owner Lee Palmer kicked the cat. It was at that point that Lux “went...

Specifically, those challenging the EPA say it is reading too broadly its authority to regulate greenhouse gases, carrying over limits from vehicle transmissions and applying them to stationary sources such as power plants. They also say the EPA is picking and choosing which parts of the law to enforce by establishing a permitting scheme for greenhouse gas emitters, because its threshold for when those regulations take effect is above the law’s limits. The government argues a lower limit would potentially ensnare millions of buildings nationwide beyond the intent of the regulations, including public schools and some apartment buildings. It argues...

In the face of the massive violence taking place in Venezuela, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, in a statement released today, sharply criticized Venezuela President and hand-picked successor to Marxist Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro as using strongman tactics similar to Cuban communist tyrant Fidel Castro: “As opposition protests drag into their second week in Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro is taking a page out of the Castro playbook to violently oppress Venezuelans who are demanding an end to his disastrous rule. Activists have been detained and abused, and even shot dead in the streets.” Cruz went onto call out Maduro for arresting...

"I call for a dialogue with you, Obama," Maduro said. "You can designate (U.S. Secretary of State John) Kerry or whoever you want to come to this dialogue and I will send my foreign minister ... for this high-level meeting." At the same time, Maduro accused Obama of failing to live up to a commitment not to "interfere with Venezuelan affairs." "What you have said has not been carried out," he said. The United States and Venezuela have not had resident ambassadors since 2010, although they have maintained diplomatic missions and active embassies. Maduro's call to exchange ambassadors comes after...

A spokeswoman for the US network, only available on cable in Venezuela, told the BBC it did not have any immediate comments about Mr Maduro's comments. Last week, the government removed Colombian TV news channel NTN24 from channels offered by Venezuelan cable operators. The government has been highly critical of international media coverage, while protesters say they are concerned with a lack of media freedom, says the BBC's correspondent in Caracas, Irene Caselli. Mr Maduro also ordered the expulsion of three US diplomats this week. US President Barack Obama said the Venezuelan government should address "legitimate grievances" of the country...

They tell Newsmax that Cuban dictators Raul and Fidel Castro are desperate to avert a disruption in the massive shipments of oil that their destitute nation receives daily as a gift from their socialist comrades in Venezuela. The value of the more than 100,000 barrels a day Havana receives has been estimated at over $5 billion annually. On Thursday, former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich told "America’s Forum" host John Bachman in an exclusive Newsmax TV interview that the unrest in Venezuela "absolutely" can spread to Cuba, if those vital oil subsidies are interrupted. "The person who agrees with...

Genesis Carmona, who served as her state's 2013 Miss Turismo, was shot in the head in the city of Valencia Tuesday. The 22-year-old died Wednesday afternoon, marking the fifth fatality during the country's ongoing political turmoil. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/venezuelan-beauty-quee-fatally-shot-head-protest-article-1.1620304#ixzz2txL245RC

“One of the biggest obstacles we face is the one of trust,” Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters at a news conference Thursday. “There’s widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws and it’s going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes.” Illustrating that distrust, Boehner pointed to Obama’s unilateral moves to change the timeline for implementing the new health care law and the president’s widely publicized intent to circumvent Congress on several other issues through executive orders. “I never underestimated the difficulty in moving forward this year [on immigration reform] and the...

RUSH: Well, now, that's fascinating you mention that, because that's the next item up in my Stack of Stuff and I talked about this weeks ago, maybe even months ago when Tom "Dung Heap" Harken proposed this. Now, before you condition Alicia, let me refer to what she's talking about. It's Mark Hemingway in the Washington Examiner: " Will the government outlaw your 401(k) plan? It seems like an absurd possibility, yet earlier this month two Democratic senators, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., held a hearing on Capitol Hill exploring the possibility of doing exactly that....

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve will take center stage in the week ahead with a widely expected cut to its bond-buying stimulus, responding to an improving U.S. economy but also helping fuel a dramatic emerging market sell-off. Argentina, Turkey and Ukraine felt the full force last week of a global flight from developing world assets as investors grew concerned about slower growth in China and U.S. monetary tightening, as well as the countries' own problems. Fed policymakers are expected to confirm the tightening trend during their Jan 28-29 meeting, notably also for being Ben Bernanke's last as chairman...

China’s credit-fueled bubble economy is falling to pieces before our very eyes. Between 2008 and 2013, China’s credit market increased from $9 trillion to an incredible $23 trillion. To give this number some perspective, China’s GDP is a little over $7 trillion. So China today has a credit market well north of 300% of its GDP. There is simply no other way to view this than as a bubble. Indeed, we see all of the clear signs of a bubble in the real estate markets today with countless ghost cities, massive empty malls, and other excess capacity. What’s truly stunning...

High levels of natural gas are escaping from the aging pipes beneath the streets of the nation’s capital, creating potentially harmful concentrations in some locations, a new study has found. Natural gas leaks pose explosion risks, health concerns, and contribute to climate change. The paper, which appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, also provides information that could help companies justify additional financial incentives for fixing leaks quickly. Robert Jackson and colleagues note that natural gas leakage is a serious problem on multiple levels, including impacts on the economy and climate. Property damage is estimated at $133 million...

Walmart announced on Friday that about 2,300 Sam’s Club employees would be laid off, the latest in a drumbeat of retail job cuts to start off the new year. Bill Durling, a Sam’s Club spokesman, said the layoffs would target a combination of salaried assistant managers and hourly employees. Certain positions, like telephone attendants, will be eliminated. “We realized we had pretty much the same club structure whether a club had $50 million in revenue or $100 million in revenue,” Mr. Durling said of the distribution of assistant managers. “What we’re trying to do is balance our resources.” Sam’s Club...