Free Republic

Do you drop a bill payment in the mailbox and wonder if it will arrive late or on time? Do you wonder why it seems to take the US Postal service so long to deliver a letter or package? Sending mail across your state or even the country feels like a game of chance with the USPS. Will my mail get there this week -- or next week? During the first quarter of this year, around 20% of first-class mail across the US was delivered late. And now snail mail is about to get slower for some of the 160...

Bishop Patrick J. Zurek of Amarillo, Texas, has requested that Father Frank Pavone, founder of Priests for Life, not engage in public ministry outside the Diocese of Amarillo, effective September 13, 2011. Bishop Zurek has also asked that Catholics throughout the United States withhold financial support for Priests for Life until further notice. In bringing this to your attention, we are grateful to those who comply with Bishop Zurek's request.

A University of Michigan Study of nearly 14,000 college students has found that they have less empathy than college students did during the 1980s or 1990s. In fact, today’s college students scored about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts did 20 or 30 years ago. Empathy is one of the most valuable psychological resources we have. It allows us to resonate with and respond to the suffering of others. It also allows us to care deeply about the fates of those we love, including our spouses and children. When empathy is destroyed, people are free (in a terrible...

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal wrote: “Hell, in modern imagination, is not a place of fiery lakes and acrid fumes. It’s a maze of deposition rooms you can’t escape, where nothing is what it seems. That’s where Toyota has landed.“ Welcome to hell. The Parker Waichman Alonso law firm , of Great Neck, NY, teamed up with the Becnel Law Firm, in New Orleans, LA and put on Businesswire that they “filed suit on behalf of several consumers who purchased Toyota vehicles subject to various recalls issued in January 2010 for defects in the vehicles’ gas pedals. The lawsuit, which...

So, it's the Fourth of July, and you're feeling a little more patriotic than usual. Sounds like a great time to buy a domestic car, right? Well, first you need to answer the question: "what is a domestic car?" Is a Chevy built in South Korea domestic, or how about a Hyundai assembled in Alabama? Since that debate is not likely to be settled anytime soon, we've decided to keep it simple and list the top 10 domestic cars based strictly on content, as compiled by the National Highway and Transportation Administration. Of course NHTSA's definition of "domestic" includes Canadian-sourced...

15/11: We need a real debate, not more dialogue Category: Reports Posted by: raja petra CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM By Adrian Pabst International Herald Tribune Last month, 138 Muslim scholars addressed an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders in which they call for a new dialogue between Christianity and Islam based on sacred texts. Entitled "A Common Word Between Us and You," the document claims that the shared Muslim and Christian principles of love of the One God and love of the neighbor provide the sort of common ground between the two faiths that is necessary for...

Kabul Museum's riches, hidden by curators in the early 1980s, have emerged safe and sound. Photos Poet's bust Poet's bust (Fredrik Hiebert / National Geographic) Bactrian gold Bactrian gold (Kenneth Garrett / National Geographic) Enlightened being Enlightened being (Fredrik Hiebert / National Geographic) Well preserved Well preserved (Fredrik Hiebert / National Geographic) Portrait gallery Portrait gallery (Fredrik Hiebert / National Geographic) Subscribe AFGHANISTAN ARTIFACTS AFGHANISTAN ART ARTIFACTS ART By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer More than 22,000 treasures from the Kabul Museum in Afghanistan, long thought to have been lost in the war against the Soviet Union and...

DO THEY BELONG TO THE SAME RELIGION? Ken Skuba Ken Skuba, who lives with his wife and three children in Sugarloaf, Pennsylvania, is the manager of a real estate company. A Tale of Two St. Mary's Churches It was Pentecost Sunday 1999, and we were headed to 8 a.m. Mass at St. Mary's Church in upstate New York. We — my wife, kids, and I — had traveled from Pennsylvania to visit my wife's family, and I decided to take my kids (my wife had other obligations) to St. Mary's where Grandma is a Eucharistic minister. At 7:45 a.m....

PRIEST REFUSES COMMUNION TO KNEELING PRO-LIFE POLITICIAN Calls Pro-Life Delegate a "Conservative Idiot" ARLINGTON, VA, October 10, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Honorable Richard Black, member of the Virginia House of Delegates and a heroic defender of life and family in the state legislature, was refused Holy Communion at Arlington's St. Thomas More Cathedral. On September 22, the Cathedral Rector, Fr. Dominic Irace refused to give Communion to Delegate Black since Black was kneeling to receive. Fr. Irace told him he must stand to receive but Black chose to rather to genuflect and withdraw. In a letter of concern to Arlington Bishop...

<p>The parishioners of Our Lady of Peace are angry.</p> <p>For 32 years, Father John Sweeny has built the Santa Clara parish into a bastion of Roman Catholic orthodoxy -- the only such place left in the Diocese of San Jose, they maintain.</p>

By Andrew Cawthorne HAVANA (Reuters) - Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy still living in the United States seven months into a bitter political fight over his future, has sent a Father's Day greeting to Cuba's communist leader Fidel Castro. Elian's signature headed a letter from him and his entourage of family and friends in Washington, wishing all Cuban fathers -- and especially Castro -- a happy day. "On this Father's Day, we want to send an affectionate greeting, and a well-deserved kiss, to all of you, especially to one father whom we love dearly for his unrivaled teachings and his ...

Jeff Jacoby What America needs is more congressmen (NO, REALLY) (JWR) ---- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com) THE SUPREME COURT LAST MONTH settled the issue of whether, for purposes of apportioning seats in Congress, the Census may rely on statistical sampling in addition to the traditional head count. (It may not.) But the court has never addressed the far graver issue of whether Americans can in any meaningful way be represented by a body as small as the House of Representatives. A few numbers: Between 1950 and 1990, the population of Illinois climbed by 31 percent, from 8.7 million to 11.4 million. Ohio's population ...