Free Republic

Two hundred thirty and six years ago our founding forebears risked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to secure their liberty and bequeath it to their heirs. So precious and fragile, they sought to protect it from every enemy and thief, be they foreign or domestic. Time and again their inheritors were called upon to defend that treasured heirloom from enemies foreign with their labor, their ingenuity, and too often their blood. To secure it from that most rapacious robber, ourselves, they again called upon their ingenuity and wisdom to devise a system of constitutional domestic government based upon limiting...

I just called the Department of Justice today. I have never done anything like this before but I felt compelled. You see, it was all over the news yesterday that the DOJ had set up a special hotline number and an email address to report potential civil rights violations by the government! Finally, I thought. Finally the government is willing to listen to us ordinary citizens whose God-given rights are being trampled and ignored in favor of the government's misguided and over-zealous policy initiatives. No. I am not an illegal alien. But if the government has its way, I am...

Congratulations class of 2012. It is my great pleasure and privilege to address you on this momentous occasion in your lives. I know today is all about you, so I want to talk about me for a second. This is also a momentous occasion in my life. Well, not so much momentous as depressing. As I look out at all your fresh, young, and eager faces a few things come immediately to mind. First, and this is the me part, I realize how old I am. I seems like I was you just a moment ago. It is sobering to...

When former Senator Rick Santorum was campaigning in New Hampshire earlier this week, a disgusting thing occurred on the campus of a local Catholic college. But it’s one that I think is highlights the disconnect between those who advance a culture of life and those who preach so-called tolerance. As Santorum was leaving the podium following a Rivier College event the day before the New Hampshire primary one anonymous questioner barked one of the most disgusting questions I’ve ever heard asked of a presidential candidate. Someone asked Santorum: “Would you abort a gay baby?” Here’s the shocking video:

In defense of taboo. Liberal intelligentsia circa 1990: “You know, you fundamentalist types are all hung up on sex. If you would just lose your hangups, things would be better. Take pornography for instance, it is the taboo associated with it that makes it “forbidden” and therefore tantalizing. If we could just get rid of the taboo, most people would lose interest in it.” Well, they got their wish. For the last fifteen years, almost every last bit of the taboo against pornography has been eradicated from our culture. Pornography is everywhere. Once upon a time, pornography was a rare...

Sad news. It might have happened a long time ago in deed but now the word is catching up. The Catholic University of Leuven, founded in 1425 by Pope Martin V, is dropping the adjective ”Catholic,” according to Rorate Caeli. This move is hardly a surprise as it follows a year of dialogue concerning dropping the word “Catholic” after the college was criticized for the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Robert Edwards, the pioneer of in-vitro fertilization. At the time, the Leuven’s rector Mark Waer indicated problems with the Church’s “inflexible stance in all sorts of ethical problems…”

Mike Casey is a praying man. The father of two believes in the power of prayer to change things. But it’s easy to believe in the power of prayer when you see how a little prayer can change so many things. It all started simply. Mike Casey wanted to pray. As part of the nationwide “America Needs Fatima” movement, Mike wanted to hold a public rosary in the small Massachusetts town of Upton. It would be one of 7,515 Public Square Rosaries held across the United States on October 15th. Last year, he and a group of others prayed the...

I was wondering something tonight in light of the news that Congress will be investigating Planned Parenthood. Are there really Catholics who are personally pro-life and publicly pro-choice? Is that an honest opinion? The answer, if you can call it that, came to me in the form of a question. Have I ever seen or heard of personally pro-life Catholics praying in front of abortion clinics? Nope. Have I seen personally pro-life Catholics pushing to hold Planned Parenthood or other abortionists to higher safety standards? Nope. But the truth is that to be pro-anything it can not be a passive...

A sociologist from the University of Notre Dame published a study gauging the moral thinking of 18-23 year olds. The results are depressing and for this father of five, they’re scary. David Brooks of the New York Times summarized the study, saying that moral thinking to a large extent was considered a relative matter or not considered at all, even regarding issues such as cheating on a partner or drunken driving. Brooks writes that “when asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not...

The big “scandal” around Presidential hopeful Michelle Bachmann is telling of where we are as a culture. And it’s not good. It’s been reported that Bachmann’s husband runs a clinic that aside from doing all sorts of marital and personal counseling, also attempts to help homosexuals not act on their impulses. Learning of this, the media screams that the clinic is trying to “cure gays” and their response falls into three categories which are: Gasp! Horror! Mock! You’d think this was a huge scandal by the way the media is reporting this. Over 440 news stories have mentioned this, according...

I believe that Roxanne Martino, the University of Notre Dame Trustee who just resigned over her support of virulently pro-abortion groups, was just a mere symptom of a much greater disease. Something has been sticking in my craw these last few days. It is this line used by Martino in her resignation statement and is similar to the defense mounted for her by Fr. Jenkins and his minions on the Notre Dame Board. “In the best interests of the University, I regretfully have decided to step down from the Notre Dame Board of Trustees,” Martino said in the statement. “I...

It happens all the time in movies. The snarling bad guy is cornered by the good guys so he grabs some poor hapless victim, puts a gun to their head, and tells everyone to back off or he’ll hurt the poor hapless victim. Well, believe it or not that’s what’s happening right now between President Obama and pro-lifers. And sorry, but Obama’s the snarling bad guy. As we all probably know the Indiana legislature passed a bill defunding Planned Parenthood, the abortion giant. And thankfully, Governor Mitch Daniels signed the bill. That’s kind of a big deal because other states...

It is a common complaint that politicians say one thing during the campaign but do something entirely different when governing. Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana is the Benjamin Button of potential Presidential candidates, he turns the whole thing on its head by not talking the talk but walking the walk. I have been extremely critical of Governor Daniels these past months as he has openly advocated for what has been termed “a truce” on the divisive social issues so we can focus on the pressing problem of debt. He put it this way on the Laura Ingraham radio show. “If...

We’ve all heard Christians argue that while their religion might say abortion is wrong, they can’t force their religion on others. That’s the out they give themselves. But Reverend Matthew Westfox of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice goes one step further by actually twisting one of Jesus’ parables into a pro-abortion defense. He did so in an article on his reflections on Easter. Westfox wrote: A pro-life stance cannot concern itself only with the life of the woman. In the parable of the sower, Jesus reminds us that seed alone does not bring about new life — that all...

You probably know that Hermann Goering was one of the architects of the hellish Nazi concentration camps for political dissidents and Jews among others. You probably know that next to Hitler, Herman Goering was the man who played the largest role in the holocaust and The Final Solution. You probably didn’t know, however, that Herman Goering’s little brother Albert, “a devout Catholic,” was a hero who struggled against the Nazis and risked his life many times to save possibly hundreds of people from the grasp of the Nazis, to the point of being arrested four times and even had him...

My 3-year-old daughter is a Batman nut. She kinda’ thinks she is Batman. Not Batgirl, mind you. Batman. Most days, she pretends to be caped crusader leaping from cushion to cushion saving us all from evil of some sort or another. She has an assortment of Batman shirts she wears when she changes out of her Batman pajamas. When we go to the beach she wears her bathing suit and a batman mask. I’ve got pictures. I’m not proud of that you see, I’m just explaining. When I’m forced to peel her Batman shirt off and wash it she stands...

We all know about the War on Christmas. Yawn. If you want to be where the action is, it’s the wackiness that takes place every Holy Week and Easter. Every Holy Week we witness a cavalcade of lunacy and I believe this year we might be “enjoying” the wackiest Holy Week ever. My evidence is as follows: Time Magazine picks this week to run the headline, “Is Hell Dead?” This is, presumably, a knock off of their infamous “Is God Dead?” cover in the 60’s. Well in another few years I’m sure we’ll be running the headline “Time Magazine IS...

Father Michael Pfleger, the bombastic Obama supporting Chicago priest, recently made some very disturbing comments that call into question his willingness to stay in the Church. You might remember Fr. Pfleger from his outrageous comments about Hillary Clinton. Fr. Pfleger has also advocated the ordination of women from the altar, had Al Sharpton speak during Mass from the altar while he was running for President, once threatened to “snuff out” a gun shop owner, and flew the American flag upside down outside the Church in protest of street violence. But recently, according to news reports, Cardinal Francis George asked Fr....

I saw this picture and thought "Oh the Magical Imaginary Beings Convention was TODAY?" Darn it. I missed it again. But at least this pic was taken of Barack Obama and the Easter Bunny. It got me thinking that the similarities between the two are pretty remarkable. Here's the top 7: 1) It's difficult to trace the origins of both Obama and the Easter Bunny. 2) Both exist only in the minds of the immature. 3) Both pull things from out their @$$ and expect you to freak out and be thankful. 4) Both leave gifts for people regardless of...

The catch of the day goes to Denise Hunnell aka Catholic-Mom who found this ad on Craigslist for pro-choice mercenaries. Hmmm, seems like Big Abortion is getting a bit nervous, huh? Because here's the thing. It's money they've got and people they don't. This contrasts perfectly with 40 Days for Life which has thousands and thousands of people across the country praying in front of abortion clinics. And they do it because they are passionate. The pro-aborts cannot match that kind of passion. But they can manufacture passion with money but it's a fraud. I've really got to wonder if...