Free Republic

Featured Term (selected at random):LAW OF CONSCIENCE The natural law as it manifests itself within each person's conscience, where its dictates are expressed by certain basic tendencies of nature, evaluated and regulated by right reason. It is binding in conscience as the fundamental source of moral duty. Human law, on the other hand, is binding only insofar as it agrees with the natural law of conscience. All human beings are subject to the law of conscience, no matter when or where they live. It is, therefore, universal and unchangeable. No one can dispense from its observance, which becomes binding as...

I Miss Women Wearing Hats and Veils in Church. A brief reminiscence of days gone by.By: Msgr. Charles Pope I know, I know, I am so hopelessly old fashioned. But I want to say, I miss women wearing hats. I have written before (HERE) of how I miss them wearing the veil in Church. But even before the veil, the hat was more commonly worn by women in 1940s and before (See photo  below left, of my parish taken in the early 1950s, click photo for a larger view). Veils became popular in the later 1950s and 1960s before...

Al Gore's Current TV has bigger problems to deal with than a potential lawsuit from fired news anchor Keith Olbermann - namely not getting kicked off Time Warner Cable for low ratings. According to three sources with knowledge of the situation, Time Warner Cable Inc's carriage agreement with Current TV stipulates that, if the left-leaning political news network fails to meet a minimum threshold for overall viewers in a given quarter, financial penalties such as Current TV being required to increase marketing and promotion spending on the cable operator's systems are triggered.

(Reuters) - Al Gore's Current TV has bigger problems to deal with than a potential lawsuit from fired news anchor Keith Olbermann - namely not getting kicked off Time Warner Cable for low ratings. According to three sources with knowledge of the situation, Time Warner Cable Inc's carriage agreement with Current TV stipulates that, if the left-leaning political news network fails to meet a minimum threshold for overall viewers in a given quarter, financial penalties such as Current TV being required to increase marketing and promotion spending on the cable operator's systems are triggered. If Current TV misses the audience...

Keith Olbermann was informed Thursday morning that Current was terminating its five-year, $50 million contract with its star anchor. The network sent an e-mail to Olbermann’s agent, Nick Khan at ICM, on Thursday morning stating that Olbermann was being let go for “material, serial breach of contract” and informed him that Eliot Spitzer would take Countdown’s 8 p.m. time slot effective immediately. (Spitzer will keep Olbermann’s staff and film his show, Viewpoint, out of the same Manhattan studio.) According to knowledgeable sources, the issues were Olbermann’s repeated unauthorized absences as well as “sabotaging the network” and “attacking Current and...

Current TV said Friday afternoon that it had terminated the contract of its lead anchor Keith Olbermann, scarcely one year after he was hired to reboot the fledgling channel in his progressive political image. Mr. Olbermann did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Current indicated that he had failed to honor the terms of his five-year, $50 million contract, giving the channel the right to terminate it. In a letter to viewers, the channel said Friday, “We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive...

The Key to True FastingBy: Msgr. Charles Pope Required fasting is almost non-existent in the Catholic Church today. Even the two days where fasting is required for those over 18 and under 60, it is really a mitigated fast of two small “snack-like” meals and one regular sized meal (no snacks in between now!). Not really a fast at all. A truer fast (going without food for the whole day) is practiced by some today as a personal discipline and it is laudable if a person is able.Yet, even the mitigated fast is “hard” for many as are most...

Oprah Winfrey created a buzz Sunday in Houston with a surprise appearance at the 11 a.m. service at Lakewood Church. Seated in the front row of the crowd of roughly 13,000, Oprah and Tyler Perry were announced as guests at the service. Houstonian Diego Quintanilla, who was sitting near the duo, tweeted: "I'm freaking out!! I can't breathe! It smells like money and amazingness!!"

Turns out Keith Olbermann's fans may not be willing to follow him to the ends of the earth. Or in this case Current TV. The Daily News reports that Olbermann's show has lost nearly half its viewers since its June Debut. Current doesn't make Olbermann's ratings public (unless the show has a particularly good week as it did in the last week of August), but the NYDN got its hands on some numbers and they're not great.

Is mankind's quest for knowledge, power and longer life about to backfire and wipe human beings off the face of the Earth? Secret experiments now underway in the U.S. and elsewhere are sparking fears of a potential extinction-level event hastening the 2nd Coming of Jesus. For decades now, there have been science-fiction stories portraying a future filled with spectacular abilities for people, where the definition of what makes someone a human being is blurred by blending high technology and even animal traits into the human body. In the 1970s, TV's "Six Million Dollar Man" featured Lee Majors as a critically...

The Bible's account of the night Jesus was born is noted for some well-known characters at the Bethlehem manger, including the baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and some shepherds following the instructions of an angel. The famous wise men were not present, as they showed up later when Jesus was a young child in a house. And as far as the New Testament indicates, there weren't any lesbians there either. Now a Christian church in America's heartland is helping redefine the story, as its most-recent living Nativity scene in December featured two women instead of a man and a women starring...

Many Christian denominations denounce homosexuality as a sin. As a result, gay Christian singers, songwriters and musicians face a challenge in balancing their art, their sexuality and their faith. For those few who have decided to come out, it has meant giving up successful careers. Singer-songwriter Jennifer Knapp has sold more than a million albums and earned Dove Awards on the strength of songs like her 1998 hit, "Undo Me." But in 2002, at the height of her career as a contemporary Christian artist, Knapp suddenly stopped making music. "Knowing that I was going to have to publicly deal with...

This week Cenk Uygur lost his spot as interim host of the 6pm slot on MSNBC; since then there has been something of a he said/he said surrounding the reasons behind Uygur’s departure from the cable news network. Last night, Uygur appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, which now appears on the fledgling Current network, for an interview rife with hidden meanings, subtext, and almost Shakespearean tragic tones. There is a lot to unpack in the following clip, but the core of it centers around the notion of established, mainstream media, and whether or not Uygur was somehow a victim...

CHIANG KHONG - The 15-year-old aspiring "ladyboy" delicately applied a puff of talcum powder to his nose -- an act of rebellion at the Thai Buddhist temple where he is learning to "be a man". "They have rules here that novice monks cannot use powder, make-up, or perfume, cannot run around and be girlish," said Pipop Thanajindawong, who was sent to Wat Kreung Tai Wittaya, in Chiang Khong on the Thai-Laos border, to tame his more feminine traits. But the monks running the temple's program to teach masculinity to boys who are "katoeys", the Thai term for transsexuals or ladyboys,...

The average age of its members is now 61 and by 2020 a “crisis” of “natural wastage” will lead to their numbers falling “through the floor”, the Church’s national assembly was told. The Church was compared to a company “impeccably” managing itself into failure, during exchanges at the General Synod in York. The warnings follow an internal report calling for an urgent national recruitment drive to attract more members. In the past 40 years, the number of adult churchgoers has halved, while the number of children attending regular worship has declined by four fifths.

As you may have heard once or twice before, it’s a marathon, not a sprint (unless, of course, you’re talking about a sprint, then it’s a sprint, not a marathon). But we digress. Mark Rosenthal, CEO of Current TV, uses the sports metaphor to express his lack of concern over the second-week ratings drop for Keith Olbermann’s Countdown. The show saw its ratings shrink by nearly a third during the week of June 27, averaging 93,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic.

One church leader says worship services today are too time consuming, speaking out during an era when discussions about long church services seem to be a touchy subject for many Christians. The Rev. Jonathan Gledhill, the Bishop of Lichfield, told a group of clergy in a speech in his London diocese this week that church services have become too long, recommending “clergy should aim to keep the time of worship to no more than 50 minutes.” The bishop continued to say that worship has become “too complicated, leaving people who are not regular churchgoers feeling confused and excluded.” "One of...

Dozens of churches, from Park Hill Congregational in Denver to Hillview United Methodist in Boise, Idaho, and First United Lutheran in San Francisco to St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church in Honolulu, are planning to send "a message both here at home and to the Arab and Muslim world about our respect for Islam" with a time to read the Quran during worship this Sunday. It's not just wrong, but dangerous, according to Christian trends analysts. The aim of the program, which is promoted by social activists behind the Faith Shared website, is to counter the message from Islamic activists who say...

If there is such a thing as a controversial, lightning rod Baptist minister, then one is headed to North Texas. Ergun Caner is the former head of Jerry Falwell's Liberty Baptist Seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia, and his claims of having terrorist ties have clouded his credibility — and perhaps his future. Claims of being so hated that he once had to dodge oranges being hurled from the audience is not what you might expect to hear from the Dean of Theology at Liberty Baptist Seminary. But it's part of the Ergun Caner mystique and legend... of having been raised a...

While Noah will likely always remain the first name in arks, tourists are chomping at the bit to climb aboard “Johan’s Ark,” an ambitious re-creation of the biblical boat that’s attracting gawkers galore along a waterfront shipyard in Dordrecht, a city in the western Netherlands. Dutch builder Johan Huibers is expected to complete work on the massive vessel sometime next month in what has been a staggeringly ambitious project to bring one of the best-known stories of the Bible to life. It’s taken three years of his life and $1.6 million out of his pocket, but Huibers, owner of a...

(CNN)–When Westboro Baptist Church protesters roll into any given town, most places don't exactly put out the welcome mat, until this Sunday. "This False Prophet and His Blind Lemmings Welcome You to Our Whore House for God's Grace and Free Donuts," Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle announced on his blog this week after learning that Westboro plans to picket one of his churches on Father's Day. Driscoll is a popular pastor in the Pacific Northwest. He heads a group of multisite churches that regularly draw 10,000 parishioners a week across 10 locations. He preaches live at...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- The Diocese of Allentown has found itself the target of a lawsuit that claims a woman was fired for being a Muslim. Omayma Arafa filed the federal lawsuit against the Diocese in May. The lawsuit states Arafa, who is a Muslim from Egypt, had no problems as an employee of the Diocese until August 2008, when her supervisor changed. In the lawsuit, Arafa said her new supervisor, a Monsignor, was not respectful of her religion. She said during Ramada in 2008 he forced her to take a lunch break, even though all she could do was sit...

A California broadcaster who wrongly forecast the return of Jesus last month is now hospitalized after suffering a stroke. Harold Camping, 89, of Oakland-Calif.-based Family Radio was reportedly taken by ambulance Thursday night from his home in Alameda, Calif. "He had a stroke, it was on his right side," a neighbor of Camping's told the Oakland Tribune, noting that she and her husband helped and comforted Camping's wife, Shirley, as the event took place.

<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A traveling evangelist who has sometimes aligned with Westboro Baptist Church has been jailed in Tennessee on charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.</p> <p>Nashville police Sgt. Robert Haught told WSMV-TV in Nashville that 48-year-old Glynis Bethel, who is associated with Twenty-First Century House of God in Loxley, Ala., pepper sprayed him in the face as he tried to stop her from leaving a scene Saturday.</p>

President Obama's faith adviser, Eboo Patel, likened television evangelist Pat Robertson to Osama bin Laden, calling both "totalitarians" who worked collectively against coexistence. The statements by Patel mark the latest in a series of controversial remarks by the faith adviser to be reported by WND, including comments against the U.S. and Christianity. In February 2010, Obama named Patel to his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Patel, a Muslim activist, is the founder and executive director of Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, which says it promotes pluralism by teaming people of different faiths on service projects.

Bible prophecy may have a bad name in the light of Harold Camping's misguided date-setting, but the biggest sign of the end may have been overlooked in all the rapture hysteria of last weekend. Once again, we've seen the U.S. hit with a series of deadly superstorms following Barack Obama's pledge to return Israel to pre-1967 borders. Just days after Obama insisted Israel must give up lands it won through military victory with its enemies, some 200 people were killed by a tornado in Joplin, Mo. There's a pattern here. We saw it in Katrina, when George Bush forced Israel's...

During the final episode of her namesake show, Oprah Winfrey credited God for her success and said His grace is something everyone can have "if you let it in." While Winfrey's lengthy remarks about her beliefs during Wednesday's curtain call of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" drew applause from the audience, many Christians remained skeptical. "People often ask me what is the secret to the success of this show -- how have we lasted 25 years. I non-jokingly say, 'My team and Jesus,'" Winfrey said. "Because nothing but the hand of God has made this possible for me." Christians have criticized...

Take a look at this video of Olbermann waddling around Yankee Stadium over the weekend. What is he wearing?! Is that a duster or a lab coat or maybe a butcher's smock?When is the last time you saw one of those - other than the bad guys in Pale Rider? And what does he have underneath that ridiculous jacket? Did he steal 25 sweatshirts from the Yankee store and is trying to smuggle them out?

Al Gore Denounces Rupert Murdoch's 'Abuse of Power'By Adam Martin 01:03 PM ET Al Gore and Rupert Murdoch have never been best friends, but now they're locked in a very public clash, at the root of which sits Keith Olbermann, who recently joined Gore's Current TV. Gore took a swipe at Murdoch in the press today, telling the Guardian that it was an "abuse of power" for the News Corporation magnate to force his left-leaning Current TV off the air in Italy because it didn't fit his "idealogical agenda." Current got the abrupt word three weeks ago that the digital...

With the great evangelist in his twilight, his children are jostling over his image and the family name. In this week’s Newsweek, Lisa Miller reports on the younger Grahams’ politics, infighting—and efforts to protect their father from the press.

Richard Dawkins has made his name as the scourge of organised religion who branded the Roman Catholic Church “evil” and once called the Pope “a leering old villain in a frock”. But he now stands accused of “cowardice” after refusing four invitations to debate the existence of God with a renowned Christian philosopher. A war of words has broken out between the best selling author of The God Delusion, and his critics, who see his refusal to take on the American academic, William Lane Craig, as a “glaring” failure and a sign that he may be losing his nerve.

Cable network Current TV says Keith Olbermann will return to the air on June 20. Current said Tuesday the title of the weeknight news-commentary hour will be "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." "Countdown" was the name of the program Olbermann hosted on MSNBC until his heated departure from that network in January. Less than a month later, he signed with Current TV, the public affairs channel launched in 2005 by former Vice President Al Gore and Joel Hyatt. A liberal lightning rod, Olbermann has often clashed with his former bosses and with the corporate culture of General Electric, until recently MSNBC's...

OSLO (Reuters) – A North Atlantic current flowing into the Arctic Ocean is warmer than for at least 2,000 years in a sign that global warming is likely to bring ice-free seas around the North Pole in summers, a study showed. Scientists said that waters at the northern end of the Gulf Stream, between Greenland and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, averaged 6 degrees Celsius (42.80F) in recent summers, warmer than at natural peaks during Roman or Medieval times. "The temperature is unprecedented in the past 2,000 years," lead author Robert Spielhagen of the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literature...

South Korea a word of understanding concerning todays attack from North Korea This morning who happens to be Korean rushed in and said "North Korea just attacked South Korea" ! Immediately The Spirit of The Lord began to speak to me and I rushed out and wrote this down . . . for your discernment . South Korea your time is at hand , What is it you do not understand , For you worship me with your lips and your mouths , But this is not what it is all about ! Come away from the Laodicians they can...

MY WAYS ARE NOT YOUR WAYS INQUIRE OF ME ! My ways are not your ways I have plans for you that you know not of to keep you humble so that you remain in covenant and oneness with me always and though I test you, you shall come through the fire as gold for my Rhema word shall call to you and guide you to my breath ( Ruah ) that releases my will through the eyes of my understanding alone for you are my signet ring I press into all I AM doing in and through all things...

Australian News Defends Pope: "You've Got the Wrong Man!" Following up on my earlier post, "Did the Pope Cover Up Abuse? No!" . . . Noted New Testament Scholar, Michael Bird, my Australian friend over at Euangelion, kindly sent an article my way that I have to share here. This is a piece that deserves wide circulation. Scott Stephens, a writer with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, has written a piece defending the pope against the scurrilous charges that have been made against him and has essentially lowered the boom on those who have recklessly propagated them: his message, "You've Got...

America your portion has been measured in full and the time of true shaking has come ! Now watch as I touch your pocketbooks , watch as I annihilate the sin in your lives and watch as All this occurs I set the captives free and destroy the rebellious as korah for I shall swallow up sin and it's roots . I shall cleanse this nation as never before . There shall be crevasses where there has been great rivers allowing the ocean in , Deserts where there has been pools of great waters , Mountains where there has been...

Hope I don't get banned but I am sick and tired of free republic acting like nothing is going on!! Either we are under attack or the equipment is inadequate, I hate that there are no posts about the curent issue.

FINDING it difficult to revise for an exam? Help could be on its way in the form of the first non-invasive way of stimulating the brain that can boost visual memory. The technique uses transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), in which weak electrical currents are applied to the scalp using electrodes. The method can temporarily increase or decrease activity in a specific brain region and has already been shown to boost verbal and motor skills in volunteers. Richard Chi, a PhD student at the Centre for the Mind, University of Sydney, and colleagues wanted to follow up on previous research...

The stunt has been condemned by animal rights groups as "cheap marketing tactics". Twelve bottles of The End Of History ale have been made and placed inside seven dead stoats, four squirrels and one hare And at 55 per cent volume, its makers claim it is the world's strongest beer. A taxidermist in Doncaster worked on the animals, which were not killed for bottling the new drink, with some having been killed on the roads. Outfits featured on some of the animals include a kilt and a top hat. BrewDog, of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, created the ale, which is stronger than...

With the beautiful Atlantic Ocean whitecapping out my hotel window on Ft. Lauderdale Beach this fine American rock-n-roll summer morning, the only thing more beautiful is my handsome, oh so utilitarian Glock Model 20, 10mm semi auto pistol and twelve loaded high capacity magazines sitting on the little table next to me. I am such a man for all seasons. Can you say cocked, locked and ready to rock, doc?I’m on my 47th year blitzkrieg rock-n-roll tour across America. I have many guitars, oversized amplifiers and plenty of guns and ammo. The American Boy Scout lives. Prepared is good. Unprepared...

Maricopa County Sheriffs Office: Mayor Gordon You're ignorant, Shut up!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKuOA-vc_v0

For much of the past year, Current TV has been quietly undergoing an overhaul that will change just about everything but the struggling channel's name. Current declined comment for this story. It's a revitalization project Gore & Co. embarked on after exhausting a more lucrative possibility: selling the channel. Current's founding partner, Joel Hyatt, spent much of 2009 shopping the network with a price tag that wildly overestimated the company's worth, confirmed sources at several media firms. Current even had extensive sale talks as far back as 2007 with Google, where Gore serves as a senior advisor. Now the focus...

Although President Obama and many Democrats promised during the health care reform debate that “if you like your health plan, you can keep it,” the health insurance plans that are now offered by small businesses probably will not survive the transition to a regulated marketplace. The Obama administration acknowledged this on Monday, when it proposed regulations for determining what insurance plans can remain exempt from market reforms. And while participants in those plans will probably be grateful for it, business owners may be less sanguine about the outcome. Because so many people were evidently reluctant to trade the comfort of...

NEW ORLEANS – Researchers tracking the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say computer models show the black ooze may have already entered a major current flowing toward the Florida Keys, and are sending out a research vessel to learn more. William Hogarth, dean of the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science, told The Associated Press Sunday that one model shows that the oil has already the loop current, which is the largest in the Gulf. .. Hogarth said a second model shows the oil is 3 miles from the current — still dangerously close.

Federal officials speaking about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill Sunday morning appeared to be steeling the Louisiana coast – and the nation – for consequences that could be “catastrophic.” The officials, who run the agencies charged with mitigating the impact of the spill on America’s Gulf coast, used unusually stark words to describe the situation and the difficulties of the remedy. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said it was the federal government’s job to “keep the boot on the neck of BP,” which is running the cleanup effort.

My orchestration is complete in you in that in fact you have been crushed and fractured as a diamond brushed and honed , thoroughly ground into My existence and pleasure and I wear you as My Signet ring of power and authority in My Name . Therefore only and all you do is by my hand and in My Name ( JESUS ) of the strictest obedience wrapped in the gold and silver of My glory tested in the fire ( COALS) of My Testimony ( JESUS ) and Salvation of My ways , for My words are Life breathed...

Your going to see a beautiful door of light open unto you my children , a door of enlightenment and beauty for as I AM your Groom so you are my Bride and in this oneness of spirit I shall indwell in you my eyes of understanding to reveal the wisdom of my ways (Psalm 118) . And now this pathway is completely open to you as my messengers unscroll it before you as My Breath ( spirit ) reveals and brings to light the Jot and Tittle of my ways , for you are the fragrance of incense I...

" HARBOR " " SAFE HARBOR " is found only in My will for these are the wings I speak of ; " Obedience " and " Humility " . Touch not My anointed and do My messengers of My will no harm ! Such is my love for those that Moses after me as Enoch did ~ so you must do ! Numbers 12 1NOW MIRIAM and Aaron talked against Moses [their brother] because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite woman. 2And they said, Has the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Has He not...

Sarah Palin joins Fox - God's plan?   January 11, 1:20 PMPortland Atheism ExaminerJeff Musall     Right at home in the FoxHole     Sarah Palin, former Guardian of the North Country against Russian home invaders and current bookseller supreme, has signed a multi-year contract to appear on Fox News. She should fit right in.The network which afflicts the world with Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Mike Huckabee, Karl Rove, Brit Hume, and drop-by guest like Ann Coulter, Michele Bachmann, and Rudy Giuliani is the perfect place for Queen Sarah O' Wasilla to find a home.Will Sarah Palin...