Free Republic

[Translated from LIVE THREAD on Le Figaro website] 14:24 The injured American soldier has surgery Between 10 o'clock and 12:30 Spencer Stone underwent a succesful operation on his hand. The surgery took plance at the Hand Clinic at Lesquin, a suburb south of Liile. The soldier is now recovering and will later be heard by the police. 15:38 Spencer Stone may leave the hospital by Saturday evening. Spencer Stone, one of the Americans who helped subdue the shooter on the Thalys train between Amsterdam-Paris on Friday should be able to leave the clinic where he underwnet a succesful surgical procedure...

All the political gridlock in Congress and name-calling during election season may not matter as much when Washington, D.C. sinks into the ocean. According to new research conducted by geologists at the University of Vermont and the U.S. Geological Survey, the land in the Chesapeake Bay region, including the nation’s capital, is sinking rapidly. The sea level in the Chesapeake is rising at twice the global average and faster than anywhere else on the East Coast, the researchers say, which means D.C. will sink 6 or more inches in the next 100 years. The sinking is caused by melting ice...

Does “Gospel” Simply Mean “Good News”? Or Have We Unintentionally Defined Ourselves into a Corner?By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere are times in the Church when we want to define something rather easily and simply so as to make it memorable and easy to grasp. But in so doing, we run the risk of doing harm to its deeper, richer, and more accurate meaning.I wonder if we have not done this with the word “gospel.” Most of us have been trained to define the word “gospel” as “good news.” Clearly there is good news in the Gospels and, by extension, the whole of...

A Georgia man sitting in a drive-thru at a Sonic Drive-In restaurant was confronted Sunday by a small gang of armed men who demanded his hard earned money, WSB-TV reported.

After President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he reportedly told a fellow Democrat that the party had lost the South for a long time to come. It took more than a generation for old Southern loyalties to the Democrats to fade, but that vision was realized this weekend. As Mary Landrieu, a Democratic senator from Louisiana, lost re-election in Saturday’s runoff election, as expected, the Republicans vanquished the last vestige of Democratic strength in the once solidly Democratic Deep South. In a region stretching from the high plains of Texas to the Atlantic coast of the...

The woman accused of stealing eggs from a Dollar General in Alabama could have gone to jail. Instead, an act of compassion caught on camera is quickly going viral. According to AL.com, Officer William Stacy reported to the Dollar General in Tarrant after store employees allegedly caught a woman stealing eggs. The woman, who was not identified by name in the report, told store management and the officer that she stole the eggs to feed her children, who were waiting in the car.

Scientists have discovered a link between regular daily intake of the hot drink and a reduction of up to 20 per cent of the chances of developing dementia. The report released today (thurs) from the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee highlights the role nutrition can play in preserving cognitive function, especially during the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's before full-blown symptoms of dementia occur.

There is a long list of women* who have amassed personal fortunes by divorcing rich husbands — and as far as I can tell, they deserved every penny. This week Sue Ann Hamm joined it when a court ordered her ex-husband, Harold Hamm, the Oklahoma oil man, to pay her some $1 billion in cash and assets, or about $38 million per year of a 26-year marriage. Ms. Hamm plans to appeal on the grounds that the award grossly undervalues her share of the wealth accumulated during the marriage, Reuters reported on Thursday. If Ms. Hamm gets anywhere near half...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Madrid health authorities have put down Ebola patient Teresa Romero Ramos' dog, Excalibur, despite protests. The animal was sedated prior to euthanasia to avoid its suffering, the Health Ministry of Madrid said in a statement. More than 330,000 people had signed a petition on Change.org to save Excalibur. Ramos, a nurse's assistant, is in isolation after testing positive for the deadly Ebola virus earlier this week. Health authorities worried her dog may have also become infected. Which warrants the questions: Can dogs really get Ebola and spread it to humans? What about other animals? In Africa, Ebola infection "has been...

In an interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, Hillary Clinton made some uncharacteristically harsh comments about President Obama's foreign policy.

BOSTON — A group backed by the conservative Koch brothers plans to spend more than $125 million on the November elections. The investment marks a significant escalation for the Koch brothers' main campaign arm. Americans For Prosperity plans to increase television advertising across the country, improve voter data collection and strengthen its 31-state ground operation. A senior official with direct knowledge of the plans confirms the election blueprint. It's outlined in a memo to Republican donors this spring. The official confirms the memo's authenticity but isn't authorized to discuss it publicly.

A K-9 whose human partner was shot and wounded early Wednesday morning in Southwest Portland was found dead from a gunshot wound after a widespread search involving police, bloodhounds, area residents and even TriMet bus drivers.

When snow descended on Atlanta and it became too dangerous for kids to get home, E. Rivers Elementary School principal Matt Rogers threw his students the sleepover of a lifetime. More than 90 students stuck at E. Rivers Elementary School in Atlanta overnight due to snow watched movies, ate pizza and enjoyed a snowball fight in the morning. Lindsay Treharne More than 90 students stuck at E. Rivers Elementary School in Atlanta overnight due to snow watched "Free Willy," ate pizza and enjoyed a snowball fight in the morning. After movies and pizza, he used tablecloths and even his own...

Detroit, Michigan (May 6, 2013) — After more than two years of intense motion practice and discovery, the City of Dearborn has agreed to enter into a settlement that includes a public apology for arresting several Christian missionaries who were peacefully preaching to Muslims at the Dearborn Arab International Festival in 2010. The American Freedom Law Center (AFLC), a national nonprofit Judeo-Christian law firm, is representing Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, and Paul Rezkalla, who were thrown in jail on June 18, 2010, and charged with “breach of the peace” for their free speech activity. In September 2010, Robert Muise,...

SYDNEY: Australia's highest court struck down a landmark law on Thursday that had begun allowing the country's first gay marriages, shattering the dreams of more than two dozen same-sex newlyweds whose marriages will now be annulled less than a week after their weddings.

Though it is not yet 2014, the Republican "Establishment" is already attempting to determine the party's candidate for the 2016 presidential election. And their top picks range all the way from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Any true conservatives are immediately pronounced "unelectable" and their candidacies declared dead on arrival. This assessment of the political landscape is profoundly significant, and the determinations of Republican Party insiders critically important, considering they have such a sterling track record of selecting sure winners, such as Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. A vital element of their...

ZAGREB: A majority of Croatians voted in a referendum Sunday to ban gay marriages in what is a major victory for the Catholic Church-backed conservatives in the European Union´s newest nation. The state electoral commission, citing near complete results, said 65 percent of those who voted answered "yes" to the referendum question: "Do you agree that marriage is matrimony between a man and a woman?" About 34 percent voted against. The result meant that Croatia´s constitution will be amended to ban same-sex marriage. The vote has deeply divided Croatia. Liberal groups have said the referendum´s question infringes on basic human...

November 1, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At least nine Texas abortion clinics have suspended abortions starting today after an Appeals Court reinstated key provisions of the state’s hotly contested pro-life law yesterday, according to reports. The ruling came just three days after U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel had struck down sections of the law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and to follow FDA guidelines in administering the abortion drug RU-486.

Disabled man's life is turned around by a blanket... Really.. :)

The President will deliver a statement on Syria at 1:15 pm today in the Rose Garden today.