Free Republic

Tuesday, October 15, 2013 No Business Like Gov Business Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog Imagine a big corporation. A really big corporation that monopolizes everything and compels you to buy its low quality overpriced services and imprisons you if you refuse to pay whether you use them or not. Now imagine a CEO who picks and chooses which laws to follow, who breaks the law, embezzles huge sums for his friends, lies repeatedly and is never.held accountable for it. We are all shareholders of the corporation of government whose board and CEO we vote for, but...

(CNSNews.com) - Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a spokesman in the Office of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, is refusing to say whether the Department of Defense would attempt to stop a civilian Catholic priest, who had been a contract chaplain for the military, from administering the last rites to a serviceman on a U.S. military base. “I feel no particular compulsion to answer outlandish, hypothetical questions in a yes/no fashion nor does the Department, generally, answer hypotheticals at all,” Breasseale said in an email. “Further, it is a matter of long standing Department policy to not address matters that are...

OTTAWA — It wasn’t long ago that Indonesia was considered a major source of worry. The world’s most heavily populated Muslim country — now with more than 250 million residents — was hard-hit by the Asian economic crisis, which led to dictator Suharto’s 1998 resignation. Then in 2002, a devastating terrorist attack on the resort island of Bali left 202 dead, more than half of them vacationing westerners. Some speculated that the archipelago state, made up of an estimated 17,508 islands (roughly 6,000 are inhabited, though the population is located primarily on five main islands), would break apart, leading to...

Father Ray Leonard, who serves as the Catholic chaplain at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia, filed suit Monday against the Department of Defense, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the Department of the Navy, and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. DOD is prohibiting Father Leonard and the other Catholic priests from administering the sacraments and providing other services to their congregations even though two weeks ago Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed, a law that instructed DOD to maintain on the job and keep paying contract employees who were supporting the troops. DOD took this action because Hagel determined--after consulting...

Mark Levin's Plan is excellent but how long do we have? Secession, civil war? Only OBAMA wants that to happen.

Monday, October 14, 2013 The Battle of the Redskins Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog Over the summer, those two legendary sources of sports coverage, Salon Magazine and MSNBC, or as they are known in some places the S Word and the M Word, announced that they would begin referring to the Washington Redskins football team as the R Word. Ordinarily liberals would not be too eager to call a team with 40 black players, a black quarterback and a passionate black fan base a hyphenated euphemism. But there are only so many politically correct causes out...

As we see our nation falling into the lawless and immoral abyss, amazingly many are wondering how these things can be? They are all pointing fingers at each other but who is truly the engine and one behind the controls of this madness which is sweeping our land and world? The key to comprehending the day and hour in which we live is to see things from Almighty God’s HEAVENLY and ETERNAL perspective (John 17:17, Eph. 6:12, Col. 3:1-2). The world in which we live in is governed by a highly fallen intelligent order of supernatural beings (called fallen angels)...

When a true constitutional conservative is on the ballot—who is a fearless Christian, to boot—you know the forces of the Left will come out in a fever trying to destroy him. Such is the case in the Republican primary runoff for US Congress in southern Alabama’s 1st District. A little over a month ago, I wrote about this race (a special election to replace a quitting congressman) which has received national attention because candidate Dean Young created a pledge to fight for real marriage and asked his fellow Republican primary candidates to sign it. Not one of the others signed...

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will remain steadfast in strengthening the position of Islam, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said. In his Hari Raya Aidiladha message posted on the 1Malaysia website yesterday, the Prime Minister said the Government would continue to drive the country towards attaining its visions based on syariah or maqasid syariah objectives. He said this would be in line with his administration’s transformation programmes. Taking into account how the management of Malaysia’s haj pilgrims is cited as the model recognised through­­out the Muslim world, Najib said Malaysia would strive to emerge as a good example of a high-income, progressive and...

More than 1.5 million people converged on the Philippine capital on Monday for a powerful Christian sect's evangelical event, causing traffic chaos that shut down large parts of the megacity. The gathering of the secretive and politically influential Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) in the historic district of Manila forced all schools and some government offices to close. The Supreme Court, as well as some basketball games in the highly popular college league, were also suspended, while Manila's governing authority urged private employers to give their staff a paid day off to avoid the traffic. "We really apologise for...

Sunday, October 13, 2013 Goodbye Columbus, Goodbye America Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog Columbus may have outfoxed the Spanish court and his rivals, but he is falling victim to the court of political correctness. The explorer who discovered America has become controversial because the very idea of America has become controversial. There are counter-historical claims put forward by Muslim and Chinese scholars claiming that they discovered America first. And there are mobs of fake indigenous activists on every campus to whom the old Italian is as much of a villain as the bearded Uncle Sam. Columbus...

PUTRAJAYA: The court of appeal allowed the government's appeal over the usage of the word "Allah" in the Catholic weekly The Herald. The three-man panel, led by Datuk Seri Mohamed Apandi Ali, in an unanimous decision, said the usage of the name "Allah" is not an integral part of the faith and practice of Christianity. "We found no reason why the respondent was so adamant to use the word Allah in their weekly publication. "Such usage if allowed, will inevitably cause confusion among the community," he said. The panel was also comprised of judges Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim and...

At least 90 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in a stampede in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh Sunday, a senior police official said. "The death toll has risen to 91 and 10 others are in a critical condition," Deputy Inspector General of Police D.K. Arya told the media. "The incident happened at a temple in the state's Datia district, where some 500,000 devotees gathered for a religious festival," he said. He had earlier put the death toll at between 50 and 60. Quoting eye-witnesses, some local TV channels reported that the stampede broke out...

Saturday, October 12, 2013 The Rabin Delusion Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog Call it Rabinstock or Rabinpallooza. It's the annual anniversary of Yitzchak Rabin's death transformed into a tawdry spirit rally for the even more tawdry remnants of Israel's left. The assassination of the former Israeli PM has become the "Camelot" of the left with Rabin as an unlikely JFK. American liberals nourished themselves on the fantasy that race relations would have been solved and Vietnam would have been avoided if only their golden boy hadn't been shot in Dallas. It was more soothing than dealing...

It is intellectually impossible to understand the Left and their perverse paradigm they have forced inside of every institution of American culture and society, law, politics, medicine and history, unless you view it through the lens of Hegelian dialectical materialism. For example, using the above quote the secular humanist (today’s Democrats) believes that God is a myth [Thesis/problem] and that man created the gods [Antithesis/reaction], therefore We [Democrats] are gods who can do whatever we please in the name of the common good—the U.S. Constitution, the Bible, the original intent of the framers, liberty, due process, morality be damned! [Synthesis/solution]...

The toddler wore a pink hoodie with pink pants that ended atop a pair of purple-splotched Dora the Explorer sneakers. Her brown eyes sparkled, especially when she managed an occasional smile between broods for a cell phone, bracelet and small book. Behavior patterns placed her months shy of those “terrible two’s.” Expecting mother, grandmother and child attended a Diocese of Trenton “Justice for Immigrants: a Journey of Hope” Mass Friday where Bishop David M. O’Connell delivered an plea for religious intervention regarding millions of undocumented residents awaiting U.S. immigration reform. O’Connell explained that Catholic involvement in immigration issues originate from...

“Mercy for the Marginalized” (Luke 17:11-19)The Holy Gospel for today from Luke 17, about the cleansing of the lepers, happens to be the assigned Gospel for the Day of Thanksgiving. And that makes sense. Jesus’ words about the one who came back to give thanks make it a natural for that occasion. But this text also shows up as a regular Sunday reading during the three-year lectionary, and thus it appears today. So this morning we’ll take a slightly different approach to this text than we would on Thanksgiving. Today we’ll emphasize the text’s theme of “Mercy for the Marginalized.”...

"In our time the Biblical prophecies are being realized. As the prophet Amos said, they shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine. They shall till gardens and eat their fruit. And I will plant them upon their soil never to be uprooted again. Ladies and gentlemen, the people of Israel have come home never to be uprooted again."—Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu The quotation above is how Benjamin Netanyahu concluded his speech on October 1, 2013 at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. >>SNIP<< The Prime Minister said that...

It seems like any time someone wishes to express their opposition to the redefinition of marriage, they start by extolling the virtues of so-called “traditional marriage”. In doing so, their intentions are undoubtedly to explain why it is that succumbing to the push for a more “inclusive” definition of marriage would be harmful to society. Their choice of words, though, may very well hinder their argument.... Whole article: http://collegiatetheist.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/should-social-conservatives-abandon-the-phrase-traditional-marriage/

Friday, October 11, 2013 Friday Afternoon Roundup - Out of Rushmore Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES HIM MEANING The Obama myth is that he is a reasonable man being blocked by unreasonable Republicans at every turn. There are plenty of things wrong with that myth, but the biggest one is that Obama isnÂ’t being handicapped by Republican obstructionism. He seeks out and cultivates Republican opposition. The ideas of the left donÂ’t just fail because theyÂ’re bad. They also fail because the left is more energized by hostilities than by any...

The image above is borrowed from the ad campaign “This is Your Brain on Drugs” that is indelibly etched in most of our minds. Piggy-backing on this, the phrase “Your Brain on Porn,” has gained popularity. Google that phrase and you will bring up a multitude of websites and videos from Christian and non-Christian sources. This is because pornography use—especially via the internet—has been demonstrated to be extremely destructive and habit forming. In fact, Cambridge researchers reported last month that the brain scans of heavy porn users were similar to the brain scans of drug addicts. This brings us to...

It's gotten little attention, but it's true: The individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act requires all Americans to have health insurance or face penalties, but members of medical-sharing ministries are exempt from the individual mandate that will be enforced beginning in 2015. It's there because of the work of then-Congressmen Tom Perriello, a Virginia Democrat and Sens. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, and Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa, who fought to add the exemption to the law. It's the same principle that allowed for the Amish to be exempted from the individual mandate—with the crucial difference that it's a...

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Thursday expressed support for Iran's participation in peace talks on the Syria issue. She told a regular press briefing, "Proper resolution of the Syria issue will be impossible without the participation and support of regional countries, especially countries with leverage over concerned parties in Syria." On Monday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States might agree with Iran's participation in a potential Geneva II talks over Syria if Tehran backs the "Geneva I Communique" which called for a transitional government in Syria. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Tuesday...

“Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak out Because I was not Catholic,” was the third stanza in a poem by Protestant Pastor Martin Niemoller who was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp for seven years because he spoke against denial of religious freedom to worship as each individual sees fit. His theme centers around the Silence is Consent mantra of Germans who alleged they knew nothing about the gas fumes circling the country’s forests. Well, last weekend, here in America, our First Amendment Right of Religious Freedom was silenced by an edict from on high...

Although Pope John Paul II proclaimed the definitive nature of the Church's doctrine on the male-only ministerial priesthood in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994) and said that the issue was not to be discussed any longer, Dr. Thomas Groome, in his 1995 book Language for a Catholic Church (revised edition) that, "..the continued exclusion of women from ordained ministry in the Catholic Church is seen by fair-minded scholars as without theological or biblical warrant" (p. 31). In this same work, Groome posited that it would be "helpful to reduce reliance on gender-based pronouns" when referring to Jesus in order "to emphasise his...

Thursday, October 10, 2013 The Obama Blockade Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog In the spring of ’48, the collision of wills between the free world and the red slave empire of the east came to a head in Berlin. The Communist strategy had been to push forward, to violate the spirit of the agreements and then the letter of the agreements while always claiming to be the aggrieved party. The Allies had treated the Soviet Union as if it were a credible partner that wanted to work together with them on rebuilding Europe. The Soviet Union...

My mother Betty, 87 years young, fell and broke her leg. She's scheduled for a rod implant surgery tomorrow at 7 AM. She's a wonderful lady, active with her church and circle, and still mentally sharp. She's doing well after her fall, and was very positive when I spoke to her earlier today. I would greatly appreciate your prayers and good thoughts! God Bless!

First published on FrontPage Magazine. By Enza Ferreri Britain is reaping the fruits of its multi-decennial multicultural policy and of what is euphemistically called “tolerance” - and realistically “bending over backwards” - to Islam. If anyone doubts that Muhammadanism is a supremacist doctrine, this doubting Thomas should take a look at what’s happening in an English school currently in the news. Britain's first Muslim “free school” (namely, government funded but outside local authority control), Al-Madinah School in the city of Derby, underwent a two-day (October 1-2) inspection by officials of the government’s education regulator Ofsted. The school has been...

Last week the king declared it illegal for a large number of Catholic priests to enter upon HIS royal military bases and celebrate mass which is the central ritual of Catholicism. According to His Majesty’s edict, priests who have been hired as “Contract workers” to minister to the 25% of our military forces, who are Catholics, were declared non-essential workers the same as the goat herders who guide their hungry weed eating animals around some government lands. With this edict the king has again reminded us of just how over his head he is as he runs around our house...

Los Angeles, Calif., Oct 7, 2013 / 04:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles applauded a new California law that will allow undocumented migrants to receive state driver’s licenses, while calling for greater federal reform. “Driving is one of the basic necessities of life. So this new law is going to make a big difference for millions of people in their everyday lives,” Archbishop Gomez told participants of an Oct. 3 rally at Los Angeles City Hall. “It will make it easier for them to get to work, to go to school, to go the store,...

If this is not the essence of colonialism I don't know what is. A bunch of non-British pontificating on what the core values of Britain are or should be. We have here, on a BBC programme, one of the endless series of debates on "what is Britishness" that have been part of the UK public discourse only since the arrival on these shores of vast numbers of people belonging to the ethnic, religious and geographic groups represented by most debaters in this video (that you can see by clicking on the "Enza Ferreri Blog" link). Can you imagine 60, 100,...

Monday, October 07, 2013 Let's Have a Government Sale Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog The giant scissors of destiny are clicking and clacking their way to our national credit card. If we don't raise the debt limit, so we can borrow more money to pay the interest on the money we borrowed before, the scissors will snip and snap like economic armageddon. And then the big shiny credit card that pays for everything gets cut up in two pieces. But never fear. If worst comes to worst, we still have options. Our government is big. Really...

This is the third and final part of a 3-part article by our new guest writer, Stephen St. George, a Catholic born in Iraq who now lives in the United States. The first part, in which he describes his early experiences in Iraq, is here: Let’s Throw Pebbles in the Ocean!. The second part is here: How to Answer Muslim and Liberal Untruths . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Around the world, we have situations and events that as a whole resemble an “ocean” of crooked laws, injustices, oppression, greed, lies, killings, and all sorts of evils that man is capable of perpetrating...

Muslim cleric: "If I were allowed to pray for a non-Muslim, I would have prayed for the soul of the Nazi leader, who barbecued [the Russians] and the Jews" MEMRI thanks to Robert Spencer "Islamophobia is the biggest threat to peace in the world today." -- U.S. "academic" Kevin Barrett in Iran's state-run PressTV "Saudi Cleric and Poet Muhammad Al-Farraj Lauds Hitler for "Barbecuing" Russians and Jews," from MEMRI, September 19: Following are excerpts from a poem recited by Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Farraj, which aired on Shada TV (via the Internet) on September 19, 2013. Muhammad Al-Farraj: this is a...

Sunday, October 06, 2013 Obama Revives Space Program to Shut Down National Park on the Moon Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog The space program, which had been mothballed after the 2008 election, received an unexpected shot in the arm from the government shutdown with an emergency mission to the moon. After his victory, Obama had shut down planned missions to the moon and mars, and shut down the space shuttle and the replacement space vehicle for it. But a recent bill by two Congressional Black Caucus members to establish a National Park on the lunar landing...

In this final installment of looking at a supposed Psalm 83 war, that would precede the campaign of Gog and Magog, I have attempted to demonstrate that such a view has more in common with a historicist interpretative approach than with the futurist system that those holding this view claim to hold theoretically. If this is a prophecy, then it most surely would be fulfilled in conjunction with the Campaign of Armageddon, since I demonstrated in the last installment the overwhelming evidence from some prophetic books that most of the nations listed in Psalm 83 will be judged at that...

Do you believe in God? Do you believe - as the bible says - that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of all who believe in him? If you do, then, terrific! You are on the path of life, the path of eternal life. The bible tells us that those who rest their faith in Jesus Christ will live eternally in heaven. Though life here on earth is only temporary and often times painful , the life in the kingdom of God that is to come - although it is often difficult for us to imagine from where we are...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) officially launched nationwide on Tuesday Oct 1st, 2013. Since Wednesday there have been primarily negative reviews of the new Exchange system due to poor Marketplace performance. [see Forbes article] Unexpected hold times, website crashes and delays, as well as unexpectedly high monthly premiums have prompted public outrage and frustration. Therefore, as a licensed health insurance agent and fellow consumer, I would like to present a helpful list of options to those individuals who are attempting to purchase a new "Obamacare" plan at this time.

Saturday, October 05, 2013 From Problemtown to Solutionville Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog "There is no more neutrality in the world," said Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver. "You either have to be part of the solution, or you're going to be part of the problem-- there ain't no more middle ground." We live in Eldridge Cleaver's world now. A world with no more middle ground. Where neutrality is not an option. The average American still believes that if he isn't bothering anyone, he should be left alone. To the people running his life and his country,...

“Faith for Living in Community” (Luke 17:1-10)In our Gospel reading for today, from Luke 17, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and he is giving instructions to his disciples. At first glance it may seem like these are just several disconnected sayings strung together rather loosely. First there’s something about woe to anyone who causes a person to sin. Then there’s something about forgiving your brother. Then there’s a request about increasing our faith and Jesus’ response about faith like a mustard seed. And then there’s something about unworthy servants who only do their duty. Now all this could...

This is the second part of a 3-part article by our new guest writer, Stephen St. George, a Catholic born in Iraq who now lives in the United States. The first part, in which he describes his early experiences in Iraq, is here: Let’s Throw Pebbles in the Ocean! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I’ve heard and seen many attacks directed at anyone who speaks the truth about the atrocities that Muslims are perpetrating upon innocent people all around the world. These are some of the attacks, untruths, insults and propaganda spewed by Muslims or their liberal defenders, and my answers to them....

1. Salmagundi is a type of salad that contains a little bit of everything. 2. I have added several more essays to the “The One About…” page, including the one about Sharia Finance, the one about Jesus and Guns and the one about Jesus Christ: Economist. I’ll try to get some more up today. 3. YES, I SAW THAT THE OBAMA REGIME is threatening to arrest any priest chaplain who says Mass. Obviously, every Catholic priest chaplain should IMMEDIATLY go offer the August and Unbloody Holy Sacrifice in the most public way possible every single day and then force the...

Friday, October 04, 2013 Friday Afternoon Roundup - I Am Not a Barackader Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog WASTED OPPORTUNITIES I haven't written about the shutdown, but I haven't written much about the debate around the shutdown itself. In a way I said everything that I had to say about this back in 2010 after the midterm elections. 1. Creating Jobs Through Deregulation - While Obama pushes more phony job creation programs through regulation and spending, the Republicans have to focus on creating jobs through deregulation, by getting government off the back of the small businessman...

This is the first part of a 3-part article by our guest writer Stephen St. George, a Catholic born in Iraq who now lives in the United States, and who knows through direct experience what it means to be a Christian in a Muslim-majority country. Here he describes his early experiences in Iraq. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If I throw a small pebble into a huge body of water like an ocean, it will make small waves that have almost no effect and fade away in no time at all. Surely, if a thousand people were to each throw a pebble at the...

Christian TV Host Asks God for 'Military Takeover' of Obama's Presidency By David DOWNLOADS: (207) Download WMV Download Quicktime PLAYS: (2036) Play WMV Play Quicktime Embed 360x233440x277520x320X277 A Christian TV host this week called on God to consider a "military takeover" of President Barack Obama's government because it could be the only way to save the country from tyranny. On his Monday Internet broadcast, Morning Star TV's Rick Joyner predicted that democracy was "doomed" unless the Lord imposed martial law. "The balance of powers in the legislative and judicial branches were supposed to balance and keep in check, hold in...

Thursday, October 03, 2013 Why Terrorists Kill Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog The Westgate attack in Kenya with its accompanying butchery of every man, woman and child in a shopping mall who couldn't name Mohammed's mother is being met with baffled mutterings about "senseless violence." But there's nothing senseless about the violence that took place. >Commentators pointed to the unwillingness to negotiate and the lack of a political program by the attackers as if the same things that matter to European Union diplomats should matter to terrorists who stage massacres in shopping malls. In the narrowing...

The Christians of the first century were rebels with a cause. They weren’t the hair-spray-addicted, religious sponges of pop culture and oppressive governments looking to be ogled by an Oprah-addled crowd. Oh, no, senorita. The primitive church was out to change the world.After Jerusalem fell in AD 70, the church, birthed by the Holy Spirit during Rome’s heyday, exploded with growth in Asia Minor — which happened to be Ground Zero for Caesar worship.The punch-drunk citizens of Roman rule thought the various Caesars, their laws, and their government were God. They built temples to these men and minted coins...

It was the philosopher George Santayana who described Modernism thusly: "Modernism...is the love of all Christianity in those who perceive that it is all a fable. It is the historic attachment to his Church of a Catholic who has discovered that he is a pagan...The Modernists are men of the Renaissance, pagan, pantheistic in their profounder sentiment, to whom the hard and narrow realism of official Christianity is offensive just because it presupposes that Christianity is true...As for Modernism, it is suicide. It is the last of those concessions to the spirit of the world which half-believers and double-minded prophets...

Or, why can't we have a leader who knows what freaking side he's on? And it's not just Syria: this summer, Vladimir Putin -currently the Russian president- addressed the legislature (Duma) with a speech re. tensions with minorities in Russia... "In Russia, we live like Russians. Any minority, from anywhere, if it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, should speak Russian, and should respect the Russian laws. If they prefer Sharia Law and live the life of Muslims, then we advise them to go to those places where that's the state law. Russia does not need Muslim...

Wednesday, October 02, 2013 The Sun Sets on Washington D.C. Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog There was a time when even the highest government officials lived simpler lives.  President George Washington made do with Tobias Lear, who not only served as his secretary, but also doubled as a diplomat and even measured his body for burial. President Thomas Jefferson made do with Meriwether Lewis as his personal secretary and Lewis also doubled as Jefferson’s explorer in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Washington worked on an expense account instead of a salary. He began his presidency working...