Free Republic

Is Masonry just a harmless fraternity?In the past century, enrollment in the group has plunged in both Europe, where it was once a huge threat to Catholicism, and the U.S., which now has over half of the world's Masons (despite the closing of its halls in many cities).  It is not a movement on the upswing. And the average member of Freemasonry, as it is more formally known, is not aware of the deeply occultic origin of its rituals. Many don't even know that the Catholic Church has consistently condemned them. Freemasonry had its origins in masons who built the...

NEW ORLEANS - A foundation problem — although not the one targeted by earlier studies — caused the 450-foot-long break in a floodwall and levee on New Orleans' western edge when Hurricane Katrina hit, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday. A naturally occurring, 20-foot-thick layer of clay that helped support the floodwall was too weak for the job, according to a report by a Corps task force set up to find out why the levees broke. Had the floodwall and levee held, much of the western half of the city would have escaped flooding. Previous analyses by other...