Free Republic

Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal took heat from black lawmakers Friday after she referred to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as an “AIPAC monkey.” Jebreal used the racial epithet during an appearance on lefty commentator Wajahat Ali’s “The Left Hook” podcast, as she criticized the black Democrat’s support for Israel and accused him of doing the bidding of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). “His name is Hakeem. ‘Hakeem’ is an Arabic name which means ‘healer.’ He’s not a healer, he’s a divider,” Jebreal raged. “He is a bought and paid by AIPAC monkey,” she continued. “With all due...

Clancy copycat? As previously reported, a 2-year-old child was found unresponsive in the basement of a Frankfort, Illinois, home on Tuesday. The child was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The mother, Corie Walsh, 38, was charged with murder on Friday. A 17-year-old called 911, and when police arrived at the home, the child’s mother was attempting self-harm. It is unclear how the child died. The incident was being investigated as a homicide, and on Friday, police announced that Corie Walsh was charged with murder and is in custody being held for medical treatment. Walsh will be transferred to Will...

At least 10 killed and 62 wounded in an explosion at a military base in Bolivia... At the Pentagon about 50 officials for the Joint Chiefs of Staff given polygraph... Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky says that President Trump's executive order on beef labeling falls short... US and Chinese officials are expected to discuss AI...safety risks... A new era of "Artificial General Intelligence" (AGI) has been proclaimed by Open AI CEO Greg Brockman... A federal district judge extending her order blocking US Postal Service mail-in ballot rules... Two killed in an Israeli attack on a motorcycle in southern Lebanon......

Growing up in rural Western New York, the Very Rev. Micah Cronin couldn’t have imagined his present role as dean of the Episcopal cathedral in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was raised in more conservative churches, and as a young adult, “I did not feel that I fit there,” he said, because they were not fully accepting of him as a transgender man. At the same time, Cronin’s faith was as central to his identity as his gender, and he told himself, “I don’t think it’s feasible to me to not be Christian.” Then at age 19, he began attending worship services...

Maine’s highest court has ruled that a father can prevent his daughter from attending a Calvary Chapel with her mother in a contested custody case after a lower court accepted an expert's claim that the congregation is akin to a "cult." The Maine Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) released a unanimous ruling Tuesday in Emily A. Bickford v. Matthew A. Bradeen, authored by Chief Justice Valeria Stanfill. At issue is an order of “shared parental rights and responsibilities” between Bickford and Bradeen, in which the two disagreed over who would control their child’s religious upbringing. Bradeen objected to Bickford bringing the...

Daily Readings from the USCCBWhile Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” Luke 6:1–2Though Jesus’ public ministry was still in its early stages, confrontations with the religious leaders had already become frequent. This episode marks the fourth recorded instance of such tension. In the previous days, the Pharisees had accused Jesus of blasphemy for forgiving the paralytic before healing him, of scandal for eating with tax collectors...

The following is the full question I asked: "In his book "A letter on the abolition of the slave trade", why did William Wilberforce defend abolitionists, though not excuse abolitionists, who decided to continue personal slave ownership through their fight for abolition? Why did he insist this is not a form of hypocrisy?" Response:Yes. The key is that Wilberforce is making a distinction between opposing the slave trade and immediately abolishing slavery itself. That distinction can seem morally uncomfortable to a modern reader, but it is central to his argument.What Wilberforce was defendingIn A Letter on the Abolition of the...

Having been chosen as a navigator to deliver the atomic bomb, Dutch Van Kirk recalls the precautions that were taken to ensure his aircraft would not be harmed by the blast. Comparing the differences between the B-17 aircraft he flew in over Europe and the B-29 he flew in delivering the first atomic bomb to Hiroshima, Dutch gives a detailed account of his mission on August 6, 1945. Dutch Van Kirk: Enola Gay Navigator Discusses Atomic Bomb Drop on Hiroshima | 14:36 Witness to War | 526,511 views | August 6, 2025 Last Surviving Crew Member Has 'No Regrets' About...

A Virginia mother of five was convicted of "contributing to the delinquency of a minor" last week for allowing her 5-year-old son to walk from home to a nearby pond to collect goose feathers in their gated community earlier this summer. Karyann Parkinson, a law clerk who was eight months pregnant at the time of the incident, was also placed on a government child abuse and neglect registry, where she will remain for seven years. The judge immediately suspended a six-month jail sentence, but the charge remains. Now her attorney is planning an appeal that's expected to go to trial...

Washington — Some of the highest-ranking officials in the U.S. military were subjected to polygraph tests as part of a sweeping leak probe after highly sensitive classified details about the nation's stockpiles of sophisticated weapons were reported in the media, U.S. officials briefed on the matter told CBS News. President Trump was furious about the leaks, according to three of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A very small set of people had access to the classified details on the munitions, and there was concern about whether anyone could potentially be acting as a foreign intelligence asset, one...

Americans who may be planning a trip to Libya are being urged to reconsider those plans, as the U.S. State Department has issued its strongest possible travel warning. The department recently updated Libya’s Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory, warning Americans not to visit the country for any reason due to crime, terrorism, health concerns, unrest, kidnapping and landmines. The overall advisory level did not change. “Do not travel to Libya for any reason,” the advisory states. The State Department warns that clashes between armed groups and government-aligned forces can break out at any time — while weapons are widespread...

In the 1970’s, famous feminist Gloria Steinem said: “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” The message: Women are self-reliant, and men are superfluous. Men are unnecessary and incompatible with women. Her cynical view was, no doubt, colored by her father’s abandonment. At our core, human beings are relational. Attachment to others is a basic human need. Our first attachment is to our parents. From our mothers we absorb what it means to be a woman. From our fathers, we learn how women ought to be treated by men. These kinds of lessons cannot come from...

A Burning Man attendee died after experiencing a ‘medical emergency’ at the music festival, The Burning Man Project announced. Tens of thousands of ‘Burners’ flocked to the Nevada desert this year to engage in debauchery. Burning Man is a yearly drug-infested music and art festival in Northern Nevada, in Black Rock City. Attendees engage in sexually degenerate activities such as “whippings by a dominatrix priestess,” “circle jerks,” “c*ck fights” and orgies. Last year, a wicked dust storm kicked up on the first day of the festival and it ruined camp sites. Winds reached more than 45 miles per hour. This...

[Catholic Caucus] St. Pius X: Defending Tradition Without Abandoning the Church On the feast of St. Pius X, Catholics face a familiar battle: defending the integrity of the Faith while remaining faithful to the Church and the Papacy. In an age of Modernism, TLM restrictions, and deepening divisions, the great pope's example offers a powerful lesson in truth, charity, and Catholic fidelity.On September 3, the 1962 Roman Calendar exhorts Catholics to commemorate St. Pius X, a pope whose very name has become a banner for those who believe the one true Catholic Faith must be preserved and defended in its...

[Catholic Caucus] Catholicism’s Surrender to Maoism: Beijing Chooses Communist Bishops. Rome Says Yes. Beijing has chosen a new Catholic bishop who promoted Communist ideology, participated in Maoist political “re-education,” and dismissed reports of persecution against Catholics in his own diocese. Rome approved him anyway. The consecration of Paul Liu Honggang, argues Gaetano Masciullo, is a shocking example of what the Sino-Vatican agreement has produced: The Communist regime chooses, and Rome goes along with it.The diplomatic farce of the Vatican’s Ostpolitik has reached a new, desolate peak. Last August 31, Paul Liu Honggang was consecrated bishop of Datong. The appointment had...

Democrat Amy Acton will reportedly not debate Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy in the Ohio governor’s race. In a statement released on Wednesday, Amy Acton’s campaign manager Phil Stein said that she will not be “platforming a scam artist who spreads baseless lies.” “Dr. Acton’s focus is talking with Ohioans, not platforming a scam artist who spreads baseless lies about her and her family, uses AI to falsely paint her as someone with a substance abuse problem, and shames Dr. Acton for being sexually abused as a child while Vivek stands with predators and abusers,” he said. “Ramaswamy and his billionaire...

“The Democrat agenda is to legalize crime and criminalize the middle class.” —Stephen Miller Not to put too fine a point on it: but whenever a lawfare ninja of the Democratic Party utters the phrase “our democracy,” you must know that they are completely full of shit. For sure, they do not mean anything remotely related to an American commonweal, as understood by people of sound mind and good faith. What they mean by “our democracy” is the state as a racketeering operation run for the sole benefit of their party members, along with the ruthless power to annihilate their...

Nicaragua approved a constitutional reform that bars the opposition from participating in elections and extends Daniel Ortega’s term in office, a measure aimed at securing a presidential succession within the family of the octogenarian former guerrilla leader. Ortega and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, tightened their grip further by pushing through the amendment, which closes the door to a political transition after two decades of rule marked by the concentration of power and harsh repression. What was approved? The National Assembly, controlled by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), voted Tuesday to prohibit “traitors to the homeland,” people linked...

The rare blue octopus that surprised scientists has returned to the Galápagos Islands. The specimen, about the size of a golf ball, will be preserved at the Charles Darwin Research Station, which houses an extensive collection representing the archipelago’s extraordinary biodiversity. An expedition collected the first specimen of this species, distinguished by its small tentacles, in 2015 at a depth of more than 1,700 meters (5,600 feet) in the northern part of the Ecuadorian archipelago, known for its endemic flora and fauna. Only three specimens have been observed to date, but the other two were recorded only on video. The...

On the Legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae: A Legitimate Question? (Op-Ed) In his article À quand la paix liturgique ? (When will there be liturgical peace?), in the July-August 2025 issue (no. 382) of La Nef, Christophe Geffroy raised a question to which the consecrations recently conferred within the Society of Saint Pius X give particular prominence. In it, he championed the equality in "value and holiness" of the two forms of the Roman rite, and reproached the "priests who refuse any celebration of the new ordo" for contesting this value and holiness "because they judge this liturgy to...