On a remote Utah ridge covered in sagebrush, pines and wild grasses, a Canadian company is about to embark on something never before done commercially in the United States: digging sticky, black, tar-soaked sand from the ground and extracting the petroleum.

The impending opening of the nation’s first tar sands mine has become another front in the battle across the West between preservationists and the energy industry. MORE

JERUSALEM (AP) — Ultra-nationalist Israelis took over a four-story building in the heart of an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem on Thursday, raising fears of fresh violence in the tense area.

A small group of activists from the Ateret Cohanim settler organization moved into the rundown white stone building. It was the latest in a wave of settler advances since nationalist Jews began buying up properties in densely populated Palestinian areas two decades ago. MORE

The 67-year old Wesolowski was found dead in on Friday, a Vatican representative said in a statement. The Polish-born defrocked priest was held under house arrest in the seat of the Catholic Church.

The initial checks “indicated that the death was from natural causes,” a press statement said, adding that Vatican prosecutors ordered an immediate autopsy.  MORE

He is not just the Pope of the world’s Catholics, no, not by a long shot. Francis has stepped out of the shadows and with each new undertaking continues to shore up his base of political power and influence. In just the past two years, Pope Francis has championed Climate Change with a papal encyclical, worked covertly with Obama behind the scenes to restore relations with Communist Cuba, and was a secret but key player in the current Iranian Nuclear Deal which will guarantee that a nuke will soon be pointed at Israel. Francis is the man with the New World Order plan, and he shows no signs of slowing down. And oh, yes, he has also signed a treaty with Palestine against Israel.  MORE

Pope Francis has sent his blessing to a lesbian author of children’s books dealing with same-sex families, wishing her and her wife well in their work, it emerged on Friday.

As Vatican officials scrambled to clarify that the message was simply a standard courtesy which did not signal any change in Church teaching on the subject, the author told AFP she had been pleasantly surprised to have received such a positive response. MORE

Screaming in agony, a young migrant girl gets her hair tangled in barbed wire as her family scramble through mud seeking a better life in Europe. MORE

I noticed this yesterday with the Virginia reporter incident. How did her boyfriend tweet about the incident at 6:34 am when it didn’t happen until 6:45am? (see pic) Very Serious Problems with the WDBJ Shooting Story – MORE INFORMATION

A dead common murre
As new reports come in of dead or dying sea birds along the coast of Oregon and Washington researchers are still baffled as to the cause
Many beach goers are shocked to find dead or dying birds littered along local beaches some dying birds are so weakthey don’t have the strength to lift their heads. MORE

I called a friend who was at his side Saturday in the hospital and he wasn’t in the mood for talking.
RIP solder of the faith.

Fr. Paul Trinchard Dies, a Convert to Traditional Catholicism
He Was the Author of Twenty Books on the Traditional Catholic Faith and Mass Continue reading →

ROME (RNS) The Vatican has given its backing to a central Rome square being named after Martin Luther, a church reformer excommunicated by the pope nearly 500 years ago. MORE

25 Aug 15 – Look at the number that the market closed at today: 15,666.44 – What are the odds? 15 for the year 2015 – 666 for number of the antichrist – 44 for the number of the president. WHAT! Check out this vid:

This is the incredible street fight that saw an Irish tourist take on an entire mob of angry Turkish shopkeepers – and win. MORE

The governor of Virginia reportedly said the gunman who shot and killed two TV journalists is a disgruntled former employee of the station. He was dressed all in black. Cameraman Adam Ward captured the man approaching as he fired at him and reporter Alison Parker. The shooter has not yet been identified. According to the station manager Jeffrey A. Marks, it appears that the cameraman was shot first, and Parker was shot while running away. SOURCE

Evan Davis sanded the back of a large walnut throne, scrubbing in the direction of the grain, to smooth the seat Pope Francis will sit on when he visits next month. MORE

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A Catholic priest convicted of groping a woman on a U.S. airline flight was sentenced to six months in federal prison on Monday after the victim testified that she was still traumatized by the ordeal, prosecutors said. MORE