Free Republic

Do you feel better about your prospects for 2010 than you did this time last year for 2009? Yes, I feel a lot better about the upcoming year. 2010 will be great! Yes, 2010 looks to be a bit better than 2009. 2010 will be the same as 2009. No, I feel 2010 will be a bit worse than 2009. No, 2010 will make 2009 seem like a picnic. 2010 will be horrible. No Opinion.

'My country seems to be slipping away in front of my very eyes," former NDP campaign director Gerald Caplan wrote in a Dec. 4 op-ed for a Toronto area newspaper. "Our proud identity, our cherished core values ... are being turned upside down. Gun control advocates are out, gun apologists are in. Preventing war is out, killing scumbags is in. Demonstrations for peace are out, demonstrations of a martial spirit are in. Thoughtful, restrained Canadianism is out, hand-on-heart Yankee-style patriotism is in."

East Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania - Friends and neighbors in two communities have embraced the family of an East Pennsboro Township woman who ran to rescue her dog after it was struck by a car and was struck herself. Tammy Champaign, a sixth-grade teacher at Locust Grove Elementary in the Red Lion School District, is recovering from the significant injuries she received after being struck by a pickup truck as she attempted to help her golden retriever, Roxy, who died. Police have filed no charges, saying the event was simply a tragic accident. Brian Champaign, Tammy’s brother-in-law, said a...

As a parent on the Delmarva penninsula I have followed this local story with interest. This is a parent's worst nightmare and our thoughts and prayers are with Sarah and her family. There safeguards to help prevent these types of things. While no one seemed to suspect the alleged perpetrator, there seems to be an indication that something was amiss: read more...

BREAKING NEWS - THE MOST COMPLETE SUMMARY OF THE LATEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE INTELLIGENCE REPORT ON ABDUL ABDULMUTALLAB TO BE FOUND ANYWHERE OUTSIDE CLASSIFIED REPORTS - A POST SCRIPTS EXCLUSIVE On or about Oct 8th 2009, Dr. Umaru Abdul Mutallab, wealthy banker and father of Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, age 23, contacted the F.B.I. and said he was extremely concerned about his son's welfare due to his Islamic fanaticism and extremist views and feared he could get involved with Islamic terrorism. He said he and his son had not spoken directly for almost a year, but he had received reliable reports...

Per Fox News... The person who owned the bags stayed behind.

Israel’s ambassadors and consuls general serving throughout the world will discuss broad diplomatic and strategic issues at a conference to be held next week in Jerusalem. This is the first time a conference for all of Israel’s Heads of Missions has been held.

(snipped) Hoekstra says that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab may have a common link with the Fort Hood shooter that shot 13 people in November. AFP, Dec. 26: There was a suggestion of links between Abdulmutallab and radical US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who had contacts with the US army psychiatrist accused of gunning down 13 people at a Texas military base last month. "He may have been in contact with the American imam al-Aulaqi," Peter Hoekstra, the most senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and a member of Congress for Michigan, told AFP.

I was all set to take my dogs out for quality time in the park, taking full advantage of the snow that’s blanketed the Northeast — but now the dogs will have to wait until I finish this piece, a response to an article in Agence France-Presse identifying man’s best friend as “one of the environment’s worst enemies.” So, once again, pets are a conveniently silent scapegoat for the ills of modern living. In their unfortunately titled book Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living, New Zealanders Robert and Brenda Vale — self-described specialists in sustainable...

The Battle of Trenton (Dec. 26, 1776) was a crucial early victory for the American forces in the American Revolution. On Christmas night 1776, Gen. George Washington and about 2,500 Continental soldiers crossed the ice-clogged Delaware River from Pennsylvania; early the next morning they surprised Hessian mercenaries in the British service encamped at Trenton, N.J.It was a critical time for George Washington. He had just been soundly defeated in New York and morale was very low. His writings to the Continental Congress tell us so. Although there was not much to be gained through a victory here in a territorial...

"I always try to remind myself of Saul Alinsky when I get confused," Matthews said on his "Hardball" show, speaking to guest Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, on the topic of President Obama's health care plan.

Surely Gators can beat beetles in nature's version of rochambeau.It's like inevitable doom in a horror flick: coming, slowly, killing everything in its path, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. Or is there? That's the question facing Miami-Dade County avocado growers and scientists locked in a race against a deadly killer stalking its way from the Carolinas through Georgia and currently found as far south as Central Florida thanks to free rides on firewood transported south. That's right -- the Redbay Abrosia beetle is coming, threatening to destroy the county's $30 million dollar avocado business even as...

Thanks to contributors David Donar at Political Graffiti, Curtis D. Tucker at Curtoons.com and "Michael" at the now-defunct My Personal Litmus blog, I was able to share a great number of fantastic editorial cartoons. Below, I share the second five of my Top 10 favorites of 2009 in no particular order. Click on any image below to read the posts in which the image appeared.

Americans on both left and right are unhappy with the current health care reform bills. The left is upset because neither the House nor Senate version goes far enough towards putting government firmly in control of our medical decisions, with the goal of providing equal coverage for all no matter what the price. The right is upset because we see the bills’ provisions as unwarranted intrusions on our liberty that create a “right” where none existed before. We believe that reform would be better handled by fostering competition in the private sector rather than increasing government intervention in vital decisions...

In a developing animal, stem cells proliferate and differentiate to form the organs needed for life. A new study shows how a crucial step in this process happens and how a reversal of that step contributes to cancer. The study, led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, shows for the first time that three proteins, called E2f1, E2f2 and E2f3, play a key role in the transition stem cells make to their final, differentiated, state. These proteins help stimulate stem cells to grow and proliferate. But...

Thanks to contributors David Donar at Political Graffiti, Curtis D. Tucker at Curtoons.com and "Michael" at the now-defunct My Personal Litmus blog, I was able to share a great number of fantastic editorial cartoons. Below, I share the first five of my Top 10 favorites of 2009 in no particular order. Click on any image below to read the posts in which the image appeared.

First, she nearly hit a cop while driving. Then she blows "intoxicated" on a breathalyzer test. And, for her final act, she publicly pees in front of strangers. The details: Jennifer Lee De Roberto, 35, of Temple Terrace, is a Hillsborough County elementary school teacher. She was driving by cops on a traffic stop in Fort Myers and nearly hit one. A cop pulled her over. De Roberto, who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, opened the car window and the smell of alcohol wafted out of the car, reports the Naples Dily News. She claimed to have had nothing to drink...

Chris Hunt eats Monster Munch snacks for breakfast, lunch and dinner and is so obsessed with them he changed his name by deed poll to Mr Monster Munch. But he’s not as mad as you think – he does at least eat a different flavour for each meal. He munches on pickled onion Monster Munch to kick-start the day, has a roast beef Monster Munch sarnie for lunch and the flamin’ hot variety of the corn snack for his evening meal. The zany name-change was the result of a dare by his friends. Needless to say, they were somewhat taken...

Rep. Hoekstra: Attempted airline bombing should 'connect the dots' for Obama By Jordan Fabian - 12/26/09 12:46 PM ET Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) Friday said that the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit should "connect the dots" for the Obama administration. Hoekstra, who is the top Republican on the House Select Intelligence Committee, told the Detroit Free Press that the attacks are an indication that al Qaeda is beginning to plan more widespread attacks on the United States. “It’s not surprising,” Hoekstra said of the attempt to blow up a Northwest airliner. “People have got to...

THE YEAR IN STYLE Wrapped in Their Identities By CATHY HORYN December 24, 2009 ROLE MODELS Working women can identify with Sarah Palin's style. Michelle Obama's closet includes high fashion and dresses like this one from Sophie Theallet. More Photos » Multimedia Sarah Palin comes across as a businesslike everywoman. More Photo [See URL] At least the fashion world had Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin to help avoid the impression that, you know, nobody cares about clothes and big dangly earrings. It’s hard to see now why so many columnists got their tights in a twist over Ms. Palin’s spending...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, released Thursday, shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16 (see trends). Check out our review of last week’s key polls to see “What They Told Us.” The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Updates are also available...

The suspect in the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 used a highly explosive substance called PETN, a law enforcement official told CBS News Saturday. The explosives were carried in a soft plastic container - possibly a condom - though much of the packaging was destroyed in the fire, the official said. The FBI is questioning the suspect, identified as 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who claimed to be acting on orders from al Qaeda to blow up the airliner, officials said. A high-ranking law enforcement official told CBS News that the suspect apparently used a syringe to inject a...

What lesson has this teacher taught you? First, she nearly hit a cop while driving. Then she blows "intoxicated" on a breathalyzer test. And, for her final act, she publicly pees in front of strangers. The details: Jennifer Lee De Roberto, 35, of Temple Terrace, is a Hillsborough County elementary school teacher.

"Suddenly, we hear a bang. It sounded like a firecracker went off," said Jasper Schuringa, a film director who was traveling to the US to visit friends. "When [it] went off, everybody panicked ... Then someone screamed, ‘Fire! Fire!’" Schuringa, sitting in seat 20J, in the right-most section of the Airbus 330, looked to his left. "I saw smoke rising from a seat ... I didn’t hesitate. I just jumped," he said. Schuringa dove over four passengers to reach Abdul Mutallab’s seat. The suspect had a blanket on his lap. "It was smoking and there were flames coming from beneath...

The atrocities just keep coming from Muslims. No outrage or horror is too much for them. They never let up. Yesterday's Northwest Airlines flight #253 from Amsterdam to Detroit is just the latest. But keep checking the headlines, folks -- tomorrow it could easily be something new and worse. In the latest incident, 278 passengers could have been spectacularly slaughtered in mid-flight near Detroit. Fortunately, the jihadi failed. This time. But the lack of a ghastly bloodbath over the American heartland -- courtesy of the followers of Islam -- wasn't for lack of intent or desire. Give them credit: Muslims...

US Approved Flight 253 Passenger List, Source Says Mark Hosenball American security agencies reviewed the passenger list for Northwest Airlines flight 253 before it left Amsterdam for Detroit on Christmas day and informed the airline that the flight was cleared to take off for the U.S., a Dutch government spokeswoman tells NEWSWEEK. Judith Sluyter, spokeswoman for the NCTB, the office of Holland's national counter-terrorism coordinator, said that before Flight 253 left Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, the passenger list was transmitted in full to U.S. authorities for review. Under procedures negotiated between the United States and various foreign countries, U.S. agencies --...

New Delhi, India (CNN) -- Forty-five people are believed dead after a bridge collapsed in the north Indian industrial hub of Kota, officials said Saturday. Rescuers were struggling to retrieve all the bodies of victims who fell into the Chambal River on Thursday after the bridge collapsed, according to K. Ravikanth, the top administrative official of Kota district. So far, rescuers have pulled out 11 bodies, he said. The bridge, under construction since 2007, is a joint venture among Gammon India, South Korea's Hyundai Engineering and India's national highway authority, said Rajeev Dasot, Kota's inspector of police. Kota, about 250...

MONTREAL December 26, 2009 -- Air Canada advises passengers travelling to the U.S. that due to enhanced government security measures air travellers should arrive early at airports to allow extra time to clear security screening. Passengers should also expect flight delays, cancellations and missed connections, and limit themselves to a single piece of carry-on baggage. Air Canada recommends passengers travelling to the U.S. to arrive early at the airport for their flight in order to allow adequate time for additional personal searches. Under new rules enacted by Transport Canada and the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, passengers and their carry-on baggage...

PHUKET, Thailand (AP) ― Buddhist monks chanted on white-sand beaches in Thailand and thousands prayed at mosques in Indonesia to mark the fifth anniversary of the Asian tsunami that left 230,000 people dead. The devastating Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami struck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim. Its towering waves wiped out entire coastal communities, devastated families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches the morning after Christmas. Survivors waded through a horror show of corpse-filled waters. In Thailand, hundreds of residents and foreigners returned to the beaches on the island of Phuket to recall one of the worst natural disasters...

Hi all, I have been trying to do a little research on the whole Climate Change thing, Climate-gate, et al. But I keep hearing there are 700 scientists, or 30,000 scientists (!) who dissent. Where is the best place for me to find such information? (Yes, I know of the list on Wikipedia, but it seems incomplete, at best).

ISLAMABAD (AP) ― Police are trying to determine whether five Americans detained in Pakistan had planned to attack a complex that houses nuclear power facilities, authorities said Saturday. The young Muslim men, who are from the Washington, D.C., area, were picked up in Pakistan earlier this month in a case that has spurred fears that Westerners are traveling to the South Asian country to join militant groups. Pakistani police and government officials have made a series of escalating and, at times, seemingly contradictory allegations about the men's intentions, while U.S. officials have been far more cautious, though they, too, are...

For a time we had a "Currier & Ives winter" look hereabouts. No horse-drawn sleighs, of course. But the landscape had an old-fashioned look to it; actual white stuff, everywhere, not yet turned dingy brown by snow-blowers and plows. {Eight Currier & Ives prints}

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's approval ratings are soaring. Sarah Palin is now a best-selling author. From this vantage point, it almost seems obvious: the United States is going to elect a woman president. Someday soon. Right? It would be easy, in the gauzy view of history, to forget how ugly the contest became for the two women who broke new ground in the 2008 presidential campaign. Remember Clinton's sagging eyes, splashed across the Drudge Report, as Rush Limbaugh asked whether the country would want to watch a woman grow old in office? Remember the collective gasp as the...

REXBURG -- The LDS Church has issued a statement regarding the church's stance on Idaho gubernatorial candidate Rex Rammell's "elders only" meetings. Kim Farah, spokeswomen for the LDS church, issued this statement: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is politically neutral and does not endorse or promote any candidate, party or platform. Accordingly, we hope that the campaign practices of political candidates would not suggest that their candidacy is supported by or connected to the church. "The so-called 'White Horse Prophecy' is based on accounts that have not been substantiated by historical research and is not embraced as...

My very own daughter has published a book! You've never seen a more proud mother!!! I sincerely hope that Jim and the moderators...and all rest of you...will forgive me for this; but I'm just so proud that my buttons could bust. This is not to MY credit...but I'm still as proud as if it were! Maybe more so!

Last week, during a bit of banter on Fox News, my colleague Jonah Goldberg reminded me of something I’d all but forgotten. Last September, during his address to Congress on health care, Barack Obama declared: “I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.” Dream on. The monstrous mountain of toxic pustules sprouting from greasy boils metastasizing from malign carbuncles that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve is not the last word in “health” “care,” but the first. It ensures that this is all we’ll be talking about, now and...

Chimps remain cool under fire, possessing a near human ability to predict how wildfires spread and react accordingly. This newfound capability of chimpanzees to understand flames might shed light on when and how our distant ancestors first learned to control fire, scientists now suggest. Primatologist Jill Pruetz at Iowa State University in Ames was observing savanna chimpanzees in Senegal in 2006 as people were setting wildfires, an annual tradition that clears land and aids hunting. Most areas within the chimpanzees' home range are burned to some degree. "It was the end of the dry season, so the fires burn so...

Beheadings and amputations. Iraqi-style brutality, bribery, extortion, kidnapping, and murder. More than 7,200 dead—almost double last year’s tally—in shoot-outs between federales and often better-armed drug cartels. This is modern Mexico, whose president, Felipe Calderón, has been struggling since 2006 to wrest his country from the grip of four powerful cartels and their estimated 100,000 foot soldiers. But chillingly, there are signs that one of the worst features of Mexico’s war on drugs—law enforcement officials on the take from drug lords—is becoming an American problem as well. Most press accounts focus on the drug-related violence that has migrated north into the...

A day after voting for a landmark health care reform plan, Democrat Bill Nelson returned to the Sunshine State on Thursday with claims of praise from ordinary citizens for the proposed legislation.

I will soon purchase a rife. Purpose: Protection in the very unlikely event of civil unrest. I am a woman in my early sixties who is fit and healthy but I do not have a lot of upper body strength. Before purchasing a rife, I would appreciate any comments Freepers might have regarding the suitability of the rife I have chosen in regards to the purpose and my physical strength. At the moment I am considering buying a DPMS Panther 5.56 NATO Sportical AR 15. This rife seemed to be the easiest for me to handle. By the way, I...

WASHINGTON — An official briefed on the attack on a Detroit airliner says the U.S. has known for at least two years that the suspect in the attack could have terrorist ties.

The National Education Association is recommending reading Saul Alinsky - This avowed Communist is being promoted Straight from the site of the NEA. Disgusting! They are excitingly promoting this Communist “An inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer!” even though this book promotes violence against Conservatives – this is right from the NEA webpage “Radicals are most adept at breaking the necks of Conservatives”. Please read their webpage - it is a promotion of this radical agenda and tactics. http://www.nea.org/tools/17231.htm It's time to take our kids out of public schools and we really need to...

FOX news is reporting that a "Government official" acknowledges that the Dept. of Homeland has known about the terrorist for more than two years. In an interview with the House Chairman on Homeland security, he promised increased measures...

Get the pity party violin music warmed up because Ezra Klein and Dave Weigel are whining that Sarah Palin has forced them, the press, into a “submissive role” because she is so mean to them. Klein favorably cites the analysis of Weigel who whined that the “Palin problem” has “put the press in a submissive position:” The problem is that Palin has put the political press in a submissive position, one in which the only information it prints about her comes from prepared statements or from Q&As with friendly interviewers. This isn’t something most politicians get away with, or would...

Benefits For Gays? Us Too, Say The Unwed Opposite-sex partners in the Foreign Service say they should be treated the same. Paul Richter December 26, 2009 Reporting from Washington - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton won praise in June after pushing to extend many federal benefits traditionally provided to diplomats' spouses to gay and lesbian partners. Since then, unmarried heterosexual couples have been lining up to ask for benefits too. They have approached the State Department's personnel office and the diplomats' union, arguing that they are entitled to equal treatment. At least one couple has threatened to challenge the...

He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace. (Micah 5:4-5a)

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — When someone thinks of the desert, images are invoked of unbearable heat and an extremely dry climate where no one would volunteer to live. What is commonly overlooked, is how cold it becomes during the winter months or how a soldier manages to handle the extreme temperature changes. The U.S. Army ensures soldiers have the best equipment possible to handle any environment or situation. But an Extreme Cold Weather GENEX III Sleep System just does not have the feel of home, when deployed 6,500 miles away, according to Capt. Scott Burnett, the battalion communications officer from...

A very good commentary/synopsis by Brian Kilmeade on the passage of the Health Care Bill in the United States Senate from the 12.24.09 "Brian & The Judge" radio show.

'Death' and 'Death to Christians' were written in Hebrew in large red letters near the cathedral altar and ante-church, the Russian Church Mission said. A statement was made to the Jerusalem police. There have been threats to clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church and other Christian confessions before, the mission said. The hooligans said that Christians must leave Jerusalem before they are massacred.

Beside Sierra Highway, between Agua Dulce and Santa Clarita, stands a tree surrounded by candles, flowers and a statue of the Virgin Mary hung with rosaries.