Free Republic

It doesn't take an economic recovery to have an increase in the Gross Domestic Product, because government spending is included. The spending authorized by President Obama's stimulus package will result in a positive GDP as long as the private sector economy does not contract at an annual rate faster than 5.3 percent. Or put another way, the private sector economy could experience the fastest contraction since the 1930s, twice as fast as the past year's, and the mainstream media will be able to report economic growth. Don't be fooled by this. When the government stops spending the money, the economy...

John Nolte’s review of Brüno a film I haven’t yet seen, tackles Sasha Baron Cohen’s previous film “Borat,” a film I have seen about twenty times. It found favor with the left-wing elitists because it poked fun at us regular folk. But in praising “Borat,” they revealed something about themselves, something I’ve known to be true since the summer of 1994. That was the best year for movies that I can recall. That summer alone we had “Forrest Gump,” “True Lies,” “Speed,” and everyone was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Cannes winner “Pulp Fiction.” And we also had “The Lion...

Howie Carr had hip surgery the other day and will absent from his radio show for the next two weeks. There will be various fill ins. Here's the thread for these upcoming two weeks. If Howie has any newspaper columns I will repro them here. (note: so far no sign of any Sunday Herald column for 7/12 but if it appears I'll post it)

Attorney General Eric Holder is considering whether to appoint a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's interrogation practices. A Justice Department official told the Associated Press that Holder plans to make a final decision within the next few weeks. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on a pending matter. *snip* Obama has expressed reluctance to having a probe, saying the nation should be "looking forward and not backwards" when it came to Bush-era abuses.

RALEIGH, N.C.- A movement to help North Carolina learn more about thousands of people who were sterilized under a state program in the mid-20th century is getting another chance to be heard. A House committee scheduled debate Tuesday on legislation that would order the public schools to teach about the eugenics program. Students at University of North Carolina campuses also would be directed to interview program victims so future generations know what happened. About one-third of the 7,600 people sterilized by choice or coercion are still alive. The program ended in the 1970s. The state unveiled a roadside marker in...

McDonald's, the fast food giant, will join the ranks of companies quitting the UK when it moves its European headquarters to Geneva later this year. Senior executives, including Denis Hennequin, president of McDonald's operations in Europe, will be based there. The US company, which opened its first restaurant in London in 1974, joins other large US corporations that have based their European operations in Switzerland, including Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive and Yahoo. Google also chose Zurich for its European headquarters, despite having a large office in the UK capital. McDonald's said the move "enables us to conduct the...

Research complete. Going to bed and will post bombshell on this dailykos Obama kids controversy. This will be HUGE win for Freepers. Stay tuned.

BOCA RATON, Fla., July 11 (UPI) -- A 60-year-old man in Boca Raton, Fla., says he can find humor in being attacked by a rabid fox despite facing a month of painful shots. Stephen Guleff said while he may be a Vietnam War veteran, the recent attack by the overly aggressive fox in South Beach Park left him screaming for help, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel said Friday. "I was screaming like a woman," Guleff joked about Thursday's attack. "I could have put that on YouTube. "It wasn't like it was looking for food. It was looking for revenge or something."...

<p>We do not believe in pampering the race baiters or falling for the professional victim class.</p> <p>We do not believe in big government welfare programs.</p> <p>We do not believe in wealth redistribution programs.</p> <p>We do not believe in universal health care programs.</p>

I was wondering if any doctors here or moms or grannies have any suggestions for "prickly heat."

Government of Canada to Renew Fleet of Land Combat VehiclesNR - 09.055 - July 8, 2009OROMOCTO, NB– The Government of Canada today announced plans to procure the next generation of land combat vehicles, renewing a core capability of the Canadian Forces and providing our uniformed men and women with the equipment required to do their jobs safely and effectively. The announcement was made by the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway, along with the Honourable Keith Ashfield, Minister of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency), and Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie, Chief of the Land Staff....

President Obama presented Pope Benedict XVI a letter from Sen. Edward Kennedy during their meeting at the Vatican Friday, and asked the Pontiff to pray for the senator, who is being treated for brain cancer. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters the president called the Massachusetts Democrat after the meeting. Gibbs said the two spoke for about 10 minutes as Air Force One left Rome heading for Ghana, "telling him he had delivered the letter on his behalf to the Pope." The letter was described as personal. According to Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, "the contents of...

Brock Lesnar vs. Interim Champion Frank Mir Lesnar pounds Mir into unconscientiousness with right hands early in the 2nd. Lesnar gave the finger to Mir`s hometown crowd after the efight ended, as they booed as soon as Lesnar entered the ring. Lesnar and Mir jawboned each other after the firght was ended. Lesnar saying he would have some Coors lights, not Bud and may even mount his wife later. 170 lbs: (Welterweight Championship) Georges St-Pierre Vs. Thiago Alves GSP wins with at least 9 take downs-majority unanimous decision 185 lbs: Dan Henderson def. Michael Bisping Henderson with a KO in...

July 12, 2009                                 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Am 7:12-15 Amaziah, priest of Bethel, said to Amos,"Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah! There earn your bread by prophesying,but never again prophesy in Bethel;for it is the king's sanctuary and a royal temple." Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet,nor have I belonged to a company of prophets;I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores. The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me,Go, prophesy to my...

On a historic visit to Africa, the president delivers a rallying cry for an end to war and corruption Barack Obama, creating history on his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as US president, said visiting the slave fortress of Cape Coast Castle yesterday reminded him of the capacity of human beings to commit great evil.

An oil tank exploded at a chemical plant in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's restive Xinjiang region, on Sunday morning, the official Xinhua News Agency reported quoting firefighters. No casualties have been reported so far and the cause is being investigated, the report said. The explosion occurred around 10 a.m. at a refinery of China National Petroleum Corp. in northern Urumqi, Xinhua quoted city firefighters as saying.

EATING MELATONIN-RICH CHERRIES ARE ‘‘NATURAL” WAY TO RESET YOUR BODY CLOCK WHEN CROSSING TIME ZONES Research Reveals that Cherries Boost Your Body’s Melatonin Levels to Help Prevent Jet Lag After Long International Flights It takes mere seconds to reset our watch to a different time zone, but our body’s internal time clocks often take longer to sync up in our new locale. Experienced travelers often stash a bottle of melatonin supplements in their carryon bag to help adjust, but experts say there may be a more natural and tasty way to get melatonin: cherries. Recent studies have revealed that cherries...

His vindication or reasons he is able to claim everything is doing well, is an increase in government employment. Government employment is up. More people have signed on to be government workers. Unless I am mistaken, it is the private sector that deals with the reality of sink or swim that has always been the mainstay of productivity, and growth in this country. Between the private sector, and the government workers, isn't the private sector the only one that has to deal with the possibility of failure? Am I wrong? Have things changed overnight? Government workers have always been a...

If there's anything we Minnesotans don't like, it's bigotry. Want to be shunned by your friends and neighbors? Try engaging in "hate speech'' -- hurling vicious slurs at people based on race, religion and the like. Odd, then, that we've just had one of the nation's foremost peddlers of such vitriol here in the Twin Cities. Instead of running him out of town, we've spent two months celebrating him in a communal swoon. I'm talking about Tony Kushner, the playwright featured at the Guthrie Theater in its recent "Everything Kushner'' festival. For 10 weeks, the Guthrie orchestrated a nonstop hymn...

A lost wallet which contains a picture of a baby is more likely to be returned to its owner, scientists have discovered. A total of 240 wallets on the streets of Edinburgh last year to see how many were returned. Some contained one of four photographs – the baby, a puppy dog, a family and a portrait of an elderly couple. Other wallets contained a card suggesting the owner had recently made a charity donation, while a control batch contained no additional items. Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist who supervised the experiment, said 42 per cent of the wallets were...