Free Republic

The next four years are likely to be unpleasant. There are already several crises heading towards us, and in the fiscal, monetary, regulatory and general economic areas the Barack Obama administration's policy is likely to be counterproductive. In these circumstances, there's only one sound course of action for the Republican congressional majority: they must abandon all their natural politicians' preference for avoiding short-term pain and adopt a root-canal approach, welcoming short-term economic pain for the sake of preserving the US economy intact for better times ahead. For the past four years, Obama's trillion-dollar deficits and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's...

It never ceases to amuse – if not infuriate – how often atheists claim as one of their own much-revered historic figures who happen to make the news for some reason or another. So it was when Neil Armstrong went to be with the Lord this past August. So it was when Albert Einstein’s so-called “God Letter” went on auction last month. And so it is now with Abraham Lincoln. The nation’s 16th president is the subject of a new motion picture, helmed by Stephen Spielberg, the Oscar-winning director, with the screenplay penned by Tony Kushner, the Tony Award and...

Here's an excerpt from a letter I received the other day from a college professor: "[T]hroughout this election I discussed with students the differences between ideologies. The majority of them are on federal financial aid. They are fine with more taxes as long as they will be taken care of. It is disturbing to hear that they are willing to spend their own money on tattoos and cell phones but cannot buy the book for class until the financial aid comes in." For those who see social conservatism as an annoyance and argue that Republicans must purge this agenda from...

The White House announced the federal government will spend $6 billion over four years for a “sustainable energy future” plan with Asian countries that involves loaning tax dollars to other countries to increase their purchasing power for U.S. technology, services and equipment. “Recognizing that energy and the environment are among the most pressing issues confronting our region, President Obama, in partnership with Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei and President of the Republic of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, today proposed the U.S.-Asia Pacific Comprehensive Partnership for a Sustainable Energy Future,” the White House announced Tuesday as Obama visits Asian Pacific...

Science isn't something that just happens overnight. It takes many measurements, oodles of analysis, re-testing and re-analysis before any groundbreaking announcement can be made. So, on the surface of Mars, inside Gale Crater on a plain called Aeolis Palus, our tenacious six-wheeled Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is doing cutting-edge laboratory work on an alien world and mission scientists are itching to announce a "historic" discovery. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," John Grotzinger, lead scientist of the MSL mission, said in an interview with NPR. But what is he referring to and...

Snapchat shares photos that self-destruct. It says it's not about sexting, even though that's how it's used by some teens. But you definitely shouldn't use it for sexting. Graphic by Chris Ritter Snapchat is built for teenagers. The website features a bright and sunny shot of two young, pretty girls, with matching straightened, long blond hair and the kind of precisely thick black eyeliner only people under 20 can pull off, making energetically silly expressions and capturing their faces on an iPhone wrapped in hot-pink rubber. On the year-old app’s iTunes page, another pair of pretty white teenagers pose, first...

When Obama campaign aides surveyed the field of Republican presidential hopefuls early on, they saw a certain handsome Mormon candidate and thought he’d be trouble in a general election showdown. It wasn’t Mitt Romney. Jon Huntsman is the former Utah governor who took a moderate stance in a GOP field that leaned to the right. He didn’t get very far in the Republican nomination fight, but team Obama viewed him as a serious candidate who could pose real problems in a general election.

Six Palestinian men have been executed after being accused of spying for Israel. After a brief trial, the six alleged informers were executed and dumped in a Gaza street, reports said. “Their bodies are still there now. Ambulances have been arriving to presumably take them away,” Sky News correspondent Stuart Ramsay said.

When Roger Ailes was a kid he used to watch Roy Rogers movies. He used to love the part where “the cattle would all start heading toward the cliff in a stampede. And one poor son-of-a-bitch had to go out there and ride on a horse and ride into the middle of it and try to turn the whole herd.” That’s how the 72-year-old co-founder of Fox News sees himself today. “If someone’s got to go in there and turn the herd at least I’m willing to wade in and try it,” Ailes told TVNewser during a lengthy interview in...

An IDF soldier who was critically wounded in a rocket attack Tuesday evening in the Eshkol region has died. He has been identified as 18-year-old Yosef Fartuk of Emanuel. Fartuk was posthumously promoted from private to corporal. Israeli civilian Alayaan Salem al-Nabari was killed in a mortar shell attack in the Eshkol region at approximately the same time. Al-Nabari, an Israeli Bedouin, lived in the southern Negev desert. .....

A nanogenerator made from inexpensive materials harvests mechanical energy and produces enough power to charge personal electronics. The phenomenon that causes a painful shock when you touch metal after dragging your shoes on the carpet could someday be harnessed to charge personal electronics. Researchers at Georgia Tech have created a device that takes advantage of static electricity to convert movement—like a phone bouncing around in your pocket—into enough power to charge a cell phone battery. It is the first demonstration that these kinds of materials have enough oomph to power personal electronics. Excess energy produced when you walk, fidget, or...

“Lord we come to You tonight to ask for Your forgiveness. The Bible promises that when we seek You, we will find You, if we search with all our hearts. "Lord we confess that we have not followed Your commands. We have not loved You with our whole hearts--we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not stood for the truth of Your Gospel. We have sat by and said nothing when Your name was blasphemed and mocked. We did not take a stand when we saw Your laws despised. “We know that many times we ourselves...

A federal judge has issued a ruling siding with the Obama administration saying that it has the right to force Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned and run company, to pay for drugs for women that may cause abortions.The privately held retail chain with more than 500 arts and crafts stores in 41 states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration over its HHS mandate. The company says it would face $1.3 million in fines on a daily basis starting in January if it fails to comply with the mandate, which requires religious employers to pay for or refer women for abortion-cause...

My 89 year old Mother in law (a conservative) is spending Thanksgiving with me and my family. My wife has requested that her looney left wing grandchildren be allowed to visit with "Granny" on Saturday. They voted Obama and are in their 20's and are actually very nice people. However, I've made it clear that I can not tolerate Obama voters in my house. Nice or not, family or otherwise. I'm still on the fence because I do love my Mother in law. What do you think? Also, are there others with similar problems?

Nearly one in three motorists who use the Intercounty Connector without an E-ZPass transponder don’t pay the toll later, making Maryland’s newest and most expensive highway home to a toll violation rate four times higher than the state average. Individual motorists racked up as much as $1,418 each in unpaid tolls after driving on the ICC, or Route 200, as many as 430 times during the first six months of this year. A rental car company owed $4,263 in ICC toll debt, while a construction company accrued $2,241 for 65 unpaid trips during that time. The new 18.8-mile highway between...

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan -- For the third time in the last 24 hours, President Barack Obama has spoken by phone with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in an effort to broker an end to the crisis in Israel and Gaza, the White House said. In the latest call, Morsi and Obama spoke for about 20 minutes as Obama returned aboard Air Force One from a trip to Asia, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters on board the plane just after it landed for a refueling stop in Japan.

CANTON — Fired police officer Daniel Harless could get his job back if he gets medical clearance to return to work. An arbitrator hearing Harless’ appeal ruled in the former patrolman’s favor. The 15-page ruling was dated Saturday and released by the city Wednesday. Harless’ attorney indicated his client is unlikely to seek his old job, at least for now. He has been receiving workers’ compensation and has applied for a disability retirement pension. But Harless now has the right to be back on the job, according to arbitrator Harry Graham. PAST VIDEOS ON HARLESS: • VIDEO: Canton officer threatens...

This is your Turner Classic Movie channel alert! Tonight...After Office Hours (1935), 8pm est "A society newspaperwoman tries to prove to her editor that she can crack a murder case." Overview & Cast

Reports of the death of Twinkies have been greatly exaggerated. You can bet your less-than-a-UAW-worker's next paycheck that the delightfully unnatural confections and wondrous white breads from Interstate Bakeries Corp. are not going away, news stories to the contrary notwithstanding. I wish we could say the opposite about the financially disastrous, U.S.-government-subsidized Chevy Volt, but we can't. The fact that the Invisible Hand will ultimately keep us in golden sponge cake reveals everything about what goes wrong when the bumbling hand of politics intervenes in free markets, as it did in the case of General Motors (NYSE:GM). As you've by...

Can the GOP win another Presidential election after its candidate Mitt Romney lost against President Obama? While that was not the question raised by a recent poll and a discussion of that poll by a well-respected pollster, the issue can reasonably be asked by those reviewing the numbers.