Free Republic

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin (D) says it’s imperative that the state enact an “assisted suicide” bill calling it “a crucial element of a successful implementation of Obamacare.” “Study after study has shown that a disproportionate share of what this nation spends on health care goes for the treatment of persons who are desperately ill,” Shumlin observed. “One way of overcoming this disparity is to channel more of these persons onto a path toward death with dignity.” “For the amount it costs to treat one late stage cancer patient we could provide thousands of others with condoms or abortions,” Shumlin pointed...

Turns out, everyone’s susceptible to the holiday blues: a mall Santa was fired in Maine for being a downright grinch. Parents complained and fa-la-la-la-la, he lost his job. Taking to Facebook, the angry parents voiced their irritation with the Scrooge Santa. The mother of 6-year-old Chantel Mailhiot told WGME 13 that the Santa wouldn’t allow her daughter to sit on his lap simply because she didn’t purchase a $20 photo package. Apparently, though, it gets worse: even after little Chantel told Santa she wanted an American girl doll, he told her that instead, she’d get an “American football.” After Chantel’s...

Glenn Beck on Wednesday announced that he is teaming up with actor Vince Vaughn to produce a new reality show set to debut next year on Beck's TheBlaze TV. “Pursuit of Truth” will pit 20 documentary filmmakers in a competition for financing and distribution for their film. Beck’s TheBlaze TV, Vaughn and Peter Billingsley’s Wild West Productions and Gary Auerbach’s Go Go Luckey Entertainment are behind the nine episode series, which will launch on TheBlaze TV in spring 2013. "I am proud to announce that Vince Vaughn and I are going to be the executive producers," Beck said on his...

MAP 5.0 2012/12/09 12:38:40 -54.038 -1.941 9.9 BOUVET ISLAND REGION MAP 5.1 2012/12/07 01:35:09 -54.094 -1.928 17.4 BOUVET ISLAND REGION MAP 5.1 2012/12/06 21:33:26 -54.217 -1.983 12.0 BOUVET ISLAND REGION MAP 4.9 2012/12/06 15:46:50 -54.039 -1.964 18.7 BOUVET ISLAND REGION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLaVo66OVF0&feature=youtu.be

Now that’s compliance for you. The blackout from these “influential progressives” – as the White House so boosterishly calls them — raises an historic prospect. Could this be the first White House meeting with journalists in which more information about the proceedings came from the White House than from the journalists? After all, the White House did at least issue this statement: “This afternoon at the White House, the President met with influential progressives to talk about the importance of preventing a tax increase on middle class families, strengthening our economy and adopting a balanced approach to deficit reduction.”

The story behind the story is that “tax reform,” as we know it, is dying. During the 1980s, no major piece of legislation better symbolized bipartisan consensus than the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which was regarded by both liberal and conservative experts as the best tax law since World War II. The basic idea was simple: Reduce tax rates and recover lost revenue by ending (or limiting) tax breaks. The struggle between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner over the “fiscal cliff” indicates that this beneficial consensus has collapsed. Just the opposite is occurring. ... many politicians support...

Now that the Democrats have gained total control of California we are beginning to see what they want to do to all of us should they ever get total control of America. In San Francisco mentally malformed adults stand naked in the streets next to children while they claim a right to be naked in public. The State of California plans to tax the “wealthy” at a 52% rate and the bizarre character in the Statehouse Jerry Brown signs anti America anti -family and anti -Christian bills as fast as he can. Here are some of the assaults on Christianity...

How many images have we seen of drought-stricken cracked land, or been told this is the future? How many headlines have suggested that global warming causes droughts?Since the end of World War II humans have produced some 85% of all their CO2 emissions, but here is a new study showing that for all those emissions, and for all that warming, droughts back then were just as bad globally as they are today.Essentially, researchers thought that the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) was the way to measure global drought levels, and they thought that warming would increase global drought conditions....

Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind - Mallory Factor Book Review: Shadowbosses by Mallory Factor and Elizabeth Factor Forbes.com 8/26/2012

On Dec. 5, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) released a report providing an overview of the $35 million the Department of Homeland Security has spent on grant programs since 2003. Ostensibly, the money was to be spent in a way that enhanced public security. Thus the money is labeled "security spending." However, what Coburn discovered is that the money is often not enhancing security in any way. And because funds are limited, the specious spending Coburn discovered is actually "making our nation less secure by directing scarce dollars to low-priority projects and low-risk areas." In the report, Coburn lists multiple examples...

More than 200 school districts across California are taking a second look at the high price of the debt they've taken on using risky financial arrangements. Collectively, the districts have borrowed billions in loans that defer payments for years — leaving many districts owing far more than they borrowed.

A little-used law that cracks down on “pretend witchcraft” remains in force more than a century after its enactment, but cities across Canada are still crawling with sham conjurers, fake sorcerers and fraudulent psychics. “I think the rarity of the charge comes down to the rarity of people coming forward,” said Detective Constable James Turnbull of Toronto police. “You’re trying to explain to people that they’ve been victimized and they don’t believe you; they believe the guy’s power is real.” Last week, his division charged self-described “healer” Gustavo Gomez under Section 365 of the Criminal Code, an archaic law that...

White House could protect middle class from looming tax hikes By Peter Schroeder and Bernie Becker - 12/09/12 06:00 AM ET The White House has the power to temporarily protect taxpayers from middle-class tax hikes even as upper income rates rise if Congress does nothing and all of the Bush-era tax rates expire in January. Experts and lawmakers alike agree that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has the power to adjust how much is withheld from paychecks for tax purposes — for all taxpayers or just for some. By doing so, Geithner could ensure paychecks reflect the White House position that...

In one of the most poignant moments of the Doha climate talks, the Philippine climate change commissioner, Naderev M. Sano, appealed to his fellow negotiators at a session deciding the contours of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. “Please let Doha be remembered as the place where we found the political will to turn things around,” he said as he choked back tears. Just days before, Typhoon Bopha had hit the Philippines, killing hundreds of people. The typhoon, having been both unusually forceful and out of season, was deemed — like Hurricane Sandy — to be an extreme...

NYTimes Reporter: 'They Are So Much Cockier Now at the White House' Daniel Halper December 9, 2012 10:49 AM New York Times reporter Helene Cooper explained on Meet the Press that the White House is now "cockier": "I think when you talk about the feeling at the White House, there's a palpable difference now compared to 2011, the summer of 2011," said Cooper. "They are so much cockier right now at the White House than they were a year and a half ago when they were doing this. They really believe they have set out--you come to us, we're not...

I am dealing with a woman who is willing to falsely accuse me of harassment and being a threat to abuse my children. She has used denying visitation of the children against me, and is doing so now by filing an Order of Protection based on false allegations, which denies me visitation until our court date later in December. My current attorney, who was also my divorce attorney, is very passive. He has talked down any ideas I have come up with, and when I push for better advocacy from him, he is quick to mention that he will require...

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has launched a federal investigation over a conversation between a Huntsville JROTC instructor and a lesbian student about the Bible and homosexuality. Last April, Virgil Grissom High School student Taylor Sisk, 15, asked a local homosexual activist to file a complaint on her behalf after 1st Sgt. Lynn Vanzandt allegedly told her that he believed the Bible says homosexuality is a sin. It is unclear how the conversation began. Sisk, who leads her school’s Gay-Straight Alliance club, claimed she was talking to another girl about wanting to live in San Francisco when Vanzandt made...

It has not been a good year for America’s armed forces. David Petraeus’s extramarital affair dominated headlines; 25 instructors are under investigation for systematic sexual abuse of cadets at Lackland Air Force Base; and a rash of senior officers—at the rank of colonel or higher—have been reprimanded for serious misconduct. Last month, Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote to all four-star generals and flag officers asking for institutional soul-searching. Has the military’s behavior, he seemed to be asking, threatened the “sacred trust” among top officers, the men and women they lead, and the American people? “I...

Civic Virtue has become a Greek tragedy. Queens residents are protesting the city’s plans to banish a controversial sculpture to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn — which would be the second move for the classic, 90-year-old monument that pols have slammed for decades as a sexist eyesore. “The Triumph of Civic Virtue” depicts a nude male warrior symbolizing civic virtue trampling two women, the sirens of vice and corruption.