Free Republic

Well how about that little Goreacle? When he made a gazillion dollars by creating the Church of Global Warming and setting up a convenient donation program by selling carbon credits (which were created, quite literally, out of thin air), we thought it was a fluke.(snip) We may have been wrong. By selling his nascent Current TV network to Al-Jazeera he has clearly moved into mogul deal-making status.   Q: is Al Gore now wealthy enough to officially be maligned as part of the hated 1% A: Of course not, he’s a well-intentioned liberal. (snip)It’s not that there weren’t other suitors who...

The rollout of the Copyright Alert System will be delayed until early 2013, according to the Center for Copyright Information (CCI). The system, also referred to as the “Six Strikes” program, is intended to deter copyright infringement committed through illegal file sharing. CCI indicates that the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy is largely to blame for the delays. "Due to unexpected factors largely stemming from Hurricane Sandy which have seriously affected our final testing schedules, CCI anticipates that the participating ISPs will begin sending alerts under the Copyright Alert System in the early part of 2013, rather than by the...

In an end-of-year press release — posted under the banner headline "Accomplishments Under the Leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder" — the Justice Department boasts of charging "nearly 3,000" bankers with lending discrimination and fraud. [snip] But none of the race-bias cases highlighted by the administration was litigated in court. Evidence was never presented or tested, nor guilt ever proven. What's more, no incident of discrimination was ever specified, and no individual complainants or victims of discrimination were ever identified. All the major defendants — Bank of America, Wells Fargo and SunTrust Mortgage — settled while strongly denying Holder's allegations...

From a NYT Editorial: Bushmasters are by no means the only assault weapons of choice among mass killers (the Aurora shooter used a Smith & Wesson), but the brand’s repeated presence in murderous incidents reflects Bushmaster’s enormous popularity in the gun world, the result of a successful marketing campaign aimed at putting military firepower and machismo in the hands of civilians. Gun owners once talked about the need for personal protection and sport hunting, but out-of-control ad campaigns like Bushmaster’s have replaced revolvers and shotguns with highly lethal paramilitary fantasies. The guns, some of which come in camouflage and desert...

A request to investigate violations is being filed this morning with the Chief Ethics Officer of Gannet, the media giant that owns The Journal News, which published gun permit holders' names and addresses, and the Des Moines Register, which published Donald Kaul's call for gun owners to be killed. Gannett's Ethics Policy is unequivocally stated: “To affect change for the good in the communities we serve, to make life better for the people who trust us to know them and do right by them.” "Every day, all of us at Gannett are given the rare and sacred opportunity to affect...

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) applications for a mortgage fell 10.4% from the previous week. On a seasonally adjusted basis (SA), purchase applications fell 10.51%. It remains in the “red zone” since 2010. Refinancing applications fell 10.39%. Let’s see if the new year shows a further slowdown in refinancings. On a non seasonally adjusted basis (NSA), purchase applications fell 45.99%. Refinancing applications fell 46.23%. The plunge in applications is the annual Holiday seasonal where mortgage applications fall. Mortgage rates continue to remain low, but are slowly rising (as Treasury yields begin rising as well). Taxes just went up...

From the Washington Times: A House committee has launched an investigation into whether EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson used an email alias to try to hide correspondence from open-government requests and her agency’s own internal watchdog — something that Republican lawmakers said could run afoul of the law.The science committee has asked Ms. Jackson to turn over all information related to an email account under the name of “Richard Windsor,” which is one of the aliases identified by a researcher looking into the EPA.The committee has also asked the White House’s lawyer and EPA’s inspector general to look into the matter...

Al Gore’s Current TV confirmed Wednesday evening that it has been sold to Al Jazeera for an estimated $400 to $500 million, with the former vice president set to pocket up to $100 million from the sale. In an email sent to Current TV’s staff, co-founder and former chief executive officer Joel Hyatt describes the selling process he and co-founder Al Gore went through in considering sale to Al Jazeera, acknowledging Current TV was a failed model. Hyatt points to the Al Jazeera’s many accomplishments, including its global reach and for being the “only news network” that Obama-supporter Colin Powell...

Suffering an IED blast on the battlefield is most certainly a traumatic event, especially when accompanied by witnessing the death or injury of other service members or civilians. Untangling the physical from the mental damage is never easy. But doctors and veterans’ advocates feel that they are running out of time, given the skyrocketing rates of suicide among active-duty soldiers and veterans. According to the most recent statistics, Army and Navy suicides are at a record high: 2012 was the worst year for self-inflicted deaths since the military began tracking them in 2001. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta last summer...

Featured Term (selected at random):NECESSARY FAITH The irreducible minimum that everyone must believe as a condition for salvation. Also called the "necessity of means" to be saved, it applies to those who have reached the age of reason. It certainly includes belief that God exists and that he rewards the good and punishes the wicked: "It is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who try to find Him" (Vulgate: "who seek Him") (Hebrews 11:6). Probably one must also know and believe, at least implicitly, in the...

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz is moving forward to establish procedures for removing voters from registration rolls if they can't prove citizenship, with a public hearing scheduled for today that is expected to draw critics who want to stop the change. “Schultz's proposed voter-suppression rules will unfairly target Latino immigrants, intimidate voters from exercising their rights and could result in voters' being purged from the rolls without cause,” said Ana Belen Mancebo, a member of the government watchdog group Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.

Am I the only one who notices just how smoothly and effortlessly the Democrat Party plays the American people and establishment Republican leadership?Basic timeline:Last week of October: Hurricane Sandy visited destruction upon the East Coast, most severely New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.First week of November: With the presidential election just days away, Obama lands in New Jersey to get bear hugged by Gov'r Chris Christie in order to give off a semblance of "bi-partisanship," and to secure extra votes from stupid Americans who actually thinks Obama caaaares about them. (Indeed it worked: Exit polls showed many still-undecided voters ended up pulling...

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The United Kingdom has long been proud to host the Mother of Parliaments. Now, if Prime Minister David Cameron has his way, Britain will be home to the Progenitor of Parliaments. Britain’s Conservatives – the Tories – are deeply divided by the precipitous actions of their young, hip Prime Minister. Mr. Cameron wants to ram through Parliament a measure to end marriage in Britain. He won’t, of course, claim to be ending marriage. But this will nonetheless be the effect of his rule. But Cameron is facing a revolt. A big one. Anne Widdicombe spoke for thousands of Britons when...

A few days ago, going through some memorabilia of my mother's, I found the original promotional material for this syndicated column, launched in 1993. I was billed as "A New Conservative Voice for Young Women!" More than 17 years ago, I set out to explain how a Yale-educated young woman from a secular Oregon family could become a social conservative: Every life is precious. It is better to care for your children than to kill them. Divorce hurts children; it also breaks apart life's most precious commitment -- a family. Men and women are different. A society that pretends otherwise...

This order was issued at 5:17pm [1/2/2013] by Judge England, confirming that each side gets 20 minutes at tomorrow’s [1/3/2013] hearing per local rules

Most Christians have heard it as a sermon illustration. I’ve heard and read many variations of the story. According to the story, Karl Barth was fielding questions from the audience after a lecture in Rockefeller Chapel on the campus of the University Chicago in 1962. A student stood and asked him if he could summarize his life’s work in theology in one sentence. According to the story a gasp went up from the audience–responding to the student’s perceived audaciousness. Also, according to the story, Barth didn’t skip a beat. He said (paraphrasing) “Yes. In the words of a song I...

The worst part of the fiscal cliff deal isn't the specifics -- though they do stink. It's being reminded again how utterly detached Washington is from reality. The question, now that we've finally hiked taxes on the rich (and doesn't everyone feel better knowing that life is that much fairer?), is: How are we going to continue paying for the government we've been promised? As it turns out, raising tax rates on the "wealthy," the most pressing issue of the Obama Age, amounts to a mere $62 billion of new revenue. To put it in perspective, the deficit spending this...

The Daughters of the American Revolution, one of the nation’s oldest patriotic organizations, has erased any mention of Jesus Christ in their official book, removed prayers and poems that reference Christian imagery, and directed members to refrain from praying in the name of Christ, an outraged group of members alleged. The dispute has been brewing for more than a year when DAR members learned that the newly revised Ritual and Missal books – the primary guide for chaplains – were altered. They noticed that the name of Jesus Christ had been omitted. The DAR president general did not return calls...

And as we get into this, let’s remember that if frogs had wings they wouldn’t bump their ass every time they jumped. Got it? OK ….. We learned yesterday from Jamie Dupree that there is no Constitutional requirement for the Speaker of the House to actually be a member! In other words, the Republicans could make Jessica Simpson the Speaker today if they wished to .. and frankly she would probably do a better job than the weak-kneed man we have in there right now, and attendance at her press conferences would certainly go up. But Jessica is pregnant and...