Free Republic

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Astronomers hunting for Earth-like planets now have many places to look. A new estimate released Monday suggested the Milky Way galaxy is home to at least 17 billion planets similar in size to our planet. It doesn't mean all are potentially habitable, but the sheer number of Earth-size planets is a welcome starting point in the search for worlds like our own. Scientists have yet to find a twin Earth — one that's not only the right size but also located in the so-called Goldilocks zone, a place that's not too hot and not too...

Bank of American had a bad day. First, they were a party to the latest government refinancing program (the $10 billion dollar foreclosure abuse settlement). Second, Bank of America has settled with mortgage giant Fannie Mae. WASHINGTON — Bank of America Corp. said Monday it had agreed to pay more than $10 billion to Fannie Mae to settle claims related to troubled mortgages sold largely by Countrywide Financial Corp. during the subprime housing boom. First of all, it was a housing boom, not just a subprime housing boom. Second, the government mortgage giants Fannie Mae knew that a large percentage...

ART CASHIN: Veteran Traders Have Noticed A Peculiar Pattern During The Final Hours Of Trading Sam RoJan. 7, 2013, 11:11 AM Stocks have started 2013 on a positive note, closing at a five-year high on Friday. So, are people feeling bullish? Art Cashin, UBS Financial Services Director of Floor Operations, is a tad skeptical. He points to some imbalances during end-of-day trading in this morning's "Cashin's Comments": Some On-Close Support For the “New Money” Thesis – As we have noted repeatedly during this New Year’s rally, several of us old fogeys believe most of the fuel for the move...

Lovers of ink and paper, take heart. Reports of the death of the printed book may be exaggerated. Ever since Amazon introduced its popular Kindle e-reader five years ago, pundits have assumed that the future of book publishing is digital. Opinions about the speed of the shift from page to screen have varied. But the consensus has been that digitization, having had its way with music and photographs and maps, would in due course have its way with books as well. By 2015, one media maven predicted a few years back, traditional books would be gone. Half a decade into...

The amazing thing about this is how they all kept a straight face. Or, do you think they honestly believe this nonsense?

The Third Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) has issued Data Release 9 (DR9), the first public release of data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). In this release BOSS, the largest of SDSS-III’s four surveys, provides spectra for 535,995 newly observed galaxies, 102,100 quasars, and 116,474 stars, plus new information about objects in previous Sloan surveys (SDSS-I and II). “This is just the first of three data releases from BOSS,” says David Schlegel of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), an astrophysicist in the Lab’s Physics Division and BOSS’s principal investigator. “By the time...

Egypt’s new constitution “prepares the way for an Islamic caliphate”, according to the acting leader of Coptic Catholics, who is among three bishops to condemn the document as a fundamental attack on human rights. The bishops expressed their profound disappointment with the constitution signed into law on December 26, saying only extremist Muslims’ rights were guaranteed by the new document and that at particular risk were women, young people and religious minorities. Bishop Kyrillos William, administrator of the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate of Alexandria, said: “We were waiting for a constitution that represents the whole of Egypt but instead we have...

It shouldn’t be news to anyone who has followed politics for the past few years that the new battleground is located in the online world. ‘Get out the vote’ organizations have focused their efforts on social networks for some time now. Virtual campaigning has already influenced elections. Once in a while a type of ‘online revolution’ occurs, the kind of thing that begins as an innocuous idea which catches on and grows exponentially. I was fortunate to be a part of the latest wave.

One of Brennan's most noticed action in the White House was when he referred to Jerusalem, Israel using the Arabic word al Quds. "And in all my travels, the city I have come to love most is al Quds -- Jerusalem, where three great faiths come together," said Brennan in 2010.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The images will be vivid, history will be haunting, ghosts will be everywhere.This is Knute Rockne versus Bear Bryant, Touchdown Jesus versus Dreamland Bar-B-Que, Four Horsemen versus Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joe Montana versus Joe Namath, and, of course, in the battle of the little guys, Rudy versus Nick.It will be a football game bathed in a complicated mess of legend, religion and roughhousing, but most folks think Monday's BCS national championship heavyweight fight between Alabama and Notre Dame can be symbolized by a single disparity.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4: 8

SNIP Hagel, however, has friends in Democratic lobbying circles. The powerful Washington D.C. organization known as the Podesta Group is reportedly asking defense contractors for financial support to run ads defending the Hagel nomination. Fox News White House Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry reported on Friday: (2:15 in) "Sources confirm to Fox [that] Democratic super lobbyist Tony Podesta has been hired by a firm known as the Bipartisan Group to help mobilize support for Hagel. And defense contractors received calls this week urging them to be ready for a Hagel pick as soon as Monday, and asking them for...

This piece will probably set off some of those shining beacons of intellectualism on the left.The truth is Churchill was wrong, conservatives have both heart and brains. Liberals would disagree because they favor unfettered social welfare, but there's no real heart in a political philosophy where the individual prefers personally divorcing themselves from the act of charity by mandating a bigger government to take care of it for them.

Note: This is NSFW. The article, and especially the video, contain profanity.KDOC Los Angeles Had The Most Spectacularly Disastrous New Year’s Special In The History Of Television Okay, so lots of things have been said about this year’s batch of New Year’s Eve TV broadcasts — mostly about Kathy Griffin bending down to kiss Anderson Cooper‘s crotch on CNN’s air. But forget that. Just forget it. It wasn’t important. After you read this post, none of those other faux-NYE messes will be relevant. Why? Because independent local Los Angeles station KDOC’s New Year’s Eve special was the most glorious train...

Obama comes out the victor in the messaging battle of the fiscal cliff negotiations. CNN contributor Ruben Navarrette Jr. said: “He is so good at the business of politics that he’s really outmaneuvered them.” How did he do this? According to John Judis in the New Republic, “He campaigned publicly. He framed the issues. He put the Republicans on the defensive in a way that he failed to do during much of his first term.”  Even the far-right Brietbart.com agrees. In a post titled: “GOP drift losing ‘cliff’ message battle,” Mike Flynn argues: “The GOP is doing nothing to educate...

Many Americans were shocked to learn about Georgetown University Professor Louis Michael Seidman’s advocation for the U.S. to abandon the Constitution — the central document that has helped spawn America’s growth and progression for hundreds of years. As previously reported, the constitutional expert recently noted his belief (via an op-ed) that a blind allegiance to the outdated document is perilous. On Friday, he defended his controversial views about some purportedly “evil” provisions in the Constitution in an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly.

Suffering the consequences of hypocrisy is usually reserved for public figures on the political right.  The mere rumors of infidelity dissolved Herman Cain’s presidential nomination viability.  It is easy to recall famous conservatives who have fallen from grace for not living up to a personal standard.  But it is harder to remember the name of a disgraced liberal.  The impeachment of Bill Clinton over a substantiated sexual affair seemed to take no more of a toll on his political capital than if he were a French prime minister. Hypocrisy is simply a matter of common human imperfection.  Most of us who...

(CNN) -- New Jersey, one of the bluest states and where President Barack Obama won 58.3% of the vote in November's presidential election, is poised to re-elect Chris Christie, the state's incumbent Republican governor, this fall. Having been deeply engaged in New Jersey politics since his youth, Christie seems to relish his role as one of the nation's most powerful and prominent governors. Yet many are wondering whether Christie's popularity in the Garden State has come at the expense of his presidential prospects. --snip-- At the same time, Christie's decisions to distance himself from the House GOP and to stand...

Isn't freedom great? If you've held a company-sponsored 401(k) or 403(b), you know that your company gave you a false sense of freedom. They said that you were "free" to pick from any one of the handful of mutual funds that they picked for you. Picking from their choices doesn't seem like much freedom, but maybe you took the extra step and opened an IRA. Now that's freedom. With IRAs opened outside of your company, you have the choice of just about any investment option on the market. Ninety-four billion dollars is invested in self-directed IRA accounts, where many...

The Minnesota Representative introduced a bill to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, the first bill of the 113th Congress--but it stands almost no chance of passing. Second verse, same as the first, apparently.Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party darling and former presidential candidate introduced the first House bill of the 113th Congress Thursday.Of course, the bill she introduced was to--you guessed it--repeal Obamacare in its entirety. At noon today, I introduced the first bill of the 113th Congress to repeal Obamacare in its entirety.— Michele Bachmann (@MicheleBachmann) January 3, 2013 Even if Bachmann's bill stood a chance of becoming...