Free Republic

Aviation Week has selected Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, as its 2012 Person of the Year in a cover story published today in Aviation Week & Space Technology. As Europe's most powerful leader and having the most impact on aerospace in 2012, she had blocked the $45 billion merger between European Aeronautics Defence & Space Company (EADS) and Britain's BAE Systems (BAE), successfully devastating the deal. A key influence in the aerospace industry, Merkel has revolutionized the very arc of Europe's largest aerospace and defense company and disallowed change of the industrial landscape. "Angela Merkel possesses a distinct skepticism about...

Americans support a wide range of new measures to combat gun violence, including majority support for background checks, an assault weapons ban, and placing armed police in schools according to a pair of new polls released Monday. The surveys, preformed by Pew Research and the Washington Post/ABC News, both find that Americans generally support a broad array of efforts in the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting that left 20 children and 6 school employees dead. Among the most popular proposal in either survey was closing the so-called "gun show" loophole, which allows the private sale of guns...

For six years, legislator Lindsey Holmes has represented West Anchorage as a Democrat. But as of Saturday afternoon, she’s a Republican. The announcement that Holmes had switched parties came after a two-hour caucus meeting, where members of the House Majority hashed out what the change meant and occasionally tuned into the NFL playoffs. It was unexpected, and Holmes thinks she’ll get a wide range of responses from her district. “It’s going to come as a great surprise to some people,” Holmes said. “I think other people will not be as surprised. I think some people will have sort of seen...

The renewed debate over gun rights that has followed the massacre of elementary schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., has included scrutiny over why gun advocates believe they need a right to bear arms. Among the reasons: Many advocates believe that individual gun ownership helps preserve American liberty, making government fearful of trampling on rights of its citizens. If government goes too far, the argument goes, Americans have the right to revolt by force. Is that argument correct? Or does it belong to fringe gun enthusiasts?

Last year (around Feb 2012), our house was reassessed for the first time in 10 years, and as a result our property taxes went up. We did not challenge it. In April of 2012, we had central A/C installed for the first time. This was done after the reassessment. Well, don't you know they went and reassessed our house for the second time in less than one year! Has anyone ever heard of this before? Can they just reassess at will? If I put a birdbath outside will I receive another letter? This is the most ludicrous thing I have...

What is the Misfits Ball? Glenn announced on radio this morning that he plans to have a ball on Inauguration Day full of people who are no longer welcome in Obama’s Washington D.C. (editor’s note: We aren’t sure if the “That Guy” rule applies to digital, which is why we will occasionally mention the President by name until Glenn stops us). The event will be black tie, take place in the Dallas Studios, and Glenn is open to suggestions for the invite list. Some of the names thrown out there so far: Chik-Fil-A (not a person, Glenn), Hobby Lobby (again,...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told a Nevada television station Friday that the Senate is unlikely to pass an assault weapons ban or a radical revamp of filibuster rules. But the Democratic leader was optimistic about changes to immigration laws, noting that it will be the chamber’s top priority this year. In the interview that aired on Vegas PBS this weekend, Reid, a gun rights supporter, struck a pragmatic tone on gun control measures. “Let’s be realistic. In the Senate, we’re going to do what we think can get through the House. And I’m not going to be going through...

MARK LEVIN: I'm not into imperial presidents who act imperial and speak imperial and Obama forgets there's a Constitution. Yes, he keeps telling us he won reelection. Congratulations, but guess what? The Constitution wasn't up for election, it's not up for a referendum. He has to comply with it, too. He was sent back to Washington, but he's got a strict list of rules that he has to follow as president. When he gets up there and starts saying, if Congress doesn't do this, I'm going to do this unilaterally, it violates separation of power a lot of the times....

The new data, compiled from more than 3,000 measuring points on land and sea, was issued quietly on the internet, without any media fanfare, and, until today, it has not been reported. This stands in sharp contrast to the release of the previous figures six months ago, which went only to the end of 2010 – a very warm year. Ending the data then means it is possible to show a slight warming trend since 1997, but 2011 and the first eight months of 2012 were much cooler, and thus this trend is erased. Some climate scientists dismissed the significance...

After two years of failing to pass a bill in Colorado that would have allowed illegal immigrants to pay tuition lower than out-of-state rates but higher than in-state rates, Democrats — now in control of both chambers — are pushing new legislation to allow the students to go to college at the in-state rate. "What we're looking at is a simpler, more equitable approach to tuition," said state Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, one of the lawmakers leading the effort. Johnston and state Rep. Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, are are holding a press conference Tuesday with supporters of the bill.

TIBERGE at Galliawatch reports that close to one million people marched in protest against homosexual marriage rights in Paris yesterday. The numbers are not certain, but there is good reason to believe this estimate. The streets were clogged with people bearing signs and wearing shirts with symbols of the traditional family. Here we have an unprecedented declaration of mass resistance to homosexual rights. This means not only that there is a very good chance homosexual “marriage” and adoption rights will never become a reality in France, but that the principle of equality that governs so much of political discourse and...

Coptic Christian churches in the United States say they are having to expand to cope with new arrivals, as priests in cities like Cairo and Alexandria talk of a new climate of fear and uncertainty. "Most of our people are afraid," Father Mina Adel, a priest at the Church of Two Saints in Alexandria said. "Not a few are leaving - for America, Canada and Australia. Dozens of families from this church alone are trying to go too." Father Mina's church has an important place in the history of the Arab Spring. It was struck by a car bomb on...

The 24-year-old owner of Walrus Subs on Raccoon Road hopes it’s not just the giant walrus mascot or the oil painting of John Lennon greeting visitors at the door that keep people coming back. “I bought the dream,” said Alie Ruheim, Walrus Subs’ owner who also cooks, cleans, preps, opens and closes his shop. He takes orders by phone and in person, making sure to ask how the customer is doing, he said. “The biggest thing is treating people well,” Ruheim said. “Consistency is key.” He cooks the subs, cheesesteaks, gyros and other things on his menu, ranging from $5...

Obama's EXECUTIVE ORDERS against guns are coming our way. The Obama régime is declaring a war on The Gun, and they want this war to be PERMANENT. They want the exception to become the norm. Forever. That’s why a hot war is inevitable. Article 1 of the Constitution establishes that "the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, UNLESS when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it" -- but it does not specify which authority has the jurisdiction to decide on the exceptional suspension of the Constitution. Another passage of Article...

A group of anti-Israel activists and journalists are engaged in a coordinated campaign to stifle criticism of controversial secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel by attacking the former Republican senator’s critics, according to emails obtained by the Free Beacon. Fenton communications chief executive officer David Fenton, the Atlantic’s national correspondent James Fallows, former diplomat Charles ‘Chas’ Freeman, Just Foreign Policy director Robert Naiman, and American Conservative founding editor Scott McConnell participated in a recent email exchange dedicated to silencing Hagel’s critics, the emails reveal. The emailers targeted recent comments made by Elliott Abrams, a former Bush administration National Security Council...

Four illegal immigrants from the tiny European nation of Albanian are facing deportation after being caught near Brownsville. U.S. Border Patrol agents caught the four wading across the Rio Grande River in Brownsville on Wednesday. The four immigrants appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio on Friday. Judge Recio sentenced them to time served but they are now facing deportation. The group makes up a total of 16 Albanian immigrants caught in Brownsville since late December. Border Patrol statistics show only 38 immigrants from the southeast European nation were arrested along the entire southwest border in 2011.

Each entry is numbered (1-43). Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to send me (via comment in this thread/private message) the numbers in order of preference of your 10 (or fewer, if you can't find 10 that you like) favorites. If you are caught sending more than 10, I won't disavow your existence, but will ask you to remove any excess. This offer will self-destruct at 2 PM ET, Sunday, January 20, 2013. Scoring will be as follows: A 1st-place vote will get 10 pts., a 2nd-place vote earns 9 pts., ..., down to a 10th-place vote...

A friend of mine from Pennsylvania called me today to tell me of her visit to a local WalMart, where she patronizes a bank located within this Walmart. It was Woodforest Bank. She slowly got incensed having to watch Candy Crowley on the omnipresent CNN,while waiting in line, and decided to do something about it. She started a conversation, which went on quite a while, with a trucker standing in front of her who as it turned out was a classic Low Information Voter, and kept trying to defend Obama,who he knew not surprisingly anything about. This got her more...

Can someone tell me where to buy reasonably priced bullets online?? Thank you...