Free Republic

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. Psalm 119:45 (NIV) ----

Obama and Syria8/30/2013U.S. still aims to act with allies on Syria: Hagel8/29/2013Fifth US warship joins cruise missile ships in MediterraneanObama Won´t Give Legal Reasoning for Syria Attack, YetObama will act in US 'best interests' on Syria despite British voteBritish lawmakers reject measure on military action in Syria, in setback for Obama administrationFlashback: In 2007 Obama Introduced a Senate Resolution to Block an Unauthorized Attack on IranPresident Obama calls John Boehner on SyriaObama to Release Evidence to Strengthen Case for Intervening in SyriaObama: US action would send Assad 'strong signal'Russia sending warships to the Mediterranean: reportGrowing Bipartisan Coalition Urges Obama to...

When outbreaks arise among children, health officials are quick to state that it’s due to a breakdown in ‘herd immunity.‘ "Some" doctors parrot it too, without even looking at the research. They say it’s happening more often nationwide as states make it easier for parents to opt out of vaccinations.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Ten men are arrested after another undercover sex sting near Lake Hefner. A couple of the men arrested are "repeat offenders." You might wonder why any of the men arrested would ever take a chance coming back out to Hobie Point, but they do. We talked to one of them in order to get some insight, but agreed to protect his identity in the process. . . . Many parents are concerned that this kind of adult activity is happening so close to where their children come to play.

Fast-food workers in more than 50 cities Thursday are striking for fair pay and the right to form a union — the biggest walkout to hit the industry. What can we do to address this low-wage jobs crisis? Exerting pressure on the fast-food and retail giants that rake in billions in profits is a good starting point. These companies can afford to share more of their wealth with their frontline workers and should be doing so. Boosting wages for America’s lowest-paid workers is a crucial step toward reducing economic inequality and rebuilding a strong economy. Perhaps 50 years from now,...

Scientists can now experiment at the atomic scale with unprecedented accuracy in new ‘silent’ laboratories in Switzerland. These labs are shielded against all possible forms of background disturbances – external vibrations, acoustic noise, electromagnetic fields and temperature fluctuations. It is hoped that the labs, devised by Emanuel Lörtscher and his team at IBM Zurich, will accommodate the demands of nanotechnology for the next 20–30 years. The labs were designed to screen all sources of background noise relevant to nanotechnologyWhen probing or building structures at the nanoscale, experimental readings are so tiny that they are easily drowned out by any...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Agency on Thursday disputed a published report that secret intelligence budget files provided by agency leaker Edward Snowden show that the surveillance agency warned in 2012 that it planned to investigate up to 4,000 cases of possible internal security breaches. The Washington Post, citing documents it said were provided by Snowden, said the NSA's concerns about insider threats were aimed at "anomalous behavior" of agency employees with access to top secret data. The account cited NSA concerns about "trusted insiders who seek to exploit their authorized access to sensitive information to harm U.S. interests."...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oljl0mwmldA

Without the proof, or even data that former military rifles were used in crimes or gun violence, the White House has decided today, through executive order, to ban the re-importation of hundreds of thousands of surplus rifles that were made here in the United States. Announced this morning at a press conference, Vice President Joe Biden said that they would halt the importation of american GI service rifles from the Korean War era. This move is in line with the recent executive orders issues in an effort to reduce gun violence. But where this falls off the tracks is that...

Yun Hye-yong was a woman beyond the reach even of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il. Yun, the lead singer of Kim's former favorite band Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble, was brutally executed after she spurned Kim's persistent advances and fell in love with another man. Or so claims Chang Jin-song, an author formerly affiliated with the North Korean Workers' Party, in "Kim Jong-il's Last Woman." Published in May, it is an epic poem that details Kim's private life and inside story of his regime based on the true story of the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble. According to the book, Kim ordered Yun Hye-yong's...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Shaniqua Davis, it’s not McDonald’s fault that you chose to become an unmarried, teenage mother Recently, McDonald’s employees have been going on strike to try to get paid $15 an hour. Associated Press reports:Shaniqua Davis, 20, lives in the Bronx with her boyfriend, who is unemployed, and their 1-year-old daughter. Davis has worked at a McDonald’s a few blocks from her apartment for the past three months, earning $7.25 an hour. Her schedule varies, but she never gets close to 40 hours a week. “Forty? Never. They refuse to let you get to that (many) hours.”Her...

Barely a third of U.S. senators pay their interns -- and embarrassingly for Democrats, a party focused on workplace welfare, most of them are Republicans. Even though Congress has exempted itself from the same legal requirements it imposes on the private sector, the contradiction with the laws they have set is glaring.

A girl poses for a photo at a 3D painting exhibition in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Aug. 29, 2013. Some 40 pieces of 3D work were displayed in the exhibition which will last till Oct. 22. (Xinhua/Li Yibo)

Alejandra Pereyra, 44, said she felt she had been “touched by the hand of God” after receiving the phone call from Pope Francis. Pereyra wrote to the Pope, who was archbishop of Buenos Aires before being elected pontiff in March, about 10 days ago. She said that after she had been raped by a policeman, Argentinean authorities tried to suppress her complaint and that the perpetrator had received a promotion. She was amazed to hear from the 76-year-old Pope personally when he called her on Sunday using a landline from the Vatican. They talked for approximately 30 minutes, during which...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The federal government has dismissed allegations that three University of California campuses failed to effectively respond to claims of anti-Semitism that arose out of pro-Palestinian events at the schools. The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights said in letters sent last week to leaders at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UC Irvine that the protests, teach-ins, lectures, graffiti and heated confrontations that gave rise to the claims didn't constitute harassment of Jewish students. In its Aug. 19 letters to the universities, the Education Department said in most cases the activities at issue were...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Many people in Mecklenburg County are not getting their food stamps on time. The Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services serves 80,000 households on food stamps. No one is giving an exact number on how many of those are having to wait longer than usual. Kristi Adams said it's, "stressful, real stressful." . . . The state admits it's not picking up the tab [food donations], but it is sending out experts to DSS offices across the state to help counties tackle their backlogs. For example, Union, Cabarrus, Rowan, Iredell, and Gaston counties are each getting two...

Two tiny kittens who narrowly survived an extended stint on the subway tracks had a big impact on Thursday's commute - shutting down subway service for more than two hours before two quick-footed cops finally scooped them up. Transit workers spotted the furry duo along an open-air stretch of the B and Q line near Church Avenue in Brooklyn at about 11 a.m., prompting officials to cut the power and suspend service for about two hours. A transit supervisor "tried to corral them" but was eluded, said a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeswoman. Sandra Polel, 52, was heading home when her...

SINGAPORE: Singapore now has a record number of 21 billionaires, up from 16 a year ago, according to the latest Forbes Singapore rich list. The combined net wealth of Singapore's 50 richest is US$80bil. Property magnates Robert and Philip Ng added US$1.4bil to their wealth to hold on to the No 1 spot as the country's richest. Their net wealth is US$10.6bil, up from US$9.2bil last year. The brothers oversee Far East Organization which their late father Ng Teng Fong developed into a conglomerate with more than 700 hotels, malls and condominiums in Singapore and Hong Kong. The biggest rise...

For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.(Psalm 97:9-10)We have been striving to attain the simplest and clearest definition of repentance as possible. We have examined the mental aspects of it, for repentance is first of all a matter of ‘rethinking’ the important things, that people are prone to rationalize, such as God, the soul, Heaven,Hell and judgment, and the plan of salvation. Everyone has thoughts about these...

August 30, 2013 Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 1 Thes 4:1-8 Brothers and sisters,we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that,as you received from ushow you should conduct yourselves to please God– and as you are conducting yourselves– you do so even more.For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. This is the will of God, your holiness:that you refrain from immorality,that each of you know how to acquire a wife for himselfin holiness and honor, not in lustful passionas do the Gentiles who do not know...