Free Republic

U.S. Government Entitlement Programs: Are They Good or Bad? ~Government Entitlement Mentality~ Maybe the Rabbit is Less to be Pitied than the Fox -by Scott Rohter, February 2012 “The Federal Government is not supposed to be some kind of a drive-through social services agency where every State and any individual can just drive in, roll down their window, and simply load up with all kinds of Federal freebies.” – Scott Rohter “The nearest thing to eternal life on earth is a government program.” – reprisal Ronald Reagan When the U.S. Government talks about passing another law, or creating another government...

The round of talks between the six powers and Iran over its nuclear program was held in Istanbul, and another round is scheduled in May. Despite a decade of empty dialogue, both sides have an interest in holding negotiations: Iran seeks to avoid a tightening of the sanctions against it, and US President Barack Obama wants to postpone hard decisions, at least until after the elections. Although the two sides' opening positions are far apart, it is in the nature of negotiations to bring the position of the parties closer. Both sides have a clear interest in creating the image...

(CBS News) Updated at 10:39 a.m. ET Taking a page from rival Newt Gingrich, Republican presidential hopeful and newly minted front-runner Rick Santorum on Friday slammed the media for asking about a controversial comment one of his supporters made about contraception a day earlier. "My record stands for itself," Santorum said in an interview on "CBS This Morning" after being asked about Foster Friess' comment on MSNBC Thursday that women should hold a Bayer aspirin between their knees to use as contraception.

A powerful solar eruption is expected to blast a stream of charged particles toward Earth tomorrow (Jan. 24), as the strongest radiation storm since 2005 rages on the sun. Early this morning (0359 GMT Jan. 23, which corresponds to late Sunday, Jan. 22 at 10:59 p.m. EST), NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught an extreme ultraviolet flash from a huge eruption on the sun , according to the skywatching website Spaceweather.com. The solar flare spewed from sunspot 1402, a region of the sun that has become increasingly active lately. Several NASA satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory...

Andrea Rossi Replies to Brian Josephson 26 novembre 2011 By Cold Fusion News Andrea Rossi has replied to Nobel Prize winning Cambridge Physicist Brian Josephson’s demands for a scientific test of the e-cat cold fusion device. Josephson made an appeal to Rossi to have his device formally evaluated by scientists through the Ita... » Rossi Declines Italian and U.S. Government Testing Offers 26 novembre 2011 By New Energy Times Andrea Rossi, inventor of the Energy Catalyzer, or E-Cat, has declined an offer from an Italian government laboratory for independent testing of his device. According to Francesco Celani, a physicist...

Something major is occuring in the markets today. The US economy peaked in 2007. However, throughout much of 2008, the stock market continued to rally despite the economic collapse as well as the financial system imploding. Throughout this period the credit markets jammed up and implied something VERY BAD was in the system. However, stock investors continued to pile into stocks because, well, frankly stocks always are the last to "get it." And when stocks finally did get it... it was quite a thing. This same environment is occurring today. Only this time the collapse is sovereign in nature: entire...

In the three years since Kosovo, urged on by the United States, declared its unilateral independence, there has been no final resolution of this long-festering wound in the heart of the Balkans. After the expulsion of the Serbian military from Kosovo in 1999 there was a systematic purging of the non-Albanian population and a rampage of revenge killing, and destruction. In March, 2004, the Albanian mobs burned or dynamited more than 204 Christian churches and monasteries - some of them heritage structures dating back to the 14th century. This veritable orgy of devastation was accomplished under the watchful eyes of...

Top White House advisers and OMB career staffers worried about the political risks from President Barack Obama's Solyndra 2010 visit and also discussed deeper management programs inside the Energy Department's loan guarantee program, according to more than a dozen internal email threads released Tuesday by House Democrats. "There is an inherent risk in highlighting a single company before they have a track record," Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama, wrote to Ronald Klain, Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff, on May "Or even after they have one :-)" Klain replied in a colorful exchange that came just two...

A campaign spokesperson for presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says a report documenting the severity of the Minnesota congresswoman's migraines is overblown. But, there has been at least one admitted instance of Bachmann being sidelined for days due to a severe migraine and other instances of her falling ill on the House floor. In an article posted by The Daily Caller Monday night, un-named sources described Bachmann's migraines as regular and debilitating, often interrupting her work schedule. Alice Stewart, national press secretary for Bachmann's White House bid, joined the campaign in mid-June, and Stewart says she has seen no evidence of...

When it comes to movies, let’s just call this the summer of “bad.” It’s not just grown-ups behaving badly – though there is plenty of that. From Jennifer Aniston as a rapacious dentist in “Horrible Bosses,” which opens Friday, to Cameron Diaz as every student’s nightmare in “Bad Teacher,” to the projectile body functions in “Bridesmaids” and “Hangover 2,” multiplexes are awash in R-rated adult comedy. But this is also a record summer for just plain bad movies – doing very well. Roundly panned films such as “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” “Green Lantern,” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On...

When he first entered the national political arena, I thought Barack Obama was a sincere man, mistaken in his political beliefs, but an honest advocate of them. Today, like millions of Americans, my evaluation of Barack Obama would be quite different. Without attempting to go over every policy, speech, and embarrassment to explain what is wrong with the man, I might just sum it up the way that many parents do when teaching their sons and daughters about right and wrong. "Obama," I would say, "is a bad man."

Israel's decision to recognize Ben Yosef Livnat as a victim of terrorism means that the state has officially recognized the Palestinian Authority police force as a hostile organization, Dov Kalmanovitch said Friday in an interview with Arutz Sheva. Kalmanovitch, who heads the Zochrim organization for victims of terrorism, explained that according to Israeli law, a victim of terrorism is someone who was hurt or killed during an attack carried out “by a hostile organization, or someone sent on behalf of such an organization.” Livnat was shot and killed by PA police as he and friends left Joseph's Tomb (Kever Yosef)...

The economy is so bad that African television stations are showing 'Sponsor an American Child' commercials! The economy is so bad, a picture is now only worth 200 words. It's so bad, Snoop Dogg had to start eating regular brownies. The economy is so bad, I saw the CEO of Wal-Mart shopping at Wal-Mart. The economy is so bad, I went to my bank the other day and the teller handed me a note saying, "This is a robbery!" The economy is so bad, George W. Bush appeared in a flight suit and declared economic recovery was complete. The economy...

As we head into Super Bowl XLV, where Christina Aguilera is slated to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner," let's pause to remember some of the previous celebrities who've tested their lungs with the anthem...

Osvaldo Siqueira da Silva, 55, stopped to rest on a boulder. He was carrying five one-liter bottles of water to friends up the hill. "It has been four days," he said. "The president has flown over, I saw on TV. Is it taking them this long to get organized?"... Wanderson Ferreira de Carvalho lost 23 family members — including his wife and 2-year-old son — in the massive mudslides, yet spent Saturday hauling water and food up steep jungle trails. Emotionally numb, physically exhausted, he knew nobody else was going to help. "We have to help those who are alive,"...

When Jane Harrop was admitted to hospital with severe pains in her head and neck, staff told her she was merely suffering a migraine. Two days later she had died of a rare brain virus. Her family have now called for answers after the 30-year-old carer was ‘dosed up on morphine and left in a corner to die’ by nurses at the hospital, according to her husband. He said doctors failed again and again to spot the fatal virus which was killing her and did not transfer her to a specialist brain ward at a nearby hospital because no beds

The Associated Press reports that young adults will face higher premiums under ObamaCare: Beginning in 2014, most Americans will be required to buy insurance or pay a tax penalty. That’s when premiums for young adults seeking coverage on the individual market would likely climb by 17 percent on average, or roughly $42 a month, according to an analysis of the plan conducted for The Associated Press. The analysis did not factor in tax credits to help offset the increase. The higher costs will pinch many people in their 20s and early 30s who are struggling to start or advance their...

The White House is bracing for an ugly unemployment report on Friday that is expected to be worse because of the three winter storms that hit the East Coast last month. Goldman Sachs predicted the economy will lose as many as 100,000 jobs in February due to blizzard-like conditions that kept employers and prospective hires from getting to the office.

As I understand it ..

Movie critics are, by definition, folks with strong opinions about movies. But opinions are personal and subjective, so usually critical response to any movie is split between the positive and the negative. Still, there are a few extraordinary films every year that unite reviewers. When they all uniformly praise a movie, it's probably close to a masterpiece. When they all hate a flick, it probably stinks worse than week-old Limburger. RottenTomatoes.com, which aggregates the opinions of over 100 professional movie critics and distills them down to a single numeric "freshness" rating, has compiled the "Worst of the Worst," a list...

authorities called back an aircraft from the runway on Sunday to arrest a suspected jihadi who had a lookout notice issued against him by the Intelligence Bureau. The Kerala Police is still in the dark about Kabir, a resident of Rippon in Wayanad district, but unconfirmed reports say the IB suspects him of being involved in terror attacks, including the Bangalore blasts in 2008. He is also believed to be close to absconding Indian Mujahideen commander Tadiyantavide Nasir, who is also wanted for the Bangalore serial blasts. Kabir was held at the end of some dramatic moments, which saw a...

Bad, Barney, bad Posted on Sat, Jan. 24, 2009 10:15 PM Troubled OneUnited Bank in Boston didn’t look much like a candidate for aid from the Treasury Department’s bank bailout fund last fall. The Treasury had said it would give money only to healthy banks. But OneUnited had seen most of its capital evaporate and was under attack for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses, including owning a Porsche for its executives’ use. Nonetheless, OneUnited got a $12 million injection from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program in December. The reason: the intercession of Democratic Rep. Barney Frank,...

Berlin - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck on Sunday ruled out the creation of a 'bad bank' to take toxic assets from the nation's major financial institutions. Such a bank would need to be funded by at least 150-200 billion euros (198-260 billion dollars) of taxpayers' money, the minister told the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 'How could I take such a proposal to the federal parliament,' he asked. 'The nation would think we've gone crazy.'

A retired NYPD officer raped a woman after drugging her at a Bronx bar and hauling her to a motel in Westchester, police said. Greenburgh detectives charged ex-cop Jose Arroyo, 46, with the November rape and kidnapping of the 31-year-old woman. Arroyo, who left the force in 2005, slipped a drug in the woman's drink while they chatted at Doyle's Pub in Throggs Neck, police said. ">Snip<"

The Dimmest Bulb of 2008: Vice-President-elect - Joe Biden There are a lot of reasons why congressional reporters long ago nicknamed the Delaware Democrat as "Senator Gaffe." His performance as Barack Obama's vice presidential nominee demonstrated yet again that Biden is a truly gifted goof. Here's Biden's top five goofs, as rated by About.com's Daniel Kurtzma: 5. "Look, Jon's last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the No.1 job facing the middle-class, and it happens to be, as Barak says, a three letter word: jobs, J-O-B-S, jobs." 4. "A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will...

It's kind of hard to be surprised by bad economic and budget news in California these days. After all, there's virtual unanimty that we're in deep you-know-what. And yet, today's full analysis by the Legislature's nonpartisan budget watchers is still shocking... probably for its opinion that the problems stretch across almost every single aspect of state revenues and expenditures. The annual fiscal outlook, the first under newly minted Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, adds some details to the gloomy projections the LAO released just nine days ago. That projection focused on a $28 billion gap by July 2010. Ready for some...

Well, the election is over, and 65 million Americans chose Barack Obama to be their President despite his lack of experience, troubling associations and socialist ideals. Yes. Apparently, most Americans were willing to put these pesky details aside in order to usher in an Era of Good Feeling. Of course, I can’t help but fear that we’ve actually begun the Era of Bad Thinking. That remains to be seen, however, so in the meantime, let’s take a closer look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the 2008 Presidential Election. The Good Believe it or not, there is...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – As President-elect Obama visits the White House, a new national poll suggests that the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most unpopular president in the six decades since presidential approval ratings were first measured. Seventy-six percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday disapprove of how George W. Bush is handling his job as President. That's an all-time high in CNN polling, or in Gallup polling dating back to World War II. "No other president's disapproval rating has gone higher than 70 percent. Bush has managed to do that three times...

WASHINGTON -- Bush administration officials today unveiled a dramatic partial nationalization of the U.S. financial system, a series of "unprecedented and aggressive steps" to pour at least $250 billion into the banking system and expand federal insurance protection in the largest government intervention since the 1930s. "Today, we are taking decisive actions to protect the U.S. economy. We regret having to take these actions," said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. "Today's actions are not what we ever wanted to do, but today's actions are what we must do to restore confidence in our financial system." President Bush announced the...

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders. The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring. Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest...

As I have followed recent events, particularly of the past three weeks, I am compelled to share some thoughts about what is going on in banking: Merrill Lynch. Lehman Brothers. Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac. It's a who's who of Wall Street giants - all in trouble. If these giants can't survive the country's economic woes, what chance can the smaller community banks have? The answer is most community banks did not participate in the subprime mess responsible for the upheaval across the country. We are going about business as usual, working hard for our communities and doing fine.

For the money being paid, this has to be one of the worst commercials made. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiVMPgCf6YY

I would like to reinforce the disaster [Romney] was for our state, said Walsh. There were 40,000 fewer people working in Massachusetts when he left than when he arrived. That is because we actually had a loss in population for two consecutive years under his stewardship. That is why Mitt Romney was so unpopular when he left. Forty-one percent of Massachusetts voters would be less likely to vote for John McCain if Mitt Romney were on the ticket. // For more information go to www.TheNextCheney.com

During the primaries, McCain considered Romney an opportunist who would say or do anything to get elected. Of Romney he said, "Never get into a wrestling match with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it." Will McCain flip for a flip-flopper? Romney is a fabled flip-flopper, changing from mild-mannered moderate to indignant conservative. McCain sarcastically told Romney, "You are the candidate of change." If McCain picked Romney he'd seem like a flip-flopper himself. And Romney, as the loyal running mate, would have to flip back to positions he had flopped from before. His rhetorical contortions would...

Bad guys really do get the most girls 18 June 2008 NewScientist.com news service Mason Inman NICE guys knew it, now two studies have confirmed it: bad boys get the most girls. The finding may help explain why a nasty suite of antisocial personality traits known as the "dark triad" persists in the human population, despite their potentially grave cultural costs. The traits are the self-obsession of narcissism; the impulsive, thrill-seeking and callous behaviour of psychopaths; and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism. At their extreme, these traits would be highly detrimental for life in traditional human societies. People...

Lynching lawyers, as Shakespeare once suggested, has never appealed much to the legal profession itself – literally or figuratively. But an exception apparently will be made for a group of attorneys who advised President Bush and his national security staff in the aftermath of 9/11. They've been subject to an increasingly determined campaign of public obloquy by law professors, activist lawyers and pundits. Their legal competence and ethics have been questioned. Suggestions have even been made that they can and should be held criminally responsible for "war crimes," because their legal advice supposedly led to detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib...

WASHINGTON, March 27, 2008 – Army officials announced today that the service has suspended its contract with a company that delivered ammunition from China for use by Afghan army and police forces in a way that violated the contract terms. Officials from the Army Legal Services Agency notified Edraim Diveroli, president of the Miami Beach-based AEY Inc., that his company is suspended from future contracting with any U.S. government agency. That letter, dated March 25, follows an Army investigation launched in November regarding AEY’s violation of its contract. The Army contracted with AEY in January 2007 to supply various types...

Today, I cover (briefly) some advice to guys about Valentines, and such.

HONOLULU: The top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said Thursday he is "perplexed and concerned" by China's last-minute decision to deny a U.S. aircraft carrier entry to Hong Kong for a previously scheduled port visit. The USS Kitty Hawk and its escort ships were due to dock in Hong Kong for a four-day visit Wednesday until they were refused access. Hundreds of family members who had flown to Hong Kong to spend Thanksgiving with their sailors were stranded by the move. "It's hard to put any kind of positive spin on this," Adm. Timothy Keating told The Associated Press...

Source: Association for Psychological Science Date: August 28, 2007 We Remember Bad Times Better Than Good Science Daily — Do you remember exactly where you were when you learned of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks? Your answer is probably yes, and researchers are beginning to understand why we remember events that carry negative emotional weight. In the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Boston College psychologist, Elizabeth Kensinger and colleagues, explain when emotion is likely to reduce our memory inconsistencies. Her research shows that whether an event is pleasurable or...

PARACHINAR: Tension gripped Kurram Agency on Wednesday as the Pakistan Army sent reinforcements to the Pak-Afghan border following reports that the Afghan National Army had deployed in significant numbers on the Durand Line along with extra artillery and mortar guns. The situation became even more serious in the evening when the political administration decided to make announcements from mosques and through vehicles fitted with loudspeakers about the possibility of outbreak of firing on the Pak-Afghan border. It advised the people not to become scared due to intense firing because this would be due to the situation on the border and...

Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore thinks TV is worse than it used to be - because the BBC is run by women. The presenter of The Sky At Night also belittled female newsreaders in an interview with the Radio Times, describing them as "these jokey women". Sir Patrick, 84, criticised the BBC for showing interesting programmes late at night, especially the 650th edition of The Sky At Night, which went out at 2am Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore

New details emerged about a massive bombing that was averted two months ago when the explosive device failed to go off, YnetNews reported. 25-year-old Omar Ahmed Abu al-Rob traveled from Jenin to Tel Aviv via Jerusalem, exploiting gaps in the separation barrier. The whole time, he carried the explosive device in his backpack, with the batteries not yet connected. When he arrived in Tel Aviv, he connected the batteries to the explosive device, apparently incorrectly.

WOMEN are more prone to ogling than men despite the widespread belief they are less focused on the physical, a study suggests. Scientists used eye-tracking technology to pinpoint what people looked at when shown a series of sexy photos. They expected women to be more interested in faces, and men in genitals. To their surprise, they found almost the reverse was true. Men were more likely than women to linger on the face before diverting their attention to other parts of the body. But women spent longer poring over images of couples performing sexual acts. Desire ... women ogle more...

That's right. John Piper is Bad. See the video here.

Apparently, Kevin Federline wasn't the only warm-blooded being Britney Spears ousted from her home this year. Once the proud owner of pampered pooches Bit-Bit, Lacy and Lucky, Spears ended the year dog-less, a feat that earned her the title of World's Worst Celebrity Dog Owner in an online poll of readers of Hollywood Dog and New York Dog magazines. "Britney was the overwhelming choice," editor Hilary O'Hagan said in a statement. "She once had three Chihuahuas and never left home without at least one of them on her arm. As soon as she met K-Fed and had kids, they disappeared."...

Via Tim Chapman, political analyst Larry Sabato is now predicting that the Democrats will take control of the House this November. In the end, he says, they will claim 221 to 225 total seats (with 218 needed to for the majority).

YUSUFIYAH – The sounds of car horns honking and chickens squawking were a soundtrack for prosperity at a market just south of Baghdad on July 13, where vendors displayed everything from clothing to ice and vegetables in this once insurgent-infested town. American, British and Iraqi forces fought pitched battles here in the fall of 2004, during a sweep of insurgents still loyal to Saddam's regime. Today, the market is full of faces looking forward to peaceful and uneventful days. “Before the American Army came to this area, it was full of insurgents and thieves and killers,” said Ali, who declined...

PHOENIX -- An Arizona man is betting that a chance at $1 million will bring more people to the polls. Dr. Mark Osterloh is a Tucson, Ariz., ophthalmologist and political activist who headed and bankrolled the campaign to get a proposal on the state's November ballot that would give one lucky voter $1 million. Under the proposal, anyone who actually casts a ballot would be eligible. Osterloh and other supporters submitted petitions Monday bearing what they said were more than 185,000 signatures of registered voters. That's well over the 122,000 required to put a proposed state law on the 2006...