Free Republic

Here ruining people is considered sport ~Vince Foster, August 1993

As the director of the Easter Island Statue Project — the longest-continuous collaborative artifact inventory ever conducted on the Polynesian island that belongs to Chile — Van Tilburg has opened a window on one of the greatest achievements of Pacific prehistory on one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. She and her team of resident Rapa Nui have spent nine years locating and meticulously documenting the nearly 1,000 statues on the island, determining their symbolic meaning and function, and conserving them using state-of-the-art techniques. After spending four months over the last two years excavating two of the...

Just an FYI. Some info the mainstream won't report. Senator Grassley's information alleging Obama wanted to be kept informed according to Lisa Page. NBC is reporting it. Just in case you are interested. Too much to do to engage in a lot of chat about it.

When the sun rose on April 19, 1993, it marked the 51st day of a standoff between dozens of federal agents and members of an apocalyptic religious sect called the Branch Davidians, who had barricaded themselves in their compound outside Waco, Texas.

Caked in mud and covered with bug bites, a shivering group of six friends from the Quad-Cities huddled together in the dark this past Sunday, stranded in the woods of northeast Iowa.

Photos and more than 350 "intense" letters from Pope John Paul II to a married woman he corresponded with for more than three decades have been found at the National Library of Poland, Deutsche Welle reports, via a BBC documentary. The notes and images—often showing the pontiff, who was made a saint in 2014, in casual wear—reveal a friendship between himself and American philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka that included holidays spent together and an intimate relationship that historians are trying to figure out. "Here is one of the handful of transcendentally great figures in public life in the 20th century, the...

You can listen live at the link. I need to concentrate and can't listen and chat very well. I posted the following on the Trump Justice Roberts thread which was OT. I wish somebody had the means to record it. It's already in about 15 minutes.

BETTENDORF, Iowa (KWQC) – Police are responding to calls of a possible shooter in the 4500 block of Utica Ridge in Bettendorf. It appears to have started at the Marine recruiting office located at 710 E. Kimberly Rd. in Davenport around 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, 2015. A witness tells TV-6 that he heard shots fired at a law office next to the Marine recruiting center. He says he heard screaming and then heard the gunman try to reload his gun. A Marine recruiter told everyone to run. As the witness was running, he said he heard more gunfire. Kimberly...

DESERET RANCH, Fla. (AP) — Under one of the biggest land development plans ever proposed in Florida, a tract more than six times the size of Manhattan could be transformed from a home for cows and alligators into new housing developments for half a million people. Over the next six decades, the plan being developed by the Mormon church-owned Deseret Ranch promises to convert the largest undeveloped section of metro Orlando into more than a dozen bustling neighborhoods.

(NEWSER) – On Tuesday, a Florida school board approved a $600,000 payout to the families of three students who died after being hypnotized by their high school principal, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports. The bizarre case started in 2011 when 16-year-old North Port High School student Wesley McKinley hanged himself after being hypnotized by principal George Kenney multiple times. Friends say McKinley couldn't remember his own name after hypnosis sessions to improve his guitar playing.

DES MOINES — What would Jesus do? If he were a member of the Iowa Legislature, Rep. Rob Taylor believes he would peacefully protest the morning prayer by a Wiccan priestess. So the West Des Moines Republican turned his back Thursday and prayed silently as Cedar Rapids Cabot witch Deborah Maynard appealed to “god, goddess, universe, that which is greater than ourselves.” Many of his colleagues chose not to attend the daily prayer. But Taylor said that after praying over it, he decided the appropriate response would be to “be in the presence of a prayer, but peacefully protest.” Despite...

<p>When the mayor vetoed the building of a sports stadium in a residential neighborhood, SAU sold the property to Assumption High School which was not restricted to the residential zoning regulations.</p> <p>This has been going on for a couple of years now.</p>

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Ruby Graupera-Cassimiro had gone 45 minutes without a pulse when doctors called her family into the operating room and told them there was nothing more they could do. A team of more than a dozen doctors and nurses had been working desperately to revive her. But now they'd lost hope that the 40-year-old Deerfield Beach woman, whose heart had given out without warning after a routine C-section at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, was going to make it. Devastated, Graupera-Cassimiro's husband, mother and sister said goodbye to her just hours after they'd welcomed a healthy baby girl....

A team of researchers believe a knuckle bone found buried beneath a Bulgarian church may belong to John the Baptist, the New Testament prophet who heralded the ministry of Jesus. (Photo Included in article)

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Francie who is dear to my heart and many others. She passed away early yesterday morning at my ex-husband's home, and I'm feeling like my prayers failed her. I sent for some water from Kateri's shrine, my daughter took it up to her, and she rubbed some on herself. She was 43 years old, leaves behind five children and had a difficult life, but she probably didn't see it that way. She had an indomitable spirit even through her pain and suffering. She wanted to get well and ride her bike...

In a startling acknowledgment that the Los Angeles school system cannot improve enough schools on its own, the city Board of Education approved a plan Tuesday that could turn over 250 campuses -- including 50 new multimillion-dollar facilities -- to charter groups and other outside operators.

For those who don’t have the address handy, the president will be residing for the next few weeks at: The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Hanania thoughtfully suggests shoe mailers label their package indicating it’s part of the “Shoe Protest” campaign. Gives new meaning to voting with your feet.

Dec. 5, 2008 | Barack Obama can't be president: He wasn't really born in Hawaii, and the certification of live birth his campaign released is a forgery. He was born in Kenya. Or maybe Indonesia. Or, wait, maybe he was born in Hawaii -- but that doesn't matter, since he was also a British citizen at birth because of his father, and you can't be a "natural-born citizen" in that case. (But then, maybe his "father" wasn't really his father; maybe his real dad was an obscure communist poet. Or Malcolm X.)

It was in the QCTimes the other day but wasn't confirmed. Just heard on radio. They said it would be at Central High School, but looks like it may have been changed to the River Center, downtown Davenport. Doors open 8:30 am; Program 10:30am. Tickets are required and will be available at Scott County Republican Party Headquarters Thursday at 9:00 am. Headquarters are located at 1880 E 54th Street, Dav, IA. The phone number is (563) 332-9666. Also have another phone number (563) 823-5854. When I pick up our tickets, if there are any changes, will post an update. I'm...

UPDATED: Three people are accused in connection with a vandalism spree at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church and School in Davenport that left dozens of broken windows, a damaged statue of the Virgin Mary and spray-painted vulgarities