Free Republic

The navy times has published, apparently, that DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is now moving forward with a flying aircraft carrier. Before you scoff, they aren't talking about putting wings on a nuclear carrier. They will be using a long loiter time C-130 as a carrier for drones, recon and armed. What the oldtimers here know, of course, is that these will not be the first Navy flying aircraft carriers. In fact it was way back in the early 1930's, when the USS Akron and the USS Macon, 2 of what might have become a long class of...

For what it's worth, the Taliban kill 126 children, claiming that education is poison. In a related note, the very word Taliban comes from the root word Talib, meaning student. They were created in schools, armed themselves with the certainty that they therefore understood everything, and formed the organization "The students". The only reason I post this is that I haven't seen this remarked upon yet. With such astonishing hipocrisy, it must be that the Taliban are an offshoot of progressivism.

Though the Separation of Church and State is a relatively new concept, it has been declared settled law by the Media. That is much like the "settled science" of the extinct polar bears and the rapidly rising oceans flooding the coastal areas in the comfortably distant future of 2014. Or at least it seemed that way in 1994. Or at least it was reported that way in 1994, as fact, by the media. Disagreement was ridiculed. It isn't popular among certain conservatives, but the clause about "no laws respecting an establishment of religion" was actually well designed by the founders....

A highly placed, anonymous White House source, after she got Malia and Sasha ready for school, has reported that the source of the cost overruns for most of the Obama initiatives has finally been identified. It has been confirmed that when the Bush team left the White House, they pried the “O”s off of the keyboards there, and replaced them with “0”s. It now explains why everything that bears Obama’s name costs ten times more than it should have, and is the previous President’s fault. “Those extra zeros are cruel,” Maxine Waters confirmed. “Now that we hired last week someone...

Bill O'Reilly, along with a good number of other pundits, seems exasperated that Governor Romney didn't hammer away at Obama about the Libyan scandal, during the debate. Bill O'Reilly obviously hasn't taken the time over the years to understand the psychology of scandals. If he had, he would realize that Mitt Romney is either: A.. much smarter that Karl Rove and a good many other former Republican consultants, or B.. has hired a few very smart advisers. When a scandal breaks, a candidate can approach things in one of 2 ways. One way is to immediately attack his opponent with...

Bill O'Reilly, along with a good number of other pundits, seems exasperated that Governor Romney didn't hammer away at Obama about the Libyan scandal, during the debate. Bill O'Reilly obviously hasn't taken the time over the years to understand the psychology of scandals. If he had, he would realize that Mitt Romney is either: A.. much smarter that Karl Rove and a good many other former Republican consultants, or B.. has hired a few very smart advisers. When a scandal breaks, a candidate can approach things in one of 2 ways. One way is to immediately attack his opponent with...

Now for the first time on T.V., a product which can save your life! If you have fallen, and find yourself lying on the floor- in fact lying harder than you have ever lied before when you had the floor to yourself, a new hope is here. Just press “Wife Alert”, and you will find the help and support you need from your loved one. For the first time in your life, you will be proud of a country that can produce such a great product. At the push of her button, your wife with summon help with an immediate...

On 15-Jun-2012, a story appeared in the Columbus Dispatch, exposing an ongoing investigation from the State Auditor's office into corruption in the Columbus Public Schools. It seems that a creative way had been discovered to improve dramatically the alarming truancy rate in the Columbus school system. School officials found that by altering attendance records, they could stem the loss of state funding dollars by simply "adjusting" students' attendance data. What they were talking about was not a matter of simply fixing the problems of a few cronies' children. In fact, dogged research by a real auditor, who had been "warned...

"Wasn't he, uh, that guy who said 'Give me liberty or give me death'?" Yeah, he was. If any mention is made of Patrick Henry, or any incidental reference linked to his name, the vast majority of folks remember he said something like that, since it is cited as his single, or at least the most 'historical thing' that he did. What they don't remember was the obstructionism he caused in the framing of our Constitution. Kindness, perhaps, leaves him with only that one quote as his single contribution to American history. Kindness, perhaps, leaves out the problems he introduced...

As this greatest of all hoaxes crumbles further, it should provide much merriment to watch those who previously slandered all who did not buy into it, now seek to distance themselves from their libels.

{ring}....{ring}....{ring} Glance at clock, 8:23 A.M, Saturday Morning. Reach out from under bedsheet.. "Hello." "Hello. This is an automated survey from the University of Cincinnati. You will be asked a series of questions on your views abo-" CLICK. Grrrr. It suddenly occurs to me that the autoringer I bought on a lark from EBAY for 25 bucks plus shipping, is about to find it's first use. Throw on P.J.'s, pad down to basement desk, fire up computer. Click Internet Explorer. Click on Google.com. Enter 'University of Cincinnati Board of Regents phone numbers'. ENTER. Ahhhhh. Flip on printer. Print Screen. Locate...

Heavy gains were made in the stock market yesterday as traders reacted to the news that a shoelace factory in Burma would increase hiring. An unnamed spokesman for White House spokesman Jay Carney, brushed aside suggestions that optimism was instead more closely related to the recently demonstrated power in Michigan that voters have finally had just about enough of progressive economic vandalism. "Suggestions that extremist conservative ideas, such as acting responsibly with taxpayers money, could possibly have any bearing on whether or not people choose to invest, is simply silly. It had to be the shoelace factory. Anyway, that's our...

Last election cycle, voters in both Wisconsin and Ohio elected conservative governors committed to breaking the death-grip that unions held over state finances. In the case of Wisconsin, the backlash took the form of a recall vote, which "backlashed" badly against the backlashers. Us Tea Party types got to spend last evening pleasantly musing as to exactly how the liberal media was going to spin this one. However... lest we forget, in Ohio, John Kasich did about the same thing, putting his political fortunes on the line to break the Ohio union machine. The only difference was that he did...

President Obama has spent several years apologizing to persons and powers all over the world. Far more is now needed. Pundits have warned about the damage that could have been done by hookers being in the same hotel rooms with secret service agents who had access to matters of national security. They are shocked- yes shocked- to realize that the country's interests could have been damaged by this occurrence. These hookers deserve a public apology. Which of these hookers could have damaged our national security as much as the persons the President installed in place to advise him? Could any...

My father delivered a bread route in the 1950's. In that day, the trucks had no heaters, so the drivers kept a small fire going in a metal pot, set on the floorboard. It was risky, but they survived. Starting at 3:00 in the morning, in was rather chilly in Ohio on winter days My mother stayed at home and raised nine kids. We were a catholic family, and no shame attached to being a primary care-giver to a large family. Imagine my shame today, to know that dear old mom was in the same class of ne'er do well...

The latest report from the coroner is that Martin's body didn't show any evidence, of any sort, of being in a fight. No bruising or anything else. The latest photos of Zimmerman show lacerations and bruising on the back of his head, stark testimony of being struck from behind, or else having his head impacted on something hard, such as the ground, when he was lying down. Someone called out "Help, help!" Considering human nature, I wonder whether it was more likely that the person desperately calling for help was the one receiving the beatings and bruising... or the one...

The origins of the conflict between Iran and the U.S. go back decades. To understand them is to get a better idea of how we got here. At the start of Eisenhower's presidency, in 1952, Iran was a country barely removed from the middle ages. The famed General H. Norman Schwarzkopf's father, (who, after retiring from the New Jersey State Police, was best for a radio "gang-busters" show he did,) had been hired by the Shah to build an Iranian national police force- the first successful attempt to even nudge Iran towards the 20th century. Illiteracy was rampant; poverty was...

In the closing hours of World War 2, the Japanese found themselves in a fix. Increasingly Japanese citizens, who had been assured by their mainstream media that the war was practically won, emerged from the shelters after the latest bombings of their cities, and asked themselves, "If the week before last we annihilated the all of American carriers in the battle of Saipan... And last week we sank all of their remaining few ships off-shore of Iwo island. And yesterday we decisively destroyed their poorly defended airfields, then exactly why... today, is it us who are eating grass and burying...

In a dated Clint Eastwood movie, "Two Mules for Sister Sarah", the female lead played a nun who was protected and escorted across Mexico during the revolution. It's always good to have a gunslinger to deal with the fire. Of course sometimes, scary as it is, you have no choice but to become the gunslinger. On the upside, you draw the fire to yourself that otherwise would drive so many to ground and into foxholes. On the downside... you've drawn all the fire to yourself! For Sarah Palin, who has done a fair job in the last couple of years...

In the elections last night, Ohio voters decisively turned back "Ohio Senate Bill 5", which would have limited the power of the public service unions, and forced union members to pay a significant part of their own health care insurance premiums. Granted it was not as much of a share as the Ohio taxpayer had to fork out for their own coverage, but compared to what the union members had been paying... it was an outrage. The issue was settled by State Issue 2, which was a referendum on the Senate bill. The unions can now celebrate a key win,...