Free Republic

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has fought against smoking, big sugary drinks and salty food during his tenure, is setting his sights on a new foe: Styrofoam. Bloomberg plans to use part of his Thursday State of the City address to push for a ban on Styrofoam food packaging. He also will call for initiatives that would increase the number of parking spaces for electric cars and begin recycling more plastics and food waste "One product that is virtually impossible to recycle and never bio-degrades is Styrofoam ... something that we know is environmentally destructive and that may...

NEW ORLEANS -- San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver created quite the ruckus this week when he intimated that anyone with a homosexual predilection would not be welcome on his team. Now, he's doing everything he can to get past that. According to his publicist, Theodore Palmer, Culliver will be working with "The Trevor Project," an organization that provides crisis and suicide intervention to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. "He's so passionate about youth and people being comfortable with who they are and accepted by all," Palmer said in a phone interview with the Associated Press on Saturday. "He's...

Of all the diabolically clever moves the anti-choice lobby has ever pulled, surely one of the greatest has been its consistent co-opting of the word “life.” Life! Who wants to argue with that? Who wants be on the side of … not-life? That’s why the language of those who support abortion has for so long been carefully couched in other terms. While opponents of abortion eagerly describe themselves as “pro-life,” the rest of us have had to scramble around with not nearly as big-ticket words like “choice” and “reproductive freedom.” The “life” conversation is often too thorny to even broach....

Hospitals are denying patients the latest life-extending cancer drugs, a report reveals. Dozens of trusts are failing to hand out treatments for bowel, ovarian, lung and brain cancer that have been approved by the NHS watchdog NICE. Some of these drugs have been shown to boost survival rates by a quarter while others have extended the lives of terminally-ill patients by over a year. The report - commissioned by the Department of Health - also reveals that many hospitals are failing to prescribe the latest treatments for heart attacks, asthma, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and Crohn’s Disease. In fact some of...

Hong Kong action hero Jackie Chan has once again provoked criticism, this time from an American blogger, after suggesting on Chinese television that the US is the "most corrupt" country in the world. "When you talk about corruption -- the whole world, is there corruption in the United States? The most corrupt in the world!" the Rush Hour star, who has made headlines recently for his controversial views, told Phoenix TV last month. Chan reaffirmed his view after the show's host questioned him -- "Of course! Where did the great breakdown come from? The world, the United States started it,"...

An Annapolis company whose old-fashioned trolleys are iconic in the city's wedding scene has abandoned the nuptial industry rather than serve same-sex couples. The owner of Discover Annapolis Tours said he decided to walk away from $50,000 in annual revenue instead of compromising his Christian convictions when same-sex marriages become legal in Maryland in less than a week. And he has urged prospective clients to lobby state lawmakers for a religious exemption for wedding vendors. While most wedding businesses across the country embraced the chance to serve same-sex couples, a small minority has struggled to balance religious beliefs against business...

The gunman who ambushed four volunteer firefighters, killing two, in upstate New York had spent 17 years in prison for beating his grandmother to death with a hammer in 1980, police said. Undated booking photo of William Spengler, who shot and killed two firefighters Monday. William Spengler opened fire on the volunteers as they responded to a blaze just before 6 a.m. ET in a small cluster of homes along Lake Ontario in Webster, N.Y., police said, rocking this close-knit community. The 62-year-old convicted felon had apparently set a trap, firing on the first responders from atop an earthen berm....

I thought this was hilarious, and I wanted to share it. No matter what is going on in your life, laughter is the best medicine. Merry Christmas!

A health clinic located in the Bronx released this holiday promotional video featuring Santa Claus handing out drug paraphernalia and condoms (Video at link) My comment: You all, this is sinking to a new level of perversion. Here we have a man in a poor excuse for a Santa costume giving out drug needles, male and female condoms, and dental dams. The staff of this "clinic" (looks very sketchy to me) are dancing around with these needles and condoms to Feliz Navidad. The liberals have done a fine job in their attempts to divorce Christ from Christmas. Many people do...

Full Title Was: Police arrest man with 47 guns after threatening to 'kill as many people as possible' at ANOTHER elementary school at the SAME TIME as Connecticut massacre An Indiana man with 47 guns and stocks of ammunition was arrested after threatening to go into a local elementary school and 'kill as many people as he could before police could stop him'. Von Meyer, 60, was arrested on Friday after his wife called Cedar Lake police after he threatened to set her on fire and continue his violent spree by attacking a nearby elementary school. The loaded threat came...

His Grace would like to congratulate the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the announcement that they are expecting their first baby. Girl or boy, he or she is destined to ascend the Throne and reign over the United Kingdom (should it remain united) and the Dominions overseas. But His Grace is puzzled. Everywhere he turns he reads about a Royal baby. Even The Guardian talks of the couple 'expecting their first child', despite the Duchess being in the 'very early stages' of pregnancy. We are told that the couple 'are to be parents', and that this 'will be the...

SEN. RAND PAUL: I have yet another thought on how we can fix this. Why don't we let the Democrats pass whatever they want? If they are the party of higher taxes, all the Republicans vote present and let the Democrats raise taxes as high as they want to raise them, let Democrats in the Senate raise taxes, let the president sign it and then make them own the tax increase. And when the economy stalls, when the economy sputters, when people lose their jobs, they know which party to blame, the party of high taxes. Let's don't be the...

SACRAMENTO – A new video produced by the California Federation of Teachers – which could be playing in your child’s classroom as we speak – drums up the typical class warfare images we’ve come to expect from Big Labor. “Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale,” written by CFT staffer Fred Glass (2011 compensation: $139,800) and narrated by proud leftist actor (and 1 percenter) Ed Asner, advocates for higher taxes on the “rich” as the cure for government’s insatiable thirst for spending. The video claims the rich got rich through tax cuts and tax loopholes and even tax evasion. But...

Nearly 6 in 10 young voters support bigger government — a worrisome statistic for conservatives who want to increase their presence on college campuses and among the under-30 crowd. According to the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of young voters think the government should do more — something only 44 percent of all voters support. On government-run healthcare, the most popular policy preference among young voters was to expand it. Young voters were also far more likely to identify as liberals and members of the Democratic Party than older generations. For young conservative activists, making inroads on college campuses will...

<p>JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Mississippi taxpayers may have only an empty Senatobia building and some solar panel equipment to show for nearly $26 million in loans provided to Twin Creeks Technologies.</p> <p>The California-based solar technology firm is liquidating, and a company that bought Twin Creeks' assets does not intend to take over its agreement with Mississippi. The contract called for Twin Creeks to invest at least $132 million and create at least 500 jobs.</p>

November 28, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The blog Run with Life has reported that, from 2000 to 2009, 491 babies have been born alive following a failed abortion procedure, and subsequently left to die. And those are only the ones that are recorded by Statistics Canada. The blog explains that “there were 491 abortions, of 20 weeks gestation and greater, that resulted in live births. This means that the aborted child died after it was born. These abortions are coded as P96.4 or ‘Termination of pregnancy, affecting fetus and newborn’.” The question that should immediately present itself is, why has there...

After effectively barring conservative columnist Ann Coulter from speaking on campus last week, the Jesuit college Fordham University welcomed infanticide and bestiality advocate Peter Singer for a panel discussion on Friday. According to Fordham’s media relations website, Singer, a tenured Princeton bioethics professor, spoke from 4 to 6 p.m. in a panel the university promised “will provoke Christians to think about other animals in new ways.” Singer has long lamented the societal stigma against having sex with animals. “Not so long ago,” Singer wrote in one essay, “any form of sexuality not leading to the conception of children was seen...

Los Angeles is hoping to persuade people to become vegetarian – at least one day per week. Under a resolution unanimously approved by the city council this week, all future Mondays in the City of Angels have been declared "Meatless Mondays." It's part of an international campaign to cut down on meat consumption for health and environmental reasons. Both the spiritual home of the hamburger and a haven for the health-obsessed, Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to support the Meatless Monday campaign. The nonprofit initiative, started in 2003, is associated with Johns Hopkins University's public health...

A school district in Maine is apologizing after middle school students learned about homosexual foreplay during what was supposed to be a “Diversity Day” presentation. “I don’t want my child taught heterosexual foreplay, let alone homosexual foreplay,” outraged parent Kristy Howard told Fox News. The principal of Gorham Middle School sent a letter to parents apologizing for the graphic nature of the presentation by PRYSM, Proud Rainbow Youth of Southern Maine. “They went beyond the scope of our intentions and discussed topics that we do not deem appropriate for our middle school,” Robert Riley wrote in a letter obtained by...

Mitt Romney Held a Rally in Toledo OH and these NutJobs Showed Up! All 30 of Them! LOL!! Must see the woman in green's rant. She and the Obama phone lady would get on swell.