Free Republic

While Europe is inching ever closer to plunging into a financial abyss, there are moments of comic relief provided by the current President of the United States. He has not only become the butt of innumerable jokes but his re-election campaign tactics are the stuff of low-brow comedy. A case in point, his recent "evolution" in to supporting gay marriage. **snip** Why did he do it? Sheer, naked opportunism. Like the contraception issue before it, this is an attempt to distract from how bad the economy is. What will Obama do next in his desperate bid for re-election? Make a...

Members of the “mainstream” press have worked hard to promote what President Barack Obama calls an “income-inequality crisis” based on studies claiming that the middle class is shrinking and got left behind in the greatest economic expansion in modern American history. However, a new, more comprehensive investigation indicates that the earlier research isn't wrong, it's just “incredibly, massively incomplete.” snip Ed Morrissey stated in his post on the new study that “the bottom line is clear: there is no income-inequality 'crisis.' At best it’s a misunderstanding of the data based on incomplete and irregular analysis, and at worst, it’s a...

Neither rain nor sleet nor Hurricane Irene will prevent soldiers from standing sentry at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. Though most businesses, shops, and government offices will be closed, not even the hurricane expected to hit the Washington area this weekend—and its roughly 85-miles-per-hour winds—will keep the guards from their duty. “The tomb has been guarded continuously since 1948,” said Maj. John Miller, a spokesman for the Old Guard, the Army unit that patrols the place. “There’s been severe in the past. There will be severe weather in the future. We have contingency plans.” -snip- Tradition...

Late last week, I fisked Richard Stengel’s Time Magazine cover story “One Document, Under Seige” (update: click here for the one page version) but it deserves more discussion. I consider it nothing less than a journalistic scandal that this piece was (1) a cover story, (2) written by their Managing Editor, (3) who serves in an organization dedicated to teaching other journalists about the Constitution, and yet it is rife with factual errors, including many that are obvious simply by reading the Constitution.

Is Toronto in the dark when it comes to Earth Hour? Millions of people from 134 countries — from Delhi, India to Heidelberg, Germany — switched off their lights and televisions for the fifth annual Earth Hour on Saturday night to show their support for action on climate change. But Toronto only saw a 5 per cent power drop during the event — half of the reduction achieved during Earth Hour in 2010. The year before that, the city had a 15 per cent drop in megawatts being used. “Honestly we still think it’s successful, we think it’s a great...

Credited with creating the innovative "Wishbone" offensive attack, legendary football coach Emory Bellard died early Thursday morning at his care facility in Georgetown, Texas, the Bellard family has confirmed. Bellard, 83 (date of birth: Dec. 27, 1927), had been battling ALS, which is commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. A Celebration of Life is set for Saturday, Feb. 19 in Georgetown with the exact time and location information still pending. Former Texas A&M head coach R.C. Slocum, who was originally hired at A&M by Bellard in December, 1971, spent time with Bellard in the last week. Slocum related, "(Coach Bellard)...

After scrapping the Bing Thom-designed bridges last year because they were deemed too costly, Fort Worth officials unveiled a new V-pier design for the Trinity River Vision Project that they say can be built on time and within budget. The three bridges on Henderson Street, North Main Street and White Settlement Road will be built in two-year increments and are projected to cost $65 million. When land acquisition, relocation costs, environmental cleanup and design expenses are added, the total is projected to be $110 million, a savings of more than $45 million over the Bing Thom-designed bridges. That $110 million...

I don’t speak for all Libertarians any more than Sean Penn speaks for all Democrats. I’m not even sure my LP membership card is up to date. I’ve voted Libertarian as long as I can remember but I don’t really remember much before the Clintons and the Bushes. Those clans made a lot of us bugnutty. When I go on Glenn’s show he calls me a Libertarian, I think that’s my only real credential. There are historical reasons and pragmatic reasons to be a Libertarian, but there are historic and pragmatic reasons to be a Democrat, a Republican or a...

CNBC Demonstrates Why Liberals Don't Understand Economics By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive) November 25, 2008 - 16:19 ET Doesn't it amaze you when some liberal media member actually claims that raising taxes is good for the economy, and uses the Clinton Era to prove his or her specious point?Such transpired Tuesday afternoon when CNBC's Trish Regan invited liberal columnist David Sirota on to discuss president-elect Barack Obama's plans to get the economy rolling again. True to the liberal motif, Sirota spoke fiscal and economic non sequiturs that only the deluded and/or uneducated could possibly agree with (video embedded...

Sorry for the vanity... but I've got a question that I hope someone can help me understand. A caller to the Wells Report on KLIF in Dallas/Fort Worth just brought up an interesting thought... what happened to the PMI that people who put down less than 20% are required to purchase when they obtain a mortgage? Shouldn't these companies be paying off on some of the mortgages that have defaulted? Is this what got AIG in trouble? Anyone have insight on this?

Just how obvious is it that the media's economic and business coverage is so negatively skewed that it has to be part of a political agenda in an election year? Obvious enough for the folks at Fox News to do an entire segment Saturday morning asking the extraordinary question: "Media ‘Talking Down' the Economy to Get a Dem Elected?" Despite my surprise seeing "Cavuto on Business" begin with such a question framed at the bottom of the screen, I was almost enraptured by the comments from Neil's guests which not only included regular assertions that this is clearly about getting...

Sorry for the vanity. My wife is a trust officer and has a beneficiary that she believes may be planning to scam the trust that was set up for her daughter. Among the provisions of the trust is to provide for the girl's education. The mother has a history of enrolling the daughter in private schools, getting the tuition reimbursed, then withdrawing the girl and pocketing the refund from the school. Now, the mother is claiming that she is going to homeschool the girl and is asking for money to support her effort. My questions are: Are there specific requirements...

A Dallas police officer died Friday when his motorcycle struck a curb on the Houston Street viaduct as he was escorting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to a rally in Oak Cliff. "One of our motorcycle jockeys rounded the curb, hit the curb, and went down," said Lt. Vernon Hale, spokesman for the Dallas Police Department. The officer's motorcycle was near the rear of the motorcade as it headed south on the viaduct when the accident happened about 9:20 a.m. Police identified the officer as Senior Cpl. Victor Lozada, 49, a 20-year veteran of the department. "There are no routine jobs...

On Tuesday, NewsBusters exposed the New York Times using the death of a highly-regarded American scientist, Dr. Robert Jastrow, to advance global warming alarmism. In response to my e-mail message concerning the matter, Dr. Albert Arking, the former colleague of Jastrow's quoted in the piece, stated, "The NY Times article came out of a long conversation (initiated by the writer, John Schwartz), and it may not have conveyed my thoughts precisely." What follows is Arking's full answer to my query concerning this Times article, with emphasis added to highlight important points for the reader: The NY Times article came out...

NewsBuster Noel Sheppard reported on the global climate meetings in Bali, particularly the letter sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon by a number of prominent scientists stating that the global warming hysteria was overblown. Now comes an attempt by US Senator James Inhofe to warn about the true goals of this movement. Inhofe is a tireless crusader for truth in advertising where the global warming hysteria crowd is concerned. On the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works site he maintains the Inhofe EPW blog, wherein he and his staff update the hysteria of the global warming crowd. Today,...

STATEMENT FROM DENNIS FRANCHIONE: "Kim & I have arrived at the decision to step down as head football coach out of respect and love for our players, for this University and its football program. I've always said that coaches exist for only one reason-the players. We have an outstanding group of young men on this team and especially great people. We want them to know that we love them, feel blessed for our time together, and will miss them. We appreciate the opportunity we have had at this great institution to work with this administration, the people throughout this department...

Recently on "20/20," I said "give me a break" to Al Gore for claiming that the global-warming debate is over and suggesting that all dissenters were in it for the money. I interviewed independent scientists who say Gore is wrong. Some people were relieved to finally hear the other side: "Thank you, thank you, thank you for your report on climate change. … I'm sick of hearing 'the debate's over' and writing anyone who differs off as a nut. This report showed the true nature of the debate and true lack of consensus, something you can't get anywhere else." Others...

With just under two months left in the year, 2007 is on course to be the deadliest year on record for American forces in Iraq, despite a recent sharp drop in U.S. deaths. At least 847 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year the second-highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003, according to Associated Press figures. In 2004, the bloodiest year of the war for the U.S. so far, 850 American troops died. Most were killed in large, conventional battles like the campaign to cleanse Fallujah of Sunni militants in November, and U.S....

While serving in Iraq, I was captured and tortured by an insurgent group. As they say, I have "been there, done that". After my time in the service and after seeing the true nature of this occupation, I now am speaking out against this war and this administration. Rush Limbaugh calls me and my comrades that have chosen to take this stand "phoney soldiers". I urge Rep. John Murtha, Sen. Harry Reid and all true partiots in the Congress of the United States to pass legislation removing Mr. Limbaugh from the public airwaves... by force if necessary. Pfc. Adams during...

How can I put this nicely? Mary Mapes has reality "issues." Three years after the Memogate producer was exposed for having perpetrated one of the worst frauds in the history of presidential-campaign journalism, she continues to paint herself as the victim of a right-wing conspiracy. And incredibly, despite a mountain of incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, she clings to the notion that the blatantly forged documents at the heart of Memogate were authentic. Mapes's meltdown-in-the-guise-of-a-column appeared in yesterday's Huffington Post. Excerpts from the metaphor-gone-wild "Courage for Dan Rather" [emphasis added]: [We] reaped a whirlwind of right-wing outrage and talk radio...