Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Satire Wire) - Speaking at the White House this morning, President Barack Obama announced to reporters that, in lieu of his receiving a speaker's fee for his giving the commencement address there on May 17, the Federal government would be acquiring a controlling interest in Notre Dame University.

Vote "Yes" or "No" at the link, one vote per customer. And tell your friends. This show featured a brief documentary they filmed before Sarah was picked for the Republican ticket—had to be before, since it was positive. The doc was about how popular she is as governor, and how she isn't afraid to negotiate with the oil companies.

PORT CARBON, Pa. - Three white teens were charged Friday in what officials said was an epithet-filled fatal beating of an illegal Mexican immigrant in a small northeast Pennsylvania coal town. . . According to a police affidavit, the defendants and three 17-year-olds encountered Ramirez, 25, and a teenage girl in a park the night of July 12. . . Crystal Dillman, the victim's 24-year-old fiancee, who is white and grew up in Shenandoah, has said Ramirez was often called derogatory names and told to return to his homeland. The couple had two children together, and Dillman also has a...

This is one movie that I have enjoyed as much as the trailer! As the end credits started to roll, my six-year-old (girl) popped up her head and loudly asked if I would buy the DVD. . . THE GUYS...ARE GUYS! They are not "juiced up" thirty-somethings with sculpted muscles and steroids to match, nor are they psychologically tortured, identity-challenged, oversexed teenagers. They are young males who are not afraid to spill some blood when necessary for the greater good. . . THE GIRLS...ARE GIRLS! . . . [T]he usual "girl empowerment" pomposity that almost universally plagues today's child actresses...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks traded at their lowest in more than two weeks Monday, pulling back as Moody's Investors Services warned it could lower bond-insurer credit ratings because of subprime losses and as a former Federal Reserve chairman warned of the possibility of a recession.

Superintendent Alvin Lievsay said a student's parent promised to bring in a raccoon for the exercise, but surprised teacher Jerick Hutchinson by bringing the animal in a live trap. Lievsay said Hutchinson, "who used to work in a slaughter house," took the animal outside to the back of his truck Friday and shot it with the nail gun.

On the spot where New York's mighty World Trade Center stood, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.'s anointed designer, Michael Arad, decrees that there be . . . just two huge, square, "reflecting" pools. Maybe you can gaze at your navel through them. In a complex slated to cost $1 billion, this urban swamp is called "Reflecting Absence." Absence, indeed. What these modern war memorials have in common with each other is nothing. They portray nothingness. They have no people in them, never mind men carrying guns or swords. . . [T]o list deaths without comment about what they did in...

Move over, Benedict XVI. Virtually all the Democratic candidates for President made the pilgrimage to see the Rev. Albert Sharpton at his plush New York hotel. . . Each pilgrim came to offer gifts of access, influence, and political respect in return for the Rev. Al's blessing. . . Who is this great religious prelate in the expensive suit, by whom the Democrats long to be anointed? . . . Sharpton is a pardoner -- he pardons sin in return for payment. The sin he specializes in expiating is whiteness.

Freelance Diplomacy—or Treason? The Democrats' Perennial Search for a Separate Peace By Duncan Maxwell Anderson APRIL 5, 2007—It is a fitting irony that Rep. Nancy Pelosi's "fact-finding" tour of the Middle East has run afoul of the facts. Wednesday, she told Syria's President Assad that Israel was ready for peace talks. Prime Minister Olmert of Israel, who had met with her Sunday, announced today that he told her no such thing, adding that Syria's arming of terrorists in Lebanon, Iraq, and Israel, as well as its connections with nuclear-nutty Iran, make this impossible. More important than how Rep. Pelosi goofed...

What's the opposite of heroism? Maybe it's the spectacle of the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana trying to shift blame for the destruction of a 287-year-old city away from themselves onto the President of the United States, and finally onto each other. Instead, I think they should consider blaming Kofi Annan. After all, the UN was in charge of the world when the levee on Lake Ponchartrain broke and submerged New Orleans. That would be the same levee Louisiana politicians have resisted shoring up for the past decade. They took half the money Congress gave them...

During Israel’s dramatic eviction of its settlers, it went almost unnoticed that on Aug. 15, armed men in Gaza kidnapped a soundman who worked for a French state television station. I’ll bet you’ve already assumed the kidnappers were Arab Muslims. Shame on you. And yes you’re right, they were. The week before, three foreign workers were kidnapped by members of Fatah, founded by the late Yasser Arafat. “Fatah” means “conquest by means of holy war.” No matter what our political views, we all agree on two things: 1) Israel and the West on the whole follow the norms of civilization;...

During Israel’s dramatic eviction of its settlers, it went almost unnoticed that on Aug. 15, armed men in Gaza kidnapped a soundman who worked for a French state television station. I’ll bet you’ve already assumed the kidnappers were Arab Muslims. Shame on you. And yes you’re right, they were. The week before, three foreign workers were kidnapped by members of Fatah, founded by the late Yasser Arafat. “Fatah” means “conquest by means of holy war.” No matter what our political views, we all agree on two things: 1) Israel and the West on the whole follow the norms of civilization;...

During Israel’s dramatic eviction of its settlers, it went almost unnoticed that on Aug. 15, armed men in Gaza kidnapped a soundman who worked for a French state television station. I’ll bet you’ve already assumed the kidnappers were Arab Muslims. Shame on you. And yes you’re right, they were. The week before, three foreign workers were kidnapped by members of Fatah, founded by the late Yasser Arafat. “Fatah” means “conquest by means of holy war.” No matter what our political views, we all agree on two things: 1) Israel and the West on the whole follow the norms of civilization;...

This: The space shuttle Discovery, now in orbit, shook loose some chunks of insulation from its fuel tank as it took off from Cape Canaveral on July 26. This debris, the consistency of pumice stone, caused scrapes to the fragile tiles that protect the shuttle vehicle from catastrophic heating as it re-enters the earth’s atmosphere. Ominously, this is the type of damage that doomed the shuttle Columbia. NASA spokesmen say Discovery’s damage is less severe. They haven’t said explicitly what everyone is thinking: that it would be very nice if Discovery didn’t catch fire and explode on its return, as...

SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - Space shuttle Discovery unhitched Saturday from the orbital outpost its astronauts called home for nine days, readying itself for the long, dangerous journey back to Earth. (snip) NASA officials, meanwhile, said they were looking into whether a small crack in the foam on Discovery's fuel tank may have caused a 1-pound section of insulation to break off during its climb to orbit. The piece of foam, which was reminiscent of the one that doomed Columbia, did not hit Discovery. However, the large piece of foam did cause the space agency to suspend future flights until...

The space shuttle Discovery, now in orbit, lost part of its heat-shield as it took off from Cape Canaveral on July 26. Ominously, so did the doomed shuttle Columbia. With Discovery's insulation compromised — as Columbia's was — no one knows whether Discovery will catch fire and explode on its return trip to earth, as Columbia did in 2003. For some reason, the space shuttle's insulation-shedding problem has not been successfully corrected more than two years after Columbia's destruction, which killed all seven members of its crew in temperatures that reached more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The ultimate cause of...

It's touching, in a way. When a terrorist does something unspeakable, people in the English-speaking world wonder aloud what we did to offend him. In the aftermath of the bombings in London, the realization is dawning that we must get beyond sentimental ideas about terrorists. [snip] Globalization opens up new realms for envy. Terrorism beckons, glorious and fulfilling, when the envious encounter good things they don't know how to create, profit from, or compete with. It seems odd to imagine Saudi citizens as crude vandals and terror financiers—after all, they love to shop in Paris. But without oil, the Middle...

With Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gone from the Supreme Court, choosing her successor is NOT the most important task before us. More critical is reducing the damage a clueless and arrogant Court can do. Thankfully, there are signs that America is moving toward a new declaration of independence. The Court unleashed its latest shocker on June 23. In a 5-4 decision called Kelo vs. New London, the Court declared that it's okay for the government to seize your house just for the purpose of giving it to someone else. [snip] Only Congress is authorized to make laws or spend money....

Splashed across the top in block letters were the words "This Is the Army." It was an original cast recording of a Broadway musical revue produced in 1942, America's first full year of World War II, produced by Irving Berlin to raise money for the war effort. The cast members were all soldiers. … I was awestruck, looking through this window to the heroic times my parents' generation had known.… Today, their optimism seems quite logical, because we know who won the war. But America wasn't winning then… After the slaughter at Pearl Harbor in late 1941 had come the...

Last Sunday's edition of The New York Times contained a startling admission. Among 5,400 homosexual couples who have "married" in Massachusetts since last May, nearly two-thirds were pairs of women. A lesbian is about four times as likely to opt for same-sex "marriage" as a homosexual man. [It's] the same psychological divide familiar to any young man on the make in the heterosexual world: Darn it, the women are all looking for that ring. This wasn't supposed to be.