Free Republic

Mullen Advises 'Measured' Approach to Gay Policy The nation's top military officer said Sunday he has advised President Barack Obama to move "in a measured way" in changing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military. Obama as a candidate pledged to end the ban. As president, he has not said when or how he will take steps to do so, drawing criticism from gay rights activists and others. The president has pointed out that Congress in 1993 made into law a policy begun by President Bill Clinton. "It's very clear what President...

President Obama hosted a reception at the White House celebrating LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Pride month. Black Christians should take note and learn a few things about our black President. As they say, we are what we do. It tells us something that Mr. Obama had no time to host an event for the National Day of Prayer. Nor did he have time to accept the invitation to convey greetings and a few remarks to the couple hundred thousand who came to Washington, as they do every January, for the March for Life. However, the LGBT Pride event did...

Being a conservative, I naturally spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to psychoanalyze left-wingers, trying to figure out what makes them tick. God knows I’m not bragging. It is, after all, time I could otherwise devote to alphabetizing my canned goods or trying to make contact with Harry Houdini, but I know from the large number of emails I receive that I’m not alone. The lunacy on the left is enough to turn a lot of us into little Sigmund Freuds. For instance, why is it that lefties are so puzzled or pretend to be so puzzled that conservatives...

Bashing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is sport for many journalists, particularly those who are perhaps bored by the summer doldrums. "She is by far the best-looking woman ever to rise to such heights in national politics, the first indisputably fertile female to dare to dance with the big dogs," writes Todd Purdum in the August issue of Vanity Fair. He coins the term "polar disorder," concluding that Mrs. Palin is surrounded by "clouds of tabloid conflict and controversy" and "has disappointed many of those who once had the highest hopes for her." Yeah, yeah. Enough already. Mrs. Palin is not...

The response to Sarah Palin's surprise resignation last Friday clearly reveals the limitations of the American political class, right, left, or what have you. There's an old academic joke, probably apocryphal, about Count Metternich, Austria's foreign minister during the Napoleonic era. While attending the Congress of Vienna, Metternich is sleeping off a banquet when one of his aides bursts in at three in the morning. "Your excellency! Count Nesselrode, the Russian ambassador, just died." Metternich jerks awake. "Died, you say? What a terrible thing! I was speaking to him only tonight... Uhh... send a message to the Tsar -- Austria...

The debate about whether thoroughbreds should be treated with a diuretic on the day of a race became thornier Monday when researchers released a study showing that furosemide, known as Lasix, significantly reduces bleeding in horses’ lungs. Furosemide has been used to treat racehorses since the 1970s. Most countries ban race-day use of Lasix because it improves performance. In the United States, however, virtually every horse receives it on the day of the race. “The results of this study do not eliminate debate about the use of this medication in racehorses, but it does provide evidence needed to aid making...

Several Hawaii churches are uniting to register tens of thousands of new voters in hopes of influencing 2010 elections for the Legislature and governor's office. Hawaii Family Forum is leading the effort, which also includes several Protestant Churches, the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, and the Mormon Church.... Even in the 2nd most unionized US state (NY is #1), churches are 64% larger than unions.

On Monday July 6, President Barack Obama is expected in Moscow for a summit to discuss nuclear arms control, Iran, Afghanistan the post-Soviet space and other issues. It has been announced that Obama will spend most of July 6 in formal as well as informal talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. There will be a joint press conference and a late night dinner with spouses (RIA Novosti, July 1). The two presidents will concentrate on discussing a progress report from the Russian and American negotiating teams that are working on preparing a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) (Interfax,...

... Tens of thousands of laid-off workers [...] have turned to retraining as a lifeline. Yet for all the popularity of these government-financed programs, there are questions about whether they actually work, even as President Obama’s stimulus plan directs $1.4 billion more to retraining and other services for people who have lost their jobs. In Michigan, where the unemployment rate in May was 14.1 percent, the nation’s highest, 78,000 people are enrolled in the state’s No Worker Left Behind program and 7,800 are on the waiting list. At the Michigan Works job center here, where Mr. Hutchins applied for retraining...

Workers at C.F Martin & Co. are putting finishing touches on the solid-wood 1 Series model, so named for its simplicity. It lacks inlay, as did the company's stripped-down 1930s model, and is expected to sell for less than $1,000, breaking a key price point and far less than its $100,000 limited-edition guitars made of Brazilian rosewood. More popular Martins generally sell for $2,000 to $3,000. Initial reaction is promising. The company, which had sales of $93 million last year, introduced the 1 Series in April and promptly sold out its first year's output of 8,000 guitars. "We needed something...

Here he goes again on his own. Going down the only road he’s ever known. OK, David Coverdale isn’t totally on his own. The 57-year-old singer has a new Whitesnake lineup behind him. But he is going down the only road he’s ever known on an old-fashioned, heavy-metal double bill: Whitesnake and Judas Priest play the Comcast Center on Tuesday. As Coverdale pointed out in a phone interview from his Lake Tahoe home, “You’re not going to listen to Whitesnake for environmental songs or to change your life. You’re going to listen to Whitesnake for hard rock.”

As Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, the leader of Libya, hosted an African Union summit last week, his name was romantically linked in a court case with the queen mother of an ancestral Ugandan kingdom. Two editors of a Ugandan daily newspaper are being prosecuted for alleging that he is having an affair with her. The Libyan ambassador, who initially brought the case seeking £245m in damages, said in his affidavit that the editors had launched an almost daily campaign to defame Gadaffi. The Ugandan director of public prosecutions, which has taken over the case, accused the editors of defaming a foreign...

When Israeli commandos stormed the airport terminal in Entebbe, Uganda, on July 4, 1976, they and the 260 passengers of the hijacked aircraft were probably unaware that a small Ugandan Jewish community had gathered in their village 175 miles away to pray for the safety of their brethren. In fact, the Ugandan Jewish community was unknown to most of the world until after the fall of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in 1979. Though the community is small in number, its unique history and recent revitalization are remarkable. If their rabbi, Gershom Sizomu, and Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) — a...

The UN's top health official has opened a forum in Mexico on combating swine flu by saying that the spread of the virus worldwide is now unstoppable. World Health Organization head Margaret Chan added that the holding of the meeting in Cancun showed confidence in Mexico, which has been hard hit. The WHO says most H1N1 cases are mild, with many people recovering unaided. As the summit opened, the UK alone was projecting more than 100,000 new cases of H1N1 a day by the end of the summer. As the peak of the flu season approaches in South America, some...

"In his landmark 1942 book, 'Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy,' economist Joseph Schumpeter emphasized the key role that creative destruction plays in generating long-run economic growth. It is the driving force of capitalism."

The now greatest player ever was bruised, but he wasn't beaten yet. After sustaining a barrage of aces, groundstroke winners and crisp volleys, Roger Federer faced two break points at 8-8 in the fifth set against American Andy Roddick, who was surely playing the Grand Slam match of his life in Sunday's Wimbledon final. But Federer did not want to walk away from the final like he did last year, his face splattered with tears after a wrenching 9-7 loss in the fifth set to Rafael Nadal. So this time, he responded, cracking a wicked service winner, launching another service...

A sluggish, jet stream-like flow deep inside the sun could be to blame for the delay in increased solar activity that has been stumping astronomers. (Read "Sun Oddly Quiet—Hints at Next 'Little Ice Age'?") The jet stream, which is actually a plasma current called a torsional oscillation, has been migrating more slowly than usual through the star's interior, according to a team led by Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. Every 11 years the sun generates new jet streams near its poles. These streams slowly shift from east to west toward the solar equator over...

The other day I received an e-mail from a lady who let me know she was in the habit of forwarding my articles to her daughter who is away at college. Apparently she felt I could provide the young woman with an antidote to her left-wing professors. I wished her luck, but I didn’t hold out much hope. After all, by this time the young coed has been immersed in public education for 13 or 14 years. Let a child be raised by wolves and you shouldn’t be too surprised if, upon being rescued, his table manners leave something to...

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~Patrick Henry...a slightly different take on our heroes, in honor of Independence Day...             Born: May 29, 1736 Birthplace: Hanover County, Virginia Education: (Lawyer, Politician) Work: Elected to Virginia House of Burgesses, 1765; Admitted to the Bar of the General Court in Virginia, 1769; Elected to the Continental Congress, 1774;...

A massive economic liberalisation programme which could create vast new markets for British firms. Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Secretary, has said the country needs to invite foreign supermarket chains, insurance, defence and engineering companies to help modernise agriculture, financial services and transport infrastructure. His proposed reforms would shake up the country's strictly regulated labour market, allowing companies to increase working hours and make staff redundant without government approval. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee The annual Economic Survey he presented to parliament has recommended private companies be allowed to provide passenger train services on the country's nationalised railways, privatisation of the coal industry,...

          Solar awakening: Two sunspots shown / July 4, 2009 / Dave Tyler During the past four years, the sun has been in a prolonged quiet phase which has led some to claim this signals a period of global cooling. The number of “blank� sunspot days, a measure of overall solar energy output, has been more than 30% above the long-term average.The year 2008 saw the sun with its lowest number of sunspots for any year in a century. This only fueled the speculation of an impending global cooling scenario.In fact, slight cooling has been observed since the year 2001, but the...

WASHINGTON, DC - President Barack Obama is still looking for a church home more than a year after resigning from the Chicago church led by his controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the first family has yet to join a church because Obama doesn't want his attendance to disrupt other people's worship. Gibbs says Obama enjoys services led by Camp David's chaplain on weekends the family spends at the presidential retreat, but they're not members there. In 2009, the Obamas have only attended Sunday church services twice in Washington. Two days before the inauguration,...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Many Americans from coast-to-coast turned Independence Day 2009 into a "counterattack" against what they call the high-spending, freedom-shrinking policies of President Barack Obama and members of Congress, irrespective of party affiliation. With some 2,000 rallies taking place in all 50 states, cities such as West Palm Beach, Fla., were typical of the angst vented against recent government action. Approximately 1,000 people turned out in this affluent region for an evening featuring brief speeches and hundreds of homemade signs. Among those carrying a placard was Barbara Allen of Juno Beach, Fla. Get ready for Sept. 12!...

The NASA astronaut Buzz Adrin has called for the world to press on with establishing a human settlement on Mars to offer the younger generation much-needed objectives. The second person to walk on the moon said that setting up habitation on the surface of the red planet was a "wonderful objective" for humanity. Buzz Aldrin on the moon, 1969 Given the backdrop of the ailing world economy, space exploration could offer younger generations much-needed goals, the 79-year-old said. "I think we need to look quite a way down into the future to inspire our young people with that greatness. "America...

Capt. Dorothy Watkins and Spc. Joshua Watkins, both of Hazleton, Pa., are deployed to Camp Taji, a base camp north of Baghdad, with the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania National Guard. Photo by Jon Soles, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. TAJI — One Pennsylvania National Guard Soldier has two ways he can address Capt. Dorothy Watkins. He can call her ma'am or he can call her mom. Spc. Joshua Watkins and his mother, Capt. Watkins, are both serving here with the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division. The mother and son from Hazleton, Pa., are...

Former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher (right) and Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher share some laughs with U.S. servicemembers during a National Football League coaches USO tour of Iraq, at Al Faw Palace, Baghdad, July 2. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Edwin L. Wriston, Joint Combat Camera Center – Iraq. KIRKUK — It was a long line for Soldiers and Airmen, but awaiting them at the end were legendary NFL coaches ready to sign photos, shirts or anything else you could scribble a signature on. The coaches, who included New York Giants’ Coach Tom Coughlin, Baltimore Ravens’...

As research for an upcoming column on the many drawbacks of the cap-and-trade bill now before the Senate, I spent some time speaking with Christopher C. Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Horner is author of "Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats Fraud and Deception to Keep You Misinformed." Our discussion went on at some length and Horner made many excellent points about the hype over the threat of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming. That discussion can go on forever and I can't include much of it here. But I will point to an interesting little item that's...

LONDON: He’s the spy who came in from the beach. Holiday snapshots and family details about the newly appointed head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency have been removed from a social networking page after a newspaper told the government about them. Pictures from the social networking website published in the Mail newspaper show John Sawers posing with his children, wearing a Santa hat and playing Frisbee on a beach. The paper said the information was posted by Sawers’ wife on the site. It included vacation photos, details about the couple’s three children and the location of their London home. Shelley...

STATE GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER BEEN SO CLOWNISH, SO EVIL, SO IRRELEVANT Having witnessed the anarchy, chaos and lack of leadership that has engulfed the state Capitol during the past month, I have a painful confession to make. After three decades as a journalist covering state government, if I had to do it all over again, I'd find another job. I've covered Govs. Hugh Carey, Mario Cuomo, George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson and for New York to wind up like this after 35 years of modern leadership, it's clear to me that my real job has been to chronicle...

Tissues in axolotl amputees regenerate themselves by “memory” Given a chance to regrow a limb, salamanders don’t change a thing. Since the 18th century, scientists have puzzled over how salamanders regenerate amputated limbs and have looked for clues to regrow human limbs. Researchers thought they knew part of the answer: Cells at the wound site would lose their identities as they turned back their developmental clocks to become pluripotent stem cells — capable of developing into many cell types in the body — and then recreate the lost limb. But a new study published July 2 in Nature and led...

NEW YORK (AP)—Albert Pujols(notes) will be in a familiar spot when St. Louis hosts the 80th All-Star game. Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield(notes) is headed for a brand new situation. Pujols was the leading vote-getter in balloting for the Midsummer Classic announced Sunday by Major League Baseball, giving the Cardinals first baseman the start in his home ballpark. The NL MVP is well on his way to another amazing year, leading the majors with 31 homers and 82 RBIs. It’s his eighth All-Star selection in nine seasons and fifth start. Wakefield made his first All-Star roster in his 17th season, one...

Two Colorado organizations have launched another petition drive to put a personhood amendment on the 2010 ballot. Colorado Right to Life and Personhood Colorado are joining forces to gather the signatures for the 2010 Colorado Personhood Initiative. Right to Life spokeswoman Leslie Hanks says they are energized for the campaign. "People are really beginning to see that the God-given right to life of the preborn child is something exciting to fight for," she explains, "and we've really stood idly by for too long, allowing horrible human rights abuses to go unchallenged in so many ways in this country." In 2008, Colorado's Personhood Amendment garnered...

A senior Church of England bishop has angered gay-rights campaigners by saying homosexuals should repent. Archbishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that the Bible defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. He said the church welcomed gay people, "but we want them to repent and be changed." Nazir-Ali is a leading member of the conservative wing of the global Anglican Communion, which is riven by divisions over homosexuality and the ordination of women. Gay groups condemned the bishop's remarks. Campaigner Peter Tatchell said Nazir-Ali's view "goes against Christ's gospel of love and...

NEW YORK - Little people are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to ban the use of the word "midget" on broadcast TV. The group Little People of America said Sunday the word is just as offensive as racial slurs.

Television networks planning Jackson coverage NEW YORK (AP) -- NBC executives changed their minds Sunday and decided to join other networks that will televise Michael Jackson's memorial service live this week. NBC joins ABC, CNN, MSNBC and E! Entertainment in offering the ceremony live. It's set for 10 a.m. PDT at Los Angeles' Staples Center. NBC had initially planned only a one-hour prime-time special on Tuesday night, but said Sunday it would also cover the event live. It was not immediately clear who would anchor. Charles Gibson will anchor coverage for ABC, which is setting aside its typical daytime programming....

While liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill are working to pass President Obama's plan to overhaul the nation's health care system, few are talking about this essential issue: Will health care reform force taxpayers to pay for abortions for the first time in 30 years? The short answer is yes, because there is no explicit provision in the bill to: • Prevent taxpayer funding of abortions as part of the health care benefit Congress is considering. It is ironic that taxpayer-funded abortions would be considered a "health care benefit" since the baby gets no health care benefit from abortion. •...

BOSTON (AP) — A Boston city councilor charged with extortion alleges the state's former U.S. attorney targeted him at the behest of former Attorney General John Ashcroft. City Councilor Chuck Turner sent an e-mail to supporters before a court hearing Thursday suggesting Michael Sullivan sought indictments against him and former Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, another prominent black politician, because he was trying to ingratiate himself with Ashcroft — for whom he now works. "I personally believe that former Attorney General Ashcroft said to Sullivan that if he could take down Senator Wilkerson and myself, he would put up the money to...

Bill H1377 would repeal the exemption for schools from the laws protecting children from "harmful material" including pornography. One might ask why this is needed. In years past sensible people assumed that schools could show kids legitimate works of classical art that, while technically showing the nude body, are not normally considered pornographic. People assumed that schools were run by mature people with common sense. But no one dreamed that schools would become purveyors of hardcore pornography and other graphic, disturbing material to children. In recent years, however, abuses against kids by schools have become epidemic across the state. But...

Palin bashing in sport for some journalists.

Some people are screwed up. Broken. They choose to hate and nothing will change their minds. I believe most people are basically good. Given an opportunity, they work things out. Here is an example. In 1956, my dad, Dr. Rev. Lloyd Marcus Sr, was one of the first blacks to break the color barrier into the Baltimore City Fire Department at Engine 6. Unlike the white firefighters, dad did not have free reign of the fire house. A bunk, toilet, sink and single set of eating utensils were marked “reserved” for him. Even the general coffee pot was off limits....

(Please blame National Weather Service for the "all caps".) DUE TO THE UNUSUALLY COOL AND WET CONDITIONS IN JUNE...HERE ARE SOME INTERESTING FACTS TO NOTE: THIS JUNE IS TIED FOR THE 8TH COOLEST ON RECORD. THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE WAS 67.5...3.7 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL...WHICH ALSO OCCURRED IN 1897. THIS WAS THE COOLEST JUNE SINCE 1958...WHEN THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE WAS 67.2 DEGREES. BELOW AVERAGE TEMPERATURES OCCURRED ON 23 OUT OF 30 DAYS THIS JUNE...OR 75 PERCENT OF THE MONTH. CENTRAL PARK HAS NOT HIT 90 DEGREES IN THE MONTH OF JUNE THIS YEAR. THE LAST TIME THIS OCCURRED WAS BACK IN 1996....

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Police worked Sunday to unravel the relationship between slain former NFL quarterback Steve McNair and his friend, a 20-year-old woman who was found shot to death alongside him in his downtown condominium.

Mickey Kaus writes: It’s seemed to me that the Obama administration has made a mistake in the framing of the health care issue: “We’ll raise your taxes and in exchange we’re going to cut your treatments.� I mean, how could that not have widespread appeal? It’s pain/pain! Yes, but that is the nature of what the Obama administration and those pushing for a government-controlled healthcare system are advocating. It isn’t easy to disguise what you are up to when the stakes are so high. (Well, they did for a while with the mumbo-jumbo about healthcare reform paying for itself, but...

An experience of sexual abuse in childhood or adolescence is associated with an increased risk of gay men becoming HIV-positive in adult life, American researchers report in the July 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The research also showed that men with a history of sexual abuse in early life had higher levels of depression and problematic drug and alcohol use, as well as being less receptive to HIV prevention interventions. “This is the first study…to demonstrate a predictive relationship between a history of childhood sexual abuse and high rates of HIV infection among HIV-uninfected men...

Dan Probst, a retired restaurateur who raises chickens in Hunt County, says his urban sales have risen fivefold since last year. Hens typically cost between $15 and $40. At their peak, they can lay an egg a day. "Explosive growth," he said. A pastime once limited to the occasional overachieving gardener, backyard chicken farming has caught fire among suburbanites craving a slice of the countryside and the promise of fresh eggs. Not all are enamored of the trend, which some view as but an eco-friendly fad. Concerns about noise, odors and sanitation abound. (Supporters say those worries are unfounded.) And...

HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez, set to fly aboard space shuttle Discovery in August, is providing insights about his training on Twitter in both English and Spanish. It will be the agency's first bilingual Twitter. Hernandez, who considers Stockton, Calif., his hometown, grew up in a migrant farming family, travelling each year between Mexico and California. He did not learn English until the age of 12. Hernandez, whose Twitter account is astro_jose, can be followed at: http://www.twitter.com/astro_jose "I was inspired to pursue a dream to one day work in space while listening to the radio news about space exploration...

In the days after Michael Jackson’s death, many music industry analysts speculated that AEG Live, the promoter of Mr. Jackson’s planned concert engagement in London, stood to lose a fortune: It had invested $25 million to $30 million in the shows and would be responsible for up to $85 million in ticket refunds, and the company said that some of its insurance coverage would depend on the cause of Mr. Jackson’s death. But Randy Phillips, the chief executive of AEG Live, said that because of its rights to film and audio of the concert rehearsals — and its expectation that...

A slew of research shows that America is losing the conservative Christian youth in massive droves. These studies show a generation being increasingly won over to a socialistic/secular-humanistic worldview in spite of the American church increasing their apologetic courses, children's programs, youth rallies and books and sermon series on child training. What is happening? Could it be that we are doing something wrong? I would make the case that we are blatantly sinning in sending our kids to places that are, in fact, causing them to fall away. Let me lay out the case in three simple points. ( SNIP)...

With Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed budget stalemated in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, 600 unhappy taxpayers rallied in Chambersburg’s center square Saturday to declare their independence from looming tax increases. Likening their protest to that of a group of Boston patriots in 1776, Franklin County, Pa., joined in the nationwide TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party movement against taxation and government spending.

Last week, in the midst of President Obama's efforts to push unprecedented expansions of federal regulatory authority through Congress, North Korea's bellicose threats of nuclear annihilation, and the Iranian regime's brutal campaign to suppress political dissent, the American public's attention was focused elsewhere. On June 25th, 2009, the nation plunged into mourning upon learning of the tragic deaths of Michael Jackson—inimitable King of Pop—and Hollywood's original "angel" Farah Fawcett. In the time it took for a commercial break, the coverage of the Iranian protests, the debates about cap and trade and healthcare reform, and the diplomatic efforts to recover two...