Free Republic

The likelihood of outrage seems inevitable this year in college football: The BCS controversy, which even President Obama has issued proclamations about, seems ready to explode, since six undefeated teams - two from minor conferences - survive with only three games left in the season. Two conferences, Mountain West and Western Athletic (WAC) are excluded from automatic participation in the BCS, and must compete for one of two wildcard teams, and both still have undefeated teams. But should a team which has gone undefeated and unchallenged take a slot from Alabama or Florida, which are likely to also go undefeated......

Obama now fully owns the economy. No matter how bad his economic policies hurt the U.S. economy in the Spring, it was very difficult to quantify how much of the recession was his fault, and how much could be blamed on the Bush-Kennedy-Pelosi administration; the faster the economy sank, the lower the bar would be for him to claim credit for its recovery. Now that the recession is "over," however, he must take full blame for another recession. The depression is not over, however. This Spring, I warned Freepers not to be fooled by a 3rd-quarter "recovery." The economy hasn't...

I'm not in the position for making any huge investments, and this might be in the category of just plain ignorant, but I figure this proposal might at least prompt some interesting discussion, and if its plausible, someone should do it: The Tesla gets about 220 miles per charge. Great... if you're going somewhere less than four hours away. But if the S-class (a $50,000 "family car") is going to be someone's main car, they're certainly going to want to take longer trips with it. The problem is the car takes 8 hours to charge with 110 volts. By doubling...

Who are the the DIABLOs (Democrats In All But Labels Only)? Who are the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only)? Unfortunately, the American Conservative Union's rankings are pretty useless. In search of being non-partisan and having an even spread of votes, they include many votes which are very lopsided, and so therefore Republicans can fake conservatism without upsetting their media masters and liberal donors. At the same time, a conservative who thinks that a bill is too liberal can get lumped in with all the liberals who thought the bill was too conservative. Combining these two factors, it's impossible to tell...

Is the National Rifle Association ashamed of its own endorsement, or are the media lying to us once again? I was stunned to read that the N.R.A. endorsed pro-gay, pro-abortion, climate alarmist, socialist Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava for Congress in the special, off-year election in New York's 23rd district. The N.R.A. is pro-gun rights, not (necessarily) conservative, but a moderate Democrat helps the N.R.A. maintain its nonpartisan status and reputation more than supporting a liberal Republican. On the other hand, the media widely reported that the N.R.A. endorsed former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. The reality is...

DEMOCRAT INCUMBENT Arkansas (Beebe): Safe D Colorado (Ritter): Leans R Illinois (Quinn): Leans R *** Iowa (Culver): Leans R Maryland (O'Malley): Likely D Massachusetts (Patrick): Leans R New York (Patterson): Tossup *** Ohio (Strickland): Tossup DEMOCRAT-HELD OPEN SEAT Kansas: Likely R Maine: Leans D* Michigan: Leans R New Mexico: Likely D Oklahoma: Likely R Oregon: Leans D* Pennsylvania: Tossup* Tennessee: Leans R Wisconsin: Tossup* Wyoming: leans D** REPUBLICAN-HELD OPEN SEAT Alabama: Safe R California: Tossup Florida: Likely R Hawaii: Likely D Rhode Island: Leans D* South Carolina: Likely R South Dakota: Likely R REPUBLICAN INCUMBENT Alaska (Parnell): Likely R Arizona...

The Democrats attained domination over the US House of Representatives not by convincing America that conservative beliefs were wrong, but by individualizing each Republican incumbent as part of a block of corruption and political tone-deafness. Dozens won Republican-leaning district while promising to vote conservatively. The Republican losers weren't so much those in the most moderate-to-left-leaning districts, but those to whom insinuations of scandal, incompetence and detachment most easily stuck. The result is an astonishing number of Democrats in otherwise Republican-leaning districts. The Cook Political Report publishes the Cook Partisan Voting Index, measuring whether districts are more Democratic or more Republican...

I previously wrote that there will be an appearance of economic growth, but it is only because the GDP includes government spending, and it won't really mean more jobs. Already, major news outlets are stating this is what is happening. To have real economic growth, we need to unleash the power of the free market, a purpose for which we need true conservatives, not just plutocrats. Here is the original article: It doesn't take an economic recovery to have an increase in the Gross Domestic Product, because government spending is included. The spending authorized by President Obama's stimulus package will...

He opposes off-shore drilling. He hosted a global warming summit. He vigorously supported President Obama's trillion-dollar giveaway to special interests. As America grows more skeptical of Obama's, he seems like the perfect politician for the conservative base to rally against, in many ways. Except he's a Republican. He's Charlie Crist, and he is the Republican Party establishment to become senator of Florida in 2010. Even stranger, there is an infinitely more appealing, true conservative running for the Senate, named Marco Rubio. He trails in statewide polls, but this is largely a product of the fact that 60% of Floridians have...

Democrat seemingly doomed: Nevada Much has been made about strong candidates passing up the opportunity to knock out Sen. Harry Reid. Big deal. GOP chairwoman and state senator Sue Lowden even handily defeats Reid, 48-42. All the cash in the world can’t help Reid escape the dishonor of being the most hated senator in America. North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven has gained 39 points on Sen. Byron Dorgan in six months. Yeah, you read that right. Hoeven now leads by 17. Even if he doesn’t run, with Dorgan that unpopular, Duane Sand can kick a little well, sand, in his...

Uncomfortable town hall meetings are just the tip of the iceberg for Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. He now trails Republican Pat Toomey by double digits in his bid for reelection next year and is viewed unfavorably by a majority of the state’s voters. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Pennsylvania voters shows 48% would vote for Toomey if the election were held today. Just 36% would vote for Specter while four percent (4%) prefer a third option, and 12% are not sure. These figures reflect a dramatic reversal since June. At that time, before the public health care debate...

In 1993, Bill Clinton’s approval ratings sank to 37%, according to a Gallup poll at the time. Yet he was re-elected. Does this mean that Obama can survive his own sinking approval ratings? Maybe not. The low approval ratings of President Clinton were partly due to an American public withholding judgment on his presidency. Unlike President Obama, Clinton had been elected with a mere plurality (43%) of the vote. Clinton’s disapproval ratings peaked at 49%. In 1996, he was again elected with a mere plurality (49%) of the vote. In 1994, the Republican party swept into power, gaining 52 house...

If the election for U.S. Congress were held today, would you be voting for the Democratic candidate or the Republican candidate in your district where you live? Democrat, 42%; Republican 43% I am going to read you a list of concerns that people have. Please tell me which ONE of these you think the President and Congress should be paying the most attention to. Economy and Jobs, 43%; Health Care 12%; Taxes and spending, 8%; Terrorism and National Security, 6%; Education, 5%; War in Afghanistan, 4% (I list the top responses only) President Obama and the Democrats in Congress are...

It doesn't take an economic recovery to have an increase in the Gross Domestic Product, because government spending is included. The spending authorized by President Obama's stimulus package will result in a positive GDP as long as the private sector economy does not contract at an annual rate faster than 5.3 percent. Or put another way, the private sector economy could experience the fastest contraction since the 1930s, twice as fast as the past year's, and the mainstream media will be able to report economic growth. Don't be fooled by this. When the government stops spending the money, the economy...

Praise God, that we are saved by grace alone. Works without faith are utterly without merit. This is not merely a Protestant notion. Such has been the persistent teaching of the saints throughout the ages. Yet a whitewashing of Martin Luther has led to many people, even Catholics, fundamentally misunderstanding the Catholic Church's criticism of him. Please understand that what I write here is no ad-hominem attack on Luther for any purpose, including the slander of Protestantism. Attacking the moral character of Martin Luther is gainless, for no-one supposes Luther to be imbued with the gift of infallibility. But when...

Good News: You baptized seven people today in the river. Bad News: You lost two of them in the swift current. Good News: The Women's Guild voted to send you a get-well card. Bad News: The vote passed by 19-17. Good News: The Elder Board accepted your job description the way you wrote it. Bad News: They were so inspired by it, they also formed a search committee to find somebody capable of filling the position. Good News: You finally found a choir director who approaches things exactly the same way you do. Bad News: The choir mutinied. Good News:...

OK, folks. We haven't been doing a very good job at keeping the "humor" tag worth keeping. Months come and go, and the same fake news stories appear in my Religion::Humor category. I'M getting tired of seeing my OWN post about Georgetown giving an honorary degree to Satan. So here's at it: An atheist was walking through the woods. "What majestic trees!" "What powerful rivers!" "What beautiful animals!" He said to himself. As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly bear charge towards...

... By a 60% to 25% margin, U.S. Catholics say the university should not award an honorary degree to the president. Sixty-six percent (66%) of Evangelical Christians share that view along with 52% of other Protestants... ...In 2004, the bishops issued a statement saying, "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."

Georgetown University President John J. DeGoya announced today that Satan, Prince of Darkness will receive an honorary doctorate at the University's 220th commencement. DeGoya called the announcement a proud day for Georgetown. "We've been honored to continue the proud tradition of Catholic education which has produced alumni such as President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and World Spiritual Leader Al Gore, but when Notre Dame scored the Messi-- uh, the President for this year's graduation, well, it didn't seem fair. We felt being named the fighting Irish gave them an unfair advantage with O'bama. The faculty felt like...

Next time someone asserts that what the Republican Party needs to do is get back to its fiscally conservative roots, as if that's an alternative to being socially conservative, understand that such people will never be useful in undoing the damage on American freedom and prosperity wrought by the Obama administration. We don't need Chinese fascism; we need freedom. Such fiscal conservatives got us into the mess that Obama is exploiting to take our freedoms away... because they were the very people who created the financial collapse that brought Obama to power, and resolutely refuse to abandon their schemes. In...

Despite being rocked by criticism, this pope continues to enjoy the trust of the masses. His trip to Africa and a survey in Italy prove this. The reason is that he speaks of God to a humanity in search of direction ROME, March 27, 2009 – On the flight back from his trip to Cameroon and Angola, Benedict XVI told the journalists that two things in particular had been ingrained in his memory: "On the one hand, the almost exuberant hospitality and the joy of a festive Africa. In the pope, they saw the personification of the fact that we...

RasmussenReports' new daily tracking poll has President Barrack Obama receiving his lowest approval rating since immediately after the election, 56%. 43% of Americans generally disapprove of his performance, 31% strongly do. Obama's approval rating was immediately after the election was 52%. As is typical after an election (according to longer-standing polls, such as Gallup), America put aside its partisan feelings, giving the newly elected the benefit of the doubt: his approvals rose to 67% over the course of the next month, peaking at 69%. They stayed in that range, which was high even for a newly elected president, until inauguration...

What do you do if you can't starve the beast? Feed it junk food. Now, I'm sure President Obama is quite the liberal, so don't think I'm proposing he's mixed up with any Karl Rove mad genius conspiracy. But sometimes evil has a way of confounding itself. And it's looking pretty good that the Democratic Congress is built enough on simple, stupid rage that it's incapable of governing. Take the stimulus bill. It's a billion dollars over just a few short years. It's not even good Keynesian economics. Once the money is spent, there won't be any new 21st century...

As destructive as socialism is, it would be powerless without “pragmatic conservatives.” Socialism, like such explosions, is destructive in our society. Voters don't like destruction of our society, our wealth, or our institutions. So why do socialists keep winning elections? Because pragmatic conservatives, like President Bush and the Hastert/McConnell-era Republican Congress, witness socialists playing with dangerous reactants and try to make them safe. In doing so, they create bombs. CDOs proved to be the ultimate bomb. Here's how they were created: Democrats were frustrated that banks didn't grant as many loans to black people as they did to white people....

One controversial translation issue is the phrase, “mia ton sabbaton.” This has traditionally been translated as “the first of the week.” Under pressure from 7th-day Adventists, however, some translations of the bible have taken to translate this “on one of the Sabbaths.” But the Adventists’ translation is based on a faulty transliteration. In the Greek, “sabbaton” is spelled with either an omicron (“small ‘o’”) or an omega (“big ‘o’”). When spelled with an omega, “sabbaton” is the genitive plural. In other words, it means “Sabbaths’.” The Adventists’ position is that “primus” means “first;” “mia” means closer to the number, one....

The temperature of the ocean has cooled 0.2 degrees C in the past few of years, and is now only 0.1 degrees C warmer than it was throughout much of 1944. This data set had been showing a general warming trend since the late 1970s, (as well as a warming trend from the 1910s through the mid 1940s) with the warmest time being recorded in the El Nino year of 1998. Despite temperatures peaking in 1998, it's been reasonable to describe the temperature trend as continuing, since 1998 at the time was a flukishly hot spell. Since 1998, the "normal"...

Bloomingdale, Jun 14, 2007 / 09:44 am (CNA).- The Apostolate for Family Consecration, an Ohio-based ministry to Catholic families, is now one of fewer than 125 organizations in the world to be granted Pontifical status by the Vatican. The granting of Pontifical status means that the ministry is now officially recognized and approved by the Holy See. While the new status sets the apostolate apart, the organization is also the first of its kind to be founded by a married American couple. By decreeing Pontifical Status on the Apostolate for Family Consecration, the Holy See is providing important impetus for...

RINOS could be gone in six years. For starters, Conservatives can prevent the renomination of three of the worst RINOs, with minimal danger of losing their seats to the Democrats: Sen. Chuck Hagel, although only 60, was thought to be possibly retiring at the end of this session of Congress. He has been the leading Republican supporter of surrender to Islamofascism. He was a member of the gang of Seven Republicans who opposed the use of Senate Rules to prevent a Supreme Court filibuster, as well as a champion of liberal Senator Arlen Specter. And, behind only John McCain and...

The Los Angeles Times article about the Bloomberg poll it sponsored highlighted the fact that Fred Thompson is only six points behind Rudy Giuliani in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. For those watching the nomination polls, that's encouraging but hardly shocking. But many other poll results are downright surprising. For instance, the LA Times treats Republican-leaning independents as Republican primary voters, as if the rest of the nation followed California's relatively unique system of open primaries. But Giuliani leads among independents, 31-17. The category “Conservative Republicans” seems to track very closely to an estimate of the results of...

As of May, 2007, the temperature at the surface of the Earth's seas reached the coolest have cooled off about .18 degrees since October, 2003. That month had been the warmest even recorded, except for in December, 1997, when an anomalously strong El Nino created the warmest seas ever recorded. Most of the cooling has occurred since November, 2006. The oceans are currently .08 degrees warmer than they were in 1944, following massive de-industrialization caused by war and economic depression, and .7 degrees warmer than they averaged in the first decade of the 20th century, before pollution controls removed particulates...

Is Fred Thompson No. 2? Well, now we have the second poll released just today that says "yes." After the jump, we reproduce a memo just sent out by McLaughlin & Associates (now-confirmed pollsters for the Thompson campaign — though this poll was not done for the campaign). It breaks down as follows (change since the last time the poll was taken in April in parentheses): Rudy Giuliani: 24% (-4) Fred Thompson: 18% (+5) John McCain: 17% (+1) Mitt Romney: 7% (-1) UPDATE: A survey just released by Pew also shows Mr. Thompson second to Mr. Giuliani in how many...

Five Republicans are fighting tooth and nail to ensure the destruction of America. They are "post-nationalists," demanding open borders, free access for terrorists, and an illiterate underclass. These aren't near-sighted liberals, but fake conservatives who know full well that the havoc they will create, but they lust so badly for the blood money of a class of people who cannot wait for a slave class so poorly paid, they could not survive without massive amounts of taxpayer funds. Yes, 20 million criminals from Mexico will get free medical care and Spanish-language education instead of the Americans who paid their taxes....

CALIFORNIA RESULTS: Poll Date Giuliani McCain Romney Gingrich Thompson Spread SurveyUSA 06/01 - 06/03 28 21 11 8 21 Giuliani +7.0 SurveyUSA 05/04 - 05/06 34 21 12 9 11 Giuliani +13.0 SurveyUSA 03/03 - 03/05 41 23 8 13 -- Giuliani +18.0 In CA GOP Gold Rush, Fred Thompson leaps into 2nd-Place Tie with McCain, 7 Points Behind Giuliani: Eight months to the newly accelerated and suddenly critical California Republican Primary, the contest destabilizes and further tightens, according to a SurveyUSA poll of likely GOP Primary voters, conducted exclusively for KABC-TV Los Angeles, KPIX-TV San Francisco, and KGTV-TV San...

"Rebuilding" is a very trying experience for baseball fans. It's what owners do when they decide that the current team is overpayed, underperforming, and irreformable. They clear out the current regulars and make room for new talent. In the meanwhile, though, fans have to suffer through a few seasons of not even hoping to win. When done well, it works. The New York Yankees found themselves paying the highest salaries year after year in the 1980s. Although they had the best winning percentage overall for that decade, they had no division titles, let alone World Series championships, to show for...

It's been a long time since there was an official FR poll on this subject, and I'd like to propose certain conditions: 1. Who would you vote for, given the current field? A. Gilmore B. Giuliani C. Huckabee D. Hunter E. McCain F. Paul G. Romney H. Tancredo I. Fred Thompson J. Tommy Thompson 2. Who would you vote for, knowing that Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich would be candidates? A. Gilmore B. Gingrich C. Giuliani D. Huckabee E. Hunter F. McCain G. Paul H. Romney I. Tancredo J. Fred Thompson K. Tommy Thompson 3. Suppose it's after New Hampshire,...

1. Who would you vote for, given the current field? A. Gilmore B. Giuliani C. Huckabee D. Hunter E. McCain F. Paul G. Romney H. Tancredo I. Tommy Thompson 2. Who would you vote for, knowing that Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich would be candidates? A. Gilmore B. Gingrich C. Giuliani D. Huckabee E. Hunter F. McCain G. Paul H. Romney I. Tancredo J. Fred Thompson K. Tommy Thompson 3. Suppose it's after New Hampshire, and most of the lesser known candidates have dropped out. Who would you vote for? (PLEASE answer this one.) A. Giuliani B. McCain C. Romney...

(German) Reformed Church in the United States (Original) Church of God Advent Christian Church African Methodist Episcopal Church African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church Alaska Moravian Church Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection (Original Allegheny Conference) Alliance of Baptists in the USA Amana Church Society American Association of Lutheran Churches American Baptist Association American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. American Baptist Convention American Baptist Mississippi Convention American Ethical Union American Evangelical Christian Churches American Evangelical Lutheran Church American Lutheran Conference American Rescue Workers American Unitarian Association Anglican Orthodox Church of North America Apostolic Christian Church (Nazarene)...

Once the nation with the fewest priests per nominal Catholic, Brazil now has more seminarians than it had homegrown priests in 1980. The number of major seminarians in Brazil has increased ten-fold since 1972. The rate of increase has been even higher in Peru and Bolivia, and comparable in the rest of South America. The source of claims of a collapse in Catholic adherence comes from statistical abuse of mainstream media sources. Take the instance of Brazil. Brazil’s black and mixed-race populace was recently largely unevangelized by Catholics as well as Protestants. In 1968, there were nearly 30 million adherents...

By February 6, the primaries should be settled, because most states will have held elections or caucuses by then. But only six states will likely make their decisions before February 5. And "front-runner" Rudy Giuliani is trailing badly in five of them. In Iowa, according to American Res. Group, John McCain leads Giuliani 26-19. Romney and Thompson are at 14 and 13 percent, each. In New Hampshire, according to Survey USA, Romney has built a sizeable lead, gaining 32% of the vote. Giuliani and McCain are virtually tied for 2nd, with 23 and 22 percent, respectively. In Nevada, Giuliani trails...

The population of college-aged Chinese is about to collapse. In the late 1960s, China's first great baby boom peaked, the product of soaring fertility rates, which soon fell dramatically under Mao's harsh repression. The number of births fell dramatically, at first, until the decreasing fertilty rates stabilized. Once the baby boomers reached child-bearing years, however, a second boom was created, not because the fertility rate rebounded, but simply because of the dramatic increase of the population of fertile women. There will be not much of a third wave. The second boom is entering their child-bearing years, but the first wave...

The sinner does not draw himself to Christ, but it is Christ who draws the sinner to Himself. Thus, the sinner has no merit of his own when he receives Christ, whether in prayer, or in baptism; the merit is entirely Christ's, earned through the outpouring of His blood upon the cross. Any work which helps draw the sinner to salvation, or any fruitful work at all, is not the work of Man, but is work of God, merely enacted through Man, who needs only submit to God. Man because Man is totally unworthy of receiving Christ, but it is...

The following is based on observations accepted by the global-warming consensus, and does not attempt to refute or even provide contradictory evidence. Is the Earth warming? Yes. With extremely advanced statistical techniques, scientists have been able to cut through all the background noise of weather patterns and cyclical fluctuations to detect a tiny increase in temperature over the past 100 years. To be precise, there have been two warmings in the past century, each about three decades long, and each of about one third of one degree, separated by a pause of about three decades. These increases are by no...

The following are ties Cho had to Islam. They are not offered as proof of anything, but merely to prompt consideration or disproof of any links. Cho’s father lived in Saudi Arabia as a young, single man. His sister works for a State Department contractor which oversees billions of dollars of aid for Iraq. Previously, she worked in Bangkok. (1) Both of Cho’s plays are about sexual abuse. (2) Bangkok is a city famous for its sex trade, which caters especially to Muslim businessmen. Cho’s rampage was on Holocaust Remembrance day. Although probably a happenstance, one of the professors he...

I read the following from Little Green Footballs: "Apparently, South Korean student Seung Hui Cho signed his note, “Ismail Ax,” and also wrote those words on his arm. All other signs right now point to this being a deranged individual with a history of odd behavior (not a “sudden jihadi”), but this is very curious." Hotair.com suggests that he meant only to refer to a story by an author named Ishmael: You probably already know this, but in James Fennimore Cooper’s story “The Prairie,” the settler Ishmael Bush, who is attempting to escape from civilization, sets out across the prairie...

A couple of recent posts referred to male-only congregations. It made me wonder what a Protestant, male-only service would look like. Let's see some suggestions, folks. (Many of these would be offensive to Catholic and other high-church sensibilities, but so are most uniquely Protestant practices. That said, the intention is not to bash others, or to be prurient; keep this in good fun. This is farce, not bitter satire!) Holy Water applied by Super Soaker. “The Word of the Lord” changed to, simply, “Word!” “Change my heart, O God” replaced with “Drop kick me, Jesus” Kiss of Peace handshake replaced...

Senator Obama joked with David Letterman, "I think it is possible that in that kind of situation, we might have to have a brokered convention and, Dave, we might turn to you." It's a stupid joke, but it may reveal that the prospect of a brokered convention is already on candidates' minds. And it already seems likely to some, due to a complete breakdown of the primary system. The Wall Street Journal's Brian Carney says, "The presidential primary system as we have known it for 35 years is dead. History books will record that the era that began with the...

Meet George "Sonny" Purdue, the most popular major-state Republican governor in America. In a year of devestating losses, he handily beat his Democratic challenger by a 3-to-2 margin. Gov. Purdue is a vet in two ways: He is a former Air Force Captain and a Doctor of Veterinary medicine. With his wife, Mary, he is a father of four children, and foster parent of eight. He was also a University of Georgia walk-on quarterback, and will appear as a coach in the movie, "We Are Marshall" Since his election in 2002, Georgia has improved from 50th in the nation on...

One must be careful to make too much of a given Senate candidate appearing broke at the 3rd-quarter FEC filing time. After all, the national parties and major donors can rescue a strong candidate’s foundering finances. And certain costs, such as advertising, may even still have been paid up front. But when so many candidates from one party, who have been very strong, are suddenly out of cash, while the other party is cash-rich, something may be afoot. In this case, the Republicans continue to use their strategy which produced surprise wins in 2002 and 2004: They are keeping their...

The demographic situation of the world is not simply overpopulation. In many regions of the world, it is severe underpopulation. Globally, there is a mix of both. Yet the focus has been nearly exclusively on overpopulation, to the point where underpopulated groups foolishly try to reduce their own population. This could have devestating effects. In the early 1960s, the earth's population was expanding at a rate of 2.2% per year. At that rate, it would double every 32 years. By the year 2050, the Earth's population would be over 20 billion. As recently as a decade ago, many demographers guessed...