Free Republic

“I used to think wearing even just lip balm was too feminine,” said Choi Jung-hwan, 24, as he pulled a tube of gloss from his bag and smeared it across his lips. He replaced the cap, smacked his lips together and smiled. “Primping has become a necessity for men,” he continued. “It’s a testament to how much a man would do to win over a girl.” Grooming is no longer just for women. Members of K-pop boy bands Infinite and BEAST are rarely seen on stage without a little eye shadow and liner. In a survey of 2,880 Clio makeup...

BEIJING: Patients in China are swarming to acupuncture clinics to be given bee stings to treat or ward off life-threatening illness, practitioners say. More than 27,000 people have undergone the painful technique -- each session can involve dozens of punctures -- at Wang Menglin's clinic in Beijing, says the bee acupuncturist who makes his living from believers in the concept. But except for trying to prevent allergic reactions to the stings themselves, there is no orthodox medical evidence that bee venom is effective against illness, and rationalist websites in the West describe so-called "apitherapy" as "quackery". "We hold the bee,...

SEOUL: South Korea ordered sweltering government offices to turn off their air conditioning as two power plants stopped operations on Monday, a day after a minister warned of an imminent national energy crisis. The timing could hardly be worse with South Korea in the grip of an extended heatwave and temperatures nudging 34 degrees Celsius. One Seoul city government employee described her office as "one big dim sum basket". The heatwave is also smashing records in Japan, where the mercury hit 41 degrees Celsius on Monday. The coal-powered Dangjin III plant, with a capacity of 500 megawatts, was taken offline...

MANILA, Philippines -- A powerful typhoon battered the northern Philippines on Monday, toppling power lines and dumping heavy rain across cities and food-growing plains. The storm left at least two people dead and 44 missing. (MORE: Typhoon Utor Forecast) Typhoon Utor, described as the strongest globally this year, slammed ashore in mountainous eastern Aurora province with sustained winds of 175 kilometers (109 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 210 kph (130 mph). Footage from ABS-CBN TV network showed a woman swept away by a raging river in neighboring Isabela province. The woman waved her hands for help as...

Japan’s temperature hit 40-degrees over the weekend, reaching a record high in 6 years and claiming the lives of four people. Back in August 2007, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported two cities reaching an all-time high of 40.9 degrees. Last month also caused more than 700 people hospitalized and one dead because of heatstroke. On Saturday, two senior citizens from western Japan passed away due to the intense heat. A 66-year old man and an 84-year old woman were both reported to have collapsed in the fields. The weather bureau warned 39 prefectures early Sunday of another past-35 degree temperature....

Neighbors of rocky villa claim the construction was illegal and could cause a building collapse. Until then, mountain views are an elevator ride away for Professor Zhang Lin. Top this one, Trump. A Chinese professor built a mountaintop getaway on top of a towering apartment building in Beijing. Professor Zhang Lin’s rock-covered villa had the height right — it sits 26 floors up — but the home is dispensed with the rest of the mountain, Yahoo! News reported. Neighbors say their building is crumbling beneath a man-made mountain in Beijing. The tower residents left to hold up their ambitious neighbor’s...

This is another “guest post” by The Very Honorable Ima Librul, Senator from the State of Confusion Utopia. He was the first person of consequence to announce changes to the Bill of Rights enacted by President Obama and we are honored to have a post of this caliber by a quintessential Librul such as the Senator. He is a charter member of President Obama’s Go For It Team, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the Meretricious Relations Subcommittee. He is also justly proud of his expertise in the care and breeding of unicorns, for which his...

Republican backers of the Michigan Senate work group's version of House Bill 4714, the Medicaid expansion measure, are trying to sell it as Medicaid reform. In reality, as even the regular news media has focused on, the legislation is about expanding Medicaid and cooperating with the implementation of Obamacare. It now appears that even the so-called reforms in the bill, are of questionable value. "My goodness, these are out of the Stone Age,” Linda Gorman, senior fellow and director of health policy with the Independence Institute in Denver, said regarding the list of reforms. "Couldn't they at least have brought...

SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Sunday warned of a possible power-shortage crisis that may lead to a rolling power outage as seen in Sept. 2011 amid a scorching heat wave across the country. Nationwide heat wave was expected to cause the most dangerous crisis in supply and demand of electricity here for three days through Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE). Last Friday, power demand reached a record high of 79.35 million kilowatts (kWs), surpassing the country's power-generation capacity of 77.15 million kWs. Power reserves temporarily dropped to 3.29 million kWs, below...

Mark Dice is back with another great video showing us how Obama’s America has created a greedy government dependent nation. Notice the oinker at 3:30 saying “Absolutely!” to killing old people so she can take their health care coverage.