Free Republic

Well, at long last, GingisK and Lazamataz hit it! Um, at the gun range.Weather was clear and windless, the variety of firearms was truly something to behold, and the company was wonderful.GingisK picked me up, and after picking up his illustrious and charming boys, and meeting his lovely and gracious wife (where we all supped on Pizza, one of them affectionally named 'Sam'), we then proceeded to a delightful range slightly east of Lanier Lake in Georgia.I finally got a chance to break in my Glock 22, and discovered that after an initial period of reacquaintence with shooting (in other...

A Grad rocket which was fired on Monday evening from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory exploded in the southern Israel town of Netivot. The rocket hit a parked car. There were no reports of casualties but four people were treated for shock, the Negev District Police said. Residents in the area reported that the “red alert” alarm that is usually heard before a rocket explosion did not work this time. Several minutes after the rocket attack on Netivot, a second Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in the city of Ofakim. There were no reports of injuries...

I don't think anyone in sports history ever got more of his talent than Pete Rose, he played 24 seasons, won 4 batting titles, led NL in hits 7 times in an average man's body without great speed or power.

At least four people are reportedly injured after a series of rockets were fired at the southern Israeli town of Eilat. A series of explosions were heard in and around the resort town in far southern Israel near the borders with Jordan and Egypt. Israeli media say five rockets were fired at the city by militant groups either in Jordan or the Sinai Desert. The attacks come three days after militants in Gaza fired a Katyusha rocket at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, and a more crude rocket into the Negev Desert. In retaliation Israeli forces on Saturday bombed two...

Council "bin police" are punishing hundreds of households with bigger fines than those given by police to shoplifters, it can be revealed. Councils are issuing fines of up to £110 for such infringements as putting their bins out for collection at the wrong time, over filling bins, or putting recycling into the wrong boxes Photo: ALAMY Figures obtained by The Sunday Telegraph have revealed that local authorities issued more than 1,240 fixed penalty notices last year for breaking rules on recycling and putting out rubbish. Councils are issuing fines of up to £110 for such infringements as putting their bins...

Last week the Congressional Budget Office reported that it expects that the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services will spend up to an additional $200 billion over the next decade on administering Obamacare. That's in addition to the estimated $1 trillion that will be spent in 2014-2019 under the new healthcare law. Much of the money will go to hiring hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats to administer Obamacare over the next decade. But in the short term, the additional dollars will bankroll a two-pronged campaign to re-elect congressional Democrats. The Department of Health and Human...

Hamas man: Jordanian, Egyptian agents tracked terror chief before murder. Arab countries may be complicit in the January 19 assassination of Hamas terror chief Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Hamas sources said on Tuesday, according to various reports. Citing a report by Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Reuters quoted Hamas official Mahmoud Nasser as saying that Jordanian and Egyptian intelligence agencies had probably tracked Mabhouh prior to his assassination. Nasser told the newspaper that there was evidence showing that Mabhouh had been targeted by moderate Arab countries because he had handled sensitive information concerning the activities of Hamas and other Islamist elements. He added that that...

A DEADLY plague could sweep across Europe, doctors fear, after an outbreak of a virus in Ukraine plunged the country and its neighbours into a state of panic. A cocktail of three flu viruses are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu. The death toll has reached 189 and more than 1 million people have been infected, most of them in the nine regions of Western Ukraine.

A DEADLY plague could sweep across Europe, doctors fear, after an outbreak of a virus in Ukraine plunged the country and its neighbours into a state of panic.

A DEADLY plague could sweep across Europe, doctors fear, after an outbreak of a virus in Ukraine plunged the country and its neighbours into a state of panic. A cocktail of three flu viruses are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu. The death toll has reached 189 and more than 1 million people have been infected, most of them in the nine regions of Western Ukraine. President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko has called in the World Health Organisation and a team of nine specialists are...

The Chicago police would say only that authorities had found the body of an adult male about 3:15 a.m. in the area of 350 N. Orleans St., a road near a waterway in Chicago. CNN affiliate WGN-TV, citing unnamed police sources, said Scott's family had reported him missing Sunday evening. WLS-TV also reported that it was Scott's body that emergency crews recovered from the water. A report on the station's Web site did not cite a source but noted that Scott's wife, Diana Palomar, is the station's vice president of community affairs. Scott had been appointed to the Chicago Board...

Note: The following text is a quote: Forces Arrest Terrorism Suspects in Iraq American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2009 – Iraqi forces, aided by U.S. forces advisors, detained several terrorism suspects in Iraq in recent days, including one believed responsible for the Oct. 11 bombing in Ramadi, military officials reported. Special weapons and tactics personnel and U.S. forces advisors, under the direction of the Iraqi military and the Anbar Operations Center, detained a suspect Oct. 25 in Hit, northwest of Ramadi. The man is suspected in the planning and coordination of the Oct. 11 attacks on the Ramadi...

Authorities said they are shutting down the Bay Bridge in both directions after pieces of the cantilever section fell during the late-afternoon commute, striking three vehicles on the upper deck, the California Highway Patrol said. Caltrans officials said the parts that fell were two high-strength rods and a saddle that were part of the emergency repair that delayed the opening of the bridge on Labor Day weekend.

One of the much touted, magic money saving pills of Obama’s Health Care Plan is the pledge to cut costs and increase efficiency through electronic health information technology (HIT). According to Obama, using a nationalized HIT will help offset the increased costs of providing health care to the majority of our population. Such is his reasoning for wanting to pour at least $10 billion into a nationalized HIT every year for five years. But, a nationalized HIT brings nothing but peril to our pocketbooks, an ever ballooning government, and an uncertain future for our privacy.

CONCORD – Twenty-seven state parks have been slated for potential sale or give-away by a cash-strapped state Division of Parks and Recreation that wants to jettison properties that don't meet its core definition of state parks.

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M., June 8, 2009 – Air Force Senior Airman Eric Slaugh was returning here from leave in December when he encountered a snowstorm in northeastern New Mexico, a storm that would detour him into assisting in saving someone's life. Air Force Senior Airman Eric Slaugh, his wife, Marcie, and his son, Skyler, enjoy the view of the Green River in Wyoming during a family vacation. Slaugh, assigned to the 27th Special Operations Component Maintenance Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., used his self-aid and buddy care training to assist a man hit by a...

The Pasadena Independent, owned by Beacon Media in Monrovia, California, has published an apparent slanderous article by Terry Miller, staff photographer, in its April 15 issue on radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger's visit to the City of Arcadia to celebrate the city as a family friendly place to live. Schlessinger was the keynote speaker at the City of Arcadia's Community Breakfast, which was reportedly sold out. Hiding behind comments by "anonymous" persons who attended the event who Miller failed to identify, we read that Schlessinger (erroneously) believes "that gay people are biological errors," that her views are "caustic...

Spending: The stimulus provides for the creation of a federal health care bureaucracy not unlike Hillarycare. Decisions that should be made by doctors and patients will belong to bureaucrats deciding cost-effectiveness.The stimulus bill commits $19 billion to accelerate adoption of Health Information Technology (HIT) systems by doctors and hospitals. It involves the creation of electronic medical records to be stored in a central database. This is said to be for reducing treatment errors and increasing efficiency in the delivery of medical care. It also authorizes the creation of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology — and...

Do you think you've hit bottom? Oh, no. There's a bottom below. - Malvina Reynolds To begin with after the end of a house price bubble homeowners feel that they have some sort of entitlement to the previous high value of their homes. If they can't get it, they often won't accept lower offers. So, previously established highs tend to be "sticky". This is exemplified by the trend of sales shown in Berkeley, CA, multiple listing data between the late 1960's and early 1980's. Sales volume went down. Inventory went up. Prices didn't drop. There is also normally a "resistance...

(IsraelNN.com) During the Cast Lead operation in Gaza, IDF tank fire near a United Nations school in Gaza was blamed for the deaths of dozens of civilians who had taken refuge in the building. The incident became one of the most highly publicized attacks in the war, and led to heavy international criticism. However, recent reports suggest that the incident was not accurately portrayed by senior U.N. Officials. John Ging, the director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, spoke to the Toronto Globe and Mail last week and agreed that no shell had actually struck the...