Free Republic

GREAT FALLS (AP) — A Great Falls man who found a $6,000 diamond ring at the mall has returned it to its owner and wouldn't even accept the reward. Chandria Murphy of San Antonio, Texas, was helping her mother at her chair massage business at a Great Falls mall earlier this month. She was getting ready to close up on Dec. 10 when a last-minute customer arrived. She took off her three-diamond ring and placed it on a table. She usually puts it in her pocket. Murphy finished up and went home before she panicked and realized she didn't have...

Fox News will finish 2009 as the top-rated cable news network, a perch it has enjoyed for eight years running. But 2009--the first year of the Obama administration--also marks FNC's highest rated year in the channel's 13-year-history. FNC topped the competition in all dayparts: morning (1 million total viewers, 340,000 viewers in news' target demographic of 25-54-year-olds); total day (1.2 million viewers, 323,000 in the demo); primetime (2.2 million viewers, 551,000 in the demo). Those numbers mark year-to-year demo gains of 14% in the morning, 16% in total day and 10% in primetime (Mon-Sun), according to Nielsen. FNC saw double-digit...

"Once a liar, always a liar" is a proverbial parental admonishment. A new study claims there is truth to the adage: People who cheated on exams in high school are considerably more likely to be dishonest later in life, according to a report to be released today by the Josephson Institute of Ethics. The study, which surveyed nearly 7,000 people in various age groups nationwide, offers a sobering assessment of today's youth as cynics who are aware that their behavior crosses boundaries but believe it is necessary to succeed. And the findings suggest that habits formed in childhood persist: Those...

We all know honesty is the key to any relationship. To show dishonesty in business dealing is not only immoral but illegal. Aside from the moral and legal issues it is simply bad for business. Every business has its reputation following it good or bad....

The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), claimed it posted the “full text” of its health care reform bill, “America’s Healthy Future Act,” on its Web site. But when users clicked the link to read the proposed law, they could only access a 259-page document that included summaries of both current law and the proposed legislation--or what some senators called a "plain English" version of the bill.

A marketing scheme backfired on The Washington Post on Thursday, forcing the newspaper into uncharacteristic mea culpa mode. A headline in The Post itself tells all: "The Post's 'Salon' Plan: A Public Relations Disaster." In an age of excruciating transparency, revelations that the newspaper planned to pair up political insiders, business leaders, Obama administration officials and Post reporters for cozy, off-the-record "salons" at the home of publisher Katharine Weymouth generated immediate, corrosive buzz -- and lots of reaction. A color publicity flier obtained by Politico revealed that The Post would charge up to $250,000 for these "collegial" encounters, billed as...

By a 252-172 vote, House Democrats defeated a Republican sponsored resolution calling for an inquiry of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) charge that the Central Intelligence Agency had misled congress on the “enhanced interrogation” issue. Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami called the resolution “a dangerous venture.” “America is under attack from radical extremists,” Elshami said. “A high profile investigation of one of the nation’s highest ranking leaders will embolden these enemies and could demoralize those entrusted with our homeland’s security.” “In these perilous circumstances it is important that we present a unified front behind our leaders,” Elshami added. “We should not be...

As Barack Obama closes in on his first 100 days as president, majorities of Americans approve of the job he is doing, are satisfied with what he has accomplished so far and think he is keeping his promises, according to a FOX News poll released Friday. Obama's approval rating comes in at 62 percent, down just three points from the 65 percent approval he received after his first week in office. Twenty-nine percent of Americans disapprove. In addition, most people say Obama is doing a better job than they expected (26 percent) or meeting expectations (56 percent). Few say he...

The mainstream media has once again taken delight in reporting salacious news about Governor Palin and her family as the Johnstons are traveling the talk show circuit for the express purpose of bad-mouthing the mother of his child and the Governor. While this blog normally focuses exclusively on the Governor's accomplishments, some recent developments dictate that the subject of Levi and Bristol once again be covered. There is more to this story than meets the eye -- particularly regarding who is financing these appearances, what the financier's motives are and who the financier is connected with. The Johnston family's trip...

Insincerity is the lubricant of social intercourse. It's also the hardest thing to fake.We've all heard about the latest VP F-Bomb. Cheney did it a few year ago on the senate floor when he told Senator Leahy what he could do with himself. Last week Palooka Joe used the f-word to tell his friends to lighten up and drop all that formal "Mr. Vice President" crap. Say what you want about VP Biden, but you can't call him insincere. He's radically honest. Wikihow explains radical honesty and how to practice it in your everyday life. Included are little anecdotes from...

A man lacking in judgment strikes hands in pledge and puts up security for his neighbor. Proverbs 17:18 I miss the day when I could shake somebody's hand, and the handshake alone bound the person to whatever was agreed upon. Sadly, trusting your fellow man to do the right thing is a thing of the past. Now we must draw up 50 page contracts promising that we'll have the garbage ready for the garbage man at precisely 8:00 a.m., or the trash won't be picked up that week. Samuel Goldwyn summarized our new attitude the best: A verbal contract isn't...

Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. Please accept now a gift from your servant." The prophet answered, "As surely as the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing." And even though Naaman urged him, he refused. 2 Kings 5:14-16 What a very different society we live in today! Today the so-called "prophet" would require the healed one to give a large gift because of the miraculous healing. I...

A 92-year-old great-grandmother from Queens accidentally discarded a winning $1 million scratch-off lottery ticket - but a scrupulous supermarket clerk saved the day. -snip The Far Rockaway woman scratched them, thought they were losers and asked the clerk to toss them.

Jim Vicevich Jim Vicevich hosts "Sound off Connecticut" every weekday morning. Republitarian by nature (see Larry Elder, KABC), Jim has more than 20 years experience in broadcast television. With 6 Emmy nominations and 3 Telly Awards, Jim has worked most recently as business and financial reporter for NBC30 the NBC owned TV station in Hartford. In addition Jim worked as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years. Watch him and listen at this link below: http://www.radioviceonline.com/

Now we get to endure all of the nonsense from the Libertarians. They will explain how conservatives did this wrong, did that wrong etc, etc. They'll subtly and sometimes boldly undermine Conservative principles under the guise of bringing forth common understanding. All while offering up their idiotic solutions cloaked in faux reason. Dismiss them as quickly as you would the most ardent liberal...because in the end, their perspectives spring from the same well; Anomia.

By and large, the media has utterly failed to analyze Obama's fanciful rhetoric to check for facts or for honesty. Study after study has shown a profound mainstream media bias favoring Obama and attacking McCain. A prominent ABC journalist called this bias "a very, very dangerous game ... with the Constitution." A brand new study by the Project for Excellence in Media came out yesterday with absolutely devastating results on rampant media bias. We'll quickly be able to see the media bias, as people appearing on Obama's infomercial - such as Roberta Johnston, Larry Stewart, and Mark and Melinda Dowell...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday brushed aside Republican charges that his tax plan amounts to socialism, but he acknowledged it involves "spreading around opportunity" so that wealthier Americans — like himself — pay a little more to help lower-rung workers. ...Obama made his remarks at a news conference after a meeting with foreign policy and military luminaries to discuss "urgent issues" facing the country from abroad, an attempt to inoculate himself against the fresh charge from the McCain side that he is too untested for the White House. McCain and Palin have seized on comments from...

Good evening, and welcome to the new week's thread.We enter the last 3 weeks of the campaign, 1 debate to go, and a reported very large ad-buy by the McCain campaign.Something, something... must happen soon to re-energize the R ranks and the candidate himself, altho NOT his running mate who continues full steam ahead.In Nobama news, ACORN and his Rezko ties continue to draw some scrutiny, and perhaps by Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago.An oh yes, there's the economy and the markets, both here and worldwide...

Gov. Sarah Palin By Sabra Ayres COX NEWS SERVICE 09/28/2008 WASILLA, Alaska — As a teenager growing up in this small town 30 miles outside of Anchorage, Sarah Heath Palin was known by her friends as an athletic tomboy with a lively sense of humor and easy-going personality. She was the kind of energetic teenager that once spontaneously choreographed a dance to the 1970s pop song "My Sharona" in the upstairs living room of the Heath family home. "She's hilarious and super down-to-earth ... and she's pretty ambitious, that's for sure," said Adele Morgan, a Wasilla friend who has known...

BLACK PASTOR ATTACKS OBAMA This hate filled video says it all................

Integrity in Politics by Dr. Jeff Mirus, August 29, 2008   The selection of Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as John McCain’s running mate has people thinking about integrity again. Palin is a pro-life mother of four who makes no bones about fighting corruption and standing up for the vulnerable. She opposes abortion not only in speech but in personal practice, having resisted suggestions to abort her own Downs-syndrome child. She swept into office in Alaska by exposing and campaigning against serious ethics violations, and she has the highest approval rating of any significant public figure in any state in...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – While many studies have examined cheating among college students, new research looks at the issue from a different perspective – identifying students who are least likely to cheat. The study of students at one Ohio university found that students who scored high on measures of courage, empathy and honesty were less likely than others to report their cheating in the past – or intending to cheat in the future Moreover, those students who reported less cheating were also less likely to believe that their fellow students regularly committed academic dishonesty. People who don’t cheat “have a more...

. . . honor, integrity, honesty, ethics, morals, character, judgement? Recently, rumors at the company where I work have started proving true. Our building will be sold and the manufacturing facility sold to another company. Something new; unusual? Market downturn? No, not really. Just greed. Greed likely performed by an officer of the company who thought it would be okay to misreport our earnings. In other words, they "cooked the books". I'm sure they thought that no harm would come as a result of lying; it made their quarterly earnings look better than they were and earned them a higher...

Commentary - Peter Schweizer: Conservatives more honest than liberals? Jun 2, 2008 3:00 AM (10 days ago) by Peter Schweizer, The Examiner The headline may seem like a trick question — even a dangerous one — to ask during an election year. And notice, please, that I didn’t ask whether certain politicians are more honest than others. (Politicians are a different species altogether.) Yet there is a striking gap between the manner in which liberals and conservatives address the issue of honesty. Consider these results: Is it OK to cheat on your taxes? A total of 57 percent of those...

The headline may seem like a trick question — even a dangerous one — to ask during an election year. And notice, please, that I didn’t ask whether certain politicians are more honest than others. (Politicians are a different species altogether.) Yet there is a striking gap between the manner in which liberals and conservatives address the issue of honesty. Consider these results: Is it OK to cheat on your taxes? A total of 57 percent of those who described themselves as “very liberal” said yes in response to the World Values Survey, compared with only 20 percent of those...

The headline may seem like a trick question — even a dangerous one — to ask during an election year. And notice, please, that I didn’t ask whether certain politicians are more honest than others. (Politicians are a different species altogether.) Yet there is a striking gap between the manner in which liberals and conservatives address the issue of honesty. Consider these results: Is it OK to cheat on your taxes? A total of 57 percent of those who described themselves as “very liberal” said yes in response to the World Values Survey, compared with only 20 percent of those...

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is grappling with growing numbers of public corruption cases and a surge in mortgage fraud investigations, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday, wondering aloud whether Americans are "becoming more crooked." In a speech to the American Bar Association, Mueller asked the assembled defense lawyers for help in "creating a culture of integrity" by reporting evidence of wrongdoing by politicians and corporate executives alike. "Anyone who follows the news these days and sees repeated references to corporate fraud and public corruption might think the nation is in the midst of a moral crisis," Mueller told the defense...

A recent poll in North Carolina showed that only 25 percent of voters think Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is honest compared to 48 percent for Obama and 54 percent for Arizona Sen. John McCain. And Nearly 90 percent say trust is a major factor in deciding who they would vote for. Similar doubts about Clinton's honesty have surfaced in polls by Gallup and Pew Research. These results don’t bode well for Clinton in the upcoming May 6 North Carolina presidential primary. Clinton called this emphasis on honesty short-sighted and unfair. “I’ll grant that honesty seems important to a lot of...

(CBS) It was a tempting sight for struggling landscaper Eli Estrada: a bag filled with $140,000 on a Cerritos street. There was his credit card debt, upcoming wedding and making ends meet with his artificial grass and landscaping business. But turning it over to Long Beach police last month was the right thing to do, he said. The 40-year-old Estrada admits that some days "I think I was nuts," but he adds, "I know in my gut that to keep that money would be wrong." The Bank of America money bag was lost March 11 by Brinks Armored truck drivers. The...

Jerry Zeifman, the Democrat chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee that worked on the Watergate investigation, says he fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people Zeifman refused to recommend to other employers in his 17-year career, “because she was a liar. She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.” Clinton defended her actions in the Watergate investigation as “necessary for the greater good. Look, we...

The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. -- Barack Obama, Huffington Post, March 14, 2008 The key question before Barack Obama today was the one going to his integrity: was he was telling the truth when he claimed in his HuffPo piece of March 14th that he never heard Wright make the remarks "that are the cause of this controversy"? I listened carefully. He dodged the question. View video.

Report: Women Are World-Class Fibbers Sunday , March 02, 2008 Most females lie "more cleverly and successfully than men" about everything from cheating on their spouses and shopping binges to barhopping and facelifts, according to a new book published this week. "Women lie as a survival technique, but also to get what they want," Susan Shapiro Barash, author of "Little White Lies, Deep Dark Secrets: The Truth About Why Women Lie," told the New York Post. Barash interviewed 500 women nationwide and found 75 percent lie about how much money they spend, while more than 60 percent admitted to cheating...

Kids lie early, often, and for all sorts of reasons—to avoid punishment, to bond with friends, to gain a sense of control. But now there’s a singular theory for one way this habit develops: They are just copying their parents. In the last few years, a handful of intrepid scholars have decided it’s time to try to understand why kids lie. For a study to assess the extent of teenage dissembling, Dr. Nancy Darling, then at Penn State University, recruited a special research team of a dozen undergraduate students, all under the age of 21. Using gift certificates for free...

Exactly what was it about Hillary’s recent speech in Selma that made supporters and detractors alike cringe upon viewing the spectacle of the Wellesley College graduate and resident of New York State speaking with a Southern drawl? It wasn’t just the pandering — of which all politicians are culpable. Rather, the resulting criticism seemed more to stem from the fact that the whole episode reeked so tellingly of insincerity. And therein lies one of the most vulnerable aspects of her candidacy: the absence of even a shred of authenticity. Is there any aspect of Hillary’s march to the White House...

Once there was a Pope named Peter? One day Jesus asked two questions to his disciples. The first: Who do men say that the Son of Man is? (Matthew 16:13). The second more personal "But you, who do you say that I am?" Do you believe what the people’s opinion are of him or do you have one of your own. In v.16 Peter spoke up and answered “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus now turned to Peter and made a series of statements. One is where the revelation came from. Jesus tells him that...

We have two cats: Weasel, a grey female calico, and Orion, a male orange and white tabby. Orion is a big, lump of a cat, twenty pounds if he’s an ounce. He’s taught me a lesson for years that I finally realized today. He teaches by example. Orion showed up at the door four years ago in the fall. He was obviously a house cat, not a feral or wild one. He had no collar. We brought him water and food. He wanted to come inside, but we didn’t let him. He was obviously someone else’s cat; we shouldn’t prevent...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - There are probably a million ways Jerry Mika could spend $2 million dollars. Trouble is, he couldn't cash the check. Expecting a $15 refund from the Utah Department of Commerce, the Draper man opened his mail recently to find a $2,245,342 check. "I kept trying to find a way to make it legitimate so I could cash it," he said. "I did think about all the things I could do with the money ... who wouldn't?" Mika returned the check - a mistake that occurred when an employee entered a serial number, not an amount...

The Post editorial noted "a perverse kind of good news" in Hillary's free-trade revisionism: "There's little chance that her position reflects any deeply held principle." And there lies the beauty not just of Clinton on free trade but of the Clinton candidacy itself: She has no principles. Her liberalism is redeemed by her ambition; her ideology subordinate to her political needs. I could never vote for her, but I (and others of my ideological ilk) could live with her -- precisely because she is so liberated from principle. Her liberalism, like her husband's -- flexible, disciplined, calculated, triangulated -- always...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 8, 2007Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- Campaigning in Iowa over the weekend, pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama attempted to moderate his views on abortion and abstinence education. However, he made it clear he has no interest in limiting or reducing abortions and his pro-abstinence stance is tempered by his backing of sexual education.Speaking in the northeast town of New Hampton late Friday, Obama responded to a question in a forum from a Denver resident in the first primary state for a family reunion.The questioner asked Obama to reconcile how society gets upset at someone like Michael...

"After the speech, local farmer Les Nelson cuts through the crowd. He has a crewcut, wears worn jeans, holds out his thick hands, and says: “Kill the terrorists, secure the border, and give me back my freedom.” Thompson looks to him, and says, deadeye, “you just summed up my whole speech.” That quote is part of an excellent in-depth article over at The Politico that picks up on the intangible that is taking place out on the campaign trail between Fred Thompson and the people he speaks to. Fred is coming across as...........

A new study says that on average, more than half of the ink from inkjet cartridges is wasted when users toss them in the garbage. Why is that interesting? According to the study, users are tossing the cartridges when their printers are telling them they're out of ink, not when they necessarily are out of ink. The study by TÜV Rheinland looked at inkjet efficiency across multiple brands, including Epson (who commissioned the study), Lexmark, Canon, HP, Kodak, and Brother. They studied the efficiency of both single and multi-ink cartridges. Espon's printers were among the highest rated, at more than...

Several dangerous precedents were set in the recent kangaroo court conviction of former Cheney Chief of Staff Scooter Libby. To begin with, Libby was tried and convicted for the crime of obstructing justice, ostensibly by providing false information during grand jury testimony. The entirety of the investigation was billed under the heading of determining the identity of the individual who had divulged the employment status of Valerie Plame, who had once been a covert CIA agent. So ambiguous was the nature of the investigation and subsequent trial, that presiding Federal District Judge Reggie B. Walton would not even allow the...

With Hillary and Barack flailing away at each other, third-man-out John Edwards turned up on this morning's "Today." But while claiming he wanted to stay above the fray, he certainly came close to calling Hillary dishonest, all the while laughing off the notion that he might be. Norah O'Donnell played a clip of Edwards saying: "We need a leader who will be open and honest with you, and with the American people. Who will tell the truth. Who will tell the truth when they've made a mistake." Wonder who John might have had in mind? When Meredith Vieira interviewed...

Chuck Norris The truth will find you ouch I was not surprised to read this past week, WND's report about a rural pastor who discovered documents in the Smithsonian Institution's files that reveal a possible cover-up in identifying Ten Commandments displays in the U.S. Supreme Court. Is anyone shocked anymore to discover when one conceals the truth? It has become a normal way of life. Lying isn't the problem – getting caught is. But hasn't history (ours and others) taught us anything about the fact that lies will eventually be revealed and the truth will ultimately triumph? Pick a decade!...

All my life, I tried to be honest," said Osman Chowdhury, a native of Bangladesh. "Today is no different." But the 41-year-old cabbie from Queens did have a message: "I'm proud of what I did so that people know New York taxi drivers are honest." What he did started on Monday evening, when he picked up the woman at a hotel in midtown Manhattan and drove her to an apartment building several blocks away. She gave him $20 to pay the fare and asked for $9 back. Hours later, at about 10 p.m., three other passengers with luggage discovered the...

A taxi driver returned a black bag carrying 31 diamond rings to a passenger who earlier had given him a 30-cent tip on an $11 ride. Hours after Osman Chowdhury dropped off the passenger, he tracked her down through a flurry of phone calls and returned the bag, which she had left in the taxi's trunk. The unidentified woman, who said she was a jeweler, offered a $100 reward. Chowdhury accepted the money to cover the fares he lost while tracking her down. Chowdhury, a native of Bangladesh, told the New York Daily News that he didn't so much as...

John Kerry announced this week that he will not run for President in 2008. I don’t think any capable observers who pay attention to details such as political appeal and fund-raising strength thought that he had a snowball’s chance anyway. But since my long-time acquaintance, John Kerry, has taken himself out of the race, I thought I should do the same. I met John Kerry in Woolsey Hall at Yale, in 1963. I was a junior, and an officer of the Yale Political Union, when sophomore Kerry showed up to join the Union. He was a year older than me,...

Virtually every system of ethics—Objectivist or not—will acknowledge in no uncertain terms that honesty is one of the chief human virtues. What is meant by the term “honesty” varies widely, however. A popular misconception of honesty equates the virtue with always “telling it like it is” and not holding back any of one’s thoughts about a person, idea, or situation—no matter what the consequences of those thoughts. This view and its real-world applications are antithetical to genuine honesty. If we acknowledge that the individual’s life is the standard of all value, then every virtue must be identified in terms of...

Keith Richards' appearance in the second Pirates of the Caribbean sequel descended into chaos after he apparently got so drunk on the movie set, the film's director had to prop him up, IMDB.com reports. The hell-raising Rolling Stones guitarist finally shot his long-awaited cameo as Johnny Depp's father in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End earlier this summer, but he is perhaps unlikely to remember the occasion. Bill Nighy, who plays Davy Jones in the film, told Empire Online that Richards was inebriated by the time the production team retrieved him from his trailer to shoot his scene, and...