Free Republic

Housekeeper finds $6,000 and gets a $100 rewardNeed a sign that there is still some good left in the world? Look no further than Jeanne Mydil. The cleaning woman at the Miami International Airport Hotel was honored Thursday for returning $6,000 in cash that she found in a hotel nightstand after the guests had checked out. What makes the honest act even more remarkable is Mydil's husband died just a week before and she was struggling to figure out how to pay for his burial. But Mydil had a feeling the money was more important to someone else than it...

It is no secret that many of us who reject Obama's neo-communist agenda have turned to the Founding Fathers for guidance; when you think your country's founding principles are under attack, it's natural to re-acquaint yourself with the writings of the extraordinary group of men who wrote our founding documents.   When we examine this genius cluster, George Washington is perhaps the best loved.  Last week Glenn Beck recommended the four-year old, 1208-page tome, George Washington's Sacred Fire, which discusses pop culture fave topics like the religious beliefs of our first President.  The book shot to number one on Amazon's bestseller...

What are your most embarrassing moments? You don’t want to admit them. And if you do admit them, you certainly won’t add to your shame by inventing embarrassing moments about yourself to make you look even worse. Who’s going to lie to make himself look bad? People will lie to make themselves look good (especially politicians), but no one will lie to make himself look bad. That’s why when historical accounts contain events embarrassing to the authors (or heroes of the authors) those events are probably true. Historians call this the principle of embarrassment, and it’s one reason why I...

(CNN) -- I wish the titans of Wall Street could meet Mark Dalton. Not that it would be likely to change anything. But I wish the leaders of Goldman Sachs and of the other big banking firms could talk to Mark Dalton for just a few minutes. They might learn a few things about how to better connect with the American people. I didn't know Dalton's last name until a few days ago. For almost two years, I've held onto something he mailed to me. There was no reason not to throw it out, yet I had a feeling that...

His book Band of Brothers – which chronicled the exploits of one company of US airborne troops in second world war Europe – was turned into a highly praised TV series. But now American historian Professor Stephen Ambrose, who was President Dwight D Eisenhower's official biographer and wrote or edited more than a dozen books about him, is embroiled in a posthumous controversy. It is alleged that he invented many meetings he claimed to have had with Eisenhower, and even fabricated entire interviews with him. The revelations have sent shock waves through the scholarly community in the United States. The...

As you folks know, I have spent the last two years researching the life and times of the ObamaMessiah, and today I just learned something new.  Barack Obama's birth certificate was destroyed in a fire. In an article, entitled, "Obama 'Birther' Row Rears Its Head Again," Greg Milam, identified as a "U. S correspondent" for Sky News, the British version of Fox News, has just introduced a whole new reason for Obama not presenting his birth certificate to confirm his eligibility -- it was burned in a fire! -- poor Barack -- everything seems to happen to him. Milam correctly...

Congressional Republicans were smart to invite President Obama to address them in Baltimore last Friday. And it was great that Mr. Obama accepted and was willing to take questions. But the president told some real whoppers. According to Mr. Obama, he basically kept his promise to broadcast health care discussions on C-SPAN. During the campaign when he promised "I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table" and have them broadcast on C-SPAN, he was only referring to the "congressional hearings" that have been televised for decades. He told the Republicans that the deals to give unions a...

Members of the media that were videotaping the President’s meeting with a group of mayors at the White House were asked to leave after President Barack Obama had completed his prepared remarks. “Giving scripted remarks is one thing,” the President said. “The give-and-take of the Q & A portion of the meeting is entirely different. People may say things that they’d prefer not be transmitted to the general public.” The President contended that “we can’t really expect honesty from these mayors if they have to worry that their words may reach an unintended audience. And while we are confident that...

A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University concluded today that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized passages in his dissertation for a doctoral degree at the university 36 years ago. "There is no question," the committee said in a report to the university's provost, "but that Dr. King plagiarized in the dissertation by appropriating material from sources not explicitly credited in notes, or mistakenly credited, or credited generally and at some distance in the text from a close paraphrase or verbatim quotation."

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...