Free Republic

<p>PLEASE continue to pray for MarySecretary and her recovery from a successful kidney transplant operation.</p> <p>THANKS to everyone who has prayed. Please continue.</p> <p>From: April T. Subject: Mary Date: Friday, November 6, 2009, 8:41 AM I called the hospital this morning. They just brought Mary into her room a little before 8:00. Due to the out break of H1N1 in the Syracuse area visiting hours are restricted to 12:00 - 8:00 p.m.</p>

A spoonful of hope might not be the best medicine, according to a new study from a Carnegie Mellon University professor that asserts that optimism can actually be harmful to mental health. The study, authored by CMU's George Loewenstein and several researchers at the University of Michigan, measured the emotional well-being of patients in two groups: those with permanent colostomies and those with colostomies that might be reversed. A colostomy is a surgical procedure -- either temporary or permanent -- resulting in feces leaving a patient's body through the abdomen. Though patients with reversible colostomies initially reported higher life satisfaction,...

Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care. The news media swoons in admiration. The public is likewise smitten, except for a few patriots who circulate disturbing rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: "Embracing change is never easy." So, does that sound like anyone...

Marching out of Yorktown to surrender, the British Army played the song “The World Turned Upside Down.” As I drive to Mega Lo Mart to make my latest deposit of monopoly money in a Chinese savings account all I can do is mumble the final tag-line of the Wicked Witch of the West, “What a world? What a world?” There’s a massive unspoken problem in America today floating like the iceberg in front of the Titanic waiting to sink the unsinkable ship. Founded by revolutionaries crying “No taxation without representation!” the Republic these revolutionaries devised devolved into a society where...

In a motion filed in federal district court on Thursday, lawyers representing artist Shepard Fairey in the copyright fight with The Associated Press over his Obama "Hope" poster asked that they be allowed to withdraw from the case and that a Jones Day attorney and a pair of law professors be allowed to replace them. The move comes a little more than a week after Fairey admitted lying about which AP photograph he used as the basis for his iconic poster -- and then fabricated and destroyed evidence to cover up the truth. Fairey's present legal team -- led by...

No description needed. I bet a whole bunch of people who voted for Obama are thinking "I sure the hell hope I'm not just left with change after Obama's done with me." The hopium is wearing off and like a really bad hangover, waking up is often a very unpleasant but sobering process. Only crazy idiots continue to get hammered and keep going through this self-induced punishment and somehow expect 'next time it'll be different.' It won't. Wake up. Sober up. Don't be stupid like this again. We're taking back the country in 2010. "NY23!" It starts here! This is...

U.S. Sen. John McCain said Friday that Americans are in the toughest times he can remember and that President Barack Obama hasn't brought the change in Washington that he promised. The Arizona Republican spoke at a town hall Friday to a couple hundred people at Mesa's Central Christian Church, reiterating many of the same arguments he's made in recent similar events. McCain took to the stage with standing ovations and an aim to address key issues affecting Arizonans, such as the economy, health care reform, the war in Afghanistan, among other things.

An amazing piece of Street Theatre has been planned for this year's Village Halloween Parade... and all you patriotic New Yorkers are invited to participate -- as zombie followers of Obama! This is a follow-up to last year's successful skit, "Zombies for Obama," led again by artistic director Reynolds Butler. Parading up Sixth Avenue this October 31 will be a group of Obama-worshiping zombies, chanting "Hope... Change... Hope... Change..." and led by an outrageous and wonderfully offensive Barack Obama. You can participate in several ways: •March as a zombie follower of Obama •Blog about the event to increase publicity •Videotape...

The divide grows deeper every day, both sides seething with contempt and even hatred for the other side. No good can come from this. In my more benevolent moods, I sometimes find myself seeking a more radical approach to coping with the next 3+ years. I offer these suggestions, which I myself have decided to try: Pray for Obama. Pray--not only that he will not carry out his socialist agenda, but that he will do the right thing. Pray that he will not only do the right thing, but that he will be an extraordinarily good president. Pray that he...

In a strange twist to an already complicated legal situation, artist Shepard Fairey admitted today to legal wrongdoing in his ongoing battle with the Associated Press. Fairey said in a statement issued late Friday that he knowingly submitted false images and deleted others in the legal proceedings, in an attempt to conceal the fact that the AP had correctly identified the photo that Fairey had used as a reference for his “Hope” poster of then-Sen. Barack Obama.

"Shepard Fairey has now been forced to admit that he sued the AP under false pretenses by lying about which AP photograph he used to make the Hope and Progress posters," Kasi said. "Mr. Fairey has also now admitted to the AP that he fabricated and attempted to destroy other evidence in an effort to bolster his fair use case and cover up his previous lies and omissions." Kasi said the AP would continue to "vigorously pursue its countersuit alleging that Fairey willfully infringed the AP's copyright in the close-up photo of then-Sen. Obama."

The God Chasers by Tommy Tenney Book Excerpt & Commentary I recently finished THE SHACK by William P Young and HE LOVES ME by Wayne Jacobsen. I found both of them deeply moving, Biblical, edifying and helpful in drawing me closer to God. Subsequently, a Navy Friend/ Christian Bro of 30+ years read me the riot act about THE SHACK. I found his rants about “heresy” completely without substance. Turns out he had not read it. Sheesh. It is, after all, a NOVEL! And, I found it exceedingly Biblical. Some important Biblical truths, doctrines are affirmed with a sentence...

Imagine you are a New Hampshire inmate facing Obama's economy. Your choices have been limited to the picture on the left and the picture on the right. Which would you choose? People at the lowest levels of society (you know, those quieted voices that Obama claims to represent) have realized that hope for them is all but gone in Obama's America, with some preferring to spend their time in prison to testing their prospects on the outside. "Inmates know that the economy is still weak and the job prospects aren't good, officials say. With no job and nowhere to live,...

In what may be the ultimate job rating, 43 percent of voters say that they would vote to re-elect President Obama if the 2012 election were held today, down from 52 percent six months ago, from April 22-23, 2009. Obama's job approval rating comes in at 49 percent this week. That's down just one percentage point from late September, but it marks a new low approval for the president -- and the first time the Fox News poll has measured his approval below 50 percent.

Senate committee winds up health-care debateThe Finance Committee, the last congressional panel to consider a reform bill, plans to vote next week. October 2, 2009: 7:49 AM ET WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate Finance Committee completed debate on proposed health-care legislation early Friday. The Finance Committee was the last congressional panel to consider a health-care reform bill. It finished its work at 2:18 a.m. ET and plans to vote next week, after the bill's final language has been made public and the Congressional Budget Office has provided final cost figures. Unlike several health-care reform proposals championed by House Democrats, the...

How's that stimulus bill working for you? Its not working for most of us. The U.S. labor market weakened in September as 263,000 payroll jobs were lost and the unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percentage point to a 26-year high of 9.8%, the Labor Department reported Friday. It marked the 21st consecutive month of job losses. Since the recession began in December 2007, 7.2 million jobs have been lost and the unemployment rate has doubled. Details of the report were almost universally dismal, with the number of unemployed people rising by 214,000 to 15.1 million. Of those, 5.4...

The unemployment rate for September moved up to 9.8% and job losses were revised upward in August to boot. From CNN.com Employers cut more jobs from their payrolls in September, as the long-battered U.S. labor market took an unexpected turn for the worse, according to a government report Friday.

It's the kind of summer moment that makes you happy to be an American: You've just cracked open a Miller beer, wiped your hands on your Levi's 501s and broken out the good old Rawlings baseball for a few rounds of catch, and all seems right with the world. But what's wrong with this picture? Other than a suspicion that you may have traveled back to 1951, what's amiss is that the brands in question -- yes, even that baseball -- are actually foreign-made. Minyanville takes a look at 10 iconic brands that are as American as Dutch apple pie.

KAHULUI - The Maui Chamber of Commerce and the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations will conduct a presentation Wednesday on the automatic unemployment insurance tax increase scheduled to take effect in April. The insurance tax rate is set to change because the unemployment insurance fund balance has fallen below an adequate level because of the ongoing recession and higher unemployment. State Labor and Industrial Relations Department Director Darwin Ching said that the rate will automatically increase from about $450 to $2,040 per employee, depending on the company's unemployment experience rating.

SACRAMENTO -- With President Obama's numbers slipping amid the rancorous debate over health care policy, state Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring couldn't be more pleased as his party takes its first steps into the 2010 campaign. "It's going to be a good election cycle," said Nehring, who is presiding over the state GOP convention in Indian Wells this weekend. "We'll have the wind at our back." Nehring's enthusiasm rests in three "leading indicators" that suggest that Republicans may be emerging from their electoral slump: the president's approval ratings, generic ballot strength and party self-identification, which he says have all "moved...

Remember Obama's tax cut calculators, where during the campaign one could go there and see how much he was going to cut your taxes? Guess what? The sites have been taken down.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration supports extending three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, the Justice Department told Congress in a letter made public Tuesday. Lawmakers and civil rights groups had been pressing the Democratic administration to say whether it wants to preserve the post-Sept. 11 law's authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called "lone wolf" terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps. ... As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama said he would take a close look at the law, based on his past expertise in constitutional law....

Thank you sooooo much to the fantastic people of New Jersey!! We just completed our last Tea Party Express rally before we hit Washington, D.C. and we were blown away. We arrived 1 1/2 hours late (due to atrocious traffic on the roads from Bridgeport, CT) and again faced a cold, windy, rain-soaked environment. But much to our excitement and dismay — we were greeted by a tremendous crowd of thousands of enthusiastic patriots. When we finally pulled up to the rally at the Town Hall square in Toms River, NJ the police were on hand to escort our big...

For anybody needing a sign last minute for tomorrow, or for other purposes, I just made this for myself: Obama Hope-Style Commie/Communist in Adobe PDF format11" x 17" version in Adobe PDF format

Never has a president been warped by Washington quicker. At times tonight, Obama sounded like an embattled second-termer with a 35 percent approval rating. What percentage of his speech was spent lashing out at his enemies, real and imagined? Radio and cable-television pundits, George W. Bush, former Congresses, unnamed ghouls employing “scare tactics,” whose “only agenda is to stop reform at any cost”—they’re all against him, Obama said. And they’re lying. This isn’t how confident leaders speak. These are the complaints of a man on his way to bitterness. So soon?

Parents do not trust the Educator-in-Chief and his "comrades." You can take Obama from the radicals in Chicago. But you can't take the Chicago radicalism out of Obama. – Michelle Malkin On Tuesday the President of the United States will speak to school children across the nation in a television address. A large number of parents will keep their children home in the belief that this is an inappropriate use of the bully pulpit. But what did they expect from a community organizer whose playbook is Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky? (To understand Rules for Radicals, see my previous...

[snip] Courrielche said officials on the hour-long call -- including NEA Director of Communications Yosi Sergant and Michael Skolnik, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons -- encouraged the artists on the line to create works of art in their respective fields related to health care, energy and the environment. "What I heard was a well thought-out pitch to encourage artists to create art on these issues," Courrielche told FOXNews.com. "We were told we were consulted for a reason, and they specifically stated those issues as the issues we should focus on, to plant the seed. It doesn't take a...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Millions of Americans have already seen their credit card limits shrink, and millions more face the same fate as lenders prepare for tougher U.S. consumer protection rules. Since the financial crisis deepened a year ago, credit card companies have been closing millions of inactive accounts, cutting credit limits and raising interest rates to cushion themselves from record loan losses. This is just the beginning of the biggest shake-up in the credit card industry in at least 20 years, analysts said. . . . . . Going forward, credit card companies will purge customers rather than risk...

In these days of ever growing Government and the effects and consequences of it on our culture and society there is a great burden on the hearts of conservative individuals. All we can do today is hope that the Conservative leadership and policies will be found again in our country and society. But that seems very unlikely. There is no conservative leadership in most of Washington. The few who do stand up are destroyed and slandered by the Mainstream Leftist Media and abandoned by the Moderate controlled Republican Party. With the abandonment of moral laws and absolutes the societal effects...

An 18-year-old man was severely beaten with a piece of concrete late Tuesday night, in an assault that’s being investigated by Buffalo police as a possible hate crime. <...snip a few paragraphs...> Witnesses told police that the young man, who is white, was beaten by a group of about 10 to 12 black males ...

In a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., yesterday aimed at “setting the record straight” on health care reform, President Obama again falsely stated the number of uninsured Americans, this time saying it was 46 million, down a million from the 47 million uninsured Americans he falsely said there were in a primetime press conference less than a month ago. The president's claim yesterday that there are 46 million uninsured Americans overshoots the Census Bureau’s official estimate by about 10 million people—a mistake that is more than 7 times larger than the 1,315,809 people that the Census Bureau estimates make...

Toronto, Canada — A chorus of voices in the professional world today proclaims that it is impossible to change sexual orientation, particularly homosexual orientation, and that the attempt to change sexual orientation is harmful. A supposed consensus of science is invoked in support of such claims. For example, for many years the Public Affairs website of the American Psychological Association stated: “Can therapy change sexual orientation? No. . . . [H]omosexuality . . . does not require treatment and is not changeable.”¹ Psychologists Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse will announce on August 9, 2009, at the annual convention...

Chris Ann Cleland, a real estate agent from Prince William County, Virginia discusses her disappointment with President Obama. Chris Ann Cleland voted for Barack Hussein Obama because of his promise of hope and change but as reality catches up with the promise Ms. Cleland is forced to reconcile Obama’s words with his deeds. (see story) According to a Gallup poll last week, about 52 percent of Americans approved of Obama's job as president, the lowest number of his tenure. Somashekhar reports that Stephanie Slater, 44,has been disturbed by the large Wall Street bonuses that Obama doesn't seem to be able...

But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of. -- Lord Byron

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is asking for help identifying a man wanted for stealing credit card numbers. Officials released a crime alert. They believe a man is stealing the numbers from shoppers in Plymouth and Maple Grove and using them to make his own credit cards. The wanted man was captured by a surveillance camera in Cub Foods in Maple Grove on July 28.

While some have attributed the recent rise in stock prices to positive earnings reports, the most important factor at play is the growing confidence amongst investors in the economic prospects of the nation as a whole. Smart investors have been painfully aware that an alarming number of President Obama’s policies, including CO2 emission regulation and healthcare reform, are quite simply business killing initiatives. Should they be enacted, they would without question devalue any investment made in an American company, either with soaring energy and healthcare costs, or due to subsequent currency inflation brought on by massive government borrowing. President Obama’s...

BEIRUT: Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened to attack Tel Aviv if Israel were to bomb Beirut’s southern suburbs, a bastion of the powerful Shia military and political group. Hizbullah fought against Israel three years ago in a 34-day war after the group captured two Israeli soldiers in across-border raid. Some 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, were killed and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died.

CANTON — The neighborhood barbershop is more than a business; it’s a hub, a community gathering place. A.D. Culler’s barbershop at 901 Market Ave. S is no exception. Amid the buzz of clippers and music, the shop is humming with young men seeking haircuts and conversation. This summer, Culler’s shop also is serving as a training ground and source of summer employment for four young men, three of whom are interested in the profession. The jobs were made possible through a grant awarded to Community Services of Stark County’s youth and young adult services. Program manager Michele Boone said the...

Barack Obama , may his tribe decrease, awoke one night from his Kenyan peace and, lo and behold, he saw this land of milk and honey populated with inexperienced and uninformed citizens. So he gathered together his Comrades and rode to the land of milk and honey to mount its rescue – to bring change, change and more change. After five months in office and three years of promises, this is the change he has brought to our country and its citizens: 1. He promised to save 3 or 4 million jobs – we have lost 3.5 million jobs since...

The artist who created the “Hope” poster of President Barack Obama was sentenced to two years’ probation Friday after pleading guilty to three vandalism charges. Prosecutors dropped 11 other charges.

Maybe Congress believes that the "other white meat" is good for you, because the health care bill is loaded with it, even though people are already choking on the price tag. In one more example that the Democratic Party-run congress is just not listening to the will of the people, both the house and Senate versions of the developing Obamacare legislation has special "pet projects" designed to make the representatives more popular in their districts. Included are projects that have nothing to do with providing universal health insurance such as adding lighting to a playground or clearing a walking path...

In a potentially alarming trend for the White House, independent voters are deserting President Barack Obama nationally and especially in key swing states, recent polls suggest.

It is now humanly impossible to keep up with all the news delivered worldwide each day. In fact, the sheer volume of news in any developed country is probably why so many critical issues go unaddressed and unresolved. ... Had GM been forced into bankruptcy 40 years ago it would have been the headline news for weeks on end, with months of follow-ups determining how such a corporate tragedy could have happened in the land of plenty. ... Well, we do have a new billion-dollar stadium for the Cowboys. And it has certainly received far more press coverage than the...

Start Mobile has managed to get 18 separate iPhone applications approved by Apple. So you’ll imagine their surprise when one of them was recently rejected. But you may be even more surprised to find out why.Apparently, Apple doesn’t like the way one piece of art in the app depicts President Obama. Is it out of line or tasteless? Well, you can determine for yourself, because you’ve undoubtedly seen the art in question before: It’s Shepard Fairey’s famous “HOPE” image of Obama that was everywhere during his Presidential campaign.So why on Earth would this be rejected? Well, here’s the wording in...

In the weeks just before President Obama took office, his economic advisers made a mistake. They got a little carried away with hope. To make the case for a big stimulus package, they released their economic forecast for the next few years. Without the stimulus, they saw the unemployment rate — then 7.2 percent — rising above 8 percent in 2009 and peaking at 9 percent next year. With the stimulus, the advisers said, unemployment would probably peak at 8 percent late this year. We now know that this forecast was terribly optimistic. The jobless rate has already reached 9.4...

The economy is tanking. The Iranian people are revolting over a rigged re-election by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Barack Obama neither condemns the corruption nor encourages the protests. North Korea is threatening some real fireworks on Independence Day by firing a missile at Hawaii. So how's that hope and change working out for you? It's not that Obama isn't doing anything. He's doing plenty. But while national security and America's principled stature in the world are suffering, Obama is working overtime at dismantling all vestiges of a free-market economy. There's a silver lining under this dark cloud. Obama's policies – both...

TO THE BISHOPS, PRIESTS AND DEACONS, MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS, AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL ON CHRISTIAN HOPE Introduction 1. “SPE SALVI facti sumus”—in hope we were saved, says Saint Paul to the Romans, and likewise to us (Rom 8:24). According to the Christian faith, “redemption”—salvation—is not simply a given. Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of...

Border patrols are out now so where are you ?! For I designed you for intercession as my mobile house of prayer ! Did I not say pray without ceasing and express my word as I designed it to be fulfilled ?! And I shall not lie but as you confess Me " THE WORD " I shall come alive and bear fruit in many ways even in places you have not even tilled the soil for I shall uproot and tear down , sow and harvest in an omnipresent and everlasting manner to complete all I have spoken or...

Just when things look hopeless or feeling depress; A hear of this "song of faith" will be your greatest inspiration of your life. Remember this, a prayer day keeps the devil away. Pray and say "Thank You God" God Bless to all of the breathers in the world that stand up with God PS it can make you shed a little tear

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2009 – A foundation formed by the family of a fallen Marine whose story was told in the HBO movie “Taking Chance” has donated $10,000 to a group that works to help wounded veterans and their families. Hope for the Warriors, a national nonprofit group, received the donation from the Chance Phelps Foundation during Fleet Week activities in New York on May 22. Gretchen Mack, mother of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Chance R. Phelps and founder of the Chance Phelps foundation, said her family decided to make the donation based on what they experienced last year...