Free Republic

Four hundred of the nation's most popular lipsticks contained trace levels of lead when tested recently by the federal government, confirming similar results of earlier analyses but on a much wider scale and at higher levels than previously detected. Five L'Oreal and Maybelline lipsticks, owned by L'Oreal USA, ranked among the top 10 most contaminated brands, according to the analysis by the Food and Drug Administration. Two Cover Girl and two NARS lipsticks also landed in top 10 slots, as did one from Stargazer.

Michelle Obama will be making a stop in South Florida Friday as part of her "Let's Move!" initiative to fight childhood obesity. The First Lady will be holding a town hall event at the Homestead YMCA Family Center Friday afternoon. Obama will participate in a panel discussion and answer questions with experts from WebMD and the YMCA about how families can implement healthy changes in their daily lives regarding nutrition and exercise.

Reason’s science correspondent sends a third dispatch from the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Durban. Durban, South Africa—Yesterday, before an audience of more than 100 environmental ministers gathered at the opening “high level segment” plenary of the Durban Climate Change Conference, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon flatly declared, “We are nearing the ‘point of no return,’ and we must pull back from the abyss." The “abyss” against which the Secretary-General warned is a future average global temperature increase higher than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). What's so terrible about exceeding those two degrees, and where did that figure come from?...

MIAMI -- Within the Miami Marlins organization, a number of full-time employees started off with the franchise working as interns. The organization now is offering more career opportunities as the Marlins are prepare to conduct a job fair on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium. The job fair will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET each day at the auditorium, located at 2901 West Flagler Street in Miami.

Discovery has ordered a documentary on the life of the late Steve Jobs, with the Mythbusters duo on board to host. The network is teaming with NBC’s Peacock Productions for iGenius: How Steve Jobs Changed the World, a one-hour special. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who celebrate the spirit of innovation on Discovery’s hit Mythbusters, will host the show.“Someone once said that to follow the path that others have laid before you is a very reasonable course of action, therefore all progress is made by unreasonable men,” Savage said. “Steve Jobs was an unreasonable man. He didn’t simply give...

There was almost palpable disappointment among the TV big guns rolled out for the occasion when Irene was downgraded to a mere 'tropical storm". In New York city, CNN's Anderson Cooper, more usually seen in a tight t-shirt in a famine or war zone, was clad in what one wag dubbed "disaster casual". His face fell and he was briefly silent when a weatherwoman told him that the rain was not going to get any worse. "Wow, because this isn't so bad," he said. "It's an annoying rain but it isn't even a sideways rain."

It was raining in Manhattan on Sunday morning, and the dogged correspondents in their brightly colored windbreakers were getting wet. But the apocalypse that cable television had been trumpeting had failed to materialize. And at 9 a.m., you could almost hear the air come out of the media’s hot-air balloon of constant coverage when Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm. Click here to find out more! Not everyone was willing to accept this turn of events. When the Weather Channel’s Brian Norcross told MSNBC that forecasters had been expecting the first hurricane to make landfall in New York...

Okay, we all know Hurricane Irene was hyped to the gills. WHY? Was it slow news? Was it media infatuation with Obama at the helm of FEMA?

It's a hurricane, not Armageddon. Good grief. A Category 1 storm, you'd think "Irene" was the worst storm America has ever endured.

Experience this street-level view looking south toward the heart of Times Square...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama offered moral support Saturday to federal emergency management workers hunkered down for Hurricane Irene's weekend march up the East Coast and 14,000 active-duty and National Guard troops were put on standby for post-storm relief work. "Everybody here, you guys are doing a great job," Obama told dozens of workers on a visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's command center. Fully activated and operating around the clock, the center helps coordinate the federal response to natural disasters.

"Let us all remember who the real enemy is. The real enemy is the Tea Party -- the Tea Party holds the Congress hostage. They have one goal in mind, and that's to make President Obama a one-term president," Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) said at a Miami town hall with constituents. Rep. Frederica Wilson blamed "racism" for the high black unemployment rate on MSNBC yesterday.

Tuned in to get the latest on Hurricane Irene, as we east coast folk need to watch it carefully. Almost hurled when the first thing I saw was big graphic "Obama is being briefed on Hurricane Irene". Good God, folks, does the Hussein worship extend to the FREAKING WEATHER CHANNEL?! I don't CARE if Hussein is being told about the hurricane. He can't do a damn thing--he promised to lower the damn sea levels. I get SO SICK and TIRED of logging onto a computer or turning on a tv and seeing an ad or "news" about the biggest CIPHER...

Jim Walker, a veteran local television anchor with more than 25 years of experience on air, was cut loose at the beginning of August after just a year at WBBH, the NBC affiliate for Fort Myers. And just like his former colleague Craig Wolf, who was fired from the station in March, Walker is not going quietly. Walker took to his Facebook page to express his distaste with the station’s decision, noting that he would not disclose the details of his confidential separation agreement. According to The Fort Myers News-Press, Walker wrote that the broadcasts he helms — 6 p.m.,...

Yesterday, I got a chance to view the advance screening of Stephen K. Bannon's new movie about Sarah Palin at the AMC theater in Highlands Ranch. Of course, this is the umpteenth review of the movie, so even die hard Undefeated-review-readers are likely to tire of reading yet another one. And the "I-won't-review-the-movie-because-others-have-done-so-ad-nauseam-so-here-are-my-unique-thoughts" meme is wearing out too. But gosh dang it, this movie is worthy of being reviewed and I'm not going to give up my chance to do it just because a handful of big wig conservatives and snotty first-in-the-nation Iowans (I kid, half my family is from...

(Reuters) - Radiation exceeding health limits for infants was found in a Tokyo city water purifier and authorities are advising that the water not be given to babies, a Tokyo Metropolitan Government official said, confirming an earlier report by NHK public TV.

TOKYO, March 12 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co plans to fill a leaking reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant with sea water to cool it down and reduce pressure in the unit, Japan's top government spokesman said on Saturday. "The nuclear reactor is surrounded by a steel reactor container, which is then surrounded by a concrete building," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Birds Falling From the Sky Not Unusual The only unusual part of the recent spate of bird (and fish) die-offs is that people witnessed them. Thousands of birds and fish have died in large groups over the last week. Scientists say events like these are normal in the wild and are usually caused by weather or disease. Most mass animal deaths occur far from human eyes, but that might change with development. It has been a bad week for wild animals. Starting just before the turn of the New Year, 500 red-wing blackbirds died together in Louisiana. Some 100 jackdaws...

We made a big deal a couple weeks ago about an in-depth analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis throwing cold water on the idea that "green jobs" will drive the new economy. Among its points the Fed waived off a Minnesota 2020 report claiming that if done right, the wind industry "can create thousands of jobs, [and] revive the economic base of many Minnesota communities hit hard by the recession." It doesn't work that way, Fed writer Ron Wirtz wrote: "As a job creator, wind power doesn't pack much punch...."

Obama hope was all hypeThe US president has caved into vested interests and preserved extraordinary rendition. Not so different to his predecessor, then Tariq Ali Thursday 28 October 2010 22.00 BST As the midterms approach, 15 million Americans are out of work and Obama's ratings hover at about 40% to 45%. There is no doubt Democrat majorities in house and Senate may disappear. Democrats in marginal seats keep the president at arm's length, aware that the mood of the electorate reflects the desperate straits in which the country finds itself. Obama's electoral triumph of 2008 coincided with the most colossal...

Margery Eagan of the Boston Herald.com is a Barry Hussein Soetoro supporter. Yet she is having trouble keeping hope and change alive. Eagan referred to the president and first lady’s current campaign to keep Democrat power in Congress the, “Barack Obama’s pre-election, pump-up-nervous-Democrats tour.” She was at one of dem pump ‘em up campaigns and yeah the president spoke good and stuff, but he ain’t all that. According to Eagan (My emphasize, My reading) (see story) What Democrats are now realizing, Ms. Eagan included, is what Republicans knew all along, that is, president Soetoro is the Flavor Flav of politics,...

Interview With Marc Faber: It Is Not A Matter Of If With Hyperinflation, But When Ron Hera, Hera Research, LLC Sep. 23, 2010, 1:28 PM The Hera Research Newsletter (HRN) is delighted to present the following powerful interview with noted speaker and best selling author Dr. Marc Faber, whose newsletter, The Gloom Boom & Doom Report, highlights unusual investment opportunities. Dr. Faber is a popular speaker at investment seminars and conferences around the world and is best known for his contrarian investment approach. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Dr. Faber went to school in Geneva and Zurich and finished high school...

EXCERPT We know it’s gossip and hearsay, but this was passed onto us via email. re: Obama is a nervous wreck, chain-smoking incessantly, fretful and broken. Spoke with a friend of mine in DC who is in very well-connected politically on the Dem side and I asked him about the mood in DC. He advised me Obama is a shell of a man, second guessing himself non-stop, reeking of cigarettes and consumed with the color of his rapidly-graying hair. Our informer goes on to say that they realize it’s “second party hearsay” but that it is “consistent with other reports...

There are times when I flirt with the notion that the country would be better off with divided government. If Republicans took control, say, of the House, there would be pressure on both parties to behave more responsibly. The GOP would be pushed to stop carping and posturing, and start governing. Democrats would have political cover to make hard choices on entitlement spending, taxes and the like. As every politician knows, bipartisan cliff-jumping is a safer sport than going solo. That's the theory. Then there's John Boehner. The man who would be speaker outlined his agenda Tuesday in a speech...

The $69 Apple Magic Trackpad is nothing new. The Wacom Bamboo Touch has offered the same multi-touch functionality for almost a year. Its true relevance is in what it heralds: The end of Mac OS X as we know it.Madness, some will scream. But it's just the next logical step of the evolution. But before explaining why this is the beginning of the end of Apple's desktop operating system as we know it, here's the review:The Apple Magic Trackpad review The Apple Magic Trackpad is nice. It's not magical, and it won't convince laptop users looking for a desktop trackpad....

We're running out of internet addresses By John D. Sutter, CNN * We may run out of internet addresses in less than a year * Internet addresses are assigned to all devices accessing the Web * Researchers are working on solutions to avoid a new "Y2K" (CNN) -- Don't panic, but we're running out of internet addresses. Not domain names -- those website names that you see at the top of this page and which always start with some semblance of "http://" and "www." We've got plenty of those. But, according to statements from prominent internet thinkers this week, we...

"There's an interesting chart in a report to clients issued early Thursday morning by Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty," Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune. "What caught my eye, however, was what her proprietary research shows about the impact of the iPad and other tablets on the broader gadget market, starting with netbooks. As her chart shows, sales growth of these low-cost, low-powered computing devices peaked last summer at an astonishing 641% year-over-year growth rate," Elmer-DeWitt reports. "It fell off a cliff in January and shrank again in April — collateral damage, according to Huberty, from the January introduction and April launch...

Trailer (3:22) SFW

The doomsday film 2012 had a mega-weekend at the box office. It took in $225 million over a period of five days, a combination of $65 million domestically and $160 million internationally Wednesday through Sunday (Nov. 11–16, 2009). In anticipation of the hype and hysteria of the Mayan Calendar end-of-the-world scenario, Christians had their books ready for an answer. Mark Hitchcock, pastor of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, is the author of 2012: The Bible and the End of the World. To his credit, Hitchcock offers a critical evaluation of the supposed Mayan prophecy. He even takes issue with...

Steve Ballmer recently stated that Windows 7 is the best version of Windows ever. Now that Windows 7 is officially out, the public at large can join that debate and determine if Windows 7 is the best version of Windows yet, or even the greatest operating system of all time. Let's consider the hypothetical question of whether Windows 7 is the greatest operating system of all time. Before the flaming comments start flowing about what a Microsoft fanboy I am, let me begin by stating that it's a hypothetical question, not a statement of opinion, never mind an assessment of...

Chapter 4 of my book, titled, "An Inconvenient Hoax," systematically exposes and confronts all the most current science fiction being shoved down our throats by the Luddite absolutists and pseudo-intellectual scam artists of the left. It is devastating. Unsurprisingly, there is a flurry of new data pouring in even further confirming how utterly baseless this invented Green Scare really is, now even from Obama's own people. Much like the Swine Flu and about a gazillion other contrived alarmist fantasies from decades past (breast implants, Alar, the Millenium bug, DDT, etc.), public faith in the environmentalist religion is consequently fading, and...

The Obama administration on Wednesday issued a booklet heralding the accomplishments of the $787 billion stimulus act 100 days after it was signed into law. Without question the book lists many projects that are having an impact of one way or another on the economy. But the first one of the projects featured in "100 Days, 100 Projects" doesn't seem to withstand the scrutiny of its description. The project is described by the Obama administration this way: "Using $27 million of Recovery Act funding, a public housing development in Washington, D.C., the Regency House, has undergone a green retrofit. As...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has sent a memo to some health care providers noting procedures to be followed if the swine flu outbreak eventually makes quarantines necessary. DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says: "The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines."

"The World Health Organisation (WHO) says there have only been seven laboratory-confirmed swine flu deaths, all in Mexico, from 79 confirmed cases around the world. ------------snip----------Of the 79 confirmed cases, the WHO says 26 are in Mexico, where the outbreak is believed to have started. There are 40 cases in the US, six in Canada, two in Spain, two in Scotland and three in New Zealand."

Questions and Answers Regarding Estimating Deaths from Influenza in the United States How many people die from flu each year in the United States? The number of influenza-associated (i.e., flu-related) deaths varies from year to year because flu seasons often fluctuate in length and severity. CDC estimated that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States. This figure includes people dying from complications of flu. This estimate came from a 2003 study published in the Journal of the American Medication Association (JAMA), which looked at the 1990-91 through the 1998-99...

One. Trillion. Dollars. The CDC yesterday, joined with the WHO (and the same media types who put 0bozo on the cover of Time magazine now 13 times) in declaring the Mexican flu a "crisis". Which brings to mind. Those famous words of Rahm Emanuel:

The bird flu news isn't encouraging, the head of the CDC said today. The comments by CDC Director Julie M. Gerberding, MD, MPH, came at the opening of the 2006 National Influenza Vaccine Summit meeting of public health officials and vaccine manufacturers. Preparation for a flu pandemic is only a small part of the meeting. But in her opening remarks, Gerberding stressed how seriously the CDC is taking the threat of a bird flu pandemic. "This is not media hype. This is a real situation," Gerberding said. "And at CDC we are very focused on the possibility of pandemic with...

OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL House adopts plan for 'volunteer' corps Also requires new evaluation of 'mandatory' service for all -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: March 19, 2009 4:58 pm Eastern By Bob Unruh © 2009 WorldNetDaily The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a plan to set up a new "volunteer corps" and consider whether "a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people" should be developed.

Beijing, China -- Sources at the United States Embassy in Beijing China have just CONFIRMED to me that the United States of America has tendered to China a written agreement which grants to the People's Republic of China, an option to exercise Eminent Domain within the USA, as collateral for China's con More..tinued purchase of US Treasury Notes and existing US Currency reserves! The written agreement was brought to Beijing by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was formalized and agreed-to during her recent trip to China. This means that in the event the US Government defaults on its financial...

ABC has apparently never heard that phrase, "There are two sides to every story." On Feb. 1, "World News Sunday" helped shamed former-pastor Ted Haggard take shots at the Christian conservatives who he says "shunned him." Reporter Dan Harris introduced the piece by qualifying Haggard as a former "insider, a powerful pastor at the highest levels of the Christian conservative movement." Haggard, who made headlines two years ago for getting caught in a gay sex scandal, is now offering advice to the Christian conservative movement; and ABC gave him the megaphone. Here is a portion of Harris' interview with Haggard:

President-elect Obama's presentation of his economic stimulus plan last Thursday was thoughtful, clear, and excellently delivered. Despite its charismatic delivery, the speech concerned me. First, the soon-to-be-president sought to lower the expectations of the American public concerning his first term, create a sense of unity, and to communicate a huge number of details about his economic plan. This was too much territory to cover in one short speech. Unfortunately, his comments may have the unintended consequence of taking away the very confidence he wanted to give to the nation. I was shocked that the “Yes we can!” presidential candidate sounded...

Pepsi is running a new advertising campaign that keys into the upcoming inauguration – one that features a re-designed corporate logo that mimics the distinctive Obama “O” campaign logo, and refers to the president-elect as “the man who is about to refresh our nation.”PepsiCo’s Web site -- RefreshEverything.com -- features an application allowing anyone to send a video message to the president-elect. The feature’s explanation reads, “Help us refresh America.”

Judicial Watch claims today that they have documented proof that Barack Obama lied when he said he had no contacts with Rod Blagojevich. The letter they gained from a Freedom of Information query certainly does show that Obama acknowledged meeting with Blagojevich, but it falls far short of indicating any sort of discussion on replacing Obama in the Senate: Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the office of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich through the Freedom of Information Act related to Blagojevich’s contacts with President-elect Obama and...

The first, on May 21, headed "Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts" , reported that the entire Alpine "winter sports industry" could soon "grind to a halt for lack of snow". The second, on December 19, headed "The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation" , reported that this winter's Alpine snowfalls "look set to beat all records by New Year's Day". Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic...

"The amen corner has led the applause for Mr. Obama's appointments, one by one. Each is a genius, an inspired choice, a pick for the ages, possibly the greatest public servant in history. Maybe it's time to watch more closely. The president-elect has chosen his science, energy and environmental chiefs, and a sense of unease begins to erupt. It appears that Mr. Obama has consumed the global-warming Kool-Aid, and asked for seconds. Still, the mainstream media is in applause mode. After all, these people have letters after their names. But John Tierney, one of the few cautious dissidents writing opinion...

After Kanye West's performance on "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend, the chattering classes are wringing their hands today over the gee-whiz revelation that, maybe underneath all that gratuitous Auto-Tune, West's voice might be a bit, as they say, "pitchy." We can go back and forth about the relative disaster-or-not qualities of his two-song set, but the hullabaloo over it begs for a few responses. First: hey, indie rockers, if you don't think that half your favorite beardo bands use things like Melodyne... But the second, and more crucial one, is this: What makes a "good" singer anyhow, and what...

Barack Obama's election as president has generated a number of firsts. The latest may be the creation of a paid holiday in his honor in an Alabama Black Belt county. At its most recent meeting, the Perry County Commission voted 4-1 to declare the second Monday in November "The Barack Obama Day." Commissioner Albert Turner Jr., who sponsored the resolution, said flags would be flown on the day and county offices would be closed. He said he hopes county schools also will decide to observe the holiday.

NEW YORK -- Tables of vendors selling Barack Obama merchandise have now become as ubiquitous a sight in New York City as Halal Carts and bored cops sending text messages: every corner, every hour of the day. They’ve been around for a while now, but after election day the tipping point was reached. Obama’s face is available now on everything from snow globes to dinner plates and plastic blinged-out wristwatches. We’ve seen this kind of merchandising before: bootleg Bart Simpson shirts and the Malcolm X fashion explosion of the early 90's, for example. On a recent evening, I visited the...