http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/idiocy/ en-us Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:01:02 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411053/posts Helicopter Ben Bernanke passed his reconfirmation vote in the Senate Banking Committee this week. But he passed by 16 to 7. Most of the Republicans voted against Bernanke, as did one Democrat, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon. The reconfirmation now goes to the floor of the Senate, where it’s going to be held up for a while. (Sen. Jim DeMint and others are insisting that a vote on the Government Accounting Office’s audit of the Fed occur first.) But when the final vote happens, I think Bernanke could be in trouble. Mirroring the Banking Committee vote, most of the 40... Townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411053/posts#comment Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:01:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408753/posts Motorcycle rocket launcher: definitely try at home Step one: make extra powerful bottle rockets by mounting model rocket engines to skewers. Step two: make custom launch tubes, spray paint, mount to fairing. Step three: mount launch controller within easy reach. Step four: commence mayhem. Congratulations sir, you've just managed to make motorcycling even more dangerous. Hell For Leather http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408753/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:50:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395859/posts ... The so-called purity test is a 10-point checklist -- a suicide pact, really -- of alleged Republican positions... James Bopp Jr., chief sponsor of the resolution and a committee member from Indiana, has said that "the problem is that many conservatives have lost trust in the conservative credentials of the Republican Party." Actually, no, the problem is that many conservatives have lost faith in the ability of Republican leaders to think. The resolutions aren't so much statements of principle as dogmatic responses to complex issues that may, occasionally, require more than a Sharpie check in a little square. It's... The Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395859/posts#comment Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:56:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2389040/posts PASCO COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- Owning a small business can be difficult and starting soon local entrepreneurs will be dishing out a lot more cash to the government. The annual fee employers pay to fund unemployment benefits is about to go up drastically. The fee is jumping from $8.40 per employee to $100.30. "That'll have a huge burden on the small business man and woman -- any business in the state of Florida -- who are struggling right now," said state Sen. Mike Fasano. The state is out of unemployment money according to the Florida Department of Revenue. It's... baynews 9 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2389040/posts#comment Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:01:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2384739/posts Pelosi On Jail Time For No Health Care: "The Legislation Is Very Fair In This Respect" KOMO-TV: Do you think it’s fair to send people to jail who don’t buy health insurance? Pelosi: .. "the legislation is very fair in this respect." Video RealClearPolitics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2384739/posts#comment Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:08:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2363877/posts It all started with a parody from Tom McMahon, who was aggravated by the extremely smug and intellectually slovenly bumper sticker in which a variety of religious symbols spell out “COEXIST.” McMahon produced a parody bumper sticker with Nazi and Communist symbols substituted. 620 WTMJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2363877/posts#comment Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:37:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2355646/posts Oct 2, 2009 — A new fossil human ancestor has taken center stage. Those who love Lucy, the australopithecine made famous by Donald Johanson (and numerous TV specials), are in for a surprise. Lucy is a has been. Her replacement is not Desi Arnaz, but is designated Ardi, short for Ardipithecus ramidus – the new leading lady in the family tree. Actually, she has been around for years since her discovery in Ethiopia in 1992. It has taken Tim White and crew 15 years to piece together the bones that were in extremely bad condition. But now, Ardi has made... CEH http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2355646/posts#comment Tue, 6 Oct 2009 01:44:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2349903/posts In software, it’s called feature creep. This is the bloat or encrustation that forms on a working computer program. It is caused by adding overly specific functions that originate with a “Wouldn’t it be cool to have a…?” but which are not strictly necessary, or even inapposite to the software’s main purpose. As a piece of software ages, function creep is almost inevitable unless it is kept harshly in check. Lead engineers must be brutal in slapping down minor functionaries that come to him with wish lists. “We need new rules!” they will plead, tears in eyes. But he must... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2349903/posts#comment Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:59:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2330900/posts After the federal government put up hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out Wall Street, the largest labor union in America wants those firms to return the favor. The AFL-CIO reportedly is promoting a proposal to tax every single stock transaction, and it's gained some support among Democrats. According to The Hill, the tiny tax would be about a tenth of a percent -- but it could mean a lot of money for companies, like Goldman Sachs, that are making billions and conducting a high volume of trades. Union policy director Thea Lee told the newspaper that the tax... Foxnews http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2330900/posts#comment Thu, 3 Sep 2009 01:19:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2300744/posts Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview that Russia's economy is "withering," and suggested the trend will force the country to make accommodations to the West on a wide range of national-security issues, including loosening its grip on former Soviet republics and shrinking its vast nuclear arsenal. **** "I think we vastly underestimate the hand that we hold," he said. Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2300744/posts#comment Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:04:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2289018/posts WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's push for quick action by Congress on climate change legislation suffered a setback on Thursday when the U.S. Senate committee leading the drive delayed work on the bill until September. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer said her self-imposed deadline of early August for finishing writing a bill to combat global warming has been put off until after Congress returns from a recess that ends in early September. Reuters (via Washington Post) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2289018/posts#comment Thu, 9 Jul 2009 18:01:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279795/posts I've been trying to grasp for a truth that is so obvious that all of us know it. But it's not a polite truth, so we don't talk about it. Yet I think it's important to say it out loud, because it is a truth that haunts our national discourse. As a nation we are under the thumb of idiots. Not just indoctrinated, or wrong-thinking, or power-hungry, or manipulative, or even malevolent people. No, I mean real lowbrows, people who constantly fall for really stupid ideas. Neanderthals. (Look at the Governor of California just running the state budget into the... American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279795/posts#comment Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:02:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2252368/posts The Obama administration itself estimates that cap and trade will involve increased costs from 2012 to 2019 alone of $645 billion, and admits in its own budget that the actual costs could be much higher than that, depending on permit prices over those years. Indeed, other estimates put the costs three times higher. So the increased burden on each Ameri can over this period alone would be $2,100 to $6,300. For a family with two children, that would be $8,400 to $25,200, with much more to come after 2019. These increased costs are effectively a new tax on the American... The American Spectator http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2252368/posts#comment Sat, 16 May 2009 21:15:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2252250/posts Knowledge that you can eat? That's exactly what local school parents and teachers have been cooking up. Carrots, celery, kumquats and lemons are only a few of the delectable items that parents and students get from the school garden at Booksin Elementary. While school gardens have been gaining momentum in San Jose, one group of parents is pushing to bring garden-based curriculum into more classrooms. The Booksin school foundation and parent volunteers are working on a grass roots pilot program to turn the campus garden at 1590 Dry Creek Road into a training center for teachers from other schools in... San Jose Mercury News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2252250/posts#comment Sat, 16 May 2009 15:56:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2237103/posts As President Obama met with top advisers on the evening of April 15, he faced one of the sharpest policy divides of his young administration.... Seated in Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's West Wing office with about a dozen of his political, legal and security appointees, Obama requested a mini-debate in which one official was chosen to argue for releasing the memos and another was assigned to argue against doing so. When it ended, Obama dictated on the spot a draft of his announcement that the documents would be released, while most of the officials watched, according to an official... The Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2237103/posts#comment Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:14:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2226347/posts Stone Blades Cut Back Evolutionary Dates by Brian Thomas, M.S.* Evolutionary anthropologists once thought that stone knives were developed in the late Stone Age, around 40,000 years ago. That figure was later revised to 200,000, around the Middle Stone Age, when stone blades were discovered in lower strata. Now stone blades have been found in Kenyan rock layers dated at about 500,000 years old according to evolutionary estimates.1 Thus, the original claim that “40,000 years ago, man made his first stone implements” was off by over 92 percent, suggesting that evolutionary depictions of human history are unreliable.... ICR http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2226347/posts#comment Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:17:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2224846/posts In Havana, the seven Democrats visited the families of the prisoners and came away inspired....If only the group had met with even one prisoner of conscience or one of the wives, mothers, daughters or sisters of the 75 independent journalists, librarians and human-rights advocates imprisoned in Cuba's ''Black Spring'' of 2003... Or the seven could have traveled three hours from Havana to see the hunger-striking dissidents led by Jorge Luis ''Antúnez'' Garcia in Placetas. Or they could have asked to see Oscar Elias Biscet, a doctor serving 25 years in prison for following the peaceful resistance of Martin Luther King... Miami Herald http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2224846/posts#comment Wed, 8 Apr 2009 14:27:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2213821/posts during the last two years italian architectural firm studiomobile have been working in the united arab emirates, developing housing projects and infrastructure projects. most recently they developed their concept 'seawater vertical farm'. the seawater vertical farm uses seawater to cool and humidify greenhouses and to convert sufficient humidity back in to fresh water to irrigate the crops. the project has been presented in dubai where there is an absence of fresh water and local cultivations, a problem of urban transport and a high soil value, making this concept a feasible one. studiomobile http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2213821/posts#comment Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:58:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2213329/posts <p>House Passes Mandatory National Service Bill http://www.infowars.com/house-passes-mandatory-national-service-bill/ The House passed a bill yesterday which includes disturbing language indicating young people will be forced to undertake mandatory national service programs as fears about President Barack Obama’s promised “civilian national security force” intensify.</p> Chicago Craigslist http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2213329/posts#comment Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:08:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2211086/posts State officials say Minnesota is working on a pilot program to test the idea of charging drivers for each mile they drive. Other states around the country are considering a vehicle mileage tax, as revenues from the gas tax are expected to decline. MPR http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2211086/posts#comment Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:35:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2210530/posts "An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy." -- Daniel Webster Obama and Company have piled one mistake on top of another with AIG. First off, they should have never pumped 173 billion dollars into AIG in the first place. At best, we should have used loans and insurance to help keep them solvent. At worst, we should have let them go under -- but instead, the government chose to buy into AIG. Then, Chris Dodd and the Obama Administration worked together to protect the bonuses at companies like AIG without realizing it would become a hot... http://rightwingnews.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2210530/posts#comment Fri, 20 Mar 2009 05:28:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2202009/posts Reporting from Sacramento -- Errant motorists beware: Puppy hit-and-run could soon be a crime. Pushing animal rights in a new direction, a state lawmaker has proposed slapping California motorists with a fine and possible jail time if they flee after hitting a jaywalking dog, cat or any other pet or farm animal. The measure by Mike Eng (D-Monterey Park) would require that drivers attempt to provide aid to an injured critter and notify the owner or animal-control authorities. It's one of a herd of bills in the Legislature that could test the boundaries of what constitutes humane treatment of animals... LA SLIMES http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2202009/posts#comment Sun, 8 Mar 2009 18:52:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2201924/posts UK Telegraph -- The NSIDC somewhat shamefacedly admitted that a problem had developed with one of its satellites. The data for the previous 45 days was found to be so faulty that it had been withdrawn. But inevitably this provoked the question as to why quality control seemed to be so poor on one of the world's leading official sources of climate data that it had taken an outside observer to point out that something was wrong. This is by no means the first time that data on which the official case for global warming rests have had to be... Evil Conservative Radio http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2201924/posts#comment Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:49:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2191726/posts WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's climate czar said the Environmental Protection Agency will soon determine that carbon-dioxide emissions represent a danger to the public and propose new rules to regulate emissions of the greenhouse gas from a range of industries. Carol Browner, special adviser to the president on climate change and energy, said in an interview Sunday that the EPA is looking at a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that requires the agency to determine whether carbon dioxide endangers public health or welfare. And the agency "will make an endangerment finding," she said. "The next step is a notice of proposed... Wall Street Journal Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2191726/posts#comment Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:27:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2189100/posts GM's new restructuring plan seeks another $16.6 billion in government aid -- for now. Chrysler wants an additional $5 billion. The $30 billion that GM has either received or requested since December doesn't count the $8 billion it wants to develop fuel-efficient cars, and another $6 billion it's soliciting from foreign governments. For these taxpayer subsidies, the government could buy hundreds of thousands of GM cars a month and give them to deserving citizens. Make mine a Corvette, please. Before deciding what to do with Detroit's demands, uh, requests, government officials first need to confront a fundamental question: How could... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2189100/posts#comment Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:01:44 GMT