Free Republic

Ratings company Moody's on Tuesday slashed Puerto Rico's debt rating by three notches into even deeper junk status after the US territory passed a debt-restructuring law. Moody's Investors Service cut the rating to "B2" from "Ba2" and said the outlook was negative, indicating further downgrades were possible. Now dubbed the "Greece of the Caribbean," the archipelago is, like Greece, reeling under massive debt. Over the past decade, the commonwealth's debt has doubled to nearly $70 billion and investors are growing increasingly worried the government is running out of cash. In a bid for debt relief, the Puerto Rican authorities recently...

A man was killed by a mob Monday in Koudougou, a town in central Burkina Faso, after being accused of making another man’s penis “disappear”. It was not an isolated incident: there has been an increase in the number of these strange accusations being made in recent weeks.This lynching took place in the 10th district of Koudougou, in the city’s west. It all started with a fight at a restaurant between two men: one accused the other of having cast a spell on him simply by touching him. The first man, a local mechanic, claimed that his penis had been...

'Junk' DNA Keeps Your Heart Beating by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D. * A new research study has shown that large regions of the human genome, once thought to be useless junk, work to keep your heart functioning properly.1 When these areas of the genome malfunction, cardiovascular failure is often outcome, showing the importance of every piece of God's handiwork. The human genome is composed of more than just DNA sequences that produce proteins. In fact, only about 2% to 3% of the genome directly encodes information specifying the sequence of proteins. Despite this small percentage, about 80 to 90% of the...

Marty Resnick installed his sculpture on the grounds of Kingsborough Community College before moving in 1975 to live off the land in Southeast Ohio. The origins of the scrap metal artwork puzzled faculty members for decades.Friends of an enigmatic artist have solved a Manhattan Beach whodunit that has stumped locals for four decades. A rusting sculpture on the campus of Kingsborough Community College has puzzled faculty members who long ago had lost the identity of its creator — if they had it to begin with. “When they were doing the inventory they had no record of the sculpture,” Kingsborough Art...

A major flaw in Apple Inc software for mobile devices could allow hackers to intercept email and other communications that are meant to be encrypted, the company said on Friday, and experts said Mac computers were even more exposed. If attackers have access to a mobile user's network, such as by sharing the same unsecured wireless service offered by a restaurant, they could see or alter exchanges between the user and protected sites such as Gmail and Facebook. Governments with access to telecom carrier data could do the same. ... "It's as bad as you could imagine, that's all I...

The Michelle Obama-backed Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act and its restrictive regulations mandating the number of calories and nutrients in every kid’s meal have caused school districts to lose money due to a huge drop in school lunch sales. While a few school districts are opting out of the program altogether, others have been subsidizing their operating losses with increased sales of fatty, sugary, calorie-laden junk food. The Daily Caller is not making this up. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports on the many ways that the ironclad law of unintended consequences is playing havoc with the National School Lunch Program...

Dennis Rodman wants a Nobel Peace Prize for his NBA diplomacy Dennis Rodman sat down with Sports Illustrated’s Franz Lidz to talk about his controversial trip to North Korea, saying that his efforts in world diplomacy should be enough to earn him a Nobel Peace Prize. “My mission is to break the ice between hostile countries,” he said. “Why it’s been left to me to smooth things over, I don’t know. Dennis Rodman, of all people. Keeping us safe is really not my job; it’s the black guy’s [Obama’s] job. But I’ll tell you this: If I don’t finish in...

‘(36)(A) The term ‘junk gun’ means-- ‘(i) a handgun that is not a sporting handgun; and

Washington — Having established a fast-charging foothold in California for its electric cars, Tesla Motors has brought its formula east, opening two ultrafast charging stations in December that would, in theory, allow a speedy electric-car road trip between here and Boston. But as I discovered on a recent test drive of the company’s high-performance Model S sedan, theory can be trumped by reality, especially when Northeast temperatures plunge

I have a pair of old 50's era Dodge pick-ups that have been sitting in the woods since the 1960's. Is it worth my while to try to sell them to someone who restores old vehicles, or just sell them to the junk yard?

My Outlook junk-email option is set to low (filter only the most obvious junk e-mail). Why are Americans For Prosperity emails (I subscribed to) being sent to my junk folder? Anyone else experiencing this? Emails are coming from the domain afphq.org which is not specifically blocked in my junk email settings.

Found this on Facebook...filing it under "I wish I thought of this!"

Answer to a question nobody (ever) asked MEGA-Burger! Octopus- those ought to stay-down well after a long night's drinking aka 'Louisiana Road-Kill' Can't I just get my hotdog next to the chips-like in the picture? Kiwi-flavored... why And do my fellow Yanks know what HAGGIS consists of...?(hint: makes Tijuana street-purchased chorizo look like prime rib) More at Reaganite Republican The Belfast Telegraph   Esquire   CinemaSnacksUK   Ultragross blog   h/t Roberto

It's there... trust me!

When I learned that Madonna – aka the Grand Priestess of the music industry – would be performing at the Superbowl halftime show, I thought: “This should be interesting”. And it was. While most were amazed by a woman in her fifties dancing around with LMFAO and others were annoyed at her lip-syncing, I was interested with something else: the flurry of symbolism flashed to billions of viewers worldwide. While most considered Madonna’s performance as an entertaining interlude to the most important football game of the year, those blessed with symbol-literacy will probably agree with the following statement: Madonna’s halftime...

Greece examining ‘free’ US tank offer ATHENS — Cash-strapped Greece is considering a free offer of hundreds of redundant M1A1 Abrams tanks extended by the US government, the Greek army said on Wednesday. “This is a free offer,” army spokesman Yiannis Sifakis told AFP. “A delegation of officers has travelled to the United States to examine tanks in storage; we are departing on the premise of picking 400 of them,” he said. “The only cost will be that of transport, which is estimated in the region of eight million euros ($11 million),” the spokesman added. Ta Nea daily reported that...

Rick Perry and Sarah Palin aren't stupid, no matter what you might think of them. They are riding a comet, and they are in no hurry to get off. I'm talking about the possibility of running for president. Neither one will probably take the plunge. Given the realities of modern campaigning and fund-raising, they'd already be in this thing if they were serious about it. Both are content in their real jobs - Perry as governor of a huge state, Palin as a money-making-machine and voice of the hard Right. But why stop the fun? As long as they are...

After the tumult of the First World War, noted Winston Churchill, only the intractability of the Irish Question had emerged unscathed: "Great Empires have been overturned. The whole map of Europe has been changed," he told the House of Commons. "But as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short, we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again." Article Tab : Lisa Benson / Washington Post Writers Group Lisa Benson / Washington Post Writers Group MORE PHOTOS » ADVERTISEMENT More from National Columnists Charles Krauthammer: Debt-ceiling sky not falling Bonnie Erbe: Are Christians giving up opposing...

A spokesman for Rep. Anthony Weiner, New York Democrat, told The Daily Caller the Congressman’s team has “retained counsel” and is exploring the “proper next steps” after his official Twitter account posted a picture of a man’s erect penis underneath gray boxer shorts. The internet-driven scandal has come to be known online as “#Weinergate,” a pun on the Congressman’s last name. “We’ve retained counsel to explore the proper next steps and to advise us on what civil or criminal actions should be taken,” Weiner spokesman Dave Arnold said in an email. “This was a prank. We are loath to treat...

I won't be posting the KOmmie rants from their THREAD, "Breitbart's Weiner hoax: New photos surface! Analysis, and Surprise!" because the hilarity isn't so much in what they said but in how they presented it. You have to actually see their thread to fully appreciate the unintentional humor in the highly detailed closeup analysis of several Weiner bulge photos plus the accompanying charts. They are so desperate to pin Weinergate on Andrew Breitbart that I won't be a bit surprised if they present spectral analysis graphs of the Weiner bulge as well as subject the pics to a CAT...