Free Republic

InvisibleChurch has hosted a league for FReepers for the past decade. His schedule has changed and I volunteered to help out. "FINO FOOTBALL IN NAMEONLY" Please join our group 18177, and use the password "donate". Same rules as for many years - just pick the team you think will win, and assign points based on how confident you are that the team will win. This year I am trying out tie breakers. Yahoo! gives us two, game scores and most/fewest points. We'll see if we like it. So for week 1, I may pick Dallas to beat San Fran in...

The wife of former Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi is the latest Muslim Brotherhood “insider” to threaten to expose the special relationship between Morsi and the Obama administration—a relationship the latter insists never existed. Nagla Mahmoud, Morsi’s wife, is reportedly angry at some statements recently made by Hillary Clinton, including that Morsi was “naïve” and “unfit for Egypt’s presidency,” as reported by Arabic media. In the words of El-Mogaz News, Morsi’s wife “is threatening to expose the special relationship between her husband and Hillary Clinton, after the latter attacked the ousted [president], calling him a simpleton who was unfit for the...

...the Earl Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas was the most compassionate place on earth, Monday, August 11, for minors who were in the various stages of the legal process for "Hearings on Removal Procedures" ... The loving arm of the law reached out most notably to Jordan, the 11 year-old Honduran boy, whose mother left him behind at the age of 2 months old. Mom entered the United States illegally over a decade ago. Her status remained "immigrante." The court recorded her as illegal. She told Baird that the elderly great grandmother who cared for him had eye surgeries...

Americans for Responsible Solutions--the group formed by gun control proponents former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly--has issued a new report listing five ideas "to reduce gun violence." Four of the five revolve around temporary gun confiscation or gun bans. The report begins with the fairly innocuous idea of to removing "loopholes" where they exist between states and the federal government regarding information on the mentally ill. But after that, the focus turns to confiscation: Idea Two: "Authorize law enforcement to remove access to guns, with court oversight and plenty of protections to prevent abuse of this...

Tweeps are reporting that the Oakland protest going on now is beginning to get a little tense. Mario Sevilla ‏@mariosevilla 6m LIVE http://news.kron4.com/?p=75006 -- Heavy police presence in #Oakland as protesters take over downtown streets. #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/7f1JvKrZ3X ѕyndιcalιѕт ‏@syndicalisms 21m Helicopters above in #Oakland at #Ferguson solidarity march. Via @OccupyOakland pic.twitter.com/wPsLCKycQy

Humans have spent centuries advancing technology to the point where some jobs have been completely taken over by less expensive robots. In the future, technology will take over more and more sectors until there's nothing left. What will humans do then?

BWAHAHAHAHA - Al Gore Sues Al Jazeera

N.Korean Concentration Camps on Par With Nazi Germany. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mEKjlip9ECk

The proper response to someone being killed is to go through our establish legal system. If a student my son knows were to be killed by the police in the town where they attend school (the police there are VERY rough), we would NOT allow our son to hit the streets in protest no matter what. And, we would not join him in that protest. We would not allow him to tear up someone else's property because he was angry about the death and neither would we as parents. So, what is wrong with this picture? The people involved in...

As we await word that Quinn and Rose are returning soon, - and it looks like something is in the works - our friendly group of dedicated FReeper Q&R fans will continue to meet in our usual spot as we always have! So grab your coffee - or whatever you choose to start your day - and drop in for some political chit-chat, or just to shoot the breeze! We are all coming from - or going to - work, but we all stop in to say ‘hi!’ Feel free to join us!

One of the weirder facts of contemporary life is that “environmentalists” generally prefer wind power to fracking. Unless you suffer from an anti-carbon fetish, there is no comparison, as the Telegraph reports: A wind farm requires 700 times more land to produce the same amount of energy as a fracking site, according to analysis by the energy department’s recently-departed chief scientific advisor. … Prof MacKay said that a shale gas site uses less land and “creates the least visual intrusion”, compared with a wind farm or solar farm capable of producing the equivalent amount of energy over 25 years. This...

Pop culture and Internet slang are becoming more official, as confirmed by Oxford's editors this week. Oxford Dictionaries, the arm of the Oxford family that focuses on current English, announced their latest batch of words Wednesday to be officially added to the ranks. And really, it's amazeballs. Among the new words: acquihire, amazeballs, binge-watch, bro hug, clickbait, cray (as in cray cray), douchebaggery, FML, hot mess, humblebrag, mansplain, side boob, side-eye, SMH, subtweet, vape, YOLO and zonkey. Now before you throw your hands up in the air or threaten a bro hug, recognize that this is not the official Oxford...

A Japanese company claims to have reached the next level in developing the most genuine looking sex doll which comes complete with realistic feeling skin and authentic looking eyes. Orient Industry say their new range of dolls, made from high quality silicon, are so realistic there is very little to distinguish them from a real girlfriend at first glance. The dolls, which are non inflatable, are sold under the name 'Dutch Wives', a Japanese term for a sex doll, and adverts in the media boast that anyone who buys one will never want a real girlfriend again.

While we're waiting for the latest cease-fire to unravel, consider the following – news you won't get from the Hamas Ministry of Disinformation – The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN etc. 1. Israel is a country. Palestine is a lie. Israel was reestablished in 1948. It became a country 3,300 years ago. There has been a continuous Jewish presence in the land for the entire time. Even the modern State of Israel is older than half of the nations on earth. The term "Palestinian" is a creation of Arab propagandists. In the past two millennia, there has never been...

As we await word that Quinn and Rose are returning soon, - and it looks like something is in the works - our friendly group of dedicated FReeper Q&R fans will continue to meet in our usual spot as we always have! So grab your coffee - or whatever you choose to start your day - and drop in for some political chit-chat, or just to shoot the breeze! We are all coming from - or going to - work, but we all stop in to say ‘hi!’ Feel free to join us!

Follows a deep-cover operative named Martin Odum, who has an uncanny ability to transform himself into a different person for each job.

Deaf and severely hearing impaired individuals could soon serve in the Air Force if legislation introduced in July by a California lawmaker is passed. An Air Force captain convinced U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, D-California, to introduce a bill that would allow deaf and hearing impaired people to serve in the Air Force as part of a pilot or demonstration program. Current Defense Department hearing requirements bar the deaf from serving, as well as individuals who currently require or previously used a hearing aid, or have a cochlear ear implant.

Who says Siri is useless? A Florida man accused of killing his roommate found a novel use for Siri. Police say 20-year-old Pedro Bravo allegedly kidnapped and strangled his friend in 2012, but didn’t know where to dispose of the body — that was, until Siri helped him out. According to his iPhone’s records, Mr. Bravo allegedly asked Siri “I need to hide my roommate.” The personal assistant app kindly responded by asking “What kind of place are you looking for?” and then offered him four ideal places, including metal foundries, dumps, swamps and reservoirs.

Ed Nelson, a star of the 1960s primetime soap “Peyton Place” and an actor with almost 200 credits, mostly in television, died on Saturday in Greensboro, N.C. He was 85. Nelson had most recently appeared in the 2003 courtroom thriller “Runaway Jury,” starring Gene Hackman. He had a more significant role as General Sherman in the 1998 Jackie Chan vehicle “Who Am I.” On “Peyton Place,” he played Dr. Michael Rossi during the entire five-year run of the series — 436 episodes. He returned in 1985 for reunion telepic “Peyton Place: The Next Generation.” But Nelson was already a TV...