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This post, showing a photograph from Doug Mills of The New York Times generated over 1000 comments. To pick the best caption for this, I have a voting poll below. May the best caption win.

When the Senate and House agree on a health care bill and if our tax money pays for ana portion directly or indirectly, I will revolt by not paying my personal taxes. I will prefer going to prison than have even one cent of my income pay for an abortion. I have been praying about this and other issues that affect my pro-life principles. If I call myself pro-life, then I must act on these principles in a way that will change my comfort level to the point of suffering. How many of us have fought with money and time...

As the passage of the bill that will start the process of nationalizing health care in America becomes almost inevitable, so, too, the process of undoing America's standing as The Last Best Hope of Earth will have begun. That description of America was not, as more than a few Americans on the left believe, made by some right-wing chauvinist. It was made by President Abraham Lincoln in an address to Congress on Dec. 1, 1862. The bigger the American government becomes, the more like other countries America becomes. Even a Democrat has to acknowledge the simple logic: America cannot at...

Three years after deciding to start production, the Russian Air Force received the first two production models of the Su-34 fighter-bomber. The original plan was to put 24 aircraft into service by 2010. It was hoped that they would eventually be able to buy a hundred. Apparently one goal of undertaking serial production was to encourage foreign purchases. No luck there yet. The 45 ton Su-34 is a replacement for the 43 ton Su-24 bomber, which is beginning to show its age (over twenty years). There are 300 Su-24s on the books, but most of these are not fit for...

[Senate Vote Update: Passed 60 Aye 39 No] Senate Poised to Pass Health Care Reform (Live 7AM) FOX NEWS ^ | 24 December 2009 Posted on Thursday, December 24, 2009 6:58:44 AM by SE Mom WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats are poised to pass a landmark health care bill that could define President Barack Obama's legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in U.S. history. Ahead lie complex talks with the House to reach final legislation in the new year. "We stand on the doorstep of history," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. "We...

CHEYENNE — Wind energy development in Wyoming garnered unprecedented attention this year as the state wrestled with regulation, taxation and environmental protection issues. Developers brought online about 400 megawatts of wind-generated energy in Wyoming in 2009, pushing the state's wind industry past the 1,000-megawatt capacity mark for the first time. Karyn Coppinger of the Wyoming Power Producers Coalition, a trade group, said 2009 was a pivotal year for the industry because of the state's attention to wind policy questions. During the 2009 session, the Legislature allowed a sales tax exemption for wind projects to sunset, and lawmakers created a task...

Stefan KanferAll That Jazz Terry Teachout’s luminous biography captures the “sunlit, hopeful art” of Louis Armstrong. 22 December 2009 Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, by Terry Teachout (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 474 pages, $30) In the spring of 1998, Time commissioned Al Hirschfeld, the doyen of American caricaturists, to draw an unusual cover. It would celebrate five outstanding “Artists and Entertainers of the Century”—Pablo Picasso, Lucille Ball, Charlie Chaplin, Steven Spielberg, and Louis Armstrong. Much fanfare accompanied the announcement. That illustration was never published. A handful of staffers condemned the portrait of Armstrong as racist and made their feelings...

Jose Feliciano protests use of his 'Feliz Navidad' for musical spoof about illegal immigrants By: SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS Associated Press 12/24/09 3:38 PM EST NEW YORK — Grammy-winner Jose Feliciano has gotten an apology after accusing a pair of radio producers of trashing the spirit of Christmas by using his popular holiday song, "Feliz Navidad," for a racist musical spoof about undocumented immigrants. Feliciano released a statement Wednesday saying that he was "revolted beyond words" and that the song was never meant to be "a vehicle for a political platform of racism and hate." "When I wrote and composed 'Feliz Navidad,'...

The 8th Fighter Squadron received their first of 20 F-22 Raptors on the afternoon of December 21. The arrival of 8th FS flagship, a Langley AFB Raptor -- which came from maintenance in Palmdale, Calif. -- starts the next chapter of the "Black Sheep's" storied history that started in 1941 when the squadron was assigned to the 49th Pursuit Group, where during World War II, their pilots amassed 207 aerial victories. "Air dominance," said Lt. Col. Craig "Bluto" Baker, 8th FS commander, relating how the F-22 fits into Holloman's history. "The F-22 builds on what previous generations of air superiority...

Democrats today have repeatedly expressed a confidence that they won't face a backlash for their votes when they return home for the holidays, which would stand in marked contrast to the August recess.On the floor before the vote, Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "We're going to hear an earful, but it's going to be an earful of wonderment and happiness that people waited for for a long time."

The classic Indian Chief motorcycle, prized for its fanciful fenders and an American heritage different from its much bigger rival, Harley-Davidson, is back and finally ready to roll in California. First built in 1922 and in and out of production ever since, the Chief has been ridden over the years by actor Steve McQueen and other renegades possessing fame and fortune. Now it has been overhauled for the modern era. Although motorcycle sales are down nationwide, the Chief is already a sought-after ride in 16 other states where it has been on sale since early this year. The Chief just...

Apologies to all of my FReeper friends for an extended absence from the forum. I have checked in now and then, and did not want to answer some pings and not others, so have merely participated in 'spectator mode' these past few months. I am offering the following as a Christmas wish for all of you -- some of whom I have known here for longer than ten years. Despite long silences over that time (often on both ends), I believe we all share a timeless common bond, formed by a love of country that will not die ... and...

Bridgeport resident Ann Booth, looking forward to a weekend away from her busy schedule as a stay-at-home mom, was more than eager to spend it at The Greenbrier. But her trip to the state's luxury hotel and resort turned into quite the adventure after a severe winter storm dumped a blizzard of snow on most parts of West Virginia... Booth set out for The Greenbrier Hotel for a weekend with girlfriends from her home in Bridgeport in Harrison County at 4:30pm Friday. "I called The Greenbrier ahead, and they said it wasn't spitting a thing," she said. "I figured I...

She's less than a year old but this seal pup's inquisitive nature and adventurous spirit has already landed her in a lifetime's worth of trouble. Nicknamed Rudolph, she was found by a family in their back garden in Kent, 18 miles inland from the sea. Inquiries have revealed that earlier this year the playful pup was rescued and treated at a seal centre in Ostend, Belgium, before being released back into the English Channel. Clearly with a nose for travel, Rudolph ended up swimming upstream from Rye, East Sussex, when the River Rother was in flood recently. Despite a number...

Extremely high, potentially unhealthy levels of lead dust have been found in the Allegheny County Health Department's dilapidated office building in Lawrenceville that houses the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. The highest test reading of 337,000 micrograms per square foot was taken in August... Results of tests done Dec. 2 and 3 in Building One found lead dust levels of 32,800 micrograms per square foot on a windowsill in Room 305 and 10,900 micrograms per square foot on a windowsill in Room 309 -- both food safety division offices. The tests found 8,400 micrograms per square foot on a windowsill...

From its economic policies to Afghanistan to the health care debacle in the Senate, the administration is determined to be the opposite of what many of us believed we were voting for. I thought when I voted for Barack Obama that he would be a president who would be willing to get his hands dirty and that we would always know where he stood. He used to speak like someone who had a vision for the country. Now he hedges and parses his words like a lawyer for an insurance firm. What happened to the man who showed up on...

We're following up on a story tonight that shows one good turn deserves another. Sunday night, we told you about a missing backpack in Kalispell. It contained a laptop and $6,000 that belonged to the former president of Burger King. Russ Klein thought he put it in his rental car. As it turns out, the vehicle was someone else's. We ran the story Sunday night. The next morning, the car's owner took the bag, the laptop and the cash to Kalispell Police. Klein offered a reward, but the good samaritan turned it down. So, Klein and his wife gave the...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Microsoft lost its appeal Tuesday against a lower court ruling that it had infringed the patent of small Canadian software company i4i, proving that the fight is not always to the strong. A three-judge federal appellate panel ordered the software giant to stop sales of its popular Word word processing program in its current form on Jan. 11 and to pay i4i $290 million. "In this case, a small company was practicing its patent, only to suffer a loss of market share, brand recognition, and customer goodwill as the result of the defendant's infringing acts,"...

Iran recently conducted another successful test of its long range (2,000+ kilometers) solid fuel ballistic missile (the Sejil II). Apparently, Iran plans to build hundreds of Sejil IIs, and even longer range missiles, over the next six years. There are apparently also plans to build up the supply of mobile launchers for many of these, to make them even more difficult for anyone to spot, and destroy. Solid fuel missiles can be launched without preparation. This is critical, as the liquid fueled missiles take hours to prepare for launch, and spy satellites pass over Iran frequently enough to spot this....

The latest generation of anti-missile software for the Aegis radar (version BMD 4.0.1) successfully tracked, in several tests, incoming missiles using decoys and other deceptive measures. Another year of tests will continue until the new software is ready for installation in the 92 Aegis equipped warships worldwide. These ships have already fired, in tests or combat, over 3,500 Standard anti-aircraft and anti-missile missiles. The U.S. Navy has 18 ships with the Aegis anti-missile system. Japan has six Aegis equipped warships. Earlier this year, for the 19th time, a U.S. Navy Aegis equipped ship used one of its SM-3 missiles to...

Senate Votes 60-39 To End Debate on Landmark Health Bill http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34574421/ns/health-health_care/ ^ | December 23, 2009 Posted on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 4:44:46 PM by Steelfish WASHINGTON - Exultant Senate Democrats pushed President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul past a final procedural hurdle Wednesday, setting up a Christmas Eve vote to pass the legislation extending coverage to 30 million Americans. Weighing Medical Costs of End-of-Life Care (Money, Death Panels and The Duty to Die) The New York Times ^ | December 23, 2009 | Reed Abelson Posted on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 4:44:01 AM by abb The Ronald Reagan...

Businessman Jack McDonald (D) will drop out of the race against Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) today, robbing Dems of a wealthy recruit in the race against what could be a vulnerable GOPer. McDonald, the former CEO of information technology firm Perficient Inc., will cite business reasons in a statement. The Nasdaq-listed company reported last month that its profits had plummeted by some 95% during the economic downturn. McDonald stepped down as CEO in Sept. but remained on board as the company's chair while he began his run for Congress. It is a blow to Dems who had hoped to give...

Republicans are stepping up their efforts to persuade more House Democrats to switch parties and are zeroing in on a second-term Pennsylvanian who is not ruling out such a move. Democratic Rep. Chris Carney received a phone call Wednesday from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asking him to consider becoming a Republican, a top GOP official told POLITICO. A spokesman for Carney declined to say if the congressman was considering such a switch. “No further comment at this time,” said Carney spokesman Josh Drobnyk, who would only confirm that the call took place. In a brief interview, McCain declined to offer...

Passengers stranded when modern-day trains fell victim to the freezing weather have been rescued by the crew of a steam engine. About 100 passengers climbed aboard the first mainline steam locomotive to be built in Britain for almost half a century at London Victoria when electric trains were delayed.  The 1940s technology used to power Tornado, a £3million Peppercorn class A1 Pacific, was able to withstand the snow and ice that brought much of the South East to a standstill on Monday night. Historic solution: The Tornado A1 locomotive came to the aid of stranded passengers let down by...

HSBC Group Chair Stephen Green recently sat down with German magazine Der Spiegel and talked about the future of the world's economy, the moral responsibility of bankers, and his Christain faith (he's an Anglican minister). It's one of the more honest accounts we've read of the crisis from the perspective of a banking chief. Among other things, he calls the period leading up to the crash -- characterized by huge profits through the sale of overly complex instruments -- 'disgraceful'. Der Spiegel: SPIEGEL: Is the crisis already over? Green: In the financial sector the worst is behind us. But the...

Not very important considering the other disasters happening in this country. Here is an email exchange I had with the Build-a-Bear people regarding their stupid promo using Santa to indoctrinate kids with the global warming hoax. Dear Build-a-Bear: AGW is a hoax. Indoctrinating kids regarding this scam is unforgivable. The children on my gift list won't be receiving a Build a Bear now or in the future. You should keep your political views to yourself. Glo-bull warming has no place in the marketing of a product to children. This campaign should be dropped and Santa should not used to spew...

BOSTON (AP) - Teresa Heinz says she is being treated for breast cancer and will undergo a new form of radiation treatment next month. The 71-year-old wife of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry is urging younger women to keep undergoing mammograms despite a federal panel's recent recommendation to reduce the frequency of the tests.

A Hispanic Immokalee farm worker charged with stabbing a teenage farm worker to death early Saturday after an argument over speaking English was advisBetween 3 a.m. and 3:34 a.m., the victim and his friends gathered at a laundry area at the farmworker tenant apartments on Colorado Avenue. There already were three others there and the two groups began talking until a dispute erupted involving the victim's group speaking English, not Spanish. The argument turned physical when an unidentified man and one of the victim's friends began a fist fight. Escalante was identified by witnesses as being one of the three...

A brutal attack on an eighth-grade New Jersey honor student has left the young teen recovering in the hospital, shocking students and outraging administrators at his suburban middle school, WCBSTV.com reported. Police said up to eleven students at Janis Dismus Middle School in Englewood beat up 13-year-old David Muneton, leaving him severely injured, the Web site reported. Muneton has been in the hospital since he was attacked Friday. He has undergone facial reconstructive surgery to mend broken bones and may lose his sight. "It's so hard ... I'm his best friend," said fellow student Denise Melendez, according to WCBSTV.com. Investigators...

MOBILE, Ala. -- Three manatees have been sighted in the area within the last week, despite water temperatures considered far to chilly for the warm-blooded mammals. Local scientists are trying to keep tabs on the trio in the hopes of avoiding a repeat of last year, when two manatees died in Mobile Bay of cold exposure.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law?   [Andy McCarthy] You just can't make up how brazen this crowd is. One week ago, President Obama quietly signed an executive order that makes an international police force immune from the restraints of American law.Interpol is the shorthand for the International Criminal Police Organization. It was established in 1923 and operates in about 188 countries. By executive order 12425, issued in 1983, President Reagan recognized Interpol as an international organization and gave it some of the privileges and immunities customarily extended to foreign diplomats. Interpol, however, is also...

A British firm has developed an armored, robotic speedboat that sailors can use for target practice. This enables sailors to learn how to aim their heavy machine-guns and small arms accurately enough to take down hostile speedboats quickly. The $45,000 FMTDs (Fast Marine Target Drones) move at up to 60 kilometers an hour, and are guided by remote (up to ten kilometers away) operators, using cameras in a moveable mast. The five meter (15.5 foot) boats have sensors that record hits. Data travels two ways between the operator (who can control up to six boats at a time) and the...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Poverty has forced at least 225,000 children in Haiti's cities into slavery as unpaid household servants, far more than previously thought, a report said Tuesday. The Pan American Development Foundation's report also said some of those children — mostly young girls — suffer sexual, psychological and physical abuse while toiling in extreme hardship. The report recommends Haiti's government and international donors focus efforts on educating the poor and expanding social services such as shelters for girls, who make up an estimated two-thirds of the child servant population. Young servants are known as "restavek" — Haitian Creole for...

Hugh Hewitt: Will the Tea Party Patriots help reverse the vote? The Washington Examiner ^ | December 21, 2009 | Hugh Hewitt Posted on Tuesday, December 22, 2009 11:08:00 PM by 2ndDivisionVet Sen. Ben Nelson's, D-Neb., abandonment of his alleged "pro-life" commitment brought Harry Reid within reach of a Christmas Eve vote to approve a Senate version of Obamacare. When that happens, the political battles over the future of American medicine and especially the care of seniors will shift to the conference committee and then to the House. Though many conservatives are demoralized, they should instead be gearing up to...

Update 9:09AM: As of very recently, NBC Washington has taken DOWN this post in response. Thank you NBC for this first step. We anxiously await your written response as well. Thanks to everyone for your action. As a DC area resident and WV native, I am outraged at the recent insulting and downright offensive “news” article from NBC Washington titled “West Virginia Discovers the Internet“. In this not even remotely humorous piece, Chris Needham mocks WV in over-the-top obnoxious terms for putting all of their vital public records online. In fact, WV is actually one of very few states in...

Logan, my son, made Eagle Scout this last May. Logan’s Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project was to organize and collect cell phones for the organization, “Cell Phones for Soldiers”, which is run by Brittany and Robbie Bergquist of Norwell, Massachusetts. Cell Phones for Soldiers turns old cell phones into millions of minutes of prepaid calling cards for U.S. troops stationed overseas. Logan and I met with the Bergquist Family earlier this year when they attended the 16th Annual National Character & Leadership Symposium held at the US Air Force Academy. His project was to collect 350 cell phones. He acquired...

It may not be a very merry Christmas for Balloon Boy parents Richard and Mayumi Heene this year - they've just been hit with a $42,000 bill. The bill is from local, state and federal agencies for the Heenes' October stunt when they claimed their six-year-old son had crawled into a hot air balloon in their back yard and been whisked away into the skies.

Jimmy Carter asked the Jewish community for forgiveness for any stigma he may have caused Israel. Carter speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem in June. In a letter released exclusively to JTA, the former US president sent a seasonal message wishing for peace between Israel and its neighbors, and concluded: "We must recognize Israel's achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel. As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom...

Some Businesses Say They Will Be Grounded By Restrictions HONOLULU -- President Barack Obama is expected to be in the islands for the holidays. The nearly two-week-long vacation may prove costly to some island businesses. For many local flight schools and air tour operators it has been a difficult economic year. Now, their companies will encounter even more financial turbulence with the president's visit. Mark Jones prepares planes to take off at George's Aviation. The business heavily relies on flight training for a big part of its income. Those training flights will be largely grounded as part of the safety...

Hewlett-Packard is investigating a claim that Webcams built into its PCs are incapable of tracking the facial movements of black individuals and only function properly when Caucasians or people of other lighter-skinned races are in the frame. The probe was prompted by a YouTube video in which a black man named Desi demonstrates the problem. The camera, which is designed to follow individuals' head movements, fails to track Desi as he moves in and out of the picture. But when Desi's white co-worker, Wanda, enters the scene the camera follows her. "As soon as my blackness enters the frame, it...

Rick Sanchez, who currently hosts the network's 3pmET hour of "CNN Newsroom," will be getting a new show, titled "Rick's List" in 2010. Sanchez's program will now air for two hours, from 3-5pmET, and Wolf Blitzer's "Situation Room" will eventually be reduced from three hours to two, airing from 5-7pmET. Blitzer will also fill-in the 7-8pmET slot until John King's show launches early next year. CNN tells us that Sanchez and Blitzer, appropriately, made the initial announcement themselves over twitter in order to get it out to their followers first (both have well over 100,000). Today, Sanchez tweeted: Hey guys,...

(Dec. 22) -- Along with fruit cake and caroling, one of the many traditions to look forward to in December is the annual "War on Christmas," in which religious and conservative activists and pundits accuse secularists and innocent fans of the phrase "Happy Holidays" of stripping Christianity from the occasion. But this year, seasonal skirmishes have broken out on new fronts. In these new fights, it's not that the holiday is sliding down a slippery slope away from the manger. Instead, it's that Christmas is bad for the economy, bad for your health and bad for the environment: The War...

Rush Limbaugh has been named Radio Personality of the Decade by Mediaweek, a leading industry magazine and Web site. In the December issue’s Best of the Decade feature, Mediaweek observed: “No radio host or personality comes close to Rush Limbaugh in size of audience or volume of political discourse. The man manages to stay in the headlines no matter who’s in the White House or who’s gunning for him.”

With the job market in shambles, MBAs need encouragement wherever they can find it. For tea and sympathy, many are now turning to B-school support groups. Gillian Mager was in the midst of updating her MBA job club members on her networking efforts last June when she broke down in tears. Like most in the support group at the University of California at San Diego's Rady School of Management (Rady Full-Time MBA Profile), her job search had extended beyond graduation and she spent her days sending out reams of résumés, often getting no response back. Making matters worse, she learned...

Tom Blackwell, National Post Published: Monday, December 21, 2009 Regulations may limit the amount of acrylamide found in foods such as french fries. A by-product of heating certain sugars acrylamide has been linked to an increased risk of some cancers. Health Canada is proposing an unorthodox way of combatting a food ingredient suspected in some cancers: It wants to let manufacturers put small amounts of a cancer-fighting drug into potato chips and similar foods to curb production of the harmful chemical. Ever since acrylamide was discovered seven years ago in such foods as french fries and chips cooked at high...

One would think an entire think-tank university staff is behind Snopes. Not so. It's a couple — husband and wife. Their opinions are considered bible by countless who check out "the facts" by going to Snopes.com. These countless include college profs, Congresspersons, the National Review writers, and masses climbing all over the grassroots.

The Senate's health care bill must be killed. Sign our petition to Congress and President Obama: We must do better for health care than this bill. The Senate health care bill is an ungodly mess of errors, loopholes, and massive giveaways. When the American people find out what's actually in this bill, they will revolt. Here's why:

The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack reports tonight that Illinois Democrat Sen. Roland Burris is claiming credit for inserting a provision that may benefit ACORN. But it’s not just the ACORN angle that’s scandalous. It’s the race hustler shakedown. Why, oh, why do we need to be funding massive new federal bureaucracies to create separate “Offices of Minority Health” in six separate health care agencies:

The Democrats are VERY happy they got the 60-40 Health Care Reform (HCR) vote, but instead of thinking that they have a political victory, the Dems should wait until... ... Until more voters notice that some Senators voted for the bill mainly because they secured special treatments for their State on the backs of others states. ... Until State taxes and fees will go up for everyone (including the poor) in most states, due to higher Health Care costs that this bill puts on most States. ... Until seniors notice that Medicare will go through very steep cuts in the...

Beekeepers have to scratch this season to find much to be thankful for. Too-cool, too-rainy weather almost everywhere gave American farmers great soybean and field corn crops this season, but kept summer blossoms from producing much nectar and kept bees from gathering what little there was. In lots of places (the Dakotas and Midwest and much of the east) the bees were barely able to keep up with feeding themselves and their young this summer. Everything they gathered they turned into more bees ... and, unfortunately, more mites. Excess honey just wasn't in the equation, leading to the worst honey...