Free Republic

Mitt Romney has made a bankrupt solar power company the symbol of President Obama’s inability to jumpstart the economy - but he has a similar failure on his resume, according to a report. Romney has repeatedly ripped the Obama administration for sending federal funds to Solyndra, a California alternative energy company that went belly-up. Decrying the White House’s decision to give Solyndra a $535 million federal loan as “crony capitalism,” Romney even held a surprise campaign stunt at the Bay Area plant Thursday. But a day later, a Massachusetts solar panel company that received a state grant while Romney was...

If Sarah Palin does decide to enter into the race for the Republican presidential nominee, she will have a few things in common with one of the greatest Republican candidates in history. There are, of course, far too many differences between the life and career of Ronald Reagan, and that of Sarah Palin to make a litigimate comparison. However, there are interesting parallels in the lives of these two conservative politicians. At a young age, both had congenial personalities, with a particularly strong faith in the goodness of people. Both were recognized by their peers as outstanding leaders in the...

Islam has a problem. That is, what we like to think of as peaceful, moderate, liberal Islam has a problem; one that won't go away. And that problem is Mohammed, the character of Mohammed, and the words of Mohammed, which are believed by Muslims to be the words of Allah, given by God to Gabriel, spoken by Gabriel to Mohammed, then recited by Mohammed, written down by various of his listeners, and over time, after the death of Mohammed, collected and compiled into what we now know as the Koran, the recitation by Mohammed of the words of Allah, the...

Michael Yon emails: "I photographed men and women, both Christians and Muslims, placing a cross atop the St. John's Church in Baghdad. They had taken the cross from storage and a man washed it before carrying it up to the dome. A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from 'Chosen' Company 2-12 Cavalry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John's, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope. The Iraqis asked me to convey a message of thanks to the American people. 'Thank you, thank...

San Francisco -- Author Laurence Leamer paints a flattering portrait in a new biography of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, comparing the actor-turned-politician favorably to California's best known Republican icon, Ronald Reagan. But Leamer also paints a cautionary tale in "Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger," suggesting the gifts the governor shares with Reagan — a contagious sense of optimism combined with a righteous populist anger — may not be sufficient to push through a business-backed government reform agenda out of step with the state's heavily Democratic population. Schwarzenegger's remarkable personal story has been told many times before: that of the penniless...

[Q NOTE: THIS SECTION ON CALCULATED ODDS is one of the most exciting, to me. I believe the facts presented in this section are very incredible, very AWESOME.] The Scrabble Factor The seven Hanukah ELSs appear within a 1,123 letter long section of text, which is somewhat smaller than the 1,584 letter long section that is crossed by all of the Isaiah 53 ELSs that are at least as significant as the Hanukah finds. So the two source texts are fairly comparable in size. In reality most of the Isaiah 53 cluster is concentrated in the last half of the...