Free Republic

Border police jeeps hurtle along hot, dusty tracks past potato fields on their way to the river that marks the Greek-Turkish border. Sirens blaring, the convoys have been repelling wave after wave of migrants. Greece's remote Evros region has turned into Europe's main battleground against illegal immigration; more than two-thirds of people making the clandestine journey into the European Union pass through here from neighboring Turkey. Greece launched an aggressive campaign this month to try to seal its 200-kilometer (130-mile) northeastern border, as it faces a debilitating financial crisis that has caused a swell in joblessness and a surge in...

Two years ago several of my Sci Am colleagues and I had an intense email exchange over a period of weeks, trying to figure out what to make of a new paper by string theorist Erik Verlinde. I don’t think I’ve ever been so flummoxed by physicists’ reactions to a paper. Mathematically it could hardly have been simpler—the level of middle-school algebra for the most part. Logically and physically, it was a head-hurter. I couldn’t decide whether it was profound or trite. The theorists we consulted said they couldn’t follow it, which we took as a polite way of saying...

A Saudi city known for its ultra-conservatism has created its own version of the "Arabs Got Talent" television reality show, but with no music and women banned from taking part. Saudi Arabia's Abdul Aziz Abdul Hamid wins the first award of the Star Academy, a pan-Arab television show produced by Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, in Beirut in 2009. A Saudi city known for its ultra-conservatism has created its own version of the "Arabs Got Talent" television reality show, but with no music and women banned from taking part.Instead, competitors will be permitted to perform religious chants, recite poems and engage in...

PIERRE PART, La. (AP) — A Louisiana sheriff says a cast member of the reality TV show "Swamp People" has died. Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack says Mitchell Guist (GIHST) was pronounced dead at a hospital Monday. He had fallen while aboard his boat on the Intracoastal Waterway, near Pierre Part.

wrote my first commentary for BizPac Review a year ago out of a sense of frustration with the TV media. I awoke last May 2 to the news that Osama bin Laden was killed by a U.S. Navy SEAL team. The details were scant but nonetheless fascinating. He was killed on May 1 at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. This area is the home of the country’s equivalent to our U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His body was removed and his wives were taken in, along with his papers and records. Fox News finally reported that our intelligence agencies...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Well, it's all over now, folks, except for the voting at the Supreme Court, which could be as soon as tomorrow. The health care decision could be finalized tomorrow. We won't know about it 'til late June, but they already know what they're gonna do. The oral arguments rarely change anything, but we'll find out. Great to have you back here, folks, Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. Telephone number, 800-282-2882. The e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com. For all intents and purposes, the Supreme Court's gonna vote tomorrow, or soon on whether...

The unemployment rate shot up by half a percentage point in February, according to figures released by the polling organization Gallup on Thursday. The jump from 8.6 percent in January to 9.1 percent last month is the largest month-by-month increase in more than a year, Gallup said. It is the highest rate since August. Gallup’s figures differ from the official government unemployment rate because they do not adjust the figure for seasonal variations or include anyone under 18. ...snip “If the government's unadjusted unemployment rate increases to the degree that Gallup's has from mid-month to mid-month, then the government's seasonally...

‘ok yes….we are bored, we’re all bored now’

WASHINGTON (AP) — In President Barack Obama's sales pitch for his jobs bill, there are two versions of reality: The one in his speeches and the one actually unfolding in Washington. When Obama accuses Republicans of standing in the way of his nearly $450 billion plan, he ignores the fact that his own party has struggled to unite behind the proposal.

No one is more of a master of political talking points than Pres. Barack Obama. Remember “shovel-ready projects”? These were construction projects where the shovels were supposed to start digging the moment the government gave them the “stimulus” money. Two years later, Obama can joke about the fact that the shovels were not as ready as he thought. In reality, the shovels were never ready. It can take forever to get all the environmental approvals to build anything in today’s political and legal climate. If Obama didn’t know that, his advisers surely did. He can treat it as a joke...

Still waiting on the West Goshen Twp., Pa. police report, and judging by the gruesome crash-scene photo, it'll take a while to piece any details together. But, this photograph was posted on Dunn's Twitter account (@ryandunntv) at about 12:15 a.m. The crash was at 2:38 a.m.

Bristol Palin will be the focal point of a reality series given a 10-episode order by Bio. The series is scheduled to premiere before the end of the year. The untitled project will follow Palin and her son Tripp as they work on a charity while living with Kyle Massey (whom Palin met as a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars") and his brother Christopher. Palin first gained national attention as the daughter of 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and the subsequent coverage of her becoming a teenage single mother. Her fame then increased through her fall 2010 appearance on...

I'm not very good at searches, either here at FR or on Google, but I can't find a single mention anywhere about the much anticipated NBPP "Day of Action" (or the opening shot "Day of Rage" to kick off the "Summer of Rage" endorsed by other loonies and anarchists). Even their web site is essentially mum. What was the old saying: "What if they threw a war any nobody came?". Substitute "revolution" for "war". A tree fell in the forest with no one there to hear it.

SIERRA VISTA — Two local employees of a home health care provider will be featured on a nationally televised reality series Sunday night after the owners of the company worked secretly beside them earlier this year. Each week, “Undercover Boss” features the executives of companies working incognito beside their employees to gain a better appreciation for the impact the decisions they make have on others, and “get a up-close look at both the good and the bad while discovering the unsung heroes who make their companies run,” according to the show’s website. Sunday’s show will follow Shelly and J.D. Sun,...

"Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule." -- Friedrich Nietzsche Does it seem too strong to call the way America deals with its debt "madness?" If not madness, then what? Denial? An addiction? However you phrase it, we're a country that's in deep trouble, but so many of us seem unable to deal with it. Liberals in this country, for the most part, will admit that we're running up "unsustainable" deficits. Yet, these same liberals adamantly oppose any and all serious efforts to do anything about it. Once you...

Forget comedy clubs, if you really want a laugh these days you simply have to venture over to the Media Matters website. The extent to which the organization is willing to contort reality to keep fellow “progressives” in line is nothing short of an expert yoga class. Given their recent “declaration of war” against Fox News for perceived bias, and the questionable legality of it given the group’s “charity” tax status, this is as surprising as the sun rising in the east each morning. There is no length to which Media Matters’ employees will not go to defend anything Democrats...

For increasing numbers of young college leavers, getting a foot on the career ladder means taking an unpaid internship, with no guarantee of a permanent job at the end. Is this all about opportunity or exploitation? Five graduates tell Jane Phillimore their experiences

Lucifer, God’s greatest of all God's creation (Ezek. 28:12, 15), in eternity past enjoyed a relationship to Almighty God. I truly believe there was a point in his existence that he loved and adored and the Triune God with all his heart. He had the chief place as Protector of the Holiness of God (Ezek. 28:14) and was the worship and choir director of Heaven (Ezek. 28:13). Lucifer enjoyed all the heavenly blessings of his rank and position. As events proceeded, though, there came a time when he became proud, arrogant, envious and bitter. In his foolish heart he sought...