Free Republic

In the end of January, the European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights, and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, said that the Commission proposed a new data protection regulation called “the right to be forgotten.” This rule, though sounding innocuous, is probably the “biggest threat to free speech on the Internet,” as law professor Jeffrey Rosen put it. The right to be forgotten requires social networks, such as Facebook and Google, to comply with the requests of their users and delete items that these individuals have published on the Internet. If the companies refuse the users’ requests, the EU could fine these companies...

Gasoline prices are on their way up again. So too is the ire of gasoline purchasers who skipped Econ 101 in school...

I have a female friend who was asking me some questions on currency exchange. It turns out that she is involved in some gig in which the participant works on a coffee plantation in Costa Rica in exchange for room and board. I would consider Costa Rica a dangerous location. I would classify it as a Third World country. Just look at the State Dept. website. I was trying to gauge if this gig is legit. My friend is in her early 20s, fairly attractive. Her Third World experience consisted of a resort in Mexico. She has no idea what...

The scimitar horned oryx . . . the addax . . . the dama gazelle - three elegant desert antelope that you'd hope to see on a journey through Africa, except that their numbers are dwindling there. Which is why Lara Logan went to Texas -- yes, Texas. There, on large grassland ranches, some exotic species that are endangered in the wild have been brought back in large numbers. But there's a catch: a percentage of the herd is hunted every year by hunters who pay big money for a big catch. The ranchers say this limited "culling" gives them...

As I see it there are two questions related to Mormonism that are relevant to the primary process right now. Neither of them have to do with the theological issues of whether Mormons are Christians, or whether Mormonism is a cult, an offshoot denomination of Christianity, or a faith revealed by space aliens intended to take humanity to its next evolutionary step. Those are reasonable and important questions (except maybe for that last one), but not what the primary voters should be concerned with first and foremost. And while the answers to those questions can inform an individual's choice to...

Michigan could potentially have the nation’s highest gas tax if Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal to replace the state motor fuel tax with a higher wholesale tax becomes law. As of Jan. 1, motorists here pay 57.8 cents per gallon worth of state and federal taxes, according to the American Petroleum Institute. This includes the 6 percent Michigan sales tax imposed on fuel sales, from which not a dime goes to roads (a small amount goes to subsidize public transportation). Michigan is one of only eight states that impose sales tax on fuel. The new tax would replace the current 19-cent...

Attorney General Eric Holder took issue with Congressional investigators of the so-called “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal. “Accusations that this Administration has been engaged in a cover up are totally unfounded,” Holder argued. “If we had been engaged in a cover up, I assure you I wouldn’t be here testifying today. No one would’ve known anything about it. No one would’ve known what questions to ask. The fact that we are here today, conducting this hearing is proof that there has been no cover up. When you’ve done nothing wrong, there’s no need for it.” In support of his argument,...

The Supreme Court's midwinter break is often used by justices to fly off to sunny vacation spots or European capitals where they address an audience or two on someone else's tab. But this year, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is on a different sort of visit to two North African countries where popular uprisings helped topple longtime leaders. Ginsburg wrapped up a State Department-sponsored visit to Egypt on Wednesday with a public seminar at the Cairo University law school. The 78-year-old Ginsburg told students she was inspired by last year's protests that led to the end of Hosni Mubarak's regime. "This...

MONTICELLO, Ky. – Kentucky's houseboat manufacturers once thrived by churning out luxurious floating residences, but the industry was nearly capsized by the economic downturn. Now it's dabbling in a new venture as it looks for a different course — the construction of moderately priced, energy efficient landlocked homes. Houseboat maker Stardust Cruisers has built two relatively low-cost modular homes in a test that area residents hope will help revive the industry and bring back jobs to this struggling town on the edge of Appalachia....

Professor Abul Ahrar Ramizpoor was 9 years old when troops from the U.S.S.R. intervened in Afghanistan in 1979. He remembers standing with his family, feeding their small library of books one-by-one into a fire. They had heard stories of the Soviet communists murdering “intellectual” Afghan citizens and Ramizpoor’s father wanted to keep his family safe. Ramizpoor and most of his family survived the 10-year Soviet occupation of his home country. Today he is married with two young children and works as a United Nations human rights officer. He has also started Afghanistan’s first free-market think tank promoting classical liberal values....

It’s been a few days since our last Global Warming Quote of the Day, and because our readers probably have yearned for another, we bring you without further ado, today’s Global Warming Quote of the Day. “I don’t pursue the electrification of the automobile out of any fear I might have of planetary meltdown. . .

The president raised some eyebrows this week speaking well of fracking and drilling and getting more of those nasty fossil fuels to use. The greens had conniptions. Meanwhile, the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. The Akron Beacon Journal reportsthat FirstEnergy Corp. has announced will will shut six coal-fired power plants, including four in Ohio, because of stricter federal anti-pollution rules. That would be stricter Obama rules. . .

Wonder how the Mexican drug cartels smuggle $50 billion in product over the United States border each year? Much of it is waved through by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The so-called border security agency is issuing passes to daily commuters from Mexico into the United States which exempts them from vehicle checks at the crossing as reported by Emily Smith for CNN. Although the passes only are issued to those who pass "a rigorous background check" -- for whatever that's worth -- the drug cartels can either scrounge up a clean applicant as a cooperative front or plant...

The state’s auditor said today despite its critical report last year on the high-speed rail project, the rail authority’s “funding situation has become increasingly risky and the authority’s weak oversight persists.” . . . “The cost estimates for phase one increased to between $98.1 billion and $117.6 billion—of which approximately $12.5 billion has been secured,” the auditor says. Remember when the cost was about $35 billion? Then about $45 billion? Then about $98 billion? And now, the auditor says it’s up to $117 billion?

I am working on an App, and want to add the bridge calculation to allow truckers to ensure their load is legal, and have a few questions.. I have the documentation, and "think" I understand it for the most part, but obviously, not being a trucker myself want to make sure I understand it correctly, and would like feedback of how you guys actually do this.. IE User Interface questions. Anyone willing to help, please contact me, I'd appreciate it.

This is astonishing beauty. One has to believe in God when seeing such splendor! Here's another time-lapse video of the aurora borealis from tonight in Norway: Aurora Time lapse from Kattfjorden (Norway) Here is the photographer who got these beautiful shots: Helge Mortensen Tromsø, Norway arcticshooter.blogspot.com/ I mostly shoot the aurora borealis/Northern lights in the winter season. In the summer I really enjoy the midnight sun and the incredible light you get. I take all kind of pictures but my sweet spot is landscapes that includes the ocean. I do bracketed shots if it benefits the image. But I...

The culture of the passengers? Don’t want to generalize; just quoting. The food is horrible. Expect Europeans blowing smoke everywhere. My entire suitcase and clothing at the end of the trip reeked of smoke. They rarely cleaned the deck so I personally slipped 4 times and saw 20 people slip. There are inadequate warnings in place by the pool to indicate that the floor is slippery. If you are elderly, this is a walking death trap. Nobody ever lines up and expect people to push you out of the way or bite your hand off while trying to get food...

Electric car enthusiasts – those who want someone else to subsidize their extravagances and then pretend that the electricity they use isn’t created with fossil fuel anyway – may at first find something to cheer about in this news from England. There are now more charging stations than electric vehicles on the road, reports the MailOnline. . . . But we need to read a bit more in that Mail story. The reason there are more electric charging stations than electric cars isn’t because there are so many stations. It’s because there are so few electric cars.

Those mocking the Transportation Security Administration for recently confiscating a passenger’s cupcake are missing the point says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. “It’s not that we’re saying that a cupcake, per se, is a dangerous weapon,” Napolitano explained. “But the risk of a random confiscation of any item is a way of throwing a monkey-wrench into a potential terrorist’s plot.” Napolitano also cited the collateral benefit to the TSA from “foraging off the land. You know, Sherman’s march to the sea wouldn’t have been possible if his troops didn’t take opportunities to seize supplies from the inhabitants of Georgia and...

The former chief economist of Quantas Airlines believes the super-sized set is costing airlines way too much. He claims heavier passengers are costing an additional $472 per flight, in added fuel costs. His solution, charge passengers by the pound. If you're above average in weight, you pay a price for each additional pound. Not that he's going to give supermodels discounts even though they're "saving" the airlines a fortune. After all, that lower BMI is money in the bank for every greedy airline industry. The nickel and diming that the flying public is continually subjected to isn't addressed either. From...

Something big, really big, is underway in Montreal, QB Canada. Last month the RCMP charged five suspected mobsters tied to the Rizzuto clan for their alleged roles in the November hit against former NYC Bonanno boss Salvatore Montagna, and yesterday with no explanation a judge incredibly denied a defense request to unseal the court documents which resulted in the seizure of BlackBerry messages leading to their arrest as reported by Catherine Solyom for The Montreal Gazette: Federal prosecutor Yvan Poulin said it was in the public interest to not share the documents in any way. "Read the authorization (for the...

Surpise, surprise. The Mafia is Italy's biggest industry according to the annual report on organized crime by the business federation Confesercenti. Mafia rackets accounted for 140 billion euros -- that's $204 billion -- or 7% of Italy's GDP last year as reported by AGI, and Mafia victims included about one million or 20% of the country's businessmen who have been extortion, loansharking and robbery targets as reported by ANSA. Unfortunately, the credit crisis in Italy has made businesses especially vulnerable to the Mafia as reported by Adnkronos: "out of desperation they turn to mobsters who provide loans at crippling interest...

The Island belongs to the Western Visayas group and is located in the northwestern tip of Panay, in the west Visayas of Region VI, neighboring the Sibuyan Sea. The island has three major Villages namely; Yapak in the North, Balabag in the middle, and Manoc-Manoc in the south, and numerous small barrios or barangays or sitios, all linked together by a maze of paths, labeled into five commercial stations.

Where I live outside of Lansing, there are new bike paths sporting shiny asphalt, but the roads are crumbling. Motorists might be surprised to learn that of the 18.4 cents per gallon of federal gas tax they pay at the pump, only about 11 cents goes to maintain highways and bridges. According to federal law, about 10 percent of federal highway funds must be used for projects such as highway beautification and transportation museums. According to a new National Center for Policy Analysis report, “Paying for Pet Projects at the Pump,” the Federal Highway Administration also allocates gas tax revenues...

Prof. Justus Reid Weiner discusses the situation regarding Christians living in Palestinian Authority controlled Bethlehem as opposed to those Christians living in Nazareth, Israel.

Flightradar24 shows live airplane traffic from different parts around the world. The technique to receive flight information from aircraft is called ADS-B. That means the Flightradar24 can only show information about aircraft equipped with an ADS-B transponder. Today about 60% (about 30% in USA and about 70% in Europe) of the passenger aircraft and only a small amount of military and private aircraft have an ADS-B transponder.

HONOLULU -- President Obama admits says his worst trait is that he's a little bit lazy and blames his Aloha State upbringing for his penchant for taking it easy. "There is a deep down, underneath all the work I do, I think there's a laziness in me," Obama said in his interview with Barbara Walters that airs Friday night on ABC. "It's probably from, you know, growing up in Hawaii, and it's sunny outside and sitting on the beach." Obama said he also deplores laziness in others, saying "nothing frustrates me more than when people aren't doing their jobs."(continued)

OUR COLD WELCOME October 24, 2010: We’ve arrived – or I have. Half my film crew have been arrested and deported. Everything is going fine at Seattle airport until they find out we are doing a film about Sarah Palin. The authorities go mad. They search our bags and detain my two researchers. Sarah, 22, is subjected to a urine test against her wishes – just in case she is pregnant and tries to get citizenship by giving birth on US soil. Her colleague Mark is spreadeagled against the wall and given a rectal search before being handcuffed. The 25-year-old...

“We are ready to attend your conference in Europe as a follow on to Philidelphia. We simply cannot be molested and groped by TSA , border patrol, VISA control, etc. We refuse.” I want to deeply apologize for the conduct of the United States. As someone who has suffered the heel of the boot of these vile and uncivilized people, I fully understand and it will be the last international conference I will ever do in this country. This is a sample of the emails I received from non-US readers. Others required a letter from me just to have an...

This must be a difficult time for New Jersey. You see, in addition to finding out that they’re harboring the second most dangerous city in America (for the second year in a row), they’ve now got a traitor in their midst. His name is Joe Steinfield, and he is hilarious. Well, I guess that depends on whether or not you live in one of his satirical regions of New Jersey and/or take offense to being lumped in with “Canadians and Philly Trash” (aka Wildwood according to Steinfield’s map).

According to analysis by JP Morgan, there are $1.4 trillion of earnings waiting to be returned to the United States if only US tax policy was friendlier to business activity. A 2011 study found that a one-time repatriation tax rate of 5.25% (instead of the difference between the US’ 35% rate and the foreign tax rate already paid) would increase economic growth by $360 billion and create 2.9 million jobs within two years. Industry and academic studies present a favorable view of what repatriation could do for economic growth. Shapiro and Mathur find that repatriated funds in 2004 were used...

> 3.0L TFSI Supercharged DOHC V-6 (Audi A6) 2.0L N20 Turbocharged DOHC I-4 (BMW Z4/528i) 3.0L N55 Turbocharged DOHC I-6 (BMW 335i Coupe) 3.6L Pentastar DOHC V-6 (Chrysler 300/Jeep Wrangler) 2.0L EcoBoost DOHC I-4 (Ford Edge) 5.0L DOHC V-8 (Ford Mustang Boss 302) 2.0L Turbocharged DOHC I-4 (Buick Regal GS) 1.6L DOHC I-4 (Hyundai Accent/Kia Soul) 2.0L Skyactiv DOHC I-4 (Mazda3) 3.5L DOHC V-6 HEV (Infiniti M35h) >

The savage violence among cartel rivals in Mexico and Central American countries for control over drug smuggling routes into the United States to supply degenerate addicts and party people is among the top ten underreported stories in 2011 as reported by Nate Rawlings for Time. Of course, maybe the story is widely ignored because the media has swallowed the lies from the Obama administration that there is no evidence of any spillover violence into the United States, and as long as it's only people in other countries getting killed the self-absorbed hacks who otherwise call themselves journalists -- some of...

In an unusual move an Italian magistrate has publicly announced a wide-ranging investigation to target public officials who have become dirty tools for the country's Mafia groups as reported by Michael Day for The Independent: "organised crime was continuing to spread through Italy 'like a cancer' thanks to the 'white-collar mafia' of acquiescent public officials and politicians." Magistrate Ilda Boccassini's bold announcement follows the arrests earlier this week of a cop, a judge and a politician for allegedly servicing the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia. * * * The 'Ndrangheta has become Italy's most powerful Mafia group due to its obscene...

Mobsters and strippers go together like a horse and carriage. Seven reputed mobsters -- four Gambinos and three Bonannos -- are among the twenty suspects arrested by ICE agents in New York City for their alleged roles in trafficking women from Russia and Eastern Europe on fraudulent visas to work in area strip clubs as reported by the Daily News: "visa rules would have barred them from adult entertainment, though, so the suspects arranged bogus offers for summer waitressing jobs and then had the women apply for seasonal visas, prosecutors said." Once stateside the defendants allegedly arranged up to 150...

Salvatore "Sal the Ironworker" Montagna, the former acting boss of the Bonanno crime family who was deported by the United States to his native Canada in 2009, was whacked yesterday in Montreal, QB Canada as reported by The Gazette. Warning: Graphic Video The Bonanno family from NYC has deep long-time ties with the Rizzuto family in Montreal, and reputed boss Vito Rizzuto currently is serving time at the supermax facility in Florence, CO on a 2007 racketeering conviction involving the 1981 New York City murders of three Bonanno capos during an internal power struggle. When Vito gets out of the...

Almost two weeks ago, 21 Occupy Wall Street protesters decided to take the movement on the road, in a march from New York’s Zuccotti Park to the White House. Their goal: to spread the movement to the 12 cities and small towns they would pass through along the way, and to protest the supercommittee’s likely decision to retain Bush tax cuts “for the rich,” or “one percent.” I met the protesters at their first stop in Elizabeth, N.J. and walked with them most of the way. This is the story of our hike: The protesters embarked on the 231-mile-trek with...

The Mexican drug cartels have supply lines, distribution networks and operational cells in hundreds of communties throughout the United States, and in New Mexico the state's Region II Narcotics Task Force Director Neil Haws has a dire warning as reported by Leigh Irvin for The Daily Times: "What's happening here is reflective of what's occurring in Mexico," said Haws. * * * Drug-related crimes such as kidnapping, homicide and money laundering are picking up. * * * "These people are already here . . . and I believe it's just a matter of time before what's happening in the U.S....

Attorneys for President Obama’s 67 year old uncle Onyango Obama are demanding that all charges be dropped. Onyango was arrested for driving under the influence after police spotted him blowing past a stop sign. Onyango’s lawyer, George Crank, argued that the stop was unwarranted. “Police must have proof that my client was drunk before they could justifiably accost him,” Crank insisted. “Mere suspicion is not enough.” Crank brushed aside the fact that arresting officers found that Onyango’s blood alcohol level exceeded the legal maximum. “There’s no way they could’ve known this prior to stopping him,” Crank pointed out. “Their initial...

The Obama Administration apparently thinks it's O.K. for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives to sell automatic weapons to Mexican drug cartels, but it is not O.K. for American citizens to target-shoot with their legally-owned firearms on 245 million acres of public lands that they -- not the government -- own. Yet, if revised regulations proposed by the Obama Administration are adopted by the Bureau of Land Management, gun owners who have historically been able to use public lands for target practice would be barred from potentially millions of acres. The draft policy would also limit public access...

President Obama on Friday turned to mechanics to get him out of a jam, using an autopen to sign an emergency spending bill Congress sent him late Thursday. Mr. Obama was traveling in Indonesia as part of a week-long trip to the Pacific Rim, but needed to approve the stopgap spending bill before midnight in order to keep the government open. A White House aide confirmed the president did use an autopen, which is a mechanical device used to apply a copy of someone's signature. The bill passed the House Thursday afternoon and the Senate Thursday evening, and was sent...

Attorney General Eric Holder steadfastly refused to take any responsibility for the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Terry was shot with a weapon that the Department of Justice helped transport to the Mexican gangs that have been smuggling drugs and aliens across the border. “I’m not going to apologize for anything,” Holder told a Senate Hearing. “I didn’t pull the trigger. That agent was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The border is an inherently dangerous place. You go there at your own risk. Certainly, Terry had to know that.” Holder also pointed out that...

A whale nearly swallowed two people on a kayak and a woman on a surfboard. The humpback whale lunged from out of nowhere just several feet away, forcing thousands of anchovies to the surface, with sea gulls swarming around the scene in search of breakfast. Barbara Roettger filmed the epic near-miss event near Santa Cruz, California where recently a sailboat collided with another humpback whale and at least one kayaker capsized. Oh, and for the record, humpback whales typically are about 50 feet long and weigh 50 tons. That’s a whopping 2000 pounds for every foot of whale. Short be...

Over the past six months, the Keystone XL Pipeline’s prospects have oscillated between probable and unlikely. The current rumors surrounding this project suggest that Obama is going to bow to the insatiable wing of his Party, the Greens, and delay the Keystone pipeline until after the 2012 election. This is a huge mistake. TransCanada has said they will scrap the desperately needed construction project if it is delayed another year—the pipeline has already been pending for three years. With unemployment lingering around nine percent, the country can ill afford to scuttle this economic stimulus. Drawing an arbitrary line in the...

Tie down those Ratchet Tie-Down straps!!! A friend visited me at my office today. He had a shiny new bed on his 2008 Chevy short bed 4x4 pick up. A couple weeks ago, he was hauling his son's four wheeler, and had it tied down with four ratchet straps, one at each corner of the bed. He was running down the highway in Huntingdon county, when the end of the front passenger side tie down must have come lose in the wind. Next thing he knew, "It felt like I ran over a motorcycle!" The tie down strap worked its...

Mitt Romney was polite as he took his seat in coach next to Carolyn McClanahan of Jacksonville, Fla., on a recent Delta flight to Boston. He thanked her when she said she appreciated his efforts to reform health care as the governor of Massachusetts and even posed for a photo with her. As a physician who heads a financial planning company and prides herself on having read every page of President Obama’s health care reform bill, Ms. McClanahan, 47, recognized that it’s not every day you’re seated next to a presidential candidate on a two-hour flight. According to Ms. McClanahan,...

Gov. Rick Snyder yesterday in a speech at the Michigan Rail Summit proposed a vision for making Detroit the hub for a rail system serving North America as reported by the MIRS Capitol Capsule (subscription required). He envisions a rail freight and passenger system that would connect Montreal to Detroit to Chicago to St. Louis. The symposium was sponsored by the Michigan Environmental Council. Chris Kolb, a former Democratic state lawmaker who is president of the MEC, was enthusiastic about the governor’s remarks, stating: “This is huge. If we do this right we will really start to rebuild Michigan’s economy.”...

This wouldn't be the first time President Obama has gotten in trouble with his wife Michelle for eating junk out on the campaign trail, but this time health conscious Michelle may be upset for an entirely different reason. When the president stopped by Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in West L.A. Monday night, he confided to manager David Daviston that he was going to catch flack for it back home. But he didn't expect healthy eater in chief Michelle Obama to be bummed because her husband ordered the distinctly unhealthy "No. 9, 'Country Boy,'" which included three wings and...