Free Republic

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Barack Obama has done it again. The president's starpower has made the United States the place most people want to visit and do business with, according to an annual survey that ranks nations like retail brands. The Country Brand Index, compiled by brand consultancy FutureBrand, found the United States had unseated Australia, which held the top spot for the past three years. Australia came in third this year with Canada rising to second place. New Zealand and France rounded up the top five country brands in this year's index that included 102 countries. "The Obama effect has...

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Psalm 103:1 This is the season when we in the United States tend to turn our thoughts to thankfulness for the blessings of prosperity and peacefulness. And well we should. Our country, with all of its struggles, is still the most emulated and sought after civilization of the modern world. And, in spite of the efforts on the part of some, it is still a nation of moral laws and religious stability. We have much to be thankful for...

Climate protests held around the world2009-10-24 19:31 Paris - Kicking off with thousands gathering on the steps of Sydney's iconic Opera House, global warming protests took place around the world Saturday to mark 50 days before the UN climate summit. From Asia to Europe via the Middle East, activists staged lively events addressing world leaders and to mobilise public opinion around climate issues. Many waved placards bearing the logo 350, referring to 350 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 in the atmosphere which scientists say must not be exceeded to avoid runaway global warming. France's politicians received a "wake up"...

Corsi explains how policy-makers are manipulating the economic panic of our time to advance a "globalist" plan that would undermine American sovereighty.

ROME (AFP) – World food production must increase by 70 percent by 2050, to nourish a human population then likely to be 9.1 billion, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation forecast Wednesday. "FAO is cautiously optimistic about the world's potential to feed itself by 2050," said FAO Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem. However, he stressed that feeding everyone in the world by then "will not be automatic and several significant challenges have to be met." The agency is preparing for a high-level expert forum in Rome on October 12-13 on "How to Feed the World in 2050" and plans to gather...

U.S. President Barack Obama will tell the U.N. General Assembly that the United States cannot solve all the problems of the global community by itself. Mr. Obama will tell leaders who "used to chastise America for acting alone in the world" it is time for a true "global response to global challenges," including climate change, terrorism, endless conflicts and poverty.

I am asking all FR Chefs to help me out in finding the way to purchase the finest salts of the world. I know it can be spendy. I am not looking for Williams-Sonoma type salts. I had an oppertunity to witness a person tell me of a very black salt, lava salt and they thought it could have been from the Mid East. Any links to the best salts of the world would be much appreciated. I was givin Cleopatric. but to no avail. Thanks Chef Freepers.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2009 – Iran is a problem not just for the United States, but for the greater Middle East and the world, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told the Arabic television network Al-Jazeera in an interview being broadcast this week. Gates long has wanted to speak with Al-Jazeera, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said, because the news network reaches the Muslim world in a way no other network can duplicate. The hour-long interview ran in its entirety yesterday and will repeat through the week. If Iran builds nuclear weapons, it would create an arms race in the Middle...

GENEVA (AFP) – The world is speeding towards a climate catastrophe, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday, urging rapid progress in talks to cut emissions and tackle global warming. "Our foot is stuck on the accelerator and we are heading towards an abyss," the UN Secretary General said in a speech to the World Climate Conference. Ban, who this week visited the Arctic to witness first hand the changes wrought by global warming, warned that many of the "more distant scenarios" predicted by scientists were "happening now." "Scientists have been accused for years of scaremongering. But the real scaremongers...

The recent "homecoming" splashed across every news channel, of convicted Lybian terrorist Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, is just one in your face moment of many more to come for this Democratic Administration. Make no mistake about this. Scotland may have released him but the show in Lybia was meant to rub it in the face of America. 270 people lost their lives in 1988 when a Pan Am Jet was blown apart in flight over Lockerbie, Scotland. Many of them were American. Muammar al-Gaddafi, Lybia's leader, back then and now, led everyone to believe his return would be a low key...

A massive cave recently uncovered in a remote Vietnamese jungle is the largest single cave passage yet found, a new survey shows. At 262-by-262 feet (80-by-80 meters) in most places, the Son Doong cave beats out the previous world-record holder, Deer Cave in the Malaysian section of the island of Borneo. Deer Cave is no less than 300-by-300 feet (91-by-91 meters), but it's only about a mile (1.6 kilometers) long. By contrast, explorers walked 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers) into Son Doong, in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, before being blocked by seasonal floodwaters—and they think that the passage is even...

Dusty Rhodes, a light-hitting, hard-drinking outfielder who was at his best on baseball's biggest stage, died of cardiopulmonary arrest Wednesday at a Las Vegas hospital. He was 82. Rhodes, whose left-handed swing was tailor-made for the short right-field porch at the New York Giants' home in the Polo Grounds, never batted more than 244 times in seven big-league seasons and had a career average of just .253. But in his only World Series, in 1954, he delivered a game-winning pinch-hit home run in the 10th inning of Game 1, a game-tying pinch-hit single in Game 2 and a two-run pinch...

Prophets of Doom has been around probably since the beginning of man’s existence on earth. Whether one believe man was created by God from the dust of the earth, or he evolved from a sea creature, a monkey, or matter from a collision of the planets commonly known as the big bang. Whatever your preference for the origin of man it is no secret that from the time he began walking on planet earth he began predicting its end. It’s now estimated that more than 50% of the world population give doomsday prophets some credibility regarding “End Time Events” thereby...

I know there are many — Muslim and non-Muslim — who question whether we can forge this new beginning. Some are eager to stoke the flames of division, and to stand in the way of progress. Some suggest that it isn't worth the effort — that we are fated to disagree, and civilizations are doomed to clash. Many more are simply skeptical that real change can occur. There is so much fear, so much mistrust. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward.

Sarah Palin has picked a Christian author and magazine journalist to collaborate with her on her forthcoming memoir for HarperCollins. The journalist, Lynn Vincent, has been at World—the nation's best-read Christian newsmagazine—for the last 10 years as a writer and editor. This isn't a surprising choice for Palin, but it's certainly one worth noting. It's more evidence that she's honing a distinctly Christian public image since coming off the campaign trail last year. This seems to be a change from the days when she was a state-level figure, almost entirely unknown outside of Alaska.

The biggest bedbug outbreak since World War II has sent a collective shudder among apartment dwellers, college students and business travelers across the nation. The bugs — reddish brown, flat and about the size of a grain of rice — suck human blood. They resist many pesticides and spread quickly in certain mattress-heavy buildings, such as hotels, dormitories and apartment complexes. Two shelters have closed temporarily in Charlotte, N.C. , because of bedbugs, a Yahoo chat group dedicates itself to sufferers and countless bedbug blogs provide forums for news, tips and commiseration. State inspectors say that more emphasis may be...

The purpose of the financial crisis - April 2, 2009, the Usurper signed a communiqué that essentially turns over financial control of the country, and the planet, to a handful of central bankers by DefendUSx May 10, 2009 02:02 By Bruce Wiseman A towering citadel housing what is essentially a sovereign state known as the Bank for International Settlements is located in Basel, Switzerland. The bank now controls the financial affairs of planet Earth. If you think this is an exaggeration or the conspiratorial ramblings of the author . . . or not, I invite you to read on. I...

GEN. Colin Powell is wrong to say that the Republican Party must move to the center: Now is not the time to try for triangulation. This is a time for the party to stand firm on its principles until this nation again comes around to the GOP's way of thinking. This process will be driven by the consequences of President Obama's program. The challenge brought by Obama is no longer just theoretical: He means to pass the ultimate leftist agenda and has the votes to do so. As a result, our nation will be unrecognizable well before the 2010 elections....

1. Palm Jebel Ali, 1 February 2009 2. Palm Jumeirah, 1 February 2009 3. The World, 3 April 2008 4. Palm Jebel Ali (left) and Palm Jumeirah (center) and The World (right), 20 March 2009 Photos Excerpted From http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-200904.htm Photographer  An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (Expedition 16 and Expedition 18)

There is no question that George W. Bush was and is a Globalist what that means is that in spite of the fact that Mr. Bush swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America at many times in his presidency president Bush was awkwardly at odds with his pledge.

Obama failed to get European leaders to commit to U.S.-style stimulus packages or to get NATO allies to send more combat troops to Afghanistan. But he prevented French President Nicolas Sarkozy from walking out of the G20 summit, as he threatened to do earlier. He also helped persuade China to agree to publish lists of tax havens, and got NATO allies to agree to sending up to 5,000 more military trainers and police to Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's vision of a world without nuclear arms is an achievable goal and the president will pursue it with an eye on the lessons learned from four decades of difficult diplomacy, the White House said Saturday. ... The challenge is to maintain an effective deterrent as long as there's any threat in the world, McDonough told reporters.

Timeline to Global Governance **** (Links followed by (M) available to members of the Environmental Conservation Organization) 1891 The Society of the Elect and the Association of Helpers - (also known as the "Secret Society,"), was created by Cecil Rhodes, Alfred Milner, William T. Stead, Reginald Baliol Brett, and Lord Esher, in London. Rhodes died in 1902, leaving the society, and his fortune, under the control of Milner, who established the Rhodes Scholar program. Good background here. 1910 The Round Table - a periodical, first published by Milner's "Secret Society" for Britain's intellectual community. The writers, and those associated with ...

The "news ticker" that runs on the bottom of the screen on Foxnews HD stated a decision had been made at the G 20 conference to impose sanctions against countries that are "tax havens". This action is nothing more than economic fascism on a worldwide scale. The premise is, if a sovereign country decides to attract free enterprise with the enticement of lower taxes than those ordained by a small minority of powerful quasi-dictators fascists, severe action will be taken. These hypocrites claim to champion the little man of the world, but in reality display no remorse for suggesting and...

A spy network believed to have been controlled from China has hacked into classified documents on government and private computers in 103 countries, according to internet researchers. The spy system, dubbed GhostNet, is alleged to have compromised 1,295 machines at Nato and foreign ministries, embassies, banks and news organisations across the world, as well as computers used by the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles.

"I, personally, take great interest on St. Patrick's Day because, as some of you know, my mother's family can be traced back to Ireland," the president said. He even joked to Cowen: "We may be cousins. We haven't sorted that through yet."

GRAPHIC footage of a youth's brutal bashing at a train station shows three attackers taking turns to kick him in the head. Detectives investigating the vicious assault say they are appalled by the level of violence, which left the 23-year-old man from Sunshine in Melbourne's west with serious head injuries. The man was beaten even after he handed over the backpack that appeared to be the motive behind the gang-attack.

George Soros finally gets it February 21, 2009 – 1:56 pm Three weeks ago, the positively schizophrenic Op-Ed page for the WSJ published yet another piece by a big financial brain proposing a “solution” to the financial crisis. While the editorial page itself is so rigidly ideological as to be useless, the op-ed page publishes stuff all over the map. The only common attribute seems to be a big-name byline. Once in a while you’ll get a thoughtful, nuanced and hard-hitting piece by Shelby Steele or Judy Shelton, for instance; occasionally, one of the big names will actually say something...

New World Order In recent weeks, the world has been politely standing by and watching how things play out with the fiscal stimulus and latest bank-bailout plans in Washington. Yes, there's been some grumbling overseas about "buy American" provisions in the stimulus bill, but for the most part, officials elsewhere don't want to step on the toes of a new President to whom they are favorably disposed. They also don't want to endanger legislation that they hope will help jump-start the global economy. •Davos cross-post: Values, schmalues, says Bill Gates. This crisis was about overspending Just wait a couple of...

New World Order In recent weeks, the world has been politely standing by and watching how things play out with the fiscal stimulus and latest bank-bailout plans in Washington. Yes, there's been some grumbling overseas about "buy American" provisions in the stimulus bill, but for the most part, officials elsewhere don't want to step on the toes of a new President to whom they are favorably disposed. They also don't want to endanger legislation that they hope will help jump-start the global economy. Just wait a couple of months, though. Politicians from Beijing to Berlin to Brasília see the current...

Canada keeps WTO option open on U.S. meat rules (Reuters) - Canada stands ready to revive a trade complaint against the United States should Washington reinstate country-of-origin meat labeling rules that Ottawa considers protectionist, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said on Tuesday. "Should the Obama administration continue on with protectionism and country-of-origin labeling, we will then reignite our WTO (World Trade Organization) challenge," Ritz told reporters on a conference call. Canada agreed to shelve its WTO complaint last month after the government of George W. Bush revised U.S. rules to allow greater flexibility on labeling of meat sold in U.S. grocery...

This bubble of government makes all other economic bubbles that have come before seem puny by comparison. Furthermore, this bubble is uniquely world wide. As liquidity is running out and credit is drying up, many nations are in a chain reaction realizing the hot air on which their financial and political systems stand. In any case the dreams of Obama, the RINOs, and the Democrats will become painfully deflated as the era of big government comes to a close. All bubbles come to an end when the liquidity is no longer available. After a certain point the bubble cannot be...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday offered North Korea a peace treaty, normal ties and aid if it eliminates its nuclear arms program and stressed her desire to work more cooperatively with China. Speaking ahead of a trip to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China next week, Clinton also said North Koreans deserved political rights and, in a comment that may irk Beijing, said Tibetans and all Chinese deserved religious freedom. Searching for a way to end North Korea's nuclear programs is likely to be one of the main topics on Clinton's week-long trip to Asia, which will...

OP-ED: On Inauguration Day, after it got the United Nations to pass a gag rule on insulting religions, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) told our new president in a New York Times ad that Muslims "have compelling strategic and moral reasons to cooperate and peacefully coexist with the United States in particular, and with the West in general." Many Muslims here and elsewhere want that partnership; but some, jihadists in the name of Islam, disagree violently. In its address to our new president, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (which has permanent status at the United Nations) made...

World Largest banks, by the latest Market Value (unit: billion USD): 1, ICBC 277.5 (China) 2, Construction 136.7 (China) 3, Bank of China 113.7 (China) 4, HSBC 112.8 (UK) 5, JP Morgan 111.5 (USA) 6, Wells Fargo 91.5 (USA) 7, Bank of America 71.6 (USA) 8, Mitsubishi UFJ 67.7 (Japan) 9, Banco Santander 53.0 (Spain) 10,Citigroup 40.6 (USA)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested on Tuesday the world was breathing a sigh of relief that President Barack Obama had replaced George W. Bush and was working to fix the damage he had caused. In her first news conference as top U.S. diplomat, Clinton said excitement over the change in power was "reinforced time and time again" during her welcome calls in recent days with foreign counterparts. "There is a great exhalation of breath going on in the world as people express their appreciation for the new direction that's being set and the team that is...

The President in his Inaugural Address: For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity...

As challenges mount, ardor for Obama cools abroad By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer Barack Obama got a global standing ovation long before he was elected president. But in a fickle and fast-moving world, the overseas reviews are already turning mixed. Though much of the world will party through the night Tuesday after Obama is sworn in as America's 44th president — just as it did when he was elected — there are signs the ardor is cooling as the sheer weight of his challenges sinks in. A deepening global recession, new hostilities in the Middle East, complications in...

<p>President Bush announced today that he has nominated the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Centre for consideration to the World Heritage List.</p> <p>The monument includes the islands and waters of the northwestern Hawaiian archipelago and is the nation’s largest protected area. The Mount Vernon, Va., home of George Washington was also nominated to the list. These are the United States’ first nominations to be forwarded for consideration on the World Heritage List since 1994, according to Gov. Linda Lingle.</p>

In the past few days, Israel has moved back into the Gaza strip with ground forces, in order to put a stop to Hamas rocket attacks across the border. This is almost a carbon-copy repeat of what happened in southern Lebanon after Israel pulled out of there, only to be greeted with rocket attacks from Hezbollah into Israel proper. But in that case, Israel did not crush and finish off Hezbollah, thus incurring the morally blind and hypocritical wrath of much of the West while having accomplished nothing substantial in exchange for it. (And arguably making matters worse, if Hezbollah...

United Nations' Power Will Grow Under President Obama Our incoming president has many plans that will drastically affect our country but few are more insidious and far reaching than his legislation to address "global poverty." Obama said "Eliminating global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges we face, with billions of people around the world forced to live on just dollars a day. We can – and must – make it a priority of our foreign policy ..." While in the senate our president-elect Barack Hussein Obama (it's ok to use his middle name now) joined with RINO U.S. Senator...

The intensely partisan debate over foreign policy of recent years has overshadowed one area of broad bipartisan consensus: America’s efforts at public diplomacy in the post-9/11 era have largely failed. Public diplomacy is, in essence, the way that we, as a government and as a people, present ourselves to the rest of the world – how we explain our values of freedom and democracy and why we believe they provide the surest path to long-term peace and prosperity. Of all the opportunities that incoming president Barack Obama can seize, none is more important for long-term U.S. national security than the...

Photo Ticket Cameras to Track Drivers Nationwide Vendors plan to add spy technology to existing red light camera and speed camera installations. Private companies in the US are hoping to use red light cameras and speed cameras as the basis for a nationwide surveillance network similar to one that will be active next year in the UK. Redflex and American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the top two photo enforcement providers in the US, are quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients. Redflex explained the company's latest developments in an August 7 meeting with Homestead, Florida...

<p>GENEVA (AP) - Islamic proposals to ban criticism of religion, which have gathered strength since the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad two years ago, threaten to derail an already troubled U.N. anti-racism conference planned for next year. The European Union rejects suggestions by Algeria—backed by other Muslim and African countries—that limits on free speech are needed to stop the publication of offensive articles and images.</p>

A report about why global warming due to carbon dioxide is flawed hypothesis based off of crappy math models. Some of these guys are from the UN's IPCC who left because they so strongly disagreed. Oh, also to give you an idea of how many scientists that is compared to those who think global warming is occurring thanks to carbon dioxide: "The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. " Here's the senate.gov link to where these quotes come from: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2158072e-802a-23ad-45f0-274616db87e6 Here...

With temperatures falling since 1998's peak, and much of the nation shivering, global warming propagandists become have become shriller, even asserting counterfactual propositions. Case in point: Seth Borentstein "science" reporter for the Associated Press. Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters debunks the "global warming is accelerating" nonsense offered by AP to gullible (or mendacious) editors in newsrooms across the country. It is remarkable to see bald-faced lies so readily debunked. The willingness of media outlets to

Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance. Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer algorithm. The disclaimer lives on at Google News, where we are assured that: The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program. A few years ago, Google's apparently unimpeachable objectivity got some people very excited, and technology utopians began to herald Google as...

Over the next year, the U.S. government will need to borrow somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 trillion, the most ever by far. Estimates go as high as $2 trillion, depending on how quickly the economy cools and how fast tax revenues fall. The simple question most of America has not asked is this: Where is the money going to come from? The federal government already knows the answer to that question, and it has implications Americans are not ready for but will soon be faced with. America is going cap in hand to Middle East oil exporters. What government...

Since CNN devoted so much time to covering the Hajj, a number of prominent Muslims -- including known terrorists and jihadists -- have opined that "We are defeating these people [American "evangelicals"] through their homes in their lands." "Terrorists gush over CNN coverage," by Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily, December 12 (thanks to Doc Washburn): JERUSALEM – CNN's extensive coverage this week of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca is a defeat for evangelical Christians and proves it is only a question of time before Islam will be "shining all over the world," according to Muslim terrorists in Gaza speaking to...

The black soot that big rig trucks belch from their chugging diesel engines may soon become a thing of the past. In one of the more far-reaching smog regulations that California has ever proposed, state air regulators are considering a first-in-the-nation plan that would require nearly every privately owned, heavy diesel truck in the state to install a filter that would reduce emissions of soot from their rigs by 85 percent. The new regulation would affect 1 million truckers, half of them registered out of state who regularly drive on California freeways. If approved by the California Air Resources Board...