Free Republic

I"m begging the indulgence of my fellow freepers since I've been here a long time and this will be the first vanity I've ever posted. My beautiful wife Amy is a writer and she has a new young adult novel coming out on Tuesday. The title is Cold Kiss and it's a hard cover issue from Harper Teen, Harper Collins young adult imprint. Far be it from me to indulge in hyperbole, but this is the greatest novel ever written in human history. My wife has published a number of books before, but not in the young adult genre which...

Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds How Much Would It Cost To Buy Congress Back From Special Interests? Here's a thought: let's buy our Congress back from the special interests who now own it. We all know special interests own the U.S. Congress and the Federal machinery of governance (i.e. regulatory capture). How much would it cost the American citizenry to buy back their Congress? The goal in buying our Congress back from the banking cartel et al. would not be to compete with the special interests for congressional favors--it would be to elect a Congress which...

<p>The drop in auto sales was 2.9 percent, the sharpest drop in 15 months. But it was due, in large part, to temporary factors: Buyers received fewer dealer incentives, and dealers ran short on popular fuel-efficient models. The natural disasters in Japan disrupted shipments of cars and component parts to the United States.</p>

Being a super hero is sometimes a thankless job. Just ask Spiderman and a handful of others who have both fought for and been chased by the law. As it turns out, even being just a regular hero isn't always all that it's cracked up to be. If you require proof, sit down for a chat with Roger Kline, a 51-year-old former Best Buy employee who was shown the door after he tackled a would-be laptop thief making a mad dash with stolen merchandise. According to a report in the Billings Gazette, Kline was a well-regarded employee and one of...

PORTLAND -- Ceasefire Oregon collected 243 guns Saturday at a turn-in event at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum. The group worked with the newly reinstated Portland Police gun task force to host the event. The firearms collected Saturday were given to police and will be destroyed. For each gun turned in, the owner received a $50 Fred Meyer gift card. Helen Carons and Andrew Perez, who attended the event, were both affected by gun violence two years ago when Perez accidentally shot Carons' son. "I just want to thank everyone for turning in their guns,” Carons said. “I really do appreciate it....

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that he told his daughter to buy a Japanese car--a Toyota Sienna--and that she did so. LaHood's comment came as he announced the results of a 10-month long Department of Transportation study that was undertaken to determine whether electronic systems could have been responsible for reports of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles. The study determined that this was not the case. LaHood's statement that

A physics teacher in high school once told the students that while one grasshopper on the railroad tracks wouldn't slow a train very much, a billion of them would. With that thought in mind, read the following, obviously written by a good American. Good idea .... one light bulb at a time ....

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office will hold a gun buy back event on Saturday, January 8th. The event begins at 9am and will last until all money has been distributed. Citizens may bring in firearms of all types including rifles, handguns, and assault weapons with no questions asked. Guns can be brought to the Second Zion Church at 6520 Second Zion Avenue in Marrero or the Marine Baptist Church at 3034 Andover Street in Metairie. Weapons such as rifles, handguns, or shotguns, in working condition, will be exchanged for $50.00 cash. Assault weapons will be exchanged for $200.00 cash. Ammunition...

Look who's trying to buy the electionRich Lowry Last Updated: 12:49 AM, October 26, 2010 Just when we'd been told the Chamber of Commerce had bought the election, along comes the American Federation of State, Country and Municipal Employees to pour nearly $90 million into the campaign. According to The Wall Street Journal, this makes the public-sector union the biggest spender of all the outside groups. The National Education Association and the Service Employees International Union rank among the top five. Collectively, these three unions representing millions of public workers -- only the SEIU is majority private -- are devoting...

The Wealthy Left Needs to Buy Our Debt – NOW!!! If the Obama administration insists on promising exponential growth in entitlements, AND, If wealthy lefties are pledging to give their life savings to charity, The time is now – Buy our debt!!! Buy it from Obama and Buy it from China. Put your money where your mouth is. Do it for world peace! This means you... Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, ...

DETROIT — General Motors Co. will buy AmeriCredit Corp. for $3.5 billion, a deal that allows the automaker to expand loans to customers with poor credit and offer more leases, key areas where GM must grow to accelerate its car sales. But the acquisition, announced Thursday, also means that GM, which is 61 percent owned by the U.S. government, is getting back into the business of making risky loans. AmeriCredit is an independent auto financing company that already works with about 4,000 GM dealers.

t's been almost a month since the Washington Post Co. put Newsweek on the market, and by 5 p.m. today the initial bids are due. Despite skepticism over whether there will be bidders, Yahoo! News can confirm there's at least one: Newsmax Media. "Newsmax Media Inc. has made a bid for Newsweek," said a company statement provided to Yahoo! News. The company also stated that its "bid for Newsweek's print and online assets is congruent with its objective to diversify and expand into numerous distinct media brand offerings, like any major multi-title publisher."

When it comes to computer technology, thin is always in. It's indisputable that the thinner, lighter, clearer, the better when dealing with the latest computer gadget. This keyboard is the epitome of the high standards expected of the technological version of the fashion industry. It's based on image as well, that is, image recognition technology. It judges clicking depending on the image of the size and where your finger touches the keyboard.

Advertising often results in overspending and over-consumption by creating artificially induced needs. The usual catch phrases are "New", "An exclusive offer", "Everyone has one of these", and/or "You deserve the best." Other fallacious "Protect your children with ..." not to mention lastly "Want to know what women really like?" manipulate the minds of targeted groups and raise/lower self esteem to encourage people to purchase their products.

When it comes to computer technology, thin is always in. It’s indisputable that the thinner, lighter, clearer, the better when dealing with the latest computer gadget. This keyboard is the epitome of the high standards expected of the technological version of the fashion industry. It’s based on image as well, that is, image recognition technology.

In a three-sentence press release e-mailed to the Verona-Cedar Grove Times last week, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office announced a gun buyback program. Today and tomorrow, residents who are in possession of illegal handguns can turn them in and receive up to $200 – no questions asked. It's the county's Gun Amnesty Buyback Program, held in high crime areas such as East Orange, Newark and Irvington. No such programs are being held in Verona or Cedar Grove, presumably because the crime rate is lower here and residents obtain their firearms the legal way, with permits. The programs are typically held...

Boycott Best Buy! From IBA: Three years ago, electronics retail giant Best Buy was in the middle of the "War on Christmas" controversy. A company spokeswoman - Dawn Bryant - announced they would not use the word "Christmas" in their advertising: "We are going to continue to use the term holiday because there are several holidays throughout that time period, and we certainly need to be respectful of all of them." Hmm... so mentioning "Christmas" in its advertising is somehow disrespectful of other holidays? They have since started using the word Christmas in some ads - but it's very limited....

Egyptian-born Jewish businessman Haim Saban is negotiating with Qatar's emir the purchase of 50 percent of the Al Jazeera television network, the independent Egyptian newspaper Al-Mesryoon reported earlier this week. Saban was first reported to be negotiating the purchase of half the Doha -based network in 2004, after visiting the emirate with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. The media mogul, estimated to be worth more than $3 billion, brought the Power Rangers franchise to the Arab world and made a fortune out of developing and selling the Fox Family cable network together with News Corp. In Israel, Saban owns a...

EU, Canada encouraged by weakened Buy American plan . The bill still has to be reconciled with the controversial version passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The European Commission -- which oversees trade policy for the 27-nation EU -- said it was encouraged by the new U.S. stance, but like Lamy and Canada, Brussels said it "will have to wait for the final wording" before taking a final position. The European steel confederation Eurofer said the amendment did not go far enough and it would keep its promise to ask the EU executive to appeal against the U.S. bill...

Buy one home, get one free: US agents try to beat property slump By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles Last Updated: 10:03PM BST 03/06/2008 A California developer has devised a radical sales pitch to shift new homes amid the current property slump – buy one house, get another one free. Sales of new homes have plummeted by more than 40 percent across the US since their peak almost three years ago "Don't miss this incredible investment opportunity! It's never been done before and may never be done again!" reads the advert promoting the two-for-one offer from Michael Crews Development. The...