Free Republic

Dear fri­ends, thank you for invi­ting me to Los Ange­les. I always like coming to the Uni­ted Sta­tes. There are many things that I admire Ame­ri­cans for. One of them is that they are unas­ha­medly patrio­tic. The Ame­ri­can Free­dom Associa­tion has asked me to speak to you about the future of Europe. Europe is in a ter­rible state. Bit by bit, Euro­pean countries are los­ing their natio­nal sover­eignty. The eco­nomy is in sham­b­les. Isla­mic immi­grants riot and ter­ro­rize the many locals. And when people’s throats are slit in the stre­ets, while the mur­de­rers shout “Allahu Akbar,” the aut­hori­ties appease the...

President Obama has said the outrage over the federal government’s decision to monitor citizens’ phone activity is all “hype.” He might want to share his opinion with the Air Force, which is ordering members of the service not to look at news stories about it. WND has received an unclassified NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) that warns airmen not to look at news stories related to the data-mining scandal. The notice applies to users of the Air Force NIPRNET (Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network), which is the only way that many troops stationed overseas and on bases in the U.S. are...

The list of flacks for leftism is drearily familiar: academia, public school systems, the entertainment industry, professional organizations, nonprofit foundations of vast wealth, the bureaucracies dependent upon social grievance and mind-numbing regulations (which includes not only federal and state bureaucrats, but "experts" in private industry who would have spent their careers mastering the arcane arts of regulatory compliance), and, of course, the media.

Clashes between neo-Nazi demonstrators and far-left counter-protesters overnight in the northern German port city of Hamburg left 38 police officers injured, police said Sunday. Security forces were pelted with rocks, bottles and fireworks and responded by turning water canon and pepper spray on the rioting groups who turned out at a march by the far right. At least two parked cars and a police cruiser were set ablaze. Police, who deployed 4,400 officers to keep the peace between the two sides, took 63 demonstrators into custody and formally arrested another 17. Around 3,500 people, mainly from the hard left, turned...

The Occupy Wall Street movement has received so much media coverage in recent weeks that it’s nearly impossible to keep abreast of all the developments. So many endorsements and criticisms coming from all directions enter the news cycle in such rapid succession that even the most dedicated news junkies may have missed out on many of the pronouncements. Supporters and detractors of OWS both might find it useful to have a handy all-inclusive list of who has endorsed or embraced the protest. To satisfy that demand, we hereby present a list of groups, organizations, individuals and entities that have expressed...

OAK PARK, Mich. (WJBK) - "The price of organic food is kind of through the roof," said Julie Bass. So, why not grow your own? However, Bass' garden is a little unique because it's in her front yard. "We thought it'd be really cool to do it so the neighbors could see. The kids love it. The kids from the neighborhood all come and help," she said. Bass' cool garden has landed her in hot water with the City of Oak Park. Code enforcement gave her a warning, then a ticket and now she's been charged with a misdemeanor....

Chevrolet has recalled Cruze compacts after a steering wheel fell off. The car was going 65 miles per hour. In it were a mother, a grandmother, and a 19-month-old grandson. Fortunately, the driver managed to stop inches from a guardrail. Many people prefer to drive rather than fly. They know that statistically, driving is more dangerous. But they enjoy the feeling of being in control, though that feeling is partly illusory. A driver has no control over whether a semi jack-knifes in front of him, or whether someone is texting and rear-ends him − or even whether a poorly built...

Smokers across Rowan County are fired up about the possibility of the cost of a pack of cigarettes increasing by $1, and some even say they’ll start growing their own tobacco if North Carolina House Bill 341 is passed. “I’m going to do it regardless of what they do, even if I have to buy tobacco seeds and grow it myself,” Shane Allman said of the proposed increase. “I’ll cut it up as I need it, and roll it up as I need it. That way I can throw my middle finger up at the government.” Allman, a 33-year-old employee...

The 65th meeting of the U.N. General Assembly kicked off this week with a call from its new president, Joseph Deiss, for the 192-nation body to reclaim the “center of global governance,” in order to achieve sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000. Pundits and politicians who pooh-pooh global governance are finding it increasingly difficult to pretend that the U.N. is not on an aggressive mission to create a: “…framework of rules, institutions, and practices that set limits on behavior of individuals, organizations, and companies.” (U.N. Development Report, 1999, page 34) Specifically, the Convention on the Biological...

Click here to find out more! Liberals have been looking for a new name, most likely driven by the uncharacteristically sensible realization that most Americans reject their big-government philosophy. When the Gallup poll asked Americans last year whether they considered themselves conservative, moderate or liberal, only 21 percent said they were liberal, while 40 percent said they were conservative. Nor was this plurality of the right confined to red states. Self-professed conservatives outnumbered self-professed liberals in every state of the Union -- from Massachusetts to Hawaii. In the face of this, some advocates of big government now call themselves progressives...

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams was released from a U.S. hospital on Friday after having to flee his own dysfunctional government-run health care system in order to obtain a critical heart surgery...

Gordon Fleming is, by his own account, an environmentally sensitive guy. He bikes 12 1/2 miles to and from his job at a software company outside Santa Barbara, Calif. He recycles as much as possible and takes reusable bags to the grocery store. Still, his girlfriend, Shelly Cobb, feels he has not gone far enough. Ms. Cobb chides him for running the water too long while he shaves or showers. And she finds it “depressing,” she tells him, that he continues to buy a steady stream of items online when her aim is for them to lead a less materialistic...

Mark Tijssen, a major in the Canadian military, stands in front of a meat smoker containing the remains of a pig that could cost him thousands of dollars in fines. Tijssen's family home was raided by members of the Intelligence and Investigations Section of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ottawa Police last month while he was preparing a pizza dinner for children on a Friday night. Mark Tijssen's family has been slaughtering their own animals and handing that skill from father to son for at least three generations. But changes to Ontario's Food Safety Act has landed him and...

ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA; NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE Tue Jun 16 2009 08:45:10 ET On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm! Highlights on the agenda: ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House. The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on...

WHO REALLY destroyed the base of the economy by forcing the banks to make all those millions of bad loans, pulling the rug out from under the  banks and insurance cos. IN THE FIRST PLACEYou didn't know this?  Perhaps you didn'tknow that newsmen have agendas andDELIBERATELY hid the facts from you.

As traditional news outfits migrate online to become dot-coms, one of their biggest headaches is how to adapt to the sprawling new frontier of public comment.In the pre-Internet world of TV and newspapers, public comment wasn't a problem. Broadcast news didn't have any -- aside from the weekly guest spot, usually some hapless civic association president reading from a prompter and staring terrified into the camera. Papers had their letters pages, but allowed only enough space for a few dozen a week, and they were generally written with care and were easy to prune for taste and diction.Things were nicely...

PARIS If Alexander Schoppmann is right, then where there's smoke, there's a flier. As more countries ban smoking in public places, his idea might seem malapropos. But Schoppmann, a German entrepreneur, is hoping to turn smokers' umbrage at ever-expanding efforts to stub out their habit into a highflying business proposal: Smoker's International Airways. As the name suggests, the airline, known as Smintair for short, will probably not be for the faint of lung. The carrier, expected to begin luxury service with only business and first-class seats early next year, plans daily flights between Schoppmann's hometown of Düsseldorf and Tokyo -...

“Secondhand smoke debate ‘over.” That’s the message from the Surgeon General’s office, delivered by a sycophantic media. The claim is that the science has now overwhelmingly proved that smoke from others’ cigarettes can kill you. Actually, “debate over” simply means: “If you have your doubts, shut up!” But you definitely should have doubts over the new Surgeon General’s report, a massive 727-page door stop. Like many massive reports on controversial issues, it’s probably designed that way so nobody (especially reporters on deadline) will want to or have time to read beyond the executive summary. That includes me; if I had...

The future of do-it-yourself video hardware in the Microsoft Vista generation is in question, as issues have surfaced surrounding two key portions of the high-definition video space. How consumers will have to deal with HDCP, a content protection scheme, and CableCards, a means of transmitting video information into the home, have come to the fore.

I have heard the terms "heresy," "apostasy" and "schism" used in describing people and beliefs not in agreement with our Catholic faith, but I suspect that those terms are often used incorrectly. What are their proper definitions? The Church distinguishes three specific genres of what it calls the sin of "incredulity" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2089). Heresy is the obstinate denial by someone baptized of a truth which is to be believed with divine and "catholic" faith, or it may be an obstinate doubt about such a truth. Apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith. Schism...