Free Republic

What is going on with Free Republic? Why are there so many postings with the same title. There's always been some duplication but nothing like what I'm seeing these days.

A new problem with Obamacare is that people who have signed up and later changed their minds are finding it impossible to stop the automatic deductions of premiums from their bank accounts. A Florida man has spent over 50 hours trying to stop $300 per month debits to his checking account for coverage he no longer needs. After six weeks of effort he has yet to succeed. “I found a plan that costs only $116 a month for similar coverage,” Andrew Robinson said. “I want to cancel the more expensive and now redundant $300 plan, but haven’t been able to...

Police discovered the children and animals after receiving a domestic dispute callPolice say four children and more than a dozen pets, including two boa constrictors, were discovered living in squalor at a Queens apartment. Officers responded to the Richmond Hill apartment on Sunday after receiving a call of a domestic dispute. They say the children are between the ages of 7 and 11. They were placed in temporary custody of the city's Administration for Children's Services. Police say 15 dogs, two boa constrictors and a lizard also were found. A 29-year-old man was arrested for endangering the welfare of a...

A Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday outlined scores of fractured and redundant programs split between federal agencies from the Small Business Administration to the Department of Defense, and identified a patchwork of potential savings and revenue opportunities in the deficit-racked government. According to the GAO, 20 separate agencies currently run 56 different financial literacy programs. Ten agencies operate 82 teacher quality initiatives and more than 100 programs relating to surface transportation are spread across five federal entities. It takes 15 agencies to oversee food safety, including two for eggs - the Food and Drug Administration monitors unbroken "shell" eggs...

The Church of England today published new prayers for people affected by redundancy as the recession bit and thousands of employees returned to work not knowing if their jobs were secure. A second prayer intercedes for those affected by "survivor guilt" when their colleagues are sacked, in recognition that the end of the season of goodwill will this year be a baptism of misery for many. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has forecast that at least 600,000 people could lose their jobs this year. The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, who is seeing the effect of...

When we were younger, it was easy to know who the liars were. Kids have an innate alarm for lies, and those who get caught at it are usually tarred as “Liar, Liar, Pants on fire!” before long. Would that it were so simple for adults, and especially that unique class of adults we call politicians. For some time, we have been listening to the chorus from the Left calling the President a liar over Iraqi WMD as though that weren’t only one of the 22 reasons cited in the 2002 Senate Resolution. “Bush Lied, Thousands Died!” the chant says....

I am amazed at how often I see a reply to an otherwise interesting article that veritably screams, “Duplicate Post, you idiot!” pointedly implying—or sometimes even saying outright--that the poster has violated the most sacred trust not to duplicate posts. The tone of these reminders suggests that there may be no greater sin against common decency and the de facto protocols of the forum with the possible exception of failing to post a picture of Ann Coulter when she is mentioned on a thread. (I’m sure someone will be happy to oblige, even in this case.) When I log on...

By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer VIENNA, Austria - From the deserts of the south and west to the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites) is awash in weapons sites — some large, others small; some guarded, others not. Even after the U.S. military secured some 400,000 tons of munitions, as many as 250,000 tons remain unaccounted for. Photo AP Photo Attention has focused on the al-Qaqaa site south of Baghdad, where 377 tons of explosives are believed to have gone missing — becoming a heated issue in the final days of the U.S. presidential campaign. But...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

* * * [asterisks indicate omitted text] The challenges facing the military today, however, are no less daunting than the opportunities are promising. Most leaders and observers agree that the U.S. military will have to "transform" itself in order to maintain its lead as well as to be able to meet the challenges of the present and the future for which it was not designed. At the same time, the U.S. is engaged in a war on terrorism, in peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo, and in a massive peacekeeping, counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and reconstruction effort in Iraq. Tensions over...

I'm pretty sure. But don't quote me on it!