Free Republic

The Chief Investment Officer of Santa Monica, Calif.-based TCW Group has been sounding warnings for more than a year that mortgage lenders had taken leave of their senses by spooning out mortgages without owner-equity cushions and with little or no verification of the borrowers' ability to pay back the debt. By now, with mortgage defaults climbing and home sales falling, the plot line of this drama is becoming clear. But Gundlach says there are still several acts to come -- and that the curtain may not come down until the close of this decade. He sees U.S. home prices dropping...

Natascha weighs less than when kidnapped By Kate Connolly in Vienna (Filed: 26/08/2006) The full horror of Natascha Kampusch's eight-year kidnap ordeal became clearer yesterday as her mother said that the 18-year-old girl weighed less now than when she was abducted. Brigitte Sirny said she had been shopping for size 6 clothes for her daughter whose weight had dropped to 6st 6lb despite having grown to 5ft 3in. She said her daughter had "nothing" except for an orange dress she was wearing when she escaped her "master". Natascha has developed a formal, slightly stilted high-German accent similar to that of...

Mother matters when it comes to the heart 17:59 27 April 2006 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi When it comes to some matters of the heart, mothers have more influence than fathers, a large-scale study finds, and the effect is particularly pronounced in daughters. Swedish researchers used a national registry of more than 11 million people stretching back to 1932 to assess how parents’ history of heart problems might link to the health woes of their children. Their analysis focused specifically on people in the database who had suffered a heart attack or angina, a severe constricting pain in the...

When you're in orbit, which way is Mecca? 12:14 21 April 2006 NewScientist.com news service Kelly Young Dan Bursch, Yuri Onufrienko and Carl Walz pose with their Christmas tree aboard the International Space Station in 2001 (Image: NASA)Malaysia's National Space Agency is trying to determine how its astronaut candidates will practice Islam in space. Three of its four astronaut candidates are Muslim, and two will be selected for a future Russian space flight. Once in their orbiting spacecraft, they will circle the Earth once every 90 minutes. Traditionally, Muslims pray five times per day, at times connected to the position...

When in Vietnam, Build Boats as the Romans Do Richard Stone INDO-PACIFIC PREHISTORY ASSOCIATION CONGRESS, 20-26 MARCH 2006, MANILA In December 2004, researchers drained a canal in northern Vietnam in search of ancient textiles from graves. They found that and a whole lot more. Protruding from the canal bank at Dong Xa was a 2000-year-old log boat that had been used as a coffin. After a closer look at the woodwork, archaeologists Peter Bellwood and Judith Cameron of Australia National University in Canberra and their colleagues were astounded to find that the method for fitting planks to hull matched that...

A teacher dies and goes to Heaven. When she gets there she meets Peter at the pearly white gates. Peter says to her, "Welcome to Heaven. Let me give you an orientation first." So, Peter takes her to some beautiful mansions. The teacher asks, "Who lives here in these beautiful houses?" "These are for doctors. They did a lot of good on Earth so they get a nice mansion," replied Peter. Peter takes the teacher to some more mansions. These were more magnificent than the first. "Wow, who lives here?" " These mansions are for social workers. They did a...

When your gut instinct rules (Filed: 03/01/2006) Logic is the loser in uncertain situations, says Roger Highfield Investing money, changing jobs, getting married: all big decisions that can mark a leap into the unknown. Now, a new brain-imaging study finds that the higher the level of uncertainty, the more likely it is that emotion and gut insinct, not logic, will rule. This insight into what goes on in the brain when decisions are made in the face of missing information sheds light on how people save for retirement, how companies price insurance and how countries evaluate risks, ranging from climate...

Too often Americans focus on combat losses in Iraq and overlook the long-term benefits of reconstruction projects in scores of Iraqi cities and towns. The leaders of the 1st Cavalry Division gave testimony at the House Armed Services Committee Nov. 3 about mission successes, especially the rebuilding of infrastructure, during their tenure in Operation Iraqi Freedom II. Sense of legitimacy While Soldiers engage and destroy the enemies of the United States in far away lands, destroying the infrastructures of foreign nations is in fact not what American Soldiers do best, nor is it what they aspire to do. One example...

The American dream that has motivated generations is the hope of owning a home, a sanctuary where the family is safe and the future secure. Millions of people who have scrimped and saved to realize this dream are now faced with a nightmare as sustainable development is imposed upon them. Florida flourished as "snowbirds" flocked to the warm climate to retire. For every millionaire who bought a condo on the beach, a hundred retired factory workers and shopkeepers bought a mobile home in a retirement park to enjoy their remaining days fishing and playing shuffleboard with their neighbors. Some of...

Here's what I'm suggesting: There appears to be a need for a definitive timeline with respect to Katrina and who did and said what when. Things get particularly confusing because of the short timeframe referenced in most newspaper and magazine articles- someone pointed out to me that an article said "last Friday", and two Fridays had passed since the beginning of events, so the reference became vague. And, given the number of Freepers, if a bunch of us pitch in and "walk back the cat" so to speak, a timeline ought to be constructable in relatively short order. The only...

A three judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals may have a decision next Tuesday as to whether the initiative to change political redistricting is on the November ballot. But while today's two hour hearing focused on legal and constitutional issues, it also shed some light on what might become a political powderkeg: who knew there were problems with the initiative's language, and when? In particular, Dan Kolkey, the attorney representing the authors of Proposition 77, was asked when he knew of the language differences between what was circulated for signatures, and what was submitted to the Attorney...

I have run spybot and it didn't see it. I despise MS' model for adding "features" to IE.

Liberals and criminals alike are anxiously awaiting the verdict on Illinois’ newest gun ban, HB 2414. Honestly, it’s hard to tell who’s more excited. I guess liberals figure if they can’t keep Americans from buying guns, they’ll try putting people in prison for owning them. Meanwhile, thousands of law-abiding citizens in Illinois are forced to imagine being incarcerated for legally purchasing and owning a gun. That’s the idea behind The People’s Republic of Illinois House Bill 2414, in which gun owners would have 90 days to surrender their legally purchased semi-automatic firearms to the police, or face felony prosecution and...

CBS's Lesley Stahl and MSNBC's Chris Matthews, both liberal Democrats, whined repeatedly on Hardball about bloggers and other alternative media who have deflated the liberal media monopoly Matthews, who hosts a show of unedited opinions, rued how news is "coming out of blog sites and stuff that is unedited in a lot of cases, which is my big problem with it."There's no editors around." Stahl complained "it's contributing to the public's continuing dislike of us and mistrust of us." Stahl, who works for an outlet which used forged memos in a political hit job, lamented that instead of checking facts,...

Does anyone have their ear to the ground regarding "The Warroom" and the potential for nationwide syndication?

commentary Javad Gholam Tamayomi, Omid Memarian, Shahram Rafihzadeh, Hanif Mazroi, Rozbeh Mir Ebrahimi, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh and Fereshteh Ghazi are some of the most courageous people you've never met. Not exactly household names, but each deserves a standing ovation. During a crackdown against Iran's nascent online press last year, these sundry online journalists and bloggers got chucked into jail. The cyber seven were subsequently released but continue to invite the periodic and not-so-tender attention of the local police. A blogger named Mojtaba Saminejad, also arrested on trumped-up charges at the beginning of November after condemning the jailings in his blog, is...

SUNBURG, Minn. - A man died after being attacked by a bull on a farm near this small town about 20 miles northwest of Willmar, authorities said. Kandiyohi County Sheriff Dan Hartog said Brian Olson, 53, was wounded by a bull at his farm and taken to a Willmar hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Deputies said Olson was either kicked or butted by the bull.

SANFORD, Fla. - Eleven people directed to the wrong courtroom in the Seminole County Courthouse were arrested and jailed when they didn't appear before the proper judge, who was in an adjoining courtroom less than 100 feet away. The six men and five women spent eight hours Friday in a Seminole County Jail cell before everything was straightened out. "I'm hungry, I'm tired and I'm disgusted," said Frantarshia Coleman, after she was released from jail. "This is ridiculous. This is disgusting." Coleman, 33, of Orlando was in court on a ticket for not having her registration and proof of insurance....

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!

I was just thinking about the Jeremy Glick episode. O'Reilly may be moderate politically, but that doesn't mean unbiased these days. His problem is that he isn't neutral when it comes to the United States. He is pro-American. To the left, that's biased.