Free Republic

A Ukrainian lawmaker from the far-right Svoboda Party has provoked international condemnations after referring to Jewish actress Mila Kunis as a “zhydovka”, a Ukranian slur that translates to “dirty Jewess,” on his Facebook page. “She is not Ukrainian, she is a Jewess by birth. She is proud of this and the Star of David,” politician Igor Miroshnichenko wrote on in the online message. “[S]he says nothing and expresses nothing positive about the country in which she was born. I can’t bring myself to say she is Ukrainian. Let her love America or Israel, people must not attach her to the...

On CBS’s Face The Nation this week, host Bob Schieffer asked Ben Affleck point blank, “Have you ever thought about running for public office?” Although he attempted to deflect the question by noting “the state of Massachusetts currently has two extraordinary Senators,” he ended up saying, “well, one never knows.” Schieffer noted there might be a vacancy for him soon, with Senator John Kerry being tapped to be President Obama‘s next Secretary of State. Affleck said, “I’m not one to get into conjecture,” but then said, “I like to be involved.”

Two women are facing child endangerment charges following the death of two children during a fire early Saturday in their West Englewood neigborhood home. Tatiana Meakens, 23, and Britany Meakens, 22, both of the 6400 block of South Paulina Avenue, were both charged with two felony counts each of endangering a child causing their death and two misdemeanor counts each of endangering the life and health of a child, according to a statement from Chicago Police Department News Affairs. They are expected to appear in court Monday on the charges.

The Last Two Times Corporate Insiders Got This Bearish, Stocks Went On To Dive Cullen Roche, Pragmatic CapitalismDecember 24, 2012, 4:21 AM The last time Mark Hulbert updated his insider trading data the market was in the process of bottoming. He said insiders were very bullish. How quickly sentiment changes in a month! His latest update shows a huge reversal in insider sentiment: “For the week that ended last Friday, this sell-to-buy ratio for NYSE-listed shares listed stood at 6.67-to-1. That means insiders, on average, were selling nearly seven shares of their companies’ stock for every one that they were...

Germany offers cruise missiles at half price By Lee Tae-hoon A German-based defense company will offer to sell its cutting-edge air-to-ground stand alone cruise missiles to Seoul at almost half its 2009 initial offering price of 3.6 billion won ($3.4 million), multiple sources said Sunday. An industry source said TAURUS Systems GmbH (TSG) has decided to lower the price of a TAURUS missile to 2.2 billion won to overcome challenges that non-U.S. companies face in entering Korea’s growing defense market. “We acknowledge barriers in entering the Korean market as the United States, which has roughly 28.500 troops here, continues to...

(CNN) -- Colleen O'Bara bathed her older sister, Edwarda, and fixed her hair. She fed her through a feeding tube like she'd done countless times. It was going to be a good day, the day before Thanksgiving. With her morning routine complete, Colleen planned to fetch a cup of coffee. She bent down and kissed her big sister, told her she'd be right back. "She gave me the biggest smile she has ever given me in her life," Colleen recalls. "Her face was aglow. There was a sparkle in her eyes." But just then, Edwarda closed her eyes. For 42...

You might not know who Piers Morgan is, because he’s on CNN. (If you don’t know what CNN is, Google it.) He’s a British guy who hosts a show on American cable news because Larry King finally realized he was 150 years old and retired, and CNN had absolutely no idea what to do with his time slot. So far, the experiment has been a miserable ratings failure, but I’m sure Jeff Zucker doesn’t mind. Anyway, Morgan is really excited about that football player killing his girlfriend and then himself, because it’s an excuse for Morgan to tell all us...

A New York Newspaper Printed the names and addresses of every Licensed Pistol Permit holder in two Counties and another County is being posted shortly! This is a massive privacy breach and the latest in a series of over the top emotional reactions to the latest shooting tragedy in Sandy Hook CT meant to intimidate the lawful and prey on peoples fears to exploit the gun grabbing agenda. In an article title “The gun owner next door: What you don’t know about the weapons in your neighborhood” the paper linked to an interactive map titled: “Map: Where are the gun...

Merry Christmas. We are so screwed. Here are some highlights: 1) The ‘Code Official’ – anybody the jurisdiction calls – a ‘Code Official’ – is the sole interpreter – no due process – Gestapo! 2) Every day an offense occurs is a separate mandatory misdemeanor - $555/day and/or a month in jail in Charleston, W.Va. They can fine you out of your home and jail you at their whim! 3) Anything the ‘Code Official’ says is not in good working condition – sticky window, dented or plugged gutter, torn window screen – whatever he says is not in good working...

HUSSMAN: Investors Don't Realize How Quickly All Of Their Recent Profits Could Get Destroyed Joe WeisenthalDec. 24, 2012, 7:05 AM In his latest weekly note, John Hussman is very bearish and he blasts the Fed for not correctly fixing the economy. This is very standard for him. One interesting observation regards the fragility of investor gains: The stock market is only a few percent from its 6-month high at present, and even an overextended move to about 1490 would put the S&P 500 at its upper Bollinger band (two standard deviations above the 20-period moving average) on daily, weekly and...

CHEYENNE -- Proposals to loosen gun regulations are likely to emerge when the Legislature convenes in early January. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting is spurring national leaders to call for tighter federal gun-control laws. But several Wyoming legislators say they are planning to sponsor legislation that would do the opposite. Incoming Speaker of the House Tom Lubnau, R-Gillette, said he is drafting legislation that would end gun-free zones. He said he still is working on the details and the bill has not yet been filed. But he said it could include allowing teachers and other staff to have guns...

Woo-Hoo! MOTUS already got her first-est and best-est Christmas present! The coveted Doug Ross Fab Fifty 2012 Medallion!!!! That’s right: MOTUS has now won the the prestigious award in the category “Best First Lady Blog” 4 big years in a row! As you can imagine, the competition was brutal in that category. Anyway, it’s a record! At least for me.(snip) So before MOTUS gets about her very busy day I just want say thanks to all of you in the only way I know possible: a picture of Lady M that doesn’t include either the face or the butt: Yet...

President ObamaObama, though, offered specific proposals only in reference to the latter. He called on Congress to pass "common-sense legislation," which he said should include an assault-weapons ban and a ban on high-capacity magazines.Ok, Mr. Obama. You go first. Issue an executive order removing military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines from the Secret Service agents guarding you. Mayor Bloomberg“Instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe,” Mayor Bloomberg said.Ok, Doomberg, you go first. Let your armed...

HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA.com) — Two nativity scenes were vandalized overnight in Huntington Beach, according to officials. Jeff Nguyen, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, spoke to a homeowner whose nativity scene was vandalized. Richard Candlish told Nguyen his holiday decorations give him a sense of pride. But this morning he felt a sense of vulnerability after someone degraded his decorations. Someone scrawled “HAIL Hitler” on his baby Jesus as well as drawing a Hitler-style mustache. “They misspelled HEIL. It really goes to the ignorance of the people who did it,” says Candlish. The same Hitler comment was spray painted on one...

One of the biggest complaints about gold - always a parallel currency to paper, and soon to be serial, once the world shifts to a post-paper currency reality in which faith in infinitely creatable electronic paper money is finally destroyed - is that it would be an impractical medium of exchange, as the traditional denominations are so large one would be unable to trade one ounce (and certainly one bar) for every day needs. This is also one of the main reasons various retail investors prefer silver over gold. All this may be changing courtesy of Swiss refiner Valcambi which...

The bodies of 15 members of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC) have been found, almost two weeks after they were kidnapped from a north-western town, officials said. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the killings. "We have received dead bodies of 15 kidnapped FC men", senior local FC commander Ali Sher Mehsud said, revising the earlier death toll. He said that the FC men were killed in Shawa, a small town in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border. All the corpses, which arrived in a military hospital in the north-western Tal town, had bullet wounds, he...

KRUGMAN: Erskine Bowles, Alan Greenspan, And The WSJ Editorial Board Are All Basically Members Of A Doomsday Cult Joe WeisenthalDec. 24, 2012, 5:55 AM We liked this note that was sent out by SocGen's Kit Juckes this morning: It wouldn't be Christmas without Paul Krugman telling the US government it's OK to spend money. Krugman thinks that anyone who worries about a disaster coming from the scale of US debt is a doom-mongerer. Especially the WSJ. That's snarky, but that is what Krugman's Christmas eve column is about. Essentially it's a reminder of one of his favorite topics: That the...

With financial negotiations all but halted, President Obama was headed out of Washington on Friday evening for his annual winter vacation in Hawaii. Obama is likely to have a short trip this year; aides said he is scheduled to return Wednesday, a day after Christmas, to resume discussions with congressional leaders on how to avert the fiscal cliff. "Merry Christmas - because we didn't get this done, I'll see you next week," Obama said after telling reporters he still had hope of striking a deal to prevent taxes from rising on the middle class next year.

Everlasting Father Today's Scripture “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father [of Eternity], Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6, AMP) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, not only is your eternity secure, but you immediately become a child of the Most High God. You instantly have an Everlasting Father! Think about that word everlasting. That means before the beginning of time, the Father was there....

The Hidden Life ". . . your life is hidden with Christ in God" —Colossians 3:3 The Spirit of God testifies to and confirms the simple, but almighty, security of the life that “is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul continually brought this out in his New Testament letters. We talk as if living a sanctified life were the most uncertain and insecure thing we could do. Yet it is the most secure thing possible, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most dangerous and unsure thing is to try to live without God. For one...