Free Republic

Snippet: "Iran and its terrorist proxy groups’ influence in Latin America remains a troubling security threat to the region and world, experts said at a congressional hearing on Tuesday."

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is going down to Chavezville by repeating the same errors as Venezuela. The only way that she could mess up Argentina any further would be by actually starting a war with the UK. Last month, retailers agreed to freeze the prices of around 200 basic goods–ranging from detergent to milk to condoms–to fight inflation that economists say likely surpasses 30% annually. Obviously there’s a problem here. Passing price controls doesn’t mean that the products will actually be available. At the time, retailers said the agreement could lead to supply problems if manufacturers of certain goods...

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Why dwell on a single national tragedy? When people consider the worst that could happen to their country, they think of totalitarianism. Given communism’s failure, that fate no longer seems likely. If Indonesia were to boil over, its citizens would hardly turn to North Korea as a model; the governments in Madrid or Athens are not citing Lenin as the answer to their euro travails. The real danger is inadvertently becoming the Argentina of the 21st century. Slipping casually into steady decline would not be hard. Extremism is not a necessary ingredient, at least not much of it: weak institutions,...

Virtual currency bitcoin lost nearly twenty percent of its value on Thursday evening, after major exchange Mt Gox halted trading to try to resolve ongoing technical issues. The digital currency — which is known for its wild price fluctuations — was trading at $680.52 on Friday morning, having traded around $850 for most of the week, according to CoinDesk, which tracks the price of bitcoin.

Argentinia's Ketchup Crisis must not go to waste. It requires immediate Senate confirmation of President Obama's appointment of Noah Bryson Mamet as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. It has not been a good start of the year for Argentineans [sic.]: a collapsing currency value, rampant inflation, Lionel Messi losing out on his fourth straight FIFA Ballon d'Or and, maybe worst of all, the great McDonald’s ketchup shortage of 2014. The fast food giant sent a message out via Twitter earlier this week apologizing for the inconvenience that Argentineans [sic.] will have to suffer through their Big Mac and French fries without the pre-requisite...

Presidents often award diplomatic posts to campaign donors and fundraisers, but Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., suspects that Obama´s choice of ambassador to Argentina -- a man who bundled more than $500,000 for President Obama´s 2012 re-election campaign, but who has never been to the country -- is in over his head. "Have you been to Argentina?" Rubio asked Noah Mamet during a Senate.gov/hearings/nomination-02-06-2014">Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Thursday. "I haven´t had the opportunity yet to be there," Mamet replied. "I´ve traveled pretty extensively around the world, but I haven´t yet had chance [to visit Argentina]." Rubio implied that Argentina is

Nine first-responders were killed and seven others injured as they battled a fire of unknown origin that destroyed an archive of corporate and banking industry documents in Argentina’s capital on Wednesday. The fire at the Iron Mountain warehouse took hours to control and at least half of the sprawling building was ruined despite the efforts of at least 10 squads of firefighters.

Venezuela And Argentina: The Party Is Over Latin America’s weakest economies are reaching breaking-pointThe Economist Feb 1st 2014 WHEN the euro crisis was at its height it became commonplace for struggling European economies to insist that they were not outliers like Greece. Whatever their woes, they declared, Greece’s were in a class of their own. In Latin America, by contrast, the unwanted title of outlier has two contenders: Argentina and Venezuela. Both have been living high on the hog for years, blithely dishing out the proceeds of an unrepeatable commodities boom (oil in Venezuela; soya in Argentina). Both have been...

Leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean began arriving in Cuba on Sunday for a summit of a fledgling regional bloc that was conceived as a force for integration and a counterbalance to their most powerful neighbor, the United States. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or CELAC for its initials in Spanish, was formed in 2011 and comprises every nation in the Western Hemisphere except the U.S. and Canada. By Sunday, Presidents Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and several foreign ministers were already in Havana for the meeting. […]...

Currency Massacre In Emerging Markets Jan. 24, 2014 12:40 PM ET Seeking Alpha Both Venezuela (socialist worker's paradise) and Argentina (nationalist socialist paradise) have a problem with their foreign exchange reserves. In both cases it stems from trying to keep up the pretense that their currencies are worth more than they really are. The central banks of both countries are (and have been for some time) printing money like crazy, and inflation is galloping with gay abandon. Their governments publish misleading economic statistics, that inter alia attempt to hide the true extent of the monetary debasement – in short,...

<p>I’m writing to correct the apparently widespread impression that it’s OK to be a bigot in My name. This situation recently arose when that noted North American theologian Phil Robertson, the fella with the Me-like beard who whittles wood into things that quack, declared that, on the authority of his deeply held traditional Christian values, gay people are just awful. When he was punished for this by his employer, he found himself defended by many prominent conservatives, including Sarah Palin, who charged he was being censored by secularists for his religious beliefs — all as part of a supposed War on Me.</p>

Upgrading military aircraft – fixed wing and rotary – is a common operation performed all over the world. You take an old platform, reinforce the fuselage and wings, install some new systems and it can fly for many more years. But what Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is currently doing with its old Kfir fighter aircraft is an exception. The Kfir (Lion Cub) fighter is a single-seat multitask fighter built by IAI. The aircraft was first built for the Israeli air force (IAF). The first Kfir was delivered to the IAF in 1975, and entered into service in 1976. The fighter...

My augmentation is "purely" spirit led and guided every step of the way FOR MY WORD IS IN YOU , nothing lacking or missing FOR I AM THE WORD AND THE SPIRIT so do not be anxious that something is missing FOR I AM WITH YOU and will "never" forsake you and this is why I AM your Yes and Amen to all you do in and through Me! Acts 17:27-29 Amplified Bible (AMP) 27 So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each...

There is a difference between Aquaintance and a Friend "True Humility

The Grinch might be out of a job soon. Sixty holiday revelers in the Argentine town of Rosario found out the hard way why they should always read the signs at the beach when they were attacked by a shoal of piranhas during a Christmas Day swim. The attack occurred at a beach along the city's Parana River, where residents were trying to escape scorching 100-degree temperatures. More than 20 children were wounded by the hyper-aggressive fish, with one seven-year-old-girl reportedly losing a piece of her finger. The attack is the worst of its kind in Rosario since 2008, when...

This Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, we light the third candle of the Advent wreath. The rose-colored candle and the priests’ rose vestments mark a change in the tenor of this penitential season. For those who have been using Advent as a time to prepare heart and home for the celebration of Christ’s birth, it is a reminder to rejoice in His approaching arrival. For all it is a reminder to get serious with the remainder of the season and use it profitably, to exercise not the feeling, but the virtue, of Hope. And we do need hope. I don’t know how...

My gifts are "ALIVE" in you though some have forgotten, They have not died with the Apostles For My Fruit can not rotten, "My Spirit is Eternal " and Desires to renew ( ( ) ) ~ ( ( ) ), The Day of Pentecost to "ARISE IN YOU" \!/ So raise up your hands \o/ and begin to receive ! You Shall do greater things if you just believe , I AM "HAS" sent you so will you stand up and go ?! For I AM your Talent so let my freedom within you Flow ~ ~ ~ I...

You may have seen this video earlier — Ed Morrissey featured it at Hot Air — but I didn’t see it until it was tweeted to me by Covenant College student Keifer Wynn and, because it was in Spanish, at first I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at. “Abortistas atacan a católicos que defendían la Catedral de San Juan,” is the headline, and the description: “Estas son las hordas de lesbianas y abortistas del Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres.” So, translation via Google: “Abortionists attack Catholics defending the Cathedral of San Juan. These are the hordes of lesbians and...

A "potentially revolutionary" device to help women during difficult births has come from an unlikely source - a car mechanic from Argentina, who based the idea on a party trick. Apart from having five children of his own, Jorge Odon had no connection with the world of obstetrics. He did however have a talent for invention. "It comes naturally - for instance if I have a problem in my workplace I will go to bed and my head will think it through and I will wake up in the middle of the night with a solution," he says. But until...