Free Republic

"said porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) is not a human health concern, but is deadly to newborn pigs."

link only: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-11/nsa-said-to-have-used-heartbleed-bug-exposing-consumers.html

Mayor Bill de Blasio is the first New York City mayor to release his tax returns in 12 years, according to the WSJ. de Blasio earned $165,000 as public advocate last year and brought in an additional $52,000 in rent on a second home he owns in Park Slope, according to his 2013 tax returns. Mr. de Blasio’s effective tax rate was 8.3%. As WSJ reports, Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who served as mayor from 2002 through 2013, released highly redacted copies of his return that gave scant information about his net worth. In 2001, during...

I realize this may be a thought crime by DC standards, but it sure would be nice to eliminate the high tax rates that undermine economic growth and reduce American competitiveness. At the risk of sharing too much information, I fantasize about a world without the internal revenue code. In addition to getting rid of high tax rates, I also want to abolish the pervasive double taxation of income that is saved and invested. Just as important, I want to wipe out the distorting loopholes that tilt the playing field in favor of politically connected interest groups. And I daydream...

Grant, that by this unsparing hurricane Green leaves with yellow mixed are torn away, And goodly fruitage with the mother spray;'Twere madness--wished we, therefore, to detain, With hands stretched forth in mollified disdain, The "trumpery" that ascends in bare display-- Bulls, pardons, relics, cowls black, white, and grey--Upwhirled, and flying o'er the ethereal plain Fast bound for Limbo Lake. And yet not choice But habit rules the unreflecting herd, And airy bonds are hardest to disown;Hence, with the spiritual sovereignty transferred Unto itself, the Crown assumes a voice Of reckless mastery, hitherto unknown.-Reflections by William Wordsworth The market was humming...

An Arizona mother will avoid jail time after she got high and drove nearly 12 miles with her 2-month-old baby on the roof of her car. Maricopa County Superior Judge Cynthia Bailey sentenced 21-year-old Catalina Mariah Clouser on Wednesday to 16 years of supervised probation. She will have to serve 3 months in jail only if she violates the order, a local CBS affiliate reported. Miss Clouser pleaded guilty in February to child abuse and driving under the influence of marijuana after her infant son was found miraculously unhurt in the middle of a Phoenix highway in June 2012, still...

Literally minutes after Gov. Scott Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch officially announced their re-election campaign Tuesday, a Hillary Clinton front group rolled out its attack machine against the Republican governor and potential 2016 presidential hopeful. American Bridge, backed by big-money liberal donor George Soros, “welcomed” Walker and his “failed job creation promise to the Wisconsin governor’s race.” The liberal “research and communications organization committed to holding Republicans accountable for their words” by employing liberal spin, made its first sortie an all-out assault on Walker’s jobs record, criticizing the governor’s failure to date to hit his ambitious pledge that the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. housing starts rose but below market expectations and building permits fell in March, pointing to underlying weakness in the housing market that could persist despite improving weather. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday groundbreaking increased 2.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 946,000. February's starts were revised to show a 1.9 percent rise rather than the previously reported 0.2 percent fall. Economists polled by Reuters had expected starts to rise to a 973,000-unit rate last month. "Given the weather, housing is still disappointing," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg,...

The FBI is reportedly visiting fun shops looking for people talking about “big government.” InfoWars reported: FBI counterterrorism agents are visiting gun shops in South Carolina to investigate “suspicious purchases” made by people who talk about “big government,” according to a new report. Author Brandon Turbeville says he was approached by an individual who works in a Columbia, South Carolina gun shop to relate the story of how an FBI agent entered the store on Monday, showed his credentials, before proceeding to ask a series of stunning questions. Telling the gun store worker he was tasked with visiting all the...

Tax season is over for all but the greatest procrastinators among us. Two-thirds of taxpayers are celebrating their forthcoming refunds while tens of millions of others have grudgingly written a check to the IRS. Either way, this is the time of year when Americans are most acutely aware of the federal income tax system and all its flaws. Our tax code is extraordinarily difficult to navigate and it sometimes seems that it's more concerned with advancing social and industrial policy goals than raising the money needed to fund government. The plethora of preferential deductions and credits that narrow the tax...

As I told my friend Neil Cavuto, the big investment winner year-to-date is tax shelters, namely tax-free municipal bonds. That’s what the Obama tax increases have wrought; an increase of the top income tax rate to almost 40%, plus added Obamacare taxes on top of that, causes the highest income group to do the obvious thing: move their capital out of economy-growing private equity markets and into tax-favored municipals. What did you think — that they’re idiots who would stand still for the public shearing? Of course the results are stagnation, as you see. Right on cue, today the government...

Megyn Kelly’s "Kelly File" is a great news show. She’s incisive, informed and customarily handles the toughest guest with aplomb. But her lengthy interview of Facebook C.O.O. Sheryl Sandberg about her second book in the Lean In series Lean In: For Graduates was a head shaker. Amazing that she of all people allowed Sandberg to restring the same old, same old, shamed, and shopworn feminist myths about women and girls and then jangle it in front of her viewing audience like something new out of the box. Indeed Kelly all but genuflected in front of this woman. Kept her on...

I love that picture from the Bundy Ranch. You know the one that I’m talking about: I’m talking about all of them. I love the horn-handed Cowboys, with real, honest trail dirt on them; I love the American flags; I love the sagebrush; and I love the rebellion-- as in civil, non-violent disobedience. And the question now is, where does this go? Rebellion typically starts after a period of lassitude and hopelessness in the face of overwhelming power. Populations spend years, even decades muttering under their breath about abuses of power, but feel ineffectual to enact real reform. Then...

Failure: ObamaCare fans are cheering the latest Congressional Budget Office report, which appears to show that it will cost less and cover more people than expected. But that's true only if you ignore reality. We don't always agree with the CBO, but we have long respected it as a credible source of budget numbers. Sure, its projections almost never turn out to be true. But simply too many variables are at play for anyone to guess such things perfectly, and it provides a more or less independent source of information on highly charged, partisan issues. But the CBO's latest report...

Say what you will about former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but don’t you dare accuse of him of being modest. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Bloomberg plans to spend $50 million of his estimated $31 billion fortune this year to combat the National Rifle Association. Speaking of his advocacy of liberal causes like gun-control and preventing New Yorkers from enjoying “Big Gulp” sodas, Bloomberg told the Times, reportedly with a grin, “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed.” “I am heading straight in,”...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will spend $50 million this year to build a nationwide grassroots network on gun control in a direct challenge to the National Rifle Association, The New York Times reported. The new lobbying group, called Everytown for Gun Safety, will encompass other gun control groups funded by Bloomberg, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the report said. Bloomberg told the Times the strategy will focus on expanding the background check system for gun buyers at the state and national levels. He made nearly $14 million in federal campaign...

Buried deep on the website of the U.S. Census Bureau is a number every American citizen, and especially those entrusted with public office, should know. It is 86,429,000.That is the number of Americans who in 2012 got up every morning and went to work — in the private sector — and did it week after week after week.These are the people who built America, and these are the people who can sustain it as a free country. The liberal media has not made them famous like the polar bear, but they are truly a threatened species.It is not a rancher...

Here we go again. Liberal media outlets CNN and MSNBC have joined forces with the biased, numbers-cooking Southern Poverty Law Center and New America Foundation to foment renewed fear and hatred of conservative Americans.Their latest talking point: “Right-wing” terrorists have caused more American deaths than Islamic jihadists since 9/11.CNN ran with the “story” first. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow hopped on the bandwagon tonight and the Blame Righty echo chamber is whipping up another witch-hunt frenzy.According to these divisive and demagogic fear-mongers, “right-wingers” have killed 34 people since 9/11 for “political reasons,” including the three innocent victims of last week’s Kansas City...

Materials such as graphene and shrilk are so new that the scientists who discovered them hardly know what to do with them – they only know they might yet transform our lives :snip: Last week, Zhaohui Zhong at the University of Michigan described how graphene might be used to make night-vision contact lenses. "Graphene has huge potential," says Andrea Ferrari, director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre. "You don't usually find a material that has applications in so many different areas." :snip: What to call a material made from leftover shrimp shells and proteins derived from silk? Javier Fernandez and Don...

MEPs on Tuesday (15 April) overwhelmingly approved the creation of a new authority and fund for failing banks—a missing element to the so-called banking union aimed at minimizing the public cost of future financial crises. The final vote on the creation of a €55 billion fund financed by the banks themselves passed with 570 MEPs in favor, 88 against and 13 abstentions, while new rules in cases where public money needs to be used for winding down banks also gathered a similar majority: 584 votes in favor, 80 against and 10 abstentions. One key concession won by MEPs from governments...