Free Republic

TAMPA, Fla. — A group of Hispanic notables gathered last week at a meat market here and practically pleaded for ideas about how to beat Ron DeSantis. The imperious Florida governor is not only a heavy favorite to get reelected but a dominant Republican figure widely expected to make a run for the White House — and he needs to be stopped, the people on hand implored Charlie Crist, seated at a table scattered with a tray of cut-up Cuban sandwiches and cups of café con leche. DeSantis needs to be confronted, they beseeched, as the autocratic bully they see...

New York City experienced dramatic growth over the last ten years, bringing its current population to a record 8.8 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released the first detailed statistics from the 2020 Census. On balance, the city added more than 629,000 residents, from 8.175 million measured in 2010, but city planning officials said that a big part of the story was that far fewer residents left the city than had been projected by census officials.

It’s a tale of two Brooklyns. Kings County led the city’s massive population growth over the past decade with a 9.2 percent jump — higher than any other borough, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A shoplifting suspect, apparently out of options after being confronted by employees, smeared poop in their faces, police said. Marisol Toribio, 32, was arrested Tuesday by Coral Springs police. According to court documents, Toribio was caught stealing from Macy's, so she pulled some poop out of her pants and smeared it on the faces of the loss prevention employees who confronted her. Toribio appeared in bond court Wednesday morning. She faces theft charges, plus a charge of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

Georgia had Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers; Mississippi had William Faulkner and Eudora Welty; Louisiana inspired the major works of Kate Chopin and Tennessee Williams. Alabama had. . .

Portugal's conservative president has said he is reluctantly ratifying a law allowing gay marriage, making the predominantly Roman Catholic country the sixth in Europe to let same-sex couples wed. President Anibal Cavaco Silva said he would not veto the bill because majority liberal politicians would only overturn his decision.

Interesting chart that shows US wealth by religious denomination. I can't say that I'm surprised that Jews (46% with income $100K or above) and Hindus (43% with income $100K or above) are at the top. Us "unaffiliated" types are at 19%, right around the national average, as we tend to get both the research scientists, as well as the guys who live in their parents basements watching Star Trek. Talk amongst yourselves, but, as always, keep it civil.

States in New England top a new set of rankings, while the South still lags. If you want to be healthy, live in Vermont--or at least act like you do. It is the healthiest state in the country, according to a new report from the nonprofit United Health Foundation.

When Nick Griffin told BBC One’s Question Time that he found “the sight of two men kissing in public a bit creepy”, he may have been thinking about a traumatic adolescent experience. In an interview with The Times, Mr Griffin claimed that a former deputy leader of the National Front (NF) offered sex to him when he was still a teenager.

America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation founded by Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of us continue to identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in American history). Of course, we are not a Hindu—or Muslim, or Jewish, or Wiccan—nation, either. A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each...

TUESDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News) -- It's no secret that men don't like to go to the doctor, but new research finds they're especially likely to stay home if they're big on being macho. Middle-aged men who are most devoted to traditional beliefs about masculinity are half as likely as other men to get routine medical care, researchers report.

Mark Cuban suggested this month that some enterprising author write a book called “No One Has a Clue What Is Going On and the Whole World Is Guessing.” His comment captured the spirit of barely controlled chaos around the markets after Labor Day, even before Lehman Brothers Holdings, American International Group, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group were making their guest-star appearances in the financial tumult.

New Jersey has lost population in recent decades because low-income residents are fleeing to states with a reduced cost of living, while those moving into the Garden State are generally better educated and earn higher salaries, according to a Princeton University study released today.

Crown Heights will see its first-ever Straight Pride Parade this weekend. So how do the homos feel? By Jaime Jordan Reggae artists on the Taking Care Of Our Own Productions (myspace.com/tcooo) label are planning a Straight Pride Parade for Sunday 31 at 10am, starting at Church and Flatbush Avenues in Crown Heights and continuing down Bob Marley Avenue. It was organized in response to accusations made by gay activists, specifically Peter Tatchell, founder of the activist group OutRage!, that certain reggae songs, including Stapler’s “Hit Them Hard,” incite violence against gays. “The issue is not homophobia,” explains Tatchell. “It is...

You start a blog, get noticed almost immediately, and — within two months — have a six-figure book deal. That’s every white person’s dream. How can anyone make such a broad statement with certainty? Well, just that happened to Christian Lander — whose blog and book share the title Stuff White People Like — and he says so. And it’s not so broad a statement as it might seem. When Lander says “white person,” he doesn’t just mean “checks ‘white/Caucasian’ on the affirmative-action info box.” In fact, the Stuff White People Like Facebook quiz — with such questions as “What...

The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate, God made them, high or lowly, And order'd their estate. The 1982 Episcopal Hymnal omits that stanza, the second of Mrs. Alexander’s original six (not counting the refrain). It also omits her fifth: The tall trees in the greenwood, The meadows where we play, The rushes by the water, We gather every day … Understandable, in both cases. The fifth stanza might possibly be re-cast for a modern child (the hymn comes from Mrs. Alexander’s 1848 Hymns for Little Children), perhaps along lines like: The Xbox and the...

Census Bureau says New Orleans is the fastest-growing large city in the nation, recovering from being wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- After being pummeled by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans is showing signs of recovery - ranking as the fastest-growing large city in the nation, according to a government report released Thursday. The Census Bureau said New Orleans' population rose 13.8%, to 239,124, in the year ended July 1, 2007. That was a faster growth rate than any other city with a population of 100,000 or more.

A high court in South Africa ruled on Wednesday that Chinese-South Africans will be reclassified as “black,” a term that includes black Africans, Indians and others who were subject to discrimination under apartheid. As a result of this ruling, Chinese will be able to benefit from government affirmative action policies aimed at undoing the effects of apartheid.

Hanoi - Vietnam's central bank devalued the country's currency by nearly 2 per cent Wednesday and raised interest rates to fight rising trade deficits and inflation. The bank lowered the official exchange rate of the Vietnamese to 16,461 to the dollar, from the previous peg of 16,139. The black market exchange rate had jumped to over 18,000 over the weekend, before falling back to about 17,300 Wednesday, with the high rates driven by worries over inflation and the trade deficit. The bank also raised the prime interest rate from 11 to 13 per cent, the third increase this year. Prime...

Just when it seemed on the last Tuesday of the presidential primary season that Hillary Clinton would bow to the inevitable, she enraged Democrats who expected her to start strengthening Barack Obama as their party's nominee. During a conference call between Clinton and other New York members of Congress, Rep. Nydia Velazquez suggested that only an Obama-Clinton ticket could secure the Hispanic vote. "I am open to it," Clinton replied, according to several sources.