Free Republic

"Where were You, God?" The question arises daily as news of tragedies abound, and even from time to time as the tragedy involves ourselves. Servicemen die in a bungled military defense operation that should have been a cake walk, and no government official has credible answers. A son is shot dead in his prime by a wanton criminal. A wife dies decades too soon from a deadly disease. A busy mother dies unexpectedly from a sudden heart attack. Maybe you were emotionally abused when a child and have been saddled with a destructive habit that you acquired in an effort...

Look at the Google doodle of ballots. They've got more blue ballots there than red ones.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=1889169871001&w=466&h=263

Clear (tm) wireless service has recently begun offering a deal where you can order a 4G antenna dongle, which looks similar to a WiFi dongle but taps into a cellular-like data service, for free. Only hitch is that this has to be plugged into a computer (typically a laptop, but there's no reason a desktop machine couldn't use it too). Are there small self contained routers that can use one of these dongles? That is, if the economics would even make sense (because after all you can buy a full size router and Clear service receiver for $50 right now)....

Well the system was brought back from its flirtation with oblivion a few days ago, but it appears the system time stamp is about a couple hours out of whack now. I'd seen it 15 minutes ahead; this is a new achievement being almost 2 hours in the future.

Hello. This is not a solicited advertisement. But this is a plug by HiTech RedNeck for a job board for tech jobs that actually sees a lot of action. Corp-Corp.Com I only found it by Google searching for tech jobs (OK, so Google is evil -- it's still useful for something). Never saw an ad for it in my life. I was already signed up for Dice and Monster, but that wasn't helping much. So I signed up thinking it was rinky dink, but thought I might see a handful of job listings. Well my inbox began to bulge with...

Dear Freepers, HiTech RedNeck struck out on the two other jobs whose locales were inquired about earlier: Madison WI and Bentonville AR. While a formidable challenger, HTRN had even more formidable competitors and did not win out. Stinging off of the Wisconsin loss (which had looked a lot like a win until the very end) HTRN signed up for two new job boards: corp-corp.com and engineerjobs.com. They looked rinky dink compared to the classy, complex Monster and Dice, but they were ranked high by Google, and I was thinking any new ports in a storm. Well, very shortly HTRN's email...

I'm living in a suburb of Chicago, Ill-Noise right now, but might be getting a job offer from Rogers (Bentonville) Arkansas (yes it's associated with Wally World HQ but as a "permanent contractor" i.e. I'd be a perm employee of a contract house). After months with nothing this might be the second of two doors that are opening to me, the first in Madison, WI. Well, from what little I can look up, Arkansas despite its redneck reputation is Democrat. Democrat Mike Beebe is the gov, versus the Republican Walker of Wisconsin. No idea what the AR legislature is like....

Hello fellow FReepers, Like a lot of folks I'm looking for a job and battling this tough market. I can competently wear either or both of two major hats, either as system administrator or computer programmer. I've had my resume out on Dice for several months, which has resulted in lots of nibbles, maybe about three a week, a mix of contract and permanent jobs that recruiters have asked me to submit my resume to. But virtually nothing has gotten to an interview... that is until this month. Now stuff has started to hop. The recruiters sound more interested and...

The following video with commentary is interesting. Maybe a little lukewarm for FR because it ends up with Julia registering as a Republican... which of itself would be too little too late.

This petition is a protest to the Bulgarian ambassador in Washington about an alleged practice allowed in Bulgaria where a dog is suspended over water on a chain, spun, then cut loose while spinning. I'm figuring this isn't considered fun by the dog.

I've been interviewing with some tech firms and one of them wanted to know how versed I was with "UNIX VI." Well I said I knew vi like the back of my hand, but no they seem to mean a modern version of the OS! Help??? Wikipedia, which usually keeps up quite well with technology developments, was of no use, nor was Googling. I don't see any "UNIX VI" on any UNIX lineage chart. Yes there was a Unix version 6 but that is an ancient thing. If there was a follow on to System V maybe it would be...

I am trying to write lyrics for a song involving a troop who went to Iraq and whose vehicle encountered an IED (improvised explosive device, i.e. Islamoterrorist guerilla road bomb) that exploded. It presents the man as a hero who saved his buddies when they were thrown out of the vehicle, but who himself perished in a hail of automatic fire from the enemy. There is a lot more to the story both before and afterwards than this, but it is an important story element. The term "IED" is a lot more euphonious (the syllables have a better sound) in...

The parents of a U.S. soldier who died from rabies after being bitten by a dog in Afghanistan are accusing the Army of “criminal negligence” in his death, the Army Times reported Wednesday.

It's been several weeks, I think, and the timestamp which gets put on my postings (and other fresh postings) seems to be about ten minutes or so ahead of the actual time. This can't be a time zone issue. What gives? Or is Illinois so retarded that even all its clocks are slow?

This is a vanity that is expressly not intended to sell anything, but just get opinions and associated demographics, whether the opinions are kudoses or catcalls. As long as you stay on topic you will not be considered a troll even if you positively loathe the music and tell me it's the most execrable thing since Satan. I want to know who it appeals to and who it doesn't. I would like to get some folks' reactions to the following song demos, which are free to download and pass around and keep as long as the trailer plugging the album...

I know some of you guys gave me a hard time when I shared the story of my buddy who rented a room in a house in Nashville and fell behind on his rent (though good faith discussions with the landlady were in progress) and then when gone a couple of weeks all of a sudden found his stuff taken to storage and the landlady's lawyer demanding a ransom for it. You said my buddy ought to suck it up, not try to "legally steal" from the landlady, and such. If you're still of the same opinion and don't want...

I got a buddy, a former Marine, who had been renting a room in a house in Nashville, Tennessee for several years. Lately he got behind a few months on his rent, and the landlady never followed the Tennessee or local law concerning serving notice, let alone asking for an order of eviction. Instead, the landlady, who is living in Texas, had a person in Nashville with whom she was in cahoots spirit my buddy's property (worth well over $2000) to parts unknown. I think this slick move was simply a theft. While maybe nobody is wearing a halo in...

Air gun shooting rats with teeny tiny pellets

Google is taking a collection of donations to alleviate starvation in East Africa. Sounds great, I hope the food actually gets to the starving people. But as one of those darn conservatives, I wonder how likely Google's method is to circumvent political impediments such as local authorities who'd rather their people be starving than relinquish wrongheaded modes of exercising power. Is TROP going to be a problem here?

A certain person told me there had been going on in Nashville, since last Thursday April 28, a one week "Tea Party" meeting for truckers to air their grievances about government overreaching and plan political action. This person intended to be there, but for personal reasons it seems he could not. So I thought I'd try to Google up whatever information I could to see what had been going on -- supposedly Jay Sekulow was intending to be a guest speaker. I'm having a lot of trouble identifying any such event, if it existed at all. My apology in advance...

THE SECRET'S OUT: U.S. rednecks come in many colors, they built America, and they keep America movin' strong! Are you one of America's hard working rednecks? Yellow, red, tan, white, black, or any other color? This album is for you, through work, fun, trials, tribulations, and heart warming moments. (1) Rednecks Built America -- let's hear it for U.S. rednecks of all colors! (2) Truck Drivin' Man -- doin' the best he can 24/7. (3) Illinois Cowboy -- crazy biker, leader of a 1000 bike convoy. (4) Oh, The Smoke -- smoky biker bar, where we love our baby! (5)...

Since the recent to-do with the change of FR's IP address, I've been having problems seeing the state (or region) flag images on FReeper pages. They all come up as broken links, although if clicked they still go to the blog for the appropriate state. What gives?

I do not like it Uncle Sam, I do not like it Sam I Am. I do not like these dirty crooks, I do not like how they cook books. I do not like when Congress steals, I do not like their secret deals. I do not like this Speaker Nan, I do not like this ‘YES WE CAN’. I do not like this kind of hope, I do not like it Nope! Nope! Nope!

A certain township in a Chicago collar county is playing mind games on me. I believe I am being harassed. Sporadically over the last three years I've gotten "love letters" from their code enforcement jackboot claiming that a neighbor complained about grass and weeds in my yard but "has even offered to help [me]." In the past when this happened I just freshly mowed the yard and heard no more, for a while. (I am not in the best of health and sometimes cannot take care of my yard as well as I would like.) Well, I got another "love...

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No, Google is not defacing billboards belonging to others. Instead, Google, through its new toolbar, is hijacking the websites visited by its users and replacing their ads with Google ads.

Got a "nicegram" from my township with a picture of a planting of the wild grape bushes that have been on the corner of my yard for 9 years with nobody complaining, threatening to have my yard cleared of "weeds" while the swat team is there and then billing me beaucoup dollars for it. The letter tells me to see the ordinances on some web site, but after clicking on all 40 some links I found nothing there about weeds (though in scanning the ordinances it looks to me like one neighbor has an illegal sump pump water discharge to...

A prominent Chinese house movement leader, Pastor Zhang Rongliang, has been sentenced to seven-and-a- half years in prison. According to China Aid Association, the July 4 verdict was issued by Zhongmu County People's Court,

US authorities cleared the Whirlpool deal to acquire rival appliance maker Maytag, a tie-up agreed after a bidding war with a Chinese firm. The US Justice Department's antitrust division said its investigation "determined that the proposed transaction is not likely to reduce competition substantially."

... Wednesday night's nationwide vigils on behalf of anti-Bush activist Cindy Sheehan was something to bark about, at least for those of the canine variety. Wednesday night's nationwide vigils on behalf of anti-Bush activist Cindy Sheehan was something to bark about, at least for those of the canine variety. ...

Hyper-Threading, Linus Torvalds vs. Colin Percival Posted by timothy on Wednesday May 18, @08:17AM from the local-exploit-means-other-bad-things dept. OutsideIn writes "The recent Hyper-Threading vulnerability announcement has generated a fair amount of discussion since it was released. KernelTrap has an interesting article quoting Linux creator Linus Torvalds who recently compared the vulnerability to similar issues with early SMP and direct-mapped caches suggesting, "it doesn't seem all that worrying in real life." Colin Percival, who published a recent paper on the vulnerability, strongly disagreed with Linus' assessment saying, "it is at times like this that Linux really suffers from having a single...

MRF E-MAIL NEWS Motorcycle Riders Foundation P.O. Box 1808 Washington, DC 20013-1808 202-546-0983 (voice) 202-546-0986 (fax) http://www.mrf.org (website) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jeff Hennie, MRF Vice-President of Government Relations jeff@mrf.org (e-mail) May 8, 2005 #05NR09 - NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION: Lautenberg to Propose Amendment The Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) has learned that Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J) is planning to offer an amendment to the MRF's Motorcycle Safety Language contained in the highway bill HR 3. The MRF has received an advanced copy of Sen. Lautenberg’s proposed amendment. It would penalize, or prohibit, any state without a mandatory helmet law from...

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A prominent Beijing house-church leader, found in possession of a massive cache of Bibles and Christian literature, faces a harsh sentence if convicted in his upcoming trial, according to Chinese contacts of the U.S. activist group Voice of the Martyrs. Cai Zhuohua, 32, the leading minister to six house churches in Beijing, will be tried formally in court in the Chinese capital any day now, the Oklahoma-based group said.

HANAU, Germany (AP) - A U.S. Army tank company commander accused of murdering a man in Iraq fatally shot him out of pity at his injuries, a witness testified Wednesday at hearings to determine whether he should face a court-martial. ... At the last round of hearings in July, Maynulet's former commander, Col. Michael Ryan, testified that he was an ``excellent officer'' who was ``special, trustworthy and honest.'' Maynulet said he was confident the charges would be dropped.

The average American child watches 4 hours of TV a day. Join Wisk in supporting our cause.

'But emerging evidence suggests "living wills" may not be living up to their promise as useful guides for families faced with tough decisions about end-of-life care.'

Hamas threatened a "volcano of revenge" against Israel as some 200,000 Palestinians packed the streets of Gaza for the funeral of the Islamic movement's assassinated leader Abdelaziz Rantissi.

ONE EVENING, during the second term of President Ronald Reagan, Terri Schiavo and her husband Michael decided to watch a television movie about Karen Ann Quinlan. Quinlan, as most readers know, had a tragic life. After overdosing on a combination of drugs and alcohol, she fell into unconsciousness and never awakened. Her parents won a lawsuit in the New Jersey Supreme Court allowing them to disconnect her ventilator. Karen didn't die immediately--she lived on for 10 more years before finally expiring from pneumonia. While discussing the movie, Michael claims that Terri stated she would not want to live hooked up...

In order to be fair to, er, "certain people" who had the rug pulled out from them when I had thread #1 yanked, and who are miffed because I wanted to keep the associated argument out of thread #2, I have established this thread #3. Have fun here. Inveigh as much as you would like against instruments in worship, even to the point of preaching hellfire and brimstone if you should be so moved. I will offer no counter-argument and answer no pings here. It's yours guys. Have a great day.

This is a new thread for discussion of Christian musical worship teams. It is to be understood, however, that participants voice no general objection to the usage of instruments in accompaniment or support of Christian worship. That kind of argument should kindly be taken elsewhere! Thank you very much.

To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33953 Thursday, August 7, 2003 CRIMENETDAILYBoy Scout assaulted at summer camp?Parents claim group leaders responded poorly to incident Posted: August 7, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A 12-year-old Boy Scout was allegedly raped by an older member at a summer camp near Kansas City, and his parents are blaming Scout leaders for handling the incident poorly. On Tuesday, the victim's parents returned to H-Roe Bartle Camp southwest of here in Osceola to file a complaint with authorities about the alleged incident, KMBC-TV News reported. A family member says the boy,...

comes under ethical cloud To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33968 Thursday, August 7, 2003 ALL THE EX-PRESIDENT'S SCANDALSHomeland Security honcho comes under ethical cloudFormer Clinton loyalist accused of faking credentials, threatening employees with jail Posted: August 7, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern By Paul Sperry © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com WASHINGTON -- "Please be advised I will not tolerate any further derogatory comments from you about my knowledge, qualifications and/or professional competence." That was former White House computer manager Laura Crabtree Callahan blasting a colleague in an e-mail for questioning her qualifications in 1997. In hindsight, the computer-networking specialist criticizing Callahan might not have been...

Friday, August 1, 2003 BIZNETDAILY COMMENTARYShould I market my technology to pornographers?Why sin industries are earliest adopters Posted: August 1, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: Russ McGuire is the online director of Business Reform Magazine. Each issue of Business Reform features practical advice on operating successfully in business while glorifying God. By Russ McGuire © 2003 Business Reform When it comes to new technology, sinners rule. Between sex and gambling, the earliest users and easily the first profitable users of many new technologies have been pornographers and casinos. If your company is developing a new technology, targeting these industries may provide...

Two heads of three-headed Iraqi Hydra have been chopped off. While I oppose capital punishment with all of my corpuscles, what happened to these two monsters wasn't an execution. When ordered by U.S. troops over a loudspeaker to surrender, the Brothers Grim answered with gunfire and wounded four of our finest. We fired back, and, as the saying goes, it looks like Uday and Qusay won't be coming down for breakfast tomorrow. Together, they combined all the qualities possessed by an entire dock of hanged Nazis tried at Nuremberg. But, unlike the Nazis, whose mass murders were conducted by signing...

I was in the office of a veterinarian today when I heard the desk clerk say something I couldn't believe. But then I asked the vet myself and she said it was true. Turns out the drug war officials of the great state of Illinois, which already has one of the USA's most restrictive policies on hypodermic needles for outpatient treatment of pets (the pet owner must get a certificate from the vet, not just a prescription) contacted the vet and told them they are prohibited from taking back used needles from pet owners to which they were sold. The...

One man was wounded and dozens arrested Tuesday morning in law enforcement raids statewide that targeted outlaw bikers suspected of bomb-making, murder for hire and narcotics violations. Carlos Baixauli, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said more than 500 law enforcement officers took part in the operation, serving warrants on 18 Hells Angels Motorcycle Club members and associates. ... Baixauli said Tuesday morning's raids culminated a two-year investigation by Phoenix police and BATFE agents who infiltrated criminal gangs with three undercover officers that led to 14 indictments. Thirty-five search warrants and 36 arrest warrants...

... William R. Kennedy, the former owner of a precious-metals firm and publisher of Conservative Digest, ... is currently serving 20 years in federal prison at Nellis Correctional Institute in Las Vegas, Nev. Sentenced in 1994, Kennedy was convicted of mail fraud and money laundering charges... Kennedy's claim stands out as distinct. And Kennedy, his family and his lawyers hope President Bush takes notice. In a summary briefing provided to WorldNetDaily, Kennedy's legal team – led by attorney Craig Parshall of Fredricksburg, Va. – laid out the reasons why they want the president to grant him executive clemency. If even...

A state university is helping its students "sort out sexuality issues" with an annual week-long event featuring a porn film festival and a guest lecture by an activist in the BDSM – or bondage, dominance and sadomasochism – "community." Western Washington University in Bellingham held its 11th annual National Outdoor Intercourse Day observance this week, with offerings such as condom hunts and a masturbation information table. The student-run Sexual Awareness Center sponsored events focused on educating students about available resources the school offers on sexual topics, the campus newspaper said. "Our goal is to help students sort out sexuality issues...