Free Republic

It was the city on the verge of collapse, perhaps the ultimate example of how a one-time metropolis turned into a sad memory. For the past four decades or so, Detroit, once a mecca for immigrants and the heart of America's industrial revolution, not to mention pop culture, turned into a virtual ghost town. Businesses shut their doors and residents fled by the masses, from a peak of 1.8 million to around 700,000 today. The rapid decline of the auto industry, which the city once so proudly called its lifeline, unearthed a catastrophic failure. One of the nation's major cities...

Follow the Greater Orlando Tea Party Lecture Series at www.GreaterOrlandoTeaParty.org Trevor Loudon is a New Zealand author, speaker and political activist who maintains a prolific blog entitled New Zeal. He is also founder and editor of the website KeyWiki, and was Vice President of the ACT New Zealand Party from 2006 to 2008. Trevor says, “I’m a libertarian activist and political researcher from Christchurch New Zealand. I believe in freedom with responsibility, not freedom from responsibility. My ideal society is one in which government is confined to protecting its citizens from criminals and external enemies. I believe in working with...

Ah, the joys of tolerance. Sydney, Australia has begun to learn them after opening several Muslim-friendly restaurants that serve only halal food that is permissible to be eaten under Shariah law. One of those restaurants is featured in this video of a Muslim man who completely loses it when a customer, apparently unaware that he was in a halal-only KFC, asked for bacon on his sandwich. The video shows the KFC employee yelling — screaming, really — about being recorded. He also threatens the customer. Apparently he really, really doesn’t like the word “bacon.” Great customer service at those halal-only...

NASA's picture-perfect Orion launch to Mars was all the rage last week. Praise was heaped upon key NASA contractors Boeing (NYSE: BA ) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT ) -- and deservedly so. Between Orion's success, and the companies' announcement that their United Launch Alliance joint venture will develope a "next-generation liquid oxygen/hydrocarbon first stage" rocket to power launches to near-Earth orbit, Boeing and Lockheed are on a hot streak. But amid all the hullaballoo at ULA, you might have forgotten there's another space launch company that is building even more innovative products. Its name is SpaceX. It goes up,...

You can follow live coverage of the shower at the link. They are using a meteor shower radio, from their listening post in New Mexico, to listen when the meteors strike the atmosphere and leave an ionized gas trail that reflects radio waves. The radiant is located in the constellation of Gemini which is in the NW direction about 40 degrees above the horizon. Dress warmly!

Larry P. Arnn President, Hillsdale College LARRY P. ARNN is the twelfth president of Hillsdale College. He received his B.A. from Arkansas State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School. From 1977 to 1980, he also studied at the London School of Economics and at Worcester College, Oxford University, where he served as director of research for Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill. From 1985 until his appointment as president of Hillsdale College in 2000, he was president of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. He is...

Will video kiosks work for $15.00 per hour?

Watch Cristina Gatti lend her classic voice to a true Christmas classic...so classic, that some might even call it, "The Christmas Song." Special thanks to Hum Music for the studio space, and to Eddie the dog for making a cameo. The Band: Cristina Gatti - vocals http://www.facebook.com/cristinagatti... http://www.instagram.com/cristinagatt... Allen Hunter - bass Chip Thomas - drums http://www.instagram.com/chipfunky Eddie - dog Rook - bartender Scott Bradlee - piano http://www.instagram.com/scottbradlee http://www.facebook.com/scottbradleem... PMJ on FB: http://www.facebook.com/postmodernjuk... Twitter / Insta: @PMJofficial Postmodern Jukebox Tour Dates: Jan 19 - The Birchmere; Washington, DC Jan 22 - House of Blues; San Diego, CA Jan 24 -...

The countdown begins anew for tonight's launch of the Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Liftoff is scheduled for 7:13:30 p.m. local time (10:13:30 p.m. EST; 0313:30 GMT). "Any of the folks who get to watch this launch, which will be an evening launch, will really get to see a show both in sound and light produced," said Lt. Col. Jim Bodnar, 4th Space Launch Squadron commander at Vandenberg. Last night's initial countdown was halted due to a bleak weather forecast. Conditions are predicted to improve for tonight's try, with a 40 percent chance of acceptable...

On December 1, Texas state representative Matthew Krause (R-Ft. Worth) introduced legislation barring the in-state enforcement of nearly any federal gun control measure "past, present or future." The legislation, HB422, "requires the state to refuse to enforce" federal gun control measures which infringe on the exercise of the Second Amendment.

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. —Never mind rocket launches -- the first rocket landing in Space Coast history is a couple of weeks away, if things work out. SpaceX is expected to announce this week that the company is bringing in a revolutionary ocean-going landing pad for its next launch. Looking down the side of the SpaceX rocket, there are landing legs sticking out, and a set of fins – that look a little like tennis racquets – pop out. They’ll guide the rocket as it flies backwards – down, not up – to a perfectly placed landing at the test site....

With the increasing popularity of certain movies, books, video games, and other technologies, comes the increasing awareness of new groups of individuals who relate to each other by a common interest which they share. We see this with Apple iPhone owners, Android smartphone users and the like. We also see this with fans of movies and TV shows; i.e. Star Trek (Trekkies). With the increasing awareness of 3D printing, comes a new group of people who are keen on learning all they can about the futuristic technology, and while they like it or not, they may just be becoming part...

Just earlier this month, the midterm elections ended in a major drubbing. Republicans gained ground in the Senate, House and in Governor’s offices all over the nation. Now, just three weeks later, the first election polls are out, not for next year, but the year after. 2016. That, of course, the year voters select the next President of the United States. The poll might seem premature to some, but the two year mark is right around the time candidates start making their official announcements to run for office. It turns out, the top vote getter in the first Quinnipiac poll...

A protester in Ferguson, Missouri accidentally burned down his own house last night after mistaking the building for a convenience store. According to a report in the Ferguson Post-Gazette, 32-year-old Tyler Jackson threw a Molotov cocktail into a window not realizing he was setting ablaze his own residence. The home, which was empty at the time, subsequently burned to the ground. “It was dark. I got all turned around. I thought it was a 7-11 or something,” he told the newspaper. Witnesses describe Jackson shouting expletives after he realized what he had done. He then tried to put out the...

Airships aren't just powered balloon-like vehicles that hover above sporting events. Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are floating the idea that airships have potential for important scientific and commercial uses. NASA is considering issuing a challenge for developing stratospheric airships that can break records in terms of duration of flight at high altitudes. The agency has issued a request for information for this contemplated "20-20-20 Airship Challenge." Submissions will be accepted until December 1. "We are seeking to take astronomy and Earth science to new heights by enabling a long-duration, suborbital platform for these kinds of...

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – A woman appears to have accidentally fatally shot herself in the head with a gun bought to prepare for possible Ferguson-related unrest, according to sources briefed on the police investigation. The shooting occurred Friday night in downtown St. Louis, the city’s Metropolitan Police Department said, in an area dominated by vacant lots beside a football stadium. The female victim, identified in a police report as Becca Campbell, 26, was a passenger in a car involved in an auto accident. Her 33-year-old boyfriend was driving, the sources told CNN. The boyfriend, who wasn’t identified, told police that...

For the NASA press corps, specifically the photojournalists responsible for capturing suicidal up-close images at liftoff, camera setups for the recent launch attempt of an Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket on the Orb-3 mission was as usual, but the outcome was anything but. Everyone knows that a rocket can explode, and although the odds are incredibly small we understand the risks when we set up our launch pad cameras to document the impressive launches of America’s missions to space. As the old saying goes; spaceflight is not routine, and the still and video imagery presented in this article tonight highlight...

CASEY MULLIGAN, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1993. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard University and Clemson University, and is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, and the Population Research Center. He has written for the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, and is the author of three books, including Side Effects: The Economic Consequences of the Health Reform....

President Obama's announcement tonight may bring a “constitutional crisis,” in the words of Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), but Republicans in Congress haven't the damndest idea what they'll do about it. As they departed the House floor, many en route to the airport for a Thanksgiving recess, many GOP lawmakers seemed as interested in explaining why options floated by colleagues from their own party wouldn't work as denouncing what they describe as an unprecedented power grab by a president they just decimated at the ballot box. “That's the hundred million dollar question,” said Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH), “How do you stop...

Four men were jailed for throwing a severed pig’s head into a mosque in Lancashire last May. Shocked women and children watched as the four friends dumped a carrier bag containing the severed head in the parking lot of Blackpool Central Mosque. Preston Crown Court was told the four men had organized the crime—which came only two days after the murder of solider Lee Rigby in May 2013—as a prank, knowing it would be seen as an insult in a Muslim place of worship. The four men—Thomas Ashton, 21; Andrew Warner, 31; Travis Crabtree, 25; and Steven White, 28—are all...