Free Republic

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell defended himself Tuesday against a narrative that says he is opposed to the tea party movement. “I’m a big fan of the tea party movement,” McConnell told Fox News’s Neil Cavuto, when asked about his criticism of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a tea party group which is backing a Republican primary challenge against him in Kentucky. “I think it’s been extremely important in helping us regain the House and do well in the Senate in 2010. There is one particular organization that I was talking about, which I think has been counterproductive.” The Senate Conservative...

Gav and Dan find an interesting way to destroy their bev bottles while showing off some cool science. Follow Gav on Twitter - https://twitter.com/GavinFree Follow Dan on Twitter - https://twitter.com/DanielGruchy Beer Bottle Cavitation at 2500fps - The Slow Mo Guys

So no, you’re not imagine that Pope Francis is preaching Marxism to the flock. He is a product of his time and place: namely the Catholic Church in Latin America from the 1950s through to the present. The Church there is a Marxist institution and he has absorbed those teachings. What we are seeing is simply another example of the Left’s march through institutions. The Quakers, once pacifists, now promote the Palestinian’s genocidal ambitions against Israel. The Girl Scouts of America, once a youth organization promoting wholesome values for children, now sponsors pro-abortion speakers and is basically run by a...

This video involved about 2 months of research, and me reaching out to several individuals. I would like to thank everyone who took time out of their schedule to contribute to my wacky research. A big thanks to the following people: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My wife and kids. I'm sorry this took so long and I wasn't the kind of active father I want to be during the 5 weeks it took to make this. Dr. Martyn Poliakoff for getting me access to documents which details experiments on the Prince Rupert's Drop by the Royal Society http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.or... (behind a pay wall) Being...

Fifteen dollars an hour to say, "Would you like fries with that?" or "Welcome to Wal-Mart?" PLEASE. My very first position out of college in a terrible job market was as a Wal-Mart portrait studio photographer. Around the holidays, we'd have long lines; trying to get kids to smile after they've been waiting in Wal-Mart for two hours is no picnic. On my off days, I didn't dare pick up the phone because my district manager regularly called people and demanded that they fill in for employees who were sick in other locations. There was no chance of advancement because...

Former CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather, despite being fired as a result of the bogus story, continues to maintain that he got it right in September 2004 when he aired forged documents concerning George W. Bush’s record with the Air National Guard. On CNN’s Piers Morgan Live Monday, Rather said, “No question the story was true” (video follows with transcript and commentary): [video] PIERS MORGAN, HOST: Let's turn quickly to what’s been going on at CBS, your old network. Your former colleague, Lara Logan, on leave of absence over this report from Benghazi. Many people believe there’s a slight...

HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. (December 9, 2013) – A 16-year-old Noblesville girl who was shot in the chest Sunday evening died from her injuries. Noblesville Police and Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene in the 8200 block of River Run Place at 11:20 p.m. They found four people inside the residence and the victim unresponsive. She was transported by ambulance to St. Vincent Hospital (Indianapolis) where she later died. The victim, Aubrey Peters, was a Noblesville High School student. FOX59 viewers may remember her for rescuing two children from a pond in March 2010, a heroic act that earned...

A Texas jury was recently lambasted in open court for committing jury nullification by visiting judge Jerry Ray because they acquitted a defendant in a driving while intoxicated (DWI) case. Judge Ray went so far as to equate the jury’s verdict with the acquittal of O.J. Simpson. Unfortunately, like many judges, Judge Ray did not understand what jury nullification is, what juries do, or his own obligations as a judge. Jury nullification occurs when a criminal jury votes not guilty, in spite of proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt, because they believe the law is either unjust or is being...

Coming soon to a classroom near you… nazi jew homework A new Common Core writing assignment asks students to think like a Nazi and explain why Jews are evil. This story first broke back in April: The Times Union reported, via Poor Richard’s News: Think like a Nazi, the assignment required students. Argue why Jews are evil. Students in some Albany High School English classes were asked this week as part of a persuasive writing assignment to make an abhorrent argument: “You must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your...

If you are a national reporter writing on the Girl Scouts and you call their national office in New York City, you will talk to a guy named Josh Ackley. If you are a Girl Scout wanting regular advice or information on the Girl Scouts and you turn to the Girl Scout blog, it’s Josh Ackley (pictured, center) you’ll be reading. If you are a Girl Scout mom concerned about the sometimes-troubling drift of the Girl Scouts in recent years, Josh Ackley may be the one you’ll meet with. To many key groups, Josh Ackley is the public face of...

The last time I saw a first-run movie was in England, when we watched the final Harry Potter film. What this means is that I pay very little attention to news about upcoming movies. Since I’m not going to watch them, why pay attention?I was vaguely aware, though, that Hollywood was producing a Biblical epic about Noah, of Ark fame. Since it’s not a movie by a true believer — unlike The Passion of the Christ– I didn’t have high hopes for it, but I have to say that it apparently has succeeded in sinking below anybody’s lowest expectations.To understand...

Naval Base Bombed, Shinto Worshipers Fear Backlash - New York Times - December 8 1941 ------------------- A day after planes passed over their peaceful village on the way to attack the Naval Station at Pearl Harbor, local fishermen are still picking up the pieces. "I don't know what any of this is about," a man who would only give his name as Paji said, holding the remains of a net which he had used to earn a living. "All I know is that the killing has to stop." In Washington, government officials urged the public to stay calm and not...

Obamacare “raided” $300 billion for Medicare Advantage and seniors will begin feeling the cuts next year, according to an analysis Tuesday by the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee. Obamacare took $700 billion from Medicare and $300 billion from Medicare Advantage alone for its own funding, according to the subcommittee. The cuts to Medicare Advantage beneficiaries will “begin to be fully realized in the next year,” according to the subcommittee. “There was a promise made to seniors as well. The promise was that we’re going to use your Medicare dollars as a piggy bank to fund the Affordable Care Act,...

Lithography was invented in 1798 by Aloys Senefelder and was used initially for printing sheet music. By the 1890s, artists including Pierre Bonnard and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec had adapted it for artistic purposes, using it to create color prints and posters. Lithography can be one of the most direct printmaking mediums, since images are executed on a flat surface—either a polished limestone slab or an aluminum plate—in much the same manner as crayon drawings or watercolors on paper. After chemicals are used to securely bond the image to the stone or plate, it can be inked and printed. The Expressionists—and...

Sean Hannity on FOX News reported Wednesday President Obama did not hold a private One-to-One meeting with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for three-and-a-half years leading up to the Obamacare launch. From July 2010 until November 2013 Obama did not hold any private meetings with Secretary Sebelius according to the official White House calendar. Obama met with his other cabinet secretaries 277 times during the same time period. [video] Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, December 4, 2013, 9:20 PM Sean Hannity on FOX News reported Wednesday President Obama did not hold a private One-to-One meeting with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius...

A sixty-seven year old proud atheist friend of mine recently interjected the sweeping statement “all religion is irrational” into one of our conversations. I replied, not with a direct rebuttal but, instead, with the unexpected question, “who is Jesus Christ?” He replied, “I don’t know.” If I were to ask some of you why I pulled that question out of left field you might also reply with a bewildered “I don’t know.” So keep reading. Please. If you have never really pondered the question “who is Jesus Christ?” then you simply cannot consider yourself to be a committed intellectual –...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGDaOJAYHfo You might not know Kevin Kelley's name, but you know who Kevin Kelley is. You've read about him in Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker, the New York Times, and on ESPN. If Grantland had existed in 2005 — when Kelley first implemented his bold new strategy at Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas — we undoubtedly would have toasted his budding cult celebrity status in our "Who's That Guy?" annals.Kelley is the coach who never punts and almost always onside kicks. And while he hasn't converted his high school success into a college gig like fellow prep sensations Gus Malzahn...

A 76-year-old woman was killed in a shootout with attempted robbers outside her South Carolina home early on Saturday morning. “She fought. She was a fighter. She shot him,” the victim’s brother, Ronnie Lollis, told local news. Dorothy Hendrix returned home at about 1am when two armed men and one woman approached her attempting to rob her, coroner Greg Shore said. Hendrix pulled out a gun and fired at the suspects, and one of them returned fire, hitting her twice. One neighbour reported the gunshots to police. Hendrix, known as “Dot” to friends and family, managed to shoot one of...

I am one who steers very clear of tinfoil hat conspiracy theories. I often believe progressives plant stories in order to distract and disrupt, enabling them to pursue their true goals and objectives. That’s why I stress the importance of staying focused on the modern liberal socialist policies of the Obama administration, not the sideshow antics. However, as a former combat commander, I have been trained to look for trends. And I believe we’ve found a very disturbing one. it seems that back door gun control is in full effect in the United States. Why? Thanks to Obama’s Environmental Protection...

Recent events once again demonstrate that there is no point arguing with liberals. Reason, facts, truth – these bourgeois concepts mean nothing to the adherents of progressivism. You are never going to change the mind of someone who believes in nothing except the imperative of his own absolute power. You simply have to defeat him. Progressivism is not a coherent ideology so much as a purpose – to control every aspect of our lives. It is about consolidating progressive power. Nothing else matters. That includes the truth. This is why we see YouTube videos of Harry Reid, Joe Biden and...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican up for re-election in 2014, told the Washington Examiner in an interview published Friday that he believes it is time for the GOP establishment to stop conservatives and Tea Partiers. McConnell argued it is “utter nonsense” for groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), which has endorsed his primary challenger businessman Matt Bevin, to argue that Republicans like him in Congress are not fighting hard enough to defeat Democrats. In the interview, McConnell focused on deriding Tea Partiers for leading the effort to defund Obamacare—something that, coupled with the Democrats’ refusal to...

Tuba Skinny playing the "Climax Rag" on rainy day in Royal St., New Orleans on 4/15/2013.

A long improvised Instrumental version of "Gotta Give Me Some" by Tuba Skinny and some friends. Recorded at The Spotted Cat Music Club in New Orleans on 4-10-2012. Todd Burdick- Tuba Shaye Cohn - Cornet Barnabus Jones - Trombone Robin Rapuzzi - Washboard John Doyle - Sax Sam Doores - Bass Drum

Mount Etna has erupted and is dropping volcanic ash on nearby towns in Sicily.

Oh my gosh — This is really bad— James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released video tonight showing an Obamacare navigator conspiring to release private data for political purposes. Busted! Do you know where your personal data is going? After meeting with several Obamacare Navigators who openly encouraged our undercover reporters to lie about income status, health history and more, it became clear that personal data was also being “cross-pollinated.” Enter Enroll America, a Sebelius-linked group dedicated to signing people up for Obamacare and Chris Tarango, Texas Enroll America Communications Director who Project Veritas caught on tape agreeing to help obtain a...

You've never seen hot air balloons like this before! A couple of weeks ago, Albuquerque, New Mexico held its 42nd annual International Balloon Fiesta. It's a 9-day event where over 700 balloons see liftoff. It's the largest hot air balloon festival in the entire world and we were on hand to capture the action. Turn the Volume up, HD on and enjoy this Balloon Fiesta Experience! *if you are capable of watching in a higher resolution than 1080p choose original as this film was finished in 4k* Beep.. Beep.. Beep.. The Alarm goes off at 4 am. Time to get...

Ideas have consequences and bad ideas have bad ones. I’m often reminded of that when I have a conversation that broaches the subject of human evil. As most of my readers already know, the denial of human evil is a very real problem among younger generations of Americans. Just last week, however, I had a conversation with a college student that really stopped me in my tracks. I have reproduced it below but not for anyone’s entertainment. I have some observations that follow. I hope you’ll give them careful consideration after you read the following exchange: UNC-Wilmington Student: What courses...

t was the story he had denied. The story Emma O'Reilly went some way to telling when she exposed Lance Armstrong as a drug cheat. But when the conversation moved to the subject of that positive test in 1999, he not only agreed with her that she had been right but went a stage further. O'Reilly always believed there was a bigger conspiracy and with her sitting before him he finally revealed the full scale of the cover-up, naming Hein Verbruggen as a central figure in his escape from punishment. Certainly, Armstrong used this opportunity to his full advantage. He...

This must have been one of those backroom deals we heard so much about… Stuffed inside the Obamacare law passed by Democrats (with no Republican votes) is a provision that will reimburse insurance companies up to 80% of their losses due to Obamacare. Melissa Francis reported on FOX News: “Marco Rubio has been out highlighting the fact that there is this ‘risk corridor’ where written into this law that nobody read is this idea that is insurance companies have 3% higher costs than they estimated as a result of who’s in these pools, they can recoup 50% of that money...

They know that members of the Tea Party are racist terrorists, though not one has ever been recorded or photographed engaging in either race-motivated diatribes or terrorism. Not ever. We'd know because it would have been on their news channels every day for months. They know that gun ownership causes murder, rather than the malice of the user. They know that how a gun looks makes it both more dangerous and more evil than another that does the same thing. They know that making more people vulnerable makes them safer, especially children in gun-free zones. They know that providing a...

Mesmerizing masonry.

In 1870, Ma, Pa, Mary, and Laura Ingalls left their home in southeast Kansas, where they had lived for about a year, and headed back to Wisconsin. Their Kansas home was later the basis for Laura's book The Little House on the Prairie. That same year, a group of new families moved into the area. They were Spiritualists, a religion that was totally foreign to the homesteaders already in the new state. Two of the families moved away within a year. The others kept to themselves, with the exception of the Benders. John Bender, Sr., and his family settled in...

<p>MSNBC host Alec Baldwin is accused of lying under oath in a criminal trail in New York City.</p> <p>A man who Alec Baldwin pointed to as the reason why he met his alleged stalker is now speaking out and says that the actor is using his name to hide his affair.</p>

On Monday evening, former CBS News insider Bernie Goldberg appeared on The O’Reilly Factor to blame the tea party for a potential 2016 presidential loss. “As far as the tea partiers are concerned, anybody to the left of Ted Cruz is a RINO,” Goldberg lamented. “But you know what? The real RINOs are the real people in the tea party and on the hard right, because they have made it clear over and over again that their allegiance is not to the Republican party but to their particular brand of conservatism, so they’re the RINOs.”

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I sometimes wonder, and I'm sure you do, too, if the Republican Party really knows what they're up against. Let me tell you a little story here that happens to be true. I don't think the Republicans have the slightest idea. I think they are so far behind the times, in terms of where the culture is. They certainly do not know, I'm convinced, enough about their political opponents to effectively deal with 'em. Try this. This is a short little story, not a big deal. It's from CBS Eyeball News in Annapolis, Maryland. Just recently last...

The top editor of Guns & Ammo became the second employee of the venerable firearms magazine to lose his job after a column advocating gun control backfired, prompting rifle-toting readers to unload on the publication. In a statement posted Wednesday on the InterMedia Outdoors-owned magazine’s homepage, Jim Bequette apologized to “each and every reader” of the magazine for Dick Metcalf’s column that appeared in its December issue, which generated “unprecedented” controversy and left readers “hopping mad” in regards to the magazine’s commitment to the Second Amendment. ********** In his column entitled “Let’s Talk Limits: Do certain firearm regulations really constitute...

(image courtesy of solidconcepts.com) Let me start out by saying one, very important thing: This is not about desktop 3D Printers. Solid Concepts is a world leader of 3D Printing services, and our ability to 3D Print the world’s first metal gun solidifies our standing. The gun is a classic 1911, a model that is at once timeless and public domain. It functions beautifully: Our resident gun expert has fired 50 successful rounds and hit a few bull’s eyes at over 30 yards. The gun is composed of 30+ 3D Printed components with 17-4 Stainless Steel and Inconel 625...

It is the secret ingredient of many a homemade meal. But the precise contents of this tangy relish itself have remained a mystery. Until now. After more than 170 years, the original recipe for Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce has been revealed. It was found in notes dating from the mid-1800s that were dumped in a skip by the sauce factory. Brian Keogh, a former Lea and Perrins accountant, discovered the notes, which were neatly written in sepia ink in two leather-bound folios, and rescued them. Today, the label on bottles of the sauce lists vinegar, molasses, sugar, salt, anchovies,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH:  Look at that, even Fox is getting this wrong.  Fox is reporting that Obama said that he's sorry people are losing their plans.  He did not say he's sorry people are losing their plans.  He did not say that.  He said he's sorry you feel the way you feel over having lost your plan.  He's sorry that you believed him.  Or he's sorry that you misunderstood him.  It's the EIB Network, and it's Friday, my friends.  So let's go to. JOHNNY DONOVAN:  And now, from sunny South Florida, it's Open Line Friday! RUSH:  Yes, sir.  On the...

A private citizen armed with a gun for which he had a license, shot and killed two robbers in Reading, Pennsylvania this week. Sooooo… OF COURSE… the families of the two dead ROBBERS want the citizen who shot and killed them charged with a CRIME. I know, I know: The capitalized words bother me too, but I had to write it that way because, honestly, the story is just so retarded—read progressive-- that I feel compelled to use the liberal-needs font. What crime, you ask, do the families of the dead guys want the citizen charged with? They’re really not...

The family of a 3-year-old killed in a northern Missouri house fire early Oct. 31 says it is outraged after police used a stun gun to subdue the boy's stepfather as he tried to run back into the burning house to rescue the boy. Riley Miller, the boy, died in the fire at the home in the town of Louisiana. A city police officer fired his stun gun at the stepfather, Ryan Miller, as he tried to re-enter the burning home. Authorities at the scene reportedly determined it was too dangerous to make an attempt to save the boy. "He...

When New Mexico police stopped a local driver for committing a minor moving violation, they decided to check whether he was carrying drugs in his anus. So they procured a warrant, drove him to two different hospitals, forced him to endure eight medical procedures — including an invasive colonoscopy — and stuck him with the bill. No drugs were found. According to medical records, police reports and a federal lawsuit obtained by KOB-TV, police held Eckert until they were able to procure a warrant from a judge to search the man’s anal cavity. They then drove him to a nearby...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is Sunday's This Week with Stephanopoulos and the roundtable discussion. Stephanopoulos says, "This is kind of pile-on time now for the president. I want to show some magazine covers this week as well. You see the New Yorker cover right there. The president is trying to, with a huge cell phone, trying to get HealthCare.gov working. Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, 'Can Obama Reboot?' And Forbes -- this may be the most interesting one -- Vladimir Putin comes up on top of Obama as the most powerful leader in the world. What do we make of this," Jonathan Karl?...

YEEEEEEEE-HAWWWWWW! PEEPUL, PEEPUL, PEEPUL! I'm Crazy Ivan Betinov from THE STALIN STOREHOUSE, and I'm back with another dealJUST FOR YOU!That's right, friends and neighbors, THE STALIN STOREHOUSE, the same good folks that brought you GENUINE OBAMA BRAND SNAKE OIL back in 2009 at the low, low cost of only $787,000,000,000, are back with the next NEW DEAL to make it all better! At THE STALIN STOREHOUSE we are keeping an eye out for YOU!(With a little help from the boys at the NSA) We've all heard rumors that everything might not be up to snuff in the online exchanges....

FULL TITLE: Good Grief!… Testimony Of Kathleen Sebelius Is Word-For-Word Identical To Testimony Of CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner Makes perfect sense that a one-size-fits-all government-run health care system also provides a one-size-fits-all testimony for government administration officials. House testimony of Kathleen Sebelius found here matches almost word-for-word the testimony given yesterday by CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner found here.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Moving on to the Obamacare Stack, there are a lot of reports today, expressions of anger, humiliation, disappointment, over the debacle that continues to be the Obamacare website.  More glitches.  Now you've got people saying, "You know what, this thing can't be fixed.  It's gonna have to torn down and rebuilt from scratch."  And, by the way, remember the picture of the young woman that's been the iconic figure at HealthCare.gov?  She's gone now.  They've replaced her with two or three icons or graphics.  That woman was probably the Julia of the famous Obamacare commercial.  But, anyway,...

Our technocracy is detached it is from competence. It's not the technocracy of engineers, but of "thinkers" who read Malcolm Gladwell and Thomas Friedman and watch TED talks and savor the flavor of competence, without ever imbibing its substance. These are the people who love Freakonomics, who enjoy all sorts of mental puzzles, who like to see an idea turned on its head, but who couldn't fix a toaster. The ObamaCare website is the natural spawn of that technocracy who love the idea of using modernity to make things faster and easier, but have no idea what anything costs or...

60 Minutes had an absolutely devastating report on the Obama administration’s failure to protect Ambassador Chris Stevens and other Americans in Benghazi. I’ll post the video when available (update – available and added), but the heart of the report is that there were clear and unequivocal warnings which were ignored, and the Obama administration lied about these warnings after the attack. Hillary and Obama blamed a video and stood by the caskets perpetuating that lie. And remember how almost all of the media obsessed with Mitt Romney’s statement over Benghazi, and colluded to ask Romney gotcha questions while downplaying and...

Meghan McCain says her Arizona senator dad is “depressed” and “frustrated” with the tea party faction of the Republican Party, which she called “the hyper-conservative wing.” The comments were part of Meghan’s promo for her new show, which no one will watch, Raising McCain. As a Tea Party activist, I am all for making both McCains even more frustrated. One of the most important developments in the new conservative movement has been encouraging regular Americans to participate directly in politics. In California, that has meant many have gotten involved in local Republican groups and have become versed in the ways...

President Barack Obama knew of the organization’s spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel – and approved of the efforts, a National Security Agency official has reportedly told a German newspaper. The Economic Times writes the “high-ranking” NSA official spoke to Bild am Sonntag on the condition of anonymity, saying the president, “not only did not stop the operation, but he also ordered it to continue.” The Economic Times also reports the official told Bild am Sonntag that Obama did not trust Merkel, wanted to know everything about her, and thus ordered the NSA to prepare a dossier on the politician....