Free Republic

President Obama is back on the offensive when it comes to promoting the Affordable Care Act. But White House aides may want to hit the spell-checker next time before they get carried away promoting the president’s message. On Thursday, the White House tweeted a picture of Obama holding a sign with the Twitter hashtag “#GetCovered Because.” The message on the president’s sign read: “Nobody should go broke just because they get sick.” The photo immediately launched a small social media tidal wave, with people creating their own “GetCovered” images. But the White House may have unintentionally created one of the...

“He threw Shaq under the bus,” said Brown referring to the well-documented riff between Bryant and former teammate Shaquille O’Neal. “And he is somewhat confused about culture, because he was brought up in another country so he doesn’t quite fit what’s happening in America.”

Anyone play Words With Friends? If so, have you ever tried to play the word "zot"? Would you believe the system won't accept it? Whaaaaaaat??? Apparently they don't understand the influence FR has on the culture! A couple of years ago when I was fairly new to the game, I thought I was about to make an impressive move. I had the "z" sitting on a triple letter square, and I was creating two words using the triple z twice (vertically and horizontally). It was going to be my highest scoring word to date. I was so proud. Then I...

In a deeply conservative red state, the few strong abortion supporters who dot the map of Texas are thrilled by one of Texas’s lieutenant gubernatorial candidates, Senator Leticia Van de Putte. Van de Putte boasts a fairly consistent pro-abortion voting record; indeed, she boasts a D score from the state’s premier pro-life legislative organization, Texas Right to Life. If elected along with gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, the near future of women and pre-born children in Texas would be considerably more bleak than it is today, under the stalwart pro-life leadership of Governor Rick Perry. Here is the full Van de...

Wendy Davis is headlong into her campaign to become the next governor of Texas and the state legislator known for filibustering a bill to ban late-term abortions this week issued a new fundraising letter to raise cash for her campaign. “I stood on the Texas state Senate floor for nearly 13 hours to speak up for you,” Davis opens. “And even though I wasn’t allowed to eat, drink, sit or lean on my desk or leave the Senate floor, the discomfort I felt was nothing compared to what some families go through on a daily basis.” No Wendy, the discomfort...

While it’s almost nice to hear a pro-abortion argument that isn’t some version of the “Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries” shriek, Huffington Post blogger Donna Schaper’s contention – that abortion is moral – isn’t any more effective, and it’s rather more insulting. The left-wing United Church of Christ minister recently argued that “Abortion can be a highly moral choice for a woman.” Surprised? You’re not alone. The post is titled, “Most Women Under 40 Haven’t Heard the Pro-choice Moral Argument.” Perhaps because there isn’t one – or if there is, it’s not the one Schaper made in her piece....

Video, just what the title says... http://www.pawbonito.com/how-to-wrap-a-cat-for-christmas/

Grumpy Cat, Colonel Meow, Oskar the Blind Cat, Nala Cat, and Hamilton the Hipster Cat have come together in an unprecedented celebrity cat supergroup this holiday season to lend their voices to a very important cause close to all of their hearts -- and their bellies -- the cause of wet food for all cats. YOU can help by sharing this video. For every view (up to 500,000 views), Friskies will donate one can of wet cat food to shelter and rescue organizations across the country. Share with all your friends and help make a cat's holiday wish come true....

Don't tell me how to do my job.

Touching story told by Bob Welsh.... Merry Christmas

Week 15 Thu Dec 12 8:25 pm San Diego Chargers Denver Broncos Sun Dec 15 1:00 pm Arizona Cardinals Tennessee Titans 1:00 pm Buffalo Bills Jacksonville Jaguars 1:00 pm Chicago Bears Cleveland Browns 1:00 pm Houston Texans Indianapolis Colts 1:00 pm New England Patriots Miami Dolphins 1:00 pm New Orleans Saints St. Louis Rams 1:00 pm Philadelphia Eagles Minnesota Vikings 1:00 pm San Francisco 49ers Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1:00 pm Seattle Seahawks New York Giants 1:00 pm Washington Redskins Atlanta Falcons 4:05 pm Kansas City Chiefs Oakland Raiders 4:05 pm New York Jets Carolina Panthers 4:25 pm Green Bay Packers...

The stars behind the reality show sensation Duck Dynasty already conquered television and the literary world, so it's not a shock to see them outsell some of the biggest names on the music charts. Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas sold more copies this week than both Britney Spears' latest album Britney Jean and the sinking fast disk from Lady Gaga, ARTPOP.

New York — The anchor who might beat Bill O’Reilly gets her eyelash extensions applied one at a time, with tweezers and dabs of glue, about 90 minutes before showtime, right after a motorized gun sprays foundation over her face, neck, shoulders, collarbone and sternum, wiping out a galaxy of light freckles that spreads across her —

Very cool art, but I wonder where PETA stands on this?

there were some real words signed. just in random, nonsensical order.

The nation’s largest freight rail carriers announced Wednesday they will provide health care benefits to the same-sex spouses of their employees, one day after legally married, gay engineers filed a federal lawsuit in Seattle. Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF Railway Co., read the statement from the National Railway Labor Conference to The Associated Press. The conference represents the railroad companies in dealings with labor groups, lawmakers and courts. Same-sex spouses will be eligible for dependent health care coverage starting Jan. 1, the statement said. …

A small but growing number of physicians are not accepting government insurance, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and are even refusing to accept patients’ private insurance, according to Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). Orient says the transition to a business model in which patients agree to pay doctors directly for the health care services they provide started before Obamacare was passed, but that the new law has accelerated the trend, especially among AAPS’ 4,000 or so members. AAPS is the conservative alternative to the much larger American Medical Association (AMA), which...

Love this game. The only space program we've got left???

This past weekend a country with one of the highest living standards in the world saw rioting in the streets! According to Credit Suisse, Singapore ranks 8th in the world in terms of personal wealth. Since the year 2000, Singaporeans’ wealth has more than doubled. It is clear that this is a very prosperous city state that is the gem of Asia. I know that when I have looked for offshore gold storage in the past, Singapore comes up as one of the top areas along with Hong Kong, Zuric, Perth, and Toronto. However, on Sunday a riot was sparked...

Normally, one could get your local forecast by entering your city/state or zip code. This only works for some places such as "Lake Charles, LA" (which has a weather center with radar) but not for "Lafayette, LA". It is unclear if it a "database" issue or what the problem with this website. But if you go to the main site (www.weather.gov), one will notice items missing that are normally there (Drought Monitor, December-January-February Forecast) as well as the local forecast webpage.

I favorite portrayal of old Scrooge! Full Movie and FREE!

This is your Turner Classic Movie channel alert! Tonight...You'll Never Get Rich(1941), 8pm est "A Broadway dancing team splits up when the male dancer is drafted." Overview & Cast

What a depressing site to visit!

House Speaker John Boehner went off on outside conservative groups Wednesday morning for pushing against the new budget deal. "They're using our members and they're using the American people for their own goals," he said. "This is ridiculous." Several key conservative groups are against the sequester relief within the new budget deal. "Though conservatives support more spending restraint, the discretionary spending limits defined in the Budget Control Act represent a promise to the American people to marginally slow the growth of government," reads a letter signed by the heads of Heritage Action, the Family Research Council, and the American Conservative...

The world mourns the passing of Nelson Mandela the civil rights leader and former President of South Africa. It is fitting that we should respect and applaud his untiring struggle for civil rights and for his leadership in bringing about reconciliation in South Africa. In paying tribute to his many achievements as President between 1994 to 1999 we must not forget that he did not uphold the sanctity of life of children in the womb. The sanctity of human life and the dignity of the family are the foundation and guarantee of all other human rights. It is not possible...

I invite you to keep the attention of everyone on the important issue of respect for human life from the moment of conception. - Pope Francis at the Rome March for Life, I continue to love the current pontiff, Pope Francis. This adoration continues even after hearing the liberal magazine Time (who knew they still published?) has named Pope Francis as Time’s Man of the Year. The beauty I see in Pope Francis is that everyone seems to view him through their own eyes. Be you liberal, conservative, Catholic, non-Catholic, etc. . . . One day he is angering conservatives,...

Like most here, I was disgusted with the terms of the new, just-announced budget deal. Hopefully conservatives can kill it. It's been described many times as the latest incantation of BOHICA. ( Bend over, here it comes again.)But this morning I just realized that the first two letters are also you-know-who's initials..so it just seems to scream out, to beg, for another rendition.

NEW DELHI — India's Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a lower court's ruling that decriminalized gay sex, a move condemned by gay rights activists as a big step backward in their struggle for acceptance in this largely conservative country. In 2009 the Delhi High Court ruled that a 19th-century provision in the country's penal code that prohibited people from engaging in "carnal acts against the order of nature" should not apply to consenting adults, including same-sex couples.

I'm electric tank now and am considering electric trankless, but gas is a possibility

A winter storm warning from the National Weather Service was enough to close down the federal government’s offices in Washington Tuesday. But neither snow nor sleet could keep members of the State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience from their appointed round at the White House. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee tweeted a photo of Tuesday’s first meeting of the task force, which was created by an executive order of President Obama on November 1st as part of his Climate Action Plan. …

Police in South Africa say retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s home was robbed while he was away to attend a memorial honoring Nelson Mandela. … The 82-year-old Tutu had his home robbed in August as he and his wife slept inside. Both were unhurt. …

Mack Brown, who led the Longhorns to a national championship in 2005, will step down as Texas’ head coach after 16 seasons. The University would not confirm the news and denied that Brown would step down.

Astrology may seem like harmless fun—but a new study suggests following your star sign could be bad for you. Consumers who read their horoscope daily were found to be more likely to exhibit impulsive or indulgent behavior when their zodiac was negative, the research suggested. This is because reading a poor outcome in your star sign makes you more susceptible to temptation, it is believed. The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, showed that those who believed their fate could change were more prone to erratic decision-making following bad news in their zodiac. …

This morning, the New York Daily News published a story titled: “Black fashion student says Hasidic men attacked him, shouted anti-gay slurs in Williamsburg”. … The authors of the piece do not directly question the validity of the claim, but they do include details which they must have expected would generate skepticism among the readership. The open questions should have been enough to prevent a responsible editor from publishing the article. Most notably:“Patterson was ‘highly intoxicated, uncooperative and incoherent,’ after the assault, according to a police complaint—but he remembers the ringleader.”Further, the attack occurred on December 1 at 4:30 a.m.—nine...

Research published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research found those who did not consume any alcohol appeared to have a higher mortality rate, regardless of whether they were former heavy drinkers or not, than those who drank heavily. Instead, “moderate” drinking, defined as one to three drinks per day, was associated with the lowest mortality rate. …

Circa 1911: Cat drinking from a bottle and looking through a telescope

Somebody please get this message to Glenn Beck. He's talking too close to that beautiful RCA 44 mic. Try backing off at least six inches, then try backing off a whole foot.

Has any FReepers completely ditched their cable or satellite provider and went exclusively with streaming services, such as Roku or Wi-Fi Blu-Ray? I did. I had cable that I was paying upwards to $80 a month. I got rid of it and simply stream Netflix, HuluPlus, or Amazon Prime and saved over half.

The link should get you to the page that shows the 1st video, "WestJet Christmas miracle". Enjoy as WestJet brings Christmas to a plane load of passengers. Admirable marketing too. The 2nd video is the blooper reel. It's good too. I am not associated with West Jet in any way.

Did Castro tell Obama who he was? Check this video at about 7 seconds in. It makes it look like Obama had no clue who he was shaking hands with, and Raul looks like he is saying "I am Raul Castro". Any lip reading experts out there?

Ya gotta listen to this!

Jesus is Christmas.

Traffic cam video of 50-car pileup on a snowy Wisconsin interstate. 5 minutes.

CHICAGO (CBS) – Temperatures dipped below zero overnight, the earliest it has been that cold in Chicago in 18 years. The last time Chicago had subzero temperatures this early in the season was Dec. 9, 1995. Unfortunately for Chicagoans, it won’t be long before the mercury is back below zero. Though temperatures will get into the low 20s on Tuesday, Chicago could see subzero temperatures again Wednesday night. Before that, Chicago likely will get more snow. A winter weather advisory has been issued for the Chicago area from midnight Tuesday night through 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. The snow will begin...

It took two months, weekly visits to the jammed-up federal website and a half-dozen phone calls, but JoAnn Smith finally got health insurance Monday. It’ll only cost her $3.19 a month to cover herself and her husband. “I just instantly burst into tears,” she says. Smith started working on getting insurance even before the federal website, HealthCare.gov, opened Oct. 1, pre-registering to get a headstart on the process. But, like millions of other Americans who tried, she was stymied by the website’s glitches. She told NBC News her story last week, and as of Friday, a week after the federal...

NGOs and human rights institutions have denounced the increase of racist violence across Europe, the rise of which is being attributed partly to the economic crisis and the use of internet. In its latest annual report, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), the Council of Europe’s human rights body, warned that there is an “intensification of hate speech against vulnerable groups and racist violence”. …

For the second year in a row, the Human Rights Campaign has awarded us the top rating of 100% on its Corporate Equality Index 2014. This score is based on the HRC’s evaluation of fair and inclusive workplace policies across large U.S. employers. Businesses that achieve this score are recognized as “Best Places to Work for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equality.” Thomson Reuters is one of 303 companies (out of 934 evaluated) to earn this distinction. “We’re honored to be recognized again by the HRC for our continued efforts,” said Jane Moran, Chief Information Officer for Technology and executive...

It was two days before my seventeenth birthday, a Saturday morning, the day after a football game in which I’d played. So I was tired and sore, but I could smell breakfast coming from downstairs and somebody was walking up the stairs. I was half asleep. The door opened: it was my girlfriend, I smiled, of course—but from the look on her face I could see that this wasn’t called for. This was a serious moment. I steeled myself. After a few long seconds, she looked up at me and said, “I’m pregnant.” That woke me up quick. We sat...