Free Republic

CLICK ON ABOVE LINK FOR COMPLETE EXPLANATION AND CHARTS HERE's A SUMMARY : * 45 million Americans were living in poverty in 2009 * 2009 saw the largest single year increase in the U.S. poverty rate since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures back in 1959 * The U.S. poverty rate is now the third worst among the developed nations tracked by the OECD * Household participation in the food stamp program has increased 20.28% since last year * The number of Americans on food stamps surpassed 41 million for the first time ever in June * As of...

I confess--I had never heard the phrase "the Queen of the Sciences" until a few months ago. Even when I read it, it made no sense. They seemed to be talking about geography. What was all this??? Apparently, the wise and scholarly had much more respect for geography a thousand years ago than we do now. Once you start thinking about this decline--from Queen to corpse--you gain new insight into how radical (in the worst sense) our Education Establishment is. These people never saw a fact they didn't want to drop overboard in a deep part of the ocean. So...

Congressional Democrats and the White House will continue their attempts to enact policies they believe will boost the economy—and which are also aimed at persuading voters they are working to make things better. ...And while the economic situation remained dire when President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, most Democrats assumed that the economy would rebound by the time they stood for office this year. A series of disappointing economic reports has made clear that won't be the case. The most recent one came Friday, when the government reported that the economy grew at a much slower pace in...

The following are 50 random facts that show just how dramatically America has changed..

In a new ad, Obama says, "I don’t take money from oil companies." We find the statement misleading: •Obama has accepted more than $213,000 from individuals who work for companies in the oil and gas industry and their spouses. •Two of Obama's bundlers are top executives at oil companies and are listed on his Web site as raising between $50,000 and $100,000 for the presidential hopeful. See this from factchec.org dated March 31, 2008.

This is becoming common - two videos based on data taken directly from my Gun Facts book are on YouTube. Keep up the good work troops! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO83qjMW1fkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f28a_FAs4ek

Last week the political campaign propaganda season began, and President Obama fired the first shot at Republicans. In an effort to shift the subject from the Gulf oil disaster, the president went into campaign mode (again) when he said, "We can return to the failed economic policies of the past, or we can keep building a stronger future."Unfortunately, the facts do not substantiate the president's claim when we compare December 2008 economic statistics before Obama took office to where we are today.   December 2008 June 2010 National debt $9.5 trillion $13 trillion Gross Domestic Product , or GDP $14.1...

Andrew Sullivan is not a huge fan of Israel; he is entitled to his opinion. However, his latest column about the incident in the waters outside of Gaza makes up the facts. Honestly, in the case of most of the posts Sullivan writes about Israel, Andrew is living in his own reality, where truth and facts do not matter. The Atlantic columnist begins his latest example of creative writing begins with the first paragraph. Maintaining the siege and blockade of Gaza (because its citizens elected a government Israeli abhors), and strafing it with military might over a year ago, is...

The current edition of Gun Facts, the de facto desk reference for firearm policy, has been translated into Latin American Spanish and released on the Gun Facts web site at www.GunFacts.info. “Freedom is not negotiable,” said Guy Smith, author of Gun Facts. “This includes the human right of self-defense. People in Latin America, encouraged by freedoms in the United States, are resisting gun control. It is time for Gun Facts to help refute the anti-freedom factions in the South as it has in the North.” For more than a decade, Gun Facts has debunked common gun control myths. In 118...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, April 16, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today disputed claims that the Defense Department was withholding information from the Senate Homeland Security Committee about the Nov. 5 Fort Hood, Texas, shooting incident. “We have no interest in hiding anything,” said Gates, who earlier this week had traveled to Peru, Colombia and then Barbados to discuss regional security issues.“But what [is] most important,” Gates told reporters here, “is this prosecution, and we will cooperate with the committee in every way with that single caveat -- that whatever we provide does not impact the prosecution. That is the...

Starting about 150 years ago, scholars in Europe started rejecting the historical records of Saint Luke. These academics declared that there was no evidence to support the existence of several locations and leaders mentioned in Luke's writings, and therefore, they rejected the entirety of his account. However, I discovered that archaeological finds during the last century have revealed that Luke was a very accurate historian and the two books he authored were absolutely authoritative records of history! One of the greatest archaeologists of all time was Sir William Ramsay. He studied under the famous German historical schools in the mid-nineteenth...

An economist using technical data to evaluate California’s battered economy might agree with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s nationally televised declaration Sunday that “the worst is over” for the Golden State. But we doubt this assertion will sit well with most Californians – and it shouldn’t, for reasons both simple and complex. The first reason is that state unemployment remains stubbornly above 12 percent – the worst since the Great Depression – and would be closer to 15 percent if those who had stopped looking for work were tallied. The second reason is that almost all the legislation billed as promoting job...

One would think an entire think-tank university staff is behind Snopes. Not so. It's a couple — husband and wife. Their opinions are considered bible by countless who check out "the facts" by going to Snopes.com. These countless include college profs, Congresspersons, the National Review writers, and masses climbing all over the grassroots.

And the Pu-loser Award for "Correction of the Year" goes to ... The Washington Post for a correction that inspired the amusing hashtag #washingtonpostcorrections on Twitter. Here's the correction: "A Nov. 26 article in the District edition of Local Living incorrectly said a Public Enemy song declared 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number." And here's the explanation: "It's Correction of the Year because it communicates that people notice and care about corrections, and because it demonstrates the participatory potential being unleashed by the Internet." Craig Silverman, author of the book Regret The Error and...

Subject: Vietnam Facts vs Fiction FYI, We do not live in Viet Nam, Viet Nam lives in us. Vietnam Facts vs Fiction. I found this article very interesting. The most notable fact is that 2.7 million Americans actually served in the Vietnam Theater of war. In the last census nearly 14 million Americans claimed they served in Vietnam . Four out of five are lying. I wonder why. Vietnam Facts vs Fiction For over 30 years I..like many Vietnam veterans..seldom spoke of Vietnam , except with other veterans, when training soldiers, and in public speeches. These past five years I...

Is economic growth the highest priority in Obama's Washington? That's not a trivial question: in 1972, the Club of Rome, a global think tank whose current members include Mikhail Gorbachev, issued a report entitled The Limits to Growth, challenging the primacy of wealth creation. In arguments later taken up by President Jimmy Carter, the book's sub-text is that unbridled growth leads to population expansion, but also pollution, resource depletion, famine, and capitalist exploitation...

THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THE BLOG TUESDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 2009 AT 6:55 AM Facts Are Stubborn Things Posted by Macon Phillips Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things." Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions. In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to...

White House adviser David Axelrod is going to try to start his own viral e-mail responding to attacks on Obamacare. It will include responses to eight “myths” about Obamacare, and since I know all of you come to IMAO as your primary news source, I obtained those myths and the White House’s response so you can see them here: MYTHS AND FACTS ABOUT OBAMACARE MYTH: Obamacare will institute “death panels” to judge who should live and who should die. FACT: People deciding who will live and who will die will be single Obama-appointed bureaucrats, so no panels are involved.

Duke University Classics Professor analyzes key points in House health care "reform" bill!John David Lewis, asks a series of questions about the House approved version of health care "reform." He then analyzes the relevant sections and makes his conclusion. I'm posting his questions and yes or no answers but recommend you read his full analysis for the bill language and additional analsysis. Will the plan ration health care? - Yes.Will the plan punish Americans who try to opt out? - Yes.Will the plan destroy private health insurance? - Yes.Does the plan allow the government to set fees for services? -...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/