Free Republic

LONDON (Reuters) - Alarm bells rang across world markets on Monday as a near 9 percent dive in China shares and a sharp drop in the dollar and major commodities panicked investors.

Utah filmmaker Richard Dutcher has filed suit claiming "Nightcrawler," a 2014 movie nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay, is a derivative work that rips off his film "Falling." In a suit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Dutcher seeks an injunction stopping the copying, public display or distribution of "Nightcrawler." In addition, the filmmaker is requesting an unspecified amount of money for the alleged infringement on his copyright for "Falling." Named as defendants are Bold Films LP, Bold Films Productions, Open Road Films LLC and NBC Universal Media LLC. "Nightcrawler" was written and directed...

If he gets stuck, just use your mouse to drag him out.

Dow futures down -105 at this time. Were -95 a little earlier.

When BATF agents first blew the whistle on what is now known as Operation Fast and Furious, the rationale offered by DoJ for such an evidently foolish operation was that it was designed to allow BATF to track and prosecute the leaders of the Mexican drug cartels. As more information surfaced from the Mexican government and the BATF's Mexican bureau chief specifying that none of them knew anything of this operation, many of us who were paying a bit closer attention to the case immediately smelled the first foul scent of corruption. The fatal flaw in DoJ's explanation was this:...

The ROSAT X-ray observatory, launched in 1990 by NASA and managed for years by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), will return to Earth within the next two weeks. Current best estimates place the re-entry between Oct. 22nd and 24th over an unknown part of Earth. [snip] According to a DLR study, as many as 30 individual pieces could survive the fires of re-entry. The largest single fragment would likely be the telescope's mirror, which is very heat resistant and may weigh as much as 1.7 tons.

Okay, we have now seen Barack Obama’s approval ratings fall below 40% in a Gallup survey. The left of center polling firm reports Obama’s numbers are seriously upside down with an alarming 54% disapproving of his performance in office. Forget about the bad numbers Congressional Republicans are getting. The faces of Congress, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are not running. Obama’s 39% approval rating begs for a primary. Maybe Hillary Clinton will grace us with her presence and defend her disastrous years as the Secretary of State, maybe we’ll see the Left panic and nominate a George McGovern, ……. Democrats...

Gosh, the last two years I have been calling Congress, Senators, going to Tea Parties, Went to DC many times, Town Halls, Blogs and web sites trying to defend and preserve our freedom and liberty. I have been feeling pretty good until the HCR bill. I remember driving back from DC feeling exhausted and actually named the photo folder "last day of freedom". However, then a few days later it passed I was a tad down then bounced back. Then it has been one bill after another and one setback after another. I seem to be running out of energy......

Boy Survives Falling Off Balcony After Bouncing Off Palm Trees A four-year-old boy had a lucky escape after falling from a 17th floor hotel balcony only to bounce off palm trees and land with minor injuries. By Paul Thompson 06 Jun 2010 Rescuers found Joey Williams still alive after he bounced off a cluster of palm trees and landed on a dirt surface near the hotel's swimming pool. Apart from surviving the 80ft fall he somehow managed to land between two pipes jutting up from the ground. Less than four hours after the fall at his hotel in Miami, Florida,...

TOKYO - Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama has said he intends to resign, a media report said Wednesday. Public broadcaster NHK said that Hatoyama told his party executives he intended to step down over his broken campaign promise to move a U.S. Marine base off the southern island of Okinawa.

You all know how much we love the bar Sidetracks here in Boystown. In a lot of ways, it’s like our little clubhouse, where we plan many an adventure and get the scoop on all sorts of things here in Boystown, especially on Showtunes and Comedy nights, which we love. That’s when the VJs play little clips of Broadway musicals for people to sing-a-long to, or snippets of comedy routines from TV for people to laugh at. Unless they’re clips of Janeane Garofalo, who isn’t, and has never been funny, in which case you’d just hear crickets.

President Obama set out for a weeklong family vacation Sunday facing the first stiff headwind of his presidency, with public polls showing his popularity has dipped as he has attempted an overhaul of the nation's ailing health care system. A series of national surveys has confirmed what was becoming clear as large groups of protesters rallied outside the speeches and town-hall events the president hosted last week in Western states. The Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll released Sunday showed that 41 percent of voters strongly disapprove of Mr. Obama's performance as president, compared with 27 percent who strongly approved. Rasmussen...

Too short to excerpt: NEW YORK (AP) - Crude oil on the futures market briefly sank below the $100-a-barrel Friday for the first time in five months-suggesting investors believe a worsening global economy will continue to drive down demand for some time in the United States and elsewhere. The last time crude traded below $100 a barrel was on April 2. Gasoline prices, however, jumped at the wholesale level as Hurricane Ike swept toward Houston, home to about one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity, and the site of a major fuel and grain distribution channel. Wholesale gasoline prices on the Gulf...

French army falling apart, documents show By Henry Samuel in Paris Last Updated: 10:50PM BST 06/06/2008 Most of France's tanks, helicopters and jet fighters are unusable and its defence apparatus is on the verge of "falling apart", it has emerged. France's military has been given a bleak prognosis According to confidential defence documents leaked to the French press, less than half of France's Leclerc tanks – 142 out of 346 – are operational and even these regularly break down. Less than half of its Puma helicopters, 37 per cent of its Lynx choppers and 33 per cent of its Super...

CARACAS, Venezuela — For the better part of a decade, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has spent billions of dollars of his country's oil revenue to challenge U.S. interests, build influence around the world and fund a self-styled socialist revolution at home. Yet as Chavez moves from one international crisis to another— most recently a near military confrontation with neighboring Colombia , an important U.S. ally— many wonder how long his oil-funded wild ride will last. Not long, analysts in Venezuela and abroad said, if production continues to decline at the country's state-run energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. , known...

Text of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's memo sent Wednesday to the nation's emergency first responders about a falling U.S. satellite, as provided by FEMA. ___ MEMORANDUM TO: America's First Responder Community FROM: FEMA Disaster Operations Directorate SUBJECT: Satellite Re-entry A U.S. satellite has malfunctioned and is expected to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime between the last week of February and the first week of March. Right now it is in an uncontrolled descent and as a result, the exact date, time and place of impact cannot yet be determined. It is our plan to pass on more specific information...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton trails five top Republican presidential contenders in general election match-ups, a drop in support from this summer, according to a poll released on Monday. Clinton's top Democratic rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, still lead Republicans in hypothetical match-ups ahead of the November 4, 2008, presidential election, the survey by Zogby Interactive showed. Clinton, a New York senator who has been at the top of the Democratic pack in national polls in the 2008 race, trails Republican candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mike Huckabee by three to five...

I was wanting to get everyone's opinion on: "What will happen to 401k accounts and the falling dollar?" Thanks

VIENNA, Austria - A man plummeted 130 feet from a helicopter Monday but escaped injury because deep snow cushioned his fall. The 42-year-old was suspended from the helicopter by a rope to make repairs when the knot came undone and he slipped free, police in the Upper Austria town of Hallstatt said in a statement. Although a fall from that height normally would result in death or serious injury, the deep snow drifts broke the man's fall, officials said. He was taken by rescue helicopter to a nearby hospital for a medical checkup as a precaution but appeared to have...

In the arena of political discourse, a “straw man” is often a weak or extreme argument one side in a debate falsely attributes to their opponents.  It’s an age-old tactic that presents a nice-sounding argument that is, in reality, easily refuted or “knocked down.” That is the tactic now being used to defend the court-ordered legalization of same-sex “marriage” in Massachusetts last year.