Free Republic

American progressives like to think of their country as backward and reactionary compared to Europe. And they have never been more right than now when Europe and the rest of the First World have gone right while America under Obama has been left back. Recently Australia, Japan and Norway welcomed in conservative governments. Tony Abbott, Australia’s new prime minister, is a former heavyweight boxer who attended Oxford and is putting a spoke in the wheel of the Global Warming ecohoax. Japan is casting off its pacifism and standing up to the People’s Republic of China and Norway gave its left-wing...

Elf advocates in Iceland joined forces with environmentalists to urge authorities to abandon a highway project that they claim will disturb elf habitat. The project has been halted until the supreme court of Iceland rules on a case brought by a group known as Friends of Lava, who cite both the environmental impact and the detrimental effect on elf culture of the road project. The group has regularly mobilised hundreds of people to block bulldozers building a direct route from the tip of the Álftanes peninsula, where the president has a property, to the Reykjavik suburb of Gardabaer. Issues about...

**SNIP** Fine so far, that experience mirrors our own. Now, step into the unknown, at least unknown here at home. What if a mass movement put pressure on, and kept it up? What if their incessant and unyielding demands toppled yet more of the establishment? What if they formed a committee of average citizens, including a large percentage of the unaffiliated, and rewrote their Constitution? What if they arrested, prosecuted and jailed the bankers whose actions caused the crisis, instead of rewarding them with fat paydays? What if their actions, entirely peaceful, restored liberty and fiscal sanity to their country?...

Consider a country where banking interests balloon debt by lending to people who cannot possibly pay back their loans. These toxic assets then threaten to destroy the national economy. Banking interests plead with the civil government to rescue them for the sake of the economy. The civil government bails them out with taxpayer money. Sound familiar? Well, that’s where the similarities end between the banking crisis in Iceland which began in 2008, and the banking crisis that occurred in the States a year earlier.Taxpayers in Iceland didn’t just sit back and allow the bail out. They thronged the streets banging...

Police in Iceland said Monday they shot dead a gunman — the first time armed police have killed someone in the nation. Iceland, which has a tiny population of around 320,000, has a low crime rate and gun violence is extremely rare. Its regular police force does not carry firearms. Haraldur Johannessen, National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police, said Monday's incident was unprecedented. Police said officers were called to an apartment in the Reykjavik suburb of Arbaer early Monday when a man fired a shotgun from inside the flat. Two policemen, who were not armed, were shot at when trying...

AFTER 40 years of hesitation and seven hard years of reform and lobbying, Turkey is basking today in the most qualified of invitations to begin the process of joining Europe - a continent whose eastern half the Ottoman empire controlled for centuries. A European Commission report released yesterday, which paves the way for a deciding vote by the 25-member European Union at its December summit, was heavily qualified, and Turkish leaders were muted in their expressions of delight at their initial success. Presenting the decision to the European parliament last night, commission president Romano Prodi said it was a "qualified...

Explanation: What's happening in the sky? On this cold winter night in Iceland, quite a lot. First, in the foreground, lies the largest glacier in Iceland: Vatnajokull. On the far left, bright green auroras appear to emanate from the glacier as if it was a volcano. Aurora light is reflected by the foreground lake Jökulsárlón. On the far right is a long and unusual lenticular cloud tinged with green light emitted from another aurora well behind it. Just above this lenticular cloud are unusual iridescent lenticular clouds displaying a broad spectral range of colors. Far beyond the lenticular is the...

2006, climate change experts from Bangor University in north Wales found a very special clam while dredging the seabeds of Iceland. At that time scientists counted the rings on the inside shell to determine that the clam was the ripe old age of 405. Unfortunately, by opening the clam which scientists refer to as "Ming," they killed it instantly. Cut to 2013, researchers have determined that the original calculations of Ming's age were wrong, and that the now deceased clam was actually 102 years older than originally thought. Ming was 507 years old at the time of its demise.

Perhaps because he wants to divert attention from the slow-motion train wreck of Obamacare, the President is signalling that he will renew his efforts to throw more people into the unemployment line. Needless to say, that’s not how the White House would describe the President’s proposal to increase the minimum wage, but that’s one of the main results when the government criminalizes certain employment contracts between consenting adults. To be blunt, if a worker happens to have poor work skills, a less-than-impressive employment record, or some other indicator of low productivity that makes them worth, say, $7.50 per hour, then...

Explanation: What spooky planet is this? Planet Earth of course, on the dark and stormy night of September 12 at Hverir, a geothermally active area along the volcanic landscape in northeastern Iceland. Geomagnetic storms produced the auroral display in the starry night sky while ghostly towers of steam and gas venting from fumaroles danced against the eerie greenish light. Tonight, there is still a chance for geomagnetic storms triggered by recent solar activity, so high-latitude skygazers should beware. And ghostly shapes may dance in your neighborhood, too.Have a safe and Happy Halloween!!

The Muslim Association of Iceland now admits that foreign donors will be paying for the mosque's construction costs. The former mayor of Reykjavik says he believes it is outrageous for the city to give Muslims a site at no cost at a great location in the center of the city, and asks why political and feminist groups are so tolerant of a religion that he says degrades women. The Reykjavík City Council has approved a building permit for the construction of the first mosque in Iceland. The mosque will be built in Sogamýri, an upscale district near downtown Reykjavík on...

European banks would leave London “in very short order” if Britain voted to exit the European Union, a senior Goldman Sachs executive said in a newspaper interview published on Monday. Michael Sherwood, a vice-chairman at the bank, said the prospect of a British withdrawal was a real worry given Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to hold a referendum on the subject if re-elected in 2015. … Goldman’s Sherwood predicted European banks would quickly relocate if Britain did sever its EU ties. “Forget what we would do. Every European firm would be gone in very short order,” he was quoted as...

Iceland said yesterday (22 August) that a recent election that brought euroskeptic parties to power had been interpreted by constitutional advisors as a signal to stop EU accession talks. … Iceland was put on a fast track to EU accession, as it had already taken on board much of the EU legislation as member of the European Economic Area (EEA). It formally applied for EU membership on 16 July 2009 and started accession talks only one year later. The process has taken much longer for any other applicant country. But Iceland is a special case, as the country’s powerful fishing...

Explanation: What's going on behind that mountain? Quite a bit. First of all, the mountain itself, named Kirkjufell, is quite old and located in western Iceland near the town of Grundarfj%C3%B6r%C3%B0ur. In front of the steeply-sloped structure lies a fjord that had just begun to freeze when the above image was taken -- in mid-December of 2012. Although quite faint to the unaided eye, the beautiful colors of background aurorae became quite apparent on the 25-second exposure. What makes Geminids meteor shower -- meteors that might not have been evident were the aurora much brighter. Far in the distance, on...

The mayor of Reykjavik has called for the Icelandic capital to cut its ties with Moscow over Russia's nationwide ban on homosexual propaganda. Last month, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, signed a law that stigmatises gay people and bans giving children any information about homosexuality. In response, Jón Gnarr, who was one of Iceland's top comedian's before becoming mayor of the city in 2010, filed a motion in a city council meeting last week to end his city's relationship with Moscow. Since 2007 Reykjavik and Moscow have been "sister cities".

Mayor of Reykjavík Jón Gnarr wants to formally revise or break off the capital’s political and cultural relations with Moscow over the Russian capital’s stance on gay rights, visir.is reports. Moscow and Reykjavík were made sister cities in 2007. A statement from the city council reads: “In light of the developments concerning the affairs of gay, bisexual and transsexual people that have taken place in Russia over the last few months, the district attorney, Human Rights Office, Office of the Mayor of Reykjavík, and City of Reykjavík chief administrative officer propose amendments or the termination of the collaboration agreement between...

Last week was a really bad week for nations that are friends and allies of America. Three nations that have long been close friends and allies of America received humiliating treatment from the Obama administration. Israel sensibly boycotted Obama’s nuclear summit in Washington. Israel has recently been treated with such hostility by President Obama, the Israeli prime minister avoided what looked like a set up for some Islamic nations dictatorships to turn the occasion into an anti-Israel forum. Thanks to Obama, we have a nuclear proliferation summit in which Israel, a nuclear power, is pushed away – but where Liberia...

Edward Snowden denied Icelandic citizenship after being voted down by its parliament The vote leaves Snowden - believed to be staying in a transit area at a Moscow airport - with one option fewer as he seeks a country to shelter him from U.S. espionage charges. Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, was denied citizenship by Iceland.A bid by Edward Snowden for Icelandic citizenship failed when the country's parliament voted not to debate it before the summer recess, lawmakers said on Friday. The vote leaves Snowden - believed to be staying in a...

Whistleblower Edward Snowden might soon be living up to his frigid last name as Icelandic lawmakers have put legislation on the table that would make the NSA's most wanted man a citizen of the polar country. Member of Iceland's parliament Ögmundur Jónasson first made the proposition this morning, the last day before the 63-member legislative body begins their summer leave. Granting citizenship to Snowden, who admits to revealing key details of U.S. surveillance activities would circumvent the rule that he must be on Icelandic soil to apply for asylum there. The same tactic helped get eccentric chess master Bobby Fischer...

Whistleblower Edward Snowden might soon be living up to his frigid last name as Icelandic lawmakers have put legislation on the table that would make the NSA's most wanted man a citizen of the polar country. Member of Iceland's parliament Ögmundur Jónasson first made the proposition this morning, the last day before the 63-member legislative body begins their summer leave. Granting citizenship to Snowden, who admits to revealing key details of U.S. surveillance activities would circumvent the rule that he must be on Icelandic soil to apply for asylum there.