Free Republic

O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason. --"Julius Caesar," Act III, Scene 2 What a surfeit of surreal scenes have been pouring out of little Ferguson, Missouri, these past few weeks -- as if they'd never end. Amazing. Some of us couldn't stop watching the unending spectacle, painful as it was. Goethe said it: "There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." Or more mesmerizing. Was this thing ever going to end? It didn't look like it for a while there, as if there were an endless supply of bad decisions in...

...So, while my Journal of Ohio Archaeology paper concludes rather pessimistically that there are no documented early American Indian traditions that speak reliably to the original purpose and meaning of the ancient earthworks, there is no reason to believe that traditional stories of contemporary tribes with historic roots in the eastern Woodlands could not include themes and elements that echo, if faintly, traditions of the Hopewell culture. And if that’s conceivable, and I think it is, then it would be worthwhile to look for them... One reason why it’s important to take seriously what American Indians have had to say...

SEATTLE - Popular online retailer Zulily is planning to add about 900 jobs in central Ohio as part of new tax credit deal from the state. The Seattle-based company says most of the positions at the new call center will be in customer service. The move is expected to generate $28 million by 2017. This comes in addition to Zulily’s existing facility in Obetz. As part of a tax agreement, the Ohio Development Services Agency says the company will receive a 75%, 12-year tax credit in exchange for operating in Ohio for at least 15 years. Zulily is an online...

FULL TITLE: Abortion clinic quits fight to keep doing procedures, says state is 'methodically' trying to close all providers COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An abortion clinic that was fighting the state of Ohio to remain open has decided it will stop performing surgical abortions. A spokeswoman for the Lebanon Road Surgery Center in Sharonville near Cincinnati said Wednesday that it will continue to provide the first step consultations in the two-day process for obtaining an abortion in Ohio.

Between 1989 and 2010, Congress rejected nearly 700 cap-tax-and-trade and similar bills that their proponents claimed would control Earth’s perpetually fickle climate and weather. So even as real world crises erupt, President Obama is using executive fiats and regulations to impose his anti-hydrocarbon agenda, slash America’s fossil fuel use, bankrupt coal and utility companies, make electricity prices skyrocket, and “fundamentally transform” our economic, social, legal and constitutional system. Citing climate concerns, he has refused to permit construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and blocked or delayed Alaskan, western state and offshore oil and gas leasing and drilling. He’s proud that...

Abortionist Martin Haskell has been ordered to close an abortion clinic by the same judge who ordered a "stay" to keep it open. Stand True Ministries' Bryan Kemper -- who was in the courtroom during the hearing -- told LifeSiteNews that Hamilton County Judge Jerome Metz said the burden of proof was on Haskell's Sharonville, Ohio clinic to show that closing the clinic would cause harm to women. The ruling overturns a stay Metz issued in January that prevented the Ohio Department of Health from shutting down Haskell's clinic. Image Pro-abortion activists rally outside the courtroom Aug. 15, 2014 as...

A man who was carrying an air rifle in an Ohio Wal-Mart told the police officers that fatally shot him that the gun was “not real,” according to a family member. John Crawford was shot by police Tuesday evening at a Beavercreek store. The Ohio attorney general’s office announced Thursday that he was merely carrying a brand of air rifle that Wal-Mart sells. Another shopper, 37-year-old Angela Williams, collapsed and died as she scrambled to get away after police fired at Crawford. The shooting occurred after police responded to 911 calls about a man carrying a rifle. In one of...

WASHINGTON, DC – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement on U.S. operations in Iraq: “The president’s authorization of airstrikes is appropriate, but like many Americans, I am dismayed by the ongoing absence of a strategy for countering the grave threat ISIS poses to the region. Vital national interests are at stake, yet the White House has remained disengaged despite warnings from Iraqi leaders, Congress, and even members of its own administration. Such parochial thinking only emboldens the enemy and squanders the sacrifices Americans have made. The president needs a long-term strategy – one that defines success...

President Obama made a surprise video appearance at the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland on Saturday. Joining Greg Louganis, Lance Bass, the Pointer Sisters, and Broadway’s Andrea McArdle and Alex Newell in celebrating the event, Obama said, “Since 1982 the Gay Games have given lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender athletes and supporters around the world a chance to come together to compete, celebrate, and inspire others.” President Obama, who is vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, noted how the country has changed since the games began in 1982. “We’ve also seen America change in that time, even since...

A Kent State University associate professor of history is standing by his call for “jihad” and statement that Israel is “a regime that is the spiritual heir to Nazism.”In an “open letter” to “academic friends of Israel,” Julio Pino accuses the pro-Israel academic community of being “directly responsible for the murder of over 1,400 Palestinian children, women and elderly civilians.”In his statement that quotes former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and compares the academics to alleged Nazi collaborator and philosopher Martin Heidegger, Pino writes “Your names are scrawled on every bullet fired, bomb dropped, body buried and burnt forehead in Gaza. May...

WESTLAKE, Ohio – Officers responding to a call of suspicious behavior found Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald and a woman who was not his wife in a parked car at 4:30 a.m. on a Saturday in 2012, police records here show. Nothing inappropriate happened in the car, FitzGerald, now the Democratic nominee for governor, said Friday in a telephone interview after a campaign stop in Cincinnati. FitzGerald, a former FBI agent, prosecutor and mayor of Lakewood, was not charged with a crime. He said the woman with him was a friend visiting from Ireland as part of a larger delegation...

Paul ranks alongside ultra-liberal Dennis Kucinich as having the weakest foreign policy stances in the U.S. House. Tuesday, Paul and Kucinich were two of only 12 House members that voted against imposing new sanctions on Iran. The resolution that would penalize foreign companies from selling oil to Iran passed 412-12. "This will unify the Iranian people against us," Paul incorrectly predicts.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Columbus Public Health confirms a person is undergoing testing and has been quarantined for the deadly Ebola virus. A spokesperson says they’re working with the CDC to learn the preliminary results of those tests. CPH says the person recently traveled to West Africa, where an outbreak has left nearly 900 people dead. The virus can be transmitted through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. According to the CDC, symptoms include sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash,...

Tests conducted by both the state and federal Environmental Protection Agency showed high levels of toxin levels in two neighborhoods in Toledo, Mayor D. Michael Collins said early Monday. Instead of isolating the two neighborhoods, the Mayor said he'll keep the ban on drinking or using tap water in the entire city of Toledo until additional retests are completed. He declined to provide specifics on the name of neighborhoods in question and how high the toxin levels are. "A majority of areas are satisfactory, but we have two areas of concern," he said at a news conference. As many as...

Toxins possibly from algae on Lake Erie fouled the water supply of the Ohio city of Toledo Saturday, forcing officials to issue warnings not to drink the water and the governor to declare a state of emergency as worried residents descended on stores, quickly clearing shelves of bottled water. The city advised about 400,000 residents in Toledo, most of its suburbs and a few areas in southeastern Michigan not to brush their teeth with or boil the water because that would only increase the toxin's concentration. Showers and baths are fine, the mayor said. Toledo issued the warning just after...

<p>Gov. John Kasich says water will be flowing into the Toledo area from all corners of Ohio to help the 400,000 people who are being warned not to drink the city’s water.</p> <p>Toledo’s mayor says water is coming from Akron, Cincinnati and even a prison near Columbus.</p>

Governor John Kasich has issued a state of emergency for Lucas County and surrounding communities due to algae toxins detected in the water during routine testing. Do not drink the water. Alternative water should be used for drinking, making infant formula, making ice, brushing teeth and preparing food. Pets should not drink the water. Do not boil the water.. Boiling the water will not destroy the toxins. It will increase the concentration of the toxins. Consuming water containing algal toxins may result in abnormal liver function, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, numbness or dizziness. Seek medical attention if you feel you have...

The Post articles on the House Republican revolt over the border bill and and the role Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) played in making it happen have nuggets of information that show why I’ve been harping about the possibility of  impeachment since June.As the article on the revolt notes, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his allies said they had the votes to pass a border bill that not only speeded up deportations but also had a $659 million price tag, which was considerably less than the $3.7 billion President Obama asked for. And then the bill was pulled from the floor...

Twelve states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration on Friday seeking to block an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to regulate coal-fired power plants in an effort to stem climate change. The plaintiffs are led by West Virginia and include states that are home to some of the largest producers of coal and consumers of coal-fired electricity. The suit was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The other plaintiffs are Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming. The E.P.A. rule, announced by President Obama on June...

After conservative icon and talk radio host Rush Limbaugh blasted House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) for declaring that impeaching Obama was off the table, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin praised Limbaugh for understanding the importance of not emboldening Obama to act even more lawlessly. "Rush is right," she wrote in a Wednesday Facebook post. "The GOP wants to take impeachment off the table? When will you learn liberals won't hate you less if you play nice in these tumultuous times? No matter how polite, complacent, and complicit you are, Obama will continue to harm our Republic and make you impotent....