Free Republic

SAN ANTONIO -- A man is dead and another is recovering in the hospital after police say they were shot while trying to steal an SUV from outside a home in an affluent neighborhood. San Antonio police said the shooter, who was visiting family at a home in the 600 block of Lightstone Drive in Stone Oak, heard the men breaking into his Toyota 4Runner around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. The 25-year-old man stepped outside with a gun, confronted the men who were rifling through his vehicle and opened fire, according to a police report. He later told police that he...

After watching the viral video of the Obamaphone lady in October, I thought to myself — we are in a lot of trouble. It forced me to consider just how literate are the voters and people of the US. It’s very hard to tell given so few studies nail it down to specifics. For some reason the federal government does not want to get an exact account of how many illegal immigrants we have or how much illiteracy there is in the US. The census bureau delves into high school graduation levels, but not literacy rates. Perhaps because literacy and...

During 2012, virtually every aspect of American life was subjected to government meddling, ranging from how many calories you consume to how efficient your dishwasher is. These rules affect us in a variety of ways. Most increase the cost of living, others hinder job creation, and many erode our freedom. Not all regulations are unwarranted, of course. But increasingly, the rules imposed upon us by the government have less to do with health and safety and more to do with lifestyle -- substituting the judgment of bureaucrats for our own. Which are the worst? There is no objective standard to...

Authorities tied the teenage cousins killed by a homeowner after they broke into his Little Falls, Minn., house Thanksgiving Day to a similar break-in the night before. Prescription drugs from the earlier burglary were found in the red Mitsubishi Eclipse that Nicholas Brady, 17, and Haile Kifer, 18, drove when they broke into Byron David Smith's home north of Little Falls, Morrison County Sheriff Michel Wetzel said Wednesday, Nov. 28. Deputies are now reviewing police reports to see if other burglaries are connected to the teens.

<p>Hurricane Sandy brought out the worst yesterday in some sleazy New Yorkers, who looted stores and homes across the city.</p> <p>Some posed as Con Ed workers to dupe their victims.</p> <p>Police arrested more than a dozen looters in the Rockaways and Coney Island, which had been evacuated, and stood guard outside ravaged stores at the South Street Seaport. “This morning when they told us the water receded, I walked back to the house to feed [my pets],” said Eric Martine, 33, a cabby who lives in Brooklyn’s Gerritsen Beach. “Guys were looting, pretending they were Con Ed and holding people up. It was sick.” Residents said police warned them to beware of crooks pretending to be utility workers...</p>

(CNSNews.com) – Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) said Tuesday the first presidential debate will “be the biggest tap dance since Fred Astaire,” and that neither political party in Washington is willing to tackle the country’s fiscal problems. "You better get yourself a cave in the Adirondacks," he mirthfully said when asked what would happen if politicians did not deal with the debt. Simpson, who along with Erksine Bowles co-chaired the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, appeared at George Washington University for an event on the upcoming election and the approaching fiscal cliff. After the event CNSNews.com asked Simpson...

(CNN) – A new survey indicates President Barack Obama moved up four points following the Democratic National Convention last week, and now has a six point advantage over his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

The media keeps showing its rear end. Let me just make that clear. If you are a competent reporter, I’m not sure how you cannot be embarrassed by the majority of those in your profession right now covering politics. From Mark Halperin, to Jake Tapper, to Chuck Todd, more journalists are actually now admitting just how pliable the media is when it comes to Barack Obama’s spin. All week long, as the economy deteriorates, most every anchor at most every news outlet, most every editorialist in most every paper, and most every “centrist” and liberal pundit has been pointing out...

China’s attempt at a high-speed rail network is fraught with corrupt officials, impossible costs, and deadly safety failures. But U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wishes America would follow it as a model. LaHood told The Cable last week: The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million. In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don’t do it that way in America. His comments are...

~snip~ Since May, several dozen catalytic converters have been stolen from vehicles in the Milwaukee area by thieves who have targeted the equipment for its scrap metal value. Converters contain platinum, or palladium, and rhodium. There's only a fraction of an ounce of platinum in them, but once processed, the metal is worth about $1,450 an ounce. Thieves get from $50 to $200 for a converter when they sell it to a metal recycler. Some of the thefts have occurred in the daytime, while vehicles were parked at restaurants and hotels. Other thefts have occurred at night - sometimes on...

Alec Baldwin, Stanley Tucci and a bunch of lobbyists are crawling all over Capitol Hill attempting to steal more money out of our pockets to fund "artists" who don't have the talent to survive on private donations and earnings. What a racket: Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, the premiere lobbying org for arts groups, said that while "some of the rhetoric is negative," the records of Santorum and Romney both reflect some support for arts funding. He's encouraged by President Obama's request to increase funding for the NEA to $155 million, restoring it to the...

When two alleged teenage thieves tried to flee a Best Buy, their escape attempts - dodging cars and wielding a small samurai sword - played out like something from the game systems they were trying to steal. Doug Kennedy and his son were heading toward the store on Independence Boulevard on Wednesday night when he saw two or three youths getting away with merchandise. A store employee was screaming after them. "I just thought, no, you can't do this," Kennedy said Thursday. The Virginia Beach resident tackled one. As he tried to pin him down, one of the teen's hands...

LIBERTY COUNTY, TX (KTRK) -- When military men and women leave home to serve the country, they expect to return to their homes once their tour of duty is over. But a military couple in the Liberty County town of Splendora almost lost their home to squatters who've been arrested for more than just taking over the couple's house. It was an unusual call for the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, but even more disturbing for homeowner Hollie Burbank. "It makes me sick," Burbank said. The home that's been in Burbank's family for three generations had some uninvited guests all while...

SNIP Mitt Romney was NOT primarily a venture capitalist. A venture capitalist invests in early-stage businesses with the hope that they grow and prosper. These early-stage businesses are often risky investments. Though most ultimately fail, some succeed spectacularly making the risks worthwhile. Apple Computer and Google are two such examples. This is what Mitt Romney means when he says some investments succeed and some fail. By contrast, Mitt Romney was primarily what is affectionately known as a vulture investor. Bain Capital invested in failing companies with the intention of either restructuring their business or stripping the business and selling its...

RUSH: Folks, I realize this is serious out there, and at some point I may have to issue a fatwa to stop this. If I sense it's really getting out of hand, of course I'll take action. I'll stand up and I'll just tell everybody here involved, "Cut this out and get serious." I don't want to bleed on any of you. It's unbecoming (sigh), but you don't know what being surrounded by negativism is. I am surrounded by it. It takes a concerted effort on my part every day to avoid it, to not be affected by it. I...

 If truly dispicable acts are now the norm for PayPal (EBAY), Scott Thompson should kick off his new Yahoo (YHOO) gig with a dog fight. Sharing a heartbreaking account of a buy gone horribly wrong, Helen Killer of the hilarious Etsy send-up Regretsy posted an email from a reader who saw a treasured item destroyed at the behest of PayPal. Reader Erica writes in describing a recent sale she made to a buyer in Canada. The item in question was a pre-WWII French violin worth $2,500. The buyer, however, disputed the label -- which isn't uncommon, Erica claims, but shouldn't...

Kevin Hayes feels like the luckiest man alive. Three years ago, the 43-year-old Melbourne man was in Canberra and lost the $5000 Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR camera his wife bought him for his birthday, and he had all but given up hope of getting it back when he found out about the website stolencamerafinder.com M The site helped him track the lost or stolen camera to a man who works at a Sydney tattoo parlour a few weeks ago and NSW Police have since collected it. Hayes expects to have his camera back any day now, and NSW...

At my business there is a large utility panel(telephone service I think) on the ground in the yard by the curb. All around it are 3 foot poles sticking up from the ground to protect it from cars that might bump into it. last week there was a work crew in the street and they bumped into the poles with a back hoe and knocked a bunch of them crooked. Some were barely still in the ground. I just saw some yahoo in a beat up car pull up to the curb and STEAL THE DAMN POLES! CONCRETE AND ALL!...

BUENOS AIRES–Argentina's senate passed a controversial bill Thursday that gives the government control over newsprint, boosting the power of President Cristina Kirchner's administration in its battle against the opposition media. The legislation gives the state control over Papel Prensa SA, the country's leading producer of paper used to produce newspapers.

Investor George Soros's family fund bought about $2 billion of European bonds formerly owned by MF Global Holdings Ltd., the debt that helped force the securities firm to file for bankruptcy protection Oct. 31, according to people close to the matter. Under the direction of MF Global's former chief executive, Jon S. Corzine, the firm accumulated $6.3 billion of short-term debt issued by various European nations, mostly from Italy, in a bid to boost trading profits. Over the summer, this debt led to nervousness by investors, regulators and ratings companies, resulting in the firm's collapse just over a month ago.