Free Republic

Los Angelenos will have lots of time on the roads this afternoon to contemplate the midterm elections when President Obama flies in for one of those “Hollywood fundraisers” news outlets love to sniff at — especially this one, at the home of Gwyneth Paltrow. Gwyneth’s Brentwood neighborhood was festooned with Obama Drone non-fan posters in anticipation of the president’s visit — tickets to which raised $1K to $32K per head for the Democratic National Committee, depending on whether the ticket holder wanted to actually get dinner as well as a photo with Obama. Press already is reporting that Obama plans...

A turkey on Highway 1 caused a Canadian motorcycle rider to crash sometime early Monday, and the man told investigators he then walked to a coastal bluff and jumped off, naked. The 27-year-old Alberta man had shed his clothing as he walked and was found, nude and seriously injured, on rocks about 40 feet below a coastal bluff in Salt Point State Park. The CHP is investigating the man’s crash and a Sonoma County sheriff’s investigator is looking into what happened afterward, including whether he was trying to die or hurt himself or acted because of his injuries, said CHP...

"Yet some scientists who have long studied Ebola say such assurances are premature — and they are concerned about what is not known about the strain now on the loose. It is an Ebola outbreak like none seen before, jumping from the bush to urban areas, giving the virus more opportunities to evolve as it passes through multiple human hosts. Dr. C.J. Peters, who battled a 1989 outbreak of the virus among research monkeys housed in Virginia and who later led the CDC’s most far-reaching study of Ebola’s transmissibility in humans, said he would not rule out the possibility that...

'In 1976 I discovered Ebola, now I fear an unimaginable tragedy' Peter Piot was a researcher at a lab in Antwerp when a pilot brought him a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had fallen mysteriously ill in Zaire...

As she weighs another bid for the White House, Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday she has a "grandmother glow" that's fueling her campaign for female empowerment and gender equality around the world. Speaking to a national convention of female real estate professionals, the former secretary of state and potential 2016 Democratic presidential contender called on business and political leaders to close the gap in wages and leadership positions between men and women. Clinton, who joked that she felt that glow after the recent birth of her first grandchild, Charlotte, said she wanted all women to grow up in a world...

An Oklahoma man who had been suspended from his job was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the gruesome beheading of a co-worker, who was attacked from behind as the man sought revenge, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Alton Nolen, 30, could face the death penalty for Thursday’s deadly attack on Colleen Hufford, 54, at the Vaughan Foods plant in Moore. He also faces two assault charges.

THE WHITE HOUSE — In an interview with 60 Minutes on CBS that aired Sunday, President Obama called on the leaders of ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, to exercise more moderation and inclusivity in their beheadings of infidels. The president was responding to a question from 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, who asked whether the administration was specifically addressing the beheadings and mutilations of thousands of Yazidi, Kurdish and other minority groups in northern Iraq and eastern Syria. Read more: http://www.duffelblog.com/2014/09/president-calls-isil-moderate-inclusive-beheadings/#ixzz3EkBcq1BU

The leaders of a new, Christian movement think they’ve solved a centuries-old mystery: why men are absent from church. But their answer isn’t politically correct. They believe Christianity has become feminized. There are generally more women than men in every type of church, in every part of the world, according to church growth experts like Patrick Johnstone, author of Operation World. A traditional explanation is that women are more spiritual than men. But the leaders of this new movement suggest that the church’s music, messages and ministries cater to women. One of the leaders is David Murrow, author of a...

California Governor Jerry Brown, a self-proclaimed crusader against climate change and a major backer of electric cars, signed a bundle of bills this weekend aimed at tipping the scales further in favor of zero-emission vehicles. The main piece of legislation, called the Charge Ahead California Initiative, sets a target of putting at least a million zero-emission or near-zero-emission vehicles on the state’s roads by 2023. To get there, the initiative asks that the state Air Resources Board devise a financial plan that would make it easier for low-income drivers to buy electric cars by extending extra credits to them so...

Live coverage of Jens Voght's attempt to break the one hour bicycling record.

In Boyers, Pa., a recently opened 2,000-sq.-ft. data center has been purpose-built to protect against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), either generated by a solar storm or a nuclear event. balticservers data center

On ESPN’s “SportsCenter” earlier this week, espnW columnist Kate Fagan argued that the big picture in the controversy surrounding former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice’s domestic violence allegations. According Fagan, the problem needs to be tackled at the so-called grassroots level when men are in their formative years. “Well, I think right now we're talking so much about firing Goodell or punishments. You know, should it be a three game, a two game, a six game, a full year ban? But I think that's a little reactive and not proactive. Domestic violence is something that happens in anger, in...

(CNN) -- Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry is taking an indefinite leave of absence, the NBA team's CEO announced Friday, days after a report surfaced about comments Ferry allegedly made about a free agent player. Ferry made the remarks about Luol Deng during a June conference call about prospective players, according to a letter obtained by CNN affiliate WSB. J. Michael Gearon Jr., a minority owner of the Hawks, wrote that in that letter that Ferry described some of Deng's negatives, stating that "he has a little African in him. Not in a bad way, but he's like a...

Right now in the United States, there are more 23-year-olds than people of any other age. This seemingly trivial fact of demographics is an anomaly more than 50 years in the making. According to U.S. Census data, since 1947, the most represented age in the United States has always been a member of the group born in the 20 years after WWII, the baby boomers. In 1950, it was age 3. In 1990, it was 29. In 2010, it was 50. [snip]

Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson is selling his controlling interest in the team, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced Sunday. In July, Levenson self-reported an email he wrote to the team's co-owners and general manager Danny Ferry in August 2012 that he called "inappropriate and offensive." The league commenced an independent investigation after being made aware of the comments.

A recently recorded video is circulating online of Victoria Osteen, wife of megachurch speaker and author Joel Osteen, calling on congregants at Lakewood Church to ‘do good for your own self’ because obedience, the church and worship are not for God as much as for self-happiness. “I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we’re not doing it for God—I mean, that’s one way to look at it—we’re doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we’re happy,” she declares in the undated 36-second clip with her husband standing by her side...

Epidemiology and surveillance On 26 August 2014, the Ministry of Health, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Equateur Province. The index case was a pregnant woman from Ikanamongo Village who butchered a bush animal that had been killed and given to her by her husband. She became ill with symptoms of EVD and reported to a private clinic in Isaka Village. On 11 August 2014, she died of a then-unidentified haemorrhagic fever. Local customs and rituals associated with death meant that several health-care workers were exposed...

A question for the aviation buffs on this forum. I was told at one time, that the F-16 was an inherently unstable aircraft, and that without assistance from it computers, no human pilot would be able to fly the aircraft. Then I saw this video, (see link below), of a quarter scale, radio controlled F-16, in the colors of the Royal Dutch Air Force demonstration team. I would think that there is not enough room in the model or money in the owner’s bank account to include flight control computers. So my question is; “How is the unstable F-16 model...

The jihadist who beheaded the American journalist James Foley is believed to be British born militant from London who calls himself John, it can be revealed. Intelligence agents in the UK and United States are urgently looking into reports that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighter, whose brutal actions shocked the world, is the ringleader of group of British jihadists who have specialised in hostage taking. Based in the Isil stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, ‘John’, is described as a well-educated, intelligent, but highly committed member of the extremist terror group.

If Saudi Arabia does become the next ISIS target, it may be even easier than the group’s push into Iraq. A groundswell of ideological support combined with wide-reaching corruption could pave the way for ISIS’ penetration into the country. Saudi Arabia, unlike Iraq, is almost 90 percent Sunni. Iraq’s growing resistance to ISIS comes largely via the swelling ranks of a Shiite militia, the Mahdi army, with Shiite fighters returning from Syria to defend their country against the radical Sunni insurgency that is sweeping the nation. Saudi is also a major source of support for ISIS. Since the latest offensive...