Free Republic

As the debate over First Amendment Freedom of Religion laws raged back in May with Republican Governors backing down under business pressure in Indiana and Arkansas, the Republican governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, said his state didn't need such a law. The legislature has been acting, though, the House passing a bill to allow government officials to object to gay marriage, the bill now in the Senate as Senate Bill 2. But today Governor McCrory says he will veto the bill. A news release describing it is headlined "Governor McCrory defends Constitution". McCrory speaks of 'sincerely held religious beliefs...

Do you remember back in the 2008 election when Barack Obama derisively said: "... and you go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, like a lot of small towns in the midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they’ve gone through the Clinton admininistration and the Bush administration and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter and they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them...

I am not making this up. The Official Amtrak Merchandise store. (click the pic)

Game of Thrones: The Musical. For Red Nose Day on NBC, Coldplay and the cast of Game of Thrones join forces for the band's most important project yet: a musical for HBO’s Game of Thrones.

What Is the Deepest Root of Sin? It’s Not in Your Wallet and It’s Much Closer Than You Might Think By: Msgr. Charles PopeIn polling friends as to what they think is the deepest root of all sin, I got three main answers. One was a shrug indicating no answer at all (i.e., “I dunno”). Another was to refer to Scripture: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils (1 Tim 6:10). I’ll discuss below why this is an inadequate answer. The third main response was that original sin (and the concupiscence that followed) is the source of all of our other...

WOW Louisville Courier-Journal's vote count: Kentucky governor primary Last updated: May 19, 2015, 9:49 p.m. EST Matt Bevin 32.9% 70,479 James Comer 32.9% 70,396 Hal Heiner 27.1% 57,948 Will Scott 7.2% 15,364 http://datacenter.courier-journal.com/projects/2015-ky-primary-elections/

Update 5/15/15: I've clarified some of my findings at the bottom of this post. I've owned the 2015 MacBook for just over a month now. I've had a remarkably good time using it so far, and just yesterday I decided to upgrade my installation of Windows 8.1 to the Windows 10 Insider Preview. I had tried it out a couple months earlier through a virtual machine, and at the time I wasn't sure I wanted it as my main operating system. But after taking the plunge, I'm very happy to be using it. I wanted to record a few thoughts...

Do you have a recommendation for a good book on Texas history?

"DISK BOOT FAILURE - Insert system disk and press enter" Doing just that produces no result. I've tried booting with the system disk I used to install W7 on this machine, and with two repair disks created on other 32 bit W7 machines, and get the "This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible" message with them all. I have a Windows PE install on a flash drive which will boot and let me in to look at the drives. I've been able to copy all the files from the boot partition to another USB drive, and run chkdsk...

Is it me or is this dude creepy looking? I just saw that liquor commercial (can't remember the details of the comm) and they show him at the end of the ad where he laughs and his face doesn't move. I remember him in a movie (the title escapes me right now)with Kurt Russell in which he was a psycho cop preying on Russell's wife and he was creepy then. Is this guy on some kind of facial drug?

Does anyone have any idea what this is all about? Some are suggesting it is for the Special Olympics which raised $30,000 - but 115 trucks has to be carrying much more than $30,000 worth of donations.

I've looked and been unable to find any news story that says whether the six cops who were involved in moving Mr. Grey were Black, White, Hispanic (or, I suppose, other). It's my understanding that five of the six have given statements to the investigators and one, presumably for Fifth Amendment reasons, hasn't. The race of the cops is obviously relevant but i haven't seen anything that says what race(s) they are. The wisdom and knowledge of all Freepers will be gratefully accepted.

Reporting that his Lie-Barry is coming to Chi-Iraq.

What do we all know about every single politician? That they are corrupt. I know, every once in awhile we come across one that we feel good about. But then we do background research and find this or that, and we shrug and say, “yeah, well, politics is a dirty business, you’ve got to take the best you can get.” And it’s true, politics IS a dirty business. You need money and influence to run and get elected, and money and influence aren’t free. Specifically, they want payback, and lots of it. So principled politicians try to show that their...

Seems Hillary is just getting BLASTED on Twitter. Share these great memes on Facebook, Instragram, and everywhere else!!

PC beats BU to win its first NCAA Hockey Championship. FYI -- PC is one of of the few Catholic colleges that is still an a Catholic college.

Apple Watch reviews were published yesterday. The majority of reviewers thought the Apple Watch was a great device and has potential to be a game changer in how they use technology. The problem is that unless you read every review, you wouldn't have known that. Instead, the collective conclusion from the web yesterday was that the Apple Watch flopped with early reviews. There were 21 Apple Watch reviews published, but the 4 reviews that were more critical of the device got the most attention, leaving the 14 glowing reviews behind. Meanwhile, most of the important features of the Watch such...

My first-ever vanity post... After some amount of web-surfing, it sounds like the IRS is claiming that processing tax returns and issuing refunds may be expected to take longer than normal. They blame this variously on a long-ago shutdown , Obamacare, and lack of funding. So I'm soliciting actual FReeper experiences with 2014 tax refunds and how long it took to get them. If you filed and received your refund, I'd be interested to know roughly when you filed and how long it took. If you filed and HAVEN'T yet received a refund, same thing. Full disclosure: I e-filed last...

Language warning....

I was just thinking about the water problems in California. Governor Moonbeam and his fellow travelers opposed a series of water projects in the '70s that would have lessened the severity of the current water shortage in California. Then they invite in a few million illegal aliens. Now he wants to regulate how long people can take showers? They have turned into Soap Nazis.