Free Republic

Even parts of government that look like a business never get run with the efficiency of a business. Just look at the post office. They buy commercials and tout their services the way private businesses do. They offer a service that customers want. But a real business can't get away with losing billions every year. (I guess in the era of bailouts, I should say shouldn't get away with it.) The post office lost $16 billion last year, despite having all sorts of advantages that most private businesses don't have. They have a near monopoly on first-class mail delivery. You...

Remember back in 2011 when radio broadcaster and end-of-the-world prognosticator Harold Camping predicted the world’s end on October 21 yet the day passed with nary a sign of Armageddon? Last year, the ancient Mayans and a few North American self-proclaimed prophets like Warren Jeffs had various dates in December pegged for the end. Imagine the surprise of their true believers when the sun came up the next day. Did they feel relief? Disappointment? Skepticism (somewhat overdue) toward their leaders? Some no doubt have left the cult while others wait in trepidation for their prophet to predict a new date of...

The picture is actually from November 21, 2012, but the message remains pertinent. This is a jewish baby who got stoned by arabs today, if it was on the other side, it would have being posted by all the media in the world. Now with Facebook we have the power to spread it out all over the net. No, I don't really expect the world to care. I'm beyond that. But here's an important comment in the last hour. Mudar Zahran As a Palestinan myself and a political figure; I could not but fail to fathom why do we humans...

While watching the Grammy awards last Sunday, it occurred to me that American culture has been defined by music ever since the end of World War II. After the Germans and Japanese surrendered in 1945, millions of GI's returned home to marry and begin families. The big-band era of good-time music accompanied that, and romantic singers like Frank Sinatra ruled the day. In the '50s, many young people, tired of conformity, began to rebel. The rise of Elvis Presley illuminated that rebellion. Then the angst kind of died out as Chubby Checker ushered in "The Twist" in 1960, and...

Migrants working in the United States sent a staggering $120 billion back to their families last year, it was revealed today. The amount of money being sent by migrants across the entire world reached $530 billion last year, making it a larger economy than Iran or Argentina, the data from the World Bank showed.

Four years ago, as his first term began, President Barack Obama ditched the name Global War on Terror (GWOT). Instead of fighting Al-Qaida-inspired terrorism around the world, the U.S. would conduct "overseas contingency operations" (OCO). Obama's act of oratorical magic -- poof, the global war has ended -- became an awkward problem, however. Real world events subsequently demonstrated that the word "overseas" was at best misleading, if not outright wrong. Detroit, New York and Portland, Ore., certainly aren't overseas, yet militant Islamist-inspired terrorists tried (and fortunately failed) to bomb all three -- Detroit on Christmas 2009, New York's Times...

With a diminished team at State, Defense, and the CIA, Obama can be Obama. John Brennan, Chuck Hagel, and John Kerry will be confirmed. The three will provide a force-multiplying effect on the Obama foreign policy of disengagement. The chameleon Brennan will be very different from David Petraeus at the CIA; Hagel is no circumspect Leon Panetta; and there was a reason why the appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state was greeted with praise in a way John Kerry’s will not be. The trio is less competent than their predecessors, but also perhaps more representative of a country...

Because in 2013 there's more facing the United States and the rest of the world than just the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling! Although you wouldn't know it by watching and listening to the priorities of the Obama administration, or by the performance of our MIA Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who is apparently on the 21-day disabled list, there are some serious political, social and economic crises brewing both at home and around the globe for 2013. These are links to articles concerning some of these potential flash points from a variety of different sources. Global news you...

There has been much talk of late about America’s “fiscal cliff.” As troubling as our impending (Obama-spurred) economic collapse may be – and it is more troubling than even our most pessimistic economists are willing to admit – I’m even more concerned about fast-mounting tensions worldwide. As the world government ship of fools drifts unmanned amid a sea of unparalleled global volatility, we, her passengers, behold – brewing on the horizon – an economic and foreign relations “perfect storm.” As so often is the case, the hurricane swirls around the Middle East. Historically, the president of the United States has...

Scientists and engineers dream about big advances that could change the world, and then they try to create them. On the following pages, Scientific American reveals 10 innovations that could be game changers: an artificial alternative to DNA, oil that cleans water, pacemakers powered by our blood, and more. These are not pie-in-the-sky notions but practical breakthroughs that have been proved or prototyped and are poised to scale up greatly. Each has the potential to make what may now seem impossible possible. —The EditorsNew Life-Forms, No DNA Required Artificial organisms based on man-made molecules could thrive and evolveDNA is passé....

Here we are- we know how the Book resolves. Love- for neighbors, children, the unborn- and even our enemies wins in the end. Truth and Righteousness are the ultimate victors. I'll fight and advocate until I breathe my last. This was once a great, the greatest of Nations. Losing this election does not make our case any less pure, or right. This country may soon devolve along evident fault lines. The most evident break is rural versus urban. Guess who will eat better.

Russia skewers US election as undemocratic, ‘the worst in the world’By Julian Pecquet - 11/04/12 06:00 AM ET The Russian government is lambasting the U.S. presidential race as an undemocratic spectacle amid growing concerns about the country’s own commitment to free and fair elections. The Foreign Ministry this week accused America of hypocrisy following reports that some U.S. states would turn away international election monitors at the polls. The Kremlin-funded Russia Today television station, meanwhile, is serving up a steady stream of outraged U.S. election coverage, reporting on topics such as the lack of polling places in Indian country and...

WASHINGTON -- The third and final presidential debate Monday raised deeply troubling questions about President Obama's handling of foreign policy in the last four years -- especially on the question of keeping Americans safe in the midst of growing terrorism throughout the world, and resurgent jihadist attacks across the Middle East. Former governor Mitt Romney entered the last debate with a preplanned strategy of calmly addressing the big, overriding issues that threaten our safety and those of our allies. He deliberately toned down both his delivery and his demeanor, as if to demonstrate his confidence that he had already beaten...

The relatively small glaciers that drape the planet's mountains will play an important role in future sea level rise, according to a new study that estimated glaciers' collective size. Researchers calculated the ice thickness for 171,000 glaciers worldwide, excluding the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which hold the bulk of Earth's frozen water. Through a combination of direct satellite observations and modeling, they determined the total volume of ice tied up in the glaciers is nearly 41,000 cubic miles (170,000 cubic kilometers), plus or minus 5,000 cubic miles (21,000 cubic km). If all the glaciers were to melt, global sea...

The four minute segment that appeared on "World News" tonight is part one of a two part series on the Mormon Church.

A U.S. supercomputer has won back the crown in the never-ending battle for the world's most powerful supercomputer. Its victory is the latest milestone marking the steady climb of computing power all across the globe. The Top500 industry list gave its No. 1 ranking to the Sequoia supercomputer housed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California — a spot earned by Sequoia's ability to crunch 16.32 quadrillion calculations per second (16.32 petaflops/s). Such supercomputing power is used by the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration to simulate nuclear weapons tests for older weapons that have been sitting in the U.S. arsenal....

In an interview on CNN in advance talks between Iran and Western countries on Tehran's nuclear program, President Shimon Peres said that “time is running out” for Iran. You cannot provoke the world, assuming the world is made of fools only," Peres told the network. The talks got underway in Moscow Monday, after several inconclusive sessions over the past several months in Baghdad and Istanbul. The talks, with the U.S., Britain, China, Russia, France and Germany on one side of the table and Iran on the other, were “not going well,” an Iranian source quoted by European news agencies said...

In an article yesterday explaining why I switched from the WSJ to the Financial Times, I cited the FT's far more international orientation as a prime reason for the switch. With that in mind, consider this point from yesterday's statement from the Bank of Japan regarding interest rate policy: Regarding risks to the economic outlook, there remains a high degree of uncertainty about the global economy, including the prospects for the European debt problem, the momentum toward recovery for the U.S. economy, and the likelihood of emerging and commodity-exporting economies simultaneously achieving price stability and economic growth. Regarding risks to...

The head of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has called on Arab forces to confront Israel and for the international community to pressure the “Zionist government to withdraw from the land of Palestine.” The statement – the existence of which was revealed Wednesday by the Investigative Project on Terrorism blog – reminds Brotherhood followers of the movement’s decades-long “sacrifices” in efforts to destroy the Jewish state. “On this day, like every year, the Arab and Islamic nations remember the worst catastrophe ever to befall the peoples of the world,” Badie wrote in the text, translated by The Jerusalem Post. “We demand the

After reading Ocean Springs, Mississippi Mayor Connie Moran’s rebuttal to a letter to the editor in our local newspaper, I was compelled to respond. In the spirit of temperance, I am willing to give the Democrat Mayor Moran the benefit of a doubt and assume that she is simply uninformed rather than disingenuous. I will also overlook her condescending tone and her calling those of us who have researched and studied this issue “conspiracy theorists” who are “proliferating” under a “delusion” about the promoters of the tenets of Agenda 21. Putting all that aside, I would like to take a...

"Today, you step forward into a different world," President Obama said, before implicitly giving his own policies credit for changing perceptions of American leadership and his nation's position in the world.

The blue ball represents all of the earths water. Not that much...

And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my...

A nine-year-old Israeli girl was nearly abducted from her parents at Disney World, in Orlando, Florida, during the Pesach holiday. Channel 10 news reported that two Israeli parents and their two children were standing in line for one of the rides in the huge theme park when they discovered that their daughter had disappeared. They immediately ran to the park's security officers, who locked all of the park's exit gates. The parents were taken to a control room, where they were asked to look for the girl on the numerous security cameras.

The headline-grabbing all-white adult killer whale spotted off Russia this month may well be one of a kind. But the sighting may not be the first time he's been caught on camera. Scientists were studying acoustic and social interactions among whales and dolphins off the North Pacific's Commander Islands (map) when the team noticed a six-foot-tall (nearly two-meter-tall) white dorsal fin jutting above the waves—hence the whale's new name: Iceberg. "The reaction from the team for the encounter, which happened on an ordinary day for spotting and photographing the whales, was one of surprise and elation," researcher Erich Hoyt said...

New York's Freedom Tower reaches 100 floorsAFP Relax News – Wed, Apr 4, 2012 **SNIP** The Freedom Tower, scheduled to be opened in 2013, is being built to a height of 1,776 feet (541 meters), which is a symbolic figure reminiscent of the US year of independence. The glass walls have been built to the 70th floor while the concrete floors are poured to the 87th floor, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said on its website. The building is planned to be the tallest in the United States when it is completed.

We are born in this world with hands from heaven. We must live in it, because we dont have the facilities to get or live out of it ( as so it seems). So, our love for one another in this world must be strong through all of our different comprehensions of what we are seeing, hearing, believing, and trying to analyze in order to live with one another.

On Sunday, Japan’s corporate tax reform kicks in and the United States will have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Including average state taxes the corporate tax rate in the United States reaches an astounding 39.2 percent, much higher than the OECD international average marginal tax rate of 25.5 percent. Obama’s own former Council of Economic Advisers chairman, Austan Goolsbee, documented firm sensitivity to taxation. Goolsbee’s paper, published at the University of Chicago, highlighted increased deadweight loss as a significant adverse consequence of corporate taxation. Simply put, taxes create inefficiencies while giving governments more money to spend. Businesses,...

Every day let us pray and ask GOD to help us shave off the learnings of this world that has effected us and many that we love. Though we have to live in this world, we dont have to do the things the world has taught us. There are ways around all situations when GOD is the focus.

Every day let us pray and ask GOD to help us shave off the learnings of this world that has effected us and many that we love. Though we have to live in this world, we dont have to do the things the world has taught us. There are ways around all situations when GOD is the focus.

What places are calling your name for 2012? Whatever your mood, Traveler magazine has a recommendation for you—from the romantic hills of Croatia to the perfect beach in Thailand.

Instead, he maintains better era will start Dec. 21When the current Mayan calendar cycle ends Dec. 21, the world will not cease to exist, says a Mayan elder. "There is a lot of information of what is going to happen on that date. The scholars say that the Mayan calendar ends, the world ends. But we, as Mayans, don't know anything about that," Elder Miguel Angel Chiquin said speaking through a Spanish translator Monday night at Colorado State University-Pueblo. "The great teachings that our ancestors have left us over the centuries, the 21st of December, we will be moving over...

((Reuters) - Iran ordered a halt to its oil sales to Britain and France on Sunday in a move seen as retaliation against tightening EU sanctions, as a team of U.N. inspectors flew to Tehran to press the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear program. The European Union enraged Tehran last month when it decided to impose a boycott on its oil from July 1. Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, responded by threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, the main Gulf oil shipping lane. On Sunday, its oil ministry went a step further, announcing Iran has now stopped...

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.(Mark 16:16)Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:(I Peter 3:20-21)Today in our local church, we celebrate the hopeful end of a long draught…...

Professor Abul Ahrar Ramizpoor was 9 years old when troops from the U.S.S.R. intervened in Afghanistan in 1979. He remembers standing with his family, feeding their small library of books one-by-one into a fire. They had heard stories of the Soviet communists murdering “intellectual” Afghan citizens and Ramizpoor’s father wanted to keep his family safe. Ramizpoor and most of his family survived the 10-year Soviet occupation of his home country. Today he is married with two young children and works as a United Nations human rights officer. He has also started Afghanistan’s first free-market think tank promoting classical liberal values....

Gingrich says Pelosi is living in a fantasy worldBy Alicia M. Cohn - 01/25/12 09:32 AM ET Newt Gingrich said Nancy Pelosi is living in a fantasy world if she thinks she has dirt on him. "She lives in a San Francisco environment of very strange fantasies and very strange understandings of reality," Gingrich said Wednesday as he laughed off the notion that the House minority leader could derail his bid for the GOP presidential nomination. "I have no idea what's in Nancy Pelosi's head," Gingrich said on NBC's "Today" show. "If she knows something, I have a simple challenge:...

If these "ARE" the TRUMPETS??? They should be welcomed when you know your heart is true to love!!!

It is the little-known battle that claimed the lives of thousands of Americans during World War II. But now black-and-white photographs, captured by Life magazine photographer W. Eugene Smith, show the everyday horrors for the U.S. soldiers fighting against Japanese forces on the Mariana Island of Saipan between June 15 and July 9, 1944. Faces etched with the pain of their experiences, war-weary men are captured transporting their wounded comrades or forcing Japanese civilians from their hiding places. The photographs were taken during a battle that claimed the lives of 22,000 Japanese civilians - many by suicide - and nearly...

REPORTING FROM SEOUL -– Even at first glance, the design renderings for the soon-to-be-built pair of apartment towers here pack a wallop: They evoke New York’s World Trade Center towers in mid-explosion in the terrifying moments after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But wait. The Dutch designers say the images have nothing to do with debris flying off two towers that have just been rammed by a pair of commercial airliners. It’s more like a dreamy cloud formation inspired by a gaze up at the sky. Netizens aren’t buying the explanation. In recent days, an international frenzy of criticism...

This FaithIssues video shows the exponential population growth of human beings from a biblical perspective. The bible says in the book of Daniel that in the last days man will travel to and fro and knowledge will increase. And along with that has been a huge population increase. Enjoy this video and share it with your friends. Thank you. Faith Issues Link to video: http://www.youtu.be/KlNYwsAQYzQ

The American phoenix is slowly rising again. Within five years or so, the US will be well on its way to self-sufficiency in fuel and energy. Manufacturing will have closed the labour gap with China in a clutch of key industries. The current account might even be in surplus.

The world's population looks set to smash through the seven billion barrier in the next few days, according to the United Nations. It comes just 12 years since the total reached six billion - with official estimates saying the figure will top eight billion in 2025 and 10 billion before the end of the century. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049451/Room-World-population-reach-7-BILLION-days.html#ixzz1aulmmPWc

Milton Friedman shows the stupidity of tariffs.

"MY Children" ARE " My Obedient Ones"! Do you see my children? Why Enoch was taken up to "BE" with Me ? It was not by his works but through his "TRUE" and "Fatihful" obedience to BE one with Me for as My Word "BE HOLY" "TRULY" this is Christ like to be a Michael( "AS GOD" ) for I AM "HOLY" for this IS My NAME ! Jude 1 1JUDE, A servant of Jesus Christ (the Messiah), and brother of James, [writes this letter] to those who are called (chosen), dearly loved by God the Father and separated (set...

'Arab Spring' Part of Iranian Plot to Dominate By Reza Kahlili For the first time, an official entity of Iran's Islamic government has detailed the horrific goal of the regime: destroy America and Israel as part of the Muslim "awakening" sweeping Africa and the Middle East. That "awakening," which the West has labeled the "Arab Spring," is all part of Iran's messianic complex in which it sees itself as the spearhead of a worldwide revolution in which the Shiite version of Islam will dominate humanity.

A recent diplomatic row with China highlights India’s moves to beef up its influence in the East Sea via more cooperation with Vietnam, observers say. China’s “peaceful rise” has led other regional countries to work together as a counterweight to the new superpower, a development evinced by India’s recent moves to strengthen its presence in the East Sea and its cooperation with Vietnam, political analysts say. When receiving Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna during his four day visit to Vietnam on September 17, President Truong Tan Sang welcomed India’s “Look East” policy. He hailed the active participation of India...

Actress Hayden Panettiere was born and raised in upstate New York, lives in Los Angeles and has no roots in the nation's capital. But she's passionate about securing full representation in Congress for District of Columbia residents. That's what led Panettiere to the John A. Wilson Building, the district's city hall, where Mayor Vincent Gray proclaimed Friday as "Hayden Panettiere Day."

On Thursday, September 22, environmentalists want you to feel guilty about driving cars. In other words, it’s annual “World Car-Free Day.” Instead of celebrating the many ways that the automobile has liberated and improved the lives of ordinary people, environmentalists want to suggest that rejecting the car for a day is somehow virtuous. The governor of Massachusetts is going even further by advocating a car-free week – notwithstanding the governor’s real-world choice to drive around in an SUV this week.

Europe is in disarray, stock markets are plunging, the banking crisis is back in full swing, gold is at record levels, and both the UK and US are self-evidently slipping back towards recession – not since the autumn of 2008 have things looked quite so ominous. We appear to be at another pivotal moment, with Western economies once more staring into the abyss. At a conference in Frankfurt this week, Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, compared events to the Lehman Brothers catastrophe of 2008 and warned that many banks in Europe are essentially bust. His opposite number at...

In the past year alone, First Lady Michelle Obama has spent 42 days on vacation, costing taxpayers upwards of $10 million. $10 million. In taxpayer funds. For vacations. Taking full advantage of Air Force Two (costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars), Michelle has criss-crossed the world to destinations from Spain to Hawaii and Vail, CO to Martha's Vineyard. Indulging in lavish hotels, top-shelf alcohol, and Secret Service-arranged sight-seeing tours, Michelle has not been shy about putting her any and every whim on America's tab. When was the last time you took a six-figure vacation? Probably never, if you're one...