Free Republic

This advice is worth what you paid for it. You see, after 90 days of not paying on a credit card, the bank charges it off and sells the debt along with hundreds or thousands of others to a collection agency for 1/100th of the value of the original debt. The debt buyer then tries to collect from the debtor and they keep all the money they can collect. They will take you to court and try and garnish your wages for 6 to 8 or 12 years. That’s when you ask the court to force the new debt holder...

It's interesting that Ted Cruz was born a tri-Citizen. People need to realize that Mr. Cruz obtained his Cuban citizen from his father who had not yet naturalized at the time Ted was born. That is a fact. It is being reported that he officially renounced his Canadian Citizenship today but what about his Cuban Citizenship inherited from his father Rafael? Why is this being ignored by the media as well as his supporters? Don't get me wrong, I like Ted Cruz but this issue needs to be addressed.

Sgt. Bowe Robert Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban in 2009 in Afghanistan. Four months ago, his family in Idaho received a letter from their son through the Red Cross. He was still alive. But sadly it looks like Barack Obama is going to leave US POW Sgt. Bowe Robert Bergdahl behind. Obama will leave Bergdahl to rot in Afghanistan after US forces bail out next year.

A strong majority, 63 percent, of Americans now say that same-sex couples should have a legal right to adopt a child, according to a new Gallup poll. About one in three, 35 percent, are opposed. The result is the opposite of 1992, when Gallup first polled the question. Sixty-three percent said homosexual couples should not be legally permitted to adopt in that year. In 1998, that number declined to 57 percent. In 2003 and 2007, Americans were about equally divided on the question. The recent poll was the first time Gallup showed a clear majority supportive of giving same-sex couples...

Cultural civil war can be avoided by getting government out of marriage There is no question that the media, political, and cultural push for gay marriage has made impressive gains. As recently as 1989, voters in avant-garde San Francisco repealed a law that had established only domestic partnerships. But judging by the questions posed by Supreme Court justices this week in oral arguments for two gay-marriage cases, most observers do not expect sweeping rulings that would settle the issue and avoid protracted political combat. A total of 41 states currently do not allow gay marriage, and most of those laws...

BALTIMORE —Authorities have made an arrest in connection with a hit-and-run in west Baltimore on Tuesday that killed a woman and a toddler and injured a 7-year-old girl. Baltimore police said late Wednesday night that they arrested 28-year-old Lucresha Mints in connection with the case. Detectives said the intentional hit-and-run happened at Franklin and Monroe streets just after 9 p.m. Tuesday following an argument between Mints and 25-year-old Latoya Skipwith. Police said the fight got so heated that Mints got into her car, aimed it at Skipwith and floored it, driving down the sidewalk and striking Skipwith, 2-year-old Joshua Carter...

<p>One of the oldest distilleries in the country is warning of what some observers are calling a “whiskey apocalypse.”</p> <p>“Despite the increase in distillation over the past few years,” says Buffalo Trace, “bourbon demand still outpaces supply.”</p> <p>The apocalypse is looming, explains Esquire, because whiskey has become trendy overnight.</p>

Psychiatrists (and Charlie Brooker) offer insightful perspective on news coverage's perpetuation of mass shootings in schools. The bit with the psychiatrist is so perfect, shame is that the media is never ever going to stop covering shootings in this manner because it gets them so many viewers.

Detroit women are turning to abortion at a staggering rate as poverty and crime grip the city, with more than one-third of pregnancies being terminated. According to 2012 figures, the most recent year for which data are available, 31 percent of pregnancies among Detroit residents ended in abortion — compared to about 14 percent for all of Michigan, The Detroit News reported. (Snip) Dr. Susan Schooley, chairwoman of the Department of Family Medicine at Henry Ford Hospital, said the statistics make Detroit look “more like some Third-World country than someplace in the United States.”

I like Putin. I think he is doing a good job. I like him much better than I like Obama. Funny, ain't it - an old anticommunist admiring the former head of the KGB?

An immense explosion has been heard throughout the northern Iranian city of Qazvin, semi-official Fars news agency reported, and many casualties are expected from the blast. Around 1.1 million people live in the city, which is located about 100 miles north of Tehran. The blast may be related to nuclear development in Iran, according to the Los Angeles Times. Iranian officials in the past have strongly denied claims by Mujahedin Khalq Organization, or MKO, a cult-like Iranian exile group, that it has a secret nuclear enrichment facility in Abyek, near the major city, according to the daily. The source of...

Throughout history, religion has sanctioned and fueled the persecution of homosexuality. That dynamic may be drawing to an end. Polls, clerics, and denominations are shifting. Theology is adapting. Resistance to same-sex marriage is dwindling, and there’s no end in sight. For 15 years, the Ethics and Public Policy Center has hosted the Faith Angle Forum, a regular conference on religion and public life. Several weeks ago, the group met again to discuss current issues. Transcripts of the conference have just been posted on EPPC’s website. They underscore the extent of the anti-gay collapse. The first session, led by papal biographer...

New images of cattle rancher Cliven Bundy’s tense standoff with the Federal Bureau of Land Mangement (BLM) on Saturday afternoon reveal how the armed agency’s military operation configured to forcefully engage Bundy cowboys and their supporters who sought to liberate federally confiscated cattle over the weekend. These exclusive images were taken by a GMN photographer positioned right above the action on the Southbound side of Interstate 15 near Bunkerville, Nevada. Despite the BLM being instructed to leave the Bundy Ranch and Gold Butte area earlier that morning, the agency still insisted had a legal right to be there and that...

SteynOnline celebrated Doris Day's 90th birthday on Thursday, and several readers wrote to point out that April 3rd 1924 was also the late Marlon Brando's birthday. You could hardly ask for two more dissimilar stars, so I thought it would be appropriate to make Brando the subject of this week's Saturday film feature: A few years back, The New Yorker published a cartoon in which two ladies discussed the appeal of Marlon Brando: "He plays galoots really well," suggested the first woman. "No, he's not a galoot," says the second. "Like in On The Waterfront, he's much more sensitive than...

Evolve, adapt or die. That is the fate of our current Republican party. We must evolve as a party and find a way to attract millennials to the conservative movement or we will never succeed in realizing our ideals of individual freedom and freedom from government interference. Initially, I received criticism from political pundits for speaking to non-traditional audiences. I was told it was a waste of time to reach out to these audiences, specifically students from both Howard University and University of California, Berkeley. My response is this: I have never been one to watch the world go by...

Wow, I have never seen an UnZot before, it was awesome! 2nd Division Vet, welcome home! BTW, Vet, you out there?

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) may have won the straw poll, but runner-up Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) won the biggest endorsement on the final night of the Conservative Political Action Conference. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the closing speaker at the three-day gathering of activists, touted Cruz and urged conservatives to challenge the GOP’s inside-the-beltway establishment. “Thank you Texas because liberty needs a Congress on Cruz control,” Palin told an audience that erupted into raucous cheers. Cruz, who was elected to the Senate after beating Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — the candidate favored in 2012 by the GOP establishment —...

Last night, I watched the second episode of "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" (the reboot of the 1980 series). It was entitled, "Some of the Things That Molecules Do." One of the things Tyson dealt with in this episode was evolution. Now, I myself do subscribe to the theory of evolution, but I found Tyson's treatment to be offensive, condescending, and smarmy. I thought it was an in-your-face chip-on-the-shoulder response against skeptics of evolution. I thought this was supposed to be a science show, not a political show. But this is just my opinion. What is your opinion? If you missed...

Within a few days, a federal district judge in my home-state of Virginia will likely rule on the constitutionality of the commonwealth’s Marshall-Newman Amendment, which only permits marriage between one man and one woman. Frankly, as a conservative Republican and as a Christian, I hope that the amendment is struck down. Republicans value marriage so highly because it encourages people to live according to conservative values. For instance, by enabling two people to share resources, marriage makes couples more financially secure, thereby reducing their dependence on government. In addition, marriage binds people into permanent, monogamous relationships, enabling couples to more...