Free Republic

For the purposes of explaining the mess that is the mortgage market today, we might view America as two groups of people – neither of which understands the other. And this dichotomy may well lead us to even bigger problems of the same kind, especially if Democrats find themselves controlling both the White House and Congress come January. The first group is essentially a permanent underclass. These are people who have grown up in generational poverty. Many of them have never known anyone who was gainfully employed and economically self-sufficient. No one has ever modeled for them how to behave...

If you are a futurist and believe that the beast of Revelation 13 is not connected to the Roman Empire of the first century and remains yet to be revealed at the end of the age (i.e., during the seven-year tribulation period, as dispensationalists teach), then you will not look at the mark of the beast through the lens of the New Testament and the historical situation when John was given his vision. Instead, you will understand this mysterious mark as something still hidden in the future. And given the breakneck pace of the advance being made in all forms...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is telling Democrats that she will not support President Bush’s $700 billion bailout of the financial sector unless there is significant Republican support for the controversial plan. The politics of the bailout are tricky and dangerous for both political parties, particularly since it comes weeks before the presidential and congressional elections. As a result, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has effectively sent the message that if she is going to jump off a cliff to rescue Wall Street, she wants House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and George W. Bush holding her hands when she leaps. Pelosi made this...

In what is slowly turning into a endless loop of hacktivism activities, Bill O’Reilly’s BillOreilly.com has been compromised during the weekend, with personal details including passwords in plain text for 205 of the site’s members already leaking across Internet forums, as a response to his remarks regarding Wikileaks as a “one of those despicable, slimy, scummy websites” which recently published private information of Sarah Palin’s private email.

After 18 months spent examining the deteriorating relations between the United States and the Muslim world during the Bush administration, a diverse group of American leaders will release a report in Washington today calling for a complete overhaul of American strategy to reverse the spread of terrorism and extremism. The report recommends more diplomatic engagement, even with Iran and other adversaries, and a major investment in economic development in Muslim countries to create jobs for alienated youth. It calls on the next president to use his inaugural address to signal a shift in approach, to immediately renounce the use of...

When the McCain campaign released the bad news it had accumulated in its post-haste vetting of Sarah Palin, it did so all at once, during the travel holiday weekend of Labor Day. They chose this strategy, as one key campaign adviser promised a New York Times reporter, "We are going to flush the toilet." And what a toilet it is. Just to pick one of the examples that actually relates to the issue of her mode of governance – the ostensible reason she was chosen to be a heartbeat away from the presidency by a man with a 72-year-old ticker...

The McCain campaign and/or the 527 groups on the Republican side should bring back immediately the Reverend of hate, anti-American, and racism back to the debate and not only tie him to Obama but make it in such a forceful and clear way that the majority of voters will not distinguish between the two comes Elections Day. There is not a single issue that it is more damaging to Obama than his 20 years relationship with Wright church of hate and racism. The ads should be powerful and simple. Clips showing the Reverend of Hate trashing America and spouting his...

JIUQUAN, China (Reuters) - China will send its third manned mission into space on Thursday evening on a mission which will include its first space walk, the government said on Wednesday. The Shenzhou VII will lift off from the Jiuquan space centre in a remote desert area of the north-western province of Gansu between 9:07 p.m. (2:07 p.m. British time) and 10:27 p.m. (3:27 p.m. British time), mission spokesman Wang Zhaoyao told a news conference. Fuelling of the rocket has already begun, meaning the launch is "irreversible," the official Xinhua news agency said.

A lemonade from lemons story, and a funny audio.

Apparently Democrats in Congress aren't satisfied with the billions of dollars that will be required to clean up their Fannie and Freddie mess. As the price for passing Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's asset-purchase plan, Democrats are pushing a plan to make it easier for borrowers to renege on their mortgage payments yet still keep their home. As Senator Chris Dodd's Banking Committee Web site explains it, "The only way to really help homeowners keep their homes is to allow borrowers to get the mortgages on their first homes reduced to the market value of those homes through bankruptcy." This may...

HARRISONBURG - Former Gov. Jim Gilmore, a Republican, is not ready to support the Bush administration's proposed $700 billion bailout of America's troubled financial institutions. Gilmore, seeking the seat now held by retiring Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said accountability has to be built into any plan to rescue such firms as insurance giant American International Group Inc. and other lenders saddled with billions of dollars in bad debt. Gilmore, who was in Harrisonburg on Monday to address the Rotary Club, made his remarks with six weeks to go before Election Day. Gilmore is facing another former governor, Mark Warner, on...

Tying poor women's tubes could help taxpayers, legislator says Worried that welfare costs are rising as the number of taxpayers declines, state Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, said Tuesday he is studying a plan to pay poor women $1,000 to have their Fallopian tubes tied. "We're on a train headed to the future and there's a bridge out," LaBruzzo said of what he suspects are dangerous demographic trends. "And nobody wants to talk about it." LaBruzzo said he worries that people receiving government aid such as food stamps and publicly subsidized housing are reproducing at a faster rate than more affluent,...

Please ping this if you miss #Views stats... (To admin ...does the view counter disappearance have any correlation to the drags and slow performance at times?)

From SNL circa 2002. For some reason, I don't think Barry would have the cojones to attempt this.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows Barack Obama attracting 49% of the vote while John McCain earns 47%. It’s the first time in more than two weeks that Obama has enjoyed a lead larger than a single percentage point (see trends). Both men are now viewed favorably by 55% and Rasmussen Markets data currently gives Obama a 52.0% chance of victory (see market results for key states) ...

Scriptorium Lat, “A place for writing” Additions to medieval libraries and monasteries that were designed for the reproduction of ancient texts by scribes and copyists. Many biblical texts were produced in the scriptorium, but the scribes reproductive assignments were not limited to the Scriptures.

People who believe they have the greenest lifestyles can be seen as some of the main culprits behind global warming, says a team of researchers, who claim that many ideas about sustainable living are a myth. According to the researchers, people who regularly recycle rubbish and save energy at home are also the most likely to take frequent long-haul flights abroad. The carbon emissions from such flights can swamp the green savings made at home, the researchers claim. Stewart Barr, of Exeter University, who led the research, said: "Green living is largely something of a myth. There is this middle...

Meet Dara and Sara, Iran's answer to Ken and Barbie. The Muslim dolls have been developed by a government agency to promote traditional values, with their modest clothing and pro-family backgrounds. They are widely seen as an effort to counter the American dolls and accessories that have flooded the Iranian market Toy seller Masoumeh Rahimi welcomed the dolls, saying Barbie was "foreign to Iran's culture" because some of the buxom, blonde dolls have revealing clothing. She said young girls who play with Barbie, a doll she sees as wanton, could grow into women who reject Iranian values. "I think every...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg Weighs Options: Spare City From Financial Ruin Or Leave Now And Save The Nation From Financial Ruin NEW YORK (CBS) ― Mayor Michael Bloomberg has suddenly managed to make speculation about his future look like a tug of war -- stay four more years and spare the city from financial ruin or leave now and save the nation from a similar fate. In recent days there have been pleas for the billionaire businessman to go in opposite directions. One has him changing New York's term limits law to run again and stay in office as the...

McCain up 3 in Virginia.