Free Republic

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday said his new government would be more decisive and tough in its policies towards the West, Islamic Students News Agency (ISNA) reported. "Iran will make you feel regret, if you continue to interfere and behave rudely," Ahmadinejad said while speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a nationwide judicial conference in Tehran. "This time the reply by the Iranian nation will be decisive and harsh," he said in reference to Western criticism of the election that saw him retain power as president for a second six-year term. He attacked US President Barack Obama for meddling...

> The exhibit includes several full suits of armor, helmets and shields, as well as armor built for horses. The pieces, worn by such figures as Emperor Charles V, Philip the Handsome and Philip II, were sometimes used in battle but mostly were created for parades and pageantry. >

The more Obama and the Democrats pour money down the rabbit's hole (portal to a bizzarro world/significantly strange happenings/extremely surreal situations) of debt, the more Americans are saving their own money. As they watch neighbors continue to lose their jobs and homes, they are putting money away at the highest rate in 15 years--6.9 percent. During the housing boom, the savings rate dipped below zero as a result of taking out home equity loans and taking advantage of easy credit. Now it is the highest since December 1993 as Americans lose more confidence in the Obama and Democrats spending spree....

The primary-care doctor is gaining new respect in Washington. Battles may be breaking out left and right over the various health-care bills emerging from Congress, but reformers on both sides agree that general practitioners should be given a central role in uniting the fragmented U.S. medical system. This vision has a name: the "patient-centered medical home." The "home" is the office of a primary-care doctor where patients would go for most of their medical needs. The general practitioner would oversee everything from flu shots to chronic disease management to weight loss, and coordinate care with nurses, pharmacists, and specialists. A...

Courage was considered the prime virtue through most of recorded history among virtually all peoples on the Earth, and has only recently been displaced by liberal Western concepts such as tolerance and comity. Children are no longer instilled with the desire to express courage — moral or otherwise — but instead are taught to value “openness,” “diversity,” “conflict resolution,” and other liberal forms of pacifism designed to create a drab and dreary conflict-free wilderness, a land where no one can be offended, no one holds any strong or difficult positions, a place without danger and fear — in short, a...

WHILE Roe v. Wade ensures legal abortion in every state, the reality of abortion access today increasingly depends upon a woman's socioeconomic status and geographic location. The average cost of an abortion for a woman up to 12 weeks pregnant is $450 to $600 in the Northwest region, and costs increase markedly after 12 weeks. The Hyde Amendment, passed in 1976, ended the use of federal Medicaid funding for abortion, except when the woman's life would be endangered by a full-term pregnancy, or in cases of rape or incest. As the debate about the direction of health-care reform takes off,...

The real crisis is coming… and it’s coming fast. Indeed, it started last year, almost entirely off the radar of the American public. While all eyes were glued to the carnage in the stock market and brokerage account balances, a far more serious crisis began to unfold rocking 30 countries around the globe. I’m talking about food shortages. Aside from a few rice shortages that were induced by export restrictions in Asia, food received little or no coverage from the financial media in 2008. Yet, food shortages started riots in over 30 countries worldwide. In Egypt people were actually stabbing...

Navy Lt. Lawrence Sproul (center), Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Nolen and Lt. Cmdr. John Brooks (right), all of the Multi-National Force - West Health Services Section, look through a care package sent by Sproul's son's kindergarten class, June 16. Photo by Cpl. Meg Murray, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Fwd). AL ASAD AIR BASE — Things have changed throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom, but one thing has not – the support U.S. citizens show their forward-deployed servicemembers. Troops with Multi National Force - West, stationed in Anbar province, continue to daily receive thank-you notes, care packages and well-wishes from places like...

A local couple arrested on domestic assault charges Sunday had an unusual choice of alleged weaponry -- Cheetos. Warrants filed by Cpl. Kevin Roddy, of the Bedford County Sheriff's Department, stated he responded to a call at a home on Pass Road, where 40-year-old James Earl Taylor and Mary S. Childers, 44, were allegedly involved in an argument. According to Roddy's report, the pair became "involved in a verbal altercation" with each other "at which time Cheetos potato chips were used in the assault." "There was evidence of the assault," the report read, "however no physical marks on either party...

NEW YORK (AP) - Regulators on Friday shut down five small banks, boosting to 45 the number of failures this year of federally insured banks. More are expected to succumb in the prolonged recession. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the failed banks: Community Bank of West Georgia, based in Villa Rica, Ga.; Neighborhood Community Bank, located in Newnan, Ga.; Horizon Bank in Pine City, Minn.; MetroPacific Bank in Irvine, Calif.; and Mirae Bank in Los Angeles. Community Bank of West Georgia had $199.4 million in assets and $182.5 million in deposits as of May 15. Neighborhood...

These very strange cloud formations suddenly appeared in the sky around 8:30 p.m. when the sun was setting in Union Square Park in NYC today. Moments before their appearance, people were casually sitting on the steps of the park entrance and carrying on as most New Yorkers do. Suddenly, there were sounds of gasps and one by one people held their cell phones up to the sky to photograph this strange occurrence. These weren't the famed chemtrails, neither the Lenticular clouds that are mistaken for UFO's or the wispy metaphysical Sylphs often spoken about in spiritual circles. These clouds weren't...

TO DRIVE the entire length of Vali Asr, the tree-lined avenue that traverses Tehran from north to south, on an ordinary day is to engage in the fierce battle of wills and patience that is negotiating the Iranian capital’s interminable traffic. To drive it yesterday was to observe a city tentatively daring to breathe after two weeks of tumultuous protest. The street which many Iranians claim is the longest in the Middle East begins at Tehran’s central train station in its southern hinterland, and sweeps north to the craggy Alborz mountains that overlook the city. As it stretches northwards, Vali...

We need to pass this bailout now or else, we need to take over the banks or else, the mortgage companies or else, healthcare or else, climate bill or else in 10 billion years the moon will collide with earth. Wonder if they are going to start claiming saved years for the planets existence after they sign this big tax bill just like they do for jobs.

President Obama's ambitious plan for radically increasing the government's role in the nation's health care system misses one critical detail: There aren't enough primary care physicians in America now and their numbers are declining. That means government won't be able to deliver the expanded health care Obama is promising to millions of uninsured people. With access to primary care already deteriorating in many parts of the country, Obamacare will make it even harder to get a doctor's appointment without a lengthy wait. "The politicians don't talk about who's going to do this extra work," Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of...

Rip Van Winkle famously went to sleep for twenty years and missed the American Revolution. Had he been a modern expert in Catholic-Jewish relations, however, Van Winkle could have awoken from two decades of slumber this week and felt right at home, as long-standing tensions over both Pope Pius XII and the conversion of Jews once again roiled the inter-faith waters. Taken together, these episodes suggest that for all the progress in Catholic-Jewish ties over the last half-century, the relationship is nonetheless stuck in a couple of ruts that just seem to get deeper over time. Current events also illustrate...

In an an interview with Patt Morrison in the Op-Ed Section of today's edition of the Los Angeles Times, California House Speaker Ms. Karen Bass brands conservative talk-radio as "terrorists" Here's the relevant excerpt. For full interview click on URL. Q: How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature's work? Speaker Bass: A "The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: "You vote for revenue and your career is over." I don't know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I...

This is a VIDEO: Human chain in front of anti-riot police

Don Rickles Roasts the Dems... Hello, dummies! Oh my Gosh, look at you. Anyone else hurt in the accident? Seriously, Senator Reid has a face of a Saint - A Saint Bernard. Now I know why they call you the arithmetic man. You add partisanship, subtract pleasure, divide attention, and multiply ignorance. Reid is so physically unimposing, he makes Pee Wee Herman look like Mr. T. And Reid's so dumb, he makes Speaker Pelosi look like an intellectual. Nevada is soooo screwed! If I were less polite, I'd say Reid makes Kevin Federline look successful. Speaking of the Speaker... Nancy...

Dongguan, in the heart of Guangdong province, is one of China’s largest manufacturing and export bases for toys, furniture, shoes and textiles. The situation there is far worse than in the rest of China (see The toy makers of Chenghai). “A lot of factories have closed,” says Mei Hua, 26, a worker from Jiangxi province, now living in the Chenghai district of Shantong. “My parents still live in Dongguan. They say hourly wages have gone down again, though they were already lower than they are here, and it’s not as easy to get a job in a factory as it...

How Old Is Your Church? If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex- monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517.If you belong to the Church of England, your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to remarry.If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560.If you are a Protestant Episcopalian, your religion was an offshoot of the Church of England founded by Samuel Seabury in the...