Free Republic

When the debate was raging over Barack Obama's "stimulus program" back in February, one of the most intriguing points in the debate was brought to the table by Congressman Mark Kirk. He brought up the issue of exactly how the government raises its money, and asked the very simple question: Where will it come from? I wrote about this subject after listening to a radio interview with Kirk: On February 10, 2009, Congressman Mark Kirk appeared on the Roe Conn show on WLS in Chicago. He began expressing this same concern about where we were going to get the money....

Ever since two middle-aged men with Japanese passports were caught in Italy this month trying to smuggle a purported $134.5 billion in United States government bearer bonds into Switzerland, the Internet has been abuzz with theories. Was the Japanese government, or some other creditor nation, secretly trying to dump Treasury bonds to drive down the value of the dollar? Had the Italian mafia stolen the equivalent of 1 percent of the American gross domestic product, using the paper, which supposedly was instantly convertible into cash, to run a giant scam? Adding spice was the whole Bond — James Bond —...

Some of our most damaging mistakes originate from the simple belief that something is an absolute good. The harm of the environmental movement (or at least the harm done by the most extremist groups) is due to the belief that “nature” is an absolute good. Likewise, much of the nanny-state meddling originates in the related mistake: the belief that “health” is an absolute good. Time and again, people have been led into the most bizarre theories whenever they postulate that something is an absolute good. The truth is quite simple: All values are relative, and all are subject to a...

Are we experiencing the worst economic downturn since the Depression? In most California cities, it looks that way. In most Texas cities, probably not. That's one story emerging from a new Brookings Institution analysis examining the performance of the nation's largest metropolitan areas over the course of the current recession. Notwithstanding the attention lavished on the national economic figures emanating from Washington each week, we're not undergoing one uniform recession nationwide. The effects on our 100 largest metropolitan areas -- the combined city/suburban labor and housing markets that collectively represent three-quarters of the U.S. economy -- have ranged from glancing...

Friday June 26, 2009 is a day that will live in infamy: It was the day that the United States government enacted its own Pearl Harbor and 9/11 on the its own people, a.k.a. the “C(r)ap and Trade bill.” Back in 1994 NY Democrat Rep. Charlie Rangel (who was just as detestable then as he is now) said when the Republican-led Congress wanted tax relief: “It’s not ‘spic’ or ‘nigger’ anymore. They say, ‘Let’s cut taxes.’” Now, of the Democrat-led Congress we can say, “It’s not ‘Let’s raise taxes’ anymore. It’s ‘Let’s pass a Cap and Trade bill.’” If, God...

Shootings claimed the lives of six men in the city over the weekend. The first shooting happened around 8:20 p.m. Friday, when Tijuan Edwards, 18, was talking to a 25-year-old man in the street at 1916 S. Trumbull Ave. when multiple gunmen approached on foot and shot both men. Edwards was dead on the scene, and the 25-year-old was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with gunshot wounds to the left arm, chin and thigh, police said.

The US television industry faces a $2bn slump in advertising revenues during the next four years as advertisers turn away from broadcast and cable networks, according to a new report. Digital video recorders that allow viewers to skip through commercials have knocked confidence in broadcast and cable advertising while younger, tech-savvy audiences are deserting their TV sets to spend more time online. The Global Media Intelligence report by Screen Digest, the media research firm, says some of the decline will be clawed back by US TV networks by online video advertising, which it expects to triple during the next four...

There’s much chatter that the Chinese renminbi will eventually replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s preeminent international reserve currency, but this supposed inevitability is highly questionable. There has been much chatter of late in the media about the inevitability of the Chinese renminbi eventually replacing the U.S. dollar as the world’s preeminent international reserve currency. Fueling this chatter have been recent pronouncements by Chinese officials of their dissatisfaction with China’s large U.S. dollar reserve holdings and their suggestion that the world needs a more stable international reserve currency than the U.S. dollar. Also fueling this chatter is the belief...

Impressionist Fred Travalena, a headliner in Vegas showrooms and a regular on late-night talk shows with his takes on presidents, crooners and screen stars, has died in Los Angeles. He was 66.

Next on Senate agenda? 'Pedophile Protection Act' 'Hate crimes' law definitions would protect 547 sex 'philias' The leader of a pro-family organization says families across the nation need to contact their U.S. senators now to try to derail a legislative plan that already has passed the U.S. House and is being awaited by President Obama – after a Democrat confirmed it would protect "all 547 forms of sexual deviancy or 'paraphilias' listed by the American Psychiatric Association."

Both the money supply and federal spending have increased at breathtaking rates over the past year, unprecedented in peacetime. The policy decisions made by the Federal Reserve Board and Congress virtually assure we will enter a period of 1970s-like stagflation. The recovery, when it comes, will combine slow economic growth, unusually long un- and underemployment, stagnating real incomes, rising interest rates and inflation. There is little that policymakers, having made colossal mistakes, can do to prevent such an outcome. However, there are steps that can be taken to shorten the period of stagflation and return to an era of robust...

SAN FRANCISCO—Authorities are trying to determine who set fire to a large, fabric pink triangle constructed each year as part of San Francisco's gay pride celebration. San Francisco police say road flares were used to char a section of the triangle.

Belmont Club June 29th, 2009 12:59 amNight of the living dead The NY Post says the autopsy found Michael Jackson had nothing in stomach but half-dissolved pills. His emaciated body was a network of needlemarks and scars weighing barely 112 pounds on a 5′ 10″ frame; and the whole skeletal assembly was surmounted by a head bald but for a scant covering of peach fuzz, a fact artfully disguised by wigs worn on all his public appearances. The Post writes: “He was skin and bone, his hair had fallen out, and he had been eating nothing but pills when...

Polish engineer's refusal to convert costs him his life Posted : Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:29:39 GMT Author : DPA Islamabad - Piotr Stanczak did not exhibit the slightest hint of hesitation when the Pakistani Taliban asked him to choose between execution and conversion to Islam. Whether the Polish geologist acted out of pride or religious conviction, he decided to pay through his blood to save his faith, a choice that bewildered his killers and keep them talking about him with respect after his murder. Stanczak, 42, was kidnapped September 28 on his way to survey for oil exploration in...

Union thug Andy Stern brags about his access to the White House. Why not? It’s good to be the king’s friend. Stern’s friendship with the king is really paying off. Obama has made few cuts in his 2010 budget, but took an axe to the funding for the agency charged with enforcing laws broken by union thugs. The Department of Labor’s Office of Labor Management Standards’ (OLMS) budget was cut 9%. At a time when all of us are tightening our belts and bracing for more budget cuts, the United States government is the only large employer still hiring. The...

The Obama administration worked in recent days to prevent President Manuel Zelaya's ouster, said a senior U.S. official. The State Department, in particular, communicated to Honduran officials on the ground that President Barack Obama wouldn't support any nondemocratic transfer of power in the Central American country. "We had some indication that a move against Mr. Zelaya was afoot," said a U.S. official briefed on the diplomacy. "We made it clear it was something we didn't support."

HARRISBURG - A state law viewed as a major advancement for workplace safety and patient safety goes into effect Wednesday. Act 102 of 2008 bans mandatory overtime for health-care workers except in specific situations such as a natural disaster, public health emergency or where unexpected absences could affect patient safety. Nurses, nurses' assistants and direct caregivers in health care facilities covered by the law can volunteer for overtime, but those who refuse overtime can't be disciplined or discharged. The law doesn't apply to physicians, physician assistants, dentists and offices of private and group practices. The law was enacted last fall...

There would be sweet Zionist vindication were the Dead Sea rehydration project to actually be implemented with full Jordanian, Palestinian and world partnership. After all, the vision of refilling the Dead Sea, using water from the Mediterranean, was floated back in Theodor Herzl's seminal 1902 Altneuland. True, Herzl envisioned the project for generating hydroelectric power, while today's updated version of his dream would call for channeling Red Sea water for desalination purposes. Yet there's no denying that the very notion captures the imagination and raises our hopes of peaceful cooperation belying the ever-rampant regional belligerence and boldly charting the mutually...

California State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Democrat, did an interview with the LA Times. Thought you may enjoy her response to the following question: How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature's work? Bass' response: 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 guess it's about free speech, but it's extremely unfair. Now that's a first. I know that politicians...

Following the frighteningly dangerous thinking of Judge Richard Posner – proposing rewriting copyright law to outlaw linking to and summarizing (aka talking about) news stories – now we have two more lemming lawyers following him off the cliff in a column written by the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Connie Schultz. First note well that Schultz is married to U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown as she calls on her newspapers and employer (my former employer, Advance Publications) and fellow columnists to influence Congress to remake copyright. She should be registered as a lobbyist. No joke. Schultz says that David Marburger, an alleged First...