Free Republic

Why did a bare majority (219-212) of the members of the U.S. Congress vote for the largest tax increase in American history this past Friday, under the claim it was a vote to save the climate? Before you answer the question, consider the following facts. The proponents claim this tax bill will reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, which are purported to cause global warming. First, despite the claims of President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and many in the media, there is no consensus in the scientific community about how much climate change, other than the normal cycles, is taking...

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Camp of Minneapolis-Saint Paul has made himself a wonderful career as a novelist under the pseudonym John Sandford. His best-selling Prey series features Minneapolis supercop Lucas Davenport. In one recent volume a character asks Davenport: "Why is it that Democrats are always having money scandals and Republicans are always caught in sex scandals?" Lucas replies: "My theory is that Democrats are guys who know how to get girls but not how to make money. Republicans are guys who know how to make money but not how to get girls. When they each encounter both readily...

Pakistan's top Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is buying children as young as 7 to serve as suicide bombers in the growing spate of attacks against Pakistani, Afghan and U.S. targets, U.S. Defense Department and Pakistani officials say. A Pakistani official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic, said the going price for child bombers was $7,000 to $14,000 - huge sums in Pakistan, where per-capita income is about $2,600 a year. "[Mehsud] has turned suicide bombing into a production output, not unlike [the way] Toyota outputs cars," a U.S....

MISCALCULATING blindly, al Qaeda suf fered a catastrophic defeat in Iraq. Now our approach to Afghanistan bears an uncanny resemblance to the terrorists' failed strategy. Certainly, there's a vast difference between our humane agenda and al Qaeda's monstrous appetite for blood. There's no moral equivalence. Yet our ambition to convince local populations to change their culture to suit us turns us into al Qaeda's kindly twin. In Iraq, al Qaeda was an alien presence enforcing values at odds with local traditions. And that, for all our protestations to the contrary, is what we're up to in Afghanistan. We claim we're...

A British Member of Parliament, George Galloway, has been actively courting support in the United States for a “humanitarian” convoy to provide cash and vehicles to representatives of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that controls Gaza. The Viva Palestina convoy, led by Galloway, a member of the anti-Zionist “Respect Party” in the British Parliament, donated approximately $1.5 million and more than 100 vehicles to Hamas in March 2009. At a press conference in Gaza announcing the donations, Galloway said: “We are giving you now 100 vehicles and all of their contents, and we make no apology for what I am...

In a historic judgement, the Delhi High Court on Thursday decriminalized homosexuality by reading down section 377 of the Indian Gay activists celebrate the high court ruling decriminalizing gay sex, in New Delhi. (AFP Photo) More Pictures Penal Code. ( Watch ) The Section 377 of the IPC as far as it criminalizes gay sex among consenting adults is violation of fundamental rights, said the high court. However, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalizes homosexuality, will continue for non-consensual and non-vaginal sex. Full text of Delhi HC judgment (PDF) Any kind of discrimination is anti-thesis of right...

The idea of wind generated electric energy is being sold by environmentalists as an overlooked opportunity to reduce greenhouse gasses. Global warming advocates claim that this discounted treasure could be a major part of an effort to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and eliminate the need for some of our nuclear power plants. Is it true that we are passing up on a gold mine of renewable energy in favor of unnecessary and harmful fossil and nuclear fuels? Let's start by looking at what we use to generate the power we use today. Renewables, such as wind, solar, biomass,...

Omer Butt, 32, whose brother Hassan used to be spokesman for the banned radical Muslim group Al Muhajiroun, ordered female patients to wear headscarves and forced men to take off gold jewellery before allowing them into the dentists' chair. He even kept a box full of hijabs at his practice so he could lend them to women before checking their teeth. Butt enforced his religious dress code despite previously being warned by the General Dental Council for the same offence. The GDC has ruled Butt imposed a general dress code at his practice, the Unsworth Smile Clinic in Bury, Lancashire,...

In the June 30th WSJ Editorial entitled, "We'll Need to Raise Taxes Soon," Roger Altman, former deputy secretary of the Treasury in the first Clinton administration acknowledges the grim reality of the current fiscal situation. He argues that the current level of spending can't be maintained without pushing the deficit to an intolerable level and therefore the administration must raise taxes. Unfortunately, this solution would have far-reaching economic consequences. The other solution to address the current fiscal crisis, which Mr. Altman fails to acknowledge, that would have a positive economic effect, is to decrease government spending. Mr. Altman explains that...

According to Morgan Stanley’s Kathryn Huberty, Apple (AAPL) is the computer maker with the “most upside” as the PC market begins to stabilize after the dismal first quarter of 2009. . . . Apple, however, is a different story. “Even before the new Macbook Pros launched,” she writes, “Apple began to outperform the broader commercial PC segment — with commercial Mac shipments up 25% [month over month] in May versus market growth of just 1%.” The fact that the new laptops arrived in early June means that they will provide what Huberty calls “a catalyst for growth” in both the...

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The President of these United States recently expressed his love for "the Urdu poets," a piece of inspired BS that nobody in their right minds believed for a second. But then the P was narrowcasting to Pakistan, he thought, and Americans weren't supposed to be listening. Yet character is revealed in those little snippets of Obama's mind -- his glorious fantasy life, his everlasting hope that somebody will fall for another piece of schtick, and his essential fraudulence as a human being. Obama's biggest audience is himself, and no doubt he preened and pranced in his mind's eye when he...

SEOUL, July 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea test-fired a pair of what appears to be short-range missiles off its east coast on Thursday, a South Korean official said. "One was fired at 5:20 p.m. and the other at 6:00 p.m. from Sinsang-ni" near the eastern coastal city of Wonsan, South Korean defense ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said.

The United Kingdom is the violent crime capital of Europe and has one of the highest rates of violence in the world, worse even than America, according to new research. Analysis of figures from the European Commission showed a 77 per cent increase in murders, robberies, assaults and sexual offences in the UK since Labour came to power. The total number of violent offences recorded compared to population is higher than any other country in Europe, as well as America, Canada, Australia and South Africa. Opposition leaders said the disclosures were a "damning indictment" of the Government's failure to tackle...

Cabinet secretaries will fan out this summer to hear concerns and possibly sway some more-conservative voters. Reporting from Washington -- The White House bills it as a "listening tour," a chance for President Obama's Cabinet to get out of Washington and hear what's on the minds of rural voters around the country. En route, the White House is making sure it reaches voters in crucial swing districts. The itinerary laid out by the White House for its just-announced "Rural Tour" includes several politically competitive districts, which would give the Obama administration a chance to make its case to people who...

Board members at an Otaki Catholic primary school have resigned after five- and six-year-olds were made to pick up used condoms from the playground. Four St Peter Chanel board members resigned and walked out of a board meeting last week, saying they had no confidence in the principal, board chairwoman or school management, The Dominion Post reported. Concerns have been also raised about a steady decrease in the school roll and falling numeracy and literacy standards. Kath Doyle resigned after her six-year-old grandson and four other children were forced to pick up used condoms without protective gloves during a playground...

Last week, prior to voting for the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, House Republican Leader John Boehner spent the better part of an hour reading from the 1201-page bill and the associated 300-page addendum, which had been dumped on Congress' door at 3:09AM. He did so, he told The Hill, because he believed "people need to know what's in this pile of s-it." Congressman Boehner was correct. There may be no better description of what's in this phony legislation, designed to supposedly halt global warming. First, a couple quick facts: Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, it's...

Reports in Vietnam's state-controlled media claim that government authorities now have enough evidence to arrest a Redemptorist priest on charges of counter-revolutionary activity and damaging national unity. On Tuesday, June 30, the People's Public Security Newspaper and other state-run media outlet reported that Father Joseph Le Quang Uy had “bent his head, admitting that he had committed crimes against people and the government.” The newspaper, run by the Vietnamese police force, went on to state that the day before “at the headquarters of the customs at Tan Son Nhat airport, Mr. Le Quang Uy signed a statement admitting that had...

There’s something about travel that seems to bring out the worst in both the American and British governments. Exhibit A is American: the Travel Promotion Act of 2009. Introduced by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and John Ensign (R-NV), the Act would impose a $10 fee on visitors coming from visa waiver countries. The money raised would be matched by a $100 million levy on “United States members of the international travel and tourism industry,” and would be spent by an independent, non-profit travel promotion corporation governed by an eleven-member board of directors appointed by the Secretary of Commerce. The...

S.C. politicians wavering on Sanford (USA Today cannot be posted on FR)