Free Republic

Entrepreneurship and new small businesses are supposed to lead us out of the recession, just as they have in prior downturns, right? Sure. Your neighbor's grand idea will persuade a bank to lend her start-up money; she'll open for business in six weeks; and money will immediately flow from customers to her to her employees. Taxes will be paid, and the national economic engine will hum effortlessly in no time. If only. Today shows a different reality: Commercial bankruptcies are surging. Fewer people are starting small businesses, and firms already open are struggling under changing consumer habits, a lack of...

WEDNESDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- For the first time, researchers have identified a single "master" stem cell in humans that is capable of differentiating into all three major cell types that make up the human heart. "This is a very simple but very important and fundamental finding, and that is understanding how the human heart is built, how it is made, what are the progenitor cells which give rise to the human heart," said Dr. Kenneth Chien, head of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute's cardiovascular disease program and senior author of a paper in the July 2 issue of...

He swept to power with the support of 78% of American Jews. But has Barack Obama become the bane of Israeli Jews? A gulf between American and Israeli Jews was evident even before Obama moved into the White House. Just a third of Israelis would have endorsed him had they been allowed to vote, polling indicated, while almost half would have chosen John McCain. In recent weeks, several public opinion surveys have suggested that Obama's popularity has dropped far below this already low point. A Jerusalem Post-commissioned poll released on June 19 reported that only 6% of Jewish Israelis consider...

Obama, moments ago, responding to unemployment hitting the highest it's been in 26 years: "It took us years to get into this mess, and it will take more than a few months to get us out." This ignores the fact that after the stimulus passed, the economy has not merely not "gotten out out of the mess," but the mess has gotten worse.

I cannot stress enough how important it is for Americans to watch the TV show from the BBC "House Of Cards" to see and understand how politics really operates..... The sinister activities that we never talk about here in State controled media is layed bare for all to see in this incredible TV series.... Having stumbled upon it by accident I cannot tell you what watching only 1 episode did to me in underscoring the corruption that works hand in hand throughout the media and government and how it can be maipulated for personal gain when the "people" just follow...

Dying on the same day as Michael Jackson, the passing of actress and American sex symbol Farrah Fawcett at age 62 became somewhat of a secondary story. Amy Wallace with The Daily Beast, however, produced an excellent story on the beautiful Texan that should interest Western Standard readers. In an email exchange with Fawcett just months before her death, Wallace discovered that novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand was a fan of the actress. Wallace wrote: But here are a few things that almost no one knew about Fawcett: 1) Fawcett and the writer Ayn Rand shared a birthday, February 2. 2) Rand,...

WEBSTER, Texas — Police used a Taser on a pastor and pepper spray to disperse his congregants Wednesday after the pastor allegedly interfered with a traffic stop in the church parking lot. Congregants say they were in the Iglesia Profetica Peniel church for an early morning prayer when pastor Jose Elias Moran went to assist the stopped driver, a church member, by asking the police what had happened. An incident report on the Webster police department's Web site said Officer Raymond Berryman tried to calm Moran and arrest him. But police say he pushed the officer, went inside the church...

Note: Poll included. SNIPPET: "A poll of the active members of a particular jihadi forum asked "which is the best place to distribute news of the jihad" (or words to that effect), and YouTube and jihadi forums tied for first place. You're shocked, I know..."

Nothing follows.

Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies arrested one man and are searching for at least one other in connection with a secret pot garden bust that netted 6,100 marijuana plants with a street value of $18 million. Acting on a tip, deputies from the Special Operations Unit's Marijuana Eradication Team discovered the hidden grow Wednesday about 8 a.m. off Hicks Road in the foothills above San Jose, Sgt. Rick Sung said. As deputies approached two large gardens, they found a man tending to the plants. And they quickly arrested 24 year-old Jesus Ochoachacon, who has an unknown address and is now...

AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Human Rights Commission ruled Monday that the Orono School Department discriminated against a transgender child by denying her access to the girls bathroom. While the school department’s lawyer warned that schools around the state may not be ready to manage the practical fallout from the decision, civil liberties advocates hailed the ruling as an advancement of human rights.

One of Chuck's staffers is live in Sacramento. He reports: "I'm standing on the west steps of the CA State Capitol right now, and there's a huge SEIU rally underway, opposing the budget cuts that will make SEIU a neutered force in politics -- and none too soon. There are literally thousands of purple-clad 'workers' here." Notice the sign in the back "I CAN'T MAKE IT - TAX EVERY BODY!"

Jane Hamsher details the extremely aggressive tactics the White House and House leadership used to coerce liberal environmentalist members to vote for the cap-and-trade bill despite their belief that it helped polluters more than it did anything else (and remember their ability to do that the next time they claim that a bill they ostensibly support simply couldn't pass because it lacked the necessary votes). Jane quotes from a Politico article reporting on White House anger towards environmentalist Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, due to an impassioned floor speech he gave arguing that the bill was so industry-friendly that it would...

Hot dogs to replace steaks this July 4 holiday Thu Jul 2, 2009 2:03pm EDT By Bob Burgdorfer CHICAGO (Reuters) - Americans will be throwing more hot dogs and hamburgers on their backyard grills rather than higher-priced meat like steaks this July 4 U.S. Independence Day holiday as the recession and high unemployment crimp celebrations. "It will be the cheaper cuts that will take the majority of the business," said John Kleist, analyst with the McHenry, Ill-based advisory firm Allendale Inc. "We would do well to say that meat movement over the holiday was decent. That is the best we...

The public has 20 days to comment on the makeup of an independent committee being assembled to study the science the FBI used in its investigation into the 2001 anthrax mailings. The 14 provisional members of the National Academy of Sciences study committee include medical doctors, chemists, microbiologists and a U.S. District Court judge. The academy will consider public comments on the proposed committee membership before finalizing the roster. The FBI requested the study last year, after critics questioned the validity of the science it used in matching the anthrax used in the 2001 mailings with that in a flask...

In early May, National Public Radio, a supposed bastion of liberal media bias, found itself in the cross hairs of the lesbian and gay community over an online review of "Outrage," a documentary chronicling the hypocrisy of prominent, purportedly closeted politicians with staunchly anti-gay voting records. What sparked the controversy was not the documentary itself, but the fact that NPR's review failed to name names. In fact, while Nathan Lee, the review's initial author, had included the identities of those fingered in the film, NPR editors took it upon themselves to censor the review prior to publication. Would a review...

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a forum on healthcare at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia, July 1, 2009. Senior advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama Valerie Jarrett listens as Obama speaks during a forum on healthcare at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia July 1, 2009. President Barack Obama hugs Debby Smith, 53, from Appalachia, Va., after she asks him about her health care during a town hall meeting at the Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., Wednesday, July 1, 2009.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney -- who was aboard a ship the Israeli navy intercepted this week -- is in a detention center and will be returned to the United States, the U.S. Embassy said. McKinney was among those on a ship that the Israeli Defense Forces said violated an Israeli blockade and crossed into Gazan waters on Tuesday. The Israeli navy gained control of the ship and took McKinney and about 20 people into custody, said the Free Gaza Movement, a human rights group that sent the ship. The group said the ship, which it calls...

London, July 2 : Late King of Pop Michael Jackson's old friend Bubbles the chimp will not be attending his funeral. The ape will be kept 3,000 miles away when Jackson is laid to rest in California, and it will spend the day listening to "calming flute music" at the animal sanctuary in Wauchula, Florida, where it presently lives. "It is sad for Bubbles but it is better that he stays here," the Sun quoted a spokesman for the Centre For Great Apes as saying. He revealed that staff at the centre have "not said anything" to Bubbles about Jackson's...

I live near the Silver Lake and Echo Park neighborhoods of Los Angeles. These are two of the most radical left-wing Bohemian neighborhoods in the city. There is no Republican presence to speak of in this area. All political battles are generally speaking between the Trotskyite and Stalinist factions of the local Democrat Party. Every other car has a BHO or Che bumpersticker or decal on it. The preferred vehicles of the elite are Priuses, Elements, mini Coopers, and Volvos. Most people both male and female are covered with tatoos and piercings. California is no longer Reagan Country. It is...