Free Republic

Happy Birthday, America!! I wonder if this is the last Independence Day we’ll see America in any way like she used to be. Melodramatic though it may be, such a thought is frighteningly possible. Barack Obama and the statists in Congress and the judiciary are forming an intrusive government that is several orders of magnitude beyond anything we have yet known. How many Americans know that in the name of Al Gore’s lucrative (to him) folly, they won’t be able to sell their house without the government’s environmental stamp of approval? How many know that Obama’s Deathcare will eventually decide...

We're receiving reports into the WACH FOX News Center about the death of a former Tennessee Titans quarterback. According to various media sources, including FOX News, Steve McNair has been killed in Nashville, Tennessee. The incident apparently happened near 2nd South and Lea Avenue. Nashville police are saying it looks like a double homicide. A female victim was also found dead.

Detroit political mess reaching governor?Published: July 1, 2009 at 3:44 PM DETROIT, July 1 (UPI) -- A high-profile Detroit political consultant says the FBI is looking into payments he says he received to not criticize Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Sam Riddle told the Detroit News that the $50,000 he received from the Michigan Democratic Party in 2006 was election-year "hush money" to bolster Granholm's campaign against Republican Dick DeVoss. The newspaper said Wednesday that party officials called the payment a business contract for media consulting, and added that the FBI has not contacted them. Riddle also said agents also wanted...

A Declaration By the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, and to assume among powers of the earth the equal and independent station to which the laws of nature and of nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the change. We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal and independent;...

NASA's mission to bomb the Moon NASA will tomorrow launch a spectacular mission to bomb the Moon. Their LCROSS mission will blast off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying a missile that will blast a hole in the lunar surface at twice the speed of a bullet. The missile, a Centaur rocket, will be steered by a shepherding spacecraft that will guide it towards its target - a crater close to the Moon's south pole. Scientists expect the blast to be so powerful that a huge plume of debris will be ejected. . NASA's mission to bomb the Moon NASA will...

A baby boy, 3 months old, name unknown, was injured in a freak accident today. His grandmother, a fellow employee of my wife's, was carrying the baby in her arms on an outside patio, when she tripped, fell, and dropped the baby on the concrete. Due to the softness of his skull the bones in his skull were injured and he was rushed to the premiere Trauma Hospital in WA state. He is unconscious and there are concerns about possible brain damage. This is the 4th attempt by his parents to have a baby. The first 3 pregnancies ended in...

Shot down five times, he received Navy Cross medals during World War II and the Korean War. Injuries suffered in the Vietnam War forced him to retire after 27 years of service.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Former Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair is dead. News 2 has confirmed the former Titans star was found shot to death at an apartment complex in north Nashville. A second person was also found dead. That person's identity was not immediately known. No further details were released.

Costa Rica tops the "Happy Planet Index," a ranking of ecological efficiency among the world's nations, survey officials say. Costa Ricans reported the highest life satisfaction and have an average life expectancy second only to Canada, said a release from the New Economics Foundation, a British think tank that promotes ecology and sustainable economics. Nine of the 10 highest-scoring nations were in Latin America, with the United States reportedly "greener and happier" 20 years ago than it is today. Of the 143 nations surveyed for the Happy Planet Index, the United States ranked 114. While ecological progress is being made,...

Abstract Coyotes (Canis latrans) pose a risk to domestic cats (Felis catus). We captured, radiocollared, and tracked 8 coyotes from November 2005 to February 2006 for 790 hours in Tucson, Arizona, USA. We observed 36 coyote–cat interactions; 19 resulted in coyotes killing cats. Most cats were killed in residential areas from 2200 hours to 0500 hours during the pup-rearing season. Single coyotes were as effective killing cats as were groups (>1) of coyotes. Documented cases of predators killing cats could encourage cat owners to keep their cats indoors and assist wildlife managers in addressing urban wildlife issues. Journal of Wildlife...

With U.S. unemployment set to climb to 10%, and Canada not far behind, the North American market economies will soon be looking at what used to be derisively termed “European levels” of unemployment. The question is whether these high unemployment rates are merely short-term blips that will be followed by quick recoveries, or whether high jobless numbers will persist, turning Canada and the United States into grim replicas of sclerotic Europe. Recent economic history suggests both Canada and the United States can quickly rebound from economic slumps. Unemployment in the United States, for example, hit a peak of 10.8% in...

Needless to say, it was a surprise to everyone outside her inner circle when Sarah Palin announced yesterday that she would resign as Alaska’s governor by the end of July. Many of her staunchest, new-media allies are declaring this the beginning of the 2012 presidential election and celebrating the idea that she can now spend more time in the lower 48. This could be true. After all, Mike Huckabee has already been spending lewd amounts of time in Iowa, a location that the acting governor of Alaska is hard-pressed to excuse herself to. Now, she could even uproot her family...

After being nixed by bitter Obama supporters, protesters will meet at the Georgia State Capitol tonight to discuss their disgust with the government... and watch fireworks. I have very little information on this, having received the heads-up only minutes ago, but for those who live in the Atlanta area, a Tea Party will be held at the Capitol from 6:00 pm until 9:00pm tonight. According to the Tea Party Patriots website, the event is being organized by Dr. Bob Frady. Developing...

Defending Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest champion Joey Chestnut says he practiced hard to successfully retain his crown Saturday in New York. The 25-year-old told the New York Daily News he went into the annual Fourth of July competition in Coney Island confident he would repeat as the hot dog-eating champion of the world. "I've been practicing hard," Chestnut said wolfing down a personal high with 68 hot dogs. "I knew it would be hard to beat me." Chestnut said despite going against six-time titleholder Takeru (Tsunami) Kobayashi, he felt comfortable after consuming 23 hot dogs in the event's first...

After insisting that it is not the United States’ place to meddle in the internal affairs of other nations in the case of Iran, US President Barack Obama demanded that Honduras restore Manuel Zelaya to the presidency of that country. Zelaya was removed from office by order of the country’s supreme court with the concurrence of the legislature when he attempted to illegally implement a proposed amendment to the nation’s constitution. According to the Honduran constitution, Zelaya was to be barred from reelection by its term-limit provision. Rather than seek to amend the constitution through methods specified in the document,...

Cynthia McKinney to Appear in Israeli Court After Gaza-Bound Boat Is SeizedFormer U.S. lawmaker Cynthia McKinney is due to appear in an Israeli court Sunday after she and 20 other activists were taken into custody this week when their relief boat was seized by an Israeli naval ship. FOXNews.com Saturday, July 04, 2009 Former U.S. lawmaker Cynthia McKinney is due to appear in an Israeli court Sunday after she and 20 other activists were taken into custody this week when their relief boat was seized by an Israeli naval ship. The 2008 Green Party presidential candidate says the group, "Free...

After the parade, my wife and I decided to join the Tea Party happening in Palatine at the corner of Northwest Highway and Hicks Rd in Palatine. We thought at the most, there would be 20 or so protesters with the rain that started to come down around 1pm, but I estimate that there were close to 150 or so(I will look up the "official" numbers tonight from their website), taking up a block and a half and they started to hang out on the other side of Northwest Highway and up Hicks road just a bit. Some very witty...

This month of June will mark my eighth anniversary of ordination to the priesthood. What you are about to read is a simple, yet sincere, reflection of some privileged moments which God has blessed me with. There are other beautiful events which I would like to share, but the confines of this paper prevent me. Let me go back to June 2001, right before my ordination to the priesthood. About a week before presbyteral ordination, I received an emergency phone call from my Dad: "Son, you need to hurry up and get home. Your little sister has some rare kind...

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," says Rahm Emanuel, Obama's Chief of Staff. And what better way to grow democrat party power that to create a massive crisis that disempowers and terrifies the American People into permanent submission to a quasi-totalitarian state. And so we are now in the Second Great Depression. Unlike the First Great Depression, this collapse was intentionally and maliciously created by the democrat party, beginning with legal mandates that ultimately destroyed the financial industry by making them issue worthless mortgages to vast numbers of people who had no ability to repay such...

BNO News is working to confirm Nashville media reports that Steve McNair died from an apparent murder-suicide. Details will follow.