Free Republic

Without drastic rationing, how can anyone hope to provide health care for everyone at lower cost − and at the same time allow unlimited immigration? This isn’t a logical plan on which to base national policy. This is an irrational fantasy with which to take control of an additional one-sixth of the economy, as well as take control of people’s lives.

Three Republicans on the House panel that oversees the Census Bureau have asked fellow GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota to end her plans to boycott next year’s count. Reps. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia and John Mica of Florida issued a statement saying every elected representative has a “responsibility” to encourage participation in the 2010 Census. “Boycotting the constitutionally mandated census is illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country,” they stated. . . . . . McHenry, Westmoreland and Mica – no fans of Acorn – pointed out an “unfortunate irony”...

What's the single BEST way to achieve energy independence? A Weekly Poll.

In recent times, that is, during June of 2009, President Barack Obama has recoiled at efforts at fighting the oppressors in Iran. He has allowed the political situation in Iran to escalate into the crisis it is today. At the time of this writing, protests in the streets have broken out over the rigged election. The red flags should have been flying in the Commander in Chief’s face already. Iran has been advancing their nuclear weapon program at a dangerously rapid rate, constantly waving the fact at the West. The rest has been very well documented. Political corruption has been...

Mac clone maker begs out of Chapter 11 after payment plan with its legal team falls throughPsystar, the Mac clone maker embroiled in a legal dispute with Apple, asked a federal judge last week to dismiss its bankruptcy case, saying that it had been unable to reach a payment agreement with its law firm. At the same time, Psystar said in a letter to customers that it is "again ready to battle Goliath," a reference to Apple, as it announced a new clone powered by Intel's Xeon quad-core "Nehalem" processor. In the motion submitted last Thursday, Psystar asked a Miami...

Consider first an op-ed article in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times by Martha Nussbaum, a well-known professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago. The article was headlined “Terrorism in India has many faces.” But one face that Nussbaum fails to mention specifically is that of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic terror group originating in Pakistan that seems to have been centrally involved in the attack on Mumbai.

The American Queen and Empress of the North have been put up for sale by the U.S. Maritime Administration, or Marad, bringing all the old questions to bear about the future and viability of U.S. river cruising and more specifically of the two ships in question. Marad hired investment banking firm AMA Capital Partners to assist with the sale of the former Majestic America Line ships. When the American Queen and the Empress were turned over to Marad last year (in August and November, respectively), they carried approximately $28.3 million and $37.3 million in debt, respectively, according to Majestic's parent,...

US pressures IAI to drop bid on fighter jets to India By YAAKOV KATZ Under pressure from the Pentagon, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has been forced to back out of a joint partnership with a Swedish aerospace company to compete in a multi-billion dollar tender to sell new multi-role fighter jets to the Indian Air Force. The deal, estimated at a whopping $12 billion for over 120 new aircraft, is being fought over by Lockheed Martin's F-16, Boeing's F-18/Hornet, Russia's MiG-35 and BAE's Eurofighter. IAI was asked by Saab, manufacturer of the Gripen fighter jet, to jointly develop an advanced...

ALL too often, natural disasters and human atrocities make only a fleeting impression. We watch fascinated and horrified as TV anchors give us their impressions while images of death and disaster roll across our screens. But soon, one particular crisis is overtaken by another, and relentlessly, the news cycle moves on. It is not until one sees and hears the survivors that the magnitude of a disaster really sinks in. This is what I experienced while watching Channel 4’s programme on its Dispatches series. Called Terror in Mumbai, the documentary retraces the steps of the terrorists as they first landed...

35 Years After by Ari Bussel While in Israel, I was invited to visit the old cemetery of Tsfat. Major restoration work is taking place there, alongside a hillside spread with stones. Underneath are hundreds of graves. Over the centuries, their tombstones became rubble, washed away by rain, exposing some of the graves underneath. This was my opportunity to learn that all tombstones in a Jewish cemetery face East, thus all headrests are aligned, row after row, toward Jerusalem. A separate section of the cemetery is the final resting place of a group of school children murdered 35 years ago...

Do you have a basic grasp on what is happening in Honduras right now? A Daily Poll.

This is some video footage of the Boston Tea Party on July 4th. Enjoy!

Just like Muslims have rioted in the past in Greece, Sweden, Norway, the UK, Brussels, Denmark, and France, they are now rioting in China. As usual they want their own Islamic state within a non-Islamic country. In the past China has severely cracked down on them. I guess that they did not learn their lesson.

Marion man already driving around with Sarah Palin 2012 poster By James Q. Lynch The Gazette j (James Q. Lynch/The Gazette) Harlan Muth of Marion has been displaying a Palin 2012 poster on his van since last fall. Muth hopes the Alaska governor gets into the race for the Republican nomination for president. Harlan Muth isn’t organizing Sarah Palin’s presidential campaign, but pledges as soon as someone does, “I’ll be with ’em. In the meantime, the Marion maintenance contractor is turning heads with his “Sarah Palin 2012” poster prominently displayed on his van. “It’s getting a fantastic response,” Muth, 63,...

JULY 6, 2009 Minimum-Wage Increase Comes at a Bad Time for Weakened Job Market By KRIS MAHER The federal minimum wage goes up this month just as job losses are sending new alarms about the economy, giving traction to perennial fears that higher wages will hurt job creation. In the past, minimum-wage increases have done little to dent job creation. And pouring more money into people's pockets -- especially low-wage workers who are likely to spend the increase to meet living costs -- would normally boost the economy. But these aren't normal times. "It's tough timing," said John Silva, chief...

Most people knew that Vice President Joe Biden would be one of President Obama’s major handicaps throughout his inexperienced administration’s first years. It’s not because Joe is incompetent, in fact he was selected to be the wise old man of experience. No, it’s because Joe has trouble shading the truth. He is no good at spin. He is a blunt, ‘tell it as it is’ type.

More than one reader has emailed me asking me how bonds work and why I am so concerned about what Obama's policies will do to them and the economy with them. I think it's time for a wonky economics lesson for all the laymen out there on how bonds work. First, it's important to know that U.S. Treasury bonds are traded on an exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, much like any other investment. As such, they work like any other investment in any market. It's ultimately determined by supply and demand. If there are more buyers than sellers the...

Every July 4, we retreat to fireworks, feast and festival in celebration of an independence that is rapidly becoming little more than a memory. Our ancestors declared their independence in 1776 from a tyrannical, overbearing government. The independence claimed by the authors of the U.S. Constitution helped them create a government expressly prohibited from becoming tyrannical and overbearing, by limiting its power to certain enumerated responsibilities. Those limitations have long been ignored, and the current government makes no apology for its overbearing tyranny. Just as American independence was foreshadowed by a tea party in Boston, America’s new independence is foreshadowed...

Andrew Breitbart takes on the elitist media, specifically the three female "feminists" who have been on the trash Sarah bandwagon from the beginning, and he does it with gusto: What a shock that Maureen Dowd devoted her New York Times column Sunday to attack Sarah Palin. It did not so much criticize Alaska's governor for prematurely stepping down from her official duties as to finish off what sister snipers Katie Couric and Tina Fey began last fall. The assassination of Sarah Palin - by media. For those who didn't pay attention, Mrs. Palin's unexpected stratospheric rise as a national political...

Scientists have uncovered powerful evidence that caffeine not only helps to stave off the disease but can treat it. They hope soon to follow up the initial results from animal experiments with human patient trials. US neuroscientist Dr Gary Arendash, who led the research, said: "The new findings provide evidence that caffeine could be a viable 'treatment' for established Alzheimer's disease, and not simply a protective strategy. "That's important because caffeine is a safe drug for most people. It easily enters the brain, and it appears to directly affect the disease process." A key aspect of Alzheimer's is sticky clumps...