Free Republic

Oh boy, Congress is upset.... Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, and Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, have called for action to avoid a repeat of last year’s run-up in crude oil prices to a record $147.21 a barrel, which they blame on speculators. Oil has climbed 44 percent this year in New York Mercantile Exchange trading, even amid a drop in demand and high levels of fuel in storage. “Our first hearing will focus on whether federal speculative limits should be set by the CFTC to all commodities of finite supply, in particular energy commodities, such as crude...

After caring for Vietnam veteran Roger Lennon for more than a dozen years, two months after his death Sarah Miller received a bill from the state of Iowa for almost $300,000 for medical care he received at a state-run veteran's home, according to a report in the Quad-City Times. "I called them and said, 'Is this a joke?'" Miller told the Quad-City Times. "Who has that kind of money? And I was with Roger every time he was signed into the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown. They never said anything about billing him after he passed." Lennon was wounded in...

President Barack Obama’s foreign policy inclinations are a threat to Israel’s survival. That’s the no-holds-barred assessment by one of Israel’s leading American publicists, Norman Podhoretz, the prominent neo-conservative long associated with the American Jewish Committee’s influential magazine, Commentary. Podhoretz made the inflammatory charge against the U.S. president in an article in the May 2009 issue of Commentary in an article entitled “How Obama’s America Might Threaten Israel,” one of a series of polemics addressing the subject: “Israel at Risk.” This is no surprise to AFP readers. On Dec. 1, 2008, AFP surprised many by suggesting that Barack Obama might “pull...

Elementary expository! Thanks for viewing!

Kendra Plans To Be Strict Christian Mother, Reveals Baby Names Now that Kendra Wilkinson and Hank Baskett are officially husband and wife the reality show duo is focusing on the next important phase - parenthood. While Hugh Hefner’s 23-year-old former flame has led a pretty wild life (besides being Hugh Hefner's girlfriend, the number of times she's revealed her assets in public is well into the double digits), and said earlier this year that Baskett was helping her find God for the first time, she is determined to be a strict religious mama.

Fans of the late Michael Jackson wanna be startin' somethin'.They consider the critical remarks of Rep. Peter King (R-New York) about Jackson to be really, really bad.King's tongue became a razor, in their eyes, and the congressman has to answer right now.An anonymous fan created an ad hoc group, Michael Jackson Fans AGAINST Peter King, at the liberal fundraising website, ActBlue.com, which describes itself as "the online clearinghouse for Democratic action." Here's the pitch from the site: Congressman Peter King is at again, this time defaming the late Michael Jackson, calling MJ a "pervert', 'low-life", and a "pedophile". As Rick Sanchez...

DUBLIN — The United Nations is struggling to keep its peacekeeping missions staffed and supplied as the world endures an unprecedented combination of crises, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday as he opened a two-day visit to Ireland. "We are living through an era like no other. There are multiple crises: a food crisis, fuel crisis, flu crisis and financial crisis," Ban told an invited audience at the Dublin Castle conference center in between meetings with the president and prime minister of Ireland. "Each is a crisis we have not seen for many years, even generations. But this time they...

In his new book, "One State, Two States: Resolving The Israel/Palestine Conflict," historian Benny Morris recounts the lugubrious history of Palestinian refusal to actually accept Israel as a Jewish state in the heart of the uniformly Muslim Middle East. Morris examines the widespread rejection by Palestinians in particular and Arabs in general of a two-state solution...at once a dirty little secret and the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to the debate over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For over 80 years, as Morris notes, Palestinians have "persuasively demonstrated" that they do not want any Jewish state in the...

The Washington Post yesterday initiated internal reviews to ensure that its business practices do not compromise its journalistic ethics when the newspaper organizes conferences or private events funded by sponsors. The reviews follow the revelation last week that The Post was planning private, off-the-record dinners at the home of publisher Katharine Weymouth for which it was seeking sponsors to pay $25,000... Weymouth yesterday appointed the newspaper's general counsel, Eric Lieberman, to review the discussions that led to the controversy. The review, along with a parallel inquiry by Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli and Senior Editor Milton Coleman, are is aimed at...

A former executive for a defense contractor with ties to powerful Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha is charged by federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh with taking about $200,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor. The executive charged is Richard Ianieri, of Doylestown, who used to work for a company called Coherent Systems International Corp.

On Biden's comment that the administration "misread" the economy: "No, no, no, no, no. Well, I would actually ... rather than say misread, we had incomplete information." "What I would say is that in some areas you're seeing the economic engine turn but what we always knew was that A -- this recession was going to be deep, B -- it was going to last for a while."

English-speaking Latter-day Saints who desire a thorough understanding of the Book of Mormon face a considerable challenge—the text is written in English. As a result, it is too easy to read. That is to say, it is too easy to get the gist of what is being communicated without actually taking the time to analyze every verb form, every pronoun, and every conjunction to determine exactly how the words fit together and the ideas unfold. We grasp the general message, but we also miss many of the details. In fact, the people who know the Book of Mormon best may...

The Trifid Nebula in Stars and Dust Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, U. Arizona Explanation: Unspeakable beauty and unimaginable bedlam can be found together in the Trifid Nebula. Also known as M20, this photogenic nebula is visible with good binoculars towards the constellation of Sagittarius. The energetic processes of star formation create not only the colors but the chaos. The red-glowing gas results from high-energy starlight striking interstellar hydrogen gas. The dark dust filaments that lace M20 were created in the atmospheres of cool giant stars and in the debris from supernovae explosions. Which bright young stars...

An Open Letter to Pastor Rick Warren By Jan Markell On July 5 the Washington Times online reported that Pastor Rick Warren told his Islamic audience, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA,) that he envisions "a coalition of faith." Whether Pastor Warren knows this or not, this is just another term for the coming one-world religion outlined in Revelation 13. It is further outlined in Revelation 17. I have not taken on the issue of Rick Warren all that often, but after reading what the Washington Times has to say about his message to a group of spiritually lost...

The level of hatred on this channel towards Sarah Palin is like no other.

Here is video of President Obama talking with NBC's Chuck Todd in Moscow where he commented on Gov. Sarah Palin's resignation and the legacy of Pop Entertainer Michael Jackson. Obama said he respected Palin's decision as doing what she believes is best for her family, and he said Michael Jackson had helped increase the nation's "comfort level" with African-Americans. . . . . . (Watch Video)

July 07, 2009, 4:00 a.m. I Still Hate You, Sarah PalinThe Republicans bring a knife to a gunfight, and lose again. By David Kahane One of the most terrifying moments of my political life came last summer at the Republican convention in St. Paul. No, I don’t mean seeing John McCain careering around the Xcel Energy Center like Eyegore in Young Frankenstein, his face frozen in a Lon Chaney Sr. rictus grin as he reached across the aisle to his erstwhile friends in the media and got his hand bitten off. Rather, I’m referring to the aftermath of Sarah...

---snip--- Trade relations are minimal and Honduras is far more reliant on remittances from the United States than it is on Mr Chavez's petro-dollars. Nevertheless, President Chavez has already indicated that oil to Honduras will be suspended in a bid to force out the interim government led by Roberto Micheletti. ---snip--- Politically, however, the small Central American nation has become increasingly important to the Venezuelan leader. "This is a coup against Venezuela!" President Chavez said in the hours after Mr Zelaya was forced on to a plane at gunpoint and flown to Costa Rica. "It must not be permitted," he...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Christian call to love one another and to work for justice requires the active participation in the political process, Pope Benedict XVI said in his new encyclical. "To desire the common good and strive toward it is a requirement of justice and charity," the pope said in his encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth"). The encyclical, published July 7, said God's love for all his creatures must be mirrored in the way they love and care for one another, engaging in acts of charity and solidarity with respect for the truth that every human...

One can’t help but think that her supporters are missing a valid and central point made by her detractors. She never overcame the doubts about her knowledge, credibility, and seriousness about policy during a time in which conservatives and the country face monumental challenges. I think back to the spate of post-election interviews. One after another — cooking with Greta Van Susteren and complaining to everyone who would listen — she merely re-enforced the sense that she was becoming a professional victim. Contrast that to the quintessential anti-Palin: Mitt Romney. He has spent his post-candidacy doggedly working for other candidates,...