Free Republic

The recent Supreme Court decision in the New Haven firefighters’ case will be welcome news to those who reject the idea that a gross injustice is O.K. when those on the receiving end are white. But the reasoning behind the 5-to-4 decision is a painful reminder that the law is still tangled in a web of assumptions, evasions, and contradictions when it comes to racial issues. Nor have these problems been clarified with the passage of time. On the contrary, the growing complexity and murkiness of civil-rights law over the years recalls the painful saying, “Oh, what a tangled web...

What is the most efficient vehicle on the planet? And more importantly, how far can it go on a single liter of gas? The Microjoule is your answer, getting over 3,794 kilometers per liter, or approximately 8,923 miles per gallon! Looking less like a car than an amoeba-on-wheels, the Microjoule is the design of students from the French Technical School, St. Joseph La Joliverie, who are set to compete in the Eco-Marathon 2008 to be held in Europe this coming May.

The network news divisions are enjoying the unprecedented coverage they’re providing President Obama, not just because they support him, but because White House specials are cheap and do well in the ratings. “Obama should change his middle name from Hussein to Nielsen,” quipped longtime TV reporter Gail Shister in a story by David Bauder of the Associated Press. It seems like a never-ending spin cycle: laudatory coverage leads to popularity, which leads to higher TV ratings, which leads to more laudatory coverage. But it’s not working anymore. Behind the glittery curtains, Obama’s polls are falling. Worse, some ink-stained wretches are...

When a virulent disease is ravaging you like a cancer, you don't want a cacophony of voices promoting different or contradictory cures. Yet that is what we're starting to hear about the economic crisis, not only from a politically divided — and pretty scared — capital, but from within the Obama administration itself. In just the past few days, Vice President Joe Biden has said the young administration misread the depth of the recession — an honest account, since most private economists did as well. Laura Tyson, an outside economic adviser to the White House, said it's wise to start...

I was being facetious yesterday when I asked if Obama would bow to Putin. I bet Putin was thinking the same thing. Close, very close. Obama sold out our Eastern European allies when he took a pass on missile defense. Now I understand that Obama refused France when Sarkozy offered to host a Middle East peace conference later this year. Russia offered and Obama said yes. Russia to host a Middle East "peace" conference? They back Iran. Russia helped create the Israel/"Fakestinian" conflict and they will host a "peace" conference? I ask you. Video at link

The mainstream media is undergoing its demise, drip by drip, day by day, and its practitioners, which include most of my friends in life, are under considerable pressure. In my opinion, however, these pressures do not excuse the treatment accorded Sarah Palin. On the contrary, to me the entire Sarah saga revealed that it wasn't only the traditional media's business model that is broken. Our journalism model is busted, too.

ATLANTA -- Developers of a $2 billion coal-fired power plant won an appeals court ruling Tuesday in their battle with environmentalists, but more court action will likely be needed before the path is cleared to build Georgia's first new coal plant in more than two decades. A panel of the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed a trial judge's 2008 ruling that said plans for the south Georgia plant should have regulated carbon dioxide emissions. Environmentalists who had hailed the lower court ruling last year as a precedent-setting decision were dismayed. "We are very disappointed that the Court rejected other important...

Remains of Seven U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan Returned Home By Air Force Tech. Sgt. Benjamin J. Matwey Special to American Forces Press Service DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del., July 8, 2009 - The remains of seven American troops killed July 6 during combat operations in Afghanistan returned to their nation during a dignified transfer this afternoon at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Today's dignified returns were of the following seven servicemembers: U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Tony M. Randolph, of Henryetta, Okla., assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Eight, Sigonella, Italy. U.S. Army Capt. Mark A. Garner,...

From DeMint's twitter....please watch "Let's keep up the pressure to end the secrecy at Federal Reserve, urge your senator to cosponsor S.604"

POST FALLS, Idaho — An Idaho woman face charges that she had sex with a 14-year-old boy that she was hired to watch in August 2007. KXLY-TV reported Tuesday that 28-year-old Summer Nelson, of Post Falls, was charged Monday with four counts of lewd conduct with a child. Court records say Nelson was a friend of the boy's mother. Police say the abuse was reported in December 2008, after the boy's mother grew suspicious of Nelson's attention Nelson toward the boy.

Abstract Studying the experience of countries that have experienced great depressions during the twentieth century teaches us that massive public interventions in the economy to maintain employment and investment during a financial crisis can, if they distort incentives enough, lead to a great depression.

Less than two weeks after voting in favor of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA-9th District) defended his vote Tuesday. The commonly called “Cap and Trade Bill” narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month. Senate debate is expected in the fall. Boucher is one of 219 representatives who voted in favor of the legislation. Proponents claim the act will reduce emissions of green house gases, increase the country’s use of green power, and decrease dependence on foreign oil. Opponents say it will dramatically drive up the price of everything from gasoline to electricity...

In 1754, Lt. Col. George Washington quit the Virginia militia, an obscure fact that now seems a bit more interesting in the wake of Gov. Sarah Palin's resignation in Alaska.Historians differ on the reason for Washington's resignation. Some say he didn't like the way British soldiers treated him. Others say he was upset because a planned reorganization of the unit would've meant a reduction in rank. Imagine if you will how the media would've handled the story, if only our modern news creatures had been there to impart their instant wisdom to colonial America. "Georgy Porgy is one nutty puppy,"...

New York, NY (AHN) - Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE: FDO) on Wednesday swung to third quarter net income gain by almost 36 percent as more consumers looked for discounted products, topping analysts expectations. The retailer anticipates beating market expectations again in the current-quarter.In the current quarter, "we are initiating efforts to re-align space in our stores to accommodate strong customer demand and improve the in-store shopping experience," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard R. Levine said in a statement today. "These investments will add incremental expense pressure in the fourth quarter but will position us to drive sustainable growth...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Within Washington's tangled debate over how to reform healthcare, many are looking to Massachusetts, a state that could offer both a way forward and a warning. As President Barack Obama and Congress work to revamp a wasteful national system which leaves millions uninsured, attention has turned to Massachusetts' ambitious three-year-old program to cover almost all of its 6.4 million people. Rick Lord, a member of the Massachusetts system's oversight board, last month met with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Harvard University, and he's also been asked to speak at U.S. Senate hearings. The...

It sounds like something from a science fiction movie: Sensors are surgically inserted in the brain to understand what you're thinking. Machines that can speak, move or process information — based on the fleeting thoughts in a person's imagination. But it's not completely fictional. The technology is out there. A researcher in Wisconsin recently announced the ability to "think" updates onto the Twitter website. Locally, researchers at Washington University have developed even deeper ways of tying humans and computers together. For Eric Leuthardt, 36, a neurologist at Washington University Medical School, it's about taking our relationship with computers to the...

The West Virginia Conservative Foundation is backing efforts to convince the U.S. Senate to reject new cap-and-trade legislation passed by the House of Representatives last month. The new legislation would take steps to cut back carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S., particularly those from coal-fired power plants. During a Tuesday-morning news conference on the Capitol steps, a few people held signs reading, "West Virginia Needs Jobs, Not New Taxes. Say No To Cap & Trade." Mike Stuart, who heads the Conservative Foundation, said, "I am here as a citizen. My dad is a coal miner. My grandfather died from black...

As Democrats Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak dig in for a Senate primary that will likely pit power brokers against liberal activists, Republican Pat Toomey has 16 months to sharpen his message of fiscal conservatism for the November 2010 general election. Toomey, the ex-president of the anti-tax Club for Growth, who nearly unseated Specter in the 2004 Republican primary — and whose renewed challenge this year forced the longtime senator to join the Democrats — is collecting endorsements from GOP leaders and elected officials around the state

Baltimore, MD (AHN) - Four hospitals have completed the final leg of a three-week-long cross-country medical relay. In the first-of-its-kind series of surgeries, doctors exchanged not batons, but kidneys, involving 16 separate procedures.The surgeries transplanted eight kidneys from donors in one city into recipients in other cities. Hospitals involved were Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. The domino-style marathon began June 15 and concluded July 6, removing kidneys from three men and five women and implanting them into three men and five women....

Lars Larson on “Cap and Tax”Thursday, May 28. 2009 Late last week we finally got a look into some of the details of that crazy “Cap and Trade” scheme (I like to call a “Cap and Tax” scheme) that the U. S. Congress is considering. First of all, it’s almost a thousand pages long. Do they have speed readers looking at that thing so that Congress actually knows what’s in it? One part in particular seems to be especially telling to me. The President is trying to sell this crazy scheme and says it will create new jobs. If that’s...