Free Republic

If I didn't live in Chicago and therefore have to deal with King Daley and the idiocracy that is the Illinois state government, I might feel sorry for the residents of Connecticut. As is, at least this provides a good chuckle.

We get angry with politicians a lot. They seem to behave erratically and often work against our interests. At times, it’s like they don’t even hear us. It’s frustrating. They just seem like bad politicians, running around trying to pass laws they haven’t even read. We get angry and want to yell at them, but that only makes things worse. I think we need a new model for approaching politicians. My suggestion: Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer. Cesar’s philosophy is that he rehabilitates dogs and trains people, because a dog’s behavior is really a reflection of its owner’s energy. In...

Thomas Sowell: “What they are trying to do is create an America very unlike the America that has existed for centuries, the America that people have been attracted to by the millions from all over the world, the America that many generations of Americans have fought and died for. The thing associated with America, freedom, is precisely what must be destroyed if this is to be turned into a fundamentally different country, to suit Obama’s vision of a country and of himself.”

"And not just atheists," said Bill Donohue during an August 31st Fox News interview. "I’m talking about people who are disaffected Catholics and Protestants who are mutineers within their own religion, trying to change things." It wasn't just "militant, dogmatic" atheists and "disaffected" Christians that the Catholic League president complained about either. Donohue also had a few choice words for magicians Penn & Teller whose Showtime series, Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t!, just ran an episode on the history of the Catholic Church. "This was the most Nazi-like assault,” Donohue said. “The most unrelenting half an hour of bashing I’ve ever...

A British man’s 27-year obsession with the post-apocalyptic biker movie Mad Max has led to him moving his family from Yorkshire to a tiny town in the middle of the Australian Outback. Adrian Bennett first saw the iconic Australian film Mad Max and its sequel The Road Warrior, when he was a teenager in England in 1982. Now 45, Mr Bennett has decided to fulfill his dream of living in the same town where the first two movies were made and has moved his wife Linda and two of his sons from their home in Bradford, Yorkshire, to Silverton on...

16-point manifesto for the new 'Lobbyist Nation of America' ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Democracy dead? Lobbyists ruling America? Lobbyists the new "Unseen Hand" of capitalism? Sadly yes.And here's why: Ask any neuroeconomist, behavioral-finance quant, investment psychologist or other practitioner of the mysterious "science of irrationality" and they'll tell you that Americans have two self-sabotaging mental biases that killed democracy from within: "Denial" and "Magical Thinking" make us easy targets. Our brains are being manipulated by clandestine forces beyond our control. We can't see them or resist. Yet we refuse to believe in this new Orwellian America. We prefer the...

In late August, the Obama administration released revised budget projections reflecting an increase of the 10-year budget deficit projection from $7.1 to $9 Trillion. This increase puts the White House in line with the Congressional Budget Office Projection(CBO) of $9.3 trillion. The deficit projections on the part of the White House and the CBO were most likely very understated, as they assumed that Congress will hold federal spending at the rate of inflation over the next decade, something as likely as a real live unicorn turning up on your front porch tomorrow morning. The newest revelation about the President's budget...

Here is video of Chris Matthews saying Bill Clinton's voice is "the voice of God" on Health Care, and what the Democrats ought to do. He was referring to a clip of remarks Bill Clinton made to Tennessee Democrats over the weekend in which he said that Democrats must pass some kind of Health Bill and not be seen as losing to Republicans. Matthews is worried the Left of the Democrat Party will be blamed if ObamaCare fails. . . . . (Watch Video)

After yesterday's blog post about five similarities between Microsoft's Windows 7 and Apple's Snow Leopard operating systems, I received an e-mail from a Microsoft spokesperson. He asked if I planned to do one on the differences between the two once my print review of Snow Leopard ran. My initial reaction was to think, "Be careful what you ask for."Of course, there are a lot more than five, but the more I thought about it, the more I decided it might be an interesting exercise — particularly if I focused on overall differences in strategy and design approach.With that in mind,...

"You're always nervous when the money's out there, but you've got to believe in the government," Scarpace said. "It should come back to us."

A deficiency of the sunshine vitamin may worsen plaque accumulation in vessels of diabetes patients Vitamin D deficiency may exacerbate the excess heart disease risk that people with type 2 diabetes face, a new study in the Aug. 25 Circulation suggests. In lab tests, researchers demonstrate that immune cells with very low vitamin D levels turn into soggy, cholesterol-filled baggage that can become building blocks of arterial plaques. Carlos Bernal-Mizrachi, an endocrinologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and his colleagues found that people with diabetes seem more susceptible than nondiabetics to the negative cardiovascular effects attributable...

U.S. Rep. Brian Baird backed out of a promise to hold a living room meeting at the home of a Pacific County Republican chairwoman, the GOP activist said Monday. Nan Malin of Long Beach said a Baird staffer told her the private meeting was nixed because of unspecified posts Malin had written on a right-leaning blog. "It's really the congressman's loss," Malin said. "He's really missing an opportunity to have a real dialogue. These town halls have not had a real dialogue." A representative for Baird, D-Vancouver, said tonight's 7 p.m. public town hall at Ilwaco High School would serve...

America needs jobs or the economy will not recover. There are not enough jobs for skilled workers. Even lawyers graduating from Harvard and Yale can not find jobs in the major law firms, and are taking jobs in second tier firms, leaving graduates from other schools without prospects of employment. Industry needs engineers, but Allan Cotrone, the director of Career Development and Student Affairs at the Ross School of Business, told The Michigan Daily. “I’ve never seen it as bad as this for students looking for jobs,” If Obamacare passes it will not be long before tax revenues from medical...

In the United States there are many participants in the public square; business, entertainment, education, family, religion, federal government, state governments, charities, health care, etc. These participants are constantly bumping up against each other, sometimes cooperating, perpetually struggling to maintain (or expand) their share of space in the public square. This social arrangement is part of the checks and balances that helps to prevent any one player from monopolizing power. In the former Soviet Union everything was the state and nothing was outside the state. The state occupied all the space in the public square. Fortunately, our founders established a...

Initial Round of Cash Assistance for Wind, Solar Projects in Eight States Will Create Jobs, Increase DevelopmentWASHINGTON– Marking a major milestone in the effort to spur private sector investments in clean energy and create new jobs for America's workers, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced $502 million in the first round of awards from an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) program that provides cash assistance to energy production companies in place of earned tax credits. The new funding creates additional upfront capital, enabling companies to create jobs and begin construction that may have...

Tuesday, September 01, 2009 Video: The most awesome Ordination video you'll ever see I try to avoid vulgar language on AmP, so I'll restrain myself and simply say this video "kicks butt". I love it for many reasons, including: It bears the unmistakable marks of a Grassroots Films productionIt prominently features the pastoral voice of Archbishop Timothy DolanIt uses the multimedia arts to powerfully convey the spiritual reality it portrays Show your friends, especially your non-Catholic ones. It might help them better understand the beauty and majesty of a life given totally to Christ and His Church. Labels: video,...

The news Creeping Sharia broke to you first here back in July. It won’t be the first “jummah” on Capitol Hill either – as we’ve reported here and here. Details are emerging on the mass outdoor Islamic prayer event that will turn Capitol Hill into a giant outdoor mosque. The Star Ledger out of New Jersey reports the mosque organizing the event is the Dar-ul-Islam* mosque in Elizabeth, New Jersey and the event has a website. September 25 ,2009 Jummah Prayer On Capitol Hill 50,000 believers in the Greatness of Allah praying for the greater good of all people. OUR...

Every once in a while I just get lucky. I make an offhanded remark on the air that sends the looters into such paroxysms of angst and outrage that I get about a weeks worth of a free ride in blogs, columns and radio and TV shows.

In July, the Russian-manned cargo ship the Arctic Sea disappeared on its way to take timber from Finland to Algeria, sparking reports of the first incident of piracy in European waters since the days of the buccaneers. Experts and observers weighed in with their theories: the ship had been snatched in a commercial dispute; it was being used to run drugs; it was carrying something more precious — or dangerous — than timber. Since then, the Russian navy has found the ship, and the alleged hijackers who boarded it on July 24 have been charged with kidnapping and piracy. The...