Free Republic

Chicago has long known how far Oprah Winfrey's star power reaches. Now the popular talk-show host has won city approval to shut down a significant stretch of the Magnificent Mile next week for the kickoff of her 24th season. Plans call for Michigan Avenue to be closed to vehicular traffic from Wacker Drive to Ohio Street for more than two days -- from 12:01 a.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Wednesday. The hourlong show will be taped at 5 p.m. Tuesday at a temporary stage to be built near the Michigan Avenue Bridge. The taping is free and open to the...

DISABLED MARINE VET CONFRONT HIS REPRESENTATIVE AT TOWNHALL MEETING The video of disabled Marine veteran David Hedrick confronting his representative, Brian Baird, at a town hall meeting in Clark County Washington has now surpassed 1 million views in the 13 days since it was first posted on the internet. The current count is 1,027,497 and climbing. The video has been seen or heard (as has David) on Fox News, Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and any number of other places on the internet and various news and talk radio networks. The left has tried to discredit both David...

A Florida man born without arms says a Tampa bank would not let him cash a check because he couldn't provide a thumbprint.

Featured Term (selected at random):INTERSTICES Periods of time required by Church law between the various grades of sacred orders. Since the abolition of the subdiaconate in the Latin Rite, the main provision is for the three-month interval between the diaconate and the priesthood. This time may be, and generally is, extended, and for exceptional reasons may also be shortened by a bishop. (Etym. Latin inter-, between + stare, to stand: interstitium, interval, interstice; literally, space between.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Critics Decry Obama's 'Indoctrination' Plan for Students By Joshua Rhett Miller FOXNews.com Wednesday, September 02, 2009 A suggested lesson plan that calls on school kids to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help President Obama is troubling some education experts, who say it establishes the president as a "superintendent in chief" and may encourage children to support him politically. Obama will deliver a national address directly to students on Tuesday, Sept. 8, which will be the first day of classes for many children across the country. In a letter to school principals last week, U.S. Secretary...

HAMILTON — A Hamilton mother could face the death penalty on charges that she killed her 5-week-old son and stuffed him in a garbage can because he was the product of sex with a minor. Asuncion “Suzie” Avila-Villa, 25, who lived in an upstairs apartment in the 1300 block of Shuler Avenue, was arrested Aug. 25 and charged with murder, endangering children, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

You know what to do. What a great, "educational" and "learning" experience this would be for a young person.

Stop Blaming the Messenger By Ari Bussel Ten days ago, the Los Angeles Times published an Op-Ed by an Israeli Professor from Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). The article called for a boycott of Israel. It was neither on the front page nor written by a known anti-Semite, but the community is up in arms. Suddenly, the local Jewish community in Greater Los Angeles finds the message delivered daily by the Los Angeles Times unpleasant. I say suddenly, but over the past three decades, there have been repeated calls to cancel subscriptions and withdraw advertisement dollars, to very...

Back in 2006, during the height of that year’s election campaign, a Virginia Republican observed that he found the Washington Post’s coverage of local politics much more infuriating than its coverage of national politics. He suspected that the average reporter or editor on the Post’s political beat — either living in the northern Virginia suburbs, or having many friends who did — could live with the idea of the country being represented by George W. Bush, but seethed with disbelief at the thought of being represented by a Republican Sen. George Allen. Republicans could grouse about the frequency with which...

NEW YORK, NY September 02, 2009 —Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will be in New York today to unveil the Obama Administration's new national "Ready Campaign", aimed at improving household preparedness for emergencies and natural disasters. Today's national rollout comes several weeks after Napolitano appointed a panel to review the controversial five-color terror threat matrix, implemented by the Bush Administration. A report is expected next month. Currently the nation's threat level is set at "elevated" or code yellow. The threat level for all domestic and international air travel has been set at "high" or elevated.

WITH A PUEFACE BY THE BISHOP OF OXFORD. ' And the august abode from whence they came.' Speculations as to an Eastern emigration are scarcely more than glanced at here; and it may appear almost superfluous to refer to two groundless hypotheses which have been formed—the first, that Greek remains have been discovered in South America, and that faint vestiges of Greece are also traceable in the islands of Hawaii. The other supposition is that of the Hawaiian race being of Hebrew origin, and that these islanders represent the lost tribes of the house of Israel.

Believe it or not, sometimes good news on the economy can be bad news for stocks. It's a distant point, but one worth considering in view of conservative pessimism over Obama's plans to spend, tax, borrow, and control the economy. I share these worries. But the U.S. is still a free-market economy, and it will be so at least until the health-care and energy sectors are nationalized. And free-market economies are resilient and self-correcting. While so-called spending-and-deficit stimulus may be an economic depressant, Friedmanite monetary stimulus -- which has been substantial -- is gradually exerting a powerful impact on economic...

In a case that again raises the issue of when homosexual workers may sue under federal civil-rights law, a federal appeals court has revived a Pittsburgh-area man's suit contending that he was harassed and fired because of his "effeminate behaviors." The unanimous opinion by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reinstated the 2006 lawsuit by Brian D. Prowel against Wise Business Forms Inc. and remanded it for trial by a federal judge in Pittsburgh. Prowel, 39, of Penn Hills, who operated a business-forms coding machine at Wise for 13 years, issued a statement...

As Catholics, we are proud of the Church’s healthcare contribution to the world. Indeed, the hospital was originally an innovation of the Catholic faithful responding to our Lord’s call to care for the sick, “For I was…ill and you cared for me.” (Matthew 25, v. 35-36). This tradition continues today in America, where currently one in four hospitals is run by a Catholic agency. We have listened to current debate with great attention and write now to contribute our part to ensure that this reform be an authentic reform taking full consideration of the dignity of the human person. Some...

GEORGE BUSH’S “war on terror” left America with a scarred reputation and many disturbing questions. Barack Obama has said that he wants to move forward, rather than look back. That is understandable. The new president has an ambitious agenda. Prising open the lid on previous mistakes might unleash a political hornet-swarm. But this week, with Mr Obama bunkered on Martha’s Vineyard, an ugly past roared into the present. On August 24th the Department of Justice released a report on the CIA’s interrogation of detainees abroad, written by the agency’s internal watchdog in 2004. More important, Eric Holder, the attorney-general, directed...

Levi Johnston tells editors at Vanity Fair about the off-camera life of the woman who almost became vice president, revealing that the Palin family's home life was very different from what was presented in the mainstream media. “Even before she was nominated,” Johnston writes, “there wasn't much parenting in that house. Sarah doesn't cook, Todd doesn't cook—the kids would do it all themselves: cook, clean, do the laundry, and get ready for school. Most of the time Bristol would help her youngest sister with her homework, and I'd barbecue chicken or steak on the grill.”

More than $10bn in advertising disappeared from US media markets in the first six months of this year, according to new data that show intense pressure on media owners and ad agencies as they search for other business models. Preliminary figures from Nielsen show a 15.4 per cent year-on-year decline in US advertising revenues, the largest drop for any period in the decade since the marketing and media measurement group began compiling such reports. The study showed sharp differences in the behaviour of different media and product categories, with cable television the only medium on which ad spend increased, up...

Breaking on Fox. Obama to take on the healthcare debate personally with speeches from White House and possibly joint sessions of Congress. Now dumping mandatory public option, aty least in public. Developing.

A coalition of gay marriage opponents asked the D.C. elections board Tuesday to authorize a ballot initiative that if approved by a majority of voters would define marriage in the District as the union of a man and a woman. Stand4MarriageDC, led by Bishop Harry Jackson of Beltsville's Hope Christian Church, filed papers with the Board of Elections and Ethics seeking authority to collect petition signatures for a November 2010 referendum on the definition of marriage. The filing, backed by the Archdiocese of Washington, comes ahead of an anticipated D.C. Council effort to legalize same-sex marriage in the District. "The...

A 33-year-old Lenexa man was arrested early this morning after his date got suspicious about his claims of being a police officer — which he wasn’t. The woman called police about midnight Tuesday saying that she was on a date with the man, but got a gut feeling that something wasn’t right. When she tried to end the date, they got into an argument and he threatened to arrest her if she didn’t go to his home, she told police. Police responded to the McDonald’s restaurant at W. 87th Street and Mauer Road where the woman told them that she...