Free Republic

When Barack Obama won Florida last November — the first Democrat to take the Sunshine State since FDR — many saw it as a sign of centrist GOP Governor Charlie Crist's moderating influence. But lately, Florida's disgruntled Republicans aren't looking very moderate. This week, in fact, the peninsula's GOP registered arguably the loudest outcry over the education speech President Obama plans to deliver to U.S. primary and secondary students via webcast and C-Span next Tuesday. In perhaps the most over-the-top performance, state Republican Chairman Jim Greer called it an attempt to use "our children to spread liberal propaganda" and "President...

In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, I was taught to believe individual pursuits are selfish and sacrificing for the collective good is noble.In kindergarten we sang songs about Lenin, the leader of the Socialist Revolution. In school we learned about the beautiful socialist system, where everybody is equal and everything is fair; about ugly capitalism, where people are exploited and treat each other like wolves in the wilderness. Life in the USSR modeled the socialist ideal. God-based religion was suppressed and replaced with cultlike adoration for political figures. The government-assigned salary of the proletariat (blue-collar worker) was 30%-50% higher...

When the announcement was first made that "Torchwood" would return for a third season on BBC One, fans received the news with whoops of cheers and excitement. What could be better? The "Doctor Who" spinoff series, which broke BBC Three records when it launched in 2007, would migrate to the big leagues of prime time terrestrial television.

Identical twin brothers Donte and Dante Hall have more in common than their genetics. Both could end up on Florida's death row for a crime state prosecutors believe the brothers, now 25, committed together. Donte Hall was convicted earlier this year for fatally shooting two men at a central Florida house party in September 2006. As for Dante Hall, the third attempt to determine whether he acted alongside his twin during the double-murder ended today in another mistrial. According to Donte's defense attorney, Edwin Mills, his client went to the house in Eustis, Fla., after his girlfriend called to tell...

While astronomers keenly await the discovery of Earth-like planets around other stars, the possibility of habitable moons should not be ruled out either, say scientists at University College London. NASA's Kepler spacecraft launched earlier this year with the hunt for Earth-like planets the primary goal of the mission. It will make detections using the transit method – by looking for the characteristic dips in stellar brightness as a planet passes in front of its parent star.

Despite protests, the city of Homestead said they won't ban the controversial symbolOver a century later, the Confederacy seems to have won. It's a small battle, of course, but it looks like Homestead's Veteran's Day Parade will happen, and, despite protests by the NAACP, organizers decided they could not ban the displaying of the Confederate flag, according to the Miami Herald. The controversy over the flag began last November, when black residents became outraged that the city allowed the symbol to fly during Veterans Day events. "I think the Confederate soldiers have always been in the parade. I've seen them...

The “all men are liars” stereotype is big business. There are blogs, books, TV and radio shows all aimed at helping women find out when a man is lying. Over at AskMen.com we publish articles like: “Reasons to tell her you’ve cheated”. We also put the boot on the other foot with: ”How to tell if your lady is lying”. Because it seems we all lie – in fact a recent US study found it’s an essential part of who we are as social beings....

Almost the whole month of August went by without an article posted here about Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Only now back in the news because of a G-20 meeting he will be attending in London. What's up with that? Is Geithner about to be tossed under the bus?

The deportations of thousands of Mexicans who have served time in U.S. jails into Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, are adding a deadly ingredient to an already volatile state of security, Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said. Turf battles between rival drug cartels, and between authorities and cartels, have made Juarez one of the world's most dangerous cities. There were 305 drug-related killings in August, making it the deadliest month yet, according to the mayor's office. Most of the recent violence has been committed by young street-level drug dealers who work for the Sinaloa or Juarez cartels, Reyes Ferriz said. Adding deportees...

The strawberry vendors stand on street corners throughout Palo Alto, at busy intersections, outside shopping centers and banks. Cars slowed along Stanford Avenue on a recent afternoon, their drivers peering at one vendor's succulent strawberries, mangoes and cherries. A woman stopped her vehicle at the Wellesley Street intersection as drivers behind her swerved to go past. "How much?" she asked the vendor. "Ten dollars," the man said as he passed a box of fruit through the car window. But behind the sweet fruit there is a bitterness, a story of indentured servitude playing out on Bay Area streets. According to...

Both Tau Zero Foundation founder Marc Millis and JPL’s recently retired Robert Frisbee appear in an article in the Smithsonian’s Air & Space, where voyages to distant places indeed are discussed. Nothing is further from Earth, the article notes, than Voyager 1, which travels at a speed (almost 17 kilometers per second) that would get it across the US in a little under four minutes. Point that spacecraft toward Proxima Centauri and the journey at this speed would take 73,000 years. Clearly, something has to give, and writer Michael Klesius runs through the options.

Americas: The U.S. hit Honduras with harsh new sanctions last Thursday, slashing $30 million in aid. Nothing new, but the timing's strange, given that the rest of the world is starting to normalize ties with the tiny state.The June 28 ouster of Honduran President Mel Zelaya is rapidly shaping up as a never-ending crisis for the Obama administration. The more it tries to punish Honduras for getting rid of its would-be dictator, the more the freedom-loving Hondurans dig in to keep their democracy. That isn't going to be good for us in the long run. Back in June, Zelaya launched...

The Latest From Virginia: Governor's Race, No Change. Lieutenant Governor's Race, No Change. Attorney General's Race, No Change. In statewide elections in Virginia today, two months until votes are counted, Republicans sweep, taking the statehouse away from the Democrats and holding the Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General offices, according to SurveyUSA polling for WDBJ-TV Roanoke and WJLA-TV Washington DC.

From Cernobbio If arch-bear Nouriel Roubini has really thrown in the towel on our Great Contraction – as often claimed – this was not obvious here on the shores of Lake Como in Italy. Speaking at the Ambrosetti Workshop – a sort of Davos/Bliderberg for food-loving policy elites – he said the best we can hope for is a long-hard slog for two or three years, with a rising risk of a double dip into “W-shaped” recession. The poll of the 200 or so participants at the Villa D’Este (an ultra-posh hotel on the lake: Telegraph hacks stay up the...

Economy: The jobless rate has hit a 26-year high. More than 200,000 jobs were lost last month. Yet the White House continues to claim its stimulus legislation is working. When does the charade end?The unemployment rate reached 9.7% in August, up from 9.4% in July, the worst we have seen in this country since 1983, when Ronald Reagan was wrestling with the economic mess. While Reagan's policies eventually moved the country out of the recession and set off unprecedented growth, it's unlikely the Obama administration will be able to do the same thing. Rather than letting the private sector create...

I just heard on Fox that today is a special day in history in that the last episode of "Gilligan's Island" was broadcast on this day in 1967. And it's been downhill for American culture ever since.

Republicans who have spent months criticizing the proliferation of “czars” in the Obama White House have finally landed a major punch.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.” The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published. The AP reported in a story that it decided to make the image public anyway, because it “conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men...

On Thursday, Edmunds.com pointed out what it sees as inconsistencies with the government's Cash for Clunkers statistics. One of the reasons the company delved into these figures is because it says there was an unprecedented range in analysts' sales forecasts.

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq, Sept. 4, 2009 – Before she joined the Army, Staff Sgt. Katherine Fults felt her career options were limited to three things, none of which indicate an obvious path to the military. Army Staff Sgt. Katherine Fults, a flutist with the Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Infantry Division Band, rehearses at Contingency Operating Base Basra, Aug. 25, 2009. Fults teaches third grade at Ascension School in Minneapolis. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Frank Vaughn  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “To me, there were three things in life: teacher, nurse or nun,” said Fults, who is...