Free Republic

Rats as big as cats, fanged frogs and grunting fish - they sound like something from a horror movie. But, incredibly, there is a 'lost world' on a distant island where these nightmarish creatures really exist. A team of scientists discovered the bizarre animals - and dozens of others - at a remote volcano in Papua New Guinea. In the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi, they found a habitat teeming with life which has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. Among the new species was the the Bosavi Woolly Rat. One of the biggest rats...

Firestorm Erupted As Critics Charge White House With Indoctrination. A presidential video address to the nation’s school children erupted into a firestorm of controversy after the White House disseminated an activities list which, among other things, called for grade students to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.” The president is poised to deliver an address to the nation’s students on September 8th. According to a press release issued by the White House on Wednesday, the speech stresses the “importance of taking responsibility for [students] success in school.” But, in preparing for the academic...

EATONTON, Ga. -- Authorities say an Augusta businessman killed himself after being chased by police in Putnam County. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills says a deputy tried to pull Jay Weinberger over early Saturday morning because he was towing a trailer with an expired tag. Sills says Weinberger eventually pulled over but took off when the deputy approached his car. The car left the road after a short distance, where the deputy found Weinberger dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Sills says the trailer was stolen and police later found several other stolen trailers in Weinberger's possession. Excerpt - more...

An estimated 18,000 attend event at Voice of America Park in West Chester Twp. John Kasich, Jean Schmidt, John Boehner, and Mike Turner all came out, which is good to see. This article was from yesterday's paper and I didn't see it until today, and am having trouble finding the actual article link, though I have the paper in front of me. If anyone can post the exact link, thanks.

America is in need of a new “Great Awakening” – an awakening that some Christian leaders say can only come about if Christians get on their knees. “America right now is facing great complexities. We have a financial struggle that we’re in, we’re facing health-care issues that have us scratching our heads. Our place in the world has shifted. We’re a nation that really needs help from beyond ourselves. We feel like God is the help,” The Rev. William (Billy) Wilson told CNSNews.com. Wilson, executive director of the International Center for Spiritual Renewal, is a member of the Awakening America...

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has approved the construction of 455 housing units in the West Bank, his office said Monday. The move comes as Israel and the United States have been increasingly at odds over the settlement issue. U.S. President Barack Obama has insisted Israel freeze all settlement activity as a necessary step toward advancing negotiations with Palestinians. The Jewish settlements are spread throughout the Palestinian West Bank. Israel maintains the settlements are needed to accommodate growth from residents of existing settlements. Chief Palestinian negotiation Saed Erakat said Israel's approval of new settlements is a direct challenge to the...

Helmand, Afghanistan - The West is losing this war. This has been obvious for more than three years. Less obvious is that in 2009, we are down to the wire. Gen. Stanley McChrystal and others will soon recommend to President Obama the latest treatment for a dying patient. Meanwhile, allies and Americans are asking themselves why we are here. Some are saying that Al Qaeda is still here or is waiting in the wings to return to its home. Yet Afghanistan was never Al Qaeda's permanent home to begin with. Al Qaeda was just renting a little space here, just...

Cats rule the internet. Think about all the funny cat photos and videos that infest your IM conversations, Facebook walls and e-mail forwards from mom -- our feline overlords have sneakily solidified themselves as a staple of the interweb humor we love so dearly. Don't believe us? Salon and Entertainment Weekly have also had the same startling realization. Heck, we even awarded them with a lifetime acheivement honor in the 2008 year-end Urlies. But whether you're a bona fide cat lady who loves it all, or someone who can't stand the over-population of cats on the interwebs, we can all...

As it tried to help shore up the ailing housing market during the past year, the Federal Housing Administration increased its exposure, particularly to mortgages in high-cost states that have also seen some of the sharpest price declines. Now concerns are mounting that the agency -- and the U.S. taxpayer -- may have to pay the price. The FHA insures loans secured with down payments as low as 3.5%. But values in many markets in which it has been increasing its activity have fallen far more than that in the past year. The result: A growing number of homeowners with...

Live Skillfully Today's Scripture "Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings…" (Proverbs 22:29, NIV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Too often, it's easy to get stuck in a rut, doing the same thing the same way over and over every day. But if we are going to live at our absolute best, we should constantly be growing and sharpening our skills. We should strive to learn and grow every single day because when you stop learning, you stop growing. When you stop growing, you stop living. What are you doing to...

Next up, Grover Cleveland. Get a load of this letter he wrote to a young man seeking a government job. And this guy was a Democrat. EXECUTIVE MANSION ALBANY February 4, 1885 MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND I cannot attempt to answer all the letters addressed to me by those both old and young who ask for places But if you are the boy I think you are your letter is based upon a claim to help your mother and others who are partly dependent upon your exertions I judge from what you write that you now have a situation in...

Should schoolchildren be allowed to watch President Obama's speech Tuesday? Vote YES Vote NO

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Mount Vernon, Wash. -- As dozens of companies pledge not to advertise on Glenn Beck's Fox News Channel show after he called President Barack Obama a racist, and as his controversial on-air behavior draws more scrutiny, the mayor of Mount Vernon, Wash., is presenting him with a key to the city. Mayor Bud Norris announced that Beck, who grew up in Mount Vernon, will be on hand to accept the award Sept. 26, which Norris will also proclaim "Glenn Beck Day." Tickets for the Saturday evening event are $25. Beck's advertiser abandonment has snowballed since he called Obama a racist...

Fountains of Blessings "The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" —John 4:14 The picture our Lord described here is not that of a simple stream of water, but an overflowing fountain. Continue to "be filled" ( Ephesians 5:18 ) and the sweetness of your vital relationship to Jesus will flow as generously out of you as it has been given to you. If you find that His life is not springing up as it should, you are to blame— something is obstructing the flow. Was Jesus saying to...

Medical evidence that helped Megrahi, 57, to be released was paid for by the Libyan government, which encouraged three doctors to say he had only three months to live. The life expectancy of Megrahi was crucial because, under Scottish rules, prisoners can be freed on compassionate grounds only if they are considered to have this amount of time, or less, to live. Megrahi is suffering from terminal prostate cancer. Two of the three doctors commissioned by the Libyans provided the required three-month estimates, while the third also indicated that the prisoner had a short time to live.

Seeing in the dark could soon be as easy as popping a pill or squeezing some drops into your eyes, thanks to some new science, an unusual deep-sea fish, and a plant pigment. In the 1990s, marine biologist Ron Douglas of City University London discovered that, unlike other deep-sea fish, the dragonfish Malacosteus niger can perceive red light. Douglas was surprised when he isolated the chemical responsible for absorbing red: It was chlorophyll. “That was weird,” he says. The fish had somehow co-opted chlorophyll, most likely from bacteria in their food, and turned it into a vision enhancer.

The Tea Party Express will be rallying in Joliet, Illinois this morning at 10:00 am, South Bend/Mishawaka, Illinois at 4:30 pm and Battle Creek, Michigan at 7:30 pm tonight!! Next rally stop: Jackson, Michigan tomorrow morning!! Woo hoo!! Thirty-five cities, thirty-five tea parties in sixteen days!! Be sure to check the tour schedule and join us when we get to a city near you: TeaPartyExpress.org!! And if you are going to DC for the big March on Washington and National Tea Party on 9/12, you won't want to miss our National Freeper Convention!! Click here to order your tickets today!!...

It's a tough world out there, an ugly world... even brutal at times. Things happen -- wars, famine, storms, terror, alphabet soup illnesses ala H1N1, society-destroying debt, political systems in need of rehabilitation. We're buffeted on the right and pummeled on the left and too often take it on the chin. Only occasionally does the world community engage cooperatively to aid or ameliorate the effects of these "bad things". And even less frequent are enduring beaux gestes -- beautiful, noble gestures, often in futile causes. Gestures that are offered without solicitation to honor those persons, those peoples impacted by said...

MORE than half of business travellers prefer a perfect night's sleep to great sex. That's just one of the interesting findings of a recent survey conducted by Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Sleep, as it turns out, is very important to business travellers. (It doesn't take a genius to figure that out—just ask anyone who has ever been jet-lagged.) The more interesting finding is that today's business travellers are even more sleep-deprived than their predecessors. When the same question was asked ten years ago, only 31% preferred great sex to great sheep-counting. Perhaps the incessant trend towards worse and less-comfortable airline...