Free Republic

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

Evolutionary Logic About Functions of the Appendix: Using Darwin to Disprove Darwin Proves Darwin Almost two years ago, I blogged about how conclusive evidence of function had been discovered for the appendix. Now function has been discovered for the appendix. Again. A recent news article on Yahoo.com actually frames the issue fairly well: The body's appendix has long been thought of as nothing more than a worthless evolutionary artifact, good for nothing save a potentially lethal case of inflammation. Now researchers suggest the appendix is a lot more than a useless remnant. … In a way, the idea that the...

I am an admirer of Kathy Shaidle’s work, but in attacking Alan Colmes she became needlessly (and unfairly) personal. Alan Colmes was an important component of the Hannity and Colmes show, providing an element of the unpredictable and putting conservatives like myself to the test.

The Supreme Court will weigh First Amendment rights against campaign finance law when it holds a rare September argument Wednesday to review a case that started as a dispute over an anti-Hillary Clinton movie a conservative group wanted to air during the 2008 presidential primaries. The politically hot case will also be the first Supreme Court case for new Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The court will, as is customary, convene its next term on the first Monday in October, but this case originates from arguments it first heard in March. Instead of issuing a decision, the justices announced they wanted additional...

President Barack Obama’s relationship with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, strained by differences over healthcare, will be tested by their talks on Tuesday in advance of his Wednesday night speech to a joint session of Congress. Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said repeatedly that a strong government-run public option is essential to healthcare reform. Obama, by contrast, says it is just a “sliver” of reform. Pundits have been parsing how important a sliver is since last month, speculating about whether the president is backing away from the public option to get a reform bill passed. His enthusiasm for a public option has waned as...

Here is the second part of Glenn Beck on Fox & Friends this morning - which I just found - saying he is going to expose something this week on his show that will result in "people going to jail." "People will go to jail," he said. Beck makes the statement at the 2:30 mark of the video. Hat Tip: Thanks to several Free Republic readers who indicated Beck had said this. (VIDEO)

Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. and John McCain released a report on $78 billion from the Highway Trust Fund not being spent on bridges or roads. “Out of Gas: Congress Raids the Highway Trust Fund for Pet Projects While Bridges and Roads Crumble” includes an analysis of a newly published GAO study the two Senators requested to determine how Congress is spending Highway Trust Fund receipts.

As a matter of raw partisan politics, President Barack Obama and the Democrat Congress may have no choice but to resort to the “nuclear option” to pass their increasingly unpopular plan to take over American health care. In the teeth of intense public opposition, congressional Democrats are having a hard time cobbling together votes on their own side of the aisle. Meanwhile, the same provisions that have led most Americans to oppose the takeover — the costs, the rationing plans, the government mandates and controls — will ensure almost unanimous Republican opposition in Congress. Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.),...

Real goal was never to control the climate. It was always to control energy use, lives, jobs, economies, transportation and housing Of course, the real goal was never to control the climate. It was always to control energy use, lives, jobs, economies, transportation and housing – and usher in a new era of high tax global governance. The American people are increasingly saying they’re not ready to grant that power to Obama Gore & Company.

The text of the film “The fall of an empire—the Lesson of Byzantium” Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) Russian winter landscape. A church. A snowstorm. Narrator. Hello. In 1453, the Byzantine Empire fell. Let us now take a look at how this happened. Islamic chant weaves into the gusts of freezing wind. Instanbul. The muezzin continues his prayer, amplified by a loudspeaker. The noise of a market place in a Middle Eastern city. Turkish conversation. Narrator. This city was once called Constantinople; six centuries ago it was the capital city of what was without exaggeration one of the greatest civilizations in world...

Last week, the MyBarackObama website forced a meet-up posting down the memory hole. Obama's Organizing For America (his ground stormtrooper organization that evolved from his campaign army) section of his website had a posting for what was going to be a meet-up in Illinois to push Obamacare. Apparently, even the extremists that run Obama's website were ashamed of the intemperate rhetoric in this listing and so, down the memory hole it goes. As it happens, the meet-up writer felt compelled to call Republicans "domestic terrorists," and "proud right-wing terrorists. The posting went on with all sorts of ignorant comments and...

The word median is statistical: it is the point at which 50% of the observations of a thing are smaller and 50% larger. For example, according to the CIA Factbook, the median age of U.S. citizens is 37 years; thus, half the population is younger than 37, half older. Sometimes, as in Murray’s case, and in this review, the median is synonymous with average (sometimes the later implies numerical mean; the median and numerical mean are often nearly or practically equal). We accept that some people naturally excel at sports and that others, no matter the purity of their souls,...

Much to his dismay, Congressman Mike Turner of Ohio's 3rd District has just discovered a new attitude from his voters. Unfortunately, it's a lesson that congress isn't likely to learn too quickly. But let's see if Congressman Turner will. Until now there has been an averting of the eyes at the overspending of "my" congressman. The individual voters have for decades been willing to excuse their own congressman for bringing home the pork even as they complain at the wild over spending by congress as a whole. For a very long time the voters have been upset at spending by...

Once again the extreme left goes into a conservative-bashing theory without the slightest knowledge of human nature not to mention owning even a tiny bit of introspection. This time it is one Geoffery Dunn of the San Francisco Chronicle who told his readers that Palin exemplifies America's ages-old "paranoid-style politics." The piece is interesting for the fact that it is apparent that as the left-wing Dunn talks about "American paranoid-style politics" he offers examples from only the conservative side of the aisle. Apparently Mr. Dunn imagines "paranoia" only resides on the right in that "American" politics of which he assumes...

A blogger for the Roanoke Times wrote a recent blog post breathlessly informing his readers that contrary to "false claims" concealed carry permit holders have, indeed, been responsible for acts of murder and mayhem. Dan Casey presents the report issued by what he claims is the "nonpartisan" Violence Policy Center. That report finds that seven policemen and forty-three civilians have been killed by concealed carry license holders. This is a horrible body count and no one can say otherwise. Casey, for his part, is crowing about the "lies" of the "gun zealots" and seems quite pleased to find proof of...

"You Don't Know Jack" is the perfect title for the upcoming HBO biopic starring Al Pacino as Death Doc Jack Kevorkian - because it is clear that many of Kevorkian's fawning interviewers don't know much about Jack. Fox News' Neil Cavuto, for example, last week introduced Kevorkian as a "Michigan physician who claims to have assisted in the suicides of at least 130 terminally ill people from 1990 to 1998." Physician? Not the kind who treats patients. Kevorkian was a pathologist until his medical license was yanked in 1991. In 1999, a Michigan jury convicted him of second-degree murder after...

I thought I’d accidently browsed over to the Daily Kos in reading the Politico’s BEN Smith’s & NIA-MALIKA Henderson’s hit piece, “Glenn Beck up, left down and Van Jones defiant.” This article was a direct frontal assault lashing out against the conservative grassroots, Fox News, talk radio, the Drudge Report’s Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck .(see story) Smith and Henderson left no stone unturned attempting to fault all of Conservatism for Van Jones’ self inflicted troubles. Jones a black nationalist, anarchist, and self avowed communist remade himself into a Green Jobs/Economic rights activist and presidential advisor, found it...

Ann Coulter will be at the Tea Party in • Bridgeport, CT - 1:30pm this Friday!She will be coming along with the Tea Party Express!

Let's call it a "blast from the past." Yesterday, David Horowitz noted with perceptible disgust that former Sean Hannity sidecar occupant Alan Colmes had waved away criticism of disgraced "Green Jobs Czar" and admitted Communist Van Jones by describing Jones as simply "a mainstream liberal." (Insert your own joke here.) What struck me about Horowitz's post was his opening line: "If you didn't believe it when I said it..." Back in 2006, I saw and heard Alan Colmes say something on his old FOX News show that I tried to convince myself I'd misheard.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi is virtually certain to survive a runoff with a token Republican opponent and extend his 35-year-long political career, which began with election to the Assembly in 1974, into the indefinite future as a congressman. Garamendi emerged atop a field of candidates for the 10th Congressional District seat that Democrat Ellen Tauscher surrendered after taking a trade job in the Obama administration. The 10th District, which covers much of the Bay Area's eastern suburbs, has an 18-percentage-point Democratic registration margin, making the Nov. 3 runoff with Republican David Harmer a cakewalk. The more uncertain aspect is whom...