Free Republic

Reality-show star Jon Gosselin did it. Country singer Shania Twain, whose "One" has become a wedding standard, wound up a victim of it. An endless parade of politicians has done it, and those are the ones we wind up knowing about. Adultery does happen. It always has and it always will. But I think we may have crossed a threshold. While watching the president of the United States declare that we can legislate away hardship, during his joint-session of Congress health-care address, I was lured away from my hyper-blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking analysis by a commercial for ashleymadison.com. To the soundtrack...

Retail health clinics are adding treatments for chronic diseases such as asthma to their repertoire, hoping to find steadier revenue, but putting the clinics into greater competition with doctors' groups and hospitals. Walgreen Co.'s Take Care retail clinic recently started a pilot program in Tampa and Orlando offering injected and infused drugs for asthma and osteoporosis to Medicare patients. At some MinuteClinics run by CVS Caremark Corp., nurse practitioners now counsel teenagers about acne, recommend over-the-counter products and sometimes prescribe antibiotics. ... Walgreen, the second-largest pharmacy chain by stores, plans to start a pilot program for managing diabetes in coming...

Rasmussen reports that all political labels are trending negative except one. "Liberal" is still the worst and remains the only political description that is viewed more negatively than positively. Being like Reagan is still the most positive thing you can say about a candidate. It also seems that the left's re-labeling attempt is failing. Aware of their low ideological ratings, political liberals have shifted in recent times to calling themselves progressives, but that name, too, has begun to lose its luster. Thirty-two percent (32%) now consider it a positive to describe a candidate as politically progressive, but that's down from...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSrjgqG4g40&feature=sub

Following scenes of violence outside of a mosque in Harrow, north-east London, a cabinet minister has claimed today's right wing groups have "parallels" with 1930s fascism. Ten people were arrested on Friday night after protestors from the Stop Islamification of Europe group demonstrated outside Harrow central mosque on the anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Anti-fascist groups also attended the protest, leading to clashes between the two groups. Reports suggest police officers attempting to control the incident were struck bricks and bottles. Commenting on the protests, Superintendent Julia Pendry from the Metropolitan police said: "What police set out to...

Florida is at the bottom of most national social, health and educational indicators. Yes, we're told, it's cheaper to live in Florida, and taxes are lower in conjunction with a high quality of life. Not true anymore. In fact, while wages are lower in Florida and solid job opportunities are fewer, now the cost of living here is moving higher. Since Florida is, for the first time since World War II, losing population and our economy has been based on growth, the fact that we have no state income tax puts an unbearable burden on regressive Florida real estate and...

People rhetorically ask where God was on 9/11 as though He wasn't anywhere. Or they ask it accusingly, the way a detective asks a suspect if he has an alibi. "Where were you on the morning of September the 11th?""Can anyone confirm your alibi?" God was there, at every point in time and space of significance in the events of that day. He was in the date; He was in our mouths; He was in an open Bible found at the crash site (more on that in a moment); a powerful distortion of Him was the motive force behind the...

For what is our HOPE, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? The only truth that we heard in the Joint Speech was Joe Wilson. The Dems still believe since they own the gummit and the establishmedia that they can lie to America and get away w/it. They think that they can say whatever they want and have it reinforced by the Stone Age Press and America will follow like the lemmings we used to be. It’s a new day as we see...

've decided to move out of the Sunshine State. It's a bit more chilly here than I had expected. Some may say good riddance, but I'm no longer willing to live in a place where I can't get married, can't adopt children and where there are no state laws to protect me from being fired because I'm gay. And so my partner Keith and I have decided to sell the house, load up the dogs and head north, toward a decidedly warmer climate. To those who visit here, Florida must seem somewhat schizophrenic. We sell ourselves as a great place...

No word on whether they’ll be prosecuting any ACORN people for conspiring to cover up sex slavery. They’ve got bigger fish to fry, I guess. Like … the people who exposed the people who conspired to cover up sex slavery.

In July, President Obama met for 45 minutes with leaders of American Jewish organizations. All presidents meet with Israel’s advocates. Obama, however, had taken his time, and powerhouse figures of the Jewish community were grumbling; Obama’s coolness seemed to be of a piece with his willingness to publicly pressure Israel to freeze the growth of its settlements and with what was deemed his excessive solicitude toward the plight of the Palestinians. During the July meeting, held in the Roosevelt Room, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told Obama that “public disharmony...

A July 2009 congressional report -- titled “Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise?” -- accused ACORN of massive fraud, money laundering, and racketeering directed from the highest levels of the organization's management.

This is part of a broader defense strategy that Wilson is undertaking after facing strong criticism despite apologizing to President Barack Obama for interrupting his speech. Democrats on Friday announced that they would bring forward a “resolution of disapproval” if Wilson does not apologize to his colleagues on the House floor. The South Carolina Republican’s defense is focused on social media, including a taped YouTube video message to supporters, a flurry of Twitter messages, numerous interviews with bloggers and an ad on the Drudge Report. In the ad, Wilson said that he is defending himself against liberals who are seeking...

For nearly 50 years it has been an article of faith among American conservatives that liberty and tradition are mutually reinforcing.  Not only is there no inherent conflict between the two, the argument goes, but each works to the other’s benefit.  As a corollary, religious observance, or at least cultural traits acquired through it, provides the moral basis for capitalist success.  George Gilder, Irving Kristol, Daniel Lapin, the late Frank Meyer (the original “fusionist”), Michael Novak – these and other conservative authors have advanced this now-familiar view.  A rapidly growing and incendiary divide among Israeli Jews, however, is putting this...

Perhaps we need to institute a timeout. Back in elementary school, when things got a little out of hand, the teacher would say we needed to take a timeout. Usually this followed a fight on the playground, an argument in homeroom or an unusually nasty prank. Kids need to learn the boundaries. It feels a lot like elementary school right now in our political arena. The players have expanded the boundaries way past what had been defined as acceptable. In just over a month we have seen the following: • Town-hall meetings being disrupted by yelling and shouting. Story continues...

With tens of thousands of conservative protesters expected to gather in Washington on Saturday for a "Taxpayer March on D.C.," Republican officials are attempting to capitalize on a movement that lately has galvanized anti-Obama activists more effectively than the party's elected leaders in Washington. Searching for ways to compete with Democrats after two consecutive electoral drubbings, Republicans have moved past earlier uncertainty about the protesters, who organized nationwide rallies this summer that have threatened Democratic health-care plans and eroded President Obama's standing with the public. Several key Republican lawmakers, including House GOP Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana, have helped to...

Just over three months after the fact, there's finally a price tag for at least part of the first couple's May date night in New York. According to documents obtained by the group Judicial Watch, President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama's May 30 trip to New York for dinner and a Broadway show incurred $11,648.17 in extra security costs documented by the U.S. Secret Service. "No wonder the Obama White House tried to keep secret the costs of this excursion. On his next 'date night,' President Obama might want to be more sensitive to the costs of his partying...

A conservative media watchdog organization is demanding that the media reports President Obama's "lies, distortions, and exaggerations" delivered in his speech on healthcare reform Wednesday night. The Media Research Center says President Barack Obama will not stop committing what it calls "serial dishonesty with the American people until the media expose his false figures and bogus exaggerations for what they are: fraudulent scare tactics." The group describes the president's Wednesday night speech about healthcare as "a litany of lies." Listening to a liar: Part II (related commentary) Rich Noyes, director of research at the MRC, says The Associated Press did...

The president’s chief economic adviser warned Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay “unacceptably high” for years to come — a situation that would seriously complicate Barack Obama’s ability to convince Americans that he’s beating back the recession. “The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.” Summers’ comments came in a briefing with reporters ahead of Obama’s speech in New York City on Monday, marking the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, an event widely regarded as...