Free Republic

International media, usually harshly critical of Israel, expressed sympathy over the tragic death of Air Force pilot Assaf Ramon, whose father, the first Israeli astronaut, died in the Columbia spaceship disaster six years ago. CNN told it viewers, “After the disaster of the Columbia space shuttle in 2003. Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, became an admired figure in the United States, the news of the death of his son stunned many Americans.”

American support for Israel was the reason for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, according to an audio message purported to be from Osama bin Laden, the leader of the international Al-Qaeda terrorist organization. The whereabouts of Bid Laden are not known, and the video image accompanying the audio featured only a still picture of him. The title of the audio was, “Message to the American People.” and was released two days after the eighth anniversary of the multiple aerial attacks on the U.S.

Are You Ready? September is National Preparedness Month and a great opportunity for your household, business, or community to focus on preparedness. It is recommended that all Americans have an emergency supply kit and an emergency plan, and be informed about the different emergencies that can happen in their area and the appropriate responses.

The news media's credibility is sagging along with its revenue. Nearly two-thirds of Americans think the news stories they read, hear and watch are frequently inaccurate, according to a poll released Sunday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. That marks the highest level of skepticism recorded since 1985, when this study of public perceptions of the media was first done. The poll didn't distinguish between Internet bloggers and reporters employed by newspapers and broadcasters, leaving the definition of "news media" up to each individual who was questioned. The survey polled 1,506 adults on the phone...

London's leading gold forecaster has advised clients to liquidate holdings of gold and silver until the latest speculative fever abates, warning that futures contracts on New York's Comex exchange are flashing warning signals. John Reade, an analyst at UBS, said the number of "net long" positions held by speculators reached 29.02m an ounce last week, a record high. Investors watch Comex contracts as an indicator of froth in the market. Last week saw a jump of 6.4m ounces in net long contracts, a rare occurrence. When such sudden moves have occurred in the past, gold has fallen 5pc over the...

This is the first time I've ever started a post so I don't know if I'll get this right. But I wanted to share the video I put together tonight for you all with some of the pictures that you've shared. I hope you all like it.

Ideas that were once fringe are taking centre stage as the Tories plan radical action to tackle Britain’s dire public finances and transform government In Westminster and town halls across the country, revolution is brewing. It threatens riots, possibly on the streets, certainly in cyberspace. Riots of protest, perhaps, and definitely a riot of information. For a glimpse of the tumult coming your way, call up the website of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM). In a few mouse clicks you can find details of every supplier paid more than £500 of taxpayers’ money by the council. From...

BOSTON – When Dr. Robert Flaherty launched a private practice in 2001, he soon found himself cramming in as many patients as possible to make ends meet, leaving little time to discuss with them the steps they could take to prevent future health troubles. "I constantly felt that conflict of going faster than I should," said Flaherty, 40, of Mashpee, who gave up his practice after four years for a hospital post. "Everyone knows if you want to make a decent living, become a specialist; if you want to be banging your head, go into primary care." Among the many...

The real mystery surrounding Dan Brown's sequel to The Da Vinci Code doesn't involve Catholic cults or revisionist Christianity. It's whether the return of Robert Langdon can help publishers drag themselves up from one of the lower circles of economic hell. The Lost Symbol goes on sale Tuesday, six years after The Da Vinci Code sold 80 million copies in 51 languages, and booksellers and publishers are hoping its appearance will inspire Brown's fans to pick up a little something extra. Maybe the new Edward Kennedy memoir True Compass, which goes on sale Monday. ``We're hoping the book drives people...

The second big bill before Congress is also in difficulties. New York & Houston. Compared with the argy-bargy over health-care reform, this summer’s public conversation about controlling carbon emissions has been a model of restraint. In August, a Zogby poll commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation found that 71% of likely voters in America support the Waxman-Markey bill, a proposal to create a cap-and-trade mechanism for carbon dioxide that cleared the House of Representatives in June. But the bill still faces an uphill climb in the Senate, which resumed work on September 8th.

Regulators today won't define 'systemic risk,' unlike 25 years ago. With Congress back in session and the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers failure upon us, the Obama Administration is resuming its quest for greatly expanded authority to bail out American businesses. Under the Treasury reform blueprint, any financial company, whether a regulated bank or not, could be rescued or seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation if regulators believe it poses a systemic risk. If recent history is any guide, when the feds stage their next intervention, they will not define "systemic risk" and they will refuse to release the...

My photos of 912 Tea Party March in DC.

Its melodramatic, twisting plot and apocalyptic overtones were tailor-made for western audiences. Now Lost, the US television series about plane crash survivors stuck on a remote island, is to be put on commercial release in Iran following soaring sales of pirated black-market DVDs. Silver Screen, the country's leading home video distributor, is to market the award-winning show's first three seasons – a total of 15 episodes – after buying the broadcast rights and commissioning Iranian actors to dub it into Farsi. It has also started talks with the state broadcaster, IRIB, with a view to airing Lost on nationwide television....

After years of selling cheap goods to debt-fuelled Western consumers, China now has $2 trillion dollars of foreign exchange reserves. That's 2,000 billion – a reserve haul no less 25 times bigger than that of the UK. BY LIAM HALLIGAN (snip) The entire non-Western world rightly sees serious inflationary pressures down the track in the US, UK and other nations where political cowardice has resulted in irresponsible money printing. (snip) ...to send the dollar into freefall. US inflation would then soar and interest rates would have to be jacked up. Even if a fast-collapsing dollar is avoided, Fed rates may...

The Obama Administration has named Jeffrey Bleich as US Ambassador to Australia. Does anyone have any dirt on him that would normally not be found in the mainstream media reports on his appointment? I'm in Australia and I'm trying to research this lib. Van Jones style dirt would be awesome but I'll settle for just super-lib stuff. Thanks.

NEW YORK, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- A United Nations panel says the global economic crisis shows the need for new institutions and replacement of the dollar as reserve currency. The commission, headed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, said a global reserve system should not depend on a single currency. At a news conference Thursday, Stiglitz called for a new global lender to complement the International Monetary Fund and a coordination council broader than the Group of 20, comprising countries with the 20 largest economies.

WASHINGTON (ISNS) -- Football coaches are famous for their dedication to winning. Video studies of upcoming opponents begin so early in the morning that most people are still dreaming about their first cup of coffee; strategy sessions run past the time insomniacs fall asleep. But a new computer model may be able to take the play calling load off of the coach and, through fast, real-time analysis of all the offensive and defensive possibilities, dictate the best play to call in any game situation. The program takes the human element out of play calling and instead uses mathematical and statistical...

Barack Obama's Downfall. What happened in the Bunker when The Big O realizes his Health Care plan will not fly. Mashup of German movie "Der Untergang" (The Downfall) . "A Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases" -- Gerald Ford's August 12th, 1974 address to Congress.

...Thank the NEA for the state of affairs in education. For more on that matter, you can read Charlotte Iserbyt’s book “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” free over at http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/ I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. For me, it just further confirms my suspicions that public education tends to amount to little more than ideological puppy farms, where at the end of at least 12 years of schooling, kids can’t really read, but they know well the progressive party line (envirowhackoism, white guilt, gay supremacy, and Marx is god, and Obama is his prophet). Seriously. When instructors feel...