Free Republic

Pathetic. Atrocious. Embarrassing. Disgusting. Feel free at any time to add your own negative adjective to describe the Houston Texans performance on Sunday in the season opener against the New York Jets at Reliant Stadium. The 70,718 fans in attendance, mostly wearing white at the Texans request, should get a refund. Now we all understand that this was just one game, but enough is enough. Every year we get so excited and believe this is our year, just to have to sit there and watch a terrible product on the field. Under head coach Gary Kubiak, the Texans are beginning...

Support for the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats continues to grow following the president's speech to Congress last Wednesday night. It has now risen to the highest level yet measured, and, for the first time, shows a slight uptick in support among Republicans and voters not affiliated with either party. Fifty-one percent (51%) of all voters nationwide now favor the plan while 46% are opposed. In June, as the public debate was just beginning, 50% favored the plan and 45% were opposed

President Barack Obama said he is confident Congress will pass "a good health care bill," as months of rancor over reforming the nation's health care system seemed to be easing Sunday, with the White House playing down an immediate role for a government insurance option.

Sept 13, 2009 — What’s an article advocating hedonism doing on Science Daily? Sure enough, an article entitled “Hedonism As the Explanation of Value” appeared today on the science news site without controversy or debate. The entry gave David Brax of Lund University a platform to preach that “pleasure is the only thing that is valuable in itself.”...

Nairobi (dpa) -- The Gaza Strip's underground water supply is in danger of collapse due to overuse and contamination, exacerbated by Israel's December offensive, the United Nations said Monday. A report released at the Nairobi headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned that it could take centuries for damage to Gaza's aquifer to be reversed unless action was taken now. "Many of the impacts of the recent hostilities have exacerbated environmental degradation that has been years in the making," UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said. Alternative water sources need to be found in order to rest the aquifer,...

In an act of publishing cowardice, Condé Nast has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent Russians from reading a GQ article criticizing Vladimir Putin. As a public service, we're running it here and ask for your help in translating it.

A commentator at Canada Free Press says he has obtained copies of two documents apparently prepared by Democrats to certify Barack Obama as their nominee for president in 2008 that suggest House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew there was an unresolved issue with his eligibility under the U.S. Constitution.

The surviving children of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King are back in court, wrangling over their parents' estates. The Rev. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III sued their brother, Dexter King, last year ... A hearing in the case was set Monday morning. Dexter King also sued his sister, who administers their mother's estate. .. including love letters central to a now-defunct $1.4 million book deal.

Illegal Immigrant Health Care by: Sarah Carlsruh, September 14, 2009 The new health care reform bill explicitly bans healthcare benefits for illegal immigrants, but it lacks a key component, which is some way to enforce it. According to a study by the Center for Immigration Studies, “there are 6.6 million uninsured illegal immigrants in the United States who could be covered by the new health care reform bill.” Steven Camarota, Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies, states that “even though HR 3200 states that illegal immigrants are not eligible for the proposed taxpayer-funded affordable premium credits, there...

KIEV, Ukraine – Elton John will not be able to adopt a 14-month-old Ukrainian child because the pop star is too old and isn't traditionally married, Ukraine's minister for family affairs said Monday. The pop signer toured a hospital for HIV-infected children in eastern Ukraine on Saturday as part of a charity project and said that he and his male partner David Furnish wanted to adopt an HIV-infected boy named Lev. But the country's Family, Youth and Sports Minister Yuriy Pavlenko told The Associated Press that adoptive parents must be married and Ukraine does not recognize homosexual unions as marriage.

From its headquarters in a modest office park outside Sunnyvale, Calif., Bridgelux is hoping to spark a revolution in light fixtures for homes and offices across the U.S. It's ready to ramp up production of tiny light-emitting chips that blaze as bright as some incandescent bulbs but consume a fraction of the energy. To meet surging orders for its chips, it's prepared to spend $250 million over three years on gleaming cleanrooms. The question is, where should it put its plants?

The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards greeted us with a wave of style and a flash of substance, revealing a bold gathering of the glitterati of the musical and celebrity worlds, united in an eye-popping display of entertainment couture and sass. The controversial ceremony, best known for Kanye West’s hijacking of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech, delivered up a slew of trendsetting artists, in both music and dress. Katy Perry donned a corset Blonds dress. Lady GaGa brought her usual flamboyant style wearing a funky eclectic neo-Victorian Jean Paul Gaultier gown.

The below link is to the story about The Atlantic magazine writer Andrew Sullivan being given special treatment by the US Attorney while continuing with prosecuting others in the same court at the same time for the same charge. It seems the US Attorney feels Mr. Sullivan's attacks on Sarah Palin and her infant son Trig was worthy of being exempt from prosecution.

Afghanistan: Moving Forward by: Brittany Fortier, September 14, 2009 Charting a course for United States policy in Afghanistan poses many challenges as well as many opportunities. A panel hosted by the Heritage Foundation on August 27, 2009 discussed Afghanistan’s uncertain future and how to provide stability for the region. “In the last ninety days or so…we’ve seen many changes in both leadership and strategy and resources,” said Lt. Gen. David W. Barno (USA-Ret.), Director of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. “It’s clear as we look at the dimensions of the challenges...

I need your help, please. I need the picture of the baby crying with the circle and slash through it. Thanks in advance

Here is video of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refusing to say whether President Obama agrees with House Democrat plans to censure GOP Rep. Joe Wilson for his "You Lie" outburst last week during President Obama's Health Care Speech. Gibbs said he would "let the House sort that out," and did say Obama had "accepted Wilson's apology." CNN's John King then pressed Gibbs on whether the President essentially called Sarah Palin a "liar" during his speech. Obama clearly was referring to Palin when he tried to rebut the idea that "Death Panels" are in the House Health Care Bill...

Islamic hate preacher Anjem Choudary, speaking from the London School of Sharia, has issued a response to the recent anti-Islam protests there. He has stated that this is war between Islam and the kuffar (non-Islam). Can it be said any clearer than that?

The Indianapolis company said it will reduce its work force to 35,000 by the end of 2011. It has about 40,500 now. The new total excludes hirings in high-growth emerging markets and Japan.

My mother wanted to die, but the doctors wouldn't let her. At least that's the way it seemed to me as I stood by her bed in an intensive-care unit at a hospital in Hilton Head, S.C., five years ago. My mother was 79, a longtime smoker who was dying of emphysema. She knew that her quality of life was increasingly tethered to an oxygen tank, that she was losing her ability to get about, and that she was slowly drowning. The doctors at her bedside were recommending various tests and procedures to keep her alive, but my mother, with...

State Democratic Party chief Boyd Richie said Thursday that anti-tax Tea Party participants and those who question President Barack Obama's citizenship are "fools" who get too much media attention. Richie told national Democrats meeting in Austin that fielding strong candidates is the best way to silence Obama's fiercest critics. "We will no longer have these fools who call themselves teabaggers and birthers and others out there garnering the press," he said. "Instead, we will have people saying, 'Our government does work for me.' "