Free Republic

Back in 2005, Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set the gold standard on defending free speech when, on being approached by perpetually aggrieved Islamic ambassadors hoping for official redress against Jyllands Posten (Cartoon Rage was just kicking in), he refused to hear their plaints, explaining to them and the world that it was not his place, as prime minister, to interfere with free speech in Denmark. “This is a matter of principle. I will not meet with them [the ambassadors] because it is so crystal clear what principles Danish democracy is built upon that there is no reason to...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A college administrator, described as a dean, was stabbed at the Metropolitan Community College's Penn Valley campus on Tuesday morning. According to police, a man in his 20s, wearing a bullet-proof vest, walked up to a man in his 40s and slashed his throat about 9:30 a.m. in the Humanities Building. The victim's injuries are described as serious. Witnesses told police the attack happened without provocation.

Over the years, Sen. John McCain has been known to change his views every now and then. Environmentalists hope this is one of those times. Now that McCain has dispatched a conservative primary challenger and Arizona appears set to send him back to the Senate, climate advocates are optimistic they will soon regain one of their biggest champions. ... Multiple sources said McCain reassured them in private that he still believed in the climate issue... ...

An 87-year-old Miami man who suspected his 84-year-old girlfriend of cheating on him has been charged with her murder. Juan Adolfo Gonzalez stalked Celida Hernandez daily for months until he decided to take action Friday, according to police. Gonzalez took a taxi to Hernandez's apartment on the 9400 block of W. Flagler Street and waited for a bus to drop her off from a senior's dining hall. When Hernandez arrived, Gonzalez shot her twice, then turned the gun on himself. Hernandez died from her injuries, but Gonzalez lived, and is now at Jackson Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Police...

This collage of license plates came from a March gathering of Tesla Roadster owners...

A study presented in Nature Geoscience suggests that changes in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions act as a metronome for temperature variations in the North Atlantic climate. A research team from the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research in Bergen, Norway, has studied the climate in the North Atlantic region over the past 600 years using the Bergen Climate Model and the observed temperature evolution. They point to changes in the solar intensity and explosive volcanic eruptions as important causes for climate variations in the North Atlantic during this period.

Alinsky Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame. According to Alinsky, the main job of the organizer is to bait an opponent into reacting. “The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.” The Democrats and President Obama sort of veered off course in following Alinsky’s rule 11, but last week that changed when Obama made it a point to attack House minority leader John Boehner by name, over and over...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Women tend to accept the scientific consensus on global warming more than men, according to a study by a Michigan State University researcher. The findings ('The effects of gender on climate change knowledge and concern in the American public', Population & Environment, 2010, Volume 32, Number 1, Pages 66-87), challenge common perceptions that men are more scientifically literate, said sociologist Aaron M. McCright. "Men still claim they have a better understanding of global warming than women, even though women's beliefs align much more closely with the scientific consensus," said McCright, an associate professor with appointments in...

One in every four Democrats now disapproves of the job their own party is doing in Congress, where Democrats control both chambers. The poll from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute showed that 25 percent of Democrats said they disapproved of the Democrat majority, while 65 percent approved and 10 percent answered “Don’t Know/Not Applicable.” Institute Assistant Director Peter A. Brown had a simple explanation for the statistic. “Everybody hates Congress,” he told CNSNews.com According to Brown, when a majority party and its president are polling especially poorly, the party eventually has to lose some of its own adherents. “I mean,...

The body that floated up near Port Everglades over the weekend belonged to a man whose family attempted to bury him at sea, the Broward Sheriff's Office said Tuesday. Before losing his battle with Lou Gehrig's disease on Sept. 8, 48-year-old Daniel Lasky's dying wish was to be drift out to sea, to be buried in the ocean he loved so much. So his family wrapped up his body and traveled to South Florida from North Carolina to fulfill their relative's request. They thought they did when several family members, including his wife, lowered Lasky's body overboard after a ceremony...

HAVANA – An internal Communist Party document envisions a radically revamped Cuban economy, with a new tax code, freshly legalized private cooperatives and a state payroll no longer shackled by the need to support at least a half-million idle or unproductive workers. The document — obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press — also offers a cold dose of reality for those who think reforming one of the last bastions of Soviet-style communism will be easy: It warns that many of the new businesses will be shuttered within a year. The 26-page document fleshes out some of the details of sweeping...

PARIS, France: The Eiffel Tower and the park around it were evacuated Tuesday night after a bomb alert, police said. The police press office said the alert was being treated as a routine occurrence and it was being investigated to determine whether the threat was real. The-CNN-Wire/Atlanta

Lots of Independents. The Sam Adams Alliance has done an interesting market-research study on the growth of the tea party and the make-up and impact of the so-called “Next Wave” — the new/recent entrants to the movement. Here are the highlights: ● Tea Party momentum is building: 74.5 percent of Next Wavers said the movement is “gaining active supporters” and 66 percent indicated that the movement is “more enthusiastic.” ● There was a nearly 30-point drop among Tea Party activists in their affiliation with the Republican brand. ● There is a decrease in Republican sources of entrants to the Tea...

Senator Murray votes to reduce burden of paperwork in tax reporting provision, Republicans put oil and gas companies before the needs of small business owners September 14, 2010(Washington D.C.) - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray criticized Republicans’ decision to block a critical amendment to ease onerous tax reporting requirements on Washington state small businesses. Senator Murray voted for the amendment, sponsored by Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), which would have significantly reduced paperwork and labor for small businesses owners by easing tax reporting requirements for major purchases. Republicans blocked the bill because it was paid for by closing tax loopholes for...

No, Mike Castle Didn't Vote to Impeach President Bush BY Mary Katharine Ham September 14, 2010 2:00 PM As the Republican primary for the Senate seat from Delaware manages to become even more heated than it's been thus far, the newest charge of O'Donnell backers is that Rep. Mike Castle voted to impeach President George W. Bush. Those backers are referring to this vote, taken in June 2008. As you can see from the roll call, fully 24 Republicans voted to impeach President Bush, including conservatives like Pete King of New York and Kevin Brady of Texas. One imagines that...

Last year, former RPOF Chairman Jim Greer made national news by raising a ruckus about President Barack Obama’s speech to school kids. Greer complained that Obama was trying “indoctrinate” children. Well, a year later, Greer’s been forced out as party chairman, is facing criminal charges over his handling of RPOF finances and is engaged in a scorched-earth campaign with his former associates. Over the weekend, the party said it might sue Greer — and Gov. Charlie Crist — to get back money spent inappropriately. So how did Greer respond? With a text message today slamming the GOP and saying he...

If Christine O'Donnell wins tonight it's not going to matter but here's a pretty amazing finding from our Delaware poll: Barack Obama's approval rating there is now under water at 46% happy with the job he's doing and 48% disapproving. That's a pretty amazing drop in a state where he won 62% of the vote. It's just the most dramatic example of something plaguing Democratic candidates in all of this year's most competitive Senate races though. Currently Nate Silver has 9 seats in the 25-75% probability of either side winning category. Obama won all 9 of those states in 2008....

...The hearing, being held to discuss the anti-tussive ingredient dextromethorphan found in cold medications, could catalyze a rulemaking process that would require any medicine containing dextromethorphan to be restricted by prescription. This move would represent an enormous government intrusion into personal consumer decision based on negligible evidence that dextromethorphan presents any kind of risk. Nanny staters are quick to point to a 70 percent increase between 2004 and 2008 in emergency room visits involving dextromethorphan to justify this intrusion; they fail to acknowledge that this puts dextromethorphan-related visits at a little over 1 percent of all drug-related incidences. Moreover, this...

President Obama told a small crowd in Fairfax, Va., on Monday that he would stand in the hot sun with them and “feel their pain.” He was meeting with a Fairfax family for a backyard discussion on the economy in an effort to improve voter perceptions about his empathy with ordinary people. Unlike former President Clinton, who famously felt the pain of voters during a recession, Obama has not connected emotionally with voters over their worries and fears. Voters two years ago appreciated Obama’s cool, professorial demeanor; it earned him praise, as in “No drama Obama,” and drew favorable contrasts...

U.S. President Obama Tuesday urged students to take responsibility for their educational choices because "nobody gets to write your destiny but you." Speaking at the Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School, a 2010 National Blue Ribbon School in Philadelphia, Obama in his back-to-school message said that as a parent and one-time student, he understood some of the feelings students feel at this time of year."You're a little sad to see the summer go, but you're also excited about the possibilities of a new year," he said. "But I know some of you may also be nervous about starting a...