Free Republic

I asked Jim Robinson today to delete my account on Free Republic. He asked me to post an opus so some folks would not think that I was banned for no reason. Here is my brief opus: Thank you Free Republic and Good Bye. This was an excellent forum for many years but now I do not think it is so in my humble opinion. The trend where the forum is going is very clear to me and I do not want to be part of it. For all the Freepers with whom I have had good relationship and great...

There she was: Beaming, waving, jumping through interviews, and calling to her followers, “Come on, kids, let’s go join the Senate!” Well, not quite, but the jubilation from Christine O’Donnell and her followers Wednesday was somewhat like what one sees when a guy from the stands takes the half-time, half court shot and wins a million bucks. Political pundits have staggered around all day trying to explain the unexplainable; how a woman who seemed destined to be a perpetual also-ran, is now the Republican candidate for one of Delaware’s U.S. Senate seats. I think she did it through a simple...

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. -- An Altamonte Springs police officer handed out so many tickets in June that he broke department records, WFTV was told Monday. Officer Bernardo Rodriguez wrote more than 500 citations in one month, so WFTV asked his supervisor how one officer could catch so many traffic violators. Rodriguez’s supervisor said he simply targeted hot spot areas where police have had complaints and areas where crashes happen most often, but drivers WFTV talked to said a jump in citations that dramatic must be intentional. Thousands of people drive Central Parkway each day and chances are a significant number...

After five years of lying low, Legionnaire's disease - a potentially fatal lung infection - returned to the small city of Alcoi, Spain, on July 21, 2009. > This microbe lives in fresh water nearly everywhere, and it becomes a problem only when inhaled as a fine spray or aerosol. (Legionella is harmless if you drink it.) Outbreaks are usually traced back to man-made supplies of warm water, such as water cooling systems, fountains, hot tubs, even showers. > Investigations into Legionella outbreaks are difficult, according to Dr. Lauri Hicks, a medical epidemiologist in the respiratory-diseases branch of the Centers...

Democrats are trying to convince themselves the GOP is hopelessly divided, but that’s wishful thinking.Christine O'Donnell's win against moderate Rep. Mike Castle in Delaware is the culmination of a growing anti-establishment feeling among Republicans. Nothing like getting outside the Beltway—even if only by driving up I-95 to Delaware. Because what I heard at a little polling place in Newark, Dela., told me, even before the day's election results were in, exactly what to expect in November: An earthquake. President Obama, meanwhile, is behaving like a guy unsure of which way to run as buildings collapse around him. Two instructive things...

ACLU Nebraska cautioned state school districts Wednesday against inviting speakers who proselytize to students under the guise of anti-drug and anti-alcohol messages. In letters sent to school superintendents, ACLU Nebraska legal director Amy Miller said there have been complaints about Christian messages during student assemblies. Miller singled out two speakers in particular, Keith Becker and Ron Brown. Becker speaks about the death of his teenage brother in a drunken-driving crash. His group's Web site notes the talk incorporates Scripture. Brown is an assistant football coach at Nebraska who helped found a nonprofit that spreads a Christian message.

Congrats to Christine O'Donnell, I know the pundits have written her off, but I haven't forgotten that once upon a time...THIS YEAR...a sacrificial lamb from Massachusetts we call SENATOR Scott Brown, someone even I ignored until it was too late, was down 30 points in the polls. Even if she loses badly would the GOP have really been better off with a Lincoln Chafee by a different name? I'm not asking for uber-conservative, I'm not even asking for very conservative, but somewhat-conservative would be nice. Her opponent Mike Castle gets a failing grade from Club For Growth, NRA, and...

Following up on Part 1 of our massive fall TV preview, here's Part 2: a complete look at all the shows that have been canceled or that ended, all the new and returning series that are headed your way in the TV midseason and beyond, and an overview of dozens of movies and miniseries in the works.

Don't expect to see comics from Molly Norris any time soon. The Seattle-based cartoonist landed on a terrorist hit-list this summer, and now her former employer confirms that she's "going ghost." Norris garnered international attention earlier this year when she drew a cartoon calling for "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!" The movement gained popularity on Facebook, causing Pakistan to temporarily block the site. Seattle Weekly editor Mark Fefer wrote Wednesday that Norris' cartoons will no longer appear in that paper or in City Arts magazine. "You may have noticed that Molly Norris' comic is not in the paper this week," he...

    At the FReeper Canteen! C'mon and take a break ! Walk on over to the water cooler and lets chat. Post your thoughts, opinions, news of the day, rantings, ravings, pontificates, hypothesis, hyperboles, your soap box cause, your mantra, your baggage, your garbage, your blogging, your secrets, whatever you feel would make talk around the water cooler real interesting! Please remember that The Canteen is here to support and entertain our troops and veterans and their families, and is family friendly.       *A two year old reciting the 23rd Psalm* ******** Ken and his wife...

[N]ew evidence shows that drinking is bad for your image even if you don't open your mouth. In fact, according to a working paper from the University of Michigan's Scott Rick and the University of Pennsylvania's Maurice Schweitzer, just holding a glass of alcohol makes you look stupid. It does not matter if you're male or female, or whether you drink beer or wine -- if people see you drinking, they think you're dumber than you'd otherwise appear. "It hurts you," Rick tells AOL News. The most damning and universally applicable finding, however, came from the experiment that melded alcohol...

Sarah Palin on Wednesday moved to quash any talk of a rivalry between her and fellow conservative grassroots hero Sen. Jim DeMint. The former Alaska Republican governor and the South Carolina senator have both endorsed a number of conservative candidates – including newly-minted Delaware Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell – party power brokers in Washington have shied away from, prompting speculation that the two are competing to build power structures outside of the GOP establishment. Asked about the theory during an interview with Fox News, Palin denied that any such rivalry exists.

Election 2010: Another Tea Party candidate has dispatched another incumbent, riding a tidal wave of voter anger. The "angry mobs" that thronged town hall meetings were laughed at. No one's laughing anymore. When the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill passed the House with the help of eight Republicans, Rep. Mike Castle, one of the eight and Delaware's at-large congressman, offered an explanation right off of President Obama's teleprompter. He cited Spain, which studies show has lost 2.2 jobs for every "green" job created with huge subsidies, and John Podesta's liberal Center for American Progress as approving the mandate-heavy Waxman-Markey bill as a...

The day after the wacky primary season ended, the Democratic National Committee unveiled a new logo: a D surrounded by a circle. (Does this train take me to Flatbush?) Democrats also spent the day working on a new symbol for the Republican Party: the Mad Hatter. With the election of Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell in Delaware, Democrats now believe they have a body of evidence—eight Senate races in which Tea Party candidates won the Republican nomination—that allows them to argue that the Republican Party has gone nuts. Democrats were already bringing GOP bogeymen to each rally, but Tuesday's results...

Japan has launched a huge intervention in the foreign exchange market for the first time since 2004 to stem the rise of the yen and head off a deflation spiral, prompting harsh protests from top US Democrats on Capitol Hill. The move is the latest dramatic twist in a world where a growing number of countries are seeking an economic edge through 'beggar-thy-neighbour' currency policies. It came as Congress held a hearing on China’s yuan suppression amid ever louder calls on Capitol Hill for sanctions against Beijing, and for pressure on Korea and other countries in Asia to halt currency...

Heading to Mars? Save room for three tons of food. That's about how much you'll need to feed a crew of four during an 18-month trip. Or, you could harvest your own crops from a space greenhouse, like the prototype unit NASA is testing in Arizona this month during its space technology lollapalooza known as Desert RATs.

Okay, first off I admit that I feel like a complete jerk for posting this thread...but I had to. What happened is that a little after 7 P.M. tonight something happened during an ATM transaction involving $40 of my deposit being jammed into the ATM deposit slot mechanism. That very briefly is what happened but it was the circumstances surrounding and involving the transaction (and the charge it was meant to cover) that was so bizarre. To make a very long story short, I soon afterwards had a message flash in my head (which I admit could have been the...

Economy: Alan Greenspan gets it wrong on taxes, but he has a point when he says the government can't keep gobbling up the nation's credit. He sees "very grave problems ahead" from the deficit. So do we. The former Fed chairman has been drawing attention for taking a hard line against the Bush tax cuts. Let them all expire, he says, and he means every last one of them, for the middle class as well as the rich. Congress isn't jumping to follow his advice, and politics aside, Greenspan's idea should be a non-starter on purely economic grounds. With the...

Amazing, just amazing. Chris Mathews of all people, would go out of his way to drag Christine O’Donnell’s Christian faith into the USA Senate race of all places, by asking the man who is running against Ms. O’Donnell. Oh Mr. Mathews, why does Ms O’Donnell’s Christian faith have ANYTHING to do with her campaign run for the USA Senate seat in Delaware? Mr. Mathews must be trying in desperation to find something wrong, “drawing at straws” anything wrong with Ms O’Donnell to say, discredit her? Now if she was say Jewish or even Muslim, a question I do need to...

General Mihailovich at the 1946 trial that would end with his execution. The hills of Ivanjica, Serbia Photo by Z. Pejovich In America it is still September 15th. In Serbia the first hours of September 16th are passing through the night. This is an important day in the history of Serbia. This is the day when Serbia has an opportunity to redeem herself.On this day Serbia must forget blaming others. She must face her own direct accountability in putting to death one of her greatest heroes and most loyal sons and begin the journey to redemption. On this day, September...