Free Republic

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer took a humorous poke at Barack Obama and Chief Justice John Roberts Monday. During a Special Report discussion about the President recently begging for donations during a conference call aboard Air Force One, Krauthammer said, "If he is running low on money, what he ought to do is to call it a tax and send the IRS after it to go and get it, which I’m sure his lawyers will be able to find a way to do it, and then go find a Supreme Court justice who’ll uphold it."

GlaxoSmithKline agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and to pay $1 billion in criminal fines and forfeitures for the illegal marketing and promotion of the drugs Paxil and Wellbutrin. Officials said the company between 1998 and 2003 unlawfully promoted Paxil for treating depression in patients under the age of 18. The Food and Drug Administration has not approved that use of the drug, DOJ officials said. The officials said GlaxoSmithKline illegally promoted Wellbutrin for uses that included weight loss, substance abuse and sexual dysfunction. DOJ officials said the company will...

David Bahnsen of Newport Beach, California is a Senior Vice President of Morgan Stanley, and also serves on the Board of Advisers of the California Recovery Project with Dr. Arthur Laffer. Bahnsen has abandoned his earlier support of the Ron Paul crusade, and now describes himself as an "economically literate Republican." He is the author of "The Undiscerning and Dangerous Appreciation of Ron Paul." Bahnsen says "It is the ironic that Ron Paul's alleged praiseworthiness comes from his devotion to the Constitution, when in fact, he has emphatically rejected it." Bahnsen has many family and business connections with libertarians. His...

On MSNBC, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee can't even get fair treatment when he takes a vacation. Far from it, host Martin Bashir on the program hysterically bearing his name Monday absolutely trashed the Fourth of July holiday plans of Mitt Romney while practically swooning over what President Obama and his family will be doing (video follows with transcript and commentary): Bashir Bashes Romney's 4th of July Holiday Plans, Gushes Over Obama's MARTIN BASHIR: Every week is a good week when you’re worth around $250 million, but this should be especially good for Mitt Romney. That’s because the presumptive nominee...

Oakland California is ground-zero for recreational drug use, which apparently continues to affect the dwindling staff at the Oakland Tribune. Like some other San Francisco Bay Area rags, the Trib has a congenital dislike for private firearm ownership, though in the wake of continuing gun control movement defeats our local press has suddenly become concerned with how criminals get guns and less about guns themselves. Sadly, the media’s meandering modus operandi retains the end goal of enacting more useless gun control laws. Hence, the Oaksterdam Tribune’s recent propaganda piece of inveigling ink, proving once again that the paper is better...

Having taught economics at a number of colleges for a number of years, I especially welcomed a feature article in the June 22nd issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, on how economics courses with the same name can be very different at different colleges. It can also be very different when the course is taught by professors in the same department who have different approaches. The usefulness of the three approaches described in the article depends on what the introductory course is trying to accomplish. One professor taught the subject through a steady diet of mathematical models. If...

On Now Anybody Watching? This and Breaking Bad are my 2 favorite shows during the summer.

Another stimulus-backed green energy company has filed for bankruptcy, further fueling criticism of Energy Department programs that backed highly-risky investments on the taxpayer dime. Like Solyndra and a number of other green energy investments made under this administration, Abound Solar had a very poor credit rating, but enjoyed a wealth of political connections. ... Abound had to remove an entire rooftop of defective solar panels from the headquarters of one of its top investors, Bohemian Companies, a venture capital firm owned by Pat Stryker. Stryker is particularly noteworthy, given her extensive ties to Democratic causes and politicians, including President Obama....

On the night of July 1, 1776, after a steamy heat-and-storm-laden day, the Continental Congress took a break from debating declaring independence from Britain. Nine colonies, a majority, voted for independence, but there was a desperate need for a unanimous vote. That night, came the dreadful news of 100 British warships off the shores of New York City. The final vote came the next day, on July 2nd. New York abstained (and we thank them). John Dickinson of the divided Philadelphia delegation was absent. We thank him too. This has been my traditional Independence Day post for several years now. Taken...

No big deal....despite the fact that a stash of AK-47s was found along a hiking trail in not Colombia, not Mexico but in....Arizona. A hiker in the Madera Canyon area found three assault rifles in a black trash bag one mile north of Old Baldy Trail. After receiving a report of the discovery on Wednesday, June 20, the Pima County Sheriff’s Office determined that the rifles were found in Santa Cruz County, and notified the local sheriff’s office. Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies then went to the site and recovered what turned out to be a stash of AK-47 assault...

PORTLAND, Ore. – A listing on Oregon’s sex offender registry paints a scary picture of the man police said tried to sexually assault a boy in a restaurant bathroom before stabbing him on Sunday. Adam Lee Brown was declared a “predatory” sex offender after he was convicted for sodomy in December of 1993. According to news reports from KATU and others at the time, Brown had unprotected sex with children and tried to infect them with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Prosecutors said he victimized nine kids, five of whom were exposed to HIV. He targeted both male and...

The Republican National Committee -- once again -- has released an important and startling infographic detailing the president’s myriad failures: This list is far from exhaustive, since the president has broken so many campaign promises over the last three and a half years, it’s almost impossible to keep track at this point. President Obama’s failure to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, for example, could certainly make the cut. Let’s remember, too, after then-Senator Obama was elected President of the United States (and even before, I guess) he was deeply committed to unifying the nation. Since that time, however, he has...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico Holloman Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located six miles southwest of the central business district of Alamogordo, a city in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. The base was named in honor of Col. George V. Holloman, a pioneer in guided missile research. It is the home of the 49th Fighter Wing (49 FW) of the Air Combat Command (ACC).Air Combat Command is the primary force provider of combat airpower to America's warfighting commands. To support global implementation of national...

A Land in Denial: Part I On June 28, 2012, our Supreme Court decided to assist President Obama in erecting the proverbial poison tipped, razor-wire fence that will be used to imprison and enslave the American people. Chief Justice, John Roberts, cast the deciding vote in favor of upholding the destructive monstrosity that is Obamacare. From here on, I will refer to Obama as ‘Mr.’ because to address him as ‘President’ triggers my gag reflex. Now, I’ve always liked Chief Justice Roberts, with his boyish good looks and tendency to rule conservatively, so I’m as stunned by his bizarre ruling...

One of the regular callers to my local weekday radio show has been telling me for years the answer to my country’s woes is secession. He makes liberals foam at the mouth but if you take a moment to read a few more paragraphs you’ll see “Rick from Lewes” may be ahead of the curve. Syria being the possible exception this has been a great week for totalitarians. In Washington and elsewhere across the United States the liberals claim they’ve been vindicated and are planning to chair John Roberts across Capitol Hill. When I was a teenager my Grandmother Colley...

Senior Vatican officials are battling over the future of the Vatican bank. While some would like total transparency, dubious transactions from the past and present could harm the Church's image. It was to be an important day for Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who had recently been fired as the head of the Vatican bank -- even if it turned out differently than he'd expected. Tedeschi was planning to go to the Vatican on that morning, but he never got there. The 67-year-old banker missed the high-speed train to Rome, meaning he couldn't, as he had planned, get into a taxi at...

Reconstruction of a dinosaur from the Catalan pre-Pyrenees, about 70 milion years ago. Courtesy of Òscar Sanisidro. A study of extant mammals refutes the hypothesis that dinosaurs were ectotherms. The work was carried out by researchers from ICP and UAB. It has been published in Nature. The study analyzed the lines of arrested growth (LAG) in the bones of around a hundred ruminants, representative of the specific and ecological diversity of that group of mammals. The results show that the presence of these lines is not an indicator of ectothermic physiology (does not generate internal heat), as had previously been...

Q: I saw you perform in Portland, Me., back in the ’80s when you opened for the Pretenders. I had never experienced anything like it. You actually licked my hand. A: I was just really happy to be in Maine — I’m a travel enthusiast. And I’m glad I got away with a lick. But those were pretty mainstream shows. It was an introduction to another part of the American public. I remember there was one gig on that tour at Penn State, and it looked just like “Children of the Corn” — these penetrating blue Anglo-Saxon eyes staring at...

After Cassandra Belle Tolley pleaded guilty to driving drunk and crashing into a car, seriously injuring two people, a South Carolina judge sentenced her to eight years in jail followed by five years of probation and substance abuse counseling. Circuit Court Judge Michael Nettles also included another order in the sentence, one that’s much less common. Tolley of Rock Hill must read the Old Testament book of Job and write a summary. It’s a rare ruling, according to legal experts. Similar sentences have raised constitutional concerns, but Tolley’s case is special. “Under normal circumstances, the judge wouldn’t have the authority...

Stryker Corp. is preparing to lay off area workers as it winds down the local operations it acquired from Gaymar Industries. Stryker has filed a notice with the state Department of Labor that it will lay off 11 area employees starting Sept. 21. ... Stryker has put the Orchard Park location up for sale for $3.9 million, through Pyramid Brokerage's Buffalo office. Stryker said it was closing the Gaymar operations in the Buffalo Niagara region and relocating its production lines as part of a broader strategy to cut the size of its workforce and reduce its annual pretax operating costs...