Free Republic

Newfound Gap which is the main thoroughfare connecting Gatlinburg and Cherokee N.C., through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is closed indefinitely.

Heroes make the world go around. They give us inspiration and a reason to become better, to overcome obstacles. However even in movies and books, heroes are human too, prone to the same flaws. Notre Dame Linebacker Manti Te’o finally spoke ... Column continues here...

It is well accepted that r/K Theory will not always yield an ideal strategy for every environment. Subtle nuances of an environment can make certain mixtures of r and K-strategies advantageous in that particular case, and produce slightly different psychological qualities. This is why after r/K is taught in college, those who go further into the discipline are taught to further subdivide strategies into life history traits, specific to a species. One of the most well characterized examples of deviation from r/K is the fact that r/K is density dependent.If you have a lot of individuals, crammed together in an...

This is...about a coordinated effort by about 36 different interest groups with reported revenues of no less than $1.69 billion, pledging millions of dollars to work together to attack conservative supporters and organizations, to intervene directly in Democratic politics, to push for filibuster reform to better enable a push through their agenda without any input from the opposition, and expanding "voting rights" and fighting voter registration laws to further grease the skids for their legislative agenda. 1. Who belongs: Here are a few of them: ...the AFL-CIO, the Center for American Progress, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common...

".....what we place in the ground is no more now a man - but a seed - which, after the winter of our discontent, will come forth again to meet us. And we will know him then for what he was and is - a Prince - our own black shining Prince! - who didn't hesitate to die, because he loved us so."

"Beechcrest Mobile Home Park residents rip county officials....The county Housing Commission acquired the land at the mobile home park in September and plans to build between 33 and 50 one-room apartments for the chronically homeless...there were 46 homeless in North Laurel.....plans to build between 33 and 50 one-room apartments for the chronically homeless.... About 90 residents [of the trailer park] attended Thursday's meeting....'We are the Howard County Housing Commission, we provide affordable housing,' Carbo executive director of the Housing Commission said. 'We don't make people homeless'."

RICHMOND – It is the American motto – the premise the country takes pride in: If you work hard, you can accomplish anything, be anything. But for some who consider themselves Americans, the rule does not apply. Undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children face an obstacle when trying to accomplish their educational goals. When they graduate from high school, they must pay out-of-state tuition at Virginia’s public colleges and universities — a difficult feat since they usually don’t qualify for financial aid programs either. “It becomes part of the expectation for young immigrants that they won’t...

January 20, 2013 Attorney General Eric Holder Promises to Investigate Himself and Send Himself to Prison Daniel Greenfield VIDEO: Eric Holder: We Will Go After Gun Traffickers And to consider a series of new federal laws imposing tough penalties on gun traffickers who help funnel weapons to dangerous criminals. I think that we all look forward to Holder catching himself and locking himself up. It shouldn’t be a very difficult investigation even for him. It’s only a question of how much time Holder will give himself to turn himself in. And hopefully he won’t tip himself off about his own...

Algerian bomb squads scouring a gas plant where Islamist militants took dozens of foreign workers hostage found "numerous" new bodies on Sunday as they searched for explosive traps left behind by the attackers, a security official said, a day after a bloody raid ended the four-day siege of the remote desert refinery. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the bodies were badly disfigured and difficult to identify.

Courtney Sue Reschke, a 35-year-old Idaho mother was charged with providing alcohol to and having sexual contact with four 15-year-old boys. The Idaho Statesman reports that Reschke appeared in 4th District Court on Dec. 3, 2012, on two counts each of felony injury to a child and felony lewd conduct. Prosecutors allege Reschke has had several sexual encounters with friends of her oldest child at her Kuna home since the start of the school year. Reschke's public defender sought her release without bond so she could keep her job and care for her children. District Judge Cathleen MacGregor Irby said...

Arthur O. "Pinch" Sulzberger, the publisher of the New York Times, announced this morning that in Monday's edition, the paper will print the names and addresses of all know Red Sox fans living in the five boroughs of NYC. At midnight tonight, all the data will be on the paper's website, including an interactive map of NYC. Readers will be able to move their mouse over any particular part of the city, and the names and address of known Red Sox fans living in the area will be displayed on the screen.

Let me say this as clearly as I can: I'm sick and tired of the NRA. As one of millions of American citizens who don't own a gun or consider gun ownership part of my personal DNA, I'm tired of a powerful national organization for gun advocates that seems tone-deaf in the face of unprecedented concern about the amount of gun violence in our society. I'm tired of an organization that constantly resists any initiative for more gun control even in the wake of sensational shootings that have become a disturbing part of the American fabric. I'm tired of tight-faced...

When Wisconsinites were polled last year about a new state law allowing possession of concealed weapons, most men supported it. But women were overwhelmingly opposed. In fact no other issue in Marquette Law School’s broad and frequent polling of Wisconsin voters last year so divided the sexes -- not Medicare, “Obamacare,” gay marriage, taxes, school funding, collective bargaining, recalls, mining, defense spending, abortion or immigration. In one January 2012 poll, the gender gap on “concealed-carry” was a massive 27 points (59% approval among men, 32% among women). This is a look at two key fault lines in public opinion about...

Buying Silver At $100 And The Rebirth Of Counterfeiting Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013January 19,2013 By: Dr Jeff Lewis The debate about buying silver rounds, “junk silver” or silver Eagles goes on and on. Although better prices may be available on silver rounds, investors continue to worry about the “China scare” and rumors of counterfeit silver coins. Also, the confiscation* of fiat money purchasing power via inflation will happen long before counterfeit makes an impact, so getting more metal for the money makes the most sense at this time. *(Confiscation of actual metal is separate issue we cover elsewhere)....

This week is the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in America. Since the decision, over 56 million innocent children have been aborted, an average of 3,835 lives per day. That’s worth repeating: Every day around 3,835 innocent lives are taken by abortion, higher than any other cause, and yet this sad fact is known by so few of the public or rarely reported by the media. In contrast, consider the public attention brought to Adam Lanza’s shooting spree in Newtown, Connecticut just over a month ago that took the lives of...

Federal prosecutors have filed a fraud charge against Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway, just a few days before she leaves the state's highest court in a scandal involving the sale of a Detroit-area home and suspicious steps taken to conceal property in Florida. [...] Hathaway was halfway through an eight-year term on the court, the result of a major election upset over then-Chief Justice Cliff Taylor in 2008. Her victory put Democrats in control of the court for a two-year period. She was a Wayne County judge before joining the Supreme Court.

While it’s often best not to engage with conspiracy theorists on their own turf, as you can probably never convince them, it’s worth setting the record straight on all the myths and phony evidence surrounding the Sandy Hook massacre.We’ve rounded up every major piece of evidence we could find that leads theorists to say the “official narrative” of events “doesn’t add up” and provided the facts that show why these questions can be easily explained. We’ve ignored the empty accusations with no evidence to support them (it was the Jews!) and focused only on the theories that try to present...

Those looking for excellent news in the midst of a clearly-souring global economy can find it in Wisconsin. I am pleased to report Federal appeals court upholds Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s restrictions on public unions A federal appeals court on Friday upheld Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s contentious law stripping most public workers of nearly all of their collective bargaining rights in a decision hailed by Republicans but not undoing a state court ruling keeping much of the law from being in effect. The decision marks the latest twist in a two-year battle over the law that Walker proposed in February...

Another piece of my childhood sold to the highest bidder. Sigh...

Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether a suspect's refusal to answer police questions prior to being arrested and read his rights can be introduced as evidence of guilt at his subsequent murder trial. Without comment, the court agreed to hear the appeal of Genovevo Salinas, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison for the December 1992 deaths of two brothers in Houston.