Free Republic

The grandaddy of cereal slogans is for Quaker Puffed Rice. The cereal is actually made using a process that resembles shooting rice from a gun. In 1904, Quaker introduced the cereal to the mass public by shooting Puffed Rice from cannons at the World's Fair. In 1913, an astute ad man decided to promote the cereal by exploiting how it's made and this famous, yet mostly forgotten, slogan was invented.

As Barack Obama thrilled his supporters on Monday with his clarion call to action for the poor and the oppressed, young people across the country -- though in numbers somewhat smaller than were enthralled by their leader's words four years ago -- nodded in agreement. For this was about them, and Obama’s speech told them once again how great they are. Obama spoke to the "N Generation," those millions who, because they are the beneficiaries of the miracles of internet technology and instant, worldwide communications, believe firmly they know all and are entitled to everything; as the old song by...

Please tell me this is some sort of a sick joke. Phil Mickelson is a professional golfer. He makes boatloads of money. Millions. What’s more, he makes boatloads of money for a lot of other people in the process, including generating massive contributions to charity. He’s a jobs creator and an engine of economic growth, as are many other pro golfers and athletes. So Mickelson takes a look at his income tax burden, and is displeased. First we have Obama and the Democrats riding roughshod over the GOP and enacting a 4.6% tax increase on the evil rich. Then...

The hareidi-religious Yahadut Hatorah (Gimmel) party won a plurality in the elections in the city of Jerusalem. The party won 22.34% of the vote. Likud Beytenu was in second place with 20.51%, Shas was third with 15.73%, Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) was fourth with 11.77%, and Yesh Atid was fifth with 6.86%.

Leveson: EU wants power to sack journalists A European Union report has urged tight press regulation and demanded that Brussels officials are given control of national media supervisors with new powers to enforce fines or the sacking of journalists. The “high level” recommendations that will be used to draft future EU legislation also attack David Cameron for failing to automatically implement proposals by the Lord Justice Leveson inquiry for a state regulation of British press. A "high level" EU panel, that includes Latvia’s former president and a former German justice minister, was ordered by Neelie Kroes, European Commission vice-president, last...

In the early 1980s, transit officials in Washington couldn't figure out why traffic on the Beltway would grind to a near halt every day around the exact same time. The usual explanations didn't fit. Then it was discovered that a single driver was to blame. Every day on his drive to work, this commuter would plant himself in the left lane and set his cruise control to 55 mph, the posted speed limit, forcing those behind him to merge right, and you can imagine the effects. To his credit, this driver came forward in a letter to the editor of...

Suddenly a handshake from David Cameron probably seems an awful lot more inviting. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy could become the next wealthy Frenchman to flee to Britain over his country’s looming tax hikes on the rich. Mr Sarkozy – who famously snubbed the Prime Minister’s attempt to shake his hand after Mr Cameron vetoed changes to the EU treaty in 2011 – is reportedly planning to move to London to set up a £800million investment fund. The 57-year-old, who was ousted from office last June, has amassed a fortune from £150,000-an-hour public speaking engagements and is now said to be...

For the liberal establishment, “political courage” means a politician spitting in the face of his conservative constituents. The President’s gun proposals demand such political courage, and we conservatives ought to be all for it. There are people who really believe President Barack Obama is some sort of cunning political grand-master, plotting out the checkmate ten moves ahead of his plodding opponents. Nonsense. He’s actually President Peter Principle, failing ever upward thanks to the disarray of his opponents. Just when you think he might be clever enough to score his cheap points off of Newtown and turn back to beating the...

Let's look at experts. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was a mathematician and scientist. Newton has to be the greatest and most influential scientist who has ever lived. He laid the foundation for classical mechanics, and his genius transformed our understanding of science, particularly in the areas of physics, mathematics and astronomy. What's not widely known is that Newton spent most of his waking hours on alchemy; his experiments included trying to turn lead into gold. Though he wrote volumes on alchemy, after his death Britain's Royal Society deemed that they were "not fit to be printed." Lord William Thomson Kelvin...

Congress faces a battle over gun laws that could be the biggest in a generation. Leading the charge for gun rights is the National Rifle Association, with its huge budget and grass-roots operations. On the other side, a new leader has emerged in recent years: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not only outspoken on gun control, he has also opened his substantial wallet for the cause.The NRA's annual budget surpasses $200 million — and it's only the biggest of many pro-gun groups. On the other hand, Bloomberg is a billionaire 25 times over, according to Forbes magazine. That puts...

SAN DIEGO — Peter Robbins, an Oceanside resident who as a child actor was the voice of the animated “Charlie Brown” character of “Peanuts” fame, has been arrested and is scheduled to be arraigned in court on Wednesday in San Diego on five felony charges, authorities said. Robbins, 56, is charged with four felony counts of making a threat to cause death or great bodily injury and one felony count of stalking, according to the San Diego County jail website.

Thanks, California! Thanks for your monstrous spending and absurd regulatory overreach! America needs you. We need Connecticut and Illinois, too! We need you the way we needed the Soviet Union, as models of failure, to warn us what happens if we believe those who say, "Government can." Moving to California was once the dream for many Americans. Its population grew at almost triple the national average -- until 1990. Then big government, in the form of endless regulation and taxes, killed much of the dream. In the last decade, 2 million people left California. Many of them moved to Alaska,...

America's downfall doesn't begin with the "low-information voter." It starts with the no-knowledge student. For decades, collectivist agitators in our schools have chipped away at academic excellence in the name of fairness, diversity and social justice. "Progressive" reformers denounced Western civilization requirements, the Founding Fathers and the Great Books as racist. They attacked traditional grammar classes as irrelevant in modern life. They deemed ability grouping of students (tracking) bad for self-esteem. They replaced time-tested rote techniques and standard algorithms with fuzzy math, inventive spelling and multicultural claptrap. Under President Obama, these top-down mal-formers -- empowered by Washington education bureaucrats...

Assemblyman Marc Levine announced today he will revive a proposal banning all single-use plastic bags in California grocery stores. Under the proposal, most grocery retailers could no longer provide thin plastic bags for customers starting in 2015. For 18 months, retailers could offer paper bags made of recycled materials or reusable plastic bags for customers to bag their milk, eggs and other groceries. Starting in July 2016, grocery retailers could only provide reusable plastic bags, which many stores already offer at a fee. The new proposal, Assembly Bill 158, also leaves room for stores to provide recycled paper bags at...

The latest excuse for the establishment to hate the National Rifle Association is a 35-second spot the group aired calling President Obama “an elitist hypocrite” (must they state the obvious?) for opposing its proposal to put cops in schools. “The NRA has struck an incredible new low in public discourse and the ad must be removed immediately,” wailed the well-named Michael Nutter, mayor of Philadelphia. Former White House flack Robert Gibbs called it “disgusting on so many levels.” His successor, Jay Carney, said it was “repugnant and cowardly.” “The NRA’s sneering references to the president’s family are beyond the pale,”...

As someone who cares for about 100 raccoons a year, Melanie Piazza knows that a listless, placid raccoon is not a healthy one. "A lot of the calls were, 'There's a raccoon sitting on my porch and he hasn't moved all day, and I open the door and he doesn't move,' and that's not normal," said Piazza, the director of animal care at WildCare, a wildlife refuge in San Rafael and one of several Bay Area care centers baffled in recent years by a rise in strange raccoon behavior. The centers would occasionally collect raccoons like this and try to...

This may be the cheesiest story you’ll read all day—literally. That’s because 27 metric tons of flaming goat cheese burned inside a Norwegian road tunnel, closing nearly two miles of the road for six days. Brunost, a Norwegian cheese considered a delicacy, was being shipped in a truck that caught fire. No one was hurt in the incident, which firefighters were finally able to put out on Monday.

Life has made a complete turnaround for the dog who was stabbed by her owner on Jan. 14 and left to die in the woods in northwest St. Johns County. On Monday morning, Amber went home with her new family: Dan Sorrells, his wife, Mia, and their daughter, Ashley. Sorrells is the deputy who found the dog shortly after she was dragged, howling, into the woods by her former owner, Randal Bryen Hart, 28, near his mobile home.

Three years ago, I was having lunch in an Italian restaurant with the leader of Belgium's Flemish nationalist party, Bart De Wever. "Give me Elio Di Rupo as prime minister of Belgium and then make Prince Philippe a king," the head of the New Flemish Alliance told me. "Within five years Belgium will be finished. Game over." At the time I took it as a joke, or perhaps some braggadocio from a man who might have become somewhat detached from reality following the huge success of his party in the 2010 elections. Three years later, it turns out Mr. De...

LEWISTON, Maine — Geiger Brothers, the producer of the Farmers’ Almanac as well as pocket diaries and calendars, is divesting itself of its printing and manufacturing business after 135 years. The company’s decision, one influenced by changes in peoples’ behavior wrought by technology, will lead to 75 people losing their jobs, Peter Geiger, the company’s executive vice president and editor of the Farmers’ Almanac, told the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday evening. Geiger said the company, which was founded in 1878 and moved to Lewiston in 1955, told its employees of the decision on Tuesday. The company, which is also...