Free Republic

Anyone on a faith walk will eventually ask the question, “How do I pray?” Except for the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, there is no easy answer, for prayer is a very personal and personalized pursuit. And, as with all pursuits, practice is the key to success and prayer is no different. You will soon discover the more you pray, the more you will find answers to difficult questions, along with mental or physical healing from various maladies, protection for you or your loved ones and comfort from any number of storms that happen to be raging in...

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois fell to the bottom of all 50 states in the rankings of a major credit ratings agency Friday following the failure of Gov. Pat Quinn and lawmakers to fix the state’s hemorrhaging pension system during this month’s lame-duck session. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service downgraded Illinois in what is the latest fallout over the $96.8 billion debt to five state pension systems. The New York rating firm’s ranking signaled taxpayers may pay tens of millions of dollars more in interest when the state borrows money for roads and other projects. “It’s absolutely bad news for taxpayers,” said...

Farmer Mark Schroeder of Elgin, Minn., knew something was seriously wrong when he heard a noise from his new windmill that sounded like a helicopter landing on the roof of his house. "You could hear the noise 2 or 3 miles away," he said. The windmill shook furiously atop its 160-foot tower. Black smoke billowed from the control unit. Schroeder said he tried shutting off the power, but the windmill's three 25-foot-long blades continued spinning furiously. One of the 500-pound blades eventually sheared off and flew about 100 yards into a field, bringing Schroeder's dream of energy independence crashing to...

01/23/13 From HuffPo: Dead weight? A business owner in Utah has become the latest employer to blame President Obama's health care reform bill for layoffs and has doubled down on his public disdain for the current administration by admitting he singled out Obama supporters. Terry Lee, owner of Cedar City-based Terry Lee Forensics, told the Salt Lake Tribune that he was so impressed by a Vernal, Utah, smoothie bar's policy of asking liberal patrons to pay more, that he, too, took action to recoup losses he said were incurred by Obamacare. George Burnett, owner of I Love Drilling Smoothie &...

It's the common talking point from left leaning media and gun control advocates: NRA leaders are out of touch with NRA members and the organization is disagreement over top gun control issues. Turns out, the exact opposite is true. The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action conducted a national scientific poll of NRA members this week and found the vast majority are on the same page regarding a wide range of issues, in particular when it comes to new gun control measures and how to prevent mass shootings. One-thousand members were randomly selected for the poll. The NRA is...

During a city council meeting in Oak Harbor, WA a veteran who served in, Afghanistan speaks spontaneously in favor of the 2nd Amendment and causes a liberal whiner on the council to get up and leave when he is not allowed to violate his oath of office.

The 40th March for Life is being held today in Washington DC. Here’s the Facebook page. Lifesite News has a schedule of today’s events. Organizers say today’s rally in the nation’s capital may bring more anti-abortion activists to the streets than last year’s estimated 400,000. Pope Benedict XVI tweeted out his support for the march early this morning...

This California Councilwoman opposes open carry of unloaded handguns as people can even be shot by ‘unloaded guns!’

Here's the Cambridge dictionary definition for "oasis": a calm, pleasant place in the middle of somewhere busy and unpleasant. I believe President Obama would approve of the word "oasis" to describe the proper environment for a woman wanting to end the life of her baby; after all, who would want to be punished with such a thing? CNN acknowledged the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision by featuring Amy Hagstrom [where's my hyphen?] Miller, CEO of Whole Woman's Health, a company operating six abortion clinics in Texas--a very pro-life state and home of the Roe v. Wade case....

. Computer Sciences Corporation’s performance on a failed $1 billion software project for the Air Force, a major objective of departing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.. An additional $1.1 billion would have been required to fix the system and put it in operation by 2020 -- eight years after the planned date.. “I can understand the senators’ frustration,” Air Force top uniformed acquisition official Lieutenant General Charles Davis.

The University of Chicago Law School has decided to make a radical change to its employment policy for law professors. Because of the continued embarrassment the college has received from President Barrack Obama claiming that he was once a law professor who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, all potential new constitutional law professors will have to pass a test on constitutional law and certify that they have actually read the constitution before being offered a position. Ivy League school law graduates will have to take and pass a remedial no credit course on constitutional law...

When she heard that women would be allowed to serve on the frontlines of battle, former Camp San Luis Obispo garrison commander Lt. Col. Nicole Balliet’s first reaction was, “Well, it’s about time!” The Atascadero native then had to better understand the announcement and its implications. “It’s very overwhelming,” she said of the decision. “It’s a huge validation for all the hard work women have done serving in combat for the past several decades.” The official announcement came after initial reports Wednesday of the Pentagon’s reversal of the 1994 ban on women serving in small frontline combat units. In his...

On Friday, the New York Times Television section highlighted tonight's Sean Hannity one-hour special “Boomtown,” a program featuring Government Accountability Institute President and Co-founder Peter Schweizer and Breitbart News Executive Chairman and Government Accountability Co-founder Stephen K. Bannon. 9 P.M. (Fox News) BOOMTOWN: WASHINGTON, THE IMPERIAL CITY In this edition of “Hannity,” the host, Sean Hannity; Peter Schweizer, the president and co-founder of the Government Accountability Institute; and Stephen K. Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News and co-founder of the Government Accountability Institute, investigate what they call crony capitalism among the city’s power elite and the tactics used by...

Twelve minutes long but worth watching in full, partly because Gingrich is in fine form and partly because it’s a nice demonstration of how futile and bad-faith the “debate” over guns is. Morgan’s point is straightforward: If gun-rights fans think it’s okay to ban machine guns because rapid-fire weapons are too dangerous for the public to own, why not ban assault rifles? Granted, automatics fire much more rapidly than semiautomatics, but you can still get off an awful lot of shots quickly with an AR-15 if you’re pulling the trigger fast enough. Gingrich comes at that logic from the other...

With little discussion or fanfare, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the ban on women in combat that has been in effect for as long as there has been a U.S. military. Feminists and some women serving in the military are applauding the move as a victory for equal rights. They claim that justice requires nothing short of opening all positions to females, regardless of the consequences to combat effectiveness, unit cohesion, or military readiness, factors whose importance they minimize in any event. What is perhaps most striking about Secretary Panetta's action is that it reverses the combat exclusion policy that...

Government Motors determines a way to reduce the inventory backlog of Chevy Volts.

Rifles Your needs: Hunting, varmint control, “just in case” Why: While some people may use or need a rifle for home defense, all the rifle owners I know use their rifles for either target shooting or hunting and varmint control. They use a different kind of gun for personal or home defense. However, for the sake of argument let’s say that the proverbial excrement has hit the rotating airfoil and that you, despite the fact that you get your meat from the grocery store and don’t run into coyotes at the bus stop, could be called upon to defend all...

Documents from an inspector general’s probe last June allege that a top-level USAID official interfered with an investigation of possible contract rigging by the foreign-aid agency’s general counsel. The alleged obstruction occurred while the inspector general’s office was investigating whether former USAID general counsel Lisa Gomer had worked with former chief financial officer David Ostermeyer to design a contract that would go to Ostermeyer after he retired. The inspector general’s office said in an internal memo that Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg, who ranks No. 2 at the U.S. Agency for International Development, told investigators that their efforts to gather information...

BEIRUT – The Syrian regime is arming and training Syrian women to fight for President Bashar al-Assad, putting it out in front of the Pentagon when it comes to sending women to the front lines. A video posted on Russia Today’s Arabic channel from the central city of Homs shows dozens of women in combat fatigues marching around a training ground carrying Kalashnikovs, performing drills and chanting slogans in support of Assad. “Be prepared Syria. Stand up Assad,” they shout. “With our blood and our soul we protect you Bashar.” The trainer explains that the women are trained to use...

Urging that “we break free of the archaic notions of our nation's so-called 'Founding Fathers,'” President Barack Obama launched his second term with a stirring call to “update our concepts to fit our modern circumstances.” The President maintained that “the Founders' original idea that 'liberty' means freedom from government abuses and usurpations has no relevance today. Our government does not usurp our rights. The people elect their rulers and expect them to create the kind of