Free Republic

A fortune in gold, gleefully chucked into a Colorado Springs trash bin? That's the claim of Earl Ray Jones, a Teller County man who says he converted $500,000 in life savings into gold in May and then threw it away - all to prevent his wife of 25 years from seeing a nickel in their pending divorce. **SNIP** Jones is facing a Nov. 4 sentencing in Teller County for menacing after he beat up his wife and held her captive in their Divide home during a March fight over finances. April Jones filed for divorce three weeks after the assault....

According to court records, Brown invited the children to go for a walk on train tracks when he returned from a Halloween party about 1 a.m. The children had done this before and thought it was fun. But the 13-year-old boy told police that this time Brown was drunk and he forced the children to drink alcohol as well. The teen said he drank so much that he vomited. The younger child became scared after they climbed onto the tracks, and the boys tried to run away. Brown grabbed the older child, held him upside down from the overpass and...

Secular scientists used to regard the planetary collision theory as a triumph in explaining several of the moon's specific arrangements. But newfound facts severely debilitate this lunar impact origins theory. According to this new theory, an early Earth collided at a glancing angle with a planet that was one or two times the mass of Mars. Some of the debris launched into orbit around Earth and somehow collected to form the moon. This could explain the moon's peculiar orbit and some of its other properties.1 But, as Bob Jones University astronomy professor Ron Samec noted, recent studies refute even this...

Data-gate” is the name the Vatican has unofficially given to revelations breaking in Rome that the NSA intercepted conversations of Pope Benedict XVI regarding the Vatican Bank and conversations of Pope Francis when he was still Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The weekly news Italian news magazine Panorama disclosed the revelations are scheduled to be published as a lead article Thursday. in the issue of the magazine scheduled to appear in newsstands in Italy today, Oct. 31. The magazine article reports suspicions that among the Vatican telephone calls intercepted by the NSA were incoming and...

This is one of the best videos I've seen in a long time. Full of gems of knowledge. Trust me on this one, it is worth your time. Please watch and leave your comments, I'll follow up with some thoughts tomorrow.

WASHINGTON – The Who’s Roger Daltrey brought some revolution to the Capitol Wednesday during the installation of a bust of late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, singing his classic “Won’t Get Fooled Again” to entrenched U.S. lawmakers. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!” the British rock royal belted in his famous American-ized twang, backed by a group of gospel singers, guitar and piano, as the graying congressional leadership looked on in the Capitol rotunda Wednesday. “It was very pertinent to the occasion,” Daltrey told the Post, declining to elaborate further on his song selection. “Isn’t it pretty...

Charles Krauthammer had the quote of the day when he said: "Barack Obama seems to live in a universe where his rhetoric trumps reality."

Our political differences have grown so profound, and become so nasty, that we've lost sight of the one thing that matters more than policy: competence. Even the wisest, most carefully conceived policy will end in failure if the officials who execute it have no idea what they're doing. To point out the obvious, President Obama and his team are utterly, completely incompetent when it comes to executing national policy. The catastrophic launch of Obamacare is only the latest example. Whatever that gun-running operation to Mexico called Fast-and-Furious was really about, it's clear the administration made a mess of it. The...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that "bad apple" insurance companies, not his signature healthcare law, are to blame for hundreds of thousands of people losing their coverage in the past few weeks. As administration officials scrambled to fix technical problems on an online insurance marketplace that is central to the success of the Affordable Care Act, Obama blamed private insurers for a separate problem that has critics questioning his honesty.The president has repeatedly promised that people who are happy with their health plans would not have to change coverage. But the termination of individual policies has given...

BORDENTOWN — Students won't be allowed to sing religious holiday songs at winter concerts in a Burlington County school district.

(CNN) -- White House officials have pressured insurance industry executives to keep quiet amid mounting criticism over Obamacare's rollout, insurance industry sources told CNN. After insurance officials publicly criticized the implementation, White House staffers contacted insurers to express their displeasure, industry insiders said. Multiple sources declined to speak publicly about the push back because they fear retribution. Can people keep plans under Obamacare? Keeping Obamacare's promises Obamacare's messaging problem But Bob Laszewski, who heads a consulting firm for big insurance companies, did talk on the record. "The White House is exerting massive pressure on the industry, including the trade associations,...

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 Your Opportunity is Being Transitioned Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog Do not panic. Everything is under control. Ladies and Gentlemen, Transmen and Transwomen and people of uncertain gender identities, some of you may be alarmed by recent reports of malfunctioning health care websites and policy cancellations. Do not be alarmed. We know what we are doing. Health care plans are not being cancelled. Opportunities are being transitioned. Some people are being moved from bad health care plans to good health care plans with higher deductibles and higher premiums that will provide transmen...

This series is designed to introduce lay Christians to the basic facts of how the New Testament canon developed. One of the key data points in any discussion of canon is something called the Muratorian fragment (also known as the Muratorian canon). This fragment, named after its discoverer Ludovico Antonio Muratori, contains our earliest list of the books in the New Testament. While the fragment itself dates from the 7th or 8th century, the list it contains was originally written in Greek and dates back to the end of the second century (c.180). Some have argued that the list should...

A Connecticut couple is facing charges in a child abuse case after investigators discovered that one used an electric dog collar to punish their daughter, according to police. Eduardo and Paula Montanez, a husband and wife who live in Danbury, were arrested on Tuesday, five days after a Danbury school employee contacted the state Department of Children and Families regarding suspected child abuse. A joint investigation by DCF and Danbury police revealed that Eduardo Montanez had used a PetSafe barking collar on his 9-year-old stepdaughter. Police said the couple was upset about the girl's progress report, so Montanez put the...

Two separate gang-rape crimes and one specific charge of sorcery within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are being reported in a single article by the Persian Gulf-centered news portal Emirates 24/7 on Oct. 29, 2013. Life's a Witch... With Islamic sharia law being at the core of the Kingdom's legal and penal system, a yet to be identified Filipina has been picked up by the Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (aka: "The Morality Police) on charges of being a sorceress. Identified only as being "a woman in her 40s," the accused practitioner of the...

It's instructive to remember that when the Tea Party first began to gather steam, the name referred to a "party" in the celebration sense – the Boston Tea Party, specifically: an event of planned chaos, a protest that masqueraded as an Indian attack. Over time, the name has lost its punny puckishness much as the movement has steadily shifted from a proudly anacharical – even populist – response and rebellion within the GOP to a smoothly functioning alternative to it. The government shutdown proved that attempts by the GOP establishment to co-opt the Tea Party as a source of energy...

The 44-year-old woman on the tracks at a station was not noticed because of her dark clothing and the torrential rainA drunk passenger fell between the rails of a track - and SURVIVED two trains travelling over her. The 44-year-old woman on the tracks at Byker Metro station in Newcastle was not noticed because of her dark clothing and the torrential rain. Miraculously, she survived the ordeal and is receiving treatment at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary. Emergency services were called and the woman was taken to hospital with serious, but non life-threatening injuries. Police have launched an investigation into the...

3-year-old Saudi girl gang-raped • Girl still in intensive care unit Several men abducted a three-year-old Saudi girl and took turns in raping her before dumping the child near a hospital in a serious condition. Disclosing the crime on Monday, police said they had arrested three suspects and two women and that more could be arrested in connection with the rape. Doctors at the hospital in the Western Red Sea port of Jeddah said the child was found crying and in serious condition in front of the hospital on Ramadan 13, adding that she is still in the intensive care...

A 50-strong police team is investigating the brutal death of a "career-minded, hard-working, bright, articulate and friendly young man"Police investigating the murder of a Domino's Pizza worker on his last ever delivery have said no cash was stolen. 25-year-old graduate Thavisha Lakindu Peiris, 25, was found slumped at the wheel of his Toyota Yaris on Sunday night after being stabbed to deathj. Detectives say they cannot explain the "brutal and shocking death" of a "friendly young man" due to begin a dream job as an IT consultant. The police officer leading the investigation, Detective Superintendent Lisa Ray, said her team...

**SNIP** That could pose problems for Democrats, who we’re hearing are confident they can muster all 54 votes from their caucus, plus Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Watt’s home-state colleague. But that’s still short of the 60 they need to move Watt’s nomination to a final vote. The stern warning from the powerful conservative group could sap their prospects for finding a few more GOP votes. Meanwhile, the White House is calling for his swift approval. Senior White House officials met with the heads of housing organization Monday, and according to a White House spokeswoman, the message during the meeting was...