Free Republic

If that sounds like more than Jeter — who will turn 40 next year and played in just seventeen games last season, hitting .190 — is worth, it's because it is. But there's a benefit to the Yankees here: Jeter held a reported $9.5 million player option for next season, which the team couldn't stop him from exercising. But it's the annual average of a player's contract that counts for tax-threshold purposes, and with the final year included, Jeter's last contract would have averaged out to roughly $15 million a season. Jeter's new deal replaces the old one, which means...

In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the Obamacare HHS grandfather rule. The Republicans were warning the current HHS regulations would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it. The HHS own regulatory rules were predicting this outcome. The Republicans were referencing HHS Rule 34553 which can be found on page 17 of this pdf and predicted insurance companies would cancel their coverage. On a party line vote, Democrats killed the resolution, which would have protected people from losing their...

The Lutheran Small Catechism with Explanation (ESV) provides a classic Protestant look at ecclesiology (how one views the Church), but I find it very unconvincing and full of problems. My conclusion is that the Lutheran alternative does not seem plausible, and it most certainly can not disprove the claims of the Church. 1. Under the question, "What is the holy Christian church?", it answers: "The holy Christian church is the communion of saints, the total number of those who believe in Christ. All believers in Christ, but only believers, are members of the church (invisible church)." This is sort of...

It is the hope of this author that more and more people will re-name 'Obamacare' as 'ObamaMESS'. With so many people out of work, and people so frustrated, it is time for a change. Clearly, polls show that Terry McAuliffe is now in a very tight race with Ken Cuccinelli. I hope 'ObamaMess' will make Ken Cuccinelli the next Governor of Virginia, though the principles that Ken has are great example for conservatives everywhere. The Drudgereport today (November 1) is reporting that Democrats are 'running scared' and are afraid of getting tossed from office. Conservatives must (figuratively) smell blood and...

The alleged Los Angeles International Airport gunman carried a note with him today that expressed anti-government sentiments. The note found at the scene ended with the letters "NWO"

Obamacare is a disaster, but the leftists who supported it don’t seem to care about that. They’re singling out and pack attacking one of the Republicans who tried to save America from Obamacare. Take a look at this section of headlines from Memeorandum today.David Corn leads the Emmanuel Goldstein-ing of Ted Cruz, but the hate is clearly coming straight from the Democratic Party leadership, as the second section shows. It’s not accidental. It’s a party strategy to single Cruz out and pour hate on him, make him radioactive and unelectable. Democrats successfully did the same thing to Sarah Palin, and...

As if things couldn’t get any worse, we now have rodents gnawing at the seat of municipal government. Raccoons, rats, mice and even birds have moved in to the soffits underneath the roof of the second floor at city hall. For over a year, workers say, the rodents have been chewing up insulation at the level where city councillors have their offices. The invaders have left their feces all over the aluminum channels installed to keep them out. “There is raccoon s— all over the place,” says Giancarlo Cervini of Martinway Contracting Ltd., the general contractor the city has hired...

A tender cat that had just given birth gave her owners a bit of a shock when she was found to not only to be nursing her kittens, but a squirrel too.According to her owner – a Redditor who posted the incredible pictures online – the adult cat had only given birth one day before she brought in the ‘shivering and breathing squirrel’ which had ‘no signs of a mother.’‘We took him inside and called the vet. He said that if our cat had just given birth, there’s a very high chance she would care for the squirrel without a...

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela has quietly seized control of two oil rigs owned by a unit of Houston-based Superior Energy Services after the company shut them down because the state oil monopoly was months behind on payments. The seizure took place Thursday after a judge in the state of Anzoategui, accompanied by four members of the local police and national guard, entered a Superior depot and ordered it to hand over control of two specialized rigs to an affiliate of PDVSA, the state-owned oil producer. PDVSA justified the equipment’s expropriation, calling it essential to the South American nation’s development and...

On Oct. 8, 2013, the town of Campbell, Wisconsin passed an ordinance to prevent protesting on a pedestrian foot bridge that went over a highway within the city limits. The fine is $132.

According to excerpts from the book Double Down, Mitt Romney seriously considered choosing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as his 2012 running mate. But he didn't, in part because Christie is overweight. Cool leadership, Mitt. The Washington Post got an early copy of the book, and notes several not-very-subtle ways in which the Romney camp made an issue of Christie's weight. For example, according to the Post, Romney's VP vetters engaged in the age-old tradition of blowing their work way out of proportion by pretending it was a high-level intelligence operation. But, man, did they do a lame job of...

We hope they suffer a whole lot more than the millions of Americans who’ve lost their insurance thanks to them. Don’t forget, America, Democrats own this horror show in its entirety and they must pay next November. Senate Democrats vented their frustrations over the faulty rollout of the Affordable Care Act in a meeting Thursday with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior officials. “There’s a lot of frustration, everywhere,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said after the meeting. McDonough tried to assure angry senators he is personally taking charge of the disparate federal offices in charge of...

U.S. President Barack Obama never considered the idea of dropping Vice President Joe Biden from his 2012 re-election team and replacing him with Hillary Clinton, the White House said on Friday. “Double Down,” a new book on the 2012 campaign, says Obama’s top aides considered the notion but decided not to pursue it because it did not materially improve Obama’s odds. White House spokesman Jay Carney, pressed on the issue at his daily news briefing, did not deny that such an idea was floated within Obama’s re-election campaign. …

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi today called the Obamacare website malfunctions “incidental” in the big picture and predicted that they would have no effect on the mid-term elections next year. “The glitches technologically are incidental to the value of what the Affordable Care Act represents,” she said. “We will get through them. The Affordable Care Act is a great thing for our country and I think it’s going to work just fine ... We find the glitches unacceptable, we want to get over it, but it’s not going to have any impact on the election.” Pelosi was in Cambridge this...

I'm reading a terribly sad book these days. It's a book that I thought would uplift me during the doldrums of second-year medical school, and renew in me a sense of hope. It's called "The Audacity to Win," and it's a memoir of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. When I'm finished with my patient write-ups at night and get into bed, the book returns me to a time when politics inspired millions and speeches could take your breath away. The election turned out to be a landslide, and news anchors paused to reflect on the historic nature of the hour....

Orson Scott Card, the outspokenly homophobic author of the book Ender's Game, won't get any of the box office money from the movie that opens tomorrow. So is there still cause for boycott? Though there has been a call to boycott the film over Card's support of anti-gay causes, Josh Dickey of The Wrap reported yesterday evening that Card will not benefit—at least not directly—from the film's success. Sources "both inside and outside the companies that produced the" movie confirmed to Dickey that Card gets no back-end on the movie, and has already been paid the money he will get...

Those who push citizen disarmament have worked very hard to demonize guns.  They have tried to make the public display of arms a shameful thing, something that "decent" people simply do not condone.   They have had considerable success.   As recently as the 1950s people carried rifles and shotguns in New York City without a sideways glance. In liberal fascists' version of reality,  the public display of firearms is perfectly acceptable, even laudible, if the person with the weapon has on a uniform, indicating that they are an agent of the state.   Trade the uniform for ordinary clothing, however, and...

Congressman Joaquín Castro, along with a handful of state lawmakers, are pressing Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott on his plans for the Texas DREAM Act. DREAM stands for: Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors. The Texas DREAM Act would allow students without documentation to pay in-state tuition. At the start of Abbott's campaign for governor, he was asked if he supported the Texas DREAM Act. Abbott dodged the question at the time but later released a statement saying that he felt the law was structurally flawed and needed to be reformed. Castro has officially requested that Abbott to explain...

As the first wave of Americans are discovering that they can't keep heath insurance plans they like, the impression that President Obama lied to them is seeping into public awareness. Analysts predict that as many as 90 million will ultimately be forced off their current plans. A desperate Presidential Press Secretary Jay Carney strove to deflect the impression that Obama lied about the impact the Affordable Care Act would have on policyholders. “The President didn't lie to anyone in any meaningful sense,” Carney insisted. “While it's true that a few who were satisfied with inferior plans will now be required...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and other Republican governors might defy Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s call for all state National Guards to issue ID cards and full benefits to same-sex couples. A spokesman for Perry said Friday that the state National Guard was obligated to follow the state constitution, which outlaws same-sex marriage. “The Texas Military Forces is a state agency, and as such, is obligated to adhere to the Texas constitution and the laws of this state, which clearly define marriage as between one man and one women,” Perry spokesman Josh Havens said. Hagel on Thursday slammed Texas and...