Free Republic

Legendary comedian Jackie Mason has uncorked a full-blown assault on President Obama and his troubled attempt at providing health care for Americans. “It’s such a ridiculous thing. The whole country’s walking around wondering if this guy’s really the president of a country. He sounds more like a maniac in an asylum,” Mason said in a radio interview Sunday night. “He’s saying things that nobody believes. He was always lying every day of his life. Every time he talks it was a lie. The only time he tells the truth is when you didn’t hear from him.”

Israel does not have much time to make a “fateful decision” about whether to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said Sunday in a radio interview. “Israel, I think, now faces the fateful decision whether it will allow Iran to get nuclear weapons, thus constituting a true existential threat to Israel,” he said. “Or whether they will strike as the Israelis have done twice before against nuclear programs in the hands of hostile states,” Bolton told WABC Radio’s Aaron Klein. “I don’t think Israel has much time,” Bolton continued. “Frankly, they should have done this years ago...

Saturday Night Live and Kerry Washington made a big splash with the show's cold open, in which the Scandal star helped SNL address critics who say the show's cast lacks diversity.

http://media.townhall.com/townhall/reu/ha/2013/306/9e8d3e35-8272-4e54-9ca4-f1eb16faf5af.jpg> Let's suppose for a moment that you actually could buy health insurance through Obamacare's state and federal government-run exchanges. How high would your health care expenses have to be to really justify buying that kind of insurance? Previously, when we asked if you even need health insurance, we identified a number of situations where having health insurance would be most beneficial to you (Sean Parnell adds to that discussion here). All the scenarios came down to one basic reality: buying health insurance is most worth doing when you can reasonably expect to have high health care expenses in the...

She’s making all the right moves. With the stealth of an environmentally responsible electric engine, this brainy, transplanted New Yorker is working overtime to make herself liked by the American people, while perfecting her hair, makeup and wardrobe. But is the nation ready for another politician named Clinton — a poised woman with White House experience, a punishing vegan diet, and a marriage that’s attracted its fair share of gossip? Clearly, I’m not talking about Hillary. It’s Chelsea time.

When Absalom Jordan hears the crack of gunfire outside his home in Southeast Washington, he reacts in an instant. “You get away from the windows and get down,” the 72-year-old said. “I have learned to live with it.” Police are listening as well. Rooftop sensors monitor his neighborhood around the clock for the distinctive bang of a gun. The inconspicuous devices have logged hundreds of incidents over the past eight years near his apartment as part of a gunfire surveillance network called ShotSpotter. About 39,000 separate incidents of gunfire have been documented by ShotSpotter’s unseen web of at least 300...

"A lingering mystery in the August 2011 helicopter crash that killed 30 U.S. servicemen in Afghanistan is why some bodies were cremated and some were not. ***snip*** "Charles Strange of Philadelphia, Michael’s father, said two Navy casualty representatives informed him that his son was “burnt up.” Based on that information, he said, he and Michael’s mother authorized the petty officer’s cremation. ***snip*** “I looked at the picture. And my son did not have to be cremated. He was laying there. His one ankle was messed up. But he was laying there like he had a gun in his hand. He...

Too smart to be President. Is that really Barack Obama's problem? Mika Brzezinski thinks so. On today's Morning Joe, as Mike Barnicle and John Heilemann kicked around the notion, as others have before, that President Obama doesn't much like politics and the people in it, Brzezinski piped up with a different explanation for his aloofness: he's "too smart for the job," she suggested. View the video here.

I am what you might call a recovering junk food addict. One that had an especially strong penchant for candy. And while I've managed to get my sweet tooth under control in recent years, I still have quite a weakness for homemade versions of classic treats. Being able to create them without preservatives or strange ingredients makes this a justifiable weakness, I'd dare say.

The firestorm over President Obama's blanket false assurances on Obamacare is only going to intensify, as more groups discover they have lost either their coverage or their doctor thanks to the health insurance changes imposed on the country without a single Republican vote. One of the biggest, yet so far almost completely ignored, changes is the looting of Medicare to pay for Obamacare. Now, it is starting to hit home. Evan Gahr of the New York Daily News recounts a story that will soon become very common among America's senior citizens: Obamacare has a new message to seniors: Take two...

A poll conducted by Harper Polling released today shows US Senator Lindsey Graham remains vulnerable and within the margin of error of being forced into a head-to-head runoff against a conservative challenger in the 2014 South Carolina Republican primary for re-election. Meanwhile, among those vying to replace Graham, South Carolina State Senator Lee Bright has broken away as the main challenger with more support than all others taking on Graham combined.

HANOI – Gay and lesbian couples in Vietnam may soon be allowed to hold relationship ceremonies, as the country’s lawmakers begin a debate that gay-rights advocates and their allies hope could one day lead the country to permit same-sex marriage. When the amendment was first proposed by the Justice Ministry in May 2012 it was unclear just what form it would take. And while the amendment currently being debated is a long way from hopes that gay marriage would officially be recognized, or would lead to equal rights for gay couples, activists say is a step in the right direction....

"Nothing will ever separate us from the love that Christ himself gained for us, giving of himself completely. Even evil powers that are hostile to man are powerless in the face to the intimate union of love between Jesus and those who welcome him with faith". This "reality of the faithful love that God has for each of us" was remembered today by Pope Francis, who celebrated Mass for the repose of the cardinals and bishops who died during the year this morning in St. Peter's Basilica. The Pope commented on the phrase from the Letter to the Romans, where...

What led you to make this film? I have done a lot of long-format films, in terms of documentaries and biographies, and I always kicked around the area of doing something on purgatory more out of curiosity. When I was older and became a friar, and my mom passed away — that was 2008; my dad died 20 years earlier — it just became more personal. I had Gregorian Masses said for her, and I really started to think about all the people I know who had died. I was in a small chapel in Arizona praying for my mom...

Tuesday’s special primary runoff for an Alabama congressional seat is heading toward a photo finish — and emerging as a potential black eye for the Republican establishment forces that have converged on the race. Despite a fierce, last-minute push from House GOP leaders and the business community to supply cash and endorsements to Bradley Byrne, public polling shows the former state senator in a tight race with Dean Young, a flame-throwing tea party contender with a penchant for controversial remarks. -snip- Should Young win, it would come as a shock to the business and Washington power brokers who’ve rushed to...

According to the Awami Colony police, three robbers riding a motorbike pulled up near the restaurant soon after the arrival of its owner’s son, Mukhtar Ali Lashari, from a bank. They demanded cash and opened fire on him and his father, Jan Mohammed, when he resisted. They also killed the owner of the neighbouring barber shop, Ayaz Sultan, while fleeing. In the meantime, a big crowd gathered there and opened fire on the suspects, leaving one of them dead. They thrashed another one who took shelter in a nearby house while the third suspect escaped. However, according to DIG East...

Few actions so clearly distinguish a person as a Catholic in our culture as the Sign of the Cross.Contrary to what some Protestants would have you think, the Sign of the Cross dates back to the earliest times. In the third century, Tertullian wrote, “At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign.” A number of...

Police reports say a woman in the 100 block of East Judson Avenue shot a man who broke into her house early Friday. Police were called to the home about 2:15 a.m. for a burglary in progress, where dispatchers told them they heard a woman scream, a man yell “don’t do it, don’t do it,” and the line then went dead. First officers at the home said a back window was broken out, and a trash can was propped underneath the window for someone to get in. The 39-year-old woman who lives in the home let police in and said...

A heated battle is taking place in Arizona between the fledgling solar industry and APS, the state’s largest energy company, which enjoys a state-granted near-monopoly over energy. In sunny Arizona, it is peculiar that solar energy is being portrayed as the bad guy. Since Arizona is a Republican-dominated state, APS is sneakily buying up influential Republicans, both directly and indirectly, to perpetuate its crony capitalism. The Washington Post refers to these Republicans as “some of the best pollsters and consultants money can buy.” The spin goes like this, “stop subsidizing the solar industry.” The word “subsidy” is used to scare...

Can anything not be faster than the legendary speeding snail? The common garden snail Helix aspera can cover a metre an hour. This is actually faster than the recorded speed that certain nations’ mail services at times operate, Canada and Britain amongst them...The snail’s own love life is if anything even more unusual. In fact they would doubtlessly have thrown Giovanni Casanova into throes of admiration. Determined to enjoy life to the full, each and every gastropod is hermaphrodite. By way of encouragement, they tickle each other’s fancy with love-darts, hard spikes jabbed into each other during mating. Some can...