Free Republic

Budget cuts imposed by sequestration will leave the Defense Department with a hollow force and debilitating shortfalls, the Pentagon’s top acquisitions chief said today. At a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, outlined the difficultly that the on-going budget sequester is causing in the department’s ability to plan for the future. “This is probably the worst time I’ve seen … in terms of our ability to do a sound plan and execute it with any kind of confidence at all,” he said. “It is one of the...

Overcome with Good Today's Scripture “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21, NIV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria The scripture says, “We overcome evil with good.” In other words, when somebody’s rude or inconsiderate, don’t sink down to their level. Don’t be rude and inconsiderate back to them. No, if you going to rise higher, if you are going to overcome, you have to do just the opposite. You have to show kindness, grace and mercy. It isn’t always easy; in fact, it’s almost never easy. It takes a lot of humility...

The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . ." —Romans 8:28 The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances...

The College Football Czar: Week 11 Week ten in review: Florida State’s big win over Miami pushed them back up to #2 in the BCS ratings, but there was otherwise very little movement, what with unbeaten Alabama, Oregon and Baylor all being idle. Since taking over as head coach at Grambling, former Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Dirt Winston is 1-1, with an overtime loss to Texas Southern, and a 47-40 victory over Mississippi Valley State, which snapped an 18-game losing streak against NCAA opponents. Granted, those are not two of their better opponents in the SWAC, but the results are enough...

Catholic Education Daily recently broke the news that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – criticized in pro-life circles for its “family planning” grant program encouraging the use of contraceptives in developing countries – paid the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) more than $100,000 to support teacher training and materials on implementing the Common Core school standards.   In addition, the Gates Foundation has given money to DePaul University for Leading with Algebra, “a partnership between DePaul and the Chicago Public Schools to support the implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics in algebra for grades 6-8.”...

“Obama to campaign to ensure health law’s success” — The New York Times, Nov. 4 The Obamacare Web site doesn’t work. Hundreds of thousands of insured Americans are seeing their plans summarily terminated. Millions more face the same prospect next year. Confronted with a crisis of governance, how does President Obama respond? He campaigns.

Raleigh, N.C. (CBS CHARLOTTE) – The North Carolina Department of Transportation sent out a traffic alert, warning people of female drivers, rain and Obamacare. The North Carolina DOT sends out routine alerts to drivers about accidents and road work using email and Twitter messages. On Wednesday, the NCDOT sent out an alert which reads: “A High severity incident has been Added for I-40 Eastbound in Wake County in Raleigh,” before going on to list the incident as “Vehicle Accident: Women Drivers, Rain, Obama Care.” The message then advised drivers: “Stay Home.” WTKR NewsChannel 3 reached out to the NCDOT officials...

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. We serve coffee, tea, conversation and music. Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here. No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup and start a conversation. You never know who you might meet in the Cafe. Glad you could...

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have spotted a freakish asteroid with six comet-like tails of dust streaming from its body like spokes on a wheel, scientists said on Thursday.

Readers beware. The quality of reporting on the Vatican by the secular news media—never high—has plummeted to an all-time low in recent weeks. Scarcely a day goes by without some sensational new headline. The Pope is going to appoint a female cardinal! He’s going to poll the Catholic public! He’s going to use the poll results to alter Church doctrine! He’s going to end priestly celibacy! He’s going to drop the Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage! The headlines are inaccurate, as are the accompanying stories. But because they’re sensational, they capture attention. Only rarely do the media outlets correct their errors,...

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, November 7, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The New Zealand Family Planning Association is trying to save face after public backlash over the Association’s plan to release a sexuality resource for children aged 5 to 8 later this month. The resource has drawn attention to the fact that “sexuality” is already included right through each year level of the health curriculum. Even in Catholic schools “sexuality” education is compulsory, although parents do have the right to be informed and are given the option of removing their children from these classes. The Ministry of Education’s 2002 document “Sexuality Education –...

When setting premiums for next year, insurers baked in bigger-than-usual adjustments, driven in large part by a game-changing rule: They can no longer reject people with medical problems. Popular in consumer polls, the provision in the health law transforms the market for the estimated 14 million Americans who buy their own policies because they don’t get coverage through their jobs. Barred from denying coverage, insurers also can’t demand higher rates from unhealthy people and those deemed high risks because of conditions including obesity, high blood pressure or a previous cancer diagnosis. But the provision also adds costs. To a larger...

Planned Parenthood Federation of America has just announced a new insidious Internet presence referred to as “mobile interactive tools to help teens make healthy decisions.” STOPP’s national director, Rita Diller, joined ALL’s Jim Sedlak on his Radio Maria “Armed for Battle” broadcast November 1 to warn about what lurks within the many webpages of this new “tool” for indoctrinating both children and parents. “By ‘mobile interactive tools,’ Planned Parenthood means it is on its website so that kids can access this stuff from their smart phones or their computers when their parents aren’t looking,” Diller said. “And by ‘helping teens...

Are you sure it's going to be fixed within weeks, Mr President? This is Obamacare website riddled with garbled messages today [ Full Headline ] Healthcare.gov 'is not firing effectively on all pistons,' White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Thursday, in what may be the understatement of the week. When MailOnline visited the website shortly after Carney's daily briefing, the Obamacare portal spewed a nonsensical mixture of computer code instead of a typical login screen. Gone were words like 'Username' and 'Password.' In their place were jumbled programming strings like '???ffe.ee.myAccount.login.username???' and '???ffe.ee.myAccount.login.password???'

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will unexpectedly travel to Geneva on Friday afternoon to meet with Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, NBC News reports. Nuclear talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 nations resumed in Geneva Thursday morning. Word of Kerry's impending arrival is the strongest sign so far of an agreement on a first step toward a comprehensive final deal, according to NBC. Earlier, a senior American official and Zarif both said a deal could be reached Friday. The United States was pressuring Iran to halt its nuclear program in return for a limited and reversible reprieve on...

Borders , language and culture !

Our basic rhetorical point is why should people lose their health insurance because it is "junk, or lousy" and not ACA compliant, while the governments own medicaid and medicare programs are not. How can the force of law be applied with compulsory fines for private citizens to buy insurance that the government does not require and provide with its own programs? So citizens, not in these programs, under force of law, are required to dump their "lousy" insurance, and pay for ACA compliant insurance. So how can the government not require that their own wholly owned programs not be "lousy"....

Am I the only one who caught it? Some of you clever techies post that for us please.

Video at link.

Obamacare: Day 38America Held HostageRoundup of News & ViewsNo. 8.  Nov 7, 2013   CMS CIO to step down amid shakeupIt’s not clear how involved Trenkle was with Healthcare.gov, but according to the CMS documents released by the House committee on oversight and government reform, he joined Snyder and others in approving a request in late September to put off a full security control assessment of the site for up to 90 days -- security now being one of several points of controversy related to the site’s design and launch.Article at Healthcare IT NewsArticle at CBS News   New problems with...