Free Republic

Even as President Barack Obama sold a new health care law in part by assuring Americans they would be able to keep their insurance plans, his administration knew that tens of millions of people actually could lose those their policies. “If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period,” Obama said as he pitched the plan, the unqualified promise he made repeatedly. Yet advisers did say in 2010 that there were large caveats and that anyone whose insurance plan changed would lose the promised protection of being able to keep existing plans. And a report...

For more than 65 years the National Health Service has occupied a sainted position in British life. Even the most radical, right-leaning Governments have hesitated before embarking on reforms which could be characterized by opponents as “cuts”. In recent years, however, the halo has slipped dramatically. … Now, details from a secret report on Wexham Park Hospital have provided devastating confirmation. … The report highlights huge structural problems, with a top-heavy cadre of bureaucrats spending their time—and our money—feuding with each other, against a backdrop of deepening financial problems and a chronic bed shortage. Shockingly, we have also established that...

Explanation: Sometimes the sky itself is the best show in town. In January 2007, people from Perth, Australia gathered on a local beach to watch a sky light up with delights near and far. Nearby, fireworks exploded as part of Australia Day celebrations. On the far right, lightning from a thunderstorm flashed in the distance. Near the image center, though, seen through clouds, was the most unusual sight of all: Comet McNaught. The photogenic comet was so bright that it even remained visible though the din of Earthly flashes. Comet McNaught has now returned to the outer Solar System and...

Explanation: While anxiously waiting for Comet ISON to brighten further as it falls toward the Sun, northern skygazers can also find three other bright comets in the east before dawn. In fact, Comet Lovejoy C/2013 R1 is currently the morning sky's brightest. Only discovered in September and not a sungrazing comet, this Comet Lovejoy is nearing the edge of naked-eye visibility and might be spotted from very dark sky sites. Sporting a greenish coma and tail in this telescopic view taken on November 7, Comet Lovejoy is about 0.5 AU from our fair planet and 1.2 AU from the Sun....

Explanation: The Sun's disk was totally eclipsed for a brief 20 seconds as the Moon's dark umbral shadow raced across Pokwero in northwestern Uganda on November 3rd. So this sharp telescopic view of totality in clear skies from the central African locale was much sought after by eclipse watchers. In the inspiring celestial scene the Moon just covers the overwhelmingly bright photosphere, the lower, normally visible layer of the Sun's atmosphere. Extending beyond the photosphere, the reddish hydrogen alpha glow of the solar chromosphere outlines the lunar silhouette, fading into the Sun's tenuous, hot, outer atmosphere or corona. Planet-sized prominences...

The Obama administration appears to be on the verge of a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran after three and a half decades of low-level warfare. Now comes the hard part: convincing Congress. Skeptical lawmakers are gearing up to thwart efforts to lift the pressure on Iran. Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) warned this week that he may introduce legislation making it harder for President Obama to loosen existing sanctions, while several others have vowed to slap on new ones. “The United States should negotiate from a position of strength, not weakness,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a possible 2016...

In July, a series on the organization and financing of the federal government's post-9/11 secret programs ran in the Washington Post. Investigative journalists Dana Priest and William Arkin called attention to the fact that nearly 2,000 private corporations administer and provide essential services to this "alternative geography." Like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, homeland security is a byproduct of business-government collaboration. While two years in the making and accompanied by an elaborate website, the series overlooks the threats posed to constitutional rights by the new wave of secrecy. The authors do not mention the Maryland spying scandal that was...

Astronomers from York University in Canada have identified an undocumented type of quasar where gas appears to be getting sucked into a black hole. This may not sound surprising, but current theories say that isn't supposed to happen. Quasars are hyperactive and extremely bright discs of hot gas that surround supermassive black holes. They're also known as galactic nucleuses. The Milky Way has one at its center. All the junk that's rapidly spinning down the drain hole forms a compact disc with a radius that's larger than Earth's orbit around the Sun and a temperature that's hotter than the surface...

If demography is destiny, Republicans can't win the presidency by acting more like Democrats. The GOP's best shot in 2016 is not to nominate a moderate. They must nominate a conservative who can attract more conservative voters to the polls, just like President Obama built his own coalition and increased the relative electoral power of each constituent part. Not that it will be easy. As long as the GOP nominates someone plausible, they start off with 46 percent of the vote and a large chunk of the electoral college. Getting to 270 + 1 electoral votes and then to 50...

For the first time and to coincide with the end of the Year of Faith, the Vatican is to put on public display the relics of St. Peter. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, announced the Vatican’s plans in a Nov. 8 article in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Recalling how many pilgrims have made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Peter during the Year of Faith, he said that a “final culminating sign will consist of the exposition for the first time what tradition recognises as the relics of the apostle...

November 9, 2013 U.S. fought WWII quicker than launching healthcare website by Kaitlyn Schallhorn Apparently the United States can fight a world war in less time than it can put together a successful website.In an email to Fox News’ Bret Baier, a man identified as Bill from Kentucky certainly took less than three years to put the entire Obamacare fiasco into perspective. Bill compared the time it took to launch healthcare.gov to the United States’ entire involvement in World War II. “Putting things in perspective: March 21st 2010 to October 1 2013 is 3 years, 6 months, 10 days. December...

Veterans Day 2013 free meals and free events are offered to veterans and active duty service members. On Monday, Nov. 11, a veteran can actually have a free breakfast, lunch and dinner while heading out for some free events in between meals! Then they can top the day off with the many offerings of free food for snacks, according to The Parade Magazine on Nov. 8. The nation is finding all sorts of ways to thank the veterans and the active military today as their service to the country is so appreciated. Military Benefits website offered up some of the...

The seventy-fifth anniversary of Kristallnacht has passed without a whimper from our vaunted press. Where are they now? Where were they then? I guess we have to go through this exercise another time as our Fathers did.

I am intrigued by the fact that Pope Francis is seeking a greater understanding of the thinking of the laity on a number of key issues that have divided Catholics for decades. Given the customary top-down practices of the Vatican, there is something historic about that alone. The issues of interest include views on artificial contraception, reception of Communion by divorced and remarried Catholics, the practices of couples living together before marriage, and how local parishes treat same-sex couples and their children, among other things. Those who inaugurated the survey say they are not looking to change church teachings in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration's HealthCare.gov adviser Jeffrey Zients said on Friday that the trouble-plagued federal healthcare website is improving, but that higher volumes of visitors are exposing new capacity and software issues. In a conference call with reporters, Zients said progress this week has been marred by roadblocks. He described HealthCare.gov as being "a long way from where it needs to be."

Ronald Reagan Speaks out Against Socialized Medicine, 1961http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgx9qpCsfX0

I have had an IPad 2 for years. It is literally crumbling. The IPad Air is pricey, and I have been checking other Tablets. Anyone have any thoughts? Thank you.

Kuna High junior wide receiver Boone Bartlome broke the fourth cervical vertebra (C4) in his neck when he lost his footing while blocking during a running play Friday night at Bishop Kelly High, Kuna High football coach Lee Leslie confirmed Saturday. /snip As the emergency vehicle drove away, the teams came together and knelt in prayer at midfield. Players and coaches from both teams grasped hands and bowed their heads in an emotional on-field moment led by Leslie.

BROOKFIELD - A Texas-based manufacturing company tied to the oil and gas industry plans to hire about 150 workers and open a new plant in Brookfield by early next year. Legacy Measurement Solutions Inc. of Addison, Texas, formerly known as J-W Measurement Co., on Friday announced plans to be operational by early next year in a 73,000-square-foot facility owned by Nick Strimbu trucking company near the intersection of state Routes 82 and 7. The company has laid out a three-year operations plan, leasing the space initially with options to buy. Gary Crisp, the company's vice president of operations for northeast,...

“The God of the Living and the Sons of the Resurrection” (Luke 20:27-40)In these days of November, as we near the end of the church year, our thoughts turn to the end times, the return of Christ, and, as we just confessed in the Creed, “the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” Our Scripture readings during these weeks reflect this emphasis. So it is with our lessons today. In particular, I want to direct our attention this morning to the Holy Gospel for today, from Luke 20, where Jesus speaks of “The God of the Living and the...