Free Republic

When you bait a hook, you hope to catch a fish. Thursday I baited a hook, and I caught a lot of fish. I had intended to write today’s column with the title “The Problem With Conservatives,” because there are some too. But I enjoyed the feedback I got from poking the bear so much I thought I’d grab another stick. By daring to criticize “Libertarians” (yeah, I’m capitalizing it since it bothers certain people so much) for their ineffectiveness, laziness and general apathy while what they claim to so prize is slipping away, the flying monkey brigade of indifference...

There was a time when America’s Commander-In-Chief held a certain poise, a refinement of manner, a humble je ne sais quoi. And nothing could be more important to the families of America’s soldiers than assurance that the lives of their sons and daughters are valued above everything except the liberty they defend. Aaron Carson Vaughn, a member of the elite SEAL Team VI special forces once wrote a note of assurance to his concerned parents about his chain of command saying, “They won’t let me die.” This week, America honors her heroes in recognizing Veterans Day, including our brave SEALs....

Iraq has taken possession of four Russian-made Mi-35 helicopter gunships, officials say. It's the first delivery of military equipment in a multi-billion-dollar weapons deal between the two countries, RIA Novosti reported Friday. Iraq expects to receive about 40 Mi-35 and Mi-28NE attack helicopters by the end of the year, said Abbas al-Bayati, a lawmaker with President Nouri al-Maliki's ruling party. The $4.3 billion agreement also calls for Russia to provide 48 Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile gun systems. Russia also will supply Ka-52 single-seat attack helicopters. Iraq had threatened to cancel the contract earlier this year because of suspicions of corruption.

CRPD won’t establish the United States as some kind of global leader because, well, why the hell would it? The United States leads by the example she lives within her borders, as well as through the millions of dollars the USAID spends improving conditions for the disabled around the world. (That Mr. McCain thinks our leadership role is based on a U.N. convention is troubling.) Conservatism is a nuanced philosophy, fiercely debated and rarely serving up easy answers on policy — especially foreign policy. But if we could dare offer one easy, cookie-cutter note for all Republicans to keep in...

In the readings today, the Church presents for us a strong reminder and teaching on the resurrection. Jesus himself leads the charge against those who would deny the resurrection from the dead and the seven Brothers of the first reading along with their mother bring up the rear. Let’s take a look at what we are taught in three stages.I. Ridicule of the Resurrection - The Gospel opens with the observation that Some Sadducees, who deny there is a resurrection, came forward and put [a] question to Jesus. These Sadducees propose to Jesus a ridiculous example about a woman who...

ObamaCare promotion has now sunk to the lowest level conceivable: fake e-mail "testimonials" blasted out to unrelated comment threads. These are in imitation of the "sister-in-law" employment ads that have infested internet threads since the days of Hammurabi: "By gosh, my sister-in-law makes $3,587.53 a week over the internet, working only three hours a day, etc." Here's an almost identical comment that appeared yesterday, on a thread to an article dealing with how to identify psychopaths (a topic of some interest to me, since I know about fifty of them): epk1118 Thank God for Affordable Health Care. We have been...

Tacloban — The death toll from a super typhoon that decimated entire towns in the Philippines could soar well over 10,000, authorities warned Sunday, making it the country's worst recorded natural disaster. The horrifying estimates came as rescue workers appeared overwhelmed in their efforts to help countless survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which sent tsunami-like waves and merciless winds rampaging across a huge chunk of the archipelago on Friday. Police said they had deployed special forces to contain looters in Tacloban, the devastated provincial capital of Leyte, while the United States announced it had responded to a Philippine government appeal...

With a fevered and frantic breathless pace, Obama via John Kerry has been pushing to sign a sell-out deal with Iran that would ease sanctions without shutting down Iran’s nuke program. Benjamin Netanyahu was furious when he found out that Kerry had misrepresented what the proposed agreement would be, not to mention Kerry running at the mouth to bash Israel on the talks with the Palestinians. Netanyahu was not alone. France was uncomfortable with the deal Kerry wanted to sign, even as Kerry huddled with the Iranians trying to get ‘er done.(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Thank you France for at least buying us...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who rallied members of the Tea Party in their failed effort to defund Obamacare, lashed out on Saturday against members of the Republican Party who agreed to end the government shutdown. The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee's comments during a speech in Des Moines come at a time of division within the party over the strategy conservative members of Congress adopted in forcing a 16-day shutdown of the federal government last month. (snip) Palin told the Christian conservatives in attendance it was time to "stiffen our spines" for the 2014 elections. "I want to encourage...

Cancer surgery for legitimate patients is being canceled every week to make way for health tourists scamming the NHS. One of Britain’s most senior surgeons has condemned having to put bogus patients before those entitled to cancer care in a creaking health service. Professor J. Meirion Thomas has called on ministers to introduce a “NHS passport” to combat the abuse. “It is so easy to breach the system. It is awful for me as a doctor to have to treat someone I know is ineligible,” he said. Under NHS rules, any patient urgently referred by a GP for cancer surgery...

Paramedics will be told to take fewer patients to hospital as part of radical reforms of the NHS to be unveiled this week. A review led by the NHS medical director will call for sweeping changes to ease pressure on Accident & Emergency (A&E) units, and is expected to conclude that up to half of 999 calls should result in patients receiving care at home. Amid a growing NHS crisis, Prof Sir Bruce Keogh will say that the total number of A&E departments should not be reduced — and may need to be expanded. However, his report is understood to...

Agent Carrie Mathison is a topical figure. The main character in the American TV series “Homeland,” played by the wonderful Claire Danes, shows her true relevance in the first few episodes, in which Mathison is nervously sitting at home, observing and listening in on the life of a terror suspect on a large screen. His apartment is bugged and Mathison is determined to find out as much as she can about him. She is hysterical, bipolar, paranoid and sick—all advantageous traits for her job. The real-life intelligence services of the United States take things much further than agent Carrie Mathison....

Europe needs more integration, including a single finance minister for the bloc, if it is to remain competitive in the years to come—but Britain posed a major problem, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said. Britain would do its utmost to block any attempts to bring the 28-member European union closer together, as that would imply handing over more powers to Brussels, said the former chancellor on Thursday. … Among other moves, the 28-member European Union needed to appoint a single EU finance minister who would have the power to discipline states which failed to obey the rules, such as during the...

Calls were made this week for Berlin to follow New York state in raising the legal smoking age to 21. Johannes Spatz of anti-smoking campaign group Forum Rauchfrei told The Local why this will not be easy. Berlin Christian Democrat (CDU) politician Cornelia Seibeld told regional newspaper the BZ this week that Germany should follow New York’s lead and increase the minimum smoking age from 18 to 21. … Spatz agreed, and told The Local that Germany should indeed “look to New York for a positive role model” for dissuading young smokers. “If a person starts under the age of...

Tom Leonardis has been Whoppie Goldberg's producer for about 19 years. Tom is also president of Whoopie Inc., her largest fan club. He admits to being frustrated and confused as to why Ms. Goldberg has never, ever been asked to host the Saturday Night Live entertainment show. "Whoopie has won an Oscar, she has hosted the Oscars, she won Emmys, Gramy and Tony awards as well, she even runs The View, Barbara Walters' Crown Jewel of a show, a couple times a month. So you tell me, what does it take for one of the most successful black comics to...

THE BATTLE LINES OF TODAY’S DEBATES OVER GUN CONTROL, STAND-YOUR-GROUND LAWS, AND OTHER VIOLENCE-RELATED ISSUES WERE DRAWN CENTURIES AGO BY AMERICA’S EARLY SETTLERS BY COLIN WOODARD, A91 ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN STAUFFER Last December, when Adam Lanza stormed into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, with a rifle and killed twenty children and six adult staff members, the United States found itself immersed in debates about gun control. Another flash point occurred this July, when George Zimmerman, who saw himself as a guardian of his community, was exonerated in the killing of an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in...

Mysterious disease turning starfish to 'slime' on U.S. West Coast Mon, Nov 4 2013 By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Scientists are struggling to find the trigger for a disease that appears to be ravaging starfish in record numbers along the U.S. West Coast, causing the sea creatures to lose their limbs and turn to slime in a matter of days. Marine biologists and ecologists will launch an extensive survey this week along the coasts of California, Washington state and Oregon to determine the reach and source of the deadly syndrome, known as "star wasting disease." "It's pretty spooky...

The news is filled with stories about nervous Democrats up for reelection who are worried that the terrible roll-out of HealthCare.gov will force them to involuntarily spend more time with their families. And that’s a valid concern. But Terry McAuliffe’s win in Old Dominion shows that involuntary early retirement can be forestalled if African American voters are fired up. A truism of American politics is that turnout in off-year elections is low. A corollary is that African Americans especially won’t show up at the voting booth. This belief bled over into the 2012 presidential election because Republicans thought black voters...

WASHINGTON — Addison Mitch McConnell has made a career of following in his heroes' footsteps and vexing critics who underestimate his political skills. Now the Senate's top Republican is on the offensive against critics of the compromise he crafted with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to reopen the federal government through Jan. 15. The deal ended a two-week government shutdown that McConnell terms “a foolish strategy.” “I felt it was important to get us out of a shutdown that was overwhelmingly despised by the American people and achieved nothing toward getting rid of Obamacare,” McConnell told the Tribune-Review during...

Three Queens-bred heroes thwarted a rape in Flushing last week by chasing, catching and sitting on the attacker until cops arrived. Verizon technicians Michael Popowich, Anthony Howley and John Gilday were finishing up a job at 150-24 Northern Boulevard on October 30 when they saw a man lurking across the street around noon. They said the alleged assailant, identified by police as 53-year-old Young Song, ran up to a woman who was leaving a corner café and put his hand on her waist. …