Free Republic

The contentious intraparty battle between Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and challenger Matt Bevin has split influential conservatives, revealing the divided loyalties in the struggle over the GOP’s future. The race has laid bare longstanding gripes conservatives have with McConnell but it has also shown the leader’s impressive influence among even Tea Party leaders such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). McConnell’s clout in Washington has kept pivotal conservative leaders in check and complicated Bevin’s effort to mobilize the grassroots uprising he needs to win the contest scheduled for May of 2014. McConnell’s most valuable endorsements come from a trio...

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 11 — As the seams holding Malaysia’s racial and religious fabric together threaten to rip apart, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today called on the country’s “silent majority” to drown out the voices of extremism, but without specifically naming groups. He said diversity should be celebrated and the right to co-exist should be defended. “We cannot afford to allow voices of extremism to dominate the political discourse. “It is time for the silent majority to drown out the calls to violence, to reject extremism. “We should not be cowed or held to ransom by elements that prefer...

Where's a city-loving conservative to live? Certainly not Seattle, San Francisco or New York. But real estate site Estately came up with the following list of big cities where conservatives will feel right at home. "We scoured the country for large cities with populations over 200,000 that offer a combination of conservative values, a high quality of life, and plenty of big city activities to enjoy," said Estately. Where are Republican-voting, business-friendly, "highly religious" conservatives supposed to live if they don't like the burbs or sticks? "Electoral trends show America's large cities growing more and more liberal, meaning urban conservatives...

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 — Malaysia has emerged as the new preferred destination for the Chinese investor looking for a bargain deal in real estate, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported. According to the report, Chinese property investors who have grown comfortable buying abroad are now seeking greener pastures by trying their luck in “second-tier” markets such as Edinburgh, Miami and Malaysia. “Middle-class Chinese are now going to second-tier cities... These places offer higher growth opportunities because more people are doing that now,” Thomas Lam, head of research for Greater China at Knight Frank, was quoted by the international...

THAILAND SHOULD prove itself more if it wants to become a regional hub for medical tourism in the long term, competing with arch-rivals Singapore and Malaysia. One major barrier to this quest is politics. If political demonstrations become chaotic to the point of closing airports, this will undermine patients' confidence, and they might decide to go elsewhere, said Pongsakorn Chindawatana, a professional doctor and also senior director of communication at Bangkok Dusit Medical Services. So far, there have been no cancellations of trips to the company's hospitals. The political scenario at present is still considered acceptable. However, the company will...

THAILAND - Thailand ranks near the bottom in an English proficiency survey, showing the persistence of one of the key competitive weaknesses of the Thai economy. Out of 60 countries and territories where English is not their mother tongue, Thailand manages only 55th place - outdoing only Panama, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, according to the EF English Proficiency Index. The survey on adults was conducted by the global leader in international education, EF Education First, which is based in Zurich, Switzerland. Poor English skills indicate the small base of competent adult English speakers necessary for a globalised workforce....

GETTYSBURG - He almost was not asked to speak. In October 1863, President Abraham Lincoln received the same plain envelope that was sent to hundreds of people, requesting attendance at a dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery here. Col. Clark E. Carr, a confidant of several U.S. presidents and a member of the commission that organized the event, later admitted that commissioners scrambled to send a more personal invitation after Lincoln indicated he would attend. Asking Lincoln to deliver a “few appropriate thoughts,” Carr said, was “an afterthought.” You see, the dedication's real headliner was Edward Everett. A former secretary...

The Thailand economy will expand 3.3-3. 4% this year, short of the 3.5% forcast, if the political protests are prolonged to the end of the year, an economist said Friday. Thailands Senate is set to reject a proposed amnesty law for political offenses on 11 November after weeklong street protests raised concerns its passage would reignite political violence. Opposition from the public, universities and business groups convinced a majority of Thailand’s 149 senators to block the legislation, Senate Speaker Nikom Wairatpanij said at a media briefing in Bangkok Wednesday. More than 32,000 people joined demonstrations in the Bangkok, capital and...

(Reuters) - Hundreds of villagers along Thailand's border with Cambodia have fled their homes and built bunkers ahead of a world court ruling on a turf dispute that could set off a military confrontation and inflame political tension in Bangkok. If Monday's decision by the United Nations court in the Hague awards land around the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia, the move could fuel anti-government sentiment in the Thai capital. Protesters in Bangkok are trying to thwart an amnesty bill they say is designed to nullify self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra's 2008 jail term for abuse of power. Thaksin...

FARGO – Thousands of customers in North Dakota must switch health coverage because their plans are being discontinued due to new requirements under the Affordable Care Act. The three major health insurers in North Dakota were required to report to state regulators their enrollment figures and cancellations under the health reform act, commonly known as Obamacare. The state’s largest health insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, covers about 31,600 members – 17,000 in small groups and 14,600 individuals – whose insurance plans are being discontinued. That combined figure represents 8 percent of the North Dakota Blues’ 400,000 membership...

As inflation in the euro zone languishes at its lowest level in four years, some analysts argue that the region is at risk of a Japan-style deflationary rut. In October, the euro zone's inflation reading came in at 0.7 percent on year, down from September's 1.1 percent and a four-year low. Core consumer prices in Japan, which include oil but strip out volatile food prices, rose 0.7 percent in year to September with a broader measure rising 1.1 percent. Japan, the world's third biggest economy, has been plagued by deflation for almost two decades and inflation has only recently started...

ONAHAMA PORT, Japan (AP) — Japan has switched on the first turbine at a wind farm 20 kilometers (12 miles) off the coast of Fukushima, feeding electricity to the grid tethered to the tsunami-crippled nuclear plant onshore. The wind farm which started up Monday, near the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, is to eventually have a capacity of 1 gigawatt from 143 turbines. Its significance is not limited to the energy it will produce. Symbolically, the turbines will help restore the role of energy supplier to a region decimated by the multiple meltdowns that followed the March 2011 earthquake and...

The Obamacare exchange for Washington, D.C. has been using its official Twitter account to tweet out support for Organizing for Action (OFA) materials. “Our friends @OFA_DC are looking to hear your experience with #Obamacare. Share your feedback with them,” the official @DCHealthLink Twitter account tweeted earlier this week, with a link to a website survey at my.BarackObama.com—OFA’s website. After filling out the OFA survey, respondents are then prompted with an ask to donate money to the organization. The official @DCHealthLink Twitter account has also retweeted an OFA tweet praising Obamacare, which as of 4:30 p.m. on Friday has the OFA...

Even as the Obama administration attempts to negotiate a rotten deal with Iran on the monitoring and winding down of its nuclear program – a deal that fell through late last week – Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) has declined to take a position on Iran.

LANCASTER, Calif. – When Jerral Hancock came home from the Iraq war missing one arm, with another that barely worked and a paralyzed body that was burned all over, he was a hero to the Mojave Desert town of Lancaster, Calif. When he got home, however, he would be forgotten by all but his two young children and his parents. That was until the students in Jamie Goodreau's U.S. history classes learned about how he got stuck in his modest mobile home for half a year...

Annapolis Alderman Ross Arnett insists the City Council's decision to take another look at making the mayor's job a more ceremonial role has nothing to do with party politics. But if the Democrat-majority council acts to remove the mayor's power, the timing will coincide with the election of Annapolis' first Republican mayor in nearly two decades, Mike Pantelides, who defeated the incumbent Democrat, Mayor Josh Cohen, last week.

Suicides by gun accounted for about six of every 10 firearm deaths in 2010 and just over half of all suicides, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since the CDC began publishing data in 1981, gun suicides have outnumbered gun homicides. But as gun homicides have declined sharply in recent years, suicides have become a greater share of all firearm deaths: the 61% share in 2010 was the highest on record. That year there were 19,392 suicides by firearm compared to 11,078 homicides by gun (35% of all firearm deaths). The rest were accidents, police...

Dr. Andrew Bostom explains the historical the Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism November 7th, 2013 - Great Neck NY Andrew G. Bostom is an American author and Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University Medical School

GENEVA — Secretary of State John F. Kerry heads home Monday to defend a proposed nuclear deal with Iran in testimony before doubting lawmakers, as the Obama administration moves to head off growing criticism from Israel. Kerry has already begun making the case that an Iranian agreement to temporarily freeze elements of its nuclear programs in exchange for a partial easing of Western sanctions would be a viable step toward negotiating a permanent end to any Iranian nuclear weapons ambitions. If negotiators in the next several weeks can reach an agreement on the draft proposal — a result that eluded...

I'm looking for a semi-auto CO2 powered bbgun for my son. We intend to replace the stock with a wooden one that he'll make in his woodshop class. This is an intersection of several projects. It needs to be semi-auto with as many rounds as possible available. We will be installing a TV remote motion sensing target system for critters in the back yard and... because... it's a fun project. But that precludes pump action, needs to be CO2 powered. It needs to be a long barrel rifle because of accuracy and also the mechanism for clampdown requires a long,...