Free Republic

So what should libertarians, Reagan conservatives, and other advocates of smaller government think of the “cromnibus” spending bill? The answer depends on your benchmark. If you dislike insider deals, pork-barrel spending, and you think the federal government should be limited to the enumerated powers put in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers, then the cromnibus is an abomination.But if you look at where we are right now and you think victory is achieved whenever we can shrink the burden of government spending and limit Washington’s power over the nation, then the cromnibus is a victory.So is the glass half full...

Preposterous Film Setup The entire process is preposterous from start to finish. France should get out of the movie-making business altogether. Instead it pays subsidies to films that the free market would never create, then to pay for that boondoggle it charges a tax on every ticket, every DVD, and every TV station. With all that graft, it's no wonder some actors are overpaid. Yet, it's highly likely that some are actually underpaid. The problem is government would have absolutely no way of knowing. With all the subsidies and taxes, it's impossible to know who is overpaid and who isn't....

'A bank of fog was sitting a couple of miles out at sea and a heavy mist lay over the East Coast resort of Scarborough as postman Alfred Beal climbed the wide front steps of Dunollie, a porticoed mansion high on the town’s South Cliff. He never reached the door that fateful morning on December 16, 1914, almost exactly a century ago. Three German warships had burst out of the fog bank and were now steaming past the headland, firing volley after volley of shells. One caught poor Beal and blasted his shattered body back down the drive. A second...

Americans now have something in common with people in the old Soviet Union—our government and the media lie to us. The Soviets used to say about their two newspapers Pravda (which means “truth”) and Izvestiya (which means “news”), that “there is no truth in Pravda and no news in Izvestiya.” The Soviet people knew that those two official organs of the Communist Party were lying to them, so they spent more time reading between the lines than reading the lines. That’s what happens when you get used to having your government lie to you. You expect it. You assume that...

OPELIKA, Alabama - An Auburn freshman football player was shot and killed at an off-campus apartment complex early Sunday morning, police said, according to local reports. Jakell Mitchell, 18, was a local high school standout who had been redshirted his freshman year, and coaches spoke highly of his prospects.

The first thing President Teresa Sullivan of the University of Virginia needs to do in the wake of what now appears to be a faux rape scandal is to apologize to the victims – that is, to the members of Phi Kappa Psi, who have been vilified, forced to move off campus into motels, and suffered suspicions even from family members and close friends. That would be the human and moral response. That Sullivan will not do so is nearly as certain as the chance of her taking false accusations as a matter that needs university attention. This is for...

The latest United Nations effort in Lima to draft a new global treaty on climate change proves Prime Minister Stephen Harper was right when he described its efforts as “a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.” Harper was pilloried by Canada’s opposition parties after his statement, contained in a 2002 fundraising letter for the now-defunct Canadian Alliance, was revealed in 2007, shortly after he won the 2006 federal election. But Harper was right. Indeed he was vindicated in 2011, when a senior UN climate official, German economist Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,...

If you are a woman, it’s a pretty seductive argument : “Research shows men really are more stupid than women.”However, when your entire research universe is drawn from a self-selecting pool of low IQ specimens -- it’s hard to give the conclusion too much weight: Study Abstract: Sex differences in risk seeking behaviour, emergency hospital admissions, and mortality are well documented. However, little is known about sex differences in idiotic risk taking behaviour. This paper reviews the data on winners of the Darwin Award over a 20 year period (1995-2014). Winners of the Darwin Award must eliminate themselves from the...

We are going to attempt to share the discoveries and keep the text digestible, but the depth here is really consuming. So we’ll start with a troubling outline of the investigation and then share more alarming evidence of big trouble in a small town. Here’s a video of District Attorney John Champion and Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby, giving a press conference on Thursday. If you pay close attention you can hear cause for initial concern. What we outline after is jaw dropping: First concern – given the current framework and national sentiment around racial crime, you can quickly identify...

WASHINGTON (AP) — One colleague called the tactics of tea party-backed Sen. Ted Cruz on the $1.1 trillion spending bill a painful echo of last year's 16-day partial government shutdown. Another senator said it was a strategy without an end game. And that sniping came from Cruz's fellow Republicans. The 43-year-old Texas freshman in a hurry — he's considering a 2016 presidential run — infuriated several GOP colleagues with a last-minute attempt to force a vote on President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration. The move upended lawmakers' weekend plans and, more troubling for his party, gave Senate Majority Leader...

Democrats are always on dubious ground whenever they use the word "stain." However, that didn't deter Senator Diane Feinstein from describing the Central Intelligence AgencyÂ’s (CIA) efforts to tease valuable information out of mass murdering jihadists as "a stain on American values and history." The CIA's enhanced interrogation program was a tease in comparison to the prehistoric barbarity of Islamic jihadists and in comparison to the horrors of actual battle. Review the footage from the Twin Towers on that infamous day. American citizens, real people, with wives, husbands, and children threw themselves, in desperation, out of the inferno to be...

Messiah's born in the city of David, Incarnate Word the Son of God! Perfect Lamb sent forth to save us, from Death’s sting and Satan’s host! Angels shout with joys of wonder, on this night the King is born! Shepherds seek their Lamb and Savior, King of kings and Lord of lords! See your Lamb in lowly manger, Lord of time and ETERNITY! Righteous Branch and Seed of David, Son of God and Deity! He shall grow before the Father, shed His blood and then atone! Then shall rise and be exalted, to the Right hand of the Father’s throne!...

Now Bond movie falls victim to Sony hackers: Leaked script reveal the bitter arguments over $300million movie's lackluster ending The script for the upcoming James Bond film Spectre has been leaked in the Sony hack The $300million film is in production now, even though executives seem to have numerous problems with the script It is now known how the film will end and the characters each actor will be portraying

Lying liars lie even about incidental lapses into truth. In a double insult, economics professor and political hack Jonathan Gruber has now apologized—not to us, to Congress—for boasting about how clever was the opaque legislative process used to dupe us “stupid” voters about the true nature of Obamacare. Gruber has become the cynosure of all cynical eyes thanks to numerous videos in which he burbles about how dumb we all are for believing Obamacare claims and promises. O-care’s non-taxes were, in fact, taxes, the “savings” it would bring were, in fact, massive new costs, etc. “Lack of transparency is a...

With the attempt to limit the deductibility of contributions to charities by high-earners, the Obama Administration has opened a multi-front attack against the American tradition of “neighbor helping neighbor” and financially successful people turning large portions of their wealth over to charities that improve the American culture in august manners. The governmental power grab competes with the attempts to control the financial sector for its significance and may exceed it in the long-term effect upon our culture. One first has to marvel at how liberals can twist logic to rationalize a tax increase. It happens regularly from the local government...

Leaders of Sunni tribes in Iraq who have joined the battle against the Islamic State say jihadist sleeper cells in their tribes are undermining their ability to fight back. Iraqi Sheikh Naim al-Gaood was awakened before dawn Thursday, with the grim news that Islamic State fighters had launched a fresh attack on his Sunni tribal area 120 miles northwest of Baghdad. By nightfall, outmanned and outgunned by Islamic State (IS) forces, and with very little American or Iraqi government support, Mr. Gaood’s Albu Nimr tribe had lost control of 15 villages and seen dozens of its members taken prisoner. The...

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The Talk Shows December 14th, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Jose Rodriguez, a former top CIA operations officer who ran the agency's interrogation program; Karl Rove, former top White House Advisor to President George W. Bush; Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Former Vice President Dick Cheney; Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, John McCain, R-Ariz., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.THIS WEEK (ABC): Former CIA Director Michael Hayden.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.; Gov. Deval Patrick,...

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A New Jersey college said on Saturday it has completed its $18 million purchase of the shuttered Showboat Atlantic City casino resort from Caesars Entertainment Corp , a deal that would usher in a new dormitory and a branch campus. Officials from Richard Stockton College in nearby Galloway Township, said in a statement they plan to convert some of the 1.4 million square foot building into dormitory space.

The golden years are going to feel a bit tarnished for almost one in five Americans. In a personal finance survey published today, 18 percent of the respondents said they expect to be in debt for the rest of their lives. That is double the percentage who expected that in May 2013, the last time the survey was conducted. Credit card indebtedness has increased moderately since the 2013 CreditCards.com survey, said Matt Schulz, senior analyst at CreditCards.com. In contrast, student loan debt rose from an aggregate of $390 billion at the end of 2005 to $966 billion at the end...