Free Republic

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is still using a strict present-tense “not running” as her answer to questions about her possible presidential ambitions. But that seems increasingly likely to change given the overwhelmingly positive (and generally overwhelming) coverage of her bid to harass the White House and Senate leaders over Wall Street carve outs stuffed in a fiscal-cliff spending bill. The Daily Beast called her the “most powerful Democrat in America.” The WaPo warned Warren’s moves may force 2016 frontrunner Hillary Clinton to alter her plans. And Warren got star treatment all up and down the major media corridor. Most remarkable...

Featured Term selected at random:KEYS The emblem of Christ's conferral of spiritual power on St. Peter: "I will give unto you, the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 16, 19). This distinctive power in the Church given to Peter is expressed by the two crossed keys, the first emblem to have been assigned to any saint, at the same time as the sword came to represent St. Paul. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

No one should take their health care interactions for granted any longer. Be careful what you say, who hears you say it, and what they write down. Not too far in the future, we will look back on the concept of medical trust and the sanctity of the exam room as a quaint anachronism. Your best long-term bet is to stay as healthy as you can and as far away from the medical care industry as you possibly can.

In light of the KNOWN Jihadist in Australia taking hostages and using a gun (guns are banned there) causing innocent people to be killed and wounded, we need a list of known Jihadists to be immediately set up and accessible to the public (including gun owners) just like the list of sex offenders. The American people have a right to know who all of these evil people are and where they live just like the right we have to know all of the sex offenders are and where they live. It is time to out all of these bastards so...

Yes, we know the 2008 presidential election is years in the past and will not come around again. The question is, does Sen. Ted Cruz know this? The question arises because the junior senator from Texas, in hot pursuit of the presidency, has chosen a trail blazed by Barack Obama six years ago. Obama was in the midst of his first Senate term when he barged into a field that featured Hillary Clinton, then a second-term senator from New York, and several other seasoned veterans of national politics. The word was audacity, and it was right there in the title...

Sub-Headlines: CPI no longer measures the cost of maintaining a constant standard of living. CPI no longer measures full inflation for out-of-pocket expenditures. With the misused cover of academic theory, politicians forced significant underreporting of official inflation, so as to cut annual cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security, etc. Politicians look to expand further the concept of artificially-suppressed cost-of-living adjustments in current budget-deficit negotiations [in 2013], through the use of the Chained-CPI (see Special C-CPI Supplement at end of this document). Use of the CPI to adjust retirement benefits, private income or to set investment goals impairs the ability of retirees,...

Following her much-publicized opposition to the omnibus spending bill last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren tried to dampen any talk about her running for president in 2016 and challenging presumptive Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. In an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep Monday morning, Warren said on three separate occasions she will not be running to occupy the White House in 2016. Rather, the newest member of Senate leadership said her focus is fighting for “hard working families who just want a fighting chance.” “Would you tell these independent groups, ‘Give it up!,’ you’re just never going to run,” asked NPR’s Inskeep....

Vice President Joe Biden demonstrated that he is slipping deeper into senility this week when he gave a speech swearing that he once violently ambushed an unsuspecting kid who allegedly kicked his sister off of her bicycle. The tale told by Biden bore a remarkable resemblance to a scene in “The Godfather,” in which Sonny Corleone pummels Carlo Rizzi for abusing Corleone’s pregnant sister, Connie.

Radical Muslim Man Haron Monis, the man who took hostages in a Lindt shop in Sydney for over a dozen hours, promised vengeance on his website yesterday. His website has since been taken offline... As recent as yesterday, the day that he took hostages, Man Haron Monis declared that Muslims must fight against the United States and its allies. “Islam is the religion of peace,” he wrote yesterday, “that’s why Muslims fight against the oppression and terrorism of USA and its allies including UK and Australia.” He continued, “If we stay silent towards the criminals we cannot have a peaceful...

After expounding repeatedly about who or what is Islamic, President Obama continues to assume the role of America’s theologian in chief by giving us his twist on the “Greatest Story Ever Told.” Obama injected his private interpretation into the Christmas story to bolster support of his executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. As reported by Charlie Spiering of Breitbart.com, Obama told an audience of amnesty advocates at a town hall meeting in Nashville, Tenn. on Dec. 9: “If we’re serious about the Christmas season, now is the time to reflect on those who are strangers in our midst and...

Mark Steyn Guests Hosts Today. Rush Will Be Back Tomorrow.

Every major power – and there are just a handful of them – have the capability to aspire to design, develop and manufacture fighter aircraft by themselves. Now, ideally, this would include all critical technologies – aero-engines, aircraft design, metallurgy, radar, sensors and weapons. However, very few countries have mastery and control in all these areas; the early birds or leaders – USA, Russia, UK and France are closely followed by Germany, Japan, Italy and Sweden. Aspirants after the Second World War included Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Iran, South Korea and Taiwan, of which only a few...

If the Senate were high school and there was a superlative for "least popular member," Ted Cruz would win in a walk. The Texas Republican reaffirmed his status as the Senate's most reviled member -- among his peers -- over the weekend when he refused to allow the chamber to go out of session on Friday and return Monday to vote on the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending package. Instead, Cruz used procedural moves to force 10 straight hours of votes on Saturday as a way to protest President Obama's executive action on immigration. Cruz ultimately forced a "point of order"...

Having a debate with anti-gun coworker. If someone breaks in your house and they see your face... Do you let them steal everything and assume they won't hurt you. I claim once they see your face, that you are more likely to be hurt/killed by them and should do self-defense.

MUNICH --- To mark the handover of the first of an initial 20 LEOPARD 2 A7 tanks to the German Army, Frank Haun, Chairman of the Board of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) welcomed numerous guests from the worlds of politics, the military and business to the company's headquarters in Munich on 10 December. Representing the Inspector General was General Lieutenant Rainer Korff, who accepted the vehicle on behalf of the German Army from Frank Haun, the Canadian Ambassador Marie Gervais-Vidricaire and President of the Army Supplies Division (BAAINBw), Harald Stein. The LEOPARD 2 A7 is a product of collaboration between multiple...

Illegal immigrant Jose Manuel Marino-Najera has filed suit against the US Border Patrol for dog bite injuries he sustained during his arrest. Marino-Najera was among a group of immigrants smuggling marijuana across the border. He is alleging that his human rights were violated. “Those border guards disobeyed their own President Obama,” Marino-Najera declared. “He says I have a right to go where I want. They should have given me food and water, not sicced their dogs on me.” Marino-Najera’s lawyer Susan Horschidt claims that “the trauma my client experienced has given him nightmares that have ruined his life. No amount...

Paul Krugman made the point recently that the only stock market forecasters who correctly predicted a market drop were those who always predicted falling markets. This is known as the ‘stopped watch’ approach to forecasting: constantly make one prediction and eventually the market will move in that direction. Especially for oil prices, which are highly variable, this works wonders to the point where the great Adam Sieminski often joked that you should predict the price or the date, but not both. This is reminiscent of Napoleon’s adage, that it’s better to have lucky generals than smart ones. He didn’t note...

"Charming to the last. You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your life. Leia: [sarcastically] I'm surprised you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself. Tarkin: Princess Leia, before your execution, I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now."

It's been a bad month, publicity-wise, for homosexual activists. Just two weeks after a cofounder of the high-profile pro-gay Human Rights Campaign (HRC) was arrested and charged with raping a 15-year-old boy, the homosexual Washington Blade news service has broken a story about another possible rape by a prominent activist in the movement. According to the Blade, Air Force Lt. Joshua Seefried, the activist behind the repeal of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy regarding homosexuality, has been charged with forcible sodomy and is facing a court martial after allegedly raping another service member after a party...

A report into the botched execution of Clayton Lockett has revealed new grisly details of the moments leading up to his agonizing death. According to the document, a doctor tried to insert an intravenous line into his groin in a frantic attempt to save him, but hit and burst an artery instead. It caused blood to splatter over the doctor's jacket before the execution was officially stopped. Lockett's heart stopped beating moments later. In the report, Oklahoma state prison warden Anita Trammell is quoted as saying that the procedure was a 'bloody mess'.