Free Republic

The talent of the musical act is in inverse proportion to the volume at which its fans typically prefer to play their "product" on their car stereos. The more expensive the car stereo and rims, the worse the upkeep and mechanical condition of the vehicle. [Learned this the hard way after buying a car with "rimz" on it. Never do that. Only buy a car that is full stock.] On a heterosexual male, the more intricate the styling of the head and/or facial hair -- and the more evidence that he regularly spends a lot of time on same --...

Sen. Ted Cruz promises a bold shift in U.S. foreign policy if he's elected president that would cancel President Obama's arms deal with Iran and move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. On the eve of remarks to the Republican Jewish Coalition, the White House contender laid out bullet points for his approach to the Middle East in an interview with the Washington Examiner that would sharply rebuke Obama's eight years. Cruz's call to get tough with enemies of the United States, especially Tehran, and prioritize relationships with key allies like Israel should go over well with the 800...

MessageToEagle.com - A Mexican archeologist hunting for a royal tomb in a deep, dark tunnel beneath a towering pre-Aztec pyramid has made a discovery that may have brought him a step closer: liquid mercury,' according to Reuters' report. In the bowels of Teotihuacan, a mysterious ancient city that was once the largest in the Americas, Sergio Gomez this month found "large quantities" of the silvery metal in a chamber at the end of a sacred tunnel sealed for nearly 1,800 years. "It's something that completely surprised us," Gomez said at the entrance to the tunnel below Teotihuacan's Pyramid of the...

This midlife identity crisis comes at what may be the zenith of Republican influence in the state, courtesy of a race for state GOP chairman. . . . Incumbent John Padgett, the owner of an ambulance company, is seeking re-election to a two-year term. He faces Alex Johnson, a 30-year-old DeKalb County attorney with libertarian leanings. It is something of a rematch. In a final ballot at the 2013 convention, the young Johnson surprised many by receiving 40 percent of the vote — this at a gathering of delegates whose average age is somewhere south of the Mesozoic Era. *****...

WASHINGTON (AP) — As he began his first re-election run in early 2013, tea party Rep. Thomas Massie had no trouble raising money from business interests. Then came 2015. The Kentucky Republican voted against returning John Boehner, R-Ohio, to the speaker's job and opposed an effort by GOP leaders to avoid a standoff with President Barack Obama over immigration that threatened to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. In the first three months of 2013, Massie reported $46,000 rolling in from tobacco, trucking, health care and other industries. During the first quarter of 2015, Massie has collected just $1,000...

From Joshua Green and Jennifer Epstein writing at Bloomberg Politics, confirming yet another set of facts from Peter Schweizer’s “Clinton Cash” and showing that Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, lied in claiming government funding for the International Youth Foundation went down when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State: Former president Bill Clinton stepped down from his position at Laureate International Universities, part of Laureate Education Inc., on Friday. His five-year term as “honorary chancellor,” the company and Clinton’s staff said, had expired. But Peter Schweizer, the conservative author of a forthcoming book examining the Clintons’ financial dealings, suggests a different explanation:...

Bad news, phandroids. Android malware is on the rise. According to Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat Report, “17 percent of all Android apps (nearly one million total) were actually malware in disguise.” In 2013, Symantec uncovered roughly 700,000 virus-laden apps. More than one third of all apps were what Symatec calls "grayware" or “madware” -- mobile software whose primary purpose is to bombard you with ads. The company also discovered the first example of mobile crypto-ransomware – software that encrypts your data and holds it hostage until you pay ransom for it – for Android devices. Symantec Norton Internet...

[...] Tom House, a former journeyman major league pitcher who has turned into the country's leading sports biomechanics guru, had been working with Tebow for months. Every day for hours. This was after Tebow had been released by the Patriots two years ago and Tom Brady, who has become a protege of House's, recommended the former Broncos QB see House at USC, where he has an office above the third base line. [...] He was Nolan Ryan's coach, and Randy Johnson’s, and then he started working with Drew Brees at the beginning of his NFL career. Brees swears by him....

Did anyone else notice that the sound track on the annoying TENA ad was recently changed? The singing in the car was dramatically toned down and the horrendous cackling laugh in the movie theatre was removed.

--SNIP-- Any cheap grifter can make money illicitly, but it takes an expert to make money in two different ways from the same grift. And let’s face it, this is a natural strategy for Hillary: When she’s not talking about strong women and shattering the glass ceiling, she’s hiding behind why-is-everyone-so-mean-to-me victimhood. Those are the two sides of her coming “first woman president” campaign pitch. Begging lefty suckers to fork over money in indignation that this fabulously rich family and its fabulously rich “charity” are being challenged for accepting some fabulously lucrative donations from foreigners at curious times is vintage...

ROME, April 24, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an interview today with the prominent German newspaper, Die Welt, Cardinal Raymond Burke criticized Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who suggested German Catholic dioceses are not a “subsidiary of Rome” on the question of Communion for ‘remarried’ couples. “I have not read Marx' declaration verbatim, but of course formulations like 'subsidiary of Rome' are ridiculous,” said Burke. “We are all oriented toward Peter, that is the unity of the Catholic Church. 'Subsidiaries’ – that is the language of business, that does not belong to the Church. That is where obedience counts.” When asked about his...

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official cited an “epidemic” of syphilis among homosexual men during an event Thursday by a lobbying group pushing for an increase in federal funding for sexually transmitted disease prevention from $157 million to $212 million. “We’re also seeing what we are calling pretty much an epidemic of syphilis among men who have sex with men – that really started in the early – 2000, 2002, but we’ve seen a dramatic increase since 2008,” Dr. Gail Bolan, director of CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, said at a briefing by the National Coalition of STD...

Senator Ted Cruz has submitted legislation to create a constitutional amendment to allow states to determine what marriage is, and not federal judges. Days before the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on same-sex marriage, Senator Ted Cruz has filed two bills to protect states that bar gay couples from marrying. Cruz's legislation would establish a constitutional amendment shielding states that define marriage as between one woman and one man from legal action, according to bill language obtained by Bloomberg News. A second bill would bar federal courts from further weighing in on the marriage issue until such an amendment is adopted....

It’s very easy (and fun) to ridicule Joe Biden as a buffoon, but there are more than a few people who take him seriously as an alternative to Hillary Clinton as Democrat nominee.  Biden fever is rising as Hillary herself is getting harder and harder to take as a serious nominee.  Scott McKay argues in the American Spectator: If ever there was an ill-fitting and ill-considered elevator pitch for a political candidate, it’s the narrative of Hillary Clinton as the defender of ordinary Americans. The sales job, which reportedly was the product of months of consideration from the Clinton...

The LGBT-Gestapo adapts rather quickly.  After Memories Pizza raised $842,432 in just a few days, and Arlene’s Flowers raised over $173 thousand on GoFundMe, the Gaystapo couldn’t let Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of the now-shuttered Sweet Cakes by Melissa, use that fundraising platform. A GoFundMe account was established for the Kleins, and raised over $6,000, until the website took it down. The website GoFundMe said in a statement Saturday that it took down the page because the campaign violated the policy against raising money “in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes, including violent, hateful, or sexual acts.” “The...

In truth, National Socialism was an ancient fertility cult brought up to date under the scientific guise of eugenics where people were to make sacrifices and/or be sacrificed for the fecundity of nature. Fertility, sacrifice, and power were all virtually worshiped by the National Socialists in one form or another, no matter how scientific or secular many of its adherents would try to couch their ideology. The great desire of National Socialism was to become fertile and powerful through sacrificial eugenic measures ...

Hosting the relatives of convicted terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is proving to be very bad for business, the manager of the Hampton Inn in Revere is finding out as complaints and cancellations pour in. When asked how many people had called to drop their reservations since news broke that six of Tsarnaev’s relatives are staying at the Route 1A hotel while they wait to testify in his blockbuster death penalty trial, general manager Cathy Cucchiello simply said, “Enough.” A half-dozen TV news satellite trucks lined the sidewalk outside the hotel and reporters and cameramen were bunched in a group near the...

SIERRA VISTA — Huachuca Canyon, a popular location for hikers, runners and cyclists on Fort Huachcua, has been closed until further notice due to increased bear activity. On Thursday, a bear followed and charged hikers in the canyon and later approached cyclists. That same day, a mountain lion was spotted in the canyon.

WASHINGTON — David Petraeus has been reinstated as CIA Director and given $2.2 million in backpay following new legislation that decriminalizes the leak of top secret information, as long as it is done by people who have deep political connections or fame. Congress unanimously passed legislation on Friday that takes into account a convicted person’s sociopolitical rank before passing sentence on a convicted criminal, particularly when it comes to matters of national security. In this controversial bill, lawmakers standardized the long-standing practice of allowing high-ranking political and military figures to break the law without any fear of the consequences, which...

I'm going to transcribe an article that Jerry Walls wrote when he was a grad student at Notre Dame: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am nearing the end of three very happy (with a brief interlude) years as a graduate student in the philosophy department at Notre Dame. The philosophy department is quite lively and stimulating and I have learned a great deal about my discipline. Along the way, I have also acquired an education of another sort–namely in the ways of the Roman Catholic Church. My education in this regard has been informal and piecemeal, to be sure. My insights have been...