Free Republic

Yesterday I got a computerized phone call from Giant Eagle, telling me not to eat the mangoes that I’ve been buying since July, because they might be contaminated with Salmonella. The message said I could return them to the store for a full refund. I’m not sure how I’m going to do that, given that I’d already eaten most of them weeks ago. I’m guessing that maybe three people got sick in the entire country, and they thought that was justification for recalling millions of mangoes. I understand risk analysis, and it’s my educated guess that I’d be more likely...

The Case-Shiller house price indices were released this morning. The 20-City Composite posted an annual returns\ of +0.5% in June 2012. Month-over-month, average home prices in the 20-City Composite were up 2.3% versus May. You can see the Case-Shiller 20 Composite (green) compared to recent prints by FNC (blue) and FHFA Purchase (gold). For the second consecutive month, all 20 cities and both Composites recorded positive monthly gains. Eighteen of the 20 MSAs and both Composites posted better annual returns in June as compared to May 2012 – only Charlotte and Dallas saw a deceleration in their annual rates. As...

We don't need the republican establishment oligarchs choosing our leaders for us!

We have the opportunity of casting the Obama Nation of Desolation out of America's holy place. Obama rules through hate, lies and death. We are made free through love, truth and life. The battle is taking place in America's heart. Obama is the great polluter of human hearts. Loving God purifies the heart. Stay focused in God.

Factcheck.org -- A Fraudulent "Fact Check" Site Funded By Biased Political Group If you wanted to use a devious method to deceive people who are trying to differentiate between truth and lies on the Internet how would you do it? If you were extremely devious and had no conscience, you might set up a Web site with some official and unbiased sounding name that claims to be the encyclopedia of truth to be used as a tool for anyone who has the same biased view and wants to make believe to "back it up" with what they would like you...

I just got off the phone with a concerned Florida activist, Laura Noble, who informed me that both of Florida's Rules Committee members, Peter Feaman and Kathleen King, have been removed from the Rules committee and replaced with Romney-appointed delegates. Clearly anticipating a grassroots backlash against the "compromise" on Rule 15 and the changes on Rule 12 has caused the Romney camp to preemptively replace delegates to ensure they have support on the Rules Committee. It's enough to make your blood boil. Please call your state's Rules Committee delegates here and ask that they oppose the "compromise" on Rule 15,...

Excerpt from a Charles Murray essay, “Why Capitalism Has an Image Problem”: The U.S. was created to foster human flourishing. The means to that end was the exercise of liberty in the pursuit of happiness. Capitalism is the economic expression of liberty. The pursuit of happiness, with happiness defined in the classic sense of justified and lasting satisfaction with life as a whole, depends on economic liberty every bit as much as it depends on other kinds of freedom. . . . What government can do to help is establish the rule of law so that informed and voluntary trades...

By definition humans are imperfect. Some are more imperfect than others however. Nature has provided us with a mechanism to reduce the most imperfect among us. That mechanism is sometimes chronicled in something called the Darwin Awards. My favorite Darwin award of all time involved a thrill seeking man who strapped a solid rocket booster to his car in an effort to see how fast he could go. He went quite fast, in excess of 300 miles per hour actually… but, shockingly, the brakes for his car eventually disintegrated and he met his end after crashing into the side of...

President Barack Obama recently gave speeches on higher and K-12 education, making it likely that educational policy is a subject of interest this campaign season. Professor Kevin Welner of the University of Colorado said on August 23, that he thought education was “shaping up to be a major issue” this election cycle. “The president has devoted the past week to education, starting with a radio address on Saturday and continuing with a swing through Ohio and then yesterday he was in Las Vegas talking about budget cuts and teachers and growing class size,” said Welner, also the Director of the...

[Thurs]day Patrick Gleason, Director of State Affairs at ATR, had a piece published in the National Review explaining a new study recently conducted by the Beacon Hill Institute that examines the economic damage done by D.C.'s bag tax since its implementation two years ago. From the new study finds that the D.C. bag tax will yield the following results by 2016: [Added full context of excerpt from the actual report itself, with the additions in parentheses.] (The D.C. government’s estimate that the Bag Tax reduced grocery bag sales by 80% is too high because they used an inappropriate city as...

Denying that law abiding citizens have a right to carry a sidearm to defend themselves, an anti gun rights organization has published what has to be the most disingenuous post ever to appear on an anti gun website. The group said last week that, “Carrying a gun does not provide ANY realistic possibility of self defense—the element of surprise ALWAYS defeats the gun carrier.” They call that “Gun fact #1.” The author of the opinion further states that, an armed criminal will not approach you and challenge you to "Draw." They say that the thug will have the "Drop" on...

As Isaac gathers steam in the Gulf and the elephants gather steam in Tampa I thought I’d take this opportunity to give you an update on how our campaign is coming along. (Hint: Please send more money! Lots more money!) Apparently we’re continuing to rely on Lady M to humanize Big Guy. 3 1/2 years in and we’re still trying to “humanize” Big Guy? Seriously? Is that really necessary at this point?  The human President TOTUS-head is “a head” in all of the polls...Anyway, sure enough no sooner do I start fretting about Lady M’s over-exposure than (then?) it happens...

USA Today reports that GM will be, once again, temporarily halting production of the Chevy Volt. According to GM, the halt is not due to low sales of the Volt. The article quotes a Chevy spokesman as saying, "We are not idling the plant due to poor Volt sales. We're gearing up for production of the new Impala." In typical dubious mainstream media fashion, the article also reports that Volt sales have been just fine stating, "GM sold 10,666 Volts through July, way up from the 2,870 sold during the same period a year earlier." Considering that back in January...

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP) -- "The New Normal" is a television situation comedy set to debut on NBC in September. According to advance reports, the premise of the program is a woman becomes a surrogate mother so a male homosexual couple can start a family. Let me say that "new" might be applicable in the title. "Normal," though, is a stretch. Whether you use any of the various synonyms for the word normal or employ it as an adjective or a noun, one thing is certain: Two men using a surrogate mother to produce a child is anything but normal. First,...

The DNC will feature a non-stop parade of speakers who hate real America. Their views will run from out of the mainstream to viciously anti-American. It will feature anti-women Islamists who hate real America; rabid hard core feminists who hate the Catholic Church and delusional Gays trying get the Democrats to force the real America they hate to accept them. Their anti-Women campaign will be on display. They will feature a series of female speakers presumably to show the nation how pro-women they are AND a celebration of Islam a religion that centers on hating subjugating and physically abusing women....

Grand Haven High School, a suburban school near Muskegon, received an 'A' on the Mackinac Center's new high school report card, which means that student test scores from 2008 to 2011 were better than expected, on average, given the socioeconomic background of its students. Almost 26 percent of the school's students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. On the other side of the state, Chippewa Valley High School, a suburban school near Clinton Township north of Detroit, received a 'D' on the high school report card. Almost 21 percent of Chippewa Valley students are eligible for free or reduced-price...

Ever Eat Crow? I am now. I went to the Sarah Steelman Site. She is Pro Life Anti-all the bad stuff Take a look! If she has to go thire party, I think she should. You see, there was a Governor who mabe two parties so he could win in Connecticut in 1992. He was the guy who said "adding an income tax to our state at this time is like pouring gasoline on the fires of inflation." He then shut down the state parks for the rest of the year including JULY 4th. Sarah Steelman, Your Next U.S. Senator...

The storm shortened Republican National Convention gets down to business today but there may be a major surprise planned for this carefully scripted and otherwise pre-announced event. According to the newly released convention schedule, a speaker listed only as 'To Be Announced' will deliver his or her remarks to the delegates and a national television audience on Thursday night. The mystery speaker's slot is right before Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) is set to introduce the by then newly nominated Mitt Romney whose acceptance speech will end the evening and the convention. With seemingly all of the big Romney surrogates already...