Free Republic

RAEFORD, N.C. — A Hoke County preschooler was fed chicken nuggets for lunch because a state worker felt that her homemade lunch did not have enough nutritional value, according to a report by the Carolina Journal. The West Hoke Elementary School student was in her More at Four classroom when a state agent who was inspecting lunch boxes decided that her packed lunch — which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips — “did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines,” the Journal reports. ... The student’s mother told the Journal she received...

Auroras may dazzle more people than usual this weekend as Earth receives a glancing blow from an enormous solar outburst that erupted on Jan. 19. The outburst, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), was detected by sun-watching satellites. Researchers at the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute predict that auroras should be visible from Seattle, Des Moines, Chicago, and Cleveland, to Boston and Halifax, Nova Scotia Saturday and Sunday nights, weather permitting. ... Space Weather Center forecasters say they expect the encounter to generate a weak geomagnetic disturbance beginning around 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Sunday Jan. 22 and lasting...

Newt Gingrich agreed Tuesday with a Iowan voter who identified himself as gay that he should support President Obama again in 2012.

POLICE let the UK down. They were unable to stop the riots from spreading. Law and order is not about political correctness, it is about stamping out crime. WHAT we're seeing in London, as looters and rioters run amok and impotent police stand around watching, is the problem of politically correct policing writ large. It is the triumph of a managerial, bureaucratic process-driven style of policing hatched in the rarefied confines of academia rather than on the harsh reality of the streets. Every now and then the two meet and you get bloody anarchy. No prizes for guessing who comes...

LONDON — “I came here to get my penny’s worth,” said a man who gave his name as Louis James, 19, a slightly built participant in the widening riots that have shaken London to its core. With a touch of guilt on Tuesday, Mr. James showed off what he described as a $195 designer sweater that he said he looted in Camden Town, a gentrified area of north London. ... In many ways, Mr. James’s circumstances are typical. He lives in a government-subsidized apartment in northern London and receives $125 in jobless benefits every two weeks, even though he says...

Mayor Michael Nutter took a hard line against youth mob violence yesterday — chastising the black community in particular— from the pulpit of his West Philadelphia church. “This nonsense must stop,” he thundered at Mount Carmel Baptist Church. “If you wanna act like a butthead, your butt’s gonna get locked up. If you wanna act like an idiot, move; we don’t want you here anymore.” Nutter’s remarks were met with riotous applause as he addressed absentee parenting, peer pressure, and a sense of entitlement and disregard for consequences that seems to permeate teens who participate in violent swarms. The remarks...

The effects of the solar events of the past 3 days are have been arriving at Earth and should provide aurora viewing for the next 3 days for the northern tier states in the US, north of England, southern Scandinavia. The skies should be dark enough at midnight south of 60 degrees N Latitude to see this aurora. In the US, the aurora should be visible over most of the northern half of the nation, if the present activity continues.

Up to 70 percent of British men and half of all Western European men are related to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, geneticists in Switzerland said. Scientists at Zurich-based DNA genealogy centre, iGENEA, reconstructed the DNA profile of the boy Pharaoh, who ascended the throne at the age of nine, his father Akhenaten and grandfather Amenhotep III, based on a film that was made for the Discovery Channel. The results showed that King Tut belonged to a genetic profile group, known as haplogroup R1b1a2, to which more than 50 percent of all men in Western Europe belong, indicating that they share...

Poll is about halfway down the right-hand side of the main page, just below the videos.

Starting July 24, New York’s clerk’s offices will open their doors to same-sex couples ready to wed. For gay marriage advocates, the state’s Marriage Equality Act is a step closer to equal civil rights, but for opponents, the move is a step away from preserving the traditional definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, something held dear in many Jewish, Christian, Mormon, and other religious communities. Click here to find out more! As New York is predicting a wedding tourism boom from same-sex couples who may travel to the Empire State to tie the knot, and as...

Persistent Northern Plains rainfall and heavy mountain snowpack is setting the stage for the worst flooding on the Missouri River since 1993, reports Allen Motew, QT Weather meteorologist. These extreme levels of flooding are predicted to last for at least the next month. “The entire Missouri River Basin is flooding – only to get worse over the next several weeks,” Motew reports. “Abnormal rainfall is now expected to continue (or increase for many) across 1000’s of miles and millions of acres over the next eight days, from Alberta to Ohio.” Motew says recent reports show that the Missouri River is...

I recently had the opportunity to hear this extraordinary young man speak on the radio program MoneyLife recently. You can listen to the interview here : No Limbs, No Limits with Nick Vujicic. I was amazed and humbled by what I heard, so much that I went home that evening and spent some time on his website. You can read Nick's story on his site, and hear him speak, here: lifewithoutlimbs.org I just wanted to give my FRiends the opportunity to get to know this young man, as I think he has a wonderful spirit and love for Christ, and...

Happy New Year, FReeper FRiends! This thread is my way of thanking God publicly for His great love and mercy to me, who spent years denying Him and pushing Him away. Through all my years of denials and hostility, He never gave up on me ... and in fact, has showered me with blessings and graces beyond counting. Today He gifted me with a small miracle after a few weak and pitiful prayers from me. I am humbled and I am so very thankful for ALL that He has given me (especially the gift of His only begotten Son), and...

On Nov.13 2010 unsuspecting shoppers got a big surprise while enjoying their lunch. Over 100 participants in this awesome Christmas Flash Mob. This is a must see! This flash mob was organized by http://www.AlphabetPhotography.com to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Special thanks to Robert Cooper and Chorus Niagara, The Welland Seaway Mall, and Fagan Media Group.

Scientists and composers have produced a new choral work in which performers sing parts of their own genetic code. Human DNA is made up of just four different chemical compounds, which gave musician Andrew Morley the idea of assigning a note to each of them. The new piece, Allele, will be performed by the New London Chamber Choir at the Royal Society of Medicine on 13 July. Each of the 40-strong choir has also had his or her own DNA decoded. "I'd sung quite a lot with choirs in my youth and I've written stuff myself, and so I was...

Brother Gregory -- the "Brother" is more of a nickname than an occupational title -- ministers from the Oregon desert where he lives with his wife, some of his grown children and grandchildren. Like other conservative Christians in this growing movement, Brother Gregory believes that Christianity has strayed too far from its roots, and has given its role in people's lives over to the government -- as with welfare programs or health care. ... "Christians should be looking for a way to take care of one another without forcing their neighbor to contribute to their welfare. In essence that's coveting...

Barack Obama has now scrapped his trip to Australia completely, after already slashing it to one day of ceremonial chit chat. [snip] UPDATE 3 Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, makes the announcement of just where Rudd stands: "As a result, the President telephoned the leader of Indonesia and will call the leader of Australia later this afternoon, and told them that he must postpone his planned visits for a later date so that he can remain in Washington for this critical vote. The President now expects to visit Indonesia in June." So Obama warned the Indonesian president beforehand, but left...

"What are you looking at, Dad?" "I'm watching the Chinese celebrate the completion of their moonlab, son. Look, there they are on the moon. See how happy they are?" ... When the boy looked up again, he noticed a sad expression on his father's face. "What's wrong, Dad?" "Well, son, you know we Americans were actually the first to land on the moon. I've seen pictures ... " The boy frowned. "We were first? How could that be? If we were first, how come we're not up there now?" ... "From what I can tell," he said, as they ambled...

The Watts Up With That website has a scary story about our melting polar ice caps. John Lockwood from Washington D.C. found an interesting article from the Washington Post. Here are some excerpts: The Arctic seems to be warming up. Reports ... all point to a radical change in climatic conditions, and hitherto unheard of high temperatures in that part of the earth's surface. Ice conditions were exceptional. In fact, so little ice has never before been noted. Dr. Hoel reports that he made a section of the Gulf Stream at 81 degrees north latitude and took soundings to a...

The Family Research Council has a new :30 ad airing Colorado, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It's titled FOCA which stands for Freedom Of Choice Act.