Free Republic

If you happen to live in one of the countries1 in which Pixar has chosen to release their latest movie before now, then you might already have seen their latest 3D rendered movie, Up; in which the protagonist’s home is the last remaining property that stands in the way of enormous modern building developments.2 Unlike in Up however, the real life properties that find themselves in this situation don’t just float away, and their refusal to be moved has earned them the moniker of Nail Houses. Edith Macefield moved into her home in Seattle in 1966, and in recent years...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP)—Ed Wang(notes) wants to make it big in China. To do so, the Buffalo Bills rookie offensive tackle knows he first has to make his mark in the NFL. At 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds, Wang is already turning heads and upending stereotypes by becoming the first player with direct Chinese ancestry to be selected in the NFL draft last month. The son of former athletes in the Chinese Olympic program was selected in the fifth round out of Virginia Tech, realizing a childhood dream instilled by his disciplinarian parents growing up in Virginia. They prepared him well...

London, England (CNN) -- After an election that left no party with a clear majority, the final decision over who becomes Britain's next prime minister could lie in the hands of one woman who never votes: The queen. As a head of state, Queen Elizabeth has numerous traditional roles when it comes to elections and government, yet these are usually no more than ceremonial. However, as with Thursday's vote that saw the opposition Conservatives secure more seats than Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party but not enough to form a working government, the queen's position becomes more complicated. Full story:...

The family of a Puerto Rican man, who died of a gunshot wound last week, opted to follow his wishes and gave him a funeral his friends will long remember. Instead of being embalmed and placed in a casket so his loved ones can view his body, 22-year-old David Morales Colon was prepared by morticians and positioned on his motorcycle. Colon's body was dressed in full riding attire--leather jacket, sunglasses and cap. His hands were on the handlebars and it looked as though he was cutting the wind as he sped down the highway. Colon instructed his family that if...

Financial reform? Not exactly. The bill before Congress does nothing to address the fundamental background causes of the crash of 2008. Wall Street may have been the instrument of the crash. But the crash was made elsewhere: in Washington's failed policies for middle-class families -- and in China's distorted rush for economic growth. The story is not a simple one. But I hope you will pay attention to the details. If you don't, you may find that the pocket that has been picked is your own. As you've heard, the crash begins with the huge excess load of debt built...

I am no Ron Paul nut case, but I do come across a bunch of people that believe the TSA running checkpoints is un-Constitutional under the 4th amendment. Even if I could be convinced that is the case, I certainly wouldn't want to do away with airport security. Is there any case where the government should do something un-Constitutional without the Supreme Court stepping? Is airport screening that case or would it be considered reasonable search and seizure?

(CNN) -- Erin Andrews, the ESPN reporter who was secretly videotaped nude in 2008, has been receiving death threats, her attorney told CNN on Friday. Several threatening e-mails regarding Andrews have been sent to sportscaster Dan Patrick since last September, according to Marshall B. Grossman, Andrews' attorney. "Until very recently, [the e-mails] were of a sexual nature, but then turned violent" last month, Grossman said. He said the e-mails received in March "are specific, they're violent, they identify the location and method of intended murder." Grossman said the existence of the threats were first revealed to Andrews on Thursday morning....

VATICAN CITY – At a solemn Good Friday service, Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher likened the tide of allegations that the pontiff has covered up sex abuse cases to the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism." But within hours, facing a storm of criticism at the comparison, the Vatican felt it necessary to distance the pope from the preacher's remarks. Both Jewish and victims' groups responded that it was inappropriate to compare the discomfort being experienced by the church leadership in the sex abuse scandal to the violence that culminated in the Holocaust. The Vatican has been on the defensive in...

It's a simple calculus, kids and money: From birth until college graduation, children consume dollars like they're chicken nuggets. For those of us who aren't independently wealthy, that puts unrelenting pressure on the family pocketbook. The financial demands of raising a child require that money you otherwise might use to prepare for retirement, or to save for a nicer house, a sportier car or a swankier vacation, must, out of necessity, be earmarked for Lego sets and pediatrician visits and school uniforms and Christmas toys and a college savings account and a minivan and a trip to Disneyland ... and...

<p>BEIJING – Rural traditions of abandoning dead infants because they're considered bad luck may have played a role in the case of 21 babies' bodies found along a river in eastern China, apparently dumped by hospital mortuary workers.</p> <p>The little bodies — at least one stuffed in a yellow bag marked "medical waste" — were found floating and strewn along the bank of a river on the outskirts of Jining city in Shandong province last weekend.</p>

In the days immediately before and after passage of the landmark health care reform bill, Mitt Romney responded so forcefully as to suggest his own political fate is tied to the new law. It may well be. Just as health care, or “Obamacare,” as it is derided on the right, hangs over this year’s midterm elections, it is already casting a shadow on the 2012 presidential contest — and its GOP front-runner. What was once thought to be an asset for Romney, his passage as Massachusetts governor of a health care mandate for the state’s residents, now poses a potentially...