Free Republic

Now that the blood-letting has begun, could there be anything good about this election?

I had already made up my mind that if I were approached by any exit pollers after I voted, that I would tell them to go oooooggggggaaaaa themselves.

Below is the list, in alphabetical order, of companies scoring a perfect 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign's 2009 Corporate Equality Index, with policies beneficial toward homosexuals: 3M Co. AAA Northern California, Nevada and Uta Abercrombie & Fitch Accenture Ltd. Aetna Agilent Technologies Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld Alaska Airlines Alcatel-Lucent Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America Allstate Corp.

For the past ten years or so I have been trying to compile a good list of military/veteran historical web sites and preferably written and maintained by those who have "been there, done that". Links are located at http://gimemories.com/gihistory.htm

RIVERTON -- More than 300 people crowded into the conference facility of the Riverton Holiday Inn Tuesday night, most to protest the grizzly bear occupancy management plan presented by officials of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. The informational meeting, followed by a rancorous question-and-answer session that lasted until 11 p.m., was supposed to explain how the grizzly bear would be managed in Wyoming being removed from federal protection. Quite a few members of the audience sported large, cardboard lapel pins featuring a grizzly bear behind a picket fence, with the caption, "No griz in my backyard." Conservationists were in...

It has been months and months (perhaps a year) since I posted a vanity. What are your pet peeve words used on Free Republic? Maybe this can be used as a training session, eh?

Journalists often compare contemporary society to the totalitarian social order described in George Orwell’s disturbing novel 1984. Orwell portrayed the state as being all-powerful, controlling every aspect of citizens' lives. When the novel was first published in 1949, few people could conceive of such a society. Most felt that citizens simply wouldn't allow it. Of course, if the state had attempted to implement a totalitarian society overnight, angry citizens might have prevented it. But the state cautiously enacts its takeovers incrementally, so as to not arouse the public. Also, it is able to persuade people that the agenda it is...

It's not every day that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revokes a visa issued to a Swiss-national scholar scheduled to teach at one of America's premier universities. But this has just happened, and it's a good thing too. The Swiss scholar is Tariq Ramadan. He is Islamist royalty – his maternal grandfather, Hasan al-Banna, founded the Muslim Brotherhood, probably the single most powerful Islamist institution of the twentieth century, in Egypt in 1928. Tariq is a Swiss citizen because his father, Sa‘id Ramadan, also a leading Islamist, fled from Egypt in 1954 following a crackdown on the brotherhood. Sa‘id...

Let me first say that I do not like America Online. I have had (well-documented) experiences with that company sufficient to justify my dislike. I have previously written about the very large number of consumer complaints directed at AOL by customers and former customers. I spent a full day on the Internet investigating them before writing my article. Based on what I saw, I am not the Lone Ranger in my disdain for what I perceive to be a lack of business ethics at this company. I have saved numerous letters to my internet service provider about e-mail delivery problems....

Talk about a vitriolic, Bush-bashing, conservative-bashing, Republican-bashing, harangue! A friend sent me this message that Environment 2004 sent to it's members: "Dear E'04 members, How do you plan to celebrate this 4th of July? Fireworks, town parades, barbecues, or perhaps a trip with your family to a nearby national park may come to mind. Every year, nearly 300 million people visit our national parks to enjoy some of the most spectacular scenery and historical treasures our country has to offer. But if you're headed to a national park this weekend, you might be disappointed to find closed visitor centers, crumbling...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Edward Kennedy is trying to file a "friend of the court," or amicus, brief that argues that the recess appointment of Judge William Pryor Jr. was unconstitutional, according to a new court document. The request was sent Wednesday to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Adefemi v. Ashcroft, which challenges a Board of Immigration Appeals (search) decision that the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service had enough evidence to deport Adefemi, a citizen of Nigeria, on a firearms offense. The case is set for arguments in front of the full court, or "en banc,"...

Mel Gibson reportedly stunned a meeting of home-video retailers in Dana Point, CA last week when he appeared before them to support the Aug. 31 video release of The Passion of the Christ. According to the New York Daily News, which cited two independent sources, when one attendee asked Gibson about the movie, he shouted back, "F-- you! I don't mean f-- you; I mean f-- you in general. I don't have to answer any of these questions anymore. I'm a hell of a lot wealthier than I once was." One of the sources says that those in the audience...

Had she stayed in Iran, Homa Arjomand would now be dead. All — all — of the women's activists she worked with in Tehran have been executed, victims of a reactionary regime that ruled, and continues to rule, by strict adherence to Islam's sharia law. In 1989, she and her husband paid $15,000 to smugglers to help them and their two young children flee the country. For three days, they rode on horseback through the mountains, sleeping in barns before finally reaching Turkey. Two years later, the onetime professor of medical physics arrived in Canada as a refugee. And how...

Each Spring recruiters from Disney World fan out across the country seeking young college students who desire to be a part of the "Disney experience," advertised as "where fantasy comes to life and vacations always end happily ever after." The new recruits join the ranks of hundreds of young men and women for a six-month internship at the giant amusement park. According to the mother of a daughter who signed up for the Disney World College Intern Program, the new recruits quickly discover that, instead of the family-friendly environment that the company projects to the public, they are in for...

BOSTON, May 14, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop Sean O'Malley of Boston, a usually strong defender of life and family, has issued what pro-family activists are seeing as a puzzling pastoral letter on same-sex "marriage" implying that pro-family activists are hostile toward homosexuals. A letter under O'Malley's signature stated, "I remind all Catholics that our sadness at what has happened should not lead us into anger against or vilification of any group of people, especially our homosexual brothers and sisters." On the same day, a group of about 100 dissident Catholic priests, nuns and lay people issued a letter that made...

MONUMENT, Colo., May 11 (UPI) -- Early one Sunday evening in March, Army Special Forces soldier Bill Howell fed his 7-month-old daughter a bottle and fell asleep with her for half an hour on the couch. It was a minor moment of domestic tranquility, a contrast to his most recent five-month deployment in Iraq. Home just three weeks, Bill was settling back into the family life he shared with his wife, Laura, and three children near Fort Carson. But by 9:27 p.m., things had gone horribly wrong. That is when a 911 dispatcher received a call from Laura Howell: "My...

INO — There are roughly 350 wolves in Wisconsin, and Paul Peters of rural Ino recently got up close and personal with three. A little too close for his liking. A lifelong logger and pulp cutter, the 39-year-old Peters was roughly 300 to 400 yards behind his home north of U.S. Hwy. 2 cutting in a stand of aspen during the morning of Thursday, April 22. Taking a break and sitting on a log Peters saw a big-bodied animal passing through the woods roughly 100 yards away. “I thought it was a deer at first, but as it got closer...

A very sad day (night) for nightime radio! The Truckin' Bozo, Dale Sommers, has announced his retirement. This man has entertained nightime radio listeners, especially the truckers who keep this nation moving, for 20+ years. Dale is a friend of liberty and the Constitution and was never afraid to speak and let his opinion be known. Even though he will be sadly missed, his son Steve will be continuing the Bozo legacy.

Who has the last word when it comes to the meaning of the Constitution? Who ultimately decides whether a state can regulate or outlaw abortion? Or whether Congress can legislate to protect the elderly or the disabled? Who decides the winner in a contested presidential election? On these and countless other matters of fundamental interest to society, the answer in recent years has been the Supreme Court. And most Americans seem willing, even happy, to leave it at that. Indeed, if recent surveys are to be believed, most think this is how our Founding Fathers meant it to be. What...

President Bush is leading steady progress toward a more rational, realistic and responsible approach to a host of environmental and resource issues close to the hearts of all Idahoans. For three years, the Bush administration has been encouraging stewardship, engaging those who know and understand the issues best. The idea is that people most influenced by federal policies should play a larger role in developing them. The president is committed to being a partner with local folks in the best interest of people and the resources on which they depend. President Bush is working to roll back policies from eight...