Free Republic

I hope all will pardon the vanity post. Just a suggestion: In addition to calling the undecided, we also need to be calling those who've decided to vote no - particularly some of these Democrats like Davis and Tanner who are now saying "no" - and THANK them for doing what's right for our country. Not only these, but ANY Democrat who is voting "no." It's easy for the Republicans to cast a "no" vote. Not so easy for the Democrats as they are going against their entire party leadership and "their" President. These people will also be coming under...

FoxNews.com has asked readers, "Is Obama's Trip to Copenhagen Worth It?" Describing a global warming deal as one of Obama's "top priorities," Fox News has asked readers to share their thoughts as to whether Mr. Obama's trip to Copenhagen has been "worth it." With nearly 45,000 readers responding so far, the results are astonishing, with a full 98% saying NO. I've followed polls for a long time, and for 98% of 45,000 people to agree on anything is astounding. The poll and its results can be found at: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/12/18/obamas-trip-copenhagen-worth/

What Do Americans Believe About Creationism and Evolution? After spending time on some of the recent discussions here at FR about Young Earth Creationism (YEC) and other points of view (which I will call Old Earth Creationism (OEC) and Naturalistic Evolution), I found myself wondering: how many FReepers (and how many Americans) hold each particular view? Obviously, there aren't any statistics on FReepers. But there are on Americans as a whole, and on certain groups of Americans. The best general resource I've found so far on people's viewpoints is located here. I will summarize some of those here. (Note: This...

Cash-Strapped Alabama County Feels Crush of Recession Embroiled in a budget crisis, the largest county in Alabama is slashing services left and right, leading to mass layoffs as well as heightened concerns that public safety could be in jeopardy. Jefferson County has so far closed satellite offices in outlying communities and laid off more than 1,000 employees -- about a quarter of the public workforce... Sheriff Mike Hale, who lost a court battle to block the county commissioners from making the cuts, said public safety is critical in his district... "...we just need a presence on the street..." The budget...

Colby Curtin got her final wish. The 10-year-old girl desperately wanted to see the new Disney-Pixar movie, "Up." But the cancer-stricken girl was too sick to go to a theater. Thanks to a family friend who got in touch with the movie studio Pixar, an employee of the Emeryville-based company arrived at Colby's home with a DVD copy of the movie, The Orange County Register reported Friday...

Real 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' gravely ill June 12, 2009, 9:22 AM EST LONDON (AP) -- They were childhood chums. Then they drifted apart, lost touch completely, and only renewed their friendship decades later, when illness struck. Not so unusual, really. Except she is Lucy Vodden — the girl who was the inspiration for the Beatles' 1967 psychedelic classic "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" — and he is Julian Lennon, the musician son of John Lennon. They are linked together by something that happened more than 40 years ago when Julian brought home a drawing from school...

Thousands of schools could be forced to close for weeks on end to stem the spread of swine flu, scientists say. ...the Government’s Chief Medical Officer said that “several million” Britons would fall ill with the H1N1 virus. Sir Liam Donaldson predicted a “huge surge” of cases when children go back to school in the autumn. Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College, London, who advises the Government and the WHO, said that widespread illness could lead to schools closing for several weeks, and extensive disruption to businesses and the wider economy... ...Professor Ferguson said that the pandemic could mean...

Mexico City ends swine flu alert, no cases in week May 21 02:49 PM US/Eastern By ISTRA PACHECO Associated Press Writer MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico City lowered its swine flu alert level from yellow to green on Thursday, and the mayor said "we can relax" now that there have been no new infections for a week. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said the change means the risk of contagion is low, the situation is under control and the images of countless people wearing blue surgical masks in cars, sidewalks, restaurants and theaters can be consigned to history. City Health Secretary Armando...

A VACCINE against the Mexican swine flu sweeping the world is likely to arrive too late for most people, vaccine officials told New Scientist between a flurry of high-level industry meetings this week. >snip< ...while regular seasonal flu hits the very elderly hardest, this virus affects the young. And there are fears that it could become worse in subsequent waves like previous pandemics... >snip< "It only takes three days to grow the virus in eggs, but weeks for testing and formulating," Hessel adds. That means no vaccine until September, and no real quantities until October. Then countries have to administer...

United States has 896 cases of new flu, CDC says By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Outbreaks of the new H1N1 swine flu continue to spread across the United States, with 896 confirmed cases and more to come, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday. U.S. officials have said they expect the swine influenza virus to spread to all 50 states and to cause many infections ranging from mild to severe. Acting CDC Director Dr Richard Besser said the actual numbers matter less than the pattern of disease. "So far we are...

It's Governor Blagojevich's birthday!!!Happy Birthday, Rod! I suggest we all send the Governor wishes for his 52nd birthday. I've even picked out a Blue Mountain e-card for him: http://tinyurl.com/66ghw2 To contact the Governor: http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactthegovernor.cfm

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For most African-Americans, the election of Barack Obama as president was a dream come true that they didn't think they would see in their lifetime, a national poll released Tuesday suggests. Eighty percent of African-Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey said that Obama's election was a dream come true, and 71 percent said they never thought a black candidate for president would get elected in their lifetime. ... The poll also suggests a racial divide among people who thought a black candidate would be elected president in their lifetimes. Fifty-nine percent of white respondents said...

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The Rev. Martin Luther King is looking down on the United States, smiling, Otis Sutton said Wednesday. "That's what he wanted. He'd been preaching that all along," Sutton, 78, said of the nation electing its first African-American president. "As young, black Americans our society and our communities had told us that the only way we could make it out is if we entertain," said Cortez Tarver, 28, who cuts hair at the University Barber Shop, just down the street from the historically black Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University. "They want us to be funny. They...

If you're like me, you've felt at least a bit discouraged today. Here's a little something to cheer you up. This afternoon our 7-year-old daughter (we'll call her "Allie") received a letter from the Editor-in-Chief of Highlights magazine (you know, the kids' magazine you so often see in places like doctors' offices.) My wife knew that Allie had sent a letter in the mail to Highlights earlier, but she didn't know the content of her letter. Here's the letter we received back: --------------------------------------------- Dear Allie: Thank you for your letter. You wrote that you are home-schooled. You told us that...

Yesterday my daughter and I attended a massive Sarah Palin rally in Springfield, Missouri. Springfield is Missouri's third-largest city. Officially, it has a population of 150,000. When you include outlying communities, it's probably more like 200,000 people in the area. Local news has estimated the crowd that turned out at 20,000! This is good news in this battleground state. Every election, it seems to be basically us in Springfield and the entire rest of the state against the big-city liberals in Kansas City and St. Louis. And in St. Louis, they bring out the dead. Heck, they've even been known...