Free Republic

Congress granted immunity to a former Department of Justice official, Monica Goodling, and required her to testify at a congressional committee hearing about the firing of eight United States Attorneys.

Here is the psalm this young man asked to hear (KJV): "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for...

4. Outright government takeover (call it nationalization or “receivership" if you don’t like the dirty N-word) of insolvent banks to be cleaned after takeover and then resold to the private sector. Of the four options the first three have serious flaws: in the bad bank model the government may overpay for the bad assets – at a high cost for the taxpayer - as the true value of them is uncertain; and if it does not overpay for the assets many banks are bust as the mark-to-market haircut they need to recognize is too large for them to bear.

LAS VEGAS – The New York Mets acquired Seattle Mariners closer J.J. Putz in a three-way trade that also included the Cleveland Indians, two sources said Wednesday evening at the winter meetings.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government arrested and deported record numbers of illegal immigrants — nearly 350,000 — in the past year, authorities say. It has also naturalized a record number of new Americans during the same time period, more than 1 million. Bush administration officials consider these to be great accomplishments within a system that President-elect Obama calls "broken and overwhelmed" on his transition Web site.

"To McCain for President Campaign Headquarters" If Senator McCain votes for the bail-out bill, kindly refund my donations to his Presidential campaign, totaling $xxx. Of course, nothing will be able to compensate me and other solvent citizens for the loss of economic opportunity and freedom that this bill will cause, or to Senator McCain for the destruction of his campaign and his political legacy. Sincerely, no longer yours, An ex-banker

Dear Senator Biden,Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Obama has admitted interfering with the Presidential power to "make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur", when he advised a foreign government (Iraq) not to negotiate with the current Administration a permanent treaty concerning the presence of U.S. troops in their country. I call on you, as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as the self-acknowledged "dean of Foreign Affairs" of the U.S. Senate, to bring a motion of censure against Senator Obama for his reckless disregard of the President's constitutional authority. You also have the opportunity...

Beijing stamps out poor English Chinese street signs Occasionally, a sign makes sense China has launched a fresh drive to clamp down on bad English in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Previous attempts to wipe out Chinglish - the mistranslated phrases often seen on Chinese street signs and product labels - have met with little success. Emergency exits at Beijing airport read "No entry on peacetime" and the Ethnic Minorities Park is named "Racist Park". Beijing city authorities will issue new translation guides by the end of the year, Xinhua news agency said. Running joke The booklets would...

I would like to poll Freepers their opinion to this question. We have our hands full in Iraq, keeping warring factions apart. Our biggest fear is that if we leave too soon, Iran takes over. What if we made our next priority getting rid of Ach-the-Mad's regime? How do you think this would change the dynamics for us to need to keep troops on the ground in the Middle East, as well as other consequences?

Only once in McDonalds’ history has the fast food giant redesigned its logo. To comply with French law, which requires all signs on Paris’ fashionable Champs-Elysees boulevard to be in gold, the chain printed its sign with a golden background. Now, McDonalds is offering a second redesign, this time for its Israeli restaurants, Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday. At two of the fast-food chain’s kosher branches in Tel Aviv, the standard logo has been replaced with a blue and white one, with “McDonalds” printed only in Hebrew, in white letters against a blue backdrop. The word “Kosher” is...

Rupert Murdoch isn't accustomed to cooling his heels. But here he was on a crisp day in October 1997, pacing back and forth at the top of the steps at the north entrance to the vast Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, looking skinny, nervous and unimportant. He was anxiously awaiting permission to walk the last mile of his torturous journey into the good graces of the Chinese Communist Party. snip Crib Sheet from 'Little Red Book of Business' To be a truly powerful Chinese executive or politician is to be able to avoid responsibility for your decisions....

On the eve of Passover, the British Association of University Teachers (AUT) took a decision to boycott two of Israel's eight universities -- Haifa and Bar Ilan -- for their alleged collusion with the Israeli government in its mistreatment of the Palestinians. Haifa was also accused of curbing academic freedom. This decision is breathtaking, and will surely feature in the annals of the European radical left and its perverse contribution to peace in the Middle East. The story embedded here is well worth telling, but not in the way the AUT tells it. "On May 15, 2002," the AUT boycott...

In the 1990s, upward of 10,000 young Israelis would gather on an open beach and dance for days to trance-style music. These rave parties were the inspiration of young people who, fresh from two years of required army service, had traveled to Goa, India. Partying in such exotic, tranquil surroundings left a deep impression, and the raves they put on after coming home attracted perhaps 200,000 young Israelis overall, and put Israel on the global youth map. Some saw the raves as mere hedonism, and there was that. But, as one organizer told me, they also symbolized a desire to...

Nobody's Business December 30, 2004; Page A9 ...the bans on gay marriage are nothing more than invidious discrimination. But government shouldn't be involved in the religious swamp of marriage in the first place. Marriages should all be "civil unions," and let each couple decide how they want to characterize their own arrangement. Whomever it was that made the joke, "Marriage is no one's business except the three people involved" managed to get at the essential truth. Americans seem to have gotten the notion that almost everything, from drug use to child-rearing, is appropriate grist for the public-opinion and regulation mill.

Dane-Geld A.D. 980-1016 It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation To call upon a neighbour and to say: -- "We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight, Unless you pay us cash to go away." And that is called asking for Dane-geld, And the people who ask it explain That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld And then you'll get rid of the Dane! It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look important and to say: -- "Though we know we should defeat you, we have...