Free Republic

I used to think that people were either full of crap, doing something wrong, or just straight up lying to cause trouble when they complained of this, but it just happened to me!!! I went to vote this afternoon. Our precinct uses the touch screen computerized voting systems. I touched the box for Romney/Ryan, and an 'X' appeared on the 0bama/Biden box, as if I had voted for them. I was just sitting there dumbfounded for a second, and eventually contacted a poll worker. She told me how to undo it, and I eventually voted for Romney/Ryan as I intended(I...

Funny how it works one way with calls for vigilantes, ala a reverse-KKK (of course in black hoods instead of white ones) but when there is no question that the act in question was unjustified we hear..... crickets.... A 13-year-old boy who police say was doused with gasoline and lit on fire last week while walking home from school is recovering from first-degree burns to his face and head.The boy was just two blocks from his home in Kansas City Tuesday when two teenagers began to follow him and then attacked him, his mother, Melissa Coon, said.Police have described the suspects as black...

A Representative Republic? That's So Last Century It really doesn't get any more clear than this, does it? As a way to solve the national debt crisis, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue recommends suspending congressional elections for the next couple of years.“I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. “I really hope that someone...

Ok, who turned the lights on, and who let this past the editorial board? For openers, suppose the federal government actually does reduce its expenditures by 40% overnight. That translates to roughly $1.5 trillion at annual rates, or about 10% of GDP. That's an enormous fiscal contraction for any economy to withstand, never mind one in a sluggish recovery with 9% unemployment. Even contemplating such a possibility is evidence of a dark, self-destructive impulse. It's actually $1,700 billion and 12% of GDP, but that's close enough.Alan, of course, was talking about how it's "irresponsible" to talk default.  But what he...

Hello all, FR has to be one of the better places I know to ask a question regarding firearms. I was just looking for a definitive answer - Is it safe to 'dry fire' a firearm without doing any harm to the gun? All throughout my growing up, I was told that dry firing a gun was a big 'no - no', with people saying that it would damage the gun. After doing some reading here and there, I've found that this may not be the case, and it's perfectly fine to dry fire a gun without worry. As anyone...

From Fox: “Only in Washington can a budget that spends more than it did the year before, with a larger deficit, be portrayed as ‘cutting.’” - Senator Rand Paul. Yeah.When I wrote the Ticker this morning Tossing the Tea Cart I didn't have the numbers yet.  But I didn't really need to in order to know that there was going to be no actual budget cut.It's not really very difficult to figure out, as I outlined.  Either of the two choices produces this: So you want to cut government spending ("G") eh?  Ok, every dollar you cut will reduce GDP...

Ok folks, in commemoration of Thanksgiving, while I sit here trying to figure out how eating a plate full of turkey has suddenly made me feel like I gained 10lbs (it couldn't have been the stuffing, fixings and cookies, could it?) I thought I'd put this out there to dispel some of the myths surrounding this holiday. As we are told, the first settlers to this country (from Europe, natch) faced a horrible first winter, lost many of their people, and the native Americans (aka "Indians") that were here helped them the following year and thus they were able to...

Just a question to those FReepers with knowledge of gun safes. I recently purchased a gun safe. I was wondering if anyone has bolted their to the floor. If so, how would one go about doing such a thing. I have a concrete floor where the safe is, and I've never bolted anything into concrete. My safe weighs nearly 700lb, and I wonder if it's worth the trouble. Thanks!

This is a 'Fishy' letter generator to help everyone report nefarious activity that goes against the wishes of our dear leader. I encourage everyone to use it!! lol

Government experts say prescription drugs like Vicodin and Percocet that combine a popular painkiller with stronger narcotics should be eliminated because of their role in deadly overdoses. A Food and Drug Administration panel on Tuesday voted 20-17 that prescription drugs that combine acetaminophen with other painkilling ingredients should be pulled off the market. The FDA has assembled a group of experts to vote on ways to reduce liver damage associated with acetaminophen, one of the most widely used drugs in the U.S. Despite years of educational campaigns and other federal actions, acetaminophen remains the leading cause of liver failure in...

There is apparently something VERY wrong with a firmware update that got pushed to Garmin Nuvis (one of their portable GPS systems.) If you have one of these, and have not used it recently, do not until you check with Garmin! If your unit has the "bad" firmware it may go completely dead, requiring replacement. While Garmin is apparently making good, they are not (as of this time) eating shipping charges back to them nor doing anything for your time without the unit. There is now a Garmin FAQ entry up on this that has firmware update instructions - IF...

Hitlery's Latest: MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - An "insatiable" appetite in the United States for illegal drugs is to blame for much of the violence ripping through Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday. Clinton acknowledged the U.S. role in Mexico's drug cartel problem as she arrived in Mexico for a two-day visit where she will discuss U.S. plans to ramp up border security with President Felipe Calderon. Dateline, 1920s, Chicago - and virtually every other city in America. Prohibition. Did we stop people from drinking, even though it was against the law? Nope. Did we fuel criminal...

Thank you for joining the NRA! Right now, your active membership support of the NRA has never been more important to the future of our right to keep and bear arms. Join the fight today!

If you measure "prosperity" by stock prices we're somewhere back in 1997 or 1998. But if the entirety of these two bubbles were fraud-driven (and they were) then a realistic expectation is that we will not only return to 1995 stock prices (about ~450 on the S&P 500) but we will over-correct significantly because the debt that this fraud created still remains in the economy! That could easily cut the S&P in half again, which puts my 210 "oh God" print on the table, no? Let's be clear here: There is no way out of this box, and the corruption...

I've recently gotten back into shooting. I was shocked to find how high ammo prices have risen. Ammo is literally twice as expensive as it used to be. Today I stopped by the local gun shop and picked up 1,000 rounds of 5.56(he had a huge stack last week, today all but 1/3 of it was gone). As I was paying for the ammo, the gun dealer told me he would buy back the brass if I wasn't going to reload it myself, so this got me to thinking about it.

Woohoo!!! (Sorry for the Vanity, I couldn't help myself hehe)

Hello all. I recently purchased a Cisco ASA-5510(Adaptive Security Appliance) to handle all of our Site To Site and Remote Access VPN connections at work. The unit is licensed for 250 concurrent IPSEC tunnels, so I know licensing isn't a limitation. I have the unit up and running, but we have encountered an issue with our remote access clients...

Does the "stimulus" checks that were mailed out during the year 2008 subtract from any refund that "stimulus" check recipients would receive when income tax returns are filed in 2009?

lol Had to do it.

I wonder when we will begin seeing seemingly endless stories in the 'main stream' media discussing and focusing on how the Republicans will get back into power.