Free Republic

In the aftermath of almost any election, commentators and talking heads perpetrate a number of myths that purport to explain why whatever happened, happened. The losing side usually is active in this effort in order to explain why they were pummeled by the electorate. The aftermath of the 2014 midterm elections is no different.The corrupting influence of money especially that spent on behalf of the other side is a myth that plays into the hallmark of progressive politics, at least in its current incarnation. This line of reasoning is very current in the post election debate.Last Wednesday, the day after...

A lot of speculation about MH370. Terrorism, hijack, meteors. I cannot believe the analysis on CNN - almost disturbing. I tend to look for a more simple explanation of this event. Loaded 777 departs midnight from Kuala to Beijing. Hot night. Heavy aircraft. About an hour out across the gulf towards Vietnam the plane goes dark meaning the transponder goes off and secondary radar tracking goes off. Two days later we hear of reports that Malaysian military radar (which is a primary radar meaning the plane is being tracked by reflection rather than by transponder interrogation response) has tracked the...

If you wanted to build a case study in the perfect recipe for IT project disaster, you wouldn't have to look any further than the new official Obamacare website, Healthcare.gov. The site, which was supposed to be the official gateway for Americans to purchase cheap (now clearly up for debate) health insurance, has become an overnight poster child for just how bad the government can fumble a well-to-do technology implementation. The common symptoms are all present: budget overruns, too little time to test, poor design & planning, and you can take it from there. So when the President came out...

We've already detailed the cognitive dissonance created by DHS head Janet Napolitano's statements on email usage. Last September, she blithely pointed out that she doesn't use email "at all," and in fact, "avoids many online services." She went on to say that some would call her a "Luddite" and seemed to present the incongruous situation as comical. Hilarity ensued. Powerful government official says, "What, me internet?" LOLS at 11. So, we all had a good, if disbelieving laugh at her our own expense (we're still paying her salary), and Janet Napolitano went back to not checking the email account she...

Over the past day, we’ve heard from many great Citrix customers about our advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Show. These customers have expressed their growing concern that some of his recent comments seem inconsistent with the core values Citrix has always stood for – humility, integrity and respect. While Citrix obviously does not control any show’s content or endorse opinions of their hosts, we do take the concerns of our customers seriously. When they are upset about something, we listen. After careful consideration, we have decided to discontinue our advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Show. Sincerely, Brett Caine SVP and...

The explosion ripped through Building A5 on a Friday evening last May, an eruption of fire and noise that twisted metal pipes as if they were discarded straws. When workers in the cafeteria ran outside, they saw black smoke pouring from shattered windows. It came from the area where employees polished thousands of iPad cases a day. (snip) In the last decade, Apple has become one of the mightiest, richest and most successful companies in the world, in part by mastering global manufacturing. Apple and its high-technology peers — as well as dozens of other American industries — have achieved...

Reagan confronts a Democratic President who, after a temporary surge in the national polls because of the crises in Iran and Afghanistan, is now plagued by declining job ratings. The odds are that by fall, Carter will be trying to defend his management of an economy with double-digit inflation and rising unemployment, gasoline prices of upwards of $2 per gal. and a reduced budget that offends many of the traditional Democratic-constituencies. New York Opinion Researcher Daniel Yankelovich sums it up: "The biggest thing Reagan has going for him is Carter."

London Bridge is burning down....

Keith Carmickle and his friends had already caught three balls during Major League Baseball's Home Run Derby Monday night and wanted more. He nearly got a lot more: a headfirst fall to a pool deck about 20 feet below. Chasing a home run hit by Milwaukee's Prince Fielder, Carmickle was saved from a long fall when his brother and a friend grabbed him around the legs and arms, then pulled him back as he dangled above the deck area behind the pool in right field at Chase Field.

Across Atlanta Public Schools, staff worked feverishly in secret to transform testing failures into successes.Teachers and principals erased and corrected mistakes on students’ answer sheets.Area superintendents silenced whistle-blowers and rewarded subordinates who met academic goals by any means possible.Superintendent Beverly Hall and her top aides ignored, buried, destroyed or altered complaints about misconduct, claimed ignorance of wrongdoing and accused naysayers of failing to believe in poor children’s ability to learn.For years — as long as a decade — this was how the Atlanta school district produced gains on state curriculum tests. The scores soared so dramatically they brought national acclaim...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — For the first time in its 96-year history, a female general is taking charge at the famed Marine Corps training depot at South Carolina's Parris Island. Brig. Gen. Loretta Reynolds, who is also known as the first female Marine to ever hold a command position in a battle zone, takes charge Friday at the installation south of Beaufort.

It looks increasingly like Steve Jobs' reign at Apple is over. If the CEO doesn't return from his third, indefinite medical leave, COO Tim Cook will succeed him, marking a new era not only for Apple but for gay progress. (snip) Cook, a famously quiet and collected person, will find his backstory, both personal and professional, the topic of increasing interest and discussion in the tech community. That new attention is a good thing for a man with a reputation as fearsomely good as Cook's. Cook's rise to his position—he is one of the most powerful corporate executives in the...

Established coaches in the elite Eastern schools like Army, Harvard, Pennsylvania and Yale failed to embrace the pass. It was also a gamble. Passes couldn’t be thrown over the line on five yards to either side of the center. An incomplete pass resulted in a 15-yard penalty, and a pass that dropped without being touched meant possession went to the defensive team. “Because of these rules and the fact coaches at that time thought the forward pass was a sissified type of play that wasn’t really football, they were hesitant to adopt this new strategy,” says Kent Stephens, a historian...

WhiteHat Security said Wednesday that it had found an issue in how Safari's AutoFill feature handles personal information, which could open up the personal information of a web surfer simply by visiting a malicious website.Using a few lines of code, the hacker would be able to obtain the information without the user even knowing it occurred. The "Using info from my Address Book card" option would need to be checked in AutoFill preferences in order for the hack to work.There is one positive: AutoFill does not work with fields starting with numbers, meaning street addresses and phone numbers would not...

Apple sent out invites to a select few media outlets for a press conference scheduled for this coming Friday that’ll begin at 10:00 am PST. The only thing known at this point is the conference will be centered around the iPhone 4. Presumably they’ll be addressing the reception issue caused by the infamous death grip. What’ll be their response? Apple’s always been pretty stubborn to acknowledge problems with any of their products. It was just this week that they released a statement for malfunctioning Time Capsules produced two years ago. They could certainly take this opportunity to acknowledge the iPhone...

Prof. Noah Hall teaches environmental and water-rights law at Wayne State University Law School. He and I recently talked about BP (NYSE: BP) and the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico. In this second part of a four-part interview, Professor Hall shares some of the big questions and big misconceptions about BP and the oil spill. Mac Greer: What's the biggest misconception about BP's liability?Noah Hall: That's a great question. On the one hand, I think some folks are completely overestimating BP's liability and expecting them to go bankrupt any day now. But while $40 billion or $50 billion would...

On Feb. 23, a House Energy & Commerce subcommittee held lengthy hearings on the Toyota situation. Their first witnesses after the committee members' opening statements were Eddie and Rhonda Smith of Sevierville, Tenn., who related the story of their 2007 Lexus ES 350. Ms. Smith claimed she had been driving toward Interstate 40 when, immediately after entering the highway, her Lexus started accelerating out of control. Ms. Smith related how the cruise-control light came on, so she turned that system off. She put the automatic transmission into all of its gears, including neutral and reserve. She put both feet on...

At 9:05 AM with 96% of precincts reporting: Chamblis - 49.8% Martin - 46.8% Buckley - 3.4%

Demand, Supply, and Prices It's clear enough that even if the US economy comes to a halt -- and the Democrats seem determined to make that happen -- the demand for oil by China, India, and other growing nations will go up exponentially; and that greater demand without increased supply will keep the price of oil high and even drive it higher.Speculators already believe that and are bidding up the price of oil futures. I have seen estimates that the supply/demand price of oil is under $100/ bbl but that speculators have driven it to the present levels. I don't...

Eliot Spitzer, one of the nation's most gifted and dedicated politicians, was hounded into resignation by a Puritanism and mean-spiritedness that are quintessentially American.My European colleagues (I write from an academic conference in Belgium) have a hard time understanding what happened, but they know that it is one of those things that could only happen in America, where the topic of sex drives otherwise reasonable people insane. In Germany and the Netherlands, prostitution is legal and regulated by public health authorities. A man who did what Spitzer did would have a lot to discuss with his wife and family, but...