Free Republic

There are a lot of smart (a55ed?) people here with plenty of good ideas. So, how do we fix healthcare?There are some givens. 1) Some people are basically worthless and their skills are insufficient to feed and shelter themselves, much less pay for healthcare.2) This country will not let people suffer from lack of healthcare.Recommendations: 1) Set up free government or charity clinics for the indigent. Keep them out of hospitals and emergency rooms where paying customers are treated. 2) If a free clinic cannot deal with a person's issues, he could then be transported to a hospital, but the...

***It's not at the link. It's from his latest book.***Dean Koontz has been slipping conservatism into his recent books. This year, with "What The Night Knows", he does us one better. The villians are all leftwing crackpots. Here's an excerpt:"When she was twenty-four, Melody killed her three children - ages four, three and one - after deciding that motherhood is limiting and boring, and after she learned that humanity is a vile planet-killing plague that Earth can't survive. She saw it on TV. A documentary about the end of the world and about how it is unavoidable. We all have...

Benjamin Franklin gets to stay. So does the official stamp of the Federal Reserve System. But the rest of the $100 bill – the most frequently counterfeited note, according to government officials – is getting a radically revamped look. On Wednesday, the US Treasury took the wraps off of a new $100 bill, which Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says would be exponentially more difficult for criminals to copy.

After billions of years the Sun finally has an owner -- a woman from Spain's soggy region of Galicia said Friday she had registered the star at a local notary public as being her property. Angeles Duran, 49, told the online edition of daily El Mundo she took the step in September after reading about an American man who had registered himself as the owner of the moon and most planets in our solar system. There is an international agreement which states that no country may claim ownership of a planet or star, but it says nothing about individuals, she...

A Leeds man has been charged with reckless murder in the deaths of a Sylacauga mother and two of her children who were killed Friday night in a vehicle accident near Westover, Alabama State Troopers announced tonight.

Read the latest: Feds charge 11, including McGregor and state lawmakers in gambling probe FBI agents swept across Alabama this morning arresting state lawmakers and lobbyists as part of a federal probe into efforts to pass gambling legislation last spring. The biggest name arrested so far has been VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, who was arrested at his Montgomery home this morning. Also arrested today have been state senators Jim Preuitt, R-Talladega, Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, Larry Means, D-Attalla, Harri Anne Smith, I -- Slocomb and Montgomery lobbyist Jerrod Massey. McGregor lawyer Joe Espy of Montgomery said he knows of no evidence...

But historians say Americans have long accused their presidents of being illegitimate officeholders for all sorts of dark, and bizarre, reasons. "Heavens, where do I start?" says David Crockett, an associate professor of political science at Trinity University in Texas. "No one wants to admit that they got spanked in an election contest. It's always nicer to think the opponent somehow cheated the system. So yes -- Obama wasn't born here, Bush stole the election, Clinton won only because Ross Perot screwed up Bush's [the elder's] chances, Bush the elder won only because he demagogued Willie Horton. ... I could...

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Mo Brooks has won the Republican nomination for 5th Congressional District without a runoff. Brooks said incumbent Parker Griffith called him and conceded just a few minutes ago. Brooks won 51 percent of the vote (35,712) to Griffith's 33 percent (23,494). Les Phillip won 16 percent (11,066).

I just voted in my local GOP primary. I voted against my Senator and my Representative (Richard Shelby and Spenser Bachus). Both are reasonably solid Conservatives, and both will win their primaries easily.I voted against them to encourage others to run against them in the future. By my calculation, every vote against an encumbent is a vote to encourage potential candidates in the future.Thoughts?

I used to be a Kennedy-style "liberal." Then I wised up. Now I'm a libertarian. But what does that mean? When I asked people on the street, half had no clue. We know that conservatives want government to conserve traditional values. They say they're for limited government, but they're pro-drug war, pro-immigration restriction and anti-abortion, and they often support "nation-building." And so-called liberals? They tend to be anti-gun and pro-choice on abortion. They favor big, powerful government -- they say -- to make life kinder for people. By contrast, libertarians want government to leave people alone -- in both the...

A woman is arrested for selling crack cocaine after a month-long investigation. Broome County Special Investigations Unit executed a narcotics search warrant at 9 Maria Manor and arrested 20-year old Chaliscia Shorts of Binghamton.

Gold rushes higher amid brightened economic signs...

A respected Russian artist was arrested after mixing wine and prescription drugs before allegedly drinking liquid soap and attacking flight attendants on a trans-Atlantic flight. British-based Galina Rusanova is accused of of punching and kicking flight attendants and - at one point - 'snapping like a dog' while trying to bite a crew member's leg.

Oregon House Bill 2470 continues to gain momentum in the Oregon Legislature. The bill, which seeks to severely limit the responsible breeding of dogs via ownership limits and onerous operational requirements, has been assigned to the Senate Consumer Protection and Public Affairs Committee. The American Kennel Club and its Oregon Federation, the National Animal Interest Alliance, both strongly oppose HB 2470. It is imperative that all concerned responsible dog breeders and owners in Oregon contact their State Senator and the members of the Senate Consumer Protection and Public Affairs Committee and urge them to oppose HB 2470. The American Kennel...

There is no doubt in anyone's mind that leftists are complete and total hypocrites. They always have been, and they always will be.Just for a moment, let's turn around the Miss America/Perez Hilton scandal. Let's suppose that a Christian became a judge (it could happen, there are a few popular ones in Hollyweird.) Let's also suppose that a "gay marriage" question is asked of one of the contestants. The contestant, who is leading, gives the standard leftwing drivel ("everyone should love everyone and let everyone do whatever they want to do, and make everything legal, except being mean to leftists".)...

Take someone emotionally uninvolved with you to see the puppy. Take someone who has no stake in the decision with you to see the puppy. Take a sibling, a parent or a friend. Give them veto power. If they say no to your buying that puppy, back away from the purchase. Take them aside and listen to why they are uncomfortable. Making a good decision to buy a puppy means putting aside emotions and looking at facts. Someone uninvolved can be a great help in doing just that. I have seen many people who are otherwise very rational become very...

Take someone emotionally uninvolved with you to see the puppy. Take someone who has no stake in the decision with you to see the puppy...The opposite of taking someone emotionally uninvolved with you is taking kids with you...

Some pics from the Birmingham, Alabama Tea Party help at Veteran's Park in Shelby County. (One of the most Conservative Counties in the country.)Rick and Bubba spoke to Sean Hannity live from this Tea Party.My Rick picture (camera phone) was crappy and my Bubba pics were useless...

The solution to the world's pirate problem may be made in Mobile. The dramatic showdown between the U.S. Navy and a group of Somalian pirates ended badly for the buccaneers, but military experts say it also demonstrated that the Navy is ill-equipped to deal with a growing threat to global commerce. That's chiefly because the Navy lacks the sort of fast, flexible vessel that can chase pirates where they roam, the so-called "green" waters within 100 or so miles of shore. Enter Austal USA's littoral combat ship, a swift, agile and lethal vessel that may be a pirate's worst nightmare....