Free Republic

Am I the only one who caught it? Some of you clever techies post that for us please.

In the background is your old health care plan. Foreground is your new, more expensive Obamacare plan purchased through an exchange.

Worries about post-traumatic stress have become a stock part of the media narrative surrounding tragedies like Boston and Newtown. And resilience is supposedly the best we can hope for in the face of adversity. But what if there’s a third option? The story of one mass shooting, and the surprising tug of post-traumatic growth.

The “master suite” is being phased out — not from our homes, but from our lexicon. A survey of 10 major Washington, D.C.-area homebuilders found that six no longer use the term “master” in their floor plans to describe the largest bedroom in the house. They have replaced it with “owner’s suite” or “owner’s bedroom” or, in one case, “mastre bedroom.” Why? In large part for exactly the reason you would think: “Master” has connotation problems, in gender (it skews toward male) and race (the slave-master).

A state representative in Massachussetts is being investigated after allegedly sending pictures of his genitals to a government computer. The investigation is ongoing and the committee has not formally reprimanded the individual in charge, but it is being widely reported that Democratic State Representative John Fresolo is the one behind the scandal. He allegedly sent 'lascivious photos of his privates' to a computer at the State House, and an aide complained to the Ethics Committee to start the investigation. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2297618/Massachusetts-lawmaker-took-pictures-genitals-female-coworkers-computer.html#ixzz2OO43f4D7 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

NASHUA — Following a storm of controversy in light of her criminal background, the first openly transgendered person elected to the New Hampshire House will resign her post. “I didn't want to have to do this,” Rep.-elect Stacie Marie Laughton, D-Nashua, said. “There's been a lot of people that have said, 'Stay strong, keep your head up, stay in it.'” “I'm super disappointed because I was looking forward to this more than anything. It's my lifelong dream to serve my community, and what better place to do it than the city that I was born and raised in.”

Her driving record includes seven ­accidents, four speeding violations, two failures to stop for a police officer, one failure to stay in her lane, one driving without registration or license in possession, and one driving without wearing a seat belt. When she was nabbed for speeding in New Hampshire in 1999, she failed to show up at her hearing, records show. Until Nov. 1, her license was on nonrenewal status for failure to pay local excise taxes. There are 34 entries on her driving record, dating back to 1982. Yet Sheila Burgess is director of the Massachusetts Highway Safety Division.

I've been around since Harry Truman's first term and have been trying to see how someone could make a case that any president during that time had better success in his second term than he had in the first one. Truman? Nope Eisenhower? Possibly Johnson? Nyet Nixon? Nix Reagan? Show me Clinton? HAH! Bush? Hardly

Americans are losing their religion, and that’s good news for Democrats. So says Pitzer College prof Phil Zuckerman in a fascinating breakdown in Bloomberg Businessweek. Americans have long been more religious than almost all other Western societies, but that’s changing fast, reports Pitzer: Which is good news for Democrats, because “63 percent of nonreligious Americans support the Democratic Party, with only 26 percent supporting Republicans.”

Here's a riddle for you: What do you call a horseshoer that doesn't shoe any horses? An employee of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. No, you're not supposed to laugh, but the perpetually cash-strapped city somehow still employs a horseshoer, even though the department does not own horses, nor does the former employee of the Police Department work with any of the city's four-legged equines. The horseshoer's position was revealed as part of an independent report that concluded that the DWSD could "trim more than 80% of its workforce," a suggestion that union leaders say isn't possible. In case...

Kendra Alleyne writes at CNSNews.com about Gary Harrington, an Oregon man who was convicted of collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his property who's just begun serving a 30-day jail sentence for it: "I'm sacrificing my liberty so we can stand up as a country and stand for our liberty," Harrington told a small crowd of people gathered outside of the Jackson County (Ore.) Jail.

MANCHESTER — Flor D'Liz Gomez arrived in Manchester when she was in the eighth grade. And although she attended regular classes at Hillside Middle School, she was flagged as an English Language Learner and placed in ELL study hall by the time she got to Central High School, she recounted in a recent interview. She told her guidance counselor she didn't need the ELL study hall, but she ended up alongside students struggling with English. “It made me feel like, 'Is there something wrong with me?'” Gomez said. Her country? America. Her place of birth? Cambridge, Mass.

I used to play this in a band in high school(early/mid '60s). Our drummer told me not long ago that he was the worst drummer ever. He wasn't any worse than I was as a guitar player! Three of the four of us served in the military, Vietnam era. I also served later. Fun stuff. Innocent days.

A 23-year-old Nebraska man walked into a court room in York County Monday afternoon as Tyler Gold -- and walked out as Tyrannosaurus Rex, the York News-Times reported. Gold said he wanted to change his name “because the (T-Rex designation) is cooler,” according to an official filing he made with court. “Also, as an entrepreneur, name recognition is important and the new name is more recognizable.” Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/08/nebraska-man-changes-name-to-tyrannosaurus-rex/?test=latestnews#ixzz1uKaMm6fn

Military cadets are celebrating gay pride week at the nation’s oldest private military academy by holding a “Queer Prom” and a “Condom Olympics” — an event that includes a game where participants smear lubicrant on condoms until they tear. Norwich University’s celebration of homosexuality will culminate Saturday with a “Free Love Dance” at the school’s armory. The university said the events are meant to have an “open dialogue on diverse opinions in a safe place.”

I was just watching the Fox News Channel. There was a panel with Doug Schoen, Pat Caddell and former congressman Leboutillier. There is a window behind the panel that must look out onto the street...people and traffic go by all the time. A young woman walked by, backed up and flipped the bird, waved, flipped the bird again and walked on. Real class there. Probably friend of Sandra Fluke. This would have been at approximately 5:28 PM Eastern time. Did anyone capture it?

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama's job approval rating, weighed down by soaring gas prices, has plunged below 50 per cent, giving his political opponents what appears to be an opening in the November election, a new opinion poll showed. The survey by ABC News and The Washington Post indicated that only 46 per cent of Americans now approved of the way Obama is handling his job and 50 per cent disapproved. The situation was a reversal from early February when 50 per cent approved of the president's performance and 46 per cent disapproved. According to the survey, the drop...

President Obama plans to maintain a significant number of employees in the US embassy in Baghdad in order to protect US diplomats who could be targeted after the US military departs from Iraq. The President elaborated further on this issue during a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday_ "With respect to the embassy, the actual size of our embassy with respect to diplomats..., there are still some special security needs inside of Iraq