Free Republic

If it is true, as Michelle Obama said in February, that her husband isn't smoking anymore, maybe he'd better start mellowing out with the cigs again before it costs him the presidency. The Barack Obama we've been seeing lately is a different personality than the one that made a miracle run to the White House in 2008. Obama.2008 was engaging, patient, open, optimistic and a self-identified conciliator. Obama.2011 has been something else—testy, petulant, impatient, arrogant and increasingly a divider. Never forget: That historic 2008 victory came with 52.9% of the total vote and 52% of independent voters. David Axelrod recently...

Although the thought of a Donald Trump candidacy troubles establishment Republicans and even some tea partyers, both camps have stopped dismissing the real-estate mogul’s potential foray into presidential politics as a joke. Read more on Newsmax.com: Even Critics Take Trump's Potential Prez Run Seriously Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

FARM Kid in the Army (NOW AT BASE BORDEN RECRUIT TRAINING) Dear Ma and Pa, I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Army beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled. I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to...

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you may live in Ohio. If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you may live in Ohio. If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Ohio. If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Ohio. If "Vacation" means going anywhere south of Columbus for the Weekend, you may live in Ohio. If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Ohio. If you...

Hey All Ohio Valley FReepers: McCain-Palin Rally 3pm this Sunday in St.Clairsville, OH at Brush Run and Airport Rds. (6160 Airport Rd.) Call 614-441-8622. Free Advance tickets required.SEE ALL YOU OHIO VALLEY FREEPERS THERE!

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell praised Barack Obama on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, crediting the Illinois Senator for breaking barriers while running as "an American man" who can represent the entire nation. In an interview with PBS host Tavis Smiley, Powell said he was "taking joy" in Obama's rise and he said citizens across the country can "enjoy this moment where a person like Barack Obama can knock down all of these old barriers that people thought existed with respect to the opportunities that are available to African Americans." Powell, the first black person to serve...

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in New Hampshire shows Barack Obama earning 39% of the vote while Hillary Clinton attracts 27%. The survey was conducted on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. All interviews were conducted after the Iowa caucuses and before last night’s debate. Obama is seen as the most electable Democratic candidate. Eighty-seven percent (87%) believe he would be at least somewhat likely to win if nominated. Seventy-six percent (76%) say the same about Clinton and 75% think Edwards would have a chance. Fifty-one percent (51%) of the Likely Democratic Primary Voters believe Obama would be Very Likely...

The scope of Barack Obama's victory in Iowa has shaken the Clinton machine down to its bolts. Donors are panicking. The campaign has been making a round of calls to reassure notoriously fickle "superdelegates" — elected officials and party regulars who are awarded convention spots by virtue of their titles and positions — who might be reconsidering their decisions to back the candidate who formerly looked like a sure winner. And internally, a round of recriminations is being aimed at her chief strategist, Mark Penn, as the representative of everything about her pseudo-incumbent campaign that has been too cautious, too...

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology. The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering. The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement. His remarks will be made...

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton's lead over rival Barack Obama in New Hampshire has narrowed to single digits a month before the state's primary election, said a poll released on Wednesday. The Washington Post/ABC News poll showed the U.S. senator from New York leading Obama 35 percent to 29 percent in the race for New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary on January 8. The survey had a 4 percentage point error margin. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was in third place with 17 percent, followed by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson at 10 percent. Three others competing to be the Democratic...

My Dear Feepers, It’s not just on Free Republic alone, the rift within the GOP perhaps more properly described as the rift between the GOP and one its constituents---Conservatives---has caught the attention of virtually all the major political prognosticators. It’s a painful thing to endure, and likely it will not enhance our effectiveness as a party, as a political movement or in winning elections. And, at it’s current rate of development and the sometime nastiness of the invective on FR, I think it’s going to get worse long before it’s going to get better. Think about this as a possible...

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Snow fell on Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, for the first time in 63 years on Wednesday, stirring excitement and curiosity among residents and their children. "I have never seen it snow in Kathmandu in all my life," said 45-year-old housewife Manju Shrestha, playing in the snow with her young children. Weather officials said the brief snowfall, which lasted only a few minutes, was the result of a "westerly disturbance" over Nepal that earlier in the week caused heavy rains.

I always lurk on these computer-help threads because they're so informative and downright useful. But this is my first request. My dear lady friend drives long-haul OTR and wanted me to help her with using a laptop logged on the net and without trailing a 3,000 mile cable.So we got a new lap top (a Dell that comes with a "wireless" card.)The question is: What do we need to do to enable (what kind of) wireless link from a mobile (tractor-trailer or a boat/ship) unit to the internet?

In the early 1800s, the British physician John Davy provided the first insight that tunas were different from other fish. He made measurements showing that tunas were not cold-blooded, as all fishes were assumed to be at that time. In a paper read to the Royal Society of London in 1835, he reported the remarkable fact that deep muscle temperature in a skipjack tuna (Katsuwonis pelamis) was 10 degrees Celsius higher than the warm tropical water in which the fish was captured. Since then, many investigators have documented warm temperatures in muscle and viscera of other tunas. Sharks of the...

The yawn is primal, unstoppable and contagious, revealing the evolutionary and neural basis of empathy and unconscious behavior Imagine a yawn. You stretch your jaws open in a wide gape, take a deep inward breath, followed by a shorter exhalation, and end by closing your jaws. Ahhh. You have just joined vertebrates everywhere in one of the animal kingdom's most ancient rites. Mammals and most other animals with backbones yawn; fish, turtles, crocodiles and birds do it. People start yawning very early, offering further evidence of its ancient origins. Yawning is present by the end of the first trimester of...

I ignored the threat for a long time. I groaned at the letters to the editor in our local paper that dismissed evolution as "just a theory" and proclaimed the superiority of "Intelligent Design" (ID) to explain the world around us. When a particular emeritus professor pestered me with e-mails asking how I explained this or that aspect of the fossil record (How could a flying bird evolve from a non-flying species? Did I think feathered dinosaurs were real?), I answered him time and again—until I realized that he was reading neither my answers nor the references I suggested. When...

Florida State University philosopher Michael Ruse... prolific author and founder of the journal Biology and Philosophy...favors evolution but is quick to flag instances of hypocrisy and overzealousness in both positions. In his book, The Evolution-Creation Struggle, Ruse calls for both sides to understand the assumptions underlying their arguments and to appreciate the intellectual history of their positions... You trace the worldviews connected with evolution and creationism to two different conceptions of the millennium in Christian eschatology. I trace the present conflict between evolutionists and creationists back to the Enlightenment. I argue that at the beginning of the 18th century there...

River City: Ohio Blues Competition at its Finest March 7, 2004 by Bob Orndoff Cambridge, OH Well it's so cold up north, that a bird can hardly fly Now you know I'm goin' back down south, let this winter pass on by (Muddy Waters) So, following Muddy’s advice, I headed south on I-77 from Cambridge to the River seeking a small measure of relief from winter’s perils. Eureka!---I found it. The River City Ohio Blues Competition held its twelfth annual event in Marietta on Saturday Feb. 21, at the Lafayette Hotel. I’ve been fortunate to be able to attend five...

BAISA, Iraq (Reuters) - Eighteen Americans died in guerrilla attacks in Iraq on Sunday, including 15 soldiers killed when a helicopter was downed in the deadliest single strike on U.S. forces since they invaded to oust Saddam Hussein. It was the second deadliest day overall for Americans in Iraq since the invasion on March 20, after 28 soldiers were killed in various attacks on March 23. On Sunday, one U.S. soldier was killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad and two American civilian contractors died in a roadside mine blast in the town of Fallujah, a fiercely anti-U.S. center 30...

written by Bob Orndoff2003-04-28 Watching Canada’s confused effort to achieve relevancy is a sad experience indeed. One nasty issue---that sharp pique upon which Canada is painfully hoisted---is about France and whether Canada is a French colonial-aspirant. And if so, why? Since it’s shameful performance in the UN and the subsequent revelation of absolute proof of its corruption in subverting the Security Council’s procedures France is currently busy trying to shake the doo-doo from its shoe and thus is preoccupied with its own stink. As a result, a brief reprieve has come to the world. Instead of Canada and France we...