Free Republic

SALT LAKE CITY — National Park Service workers were busy Friday preparing to open eight national recreations sites in Utah that were closed the past 11 days due to the federal government shutdown. Zion National Park opened Friday with limited services, according to a recorded message at the park's main telephone number. Trails that don't require permits and the Zion Mount Carmel Highway are open. Both visitor centers, the Kolob Caynon scenic drive, the south campground will open this afternoon, according to the recording. The park's shuttles will begin running Saturday morning.

I was recently on Facebook and a "friend" decided to rant on a totally unrelated topic that I posted about how words can hurt. He stated that my postings about Obama on Facebook were offensive and out of taste, etc. I took the occasion to entertain the debate as he is of a liberal mindset and has shown the ability to take my comments out of context before.

Dear Governor Romney, - My name is Mike Rowe and I own a small company in California called mikeroweWORKS. Currently, mikeroweWORKS is trying to close the country’s skills gap by changing the way Americans feel about Work. (I know, right? Ambitious.) Anyway, this Labor Day is our 4th anniversary, and I’m commemorating the occasion with an open letter to you. If you read the whole thing, I’ll vote for you in November.

El Presidente had issued is edict and it is out of the closet. "Let me be clear, I will do whatever I want, when I want, by passing Congress, the Courts, The Supreme Court, for the good of the American People, whether they want it or not. Sometimes, I must make the tough decisions for you. These decisions may be hard to swallow, like overspending, laying off military personnel, and crony capitalisim. Let me be clear. Parents know better than their children. Therefore I as your President, will do anything to hold onto power till the course I have laid...

Have you ever gone shopping, to a movie, or to get gas and on the corner is a panhandler with their cardboard sign claiming that they are homeless, starving, a Veteran, need money, etc? Do you ever see that many of them look well fed, actually semi-clean and work the same street corner, freeway off ramp, or shopping center exit? Why does the city allow these vagabonds to beg for money on the corners? Does Salt Lake City have no pride? Panhandlers not only work the interstates and shopping centers, but also work over people out on the streets. If...

Lawyers Harry and Charles Binder began representing applicants for Social Security disability benefits in the 1970s, when the field was a professional backwater. Last year, their firm collected $88 million in fees for guiding clients through the system, government data indicate, making it the nation's largest Social Security disability advocate by far. "We'll deal with the government," a cowboy-hatted Charles Binder proclaims in his firm's ubiquitous television ads. "You have enough to worry about."

I've been critical of Newt Gingrich in recent days, so let me say that one thing I agree with him on is that, ultimately, culture trumps economics. That's why these "war on Christmas" stories aren't small things. When you decide you need to give equal space to a cruicified skeleton Santa (as in this weekend's Christmas column) you're calling the cops to bust up a performance of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" (as in my 2006 column below), you're on a slippery slope from societal decadence to dementia: I passed through Shannon Airport in Ireland the other day. They've got...

Its the Christmas Season. A recession has long been on. And if those humbugs on PBS get their way, Your money will soon be gone. It is for you that they the all knowing claim, They make these droll shows of glory and shame. The News Hour will debrief you each day, One look at Gwen Ifil will scare any man away. Sesame Street has been on forty plus years, And Elmo that little fluffy tard will reduce all to tears.

As cities across the nation clean up after the Occupy Wall Street peeps they are coming across all sorts of rubbish and filth. Needles, human feces, garbage, and now disease have all been found at the park where the occupies have been encamped. Now tomorrow the are threatening violence? I am more concerned with them associating with the public. Time to bring back leper colonies.

The Occupy Wall Street village idiots association has come out across this great nation to try to stink it up with bad breath, tent cities, crime, stench, mini riots, sex assaults and much more as they seek an America they can't even define in vocabulary that fools can understand. This link to the pictures is both funny and sad when seeing it because so much potential is nothing but wasted in the useful idiot tank. LINK TO WALL STREET FREAKS

Protesting Wall Street and the gap between rich and poor? The system needs to be changed and you don't know to what? Well, winter has given the protesters an early welcome. Occupy Wall Street, New York chapter has been blasted with snow and rain. Ah Damn! With today being Halloween and seeing the pictures roll in it is a beautiful blending of the weird, weather, and spooky. The OWS movement is asking for blankets, heaters, generators, tarps. In the interest of public decency please DO NOT send the protesters any aid. Let them EARN IT! They can take jobs that...

I hate to say this but if anyone who reads this blog is considering joining the US Border Patrol, think again. The same corrupt presecutors that went after agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compeon are at it again. This time the US Attorneys for the District of Western Texas have obtained a conviction against Agent Jesus Diaz. Diaz is accused of violating an illegal criminal aliens Constitutional rights by pulling him up and hurting him while the scum bag drug runner was in handcuffs. Apparently these same rogue prosecutors went after a Edwards County Sheriff in Texas after he shot...

A "cross-dressing" Jamaican drug lord extradited to New York after a month-long gun battle with police that killed at least 70 people has asked for leniency in a letter that begins, "Good day to you, Sir," and cites his support of community jamborees and holiday treats for the elderly. Christopher "Dudus" Coke, leader of the Jamaica-based international criminal organization called the "Shower Posse," pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courtroom on August 31, 2011 to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering. When Coke was arrested in...

No matter what the polls say, no matter how many elections fellow Democrats lose, no matter what his opposition says, or his allies for that matter, President Obama is committed to America's decline. From his recycled speeches on jobs, to failed and suspect green energy policies, the man is committed to his ideology. The schizophrenic once stated that the voices in his head told him he was sane and everyone else in the world is crazy. Obama is not schizophrenic, but he has the same delusional beliefs. America needs to be the next banana republic. He is convinced of his...

Please click on the link to the political cartoon depicting Glenn Beck as a baffoon in his support of Israel rally.

WASHINGTON -- After examining hundreds of combat support and reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan, the U.S military estimates $360 million in U.S. tax dollars has ended up in the hands of people the American-led coalition has spent nearly a decade battling: the Taliban, criminals, and power brokers with ties to both. The losses underscore the challenges the U.S. and its international partners face in overcoming corruption in Afghanistan. A central part of the Obama administration's strategy has been to award U.S.-financed contracts to Afghan businesses to help improve quality of life and stoke the country's economy.

We have thee branches of government at the Federal level of government. We have the Executive, Legislative and Judicial. But thanks to the debt ceiling debacle we now have a SUPER CONGRESS. When the real Congress can't get King Obama's agenda passed and the states are passing statutes left and right to insulate themselves against extra Constitutional authority by King Obama and his allies we now have a Super Congress. Lowly little Representatives, Senators and President by day, when an emergency arises they all go to their secret phone booths and transform into SUPER CONGRESS!!!!!!!!!!! The Super Congress has super...

Speed at Ground Zero in New York City is finally picking up steam. One World Trade Center AKA The Freedom Tower is rising higher and higher into the Manhattan Skyline. The Freedom Tower will rise 1776 feet above the ground and become the tallest building in the United States.

I noticed while I tried to link a story that I found in The Salt Lake Tribune on Free Republic that Freep rejected the link. I tried again. Reject. I tried another source to link to Free Republic. All is well. The Salt Lake Tribune. Nada!

Molly Butterworth, a Salt Lake City resident, liked that the 2010 Census form allowed her to identify her "Person 2" as both Chinese and white, correctly reflecting the diversity in her household. She also was pleased she could report that person as her "wife," even though her Massachusetts marriage license is not recognized in Utah.