Free Republic

A Portland woman told a group of homeless men she suspected of stealing her phone that she had no problem with them ripping off “rich scum’’ — just not her, new video shows. The woman — taking a page out of the city’s left-wing activist playbook — was seen in the X footage Thursday pleading with the vagrants at a bus stop in the Oregon city when her phone went missing. “Basically, I am not — if you stole it from rich scum, by all means keep it and sell it,” the woman tells the suspected thieves as she tries...

Anti-Israel protesters flooded Senate building in illegal protest urging members to vote for arms sale blockIn the Biden-Harris administration’s eleventh hour, Senate Democrats are launching a campaign against the Jewish state aimed at drumming up support for blocking arms sales to Israel.Led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), the congressional offensive consists of three Senate disapproval resolutions that call for an immediate pause in American arms sales to Israel and accuse the United States of supporting mass war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Sanders—along with Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.), Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.), Peter Welch (D., Vt.), and...

After listening all week to Chicago White Sox general manager Chris Getz, manager Grady Sizemore and players discussing their feelings about the inevitable modern-era record for losses the team finally broke Friday night in Detroit, one word seemed to be missing.Frustrating? Difficult? Disappointing? Painful? No, we heard those descriptions a few dozen times. The word I never heard uttered was “unacceptable,” as in “this loss was unacceptable.”Time and again we heard about the bad breaks, as if the Sox had a monopoly on bad luck. We get it. They were millimeters short of a win on Aug. 28 when Texas...

I have literally been covering SCO's legal attempts to prove that IBM illegally copied Unix's source code into Linux for over 17 years. I've written well over 500 stories on this lawsuit and its variants. I really thought it was dead, done, and buried. I was wrong. Xinuos, which bought SCO's Unix products and intellectual property (IP) in 2011, like a bad zombie movie, is now suing IBM and Red Hat "illegally Copying Xinuos' software code for its server operating systems."For those of you who haven't been around for this epic IP lawsuit, you can get the full story with...

All it takes is one from the House and one from the Senate to shut down the Electoral College count, to open debate on the question of fraud and irregularities in the election in the contested states. When Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said that he would join Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) and about ten other House members, they had enough to open the discussion and call for a vote on the question.As we reported, Democrats flipped out and attacked Hawley. Since then, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-MA) even said Hawley’s actions “bordered on sedition and treason.” But they of course were...

I have set up a folder on the cloud for Preppers and SHTF situations. Right now it has almost 900 files and is about 7GB in size, with sections on prepping, homesteading, gardening, survival, etc. It is a labor of love, something to keep me busy while I was organizing my stuff. Hopefully it is just a beginning and it will end up as a knowledge base for those who like to get ready for the coming storm. It is on a protected site so you need a decryption key to get in. You will also need some basic files...

For the college-educated elite, work has morphed into a religious identity—promising identity, transcendence, and community, but failing to deliver... In his 1930 essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted a 15-hour workweek in the 21st century, creating the equivalent of a five-day weekend... In a 1957 article in The New York Times, the writer Erik Barnouw predicted that, as work became easier, our identity would be defined by our hobbies, or our family life... These post-work predictions weren’t entirely wrong. By some counts, Americans work much less than they used to. The average work year...

The EU has completed the biggest photovoltaic solar field in Gaza, the European Commission announced on Thursday. The field will provide 0.5 Megawatts of electricity per day to fuel the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant. The EU-funded Southern Gaza Desalination Plant currently provides drinking water to 75,000 inhabitants in the Khan Younis and Rafah governorates. With the new energy field and new investments foreseen it will eventually reach 250,000 people in Southern Gaza by 2020. Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, commented, “Limited energy supplies in Gaza are one of the main challenges when improving access...

Getting other Arab interlocutors to replace the PLO in negotiations with Israel remains Trump's crucial starting point to ending the Arab-Jewish conflict Nabil Abu Rudeineh - spokesman for Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas—has angrily reacted to President Trump’s intensive diplomatic efforts seeking to enlist Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia in advancing Trump’s long-awaited “deal of the century” to end the Arab-Jewish conflict.

PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, running for president on a platform of keeping the government out of people’s business, took a deep breath when asked at a recent stop in Philadelphia whether he’d make addressing abortion a part of his campaign. “I didn’t run for office because of the social issues,” Paul answered. “It wasn’t what got me to leave my practice. I ran for office mainly because I became concerned that we’re going to destroy the country with debt.”(continued)

This Is What The Greek Election Results Mean Simone Foxman June 17, 2012 The first exit polls are out in Greece, and it looks like New Democracy is in the lead, albeit by a tiny margin. While these are just early results, this could bring either a huge sigh of relief to Europe--or another disastrous deadlock. If New Democracy is able to hold out in front as more results roll in, it will get a 50 seat bonus. Then it's all up to PASOK to win enough support to allow the two pro-bailout parties to form a coalition. Good news...

In a television interview, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the eurozone was moving inevitably towards a "political union" requiring nations to cede more sovereignty, and that would lead to more of a multi-speed Europe with non-euro states in the slow lane.“We need more Europe, we need not only a monetary union, but we also need a so-called fiscal union, in other words more joint budget policy,” Merkel told ARD on Thursday (7 June). “And we need most of all a political union—that means we need to gradually give competencies to Europe and give Europe control,” she added. European Council President...

CHICAGO—The Obama re-election campaign, now picking up the pace of its fund-raising, is responding to complaints from some Democratic donors and fund-raisers that they and their policy interests have been neglected since the president's victory in 2008. The donors, particularly those who originally were Hillary Clinton supporters, say they haven't felt valued by the Obama White House. Some appear less inclined to "bundle" contributions from friends and colleagues on behalf of the re-election campaign. The issues are arising as President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden prepare to head to at least a dozen fund-raisers...

BRUSSELS/ATHENS - The European Union is urgently working on a second bailout package for Greece in a race to release vital loans next month and avert the risk of the euro zone country defaulting, EU officials said. Greece's conservative opposition meanwhile demanded lower taxes as a condition for reaching a political consensus with the Socialist government on further austerity measures, which Brussels says is needed to secure any further assistance. "You want to raise taxes and raise consensus with us, who have set reducing taxes as a priority? Don't even think about it," opposition New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said....

Independent [UK], by Sean O'Grady Posted By: Photoonist- Thu, 25 Nov 2010 03:58:53 GMT The euro plunged further into crisis yesterday as investors sold off Spanish, Portuguese and Belgian government bonds in record numbers on renewed fears that those nations would follow Greece and Ireland into the financial emergency ward, undermining confidence in the single currency. The spreading contagion suggests that the markets now view the break'up of the euro as a realistic possibility, (Snip) There were also what analysts called "clear signs of stress" across the European financial system, as banks were forced to turn to the European Central...

After World War II, the U.S. government invested an enormous amount of money in medicine; medical research, medical procedures and medical technologies. This investment made contemporary scientific medicine into American medicine, characterized by a continuing flow of new treatment possibilities. These advances raised all kinds of ethical questions. Some were personal and individual, others were social and political. Both type questions are addressed by a new academic discipline called bioethics. The first attempt to develop a scientific medicine took place in Greece in the 5th century B.C. It was called Hippocratic medicine. Closely linked with this first scientific medicine was...

President Barack Obama says he would be “happy to look at” legislation to bail out, with juicy tax breaks, newspapers that restructure into “nonprofit” businesses. Good journalism, Obama told editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade in an interview, is “critical to the health of our democracy.” But once-dominant newspapers — especially those whose news and editorials slant liberal and pro-Democrat — have been losing readers and advertising dollars to Internet sites with more diverse views. Since January 2008, 26,000 newspaper jobs have been eliminated, and several prominent newspapers have filed for bankruptcy. Obama appears to be throwing this...

Federal troops lock down region in effort to bring gangsters to heel CULIACAN, MEXICO — Automatic weapons at the ready, the platoons of federal police officers descend from the transport planes and high-step as neatly as majorettes into the searing heat of this violent city. Gen. Rodolfo Cruz, short, fit and wearing the same starched blue uniform as his troops, puts the policemen through their paces as television cameras whirr. "Here we are, showing our faces," says Cruz, 65, a career army officer, who sprinkles conversations with English phrases learned during military training in Oklahoma. "I fight crime, I put...

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will travel to Moscow next month for talks on Russia's recent decision to supply Iran with nuclear fuel and an advanced air defence system, an official said on Wednesday. Livni was expected to go "in the middle of January" following a recent invitation by her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, the senior diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity. She will raise Israeli concerns over Moscow's decision earlier this month to supply Tehran with fuel for its first nuclear power station in the southern city of Bushehr. Livni will also seek to convey Israeli fears...

The futility of arms control -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 10, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Vox Day -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com The first ordinance bearing on military matters in the Capitularies of Charles the Great is one showing his anxiety to keep as much armour as possible within the realm. In 779 he orders that no merchant shall dare to export byrnies from the realm. This order was repeated again and again in later years, in the Capitula Minora, cap. 7, and again in the Aachen Capitulary of 805; the trade in arms with the Wends and Avars is especially denounced...