Free Republic

Wartime U.S. presidents have taken keen personal interest in picking the most lethal gun for the military. But in President Obama's first foray into small-arms procurement for the armed forces, his Jan. 4 executive order on gun control directs the Pentagon to find ways to make not so much more lethal firearms, but safer ones. His direct order has brought a few snickers among retired combatants who argue that the commander in chief is issuing his directive at a time of more pressing small-arms priorities. The military, critics say, fields a flawed personal rifle and has spent more than a...

CNSNews.com) – Former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders got a standing ovation after speaking at the annual summit of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice where she advocated health clinics offering contraceptives on public school campuses and comprehensive sex education in the schools starting in kindergarten.

This summer, Hillary Clinton is reportedly rolling in dough. New York's junior senator has amassed a $12.6 million war chest for her re-election bid next year, raising half that amount from April to June alone. Clinton's latest campaign reports, filed on July 15 with the Federal Election Commission, became public on July 28. Her second-quarter contributions totaled $6,108,413. Combined with interest and refunds, the campaign took in a total of $6,145,305 during the period. More than $5.8 million came from individuals—65,691 in total. Those filings sprawl across hundreds of pages, so finding out exactly where her money came from in...

Hillary Clinton wants to be the darling of the left and the candidate of the center, and why not? More than any other Democrat, save one—her husband—she knows what it takes to win, and she fully and completely comprehends the opposition. Liberals went ballistic this week when Clinton called for a ceasefire among Democrats at a much ballyhooed appearance before the DLC, the centrist Democratic Leadership Council that helped elect her husband president. Clinton’s “Rodney King Moment,” is all about 2008, says a former John Kerry adviser: “What she’s saying is, ‘Why can’t we all get along and support me?’”...

TEN years ago, Kevin Costner's career took a turn for the worse when he made a hugely expensive film called ''Waterworld.'' Since then, the film has become synonymous with megalomania, hubris and all the other fancy words that journalists like to use when things fall apart and the center will not hold. But unlike his other movies ''Wyatt Earp'' and ''The Postman,'' which are really bad, ''Waterworld'' is simply a dumb, expensive dud, not an epic, studio-imploding disaster on the order of ''Heaven's Gate'' or ''Battlefield Earth.'' If you are in the market for a truly horrendous movie, one of...

The mastermind of Hillary Clinton's successful 2000 Senate race is urging the Democratic Party's liberal wing not to be upset over her alliance with the moderate Democratic Leadership Council, assuring critics that Hillary is still a left-winger at heart. "It's much more important to look at what she does and how she votes, and not that she has associated herself with the DLC," Harold Ickes told the Washington Times on Friday. Ickes reminded that Bill Clinton also came under fire from party liberals for his more centrist rhetoric. But they stuck with him because "his record in totality was extraordinarily...

Why Men Prefer Pretty Faces So you think beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Think again. According to new research from the University of Exeter in Great Britain, the preference for pretty faces over ugly ones is embedded in our brains from the moment of birth and possibly prior to birth. Newborn babies come fully equipped with built-in preferences, including a preference for an attractive face, that help them make sense of their new environment, report the BBC News Online and Newsweek magazine. The Exeter researchers showed more than 100 infants two images that were placed side by...

Is Science Fiction About To Go Blind The starship Field Circus is racing through space on a seven-year journey to a brown dwarf three light-years from Earth and, if all goes well, a business meeting with an alien civilization from another universe. It’s around the year 2030, and there’s time to kill, so three crew members, Boris, Pierre and Su Ang, are sitting in the bar, a wood-paneled room modeled after a 300-year-old pub in Amsterdam. There’s a 16-page beer menu, but Boris has opted for a cocktail made of baby jellyfish. Pierre is angling for a sip when Donna...

An Ejaculation a Day May Keep Prostate Cancer at Bay Wed Jul 16,10:35 PM ET SYDNEY (Reuters) - Frequent masturbation may be really good for you. Research by Australia's Cancer Council Victoria found that the more often men ejaculate between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to suffer the disease that kills more than half a million men each year. The survey of 1,079 prostate cancer (news - web sites) patients and 1,259 healthy men found that those who masturbated or had sex at least once a day in their 20s were a third less...