Free Republic

Former Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Administration Director Michael Hayden defended the PRISM program to an adult education class, saying that "Gmail is the preferred Internet service provider of terrorists worldwide." He made the comment during a speech on "the tension between security and liberty" at The Forum at St. Johns Church in Washington, D.C., where he was arguing in support of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA) Section 702, the Washington Post reported. Section 702 provides the legal underpinning of the PRISM spying program . He described the Internet as being "quintessentially American," and said that since much...

Being rude to the French president is no longer an offense after parliament agreed on Thursday to amend legislation dating back to 1881 in favor of freedom of speech. Whereas before any rude remark risked an automatic fine for “offending the head of state”, the president is now reduced to the same category as ministers and parliamentarians and would need to have a judge prove there had been slander or defamation. … The offense, which was introduced in 1881 under press freedom regulations (ironically), was punishable until the year 2000 by a jail sentence of between three months and one...

"I hope there will be no decision to allow women to drive at this stage because we have first to respect the wish of the people and the society." — Rawdah Al-Yousif, female "guardianship" activist in Saudi Arabia. Some slaves prefer slavery: “A prominent Saudi female activist,” Emirates 24/7 reported recently, has come out against the decision by Saudi Arabia to lift its ban on women driving cars. Rawdah Al-Yousif complained that campaigns to give women the right to drive , continue despite the clear response by the rulers of this country that any decision to allow women to drive...

<p>I've heard a lot about how horrid the boys were in this case and a lot of apologists for the girl and her disgraceful conduct.</p> <p>How would you like your son to be tried in the atmosphere that existed in Steubenville?</p>

An 'unflattering' picture of Beyoncé performing at the Super Bowl's halftime show has transformed into a fully-fledged meme; one to rival McKayla Maroney's now-iconic 'Not Impressed' scowl. After Beyoncé's publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, emailed Buzzfeed earlier this week to ask that the site 'respectfully change' several images of her client to 'some better photos' from the halftime show, her attempt backfired in epic proportions. Buzzfeed published the email, and in the Internet phenomenon known as the Streisand Effect, one image in particular circulated so virulently it became an instant meme.

Sarah Palin will spend her Friday evening at a picnic in rural Missouri where she'll serve food with Sarah Steelman, aiming to give the former state treasurer a final leg up in one of the country's hottest primary races for U.S. Senate. Mrs. Steelman has spent the last few months in a fierce three-way battle for the GOP nomination with former Rep. Todd Akin and St. Louis businessman John Brunner. The winner will face Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in the fall. With only a few days left before Tuesday's primary, the candidates are canvassing the state...

Adam Smith, former CFO and treasurer of medical supplies manufacturer Vante, riled people up today when he put up a video of himself bullying a Chick-fil-A drive-thru employee in Tucson on YouTube. Smith unsympathetically berates the worker in the video, which was initially titled ”Reduce $’s to Chick-Fil-A’s Hate Groups.” It has since been taken down (though other have uploaded it too). ”I’m a nice guy, by the way … totally heterosexual," he says to the worker. "Not a gay in me, I just can’t stand the hate.” Smith has now been fired from his job at Vante. Here's the...

I don’t know about you, but when I want articles on women that read like bitter Summer’s Eve scripts, I turn to Newsweek. Under the editorial control of Tina Brown, the rice paper magazine barely struggles against its bias towards conservative women to view them with anything other than contempt. Check out Newsweek’s latest cover, which they happily Tweeted out minutes ago:

Vancouver, WA — Amid growing speculation, a Vancouver woman who made international headlines for reporting that a black woman threw acid in her face confessed to police today that the attack was self-inflicted. At a press conference this afternoon, Vancouver Police Department officials said they served a search warrant this morning at a residence where Bethany Storro was staying and took several items. Upon questioning Storro about what they found, police said she confessed the attack was a hoax.

JUSTICE IS SWEET !!

can't believe this was on ABC TV video here

Scientists have shown that feeding a simple polyamine called spermidine to worms, fruit flies and yeast significantly prolongs their lifespan. In addition, adding spermidine to the diet of mice decreased molecular markers of ageing, and when human immune cells were cultured in a medium containing spermidine, they also lived for longer.Spermidine - a simple linear molecule found in large quantities in human sperm and grapefruit - is known to be necessary for cell growth and maturation, and as cells age their level of spermidine is know to fall. Now, Frank Madeo from the University of Graz in Austria and his colleagues have shown...

Headline: 'Muslim United Army' claims responsibility for Karachi blasts KARACHI: After a passage of two days, a relatively unknown organisation - the "Muslim United Army" -- has claimed responsibility for the blasts at the petrol pumps of two oil companies and warned the government that if it continued to take anti-Mujahideen-e-Islam steps, then the outfit will launch massive attacks. Low intensity explosive devices rocked 21 gas stations of Shell Pakistan and Caltex, situated in the nine towns of the city in the early hours of May 15 (Thursday). However, the blasts did not cause any major damage or loss of...