Free Republic

had planned to comment today about Wednesday’s GOP debate. But after watching it I thought, “What’s the use in devoting a whole column to it when it can be summed up in a couple of paragraphs?” The military-industrial complex should feel secure. Regardless of which faux-conservative takes the nomination, more money to the MIC and more wars are in our future. For a while there, I wasn’t sure whether I was watching a campaign for U.S. president or Israel prime minister; and for some of the candidates I’m still not sure (Huckabee, Cruz, Rubio, Christie, particularly). But overall, there was...

 I had moths, I called the kids, "I'm bombing." They STILL laugh about it, I have my own NSA file having used the b.o.m.b. word on the phone. Hillary must have "an exclusive understanding" with the spooks. She's not worried. You know full well, there's no way we'll ever hear anything about what Hillary personally, directly did with the e-mails, certainly no one will admit to any directions she gave."A former insider at the World Bank, ex-Senior Counsel Karen Hudes, says the global financial system is dominated by a small group of corrupt, power-hungry figures centered around the privately owned U.S. Federal...

Third annual 300 Man March held in wake of recent violenceBALTIMORE —Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Baltimore Friday night calling for an end to the violence that has plagued the city in recent months.Those who marched are the dedicated foot soldiers of Baltimore's constant war on violence. Friday night marked the third annual 300 Men March, a shoulder-to-shoulder showing of Baltimore unity against what has plagued the city for years. "This year's march is simply about the 12 young children that have been murdered in our city this year," said Baltimore City Councilman Brandon Scott, D-District 2.

I was in a government threat briefing recently and they brought up the "Sovreign Citizen" movement as a threat even before islamic extreamism. I had never heard of Sovreign Citizen, but I surely have heard and seen the destruction by islamic exremists. Am I missing something? Are these Sovreign Citizens just labels being tagged to TEA Party members? I am just suspicious that the greatest security threat in the USA is a group I have never heard of. Can anyone fill me in on this?

LONDON (CNN) - The Sunday Assembly was riding high. The world’s most voguish - though not its only - atheist church opened last year in London, to global attention and abundant acclaim. So popular was the premise, so bright the promise, that soon the Sunday Assembly was ready to franchise, branching out into cities such as New York, Dublin and Melbourne. “It’s a way to scale goodness,” declared Sanderson Jones, a standup comic and co-founder of The Sunday Assembly, which calls itself a “godless congregation.” But nearly as quickly as the Assembly spread, it split, with New York City emerging...

The unbelieving world will always do “cool” better than the Church. When the Church adopts coolness and relevance as its corporate values, it slavishly agrees to follow, lagging always one step behind the world. (This is why Christian music always ends up ripping off the sounds and styles of their secular counterparts, while Christian film always has a cheesy “cringe factor”).

As seen on America Live With Megyn Kelly On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled House voted to impose a nationwide ban on abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy. The measure, however, will not be considered by the Democrat-led Senate, and President Obama has said he would veto it. Democrats criticized Republicans for what they see as a new attack on abortion rights. In a recent MSNBC panel discussion on the bill, University of Pennsylvania professor Salamisha Tillet suggested that this is a racial issue. She expressed the possibility that Republicans support abortion bans so that white women will keep having babies, thereby...

Brad DeLong points me to this National Review attack on Nate Silver, which I think of as illustrating an important aspect of what’s really happening in America. For those new to this, Nate is a sports statistician turned political statistician, who has been maintaining a model that takes lots and lots of polling data — most of it at the state level, which is where the presidency gets decided — and converts it into election odds. Like others doing similar exercises — Drew Linzer, Sam Wang, and Pollster — Nate’s model continued to show an Obama edge even after Denver,...

When only macadamia–based cheese will do for that late-night craving, a new luxury condo on New York’s Lower East Side delivers: the Madison Jackson has been “designed to support a vegetarian or vegan organic lifestyle,” offering prospective tenants 24-hour organic vegetarian room service, organic dry cleaning and an on-site juice bar, “for those who get kale cravings at 2 a.m.” The “vegan condo” will also offer in-house nutritional counselling, craniosacral therapy and Jivamukti yoga, which combines hatha yoga with meditation and stresses veganism and environmentalism. “We have many people who are health conscious,” Michael Bolla, the building’s developer, told DNAinfo.com....

President Obama's re-election team on Monday rolled out a campaign to recruit two million supporters to help debunk attacks on the president's record and hit back at his Republican rivals. Called the "Truth Team," the new effort will engage Obama supporters online and in person, encouraging them to communicate with undecided voters about the president's record. "People don't just want to hear from campaign statements or ads -- they want to hear from the family and friends they trust," Stephanie Cutter, Mr. Obama's deputy campaign manager, wrote in an email to supporters. Obama for America, the president's re-election team, will...

– "the President Took a Great Step Forward for the Whole Country in Kansas" One of the Communist Party USA‘s leading economic commentators John Case, has come out in support of President Barack Obama‘s recent agenda setting speech at Osawatomie High School in Kansas. Case sees the speech for what it was – a signal to Obama’s “progressive” base that the president will fight next year’s election from the left, on a program of government jobs schemes, guided investment, increased union power , and amped up state direction of the economy in the interests of reducing “inequality”. » If you...

Commerce: The U.S. has slipped again in world rankings that assess the ease of starting a new business. If we're to bring down our stubbornly high unemployment rate, this trend has to be reversed. According to the World Bank's "Doing Business 2012" report, America is 13th among 183 countries ranked in the "Starting a Business" category. In the 2011 report, the U.S. ranked 11th. The year before, it was No. 8. In 2009, the U.S. was ranked No. 6. It was fourth in 2008 and third in 2007. In the 2012 ranking, the U.S trailed such job creators as Macedonia,...

YOUR dad just lost one of his jokes. Powdered water – a favourite among many bad dad jokes involving improbable concepts such as flameproof matches, inflatable dartboards and glow-in-the-dark sunglasses – is now a reality. And not only is it not funny anymore, it may also save the planet from global warming. In science circles, it's known as "dry water" and it seems those circles have kept it to themselves for quite a while, because it was actually discovered back in 1968, then forgotten about. It was even "rediscovered" in 2006, purely for study purpose, but it's taken a group...

I once worked for an editor who banned the word "oxymoron." I don't know why. It's a good word, meaning a contradiction in terms. The dictionary offers some examples: "wise fool" and "legal murder." I would like to cite another: Barack Obama. He sends contradictory messages.This aspect of Obama's is beginning to play a crucial role in his management of the economy. The fact remains, no matter what Obama says -- and almost no matter what he does -- the business community deeply feels that he is unsympathetic to them and their goals. They say all they want to do...

Wisconsin's labor vote effort may have failed to displace Prosser, but that's only one plank of the Democratic program to mobilize their base. So far the theme is labor, women and blacks. Wisconsin kicked the labor unions into high gear, which is important as it locks down part of a potential swing vote. Now comes rhetoric about Republicans waging a war on women. There is “a war on women,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says. No there isn't, but there is a war for the female vote. Hitting Republicans on social services cuts. Putting abortion front and center. New DNC...

A document from the House ethics committee lists an examination into whether the chamber's rules were violated when Rep. Linda T. Sanchez put three legislative aides to her fellow-congresswoman sister on her payroll after an embezzlement scheme had left Rep. Loretta Sanchez's office short of funds. The document, a July tracking report obtained by The Washington Post, says that the sisters, both California Democrats, "shared transferred staff from one office to another after embezzlement," and that a meeting between lawyers for the ethics committee and the congresswomen had taken place June 1. The document also says that lawyers for the...

The Abkhazian wing of the Georgian Orthodox Church is seeking full independence from its neighbor. After the conflict between the two in the ‘90s, it’s been hoping for church freedom and counts on Russia’s support. Nothing seems to have changed in a small church in the town of Novy Afon since the Abkhazian wing split from the Georgian Orthodox church. Father Vissarion Allia is an active supporter of the Church’s self-rule. Together with local worshippers he would like to see the parishes under the temporary control of Moscow since the republic has been recognised by Russia, eventually leading to a...

What follows is a letter written by a retired military Officer to Barbara Boxer. Please give it your widest dissemination. (I searched key word and title BEFORE posting and came up empty,) Babs: You were so right on when you scolded the general on TV for using the term, “ma’am,” instead of “Senator.” After all, in the military, “ma’am” is a term of respect when addressing a female of superior rank or position. The general was totally wrong. You are not a person of superior rank or position. You are a member of one of the world’s most corrupt organizations,...

The first time I learned about the practice I was horrified. It was the mid-1990s. The source was Sharon Dunsmore, a nurse in a hospital NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) who wrote a small booklet about the experience. One day on the job she had been summoned “stat” to the delivery room to deal with an “oops abortion”—a failed abortion in which the baby unexpectedly survived, or, as Dunsmore quoted the pediatrician on the scene, “had the audacity to survive.” The team struggled as to whether to continue intubating the child—now a little boy, not a “fetus”—who clearly was not...

You are the Democratic candidate for president. You want to reach out to Catholics. So what do you do when the majority of the elected officials on your National Catholic Advisory Council have the seal of approval from NARAL Pro-Choice America? That's the position Barack Obama now finds himself in. A few months ago, his Catholic advisory council was announced with great enthusiasm, and Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) was listed as a national co-chair. His appearance at the top of the council sent a clear message: This campaign is determined to recover some of the lost Democratic sheep who...