Free Republic

With all of the past, present, and future "damage" that leftists, both within the U.S. and all over the entire world, have and will successfully create upon everybody, how can conservatives, from all over the entire world, successfully "fix" all of the short-term damage and all of the long-term damage on all of the issues and for always? This is the definitive question that seriously needs to be brainstormed to the best of abilities! It will definitely be much more difficult to even communicate with each other soon enough, after leftists successfully suppress all non-leftist activities for as long as...

Anyone else experiencing weird things with FR or is it just my computer?

WASHINGTON – U.S. policy to win in Afghanistan must recognize the poor nation's limitations and its neighborhood, especially its intertwined relationship with U.S. terrorism-fighting ally Pakistan, the top U.S. military commander in the region said Thursday. Army Gen. David Petraeus, who became a household name overseeing the war in Iraq, now oversees the older, smaller and less promising fight in Afghanistan as well. He predicted a long war in Afghanistan, without quantifying it.

Wellington, New Zealand -- A second new study points to the link between abortion and subsequent mental health problems for the women who have them. This new study, conducted by a New Zealand professor, comes after American researchers released their own study connecting abortion with numerous negative aftereffects. Researchers at Otago University reported their findings in the British Journal of Psychiatry and found that women who have abortions have an increased risk of developing mental health problems. The study found that women who had abortions had rates of mental health problems about 30% higher than other women. The conditions most...

Several callers to the Moon Griffon program, a statewide news/talk radio show that airs Monday through Friday in Louisiana, reported that they were unable to cast a vote in the United States Senate race this morning. Incumbent Mary Landrieu (D-New Orleans) is seeking a 3rd term. She is being challenged by Republican state treasurer John Kennedy. Landrieu has been elected twice in close elections.

The left's months-long assault on the film "An American Carol" has been shameful, albeit not a surprise. They've used lots of different techniques and tactics in this assault. This morning, we received news of another one: I thought you'd be interested to know that in Santa Monica, there were theatres showing American Carol over the weekend, but they didn't put the title on the marquee. Also heard that a projectionist in Santa Monica showed it off--center on the screen. The same person said that her friend's ticket didn't even have the name of the movie printed on it. I...

What a bunch of whiners we are! (Part 2) In What a bunch of whiners we are, I reported on some really shameful poll numbers describing an America where people think things are just soooooooo terrible. I tried to get the point across that things are NOT so terrible, and that we should all stop whining. Apparently, America didn't get the message, otherwise Mr. I'll give you hope and change never mind what it will be I said change damn it change wouldn't be riding so high in the polls.So let me say it again. The fact that Jen wasn't...

Where in the world can we do the most good? Supplying the micronutrients vitamin A and zinc to 80 percent of the 140 million children who lack them in developing countries is ranked as the highest priority by the expert panel at the Copenhagen Consensus 2008 Conference. The cost is $60 million per year, yielding benefits in health and cognitive development of over $1 billion. Eight leading economists, including five Nobelists, were asked to prioritize 30 different proposed solutions to ten of the world's biggest problems. The proposed solutions were developed by more than 50 specialist scholars over the past...

Mobile phone use linked to behavioural problems in children By David Thomas Last Updated: 12:06AM BST 19/05/2008 The children of mothers who use mobile phones while pregnant are more likely to develop behavioural problems, new research suggests. A study of more than 13,000 children in Denmark claims to show a link between use of handheld telephones by pregnant women and problems such as hyperactivity in their children. The risks are increased if the child then uses a mobile themselves before the age of seven, according to the report to be published in the journal Epidemiology. The study raises renewed questions...

Nemtsov begins by pointing out that Putin enjoyed an average oil price more than double what Yeltsin had to work with, five times greater in recent months, and that Putin has not used any of the oil windfall to “carry out economic reforms, create a modern army, and establish public health and pension systems.” All but the economy, he says, have degraded, and the economy has merely been “stabilized through a stroke of luck” having nothing to do with Putin. He shows that there were already clear signs of recovery before Putin came to power, and argues convincingly that the...

SACRAMENTO – California's first inspection of slot machines at Indian casinos has found widespread software lapses that could be short-changing tribes, the state and millions of gamblers, the state's gambling commission warns in a new report. State inspectors approved just 60 percent of the slots that were examined last year at seven casinos, which included some of the most successful and sophisticated in the nation. But tribal representatives and commission staff members disagreed sharply about the severity of the software shortcomings flagged in nearly 500 machines examined at the casinos, including those operated by the Pala, Pauma and Viejas tribes...

More election clerks are heading to Benson to help relieve long lines and wait times at the polls. Callers to the News 4 Newsroom have complained of two to three hour waits. Elections Officer Tom Shelling tells News 4, two more clerks have been added to the staff there, with two more on the way. That's a grand total of ten clerks. New voting regulations require polling places to have at least 2,000 registered voters each under their jurisdiction, says Shelling. That means many smaller polling places had to consolidate, and Shelling says they weren't quite ready for the rush....

SIERRA VISTA — Long lines and not enough poll workers at one presidential preference polling place in Cochise County are leading officials to find more help, County Elections Officer Tom Schelling said. Precinct 13 at the Sierra Vista United Methodist Church was experiencing problems in processing people who are showing up to vote, Schelling said late Tuesday morning. Only one person was available to check if people are authorized to vote at the polling place at 3225 S. St. Andrews Drive, he said. “We’re trying to find more people to help,” he said. One man left the church’s area claiming...

Article begins with some anecdotal accounts of budget problems in a variety of cities. Then there are these paragraphs: "...The mortgage crisis cuts into tax revenue in several ways. The most obvious victim is property tax collection. Homeowners in foreclosure don't pay taxes on time. And as foreclosures spread, property values drop -- dragging down assessments and collections. To take one example: In wealthy Fairfax County, Va., property values were jumping 20% a year. Now values are flat or falling. The number of foreclosures has exploded, from fewer than 200 two years ago to about 4,000 this year. The resulting...

In our daily business, good and bad seems to come our way and we definitely need a solution for all issues and to talk with someone about these issues.

In a study published in May, researchers at Harvard and McGill Universities reported that participants who slept after playing this game scored significantly higher on a retest than those who did not sleep. While asleep they apparently figured out what they didn’t while awake... “We think what’s happening during sleep is that you open the aperture of memory and are able to see this bigger picture,” said the study’s senior author, Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist who is now at the University of California, Berkeley. He added that many such insights occurred “only when you enter this wonder-world of sleep.” Scientists...

LONDON - Some of the assertions in Al Gore's Oscar-winning environmental documentary are not supported by scientific evidence, a British judge said in ruling on a challenge from a school official who did not want the film shown to students. The ruling was published Wednesday and it detailed High Court Judge Michael Burton's decision this month to allow film showings to go ahead in English secondary schools. But the judge said that written guidance to teachers designed to ensure Gore's views are not presented uncritically must accompany the showings. Burton said he had no doubt the points raised in "An...

MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota officials were warned as early as 1990 that the bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River was "structurally deficient," yet they relied on patchwork repairs and stepped-up inspections that unraveled amid a thunderous plunge of concrete and automobiles. "We thought we had done all we could," state bridge engineer Dan Dorgan told reporters not far from the mangled remains of the span. "Obviously something went terribly wrong." Questions about the cause of the collapse and whether it could have been prevented arose Thursday as authorities shifted from rescue efforts to a grim recovery operation, searching for bodies...

WASHINGTON - It won't be a summer of love for Howard Dean, with peace and understanding in short supply. The Democratic National Committee chairman faces several formidable challenges. Some states are determined to move up the dates of their presidential primaries despite the potential for upending the nomination process, and the party's convention in Denver in 2008 is already dealing with nettlesome labor and financial woes. Dean's biggest test will come next year when the DNC will primarily serve as a shadow campaign operation for the party's presidential nominee. But first he must contend with Florida, whose decision to push...

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2007 – As he finishes his tour in Iraq this week, the senior U.S. military official in charge of training the Iraqi police and army offered a candid assessment of the coalition-led training regimen: significant challenges remain, but progress in key areas has been realized. Army Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, commander of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, has spent almost three of the last four years in Iraq. Looking back on the development of the Iraqi army, local police and national police over that time, he said the shifts in those institutions’ growth curves have...