Free Republic

What if Mike Pence: Assessed his own political status as 2021 neared its end? Considered his bravery on Jan. 6 and wants it as part of his legacy? Looks ahead with dread to a Donald Trump nomination in 2024? Believes in New Year’s resolutions? L If any or all of these scenarios ring true, Pence is going to do the right thing early in 2022 by announcing his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, emphasizing that his party needs to get rid of Trump and campaigning immediately to restore Republicans to sanity.

We're taking Larry deer hunting this weekend. After 35 years in the woods with Larry, sadly, this will be our last together. After 40 years at the same job, he finally had enough and retired this past spring. He's a mere 62 years old. He left his job on a Friday and started his new job the next Monday. Working at a local golf course. Cutting grass, doing maintenance, free lunch everyday and free golf on Mondays. He was in heaven. About three months ago, his eyesight was suddenly failing him. The eye doctor said that there was something affecting...

The Road to Hell is Paved With…Indifference. A Meditation on a Warning by Jesus By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe Gospel from today’s Mass (Tuesday of the 31st week of the year) features the familiar Lucan version of the parable of a certain man (in the Matthew version (Mat 22:2), Jesus calls him a king) who gave a banquet. But when all was prepared and the servants were sent out to fetch the invited guests, many of them made excuses, preferring not to come:The first said to him,‘I have purchased a field and must go to examine it;I ask you, consider...

(Newser) – Jennifer Lawrence may have an Oscar to her name, but she's also winning praise for her singing chops. In the latest Hunger Games movie, Lawrence sings a song called the Hanging Tree that is now No. 2 on the US iTunes chart and threatening to crack the top 40 of Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart. (We'll know Wednesday.) Overseas, the song is No. 12 in Australia and No. 14 in the UK, notes US Weekly.

As the Chinese lunar lander Chang'e 3, carrying the Jade Rabbit rover, voyages to the moon, the question arises what should NASA's response be, aside from congratulations to a rival space power. RESOLVE might just fit the bill. RESOLVE or Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction is designed to prospect for lunar resources mounted on a rover. "RESOLVE includes a drill, a chemical plant (with an oxygen and volatiles extraction node, gas chromatograph, and mass spectrometer), a neutron spectrometer, and a near infrared spectrometer." It has been tested on Earth as part of a joint American/Canadian...

This year another advertisement entered a crowded field, without pomp but predicated on real-world circumstance–Chrysler’s “Halftime in America,” featuring a weathered but resolute Clint Eastwood. He isn’t exactly selling anything in the spot, which is filmed to resemble a political ad if it were produced by Paul Haggis (Eastwood’s collaborator on Million Dollar Baby and the director of Crash). Instead, he aims to jolt, then scold, but ultimately soothe the viewer. First seen walking from the shadows of a hazy football game, he hunches his shoulders walks with a tired grace. Speaking in a voice so gravelly you could walk...

This year another advertisement entered a crowded field, without pomp but predicated on real-world circumstance–Chrysler’s “Halftime in America,” featuring a weathered but resolute Clint Eastwood. He isn’t exactly selling anything in the spot, which is filmed to resemble a political ad if it were produced by Paul Haggis (Eastwood’s collaborator on Million Dollar Baby and the director of Crash). Instead, he aims to jolt, then scold, but ultimately soothe the viewer. First seen walking from the shadows of a hazy football game, he hunches his shoulders walks with a tired grace. Speaking in a voice so gravelly you could walk...

Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said Tuesday that the United States can successfully attack Iran, if necessary. His biggest worry is that Iran will "miscalculate our resolve. Dempsey, speaking to CNN during a worldwide tour, spoke one day after Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta warned that the American government will not allow Iran to produce a nuclear weapon. He said that if Iran continues to enrich high-grade uranium, it could produce a nuclear weapon within a year, an estimate formerly given by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. "My biggest worry is they [Iran] will miscalculate...

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald today said he's not going to let Democrats debate the budget repair bill "ad nauseum" when they return from self-imposed exile. Senate Republicans engrossed the bill today, rendering it unamendable as Dems continue to boycott a vote. For now, Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, says his caucus' attention has turned to the state budget while exploring ways to persuade Dems to come home. After Sen. Dale Schultz declined to offer an amendment on the floor, Fitzgerald said he still has 18 solid Republican votes ready to support the repair bill. There are 19 in the GOP caucus. "We're...

Have you forgotten how it felt that day? To see your homeland under fire And her people blown away Have you forgotten when those towers fell? We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden Have you forgotten? -- Darryl Whorley, "Have you forgotten?"

FORT GORDON, Ga., Oct. 8, 2009 – A sudden accident may have cost Army Staff Sgt. Luis Elias his hand, but it hasn't stripped him of his positive attitude or impacted his plans for the future. Army Staff Sgt. Luis Elias performs a push-up. The soldier is receiving treatment at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center Active Duty Rehabilitation Unit in Augusta, Ga. U.S. Army photo by Charmain Z. Brackett  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "Hopefully, in about a month or so, I'll be back to being a drill sergeant," said Elias, who is receiving treatment at the Charlie...

Eight Years On [Mark Steyn] No dynamic culture can stand still, so we shouldn't be surprised that fewer and fewer people, from the president down, find it harder and harder to remember quite what "the day that changed the world" was all about. Nevertheless, there is unfinished business — starting with that hole in the ground in lower Manhattan. As James Lileks says: That we couldn’t stand there eight years ago was their fault. That we cannot stand there today is ours. At Ground Zero and in that field in Pennsylvania, we broke faith with the dead. What a small...

Looking for Taibbi’s article on the healthcare reform bill out this week and came across his latest blog post on Truth Slant: “I’ll say this for George Bush: you’d never have caught him frantically negotiating against himself to take the meat out of a signature legislative initiative just because his approval ratings had a bad summer. Can you imagine Bush and Karl Rove allowing themselves to be paraded through Washington on a leash by some dimwit Republican Senator of a state with six people in it the way the Obama White House this summer is allowing Max Baucus (favorite son...

Arlen Specter’s announcement this week of his plans to switch to the Democrat side of the aisle is sending shockwaves throughout the country. No one is surprised as to the motives behind the defection, as Pennsylvania conservatives’ ire over Senator Specter and his big government leanings are very well-known. These tensions were headed to a breaking point in advance of Specter’s 2010 re-election bid and the switch was necessary to keep his hopes of political survival alive. It is in how the GOP responds to this bombshell however that will dictate its impact on the future of the conservative limited...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Friday the U.S. government was moving aggressively to address the financial markets crisis, but he acknowledged that anxiety was feeding on itself as stocks continued to plunge. "The United States government is acting; we will continue to act to resolve this crisis and restore stability to our markets," Bush said in an eight-and-a-half minute statement in the White House Rose Garden aimed at calming Americans' growing fears. The credit markets have remained largely frozen despite coordinated interest rate cuts by central banks and government intervention to safeguard deposits and provide additional...

It's clear what major liberal media outlets such as the New York Times and CNN, driven by their more unhinged counterparts on the left end of the blogosphere, are trying to do. They are slinging as much manure as they can wallow in at Sarah Palin, John McCain's choice to run with him as the GOP's vice presidential nominee, hoping enough of it will stick to force McCain to pull a McGovern. Some of the us older hands remember very well the campaign of 1972. The Democrats' presidential nominee George McGovern had at the last minute picked Tom Eagleton, a...

PATROL BASE JURF AS SAHKR — More than 1,500 members of the Sons of Iraq program met Coalition forces, July 10 - 15, to discuss current security issues in Jurf as Sahkr and receive their monthly pay. Soldiers from Company A, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, visited each SoI checkpoint to gain a better understanding of each area of responsibility. “It was great to be able to talk to each individual checkpoint as a group and ensure they understand the importance of their job in making Iraq a safe place,” said Staff Sgt....

Iraq War: Gen. David Petraeus made it clear enough: We are winning this war, but we need to keep troops in Iraq because the job isn't done. But Democrats don't get it. To them, success means only one thing: leaving."We haven't turned any corners, we haven't seen any lights at the end of the tunnel," Petraeus told Congress on Tuesday. "The champagne bottle has been pushed to the back of the refrigerator. And the progress, while real, is fragile and is reversible." In that one statement, Petraeus showed why the Democratic preoccupation with withdrawal is as naive as it is...

A Republican candidate for Congress in the 11th district told the Times-News on Tuesday that he foresees the United States having a presence in Iraq for an indeterminate amount of time. Highlands attorney John Armor said the troop surge in Iraq is working. He believes the country can start to withdraw troops "in a few years" and only needs to maintain a "tripwire" level of troops in the country, similar to Germany during the Cold War. "You keep tripwire troops," Armor said. "It used to be until the Soviet Union fell that we kept troops in Europe not so much...

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. (Applause.) General Metcalf, thanks, thanks for welcoming me back here. I am really pleased to be back to Wright-Patt, and it's great to be on the inside of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, which is a fabulous place. I hope our fellow citizens come and see it. It is a great tribute to the airmen who've flown the missions and secured the skies, and defended America's freedom. I want to thank the folks who maintain this shrine. I thank you for giving me a place to park Air Force...