Free Republic

Americans feel government doesn’t serve them, their voice isn’t heard. Most solutions focus on the next political battle. While short-term battles are important, we need long-term solutions more profound than better policies, politicians or parties; we need a better political system. Technology has been blamed for our current political environment; for social and economic disruption that led to disaffection, for spreading fake news. Well-designed technology offers the best chance of creating the political system needed: more participatory, responsive, informed democracy. It just hasn’t been built yet. Silicon Valley invested billions designing technology to improve industries; commerce, communications, travel, transportation. Less...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2008 – The transport of more than 1,800 Georgian soldiers from Iraq to Tbilisi and humanitarian supplies from Germany to Georgia highlights the flexibility and responsiveness the U.S. military manifests, a senior U.S. Transportation Command officer said today. “When this requirement came up, we had to figure out how do we make this happen quickly,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael C. Gould, TransCom’s director of operations and plans, aid in an interview today. “We had to get the Georgian troops back, and sustain what we have going in Iraq and Afghanistan.” When the Russians attacked into South...

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2007 – A senior defense official today credited decisive action by the Iraqi government with helping to prevent last week’s bombing at the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, from escalating into widespread sectarian violence. Bryan Whitman, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, cited the Iraqi government’s “very positive response to a very tragic incident.” Two near-simultaneous explosions on June 13 destroyed two minarets at the mosque, one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq. An investigation is continuing to identify the perpetrators, Whitman said. A previous attack on the mosque, in February 2006, set off widespread...

Something disturbing happened five hundred miles above China on January 11th. An old Chinese weather satellite was in orbit, and then, quite abruptly, it wasn't. Or, rather, if it was, it was no longer in one piece, and if it had been in any way operational before, it certainly wasn't afterward. United States Air Force tracking radars will now have a more challenging job, to track all of the debris that's large enough to track. American intelligence agencies believe that it was destroyed by a weapon fired from Xichang, a major launch facility in Sichuan, China. While details remain classified,...

There are a number of "churches" represented out there. What are your thoughts on this: it's not a "denominationally bound" question. It applies to all groups. 1. How to withhold money? First, the larger the group withholding, the better. Second, if you just give it to some other church agency or group from your denomination, the leadership will just funnel that money to the general fund. To truly withhold you need to either put the money in some personal escrow account or spend it for God according to your understanding of His interests. Notice that this is not a recommendation...