Free Republic

More than 400 restaurants in San Francisco shut their doors in 2019, raising concern for many in the city known for its top-notch cuisine. NBC Bay Area's Sonja Shin reports.

German bathroom manufacturers are developing “multicultural toilets” to help ensure Middle Eastern migrants need not adapt to European sanitation norms. Multiple reports have emerged of recent arrivals finding themselves utterly “mystified” by Western loos. Some have resorted to doing their business on the floor or outdoors, others have used showers, and many migrants will have never seen toilet paper before. The issue caused some serious confusion last year, with one small German village being accused of racism after issuing leaflets politely asking migrants to use to the correct facilities.

The title encompasses all the things that have been irritating me this year. Miley Cyrus -- Freak-a-zoid satan worshiping pop singer with the talent of a 11 year old and body of a unemployed truck driver. Kim Kardashian -- Please tell me why she is famous? Her natural non photoshopped image is that of an upside down lightbulb with boobs. Lindsey Lohan -- Another fake Celebrity living off the tail end of her child hood successes. GOP -- Some fake shadow organization created by the Democrats to mislead us into believing we have a two party system.

Such as it is that most leftists do not realize that the freedoms they have so vocally and stridently advocated for so long — the social freedom to say and do whatever you want, and the economic freedom to avoid meaningful employment — are about to be obliterated.

Artists, they can be so temperamental. Me? I can be temperamental too, but I never thought that I had anything in common with the creative class. However, if the object of this story s truly art, then it appears I may be an artist after all. Check it out. (A GIANT inflatable dog turd by the American artist Paul McCarthy has blown away from an exhibition in the garden of a

DETROIT (AP) -- Three years ago, they lost 119 games and were a punchline. You know, the Detroit Tigers ... ha, ha, ha. Funny game, baseball. The Tigers are the ones laughing loudest now -- and dancing their way to the AL championship series. And the New York Yankees? Well, they're the joke. Jeremy Bonderman was perfect for five innings and sublime for 8 1-3 in leading Detroit to an 8-3 victory in Game 4 on Saturday to win the AL playoff series and eliminate A-Rod, Jeter and the other high-priced, high-profile Yankees. Days removed from being swept by Kansas...

VIENNA, Austria -- Organizers of a campaign trying to clear Vienna's streets of dog droppings urged residents Thursday to record how many turds they see in the space of five minutes and report the figure as part of an impromptu census. The Vienna Dog-Dropping Initiative said it would compile the figures and present them to city officials on Monday as part of its stepped-up effort to pressure the Austrian capital to deal with the problem.

In a letter to US bishops, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger threw his full support behind the few bishops who have said they will deny the Eucharist to Catholic politicians who support legal abortion, according to an Italian press report. The US bishops voted overwhelmingly to take a less rigorous stance. The Italian weekly L'Espresso has reported that Cardinal Ratzinger, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told the American bishops should speak privately with prominent Catholics who defy Church teachings on key issues involving the sanctity of life, alert them to the gravity of their offenses, and...

<p>Public debate on substantive budget issues came to a halt Tuesday as Democrats leaders scrambled to explain why a handful of their members were caught speaking frankly about using the budget crisis to their political advantage.</p> <p>Members of a liberal Democratic group met behind closed doors Monday unaware that a microphone was broadcasting their words throughout the Capitol on about 500 "squawk boxes" that serve legislative offices, lobbyists and reporters.</p>

A federal judge announced Tuesday that two of the main charges filed against a controversial civil rights lawyer accused of helping a terrorist are being dropped. Attorney Lynne Stewart is accused of promoting terrorism by helping one of her clients, convicted terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, pass messages to his associates. A federal judge is dismissing two of the five counts against Stewart on the grounds that the charges she conspired to support a terrorist organization were "unconstitutionally vague." The judge has ordered a hearing on the remaining counts. In response, a spokesman for U.S. District Attorney James Comey released...

Partial transcription from a KRON-TV news report at 11:00 pm Saturday, July 19: DAN KERMAN, KRON reporter (Voice-Over): Democrats have pledged that Davis will be the only Democrat on the ballot. But some think that plays right into the hands of Republicans. VAN JONES, "Police Watch" leftist activist: If the Democrats are going to stay stuck on stupid with Davis, who is a failed governor and hated by everybody, then they're asking the people of California to be in a suicide pact with them... KERMAN (VO): That's why San Francisco activist Van Jones is pushing reformed Republican Arianna Huffington to...

<p>SACRAMENTO - In a state trying to come to terms with the extraordinary prospect of ousting its governor and replacing him with the Terminator, Bay Area activists are stirring things up even more by trying to recruit reformed conservative Arianna Huffington to enter the race as the progressive alternative.</p>

THE LINE ON FEINSTEIN With a recall in California of Gov. Gray Davis all but certain, some Democrats who earlier publicly claimed little interest in running to replace him are privately backing off those promises to the embattled governor. According to several Democratic insiders in California, Sen. Dianne Feinstein has privately expressed a willingness to throw her hat into the ring should the political realities inside the state make it obvious that Davis has little chance of retaining his position. The hedging is probably due in part to the nature of the California recall ballot. In this case voters would...

<p>FORT WORTH, Texas (CNN) -- Outraged by news that troubled American Airlines had planned to give its executives bonuses, flight attendants rescinded their approval of wage cuts and plan to vote again, a union official said late Friday.</p> <p>No date for the new vote was set. Wednesday, the flight attendants agreed to more than $10 billion in wage concessions over six years. The airline had said it would file for bankruptcy protection if the union did not approve the cuts.</p>