Free Republic

One of the people who tore down the Thomas Jefferson statue was a 33-year-old white Portlander who happened upon the statue's removal by accident. He planned to attend a rally at Jefferson High, but ran an hour late. Most of the crowd had left. Key part from interview with anonymous man (identity concealed by the newspaper) below: WW: Why was this important enough to risk arrest? Portland man: I felt like I knew I wouldn't be. Maybe because I'm white. It just felt it was the moment. Like, everyone was there together. It was a joyous moment. It didn't...

Nick Clifford, the last remaining carver of Mount Rushmore, has died at the age of 98. A source close to the family has told us Clifford passed away Saturday morning. A family member confirmed the death. Clifford was the last living carver of Mount Rushmore for last 12 years. During the summers it wasn't unusual for people to see him at the memorial greeting tourists and signing copies of his book.

We cannot undo America's sordid history, but we can at least take down the monuments glorifying it. In the wake of the recent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville against the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, confederate monuments are coming down all over the country. Protesters in Durham, North Carolina toppled a statue put up by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1924. The mayor of Baltimore had the city's Confederate statues removed under the cloak of night. And yesterday, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams called for the 90 foot bas relief sculpture of three Confederate generals to...

How does our non-biased, non-partisan MSM celebrate Father’s Day? Let’s take a look.At NBC Catherine Buni and Soraya Chemaly report on the sad sack state of girls today, and blame…that’s right, the patriarchy. This Father's Day, dads need listen to why their daughters are so angry — and join the fight Around the country, fathers are waking up to their daughters’ experiences in an era when anger is arguably the most logical response a girl can have to what is happening around her.Because while women have historically had plenty of reasons to be frustrated, teenagers today are, Pew Research Center studies...

The economy is roaring, the courts are turning right and trade wars are not producing defeats. As the president’s approval rating creeps up, is it all going right for Republicans? A strong economy with joblessness at its lowest rate for nearly half a century. A new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. Hopes of peace in the Korean peninsula. No major terrorist attacks on the homeland. A week that began with cheers at the White House for a new supreme court justice and ended with the release of an American pastor from jail in Turkey. An alien who landed in...

Former FBI Director James Comey said Monday he took inspiration from a visit to Mount Rushmore in a brief message sent amid a chaotic day of headlines that included an order from President Trump to declassify Comey's text messages related to the Russia investigation. "Enjoyed today’s visit: An inspiring reminder that we always emerge stronger from hard times," Comey tweeted along with a photo in front of the memorial in South Dakota. Comey, who was fired in May 2017 and regularly tweets both subtle and overt criticisms of Trump, sent his latest message a short time after the president ordered...

More than ever, old monuments to famous white American men are being threatened in the name of progress. Naturally, this has become a rallying cry on the far right, with plenty of encouragement from the most powerful man in the world. At the same unhinged press conference in which Donald Trump again blamed both sides for the deadly violence in Charlottesville last weekend, he also painted a picture of a slippery slope where those fighting for the removal of Confederate statues today might be destroying tributes to more mainstream slave-owning icons like George Washington tomorrow. He lamented this prospect once...

If the Left takes follows the course of its own logic, then there’s one landmark they should want to blow up ASAP — besides Stone Mountain. It’s Mount Rushmore. All four presidents carved into stone on the mountain would be called white supremacists today. So it would make sense for our progressive nation to wipe them from the face of the landmark. Let’s start with Washington. He owned slaves. He approved the Naturalization Act of 1790 that restricted citizenship to “free white men.” He also earned the nickname “Town Destroyer” from the Iroquois for he fought against Indian tribes. Jefferson...

The story behind a plaque at Mount Rushmore explaining the history of the United States of America with quite a Christian flavor would probably surprise many people. President Calvin Coolidge met the artist Gutzon Borglum who prompted him to dedicate the site for a carving of four president's busts in the 1920's. Coolidge helped to raise funds and was even present as the cornerstone was laid and said, “We have come here to dedicate a cornerstone laid by the hand of the Almighty. …The union of these four presidents carved on the face of the everlasting Black Hills of South...

What’s the textbook definition of “detached” from reality? Georgia Democrat Hank Johnson recently told the media that Executive Amnesty will someday be viewed in the same historical context, if not lauded with equal adulation, as the Emancipation Proclamation. Excuse me? How does pardoning millions of trespassers, those who defiantly broke the law, equate to freeing millions who were brought here as cargo and left to languish and die under the vile auspices of slavery? How utterly myopic, insulting, and yes, detached from any sense of reality or decency! Is it therefore of any surprise this same cultist proclaimed that Barack...

An imaging project is designed to help save the iconic Mount Rushmore from the effects of weather, physical erosion and more... I always have been fascinated by the Mount Rushmore National Memorial (Keystone, S.D.); ever since noted New York Times Magazine photographer Sam Falk gave me an image he took of Gutzon Borglum’s sculpture. When Falk presented me with his photograph in the 1960s, little did anyone realize that the effects of erosion—although not yet readily apparent—already had taken hold. Carving of the monument actually began in 1927 and finally was completed in 1941. Although jurisdiction over Mount Rushmore was...

Tax-paying, hard-working families aren’t letting White House shutdown politics stop them from enjoying America’s beauty. They’re defying the orange cones at Mount Rushmore. They’re breaching the barrycades at Zion National Park. And now, the Badlands of South Dakota. Noelle Bruno tweets that she and her family made it through Mount Rushmore despite the White House obstacles:

And now the feds have put up cones to keep people out of scenic overlooks on Mount Rushmore.

According to a survey of George Washington University professors, some 30 percent generally endorse the eventual addition of President Barack Obama’s face to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. The survey, conducted and reported by The College Fix, is hampered by an extremely limited sample size. Nonetheless, the results are fascinating. Of the 10 history and political science profs queried, three suggested that Obama may eventually be added to the huge sculpture of four enormous presidential heads carved into the granite face of a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

TCM is continuing its weekend of great movies by following their present airing on "Ben-Hur" with MGM's other big hit of 1959: Alfred Hitchcock's "North By Northwest"- One of my 2 favorite Hitchcock films("Vertigo" is the other) and my favorite of his 4 with Mr. Grant.

April 14, 1999, Wednesday COMMITTEE HEARING SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS: SUBCOMMITTEE ON NEAR EASTERN AND SOUTH U.S. SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS) HOLDS HEARING ON THE CRISIS IN AFGANISTAN  WASHINGTON, D.C. SPEAKERS: U.S. SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS), CHAIRMAN U.S. SENATOR JOHN ASHCROFT (R-MO) U.S. SENATOR GORDON H. SMITH (R-OR) U.S. SENATOR ROD GRAMS (R-MN) U.S. SENATOR CRAIG THOMAS (R-WY) U.S. SENATOR PAUL DAVID WELLSTONE (D-MN), RANKING MEMBER U.S. SENATOR ROBERT G. TORRICELLI (D-NJ) U.S. SENATOR PAUL S. SARBANES (D-MD) U.S. SENATOR CHRISTOPHER J. DODD (D-CT) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DANA ROHRABACHER (R-CA) THE HONORABLE KARL F. INDERFURTH ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SOUTH ...

Mt. Rushmore to be redesigned in keeping with the new direction of the country.

Washington—After usurping Americans’ liberty, Congress will make a historic and unprecedented vote in placing Barack Obama on Mount Rushmore. The vote is expected to take place after Obama’s historic State of the Union address in February—where he will surely rally Americans to the cause of government run healthcare. It appears that putting Obama on Mount Rushmore isn’t even a question. The problem lies in whom does Congress vote off the rock? The majority of Congress agrees that far too many Americans recognize George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but many aren’t up to speed on the other two. The Congressional feeling...

Why let a holiday season come between the White House and making some political statements? The White House pegged controversial designer Simon Doonon to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House. Mr. Doonon, who is creative director of Barney’s New York has often caused a stir with his design choices. Like his naughty yuletide window display of Margaret Thatcher as a dowdy dominatrix and Dan Quayle as a ventriloquist’s dummy. For this year’s White House, he didn’t disappoint.These photos of ornaments on the White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room were taken just days ago. Of course, Mao...