Free Republic

In my undergraduate acting classes, we sometimes played a two character theater game called Conflicting Realities. The two actors began with completely different sets of instructions as to the basic nature of the scene. For one actor, the scene might be a two-man submarine bound to a secret rendezvous with instructions vital to the war effort, while, for the other, the scene was a sweltering fifth-floor apartment with an air conditioner that just had to get fixed before company arrived. Such scenes tended not to work out very well. They quickly devolved into mutual accusations of dishonesty or insanity with...

Latter-day Saints themselves are the new face of public relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, several presenters said during last week’s Mormon Media Studies Symposium on BYU’s campus. “The most authentic and transparent ways to dispel myths about the Church is through the lives of our members,” said Joel Campbell, associate professor of communications at BYU. SNIP The two-day conference was the first of its kind and brought together scholars and practitioners to discuss a variety of topics relating to Mormonism and media. SNIP Scott Swofford, who previously coordinated media for the Church and is now...

WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office. Obama's assertion that "I've offered spending cuts above and beyond" the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by "eliminating programs that don't work" masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are — beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2007 – Rebuilding Iraq is like playing “three-dimensional chess in a dark room,” but multinational forces will continue to move forward there, the senior British military representative in Iraq said today. British army Lt. Gen. Graeme Lamb, deputy commander of Multinational Force Iraq, first went to Iraq in 1991. He’s currently serving his fourth term there and has developed an understanding of the country’s complexity, he told reporters in the Pentagon via satellite connection from Iraq. “It’s hard pounding; this is as complex as I’ve ever seen anything I’ve done,” he said. “But ‘hard pounding’ is...

State lawmakers return to Sacramento this week with both a strikingly ambitious agenda for 2007 and an unusually confident, chipper attitude about their ability to get things done. We like their ambitiousness and welcome the seeming pullback from the polarization of recent years. Unfortunately, here's the bad news: The bold talk from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on down is nearly impossible to reconcile with political and fiscal realities. Consider pension reform, the latest addition to 2007's crowded agenda. In appointing a bipartisan commission last week to examine the staggering long-term costs of benefits promised to public employee retirees, the governor expressed...

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) recently issued a press release titled, "Myth Versus Reality." A more accurate title might have been, "Myth Versus PR Response." What’s missing in large measure is the Reality. Media outlets that receive this press release should do some fact checking before presenting it to the public without qualification. Granted it is difficult to address every issue in black and white terms. However, TxDOT has a vested interest in making every pig’s ear of the TTC a silk purse. At CorridorWatch.org our goal is education and to call a pig’s ear a pig’s ear. We...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is learning that getting a major program such as his $222 billion public works plan through the Legislature isn't as simple as the "action, action, action" mantra he is fond of reciting. That's particularly true during an election year and after his popularity nose-dived in 2005, when voters rejected all four of his initiatives during the November special election. Democrats and Republicans have criticized at least some parts of the plan, and administration officials concede it will face changes. "We know there will be dialogue (between the Legislature and governor) that will change the...

It was discovered in Munich, during the 1972 Olympic Games, that terrorists could not be dissuaded from carrying out heinous acts of cold blood against innocents when motivated by ethnic hatred or religious fanaticism. It also became apparent that the rest of the world could and would carry on as though the fedayeen's (men of sacrifice) acts of barbarism were of no particular cause for concern. To emphasize this, The Olympic Games continued with full media coverage after the murder of 11 members of the Israeli team by PLO affiliates referred to as "Black September". Although Israel absolutely refused to...

Engaging in philosophical economics can be very exciting for those with the right charts and graphs, which is why it can be vexing for those who only care about bottom lines. Your ability to explain the superiority of supply-side whatever will only go so far with a businessman whose eye is fixated on his ledger. Moral arguments, let alone nationalistic ones, won't register. Which is why China's attempt to purchase UNOCAL, an American oil company, is such an interesting story. Who for a moment could believe that our good friend China (good enough to have high trade status with, anyway)...

As Senator Dick Durbin’s hollow non-apology continues to ring in our ears and Senator Ted Kennedy’s braying, “Iraq is an abysmal failure…,” is replayed daily, is it any wonder that Islamic groups gain in boldness and confidence? Once again, an Islamic publication called “The Party for Islamic Renewal” has published an editorial that smelled up my e-mail box from the second it arrived. In this editorial, by someone apparently afraid to put his name on it, the writer protects himself even more by planting the word “alleged” before everything he says because he knows everything he is saying is a...

You know things aren’t going well for the Democrats when their main fighting issue is what the room temperature is at Guantanamo Bay’s Motel 6. Among the brilliant ideas of the “We Support the Troops” party is to close down the island-resort prison center affectionately referred to as Gitmo. The people most upset about the “torture” are mainly a bunch of leftwing, bed-wetting socialists who have never supported the war in any form or at any stage, but who we are now supposed to take as objective, credible persons. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Idiot) breathlessly announced the extent of the torture...

The world is hearing much these days about "prophets." Was Moses a prophet? Was Jesus a prophet? Was Mohammed a prophet? Interestingly, Moses, the man credited with leading the children of Israel out of Egypt is considered a great prophet by followers of Islam. Moses, or Musa, is mentioned often in the Quran. Much of the Quran is based on the teachings of Moses as opposed to the teaching of Jesus. Jesus is considered by Christians to be the Son of God. He was the Messiah all prophets before him, including Moses, had predicted changing them from mere "predictors" into...

<p>Sacramento -- On the door leading to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's private offices, there is a large plaque dedicated to former Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown. At eye level to all who enter, there is another name in equally large type: Gray Davis, who dedicated the lobby area to Brown and literally left his mark on Schwarzenegger's door on the way out.</p>