Free Republic

If you ever have need of the services of a psychiatrist, I would strongly recommend you select one besotted with liberal ideology. First of all, you'd save a ton of money. That's because liberal psychiatrists are blessed with the gift of being able to diagnose you without even having seen you. That means you're consultations need not last very long. I should warn you, however, that you can be sure that if you're a political conservative, you are likely to be committed to a mental institution. More than 50 years ago, a psychiatrist published an article that stated flatly GOP...

With a new movie about King Kong coming out, a whole segment on NPR was devoted to proving that the fictional King Kong monster is actually a commentary on black people. The show interviewed Robin Means Coleman, a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Michigan who specializes in studying King Kong. Yes, you read that right: a professor of Afro-American studies whose specialty is ... King Kong. [Snip] This is ridiculous. Yes, in the past, some racists have compared blacks to monkeys. But that does not mean that all portrayals of monkeys are about black people. In...

US President Barack Obama told Britons on Friday he loved Winston Churchill, rebuffing suggestions that he had disrespected the wartime leader because of a grudge against Britain linked to his Kenyan ancestry. Obama was visiting London to press Britons to vote to stay in the European Union, and the Churchill issue arose after London Mayor Boris Johnson, who is campaigning for an "Out" vote, brought it up in an article criticizing Obama. "I love Winston Churchill, I love the guy," Obama said when asked at a news conference about Johnson's article.

We Kid You Not. What does your anti-rape face look like? Last week Ramapo College in NJ told students that they should take preventative measures to avoid sexual assault by practicing “anti-rape” facial expressions. In a presentation to freshmen students by the school’s coordinator of substance abuse and sexual assault prevention, students were advised on how to dress, how much to drink or not to drink, how to use body language to lessen the chances of assault, and that women should “practice how they articulate their face in a social setting by practicing in a mirror.” Um, WHAT?! Rightfully,...

A 27-year-old woman has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Chicago, alleging that the fire department's physical fitness test discriminates against female applicants. In a complaint filed today, Samantha Vasich says she was rejected from the fire department after being told she'd failed the "physical abilities test" in 2010. Vasich maintains she was and is physically capable of serving as a firefighter.

Actress-Singer Collapses, Found By Son Actress Nell Carter, who starred in the television comedy "Gimme A Break," died at her Beverly Hills home Thursday of natural causes, her publicist announced. She was 54. Carter had won an Emmy for her role in "Gimme a Break!" and a Tony for her performance in the Broadway musical "Ain't Misbehavin." The actress-singer collapsed and was found by one of her 13-year-old adopted sons.

Today's New York Post Page Six gossip column offers readers the following prima facie risible item: Not So Secret HUMA Abedin, the traveling aide who is rarely out of Hillary Rodham Clinton's sight, has been seen with bachelor Rep. Anthony Weiner on the campaign trail. Shortly before Clinton arrived for a fund-raiser Thursday night at the Hiro club in the Meatpacking District, Abedin was spotted going into the Maritime Hotel around the corner with Weiner. If they were trying to keep their affair a secret, you'd think they'd find someplace where political reporters wouldn't be walking by. "If they were...

Al Qaeda's online community is threatening all out cyber war against counter jihadis. Bring. It. On. B- - - - - -. DEBKA: In a special Internet announcement in Arabic, picked up DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, Osama bin Laden’s followers announced Monday, Oct. 29, the launching of Electronic Jihad. On Sunday, Nov. 11, al Qaeda’s electronic experts will start attacking Western, Jewish, Israeli, Muslim apostate and Shiite Web sites. On Day One, they will test their skills against 15 targeted sites expand the operation from day to day thereafter until hundreds of thousands of Islamist hackers are in action against untold...

 Many people in today’s Democratic party have contempt for religion, but they still have time for prayer. Last Friday, during the Democratic National Committee’s Annual Winter Meeting in Washington, Husham Al-Husainy, Imam of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, a Shi’ite mosque in Dearborn, Michigan, offered an invocation. As the assembled Democrats bowed their heads, Al-Husainy prayed: In the name of God the most merciful, the most compassionate. We thank you, God, to bless us among your creations. We thank you, God, to make us as a great nation. We thank you God, to send us your messages through our father Abraham...

Some people may have been wondering if the nine-day old Dick Cheney hunting story would be going away. Don’t count on it. On the February 20 edition of the Early Show, Evan Thomas, assistant managing editor at Newsweek, told Harry Smith that "People who don’t like [Cheney] think this is the dark, Darth Vader type." His analysis coincided with the new issue of Newsweek that features a cover story, written by Thomas, on "Cheney’s Secret World." The online edition features this sub-headline: "He peppered a man in the face, but didn’t tell his boss. Inside Dick Cheney’s dark, secretive mind-set-and...

What's missing from the White House Christmas card? Christmas. This month, as in every December since he took office, President Bush sent out cards with a generic end-of-the-year message, wishing 1.4 million of his close friends and supporters a happy "holiday season." Many people are thrilled to get a White House Christmas card, no matter what the greeting inside. But some conservative Christians are reacting as if Bush stuck coal in their stockings. "This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture," said William...

Let's avoid kidding ourselves, shall we? Democrats aren't going to defeat Miers. They know the only liberal under consideration was Alberto Gonzales, the guy they used to argue that maybe Hussein wasn't so bad, as if a few humiliating photographs compared to the physical torture, starvation or execution of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dissidents. (Man, those Democrats must've been scarred earlier in their lives. Memo to self: Don't join a fraternity that allows hazing but is "tolerant" of deviant sexual practices.) No, Harriet Miers was the best they could hope for. Sure they're afraid she MIGHT be conservative --...

CANNES — The last episode of the seminal sci-fi saga "Star Wars" screened at the Cannes film festival Sunday, completing a six-part series that remains a major part of popular culture — and delivering a galactic jab to U.S. President George W Bush. "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" was seen ahead of a celebrity-laden evening screening to be attended by its creator and director, George Lucas, and its cast, including Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen. Reaction at advance screenings was effusive, with festival-goers, critics and journalists at Cannes applauding at the moment the infamous Darth Vader...

Condemned prisoners have a better chance than Terri Schiavo. Look at it this way - if TS were a condemned prisoner, and affidavits were received from multiple "sources", wouldn't the ACLU, the media, etc. be ALL OVER the matter? TS doesn't have stool pigeons, fellow prisoners, or "sources" on her side - she has professionals of many stripes, who don't know each other, who have lost, or who are/were in danger of losing their livelihood for saying nothing more than the truth. What does a jail mate have to lose? NOTHING. Yet, in this circumstance we have everyday people putting...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Show a group of nutritionists a 10-ounce restaurant hamburger and a side order of onion rings and have them calculate the number of calories in the meal. Easy, right? Well, not exactly. The food experts consistently underestimated the 1,550-calorie meal _ by an average of 685 calories _ in a study of 200 dietitians by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and New York University. "If well-trained food professionals can't accurately estimate calorie content in a plate of food, you can be sure the average consumer is at a loss when looking at a...

Orthodox lesbian speaks to students at U of T By SHERI SHEFA CJN Intern As if the life of an Orthodox Jewish woman in North America isn’t complicated enough, “Chani” is also being torn between being true to herself and the religion she honours. “Chani” – who chose not to reveal her real name – spoke to a gathering last week at the at the University of Toronto’s Wolfond Centre for Jewish Campus Life about what it’s like to live as an Orthodox lesbian Jew. The lecture titled “Collision of Worlds and their Rebuilding: On Being an Orthodox Lesbian Jew,”...

For the past several months, fate has conspired to keep me away from the computer. I haven't posted nearly as much on FR as I used to. With the holidays, though, I've had an opportunity to catch up a bit. What I found on my return is a bit disconcerting. While there's always been an element here that refuses to reason and does little more than insult Democrats and RINOs, it seems that this mentality has taken over a large portion of our membership. I've encountered more shrill, radical nonsense in the past couple of days than I had in...

President Thabo Mbeki all but ignored the twin crises of Aids and lawlessness in Zimbabwe when he opened the Cape Town parliament yesterday with an offer to send South African nuclear weapons experts to Baghdad to avert an attack on Iraq. During the apartheid years, South Africa developed a clandestine nuclear weapons capability which it later voluntarily relinquished with a deactivation programme regarded as a model of how a nuclear power can dismantle its systems. The intervention offer was accepted by Iraq when a South African delegation visited Baghdad last weekend. While the offer is unlikely to have any long-term...

A spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee claimed she was outraged late Wednesday by the efforts of a group of her one-time colleagues who have started a drive to impeach President Bush. "That's appalling," the DNC's Jennifer Palmieri told WABC Radio's John Batchelor and Paul Alexander, who asked about efforts by the Web site Democrats.com to impeach Bush over the so-called Harken Energy scandal. "I am against the criminalization of politics," Palmieri insisted, claiming that she also doesn't approve of recent lawsuits filed against the Bush administration by the Washington, D.C.-based legal watchdog group Judicial Watch. "They file them against...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A new tune about John Walker Lindh by Nashville singer-songwriter Steve Earle has kicked up a fight between critics who feel he's unpatriotic and defenders who consider him provocative. The song, "John Walker's Blues," is not due for release until September. It describes Lindh as "an American boy raised on MTV" who sought out another culture because he felt alienated from his native country. "If my daddy could see me now — chains around my feet/He don't understand that sometimes a man/Has to fight for what he believes," Earle sings. Lindh, a 21-year-old Californian captured by...