Free Republic

Before I started reading Something Other Than God: How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It, I wasn't sure what to expect. I am a regular reader of Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog, Conversion Diary, so I knew the author was an excellent writer with six children and an intense fear of scorpions. I also knew she had made the journey from atheism to Catholicism. As Jennifer raised questions about Christianity and then Catholicism, sometimes I found myself arguing with her. Other times I realized she was asking a question I couldn’t easily answer myself. Why does God answer some people’s...

GENDER: Masculine USAGE: English, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Biblical From the Latin Iacobus. In the Old Testament, Jacob (later called Israel) is the son of Isaac and Rebecca and the father of the twelve founders of the twelve tribes of Israel. He was born holding his twin brother Esau's heel, and his name is explained as meaning "holder of the heel" or "supplanter". Other theories claim it means "may God protect". [Paraphrased] ... Snip ...

I was so naive when I went to Cal. I didn’t realize that, in my history and English classes, the material we read was either created in the first instance by Marxists or, if it predated Marxists, was first run through a Marxist analytical filter either before or immediately after we read it. All I knew was that I thought the material was nonsensical and, because of their adulatory prosing about it, that my professors were idiots. It says a lot about the quality of education at Cal that, simply by parroting the teachers’ stupidity back to them, I managed...

I am pleased to announce the publication of my new novel Nation Of One. Some here at FR have already read a draft version and I received some very good comments. This fictional story is one of a great discovery and great responsibility, of science and insanity. There are no aliens, weird weapons, or paranormal activities. This a great escapist, lazy day at the beach kind of novel that I know you'll enjoy. So if you have a mind to help my efforts, click on the link above and help spread the word! Thank you very much and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism...

Mike McDaniel is one of the best and most knowledgeable thinkers and writers when it comes to guns and the Second Amendment. That's why it's worth sitting up and taking notice when he revisits one of his own posts to discuss reader objections. I'll run you through what Mike has to say and then tell you why I agree with him. This is a long post, but I hope it's engaging enough to sustain your interest all the way through, so that you'll take the time to weigh in with your own opinions.It all started with a post entitled "Why...

"Heaven is for Real" Review A couple of years ago some people in the church in which I served at the time began asking me one by one about a book they had read. While they had really liked the book, they had some questions about it and some things just didn't seem right to them. So I concluded that it was my duty at that point to read...you guessed it...The Shack. I read the book and posted a strongly critical review online as a way to help people see the danger in that novel.

Looking for two Science Fiction Books. Thanks.

Everything you want to know about Cattle raiding, water rights, grazing rights, oppressive governments and misguided people. Provides a nice break from the current Bundy news cycle monopoly. Táin Bó is the base of several Irish stories involving cattle and politics, of which Táin Bó Cúalnge is but one, 'The Cattle Raid of Cooley'.

House Reid Lord Harry Reid Ser Rory Reid >> sigil: three solar panels on a field of yuan House Clinton His Former Grace, Bill Clinton Lady Hillary >> sigil: a cigar on a field of cattle futures House Obama His Grace, Barack, the First of His Name Lady Wookie >> sigil: The Constitution, written in Austrian House Bush His Former Grace, George W. Bush Lady Laura >> sigil: the former & future Bush Kings House Putin His Grace, Putin of Can Be Seen From Alaska >> sigil: a roll of toilet paper, blazoned with King Barack's visage The Hand...

Book excerpt from Stronger: The bomb went off at 2:49 on Monday afternoon. Within seconds, the man in the cowboy hat was leaping the barricade guarding the finish line and racing toward the carnage. The second bomb went off when he was half-way across the street, but he kept coming. They all kept coming to help us: police officers, race volunteers, bystanders. The first pictures came out almost immediately thereafter. They were long-shots of the scene: the concussion of the bomb shaking a camera filming the race. The force of the blast knocking down a runner about to cross the...

On June 10, a blistering new book on the Justice Department and the shenanigans inside the DOJ Voting Section is released. "Obama's Enforcer" by John Fund and Hans von Spakovsky will detail abuses of power at Holder's Justice Department. It has disturbing stories from inside the Department about Justice Department staff both giving a pass to criminal election activity as well as naming the names of those inside the Civil Rights Division who engaged in criminal activity. Amazon link here.

Definitions of Words and Idioms that Mean Something Else in Illinois; posted as a public service for the consumers of news... City Council: A rectangular block of rubber, affixed to a rounded wooden handle. Ordinarily used in conjunction with an ink pad. (Alternate definition: a justification for tax increases). City Jobs: Political jobs. (Alternate definition: Bitter people who thought they were getting one of those cool ghost-payrolling jobs, but were surprised to find that they didn't). Collective Bargaining: The union boss talks; you listen. There’s nothing collective about it, and there’s no bargaining either. (Alternate definition: a justification for tax...

Liz Phillips, Brooklyn principal: I have never seen a worse ELA exam. Other principals agree. See below comment from Liz Phillips, principal of PS 321 in Brooklyn, who was scathing about the 2012 exam as well, but says this one was as bad or worse. One would think with all the controversy and parents opting out, NYSED and Pearson would be careful to construct a better set of exams. But perhaps they are simply incapable of doing so. PS 321 PARENTS--Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders have just completed three days of the New York State English Language Arts Exam....

When I list these I can track downloads on Amazon. As soon as the FR listing disappears the downloads stop so I relist it and they start again. http://amzn.to/1dSYZ7h “Havelock’s Inheritance.” Havelock is on a voyage of discovery involving fraud, deceit, two crime families and enough dead bodies to start his own morgue. http://amzn.to/1fR47nx “A Plague of Dragons.” Something is trying to kill Kyle Fortune and when it does, an ancient menace will return to enslave and devastate the world. Please write something kind in the ratings section. (I thank you.)

http://amzn.to/1dSYZ7h “Havelock’s Inheritance.” Havelock is on a voyage of discovery involving fraud, deceit, two crime families and enough dead bodies to start his own morgue. http://amzn.to/1fR47nx “A Plague of Dragons.” Something is trying to kill Kyle Fortune and when it does, an ancient menace will return to enslave and devastate the world.

The first chapter is available to read there if any are interested!

The loss of Doctor Richter's suggested reading list that saved my life was tragic, a fact that I am constantly being reminded of. Some books -- Whittaker Chamber's Witness, for example, or Orwell's Homage to Catalonia -- were unforgettable. Others, especially those that I could not locate at the time, never got read, so I had no memory at all in order to reconstruct. I did have a wisp of a memory about a book that had, I thought, the words "rebel colonel" in the title, but was marked down in Richter's precise handwriting as "American political economy." Imagine...

Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit (1855-1857) CHAPTER 10. Containing the whole Science of Government Mr Arthur Clennam, scion of a merchant family, seeks to intervene with the Government to assist William Dorrit, held in Marshalsea prison for debt for more than twenty-five years.   Mr Meagles is a successful banker, retired, with whose family Mr Clennam shared confinement in quarantine for some weeks at Marseilles.   Daniel Doyce is a successful inventor but unsuccessful as a patent applicant for more than twelve years. The Circumlocution Office was (as everybody knows without being told) the most important Department under Government. No public...

Desperate to keep his job at defense contractor Prospero Industries, Havelock must locate their mysterious top salesman, Nick Necropolis, and report the status of a planned $30 million cash deal. But Nick is dead. Now, to keep his job Havelock must hide the corpse and complete the deal. But Nick’s body keeps getting moved to where it will be found…then, Havelock is threatened. The Israelis will kill him if the deal goes through and the Syrians will kill him if it doesn’t. As if matters couldn’t be worse…Havelock discovers what it is he’s selling. Humor. Action/adventure.

On Friday 14, 2014 “Havelock’s Corpse,” by Bern Pearson on Amazon.com will be .99 cents. Desperate to keep his job at defense contractor Prospero Industries, Havelock must locate their mysterious top salesman, Nick Necropolis, and find out the status of a planned $30 million cash deal. But Nick is dead. Now, to keep his job Havelock must hide the corpse and complete the deal. But Nick’s body keeps getting moved to where it will be found…then, Havelock is threatened. The Israelis will kill him if the deal goes through and the Syrians will kill him if it doesn’t. As if...