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Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows. Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows. He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell; Though he'd often say in his homely way that "he'd sooner live in hell." On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail. Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail. If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see; It...

While reporting on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, journalist Steven Brill was diagnosed with a life-threatening condition that required heart surgery. "There I was: a reporter who had made hospital presidents and hospital executives and health care executives and insurance executives sweat because I asked them all kinds of questions about their salaries and about their profit margins," Brill tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "And now I was lying on a gurney in a hospital in real fear of my life." Brill had a bubble on his heart that the doctors said had a 15 to 17 percent...

The authors of a new book on how we can save our century point out that the culture of death that allows abortion also leads to genocide. Suzanne Hamner has an interesting piece over at BarbWire about the book, which we have reproduced in part. A link to the full article is included. Hamner writes, Would you say that mankind is progressing, growing wiser with the passing of time and getting better or would you say that mankind is regressing, growing ever more destructive with the passing of time and becoming worse than in previous historical times? If you said...

Joel Rosenberg begins a new and exciting suspense series, The Third Target scheduled for early release January 6 due to rapid moving events the story reflects. Multiple themes of prophecy, biological and chemical warfare, the rise of ISIS and radical jihadists offers the author's fictionalized view of how real the threat is.

France's most notorious and internationally best-known novelist Michel Houellebecq insisted Saturday that his new book “Submission”, which envisions a future France ruled by a Muslim government, is not a far-right racist scare story. “Submission”, which is released in French on Wednesday, has been the subject of intense debate in recent weeks, particularly for its portrayal of Islam. In 2001 Houellebeck described Islam as “the stupidest of all religions”, a position he has since vocally distanced himself from. But his latest book has stirred criticism from all quarters and been attacked widely by the French media and on social media. France’s...

As a person who has written on Tolkien for almost fifteen years and read Tolkien for thirty-six years, I am often asked about his political views. In a sense, this is a funny question, as Tolkien really despised most politics. In fact, he really thought of himself as very anti-political. His few statements on the matter reveal just how unpolitical and apolitical and anti-political he could be. It is also, however, a natural question for someone to ask about the great man, as we live in a highly politicized age. So, what do we know? First, Tolkien was a conservative...

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich.,- A Michigan university said its 40th annual list of "banished" words includes "bae," "polar vortex," "hack," "skill set," "swag," and "foodie." Lake Superior State University said its annual "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness" was chosen by members of a committee from submissions by the public. Topping the list this year was "bae," a term of endearment that came into common use this year. "Meaning 'before anyone else.' How stupid! Stop calling your boyfriend 'bae,'" Evie Dunagan of Manheim, Pa., wrote in submitting the word for banishment. LSSU...

The publisher describes Ben Metcalf’s “Against the Country” as a “gift for fans of Southern Gothic and metafiction,” which sounds like a final exam question for Venn diagrammers. Having survived this mind-numbing rant of a novel, I only know that it’s a gift I would not open again. And yet I entered these dark woods eagerly. For many years, Metcalf was the literary editor of Harper’s, where he published some of the finest writers in the world and, a few times, offered his own essays in that magazine and in the Baffler. They were remarkable performances: angry, erudite pieces delivered...

I realize that Doonesbury is nothing more than liberal pap designed to make Baby Boomers feel good about themselves—yes, yes, Garry Trudeau, Republicans are squares and warmongers, we get it, you’re from the 60s, get out, back to the 60s, there’s no place for you here in the future!—but even still, this weekend’s strip is pretty egregiously terrible. Check it out, it’ll only take you a couple of seconds to read. If you don’t want to read it, allow me to describe it to you. One of the characters, a mom, is telling her daughter than she’s not allowed to...

I just bought this book yesterday. It looks like it may be an interesting history of the Mediterranean area countries around the 10th century. But after having read the 10 page introduction (in which he mentions other books written on the subject, which he says may have been biased towards one religion or another), I'm not sure if I want to invest time in this book. He seems to lean a bit towards the Muslims. I would like to read an unbiased account. Is this it?

At our annual extended family Christmas gathering my nephew was given "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun", by Paul Barrett. His mother gave him the book having heard "all about it on NPR". Naturally my sister-in-law is all about hard left politics and gun control. My nephew, a high school senior, is in total lockstep. After he'd been reading it for a few hours I asked him if there was a coupon in the back for range time. I wondered aloud 'why just read about something you just as easily put in your hands and experience'. The look on this...

The Husband and I just finished the obligatory, annual viewing of George C. Scott in "A Christmas Carol". (That's my husband's favorite; I sort of favor the Patrick Stewart version....) The story never fails to move me. Whenever we attempt to get outside of our 'small' selves, and extend love toward others, we grow, and make ourselves more fit for the Kingdom. God Bless us Every One; and a Very Merry Christmas, to all Freepers. All of you have taught me, and inspired me, over many years - even though I only 'joined-up' and began posting a short while ago....

A CHRISTMAS STORY TO REMEMBER It was Christmas Eve 1881. I was fifteen years old and feeling like the world had caved in on me because there just hadn't been enough money to buy me the rifle that I'd wanted for Christmas. We did the chores early that night for some reason. I just figured Pa wanted a little extra time so we could read in the Bible. After supper was over I took my boots off and stretched out in front of the fireplace and waited for Pa to get down the old Bible. I was still feeling sorry...

Link only per The New Yorker copyright complaint: Ayn Rand Reviews Children's Movies

In any case, Skype's Translator and its rivals have some way to go before they can match the abilities of a skilled human linguist. You would not want them involved in vital negotiations between world leaders for example. But over the next decade, you can expect to chat to friends whose language you don't share without stopping to flick through a dictionary.

My husband and I saw a TV news segment about Common Core this evening, and the strange way it appears to teach mathematics. Somehow, we started talking about how we learned to read and write. I can't remember much at all; I seemed to just 'absorb' it somehow. I recall learning to sing the ABCs (a good way to learn the letters) and I recall learning to write the letters. But I don't recall anything about the technique that was used to teach me to actually recognize words and read. (This would have been in the late-1950's, early 1960's.) Does...

Atticus Finch is a monster. Sure, he’s one of history’s most beloved literary characters (he was even played by Gregory Peck in a film adaptation) but he’s also, to use the parlance of our time, history’s greatest rape apologist. Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee and pundit, first observed Finch’s new standing in the world on Twitter in early December:

With a win against the estate of late Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle behind him, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura now has his sights on HarperCollins, the publisher of the bestselling memoir "American Sniper." Ventura filed a lawsuit Monday against the New York publisher, alleging the publicity generated by the book with a "false and defamatory" segment "substantially increased sales of 'American Sniper,' thereby generating millions of dollars in revenues and profits for Harper Collins." HarperCollins does not comment on pending litigation, a spokesperson said Tuesday. A federal jury in St. Paul found in July that a segment of the...

A US judge Monday expressed doubt towards the government's e-book antitrust case against Apple, saying the tech giant was challenging "predatory" pricing from rival Amazon. The comments came as a federal appeals court panel heard arguments in the case, in which Apple was found to have colluded with publishers to raise e-book prices. Apple argues that its entry into the e-book market fostered competition because it challenged Amazon, which had a dominant share in e-books. Apple claims its entry spurred additional publishers to produce e-books, and that prices of e-books generally fell even though it concedes that some prices rose...

A funny thing happened in school today. Not funny ha-ha but funny as in bizarre and unexpected. Funny as in funny money. And not just today. Yesterday. Tomorrow. Every day. Every time a school teaches reading in a way that doesn't work. That's funny, right? You teach reading but somehow nobody learns to read? How funny can you get? And not just in any one school. No, this epic lack of progress is happening everywhere. Point to a school and you're probably looking at a dead zone literacy-wise. That's funny, right? A school's first job is to teach kids to...