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I agree with The Donald that we should build a wall on our southern border. It should fulfill its function - to keep out illegal alien invaders. But there's no reason it can't also be a cool profitable tourist attraction, too. I'd make it an over scale replica of Hadrian's Wall in Britain, all details historically accurate. The Border Patrol could be dressed like Roman legionnaires and we could have a Colosseum on the US side with chariot races and fake gladiatorial combats. Charge admission, sell food and drink, the possibilities are endless. Charlton Heston would approve. Not to mention...

This week, January 22-23 marks the 134th anniversary of the Battle of Rorke's Drift in Natal Province, South Africa. Everyone knows the story of the small company of Welsh troops from the 24th Regiment of Foot who held off a force of up to 4,000 Zulu warriors who outnumbered them twenty to one. I plan to celebrate the occasion tomorrow by viewing the classic movie of the siege starring Stanley Baker and Michael Caine, made fifty years ago. It looks like there won't be anything else worth watching on TV that day anyway.

John Kerry as Secretary of Defense. Susan Rice as Secretary of State. How much loonier can it get? Who says Obama has no sense of humor? Here's your chance to weigh in, FReepers. Post your own nominees for the New And Improved Obama 2013 Cabinet here. I'll get the ball rolling: Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare: Michael Moore CIA Director: Van Jones Secretary of the Treasury: Jon Corzine et cetera. Have at it, comrades!

When the Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, N.Y., left the Episcopal Church over disagreements about what the Bible says about sexuality, the congregation offered to pay for the building in which it worshiped. In return the Episcopal Church sued to seize the building, then sold it for a fraction of the price to someone who turned it into a mosque.

According to the French Revolutionary Calendar, this is the first day of the Year 220 (starting from AD 1791) - Primidi, 1 Vendemiaire, CCXX. This day is also dedicated to the grape (en Francais, RAISIN).

The trailer for Gibson's new film, The Beaver, received its premiere on US television this weekend, amid doubts that it would be the ideal role to kick-start the actor's rehabilitation. Gibson plays Walter Black, a lonely man who is depressed after being abandoned by his family. He begins communicating through the puppet, which he gives a personality and a British accent. The film was directed by Jodie Foster, who co-stars as Gibson's wife Meredith. It is rumoured to be surprisingly good, despite its inauspicious premise.

I happened to be watching a TCM classic movie this morning, THE BAMBOO PRISON, a Korean War POW melodrama from 1955. In the movie, the GI's are getting tortured and brainwashed by the ChiComs, and some of them are turning traitor and parroting the communist party line. The reds call these turncoat GIs "the progressives", and everything about them is "progressive" this and "progressive" that. Now, in order to avoid the tainted term "liberal", our own home-grown loony leftists prefer to call themselves "progressives". But even in 1955, it was well known that "Progressive" = Lousy Commie Stooge. And it...

The Obama administration has virtually abandoned plans to resettle in the United States some detainees from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials said, a recognition that the task had become politically impossible because of congressional opposition. The shift came even as the administration announced Thursday that it had transferred six detainees from the prison, including four Chinese Muslims sent to Bermuda, as it tries to meet a one-year deadline for shutting down the controversial facility. The administration had hoped to move some of the Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, to the United States as a signal to other...

Remember when Bush was elected all the liberals threatened to move to Canada? And never did? They stayed here and now they've got exactly the President and Congress they've always wished for. And the rest of us are getting the shaft. And our children and grandchildren will be paying in every way for this folly unto the last generation. My daughter and her husband have been asking me where they can move to to avoid the inevitable disasters that will ensue from Obama's policies, and I've been hard put to come up with a refuge that doesn't have its own...

FARGO, N.D. (AP) - Democrat Barack Obama opened the door Thursday to altering his plan to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq in 16 months based on what he hears from military commanders during his upcoming trip there. "I am going to do a thorough assessment when I'm there," he told reporters on the airport tarmac here. "I'm sure I'll have more information and continue to refine my policy." During his presidential campaign, Obama has gone from the hard-edged, vocal opposition to Iraq that defined his early candidacy to more nuanced rhetoric that calls for a phased-out drawdown of all...

Carly Fiorina -- the former Hewlett-Packard CEO currently serving as John McCain's Victory Chairwoman... has advised the Departments of Defense and State, USAID, as well as the CIA -- and she's learned a thing or two via this proximity to the leviathan. "I've gotten a closer look at how Washington works," she confirmed. "Washington has many well-intentioned and able people, but all bureaucracies take on a life of their own. All bureaucracies become internally focused. All bureaucracies, if left alone, become inefficient and ineffective. There is plenty of opportunity in Washington to offer greater performance incentives and streamline...

HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) - If Hillary Rodham Clinton is feeling heat from pundits and party elders to quit the race and back Barack Obama, you'd never know it from her crowds, energy level and upbeat demeanor on the campaign trail. "There are millions of reasons to continue this race: people in Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina, and all of the contests yet to come," Clinton told reporters Friday. "This is a very close race and clearly I believe strongly that everyone should have their voices heard and their votes counted." (snip) Asked what she thought of Obama's comment Friday that...

The WGA announced Tuesday that the International Longshore Warehouse Union sent the hardest hit striking WGA members 60-pound holiday food baskets with frozen turkeys and other Thanksgiving fixings. ILWU member Chris Bradley said they were paid for by the rank-and-file. The WGA called the baskets "Capra-esque".

Memo to WGA: Homeless picketers work cheap Some advice from Washington's Brotherhood of Carpenters - apparently no one chants about low-wage injustice better than a circle of homeless people. As Keith L. Alexander reports for the Washington Post, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters have hired homeless people to picket outside construction sites using non-union workers. The union is one of the most active in the state, "routinely staging as many as eight picket lines a day." Perhaps it's just good business sense, as NPR's Frank Langfitt hypothesizes. The union pays the picketers 8 bucks an hour, leaving their $20-plus...

Few people in Africa got to see Al Gore and his troupe of rock-star ecologists strutting their stuff two weekends ago, because most have neither television nor electricity. That's just as well, because they would have been aghast at Live Earth's bizarre message. (Snip) In Africa, we have more serious things to worry about than climate change. Indeed, if they achieve their objective the concerts will have done harm to the people of Africa. (Snip) Please, Europe and America, spare us! You can cut your own emissions if you want, but don't tell us what to do. We really have...

Yeah, I know this story has no logical relevance to long-term climate trends, but sometimes the cheapest shots are the funniest. "More than two dozen demonstrators braved cold, wet weather Saturday in Reno to attend a rally designed to draw attention to global warming. The event was cut short by heavy rain and sleet, said organizer Lisa Stiller of the Northern Nevada Coalition for Climate Change. The storm prevented the use of solar ovens for a potluck picnic, Stiller said."

US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama can now count himself as one of the millions of Americans with Irish heritage. Research by the genealogy website ancestry.co.uk reveals that Mr Obama's great great great grandfather was born in Ireland, although it is not yet known where. Falmouth Kearney sailed from Ireland to New York in 1850 at the age of 19 on the S.S. Marmion arriving on the 20th of March. AdvertisementHe initially settled in Ohio, got married, had eight children, and later moved to Indiana, right next door to the state Obama currently represents in the US Senate.

A Further Thought on Obama's Investments If Obama really didn't know about his investments in companies that would benefit from his legislation, it's a remarkable coincidence, as these weren't really two widely known or widely held companies. It's just really bad luck on his part. It's playing fairly big - front page of the New York Times, the AP has a version out. Couple this with the real estate mess referred to in these paragraphs... Mr. Obama, who declined to be interviewed about the stock deals, has already had to contend with a controversy that arose out of his reliance...

Webb's Rally [Jonah Goldberg] Good stuff, from a reader: They had to run that clip because the much of the rest of his speech was an absolute riot. He started off by mentioning that "tomorrow is an extremely important day for America," and the crowd went wild, thinking he was talking about taking power. But of course, he launched into his praise of the Marine Corps, and the crowd cheered a little less loudly. Then he thanked all the brave veterans and brave men still fighting, and the crowd cheered a little less loudly again. Then he mentioned that he...

I'm looking over my absentee ballot now, and need to ask my fellow California FReepers for advice on how to vote on the judicial selections. Not so much state Supreme Court but all the appeals court yes or nos in Los Angeles County. I don't know who these judges are and there's lots of them. Any help greatly appreciated.