Free Republic

After his prominent interview on the Michael Savage show when the Boston Bombing happened, I ordered Walid Shoebat's book. It arrived a few minutes ago, and I read the intro and the first few chapters. Initially, it seems very pertinent and very insightful, but with a writing style that is unnecessarily dense and disjointed. My first impression is that the info/insights will far outweigh the problems of style though, such that in retrospect it will seem akin to a worthwhile slog through some rather thick mud.

“When a Muslim writes down even a few verses from the Quran on a piece of paper, that immediately gets that same protected status.” Thus said the courageous military chaplain who was awarded a Bronze Star for his “exceptionally good” Power Point presentation on Muzzie sensitivity. But the logic eludes me: help me out here, fellow Freepers. In this day of Power Point presentation files and electronic recording, I would think that anything stored on a hard drive or a computer chip would also be considered to be of the same basic nature as something written on paper. Ergo, a...

If it hasn’t already been done, I figure it is time for the new verb - “to drone” - to be officially brought forward into the world. In order to celebrate this shift in national awareness, several new songs that include and exemplify the verb are offered below. [It was, BTW, IMHO, just too easy to do a take-off on Bob Dylan’s “Everybody Must Get Stoned,” where a great song can be had just by substituting “Droned” for “Stoned” throughout: “They’ll drone you where you’re driving in your car ....” etc. But it still might be nice to see somebody...

I’ve been an avid reader since childhood, and probably several thousand books have come and gone from my shelves over the decades. As with many other accumulated belongings, I’m getting to the age where the end is in sight, even if these perilous times pass, and society does get back on track. And so, last weekend I loaded many boxes of books into my pickup, and took them to sell for in-house credit at a local used book store. The money/credit was not that important to me - I mostly wanted to circulate the books back to people who might...

"There have been major changes to the codes (effective January 1, 2013) in the Psychiatry section of the American Medical Association’s manual on Current Procedural Terminology (CPT). These are the codes that must be used for billing and documentation for all insurers. Note: These coding changes apply to all services as of January 1, 2013. For dates of service through December 31, 2012 use the 2012 codes. " http://www.psychiatry.org/cptcodingchanges

Recent and accelerating changes in AmericaÂ’s social and political landscape have me pondering my chosen profession these days. IÂ’m not talking about the rumored craziness of the upcoming new DSM-V, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition. Shrinks must struggle to come to grips with each one of these committee-generated monstrosities as they appear, even though their actual usefulness in practice grows increasingly suspect. Neither am I talking about the new, Byzantine complexities of the CPT billing codes that have come down on us like a plague of locusts as ObamaCare begins to work its transformational magic. I am also...

Historically, the world’s worst gun violence against fellow citizens has overwhelmingly occurred when the military and police forces of would be tyrants were not balanced by an adequately armed citizenry.

I'm curious, among our crowd here, if anyone out there ever engaged in the sort of exhibitionistic shenanigans we keep reading about in the endless stream of scandals in recent years. The appeal of doing so eludes me, and I'd like to understand this growing phenomenon better. Have you ever posted or sent naked or bare-chested photos of yourself to a member of the opposite sex to impress them? Did you think it would impress them? Did it? If unsolicited, did you assume these postings or emails would be well received? Were they? Variations on this theme are also welcome.

It has been brought up by me and many others, both recently and over time, that American conservatives may simply be too meek and nice to prevail against a determined, vicious, devious and underhanded enemy like the Marxist Left. I don't know that a dedicated thread to discuss this has yet been opened since the election, so I thought I would do so. I've never been large or overly strong, nor inherently unfriendly, but I grew up as a scrappy little kid, and people still occasionally say that I merely need to walk into a room for people to know...

I don't usually bother with TV at all, but my wife seems to want to get her news from Fox for reasons beyond me. We have a home theater system, and invited our neighbors over tonight to watch the election returns on Fox with us. We were appalled by the process through which the Fox morons cheerfully dismissed state after state before the facts were even in, a pattern epitomized when some babe strutted in smarmy fashion down to their "Decision Room" to humor Carl Rove's contention that Ohio had been called far too prematurely for Obama. It was an...

My wife is a Filipina, an RN who came to the US eighteen years ago on a work visa. She's now a newly naturalized citizen, and she just got through casting her very first mail-in ballot. She just went on a mini-rant after watching a news segment on the two presidential campaigns' efforts to court "the much-sought-after undecided women's vote," women constituting a sizable majority of the "undecideds," apparently. Her exasperated and repeated refrain: "I just can't believe they could still be undecided - what kind of woman can be that stupid!" Her rant voiced a strong confirmation of her...

With apologies to the genius of Bob Dylan, I offer an Obama parody of the last verse of one of Dylan's catchiest tunes - Black Diamond Bay: I was chilling in the West Wing when Mama Crowley came on CNN With sub-optimal news. Seems that terrorists in Libya led To Stevens and three others dead, But there’s a movie trailer we could use. Didn’t seem like much to worry ‘bout So I turned it off and went and did another line. Seems like every time you turn around There’s another dishonest tale I gotta design. And there’s really nothing anyone...

If it is not too early to assume Romney wins: 1. What pardons do you anticipate from Obama as he leaves, and 2. What crimes and scandals will (or should) get new or renewed investigations from a Romney administration?

Great discussions here about the debate last night. Thanks, all. I hope this vanity post is not a duplicate: I don't think so, but please delete it if so. I'm curious to hear anyone's reactions the strange, detached, self-absorbed answer Obama gave to the Black man who expressed his disappointment in Obama, and asked a probing question about his plans for a second term. To me it seemed Obama might have turned off a great many Black voters with such an answer, or simply didn't care about them because he thinks he has them in the bag.

Snorted cocaine peaks in about a half hour, and the high then continues for slightly less than that after the peak. To complicate matters, presidential debates last about 90 minutes. So, an informal, two-question poll for Freepers: At tonight's debate, will Obama be: 1. Wiping his nose or not? (Outstanding reference YouTube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXdkxLDdxMA for anyone who's been under a rock on this matter.) 2. If you answered in the affirmative to question one, do you anticipate that he will be over, under, or properly dosed?

Another weekend vanity. :) What will you be drinking election night? Will it vary depending on the outcome? I ordered a few fine bottles of Scotch from Master of Malt last spring. Because I got the very last bottle produced from this select cask, one of my neighbor friends in our little enclave here decided that, win or lose, we would open and consume this rare and highly rated cask strength Islay Single Malt called “Berry’s Own Selection”; an unchillfiltered batch made by Caol Ila Distillery in Port Askaig in 1980. It was drawn in 2011 from Cask #4938 and...

If I understand correctly, the ObamaCare Mandate began to take effect on the Catholic Church a few days ago. I only knew this because my wife was listening to EWTN on the car radio - otherwise, it seems not to have made any stir nor garnered any headlines, and was mentioned only in passing even on that station. Although America has been a nation of amazing strength, integrity and vitality, founded by Christians of great fervor who largely came to this land seeking freedom of religion, and although it is still a largely Christian nation, it is now surrendering, without...

Bob Dylan may not be appreciated by all the folks here at FreeRepublic, but I’ll bet he is by a great many. What songs, lyrics, or phrases of his do you find going through your minds these days as the news in America becomes darker and more twisted?

Has anyone else here had the experience recently of having one of the large banks jerk them around on a home re-finance application? We’ve been at it for months now with Chase, with a constant, ongoing drip, drip, drip of requirements, including updates on many previously-submitted documents since the process has been going on now well into a new quarter. Discussing this with some friends this evening, it seems they’ve had exactly the same hassles with Bank of America for over six months now, and have been through several rounds of re-submitting updated documents. Our friends and us both have...

Declaration of Dependence When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for One Man to create political bands which shall bind a people unto himself, and to assume among the powers of the Earth, the separate and more equal station to which the Laws of Alinsky and of Alinsky's god Lucifer entitles him, a decent self-respect and care for the opinions of posterity requires that he should declare the methods which impel him to the Throne. I hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, but that I am more Equal than others; that...