Free Republic

Xi'an Up Close 《西安零距离》, an investigative journalism programme which airs on Xi'an TV, has become a national laughing stock after airing a report on June 17 on a "mystery mushroom" which was discovered by villagers in a rural part of the city. Residents of the Liucunbu village on the outskirts of the capital of the Shaanxi province say they came across a strange fungi-like object as they hit bedrock while drilling a new well. The perplexed villagers decided to call up their local TV station for help, which sent intrepid reporter Ye Yunfeng to their sleepy little hamlet to get...

Today President Obama announced that on top of raising the taxes on working class American to further support his regime of government assisted voter base, he also is proposing to change American Independence Day to National Kenyan Appreciation Day.

“Harnessing the awesome power of zombies; it’s not just to run away from anymore.” Democratic candidate Vermin Supreme gives hope that our country’s leaders might just see the future for the rotting, bloodhungry nightmare that it is. He runs on a platform of lessening the demand for foreign oil (among other things) by hitching tireless zombies to giant turbines that will convert shambling into electricity. He promises this will be accomplished by, “Lot’s of zombies… that we’ll sort-of dangle brains in front of…” If, in these unfortunate times, only one candidate acknowledges the coming deademic, then that’s the president for...

The complexity of the latest 'Flame' virus bears the hallmarks of a program engineered by a state, a number of Israeli computer experts believe. As details of Flame - the third major virus discovered to have an affinity to Iranian computer systems in recent years - filtered through the media, network security experts in Israel, requesting anonymity, studied the initial reports, and indicated that they believed small groups of hackers could not be behind the virus.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may have won a battle earlier this year (as the retreat of the Free Syrian Army from the ruined city of Homs testifies), but he is nowhere near winning the war. The uprising is quickly turning into a full-scale insurgency - a foreign-sponsored insurgency, to be more precise, which some analysts term a "neo-mujahideen strategy".

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National Responder Support Camp (NRSC) Solicitation Number: HSFE70-12-R-0033

With the twin spires of the Islamic Center of America in the background, the Rev. Terry Jones praised Christianity and condemned Islam, calling it “of the devil.” “Mohammad was a liar, a pedophile and a false prophet,” Jones said. “I believe that as a Christian. But as an American who believes in the constitution I believe they have the right to practice their beliefs under the freedom of religion.” Jones — who is on his fourth trip to Dearborn to preach about the dangers of Islam and its agenda of imposing Sharia law on America — also called for a...

Neo-Nazis are currently conducting heavily armed patrols in and around Sanford, Florida and are "prepared" for violence in the case of a race riot. The patrols are to protect "white citizens in the area who are concerned for their safety" in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting last month, says Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement. "We are not advocating any type of violence or attacks on anybody, but we are prepared for it," he says. "We are not the type of white people who are going to be walked all over."

In the midst of recruiting an all-star ensemble for his long-gestating passion project “The Butler,” director Lee Daniels has tapped Jane Fonda to play Nancy Reagan. Based on a Washington Post report by Wil Haygood, pic follows Eugene Allen, the White House butler whose career started with Harry Truman in 1952 and ended in 1986 with Ronald Reagan. Forest Whitaker is closing a deal to play Allen, while Oprah Winfrey remains in talks to play his wife. David Oyelowo is in negotiations to play Allen’s son, while Liam Neeson and John Cusack are circling presidential supporting roles as Lyndon B....

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If you thought men in tights was a sartorial statement best left to medieval jesters, think again. The underwear staple for women is making its way into wardrobes of the opposite sex - and the look is gaining popularity. If any were in doubt as to the strength of the trend, it even has its own name: Mantyhose.

A retired US Marine officer with whom I corresponded asked, "What type of crisis do you think will cause the intellectual right to form a critical mass - if that is even possible?" I wrote back, "Lincoln's Second Inaugural is chiseled on the wall of his monument, and he said all that needs to be said. If they won't take it from Lincoln, why would they take it from us?" But it's Lincoln's birthday, and it's time for another try. Abraham Lincoln is America's least popular president. It seems odd to say this given the near-deification of a man who...

It appears that while we were busy over the past month spreading the Greek pre- and post-bankruptcy balance sheet, and otherwise torturing Excel (something we urge other financial journalists to try once in a while - go ahead, it doesn't bite. In fact, it is almost as friendly as your favorite Powerpoint) our peer at such reputable financial publications as Forbes, and many others, were laying of carbon-based reporters and replacing them with... robots. As Mediabistro reports, "Forbes has joined a group of 30 publishers using Narrative Science software to write computer-generated stories. Here’s more about the program, used in...

We hear a lot about Speaker Gingrich going to the Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, the biggest Catholic church in the country, to hear his wife sing in the massed choir that performs there. But this is not what generally goes on in Catholic churches across this country and around the world. What goes on is that ordinary men and women come to those churches hungry, and confess their sins, and hear a story about Jesus, and then are fed, week, after week, after week. Nobody ever tells us that we’re lazy, that we need to get...

Want to see what America would look like without private equity? Move to Detroit and contemplate the ruins of a city ruined by the placid conformity of auto industry executives. The economic impact of the corporate takeover business can’t be measured by the outcome of takeovers as such. Private equity transformed the way American business thought about the world. If managers did a lousy job, outside investors could raise money (a lot of it from trade union pension funds as well as university endowments) and kick them out. Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry should be ashamed of themselves for bean-counting...

Rep. Ron Paul’s defense of Iran’s nuclear weapons program should surprise no one. The same resentment motivates Ron Paul and the Iranian leadership — a paranoid hostility toward a world that is swiftly changing and has little mercy, and a Millenarian desire to return to a mythical, untroubled past. Get rid of the Federal Reserve, scourge the bankers, return to a gold standard and erect a wall around the United States — and we will return to when? To 1957, when the Russians launched the first space satellite, alerting the United States to the danger that it might lose the...

One popular comedian argues that it must be dreadful to spend eternity in heaven. No matter how wonderful it might be at first, eventually you're bound to get used to it and end up bored to death. By the same reasoning, one would shrug off the torments of hell over time, and the experience would be the same as heaven. Truth told, Dante's account of the saints contemplating the Godhead in the "Paradiso" section of Dante's Divine Comedy always bored me, without having to wait for too much of eternity to tick by.

Fur-lined underwear has been banned in Uzbekistan after authorities deemed it too sexy I could have guessed why the big shots in Uzbekistan did not like those furry undies. I would like to make you guys familiar with the situation we have had in Uzbekistan since several years. As you probably know the most popular TV channels are still russian ORT, RTR, STS etc. Erotic movies and films with adult content are shown very often. The uzbek authorities are very strict regarding nudity on the TV screens, that is why the viewers in Uzbekistan can watch the movies but when...

In sum, US interests are, paradoxically, very well served in the current scenario if sectarian tensions escalate in Afghanistan and Western troops become the only really credible provider of security. That is to say, any number of forces could be interested in indirectly buttressing the US's regional strategies. Ironically, on Tuesday, in faraway London, Afghan Minister for Mines Wahidullah Shahrani announced that Karzai's government had for the first time invited bids to develop gold mines and copper mines. The London Times duly noted, "Invaders since Alexander the Great have dreamt of exploiting its mineral wealth. Now Afghanistan is seeking foreign...