Free Republic

I took some time away from FR and Im enjoying that time immensely.(it just takes an attitude adjustment). So off I go. I considered shutting up and simply leaving but since I have been here a while I figured , Hell I might as well say something and Opuses are somewhat of a tradition..... thus the Opus route won Final thoughts: A professor I had said if you don't agree on terms you are not communicating And there is not much agreement on terms anymore. The main term not agreed on is "CONSERVATIVE " On Google FR is defined as...

Personality, Cult of BIBLIOGRAPHY Cult of personality is a pejorative term implying the concentration of all power in a single charismatic leader within a totalitarian state and the near deification of that leader in state propaganda. Totalitarian regimes use the state-controlled mass media to cultivate a larger-than-life public image of the leader through unquestioning flattery and praise. Leaders are lauded for their extraordinary courage, knowledge, wisdom, or any other superhuman quality necessary for legitimating the totalitarian regime. The cult of personality serves to sustain such a regime in power, discourage open criticism, and justify whatever political twists and turns it...

Author of a masterful study on the CIA and the cultural Cold War, British historian Frances Stonor Saunders provided a detailed account for The Independent of the CIA’s covert role in sponsoring Abstract Expressionist painting in the United States. The CIA exploited this artistic movement as a showcase of freedom and free enterprise, and to counteract the influence that communist ideology still had for many intellectuals and artists in the West. For decades in art circles it was either a rumour or a joke, but now it is confirmed as a fact. The Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art...

A section of Art Basel Miami Beach was transformed into a crime scene after a fight escalated to a stabbing at the show’s main event inside the Miami Beach Convention Center on Friday night, police said. A woman pulled an X-Acto knife and stabbed another woman in the arms and neck, said Miami Beach police spokeswoman Det. Kathleen Prieto. “The injuries are non life-threatening,” Prieto said. The victim was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital; the assailant, whom police did not identify, was arrested at the scene. Both women were patrons of the art show, not exhibitors. Some patrons thought the...

What happens when you combine one of the world's most ridiculed business personalities with one of the world's most ridiculed business models? The Trump Network, the new Donald Trump-branded multi-level marketing business that is "designed to make people healthier with customized vitamins and nutritional supplements, and to encourage individuals to become entrepreneurs and to take control of their financial well-being." In an e-mail, Trump told The Associated Press that The Trump Network is his "rescue and recovery program" for people who have been hit hard by the recession. If you do want to join the Trump Network, you can start...

This just in: After a blistering exchange of words between the two opponents neither chose to respond to a call for a truce. Early this morning a tweet from Billy B. (name withheld at the request of relatives) seemed to further incense an already irate presidential candidate Donald Trump. The tweet: "He's a no good meanie” was sent from Billy's headquarters about 6 AM. Seemingly a commentary on Mr. Trump's often-flamboyant rhetoric, Billy’s Tweet was not well received. The night before Trump had mocked, not only Megyn Kelly, Eric Erickson and Roger Ailes but Jeb Bush and John the Baptist...

I received this email today: From: Janet Yellen Sent: Wed, May 27, 2015 3:43 pm Subject: Urgent Attention Needed I am Janet L. Yellen, the newly-sworn Chair, U.S. Federal Reserve Bank. You will get more information about me here. http://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/bios/board/yellen.htm http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/new-fed-chief-janet-yellen-has-long-history-of-breaking-barriers/2014/02/02/9e8965ca-876d-11e3-833c-33098f9e5267_story.html I have made it my first point of call since taking office to settle all outstanding payments accrued to individuals/corporations with respect to local and overseas contract payment, debt re-scheduling and outstanding compensation payment. This is to make sure all outstanding payments are settled this fiscal year 2015. I have your file here in my office and it says...

Nelson Shanks, who painted a portrait of former President Bill Clinton in 2006, revealed in an interview published Sunday that there's more to the image than meets the eye, including a reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. "The reality is he's probably the most famous liar of all time," Shanks told the Philadelphia Daily News. "He and his administration did some very good things, of course, but I could never get this Monica thing completely out of my mind and it is subtly incorporated in the painting." Shanks explained that a shadow covering the Oval Office mantel in the painting...

Denunciations of the art market are a dime a dozen, the bogeymen equally manifold: speculative collectors, corrupt dealers, artists enlisted to mint an alternative currency for global circulation. But when one of the world’s most high-profile economists calls for the art market’s regulation, as Nouriel Roubini did last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, people tend to listen. Speaking at a lunch event hosted by the weekend edition of the Financial Times, Roubini denounced the use of art “for tax avoidance and evasion.” “While art looks as if it is all about beauty, as a business it...

A rug has been removed from a sheriff's office in Florida after it was noticed that it read "in dog we trust" instead of "in God we trust". The $500 (£329) mat lay at the entrance to the office in Pinellas County for two months before someone noticed, a spokeswoman said. The error was made by the rug's manufacturer and it is being replaced. Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said they were looking at auctioning it for charity, the Tampa Bay Times reports. There have been several offers to buy the misprinted rug . "I'd buy or donate to a charity...

An elderly California doctor has gained a cult following on social media for dressing in a rubber suit while pretending to be a teen girl. Robert, a 70-year-old from Newport Beach, revealed his act on TLC's "My Strange Addiction." He is part of fetish group called "maskers." The masked man goes by "Sherry" while dressed as the belle of the ball, he told the reality show. He has been wearing the rubber suits for more than a decade. The septuagenarian does not give his real name, but claims to engage in the bizarre ritual "because I think I look amazing."...

I got to thinking about it and decided I could do something simple and straightforward to affect a bit of change. I stopped at a bakery this morning and bought a whole pie (Key Lime). I stuck it in the car and decided the first policeman I saw I would give it to him and say thanks. It took a while but I just completed the mission. I pulled up along side of a squad car and waved at the policeman. Then simply got out,approached him and handed him the box. I told him with all the news about the...

FBI agents investigating the Sony Pictures hack were briefed Monday by a security firm that says its research points to laid-off Sony staff, not North Korea, as the perpetrator — another example of the continuing whodunit blame game around the devastating attack. Even the unprecedented decision to release details of an ongoing FBI investigation and President Barack Obama publicly blaming the hermit authoritarian regime hasn’t quieted a chorus of well-qualified skeptics who say the evidence just doesn’t add up. Researchers from the cyber intelligence company Norse have said their own investigation into the data on the Sony attack doesn’t point...

I called former covert CIA operations officer Valerie Plame in Santa Fe last week to ask if I had reason to be anxious about the way something that in the context of history is so minor – an assassination in Serbia, a small civil war in Ukraine – can spin so out of control. “Other than the annihilation of the human race through miscalculation or mistake?” she replied. “Yes, the summer has been full of terrible news. This is an issue that because it is so big and truly existential in nature, we tend not to be able to absorb...

Everyone knows that whenever Robin Williams plays a serious role, he sports a beard. So when the stand-up-turned-Oscar-winner walked, bewhiskered, into a black-and-white shot of a graveyard, I figured within minutes Williams would be hugging C.K. and saying, “It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.” But of course that’s not what happened. The solemnity of that wordless opening scene was punctured in—where else, this being Louie—a diner, where Louie tells Robin that the deceased “was the biggest piece of (expetive deleted) I ever knew.” Big bearded guffaws follow, and soon the two are trading awful stories about Barney Ross,...

WASHINGTON -- One of President Barack Obama's top advisers said on Friday that he expects House Republicans will ultimately file articles of impeachment against the president. Dan Pfeiffer, a senior aide who has been with the administration since Obama first took office, told reporters that he anticipated that a lawsuit filed by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) over executive actions taken by the president on health care would ultimately not be enough to satisfy some of the more vocal conservatives in Congress. Pfeiffer added that coming executive actions surrounding immigration reform would only stoke the impeachment flames. "I think a...

I will be making one of these for my dog and I might need one of my own This could make a lot of dogs very happy

There are many things you'd never expect Glenn Beck to say: "Barack Obama is a great president," "the Affordable Care Act was a huge success," "amnesty for all undocumented immigrants!" But "liberals, you were right" tops them all. And yet: "From the beginning, most people on the left were against going into Iraq. I wasn’t.... Liberals, you were right. We shouldn’t have." Beck made this surprising declaration on his radio show on Tuesday while discussing the widening rift between Republicans and Democrats. He urged both parties to come together to oppose another war in Iraq. "Not one more life. Not...

MEMORIAL DAY 2014 THANKSGIVING FOR ALL WHO SERVE

UK Times headline tomorrow: Scientists in cover-up of ‘damaging’ climate view – full article Posted on May 15, 2014 by Anthony Watts Uh oh, another “climategate” like moment is upon us as the law of unintended consequences kicks in. As Dr. Roger Pielke put it: Appears that Bengtsson can play hardball too. Plus there is an editorial by Dr. Matt Ridley saying “This bullying of climate sceptics must end“. Here is the front page of The Times for Friday May 16th, a link to the article follows