Free Republic

JERUSALEM – In partnership with a government fund initiated by Barack Obama, philanthropist and billionaire activist George Soros is investing in a private equity company that just launched in the Palestinian territories. The company, Siraj Fund Management Company, says it was created "for the sole purpose of managing investment funds in Palestine." The new company's website repeatedly refers to what it calls the "country" of "Palestine." There is, however, no such country as Palestine. Siraj is apparently referring to territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority. "Siraj has plans to launch future funds focused on the Palestinian market thereby contributing to...

Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I.) will soon send out a directive that state employees may not call into or spend any time on talk radio during state time. Chafee doesn’t think state resources should be used for “ratings driven, for-profit programming.” NPR of course, will be exempt. But is this really a problem in Rhode Island? Has there been some sort of epidemic of state workers ignoring their responsibilities and showing up on talk radio? A very small percentage of listeners actually call into talk shows, and of those callers a minuscule number of them are state workers on...

<p>In the wake of Glenn Beck's hugely successful Restoring Honor rally held in Washington, D.C. this weekend, the Huffington Post has published an offer of $100,000 to anyone with evidence that would destroy Beck's reputation and take him off the political/cultural battlefield.</p>

We live in times of rank, unchallenged errors of thought forcefully expressed in print and spoken word. Political movements, in particular, traffic in purposeful verbal trickery. In fact, some especially depend upon fallacies to drive their message since their essential convictions are defective or even diseased. Such groups as the Nazis, Fascists and Communists immediately spring to mind here. Barack Obama peppers his rhetoric with a veritable buffet of verbal trickery. But why? If Obamatons are correct, and Barack is one of history’s great speakers, why must he use cheap rhetorical tricks to win support? The answer is Obama offers...