Free Republic

So, my place of employment has been pressuring us with high-profile donation campaigns for a month or so. Now, I'm getting emails from the Chairman of the Board who has pledged a one-for-one dollar donation, and wants me to be a first time donor. I have several problems with this, mainly that the United Way nationally does fund Planned Parenthood. Now, locally they say they do not. However, United Way says you can make donations to specific charities. The issue I have with that is does United Way take something of the top for handling these donations? If so, why?...

Warmer temperatures could affect just about everything you'll see on the dinner table. THE GIST The cost and quality of Thanksgiving Day foods could eventually be affected by climate change. Warmer temperatures can impact turkey meat texture, appearance and taste, research finds. Water shortages could also lead to more costly plant-based foods and beverages.

While everyone is preparing to give thanks tomorrow, one of America's most famous families, the Jolie-Pitts, have decided to sit this Thanksgiving out. "Angelina Jolie hates this holiday and wants no part in rewriting history like so many other Americans," a friend of the actress tells me. "To celebrate what the white settlers did to the native Indians, the domination of one culture over another, just isn't her style. She definitely doesn't want to teach her multi-cultural family how to celebrate a story of murder." Angelina has been filming her directorial debut, about a Serbian man and Bosnian woman who...

Lindsay Lohan has been fired from Inferno, the Linda Lovelace biopic, following her numerous stints in rehab, legal troubles, and generally unreliable behavior. Writer-director Matthew Wilder has been shockingly supportive up to this point, waiting patiently while the 24-year-old former actress’ countless attempts to overcome her addictions to drugs and alcohol. A cynical person might think Wilder was using her for the free publicity, since the movie’s title made an appearance in almost every story about Lohan’s personal decline and disappearing career.

The recent firing of longtime news analyst Juan Williams of National Public Radio was a wake-up call for many Americans to the political correctness and liberal bias at the station. However, it's not so much the bias that offends me, but the fact that my tax dollars are funding it. On its website, National Public Radio describes itself as "an independent, self-supporting media organization ... that receive(s) no direct federal funding for operations." That carefully worded statement is disingenuous and hides the truth about the extent to which taxpayers are supporting the station and its liberal agenda. NPR is a...

I've always liked Director Peter Weir's films. Master and Commander, Witness, Gallipoli. Even things I didn't care for like The Year Of Living Dangerously and The Dead Poets Society were still well done and stylish. Now he has this coming out in January about an escape from a Soviet gulag in 1940 (be sure to click on the link to the trailer below): Trailer here ---------------------------------------------------- Then there is this little number from Director Kevin Smith. I'll provide the synopsis from IMDB but I'll be damned if I'm going to provide a link to the trailer. From IMDB: "A horror...

PHOENIX -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he's not overly concerned about a new song called "Kill Joe Arpaio," although he doesn't think kids should be listening to it. The song comes from the Crocodiles, an indie/fuzz rock group based in San Diego. It uses snippets from Arizona talk radio shows over music. Asked if he were upset, Arpaio said, "Because it means, kill me, right? But, let me tell you something. It doesn't really overly concern me -- freedom of speech." Things like the song come with the territory, Arpaio said. "I'm a high-profile guy. I do a...

ABC-TV Greenlights new series "Good Christian Bitches."

In tonight's sneak peek premiere of Jimmy Smits' Outlaw, a case inspires conservative Supreme Court Justice Garza to shed his cape and step down from the bench to get back into the ring. Armed with insider knowledge, Smits, the gambling womanizer, vows to take on the nation's biggest and most controversial legal cases and make a difference. Fans who think they know what to expect from a Jimmy Smits vehicle may want to tune into tonight's sneak peek of Outlaw on NBC. Judge Cyrus Garza has Smits' swagger and good looks, but this is a whole new game for the...

We are SHEEP because we don't swallow every half-truth and lie that the media darling and street corner con Obama, dishes us. I swear there is special place in hell... What absolute drivel. There are 26 year-old clueless lib hacks running this website. It is the most radical of msm sites. Shameful.

“You know, half the people in this place could be prosecuted.” Oliver Stone, the film director, was sitting across from me over a late lunch in the Grill Room of the Four Seasons restaurant in Midtown Manhattan last week. [SNIP] If one man epitomizes the populist view of Wall Street and corporate America, it is Mr. Stone, whose new film, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” opens next week. It is the sequel to his hit movie “Wall Street” in 1987. The original tapped into the zeitgeist of the moment — “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good,” as...

This is a heads up regarding Progressive Auto Insurance. You know who they are. They’re the ones with the clever television ads featuring the perky brunette actress all dressed in white. What you might not know is that the chairman of Progressive is Peter Lewis, one of the largest funders of the left in America . He’s your typical rich spoiled kid who took over the company from his father and apparently feels “guilty” for his success and now dedicates himself to making it impossible for anyone else to become wealthy. Between 2001 and 2003, Lewis funneled $15 million to...

Director Robert Rodriguez has big plans for his Danny Trejo-led "Machete," even calling it the "Latin James Bond." "This is the first Latin superhero in Hollywood cinema," he said on Tuesday. "People were saying when they saw the trailer, how come no one has done this

Tens of thousands of Glenn Beck fans and Tea Party supporters are expected to descend on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Saturday for an event the conservative talk show host has promoted as a celebration of America's "heroes and heritage." But as is usually the case with the histrionic Fox News Channel host and national radio personality, his actions have not come without controversy. A countermarch is being planned at a different location in Washington to protest Beck's decision to schedule his event on the same site and on the 47th anniversary of civil rights hero Martin Luther King...

Grover, the charismatically blue character from the classic televised children's show Sesame Street, seems to be playing both sides of the Israeli-Arab conflict of late. The furry 'muppet' is hosting a new version of Jewish-themed Shalom Sesame to be aired on Hanukkah – but has also been heard declaring “We're off to Palestine!” in an introduction to a Sesame Street video. The video segment named “A Gift from Grandma,” features a Palestinian Authority girl named Salwa who says that she lives in "Palestine" before she helps her grandmother embroider a dress for her. Some viewers were incensed at the use...

NEW ORLEANS -- Five years after he documented the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, Spike Lee returned to New Orleans with his new movie showing the city's agonizing efforts to return to normal. The premiere Tuesday included hours one and four of the HBO documentary, "If God Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise." "The first hour was very, very emotional," said Sharon Starks, 53, who said she had a purse full of tissues after seeing the first Lee film on the hurricane. "But the second hour I was just angry. It was about the BP oil spill and I just felt...

We all know about NPR tote bags given as rewards during pledge week. The tax funded "public radio" station KPFA in Berkeley gives away "Marijuana Growers Guide" by Rosenthal for a $150 pledge. KPFA is part of "Pacifica", the ultra liberal, wackadoo radio network. And yes they are partially tax supported.

The director of "Captain America: The First Avenger," the 2011 summer blockbuster that will coincide with the character's 70th anniversary, says that the screen version of the hero will be true to his roots -- up to a certain point. "We're sort of putting a slightly different spin on Steve Rogers," said Joe Johnston, whose past directing credits include "Jurassic Park III" and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." He's a guy that wants to serve his country but he's not a flag-waver. We're re-interpretating, sort of, what the comic book version of Steve Rogers was."

If you were in the presence of a man having a heart attack, how would you respond? As he clutched his chest in desperation and pain, would you call 911? Would you try to save him from dying? Of course you would. But if that man was Rush Limbaugh, and you were Sarah Spitz, a producer for National Public Radio, that isn’t what you’d do at all. In a post to the list-serv Journolist, an online meeting place for liberal journalists, Spitz wrote that she would “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” as Limbaugh writhed...

It's a practice so hidden, many don't realize it exists: the shackling of incarcerated women during childbirth. Across the U.S., there are stories of women going from jails or prisons to hospitals, where they labor and sometimes even deliver while restrained with handcuffs, leg shackles or both. In recent years, a growing number of states have moved to ban the practice. Ten states now have anti-shackling legislation: California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia — and as of two weeks ago, Pennsylvania. There have also been lawsuits in a number of states. On Thursday, a...