http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/fantasy/ en-us Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:25:50 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2407382/posts This past weekend, President Obama’s top economic advisor, Larry Summers, said the “recession is over.” But in the next breath he called for more government action to stimulate the economy, in particular, the pace of hiring. As far as the Administration is concerned, it is government stimulus that brought us this recovery. Now, it’s just a matter of piling on even more government spending to generate job growth. In one sense we agree completely with Mr. Summers. The recession is over. In fact, the economy has been growing since June. This came as no surprise to us. “An economic recovery... First Trust Portfolios http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2407382/posts#comment Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:25:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2367644/posts I thought I would start a thread for all of you Science Fiction and Fantasy readers. I know it has been done in the past, but it seemed like a good time to run it again. If you have any favorite books or stories to recommend post it for others to share. I have received some excellent advice on some good reads. Maybe you have a good title or author to recommend. nachumlist.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2367644/posts#comment Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:21:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2379794/posts A young woman cried rape after 'fulfilling a fantasy' of having sex with two strangers, a court heard yesterday. Chloe Dolton, 22, was 'bored' with her life and willingly engaged in the threesome after an argument with her boyfriend, it was alleged... Daily Mail http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2379794/posts#comment Fri, 6 Nov 2009 09:58:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2376930/posts Here are my selections for the most pretentious science fiction - fantasy TV shows (RELAX - THE CYNICISM IS ALL IN FUN!): 5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003) - Pretty much a chick series. 4. V (original - including miniseries' - 1983 - 1985) - Nazi lizard people invade the earth. 3. Alien Nation (1989 - 1990) - A message series with one message - racism is evil. We get it. Next. (amazingly enough, this series spawned five made for TV movies, which were viewed by all 500 of its fans) 2. Beauty and the Beast (1987 -... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2376930/posts#comment Mon, 2 Nov 2009 23:09:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2375735/posts The United States and its ally South Korea have drawn up a contingency plan to cope with emergencies in North Korea, including a possible regime change there, a report said Sunday. "Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029" was completed by Seoul and Washington recently, Yonhap news agency said, quoting an unnamed Seoul source. It dictates how to respond case-by-case to such emergencies in North Korea as a civil war, an outflow of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), a mass influx of refugees or a natural disaster, Yonhap said. Under the plan, the United States assumes the role of eliminating North Korea's WMDs,... Space War http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2375735/posts#comment Sun, 1 Nov 2009 06:48:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2358453/posts According to Democrats, health care reform must be passed this very moment even though it would not kick in until 2013. But don't worry, it would start taxing Americans in 2010, three years before you get nothing. All of this probably adds up to the most expensive dependency program yet devised. Denver Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2358453/posts#comment Fri, 9 Oct 2009 16:04:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2352229/posts Sarkozy said it: Obama and his fellow progressives are trying to live in a virtual world. Sooner or later, this attempt always fails. Before it is too late, we must make our leaders understand that we all live in the real world. Only then can we hope to deal with the real world’s all-too-real dangers. When we must take advice from France on facing danger, we know that things have gone too far. www.stolinsky.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2352229/posts#comment Thu, 1 Oct 2009 04:28:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2347708/posts for anyone interested.. yahoo league..click join custom league, league ID is 156061, password is "starters" 2-g 2-f 1-c 5-bn Auto-draft Line-up changes daily Me http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2347708/posts#comment Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:45:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2341721/posts It would be foolhardy to attempt to describe all of human stupidity. So I will try to describe only two examples that are relevant today: (1) I can’t manage my own affairs, but I want to manage yours. (2) If I imagine it, it must be true. Einstein was correct. There is no limit to human stupidity. But even he could not predict how much damage would be done by self-anointed elitists living in their own fantasy world. www.stolinsky.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2341721/posts#comment Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:36:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2341016/posts WASHINGTON -- Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus formally unveiled a 10-year $856 billion bill that would extend health insurance to tens of millions of Americans not now covered, moving an important step forward on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. The sweeping measure is designed to steer a more moderate course on health policy than other major bills moving through Capitol Hill, and doesn't propose to create a new government insurance plan to compete with private insurers, as proposed in rival House legislation and favored by many liberals. Instead, the Montana Democrat is proposing to expand coverage by creating... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2341016/posts#comment Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:22:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2340985/posts ChairmanÂ’s Mark The Chairman‘s Mark would establish Federal rating, issue, renewability, and pre-existing condition rules for the individual market. Issuers in the individual market could vary premiums based only on the following characteristics: tobacco use, age, and family composition. Specifically, premiums could vary no more than the ratio specified for each characteristic: ï‚· Tobacco use – 1.5:1 ï‚· Age – 5:1 ï‚· Family composition: o Single – 1:1 o Adult with child – 1.8:1 o Two adults – 2:1 o Family – 3:1 Premiums could also vary among, but not within, rating areas to reflect geographic differences. States would define... Senate Finance Committee Website http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2340985/posts#comment Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:58:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2337468/posts Researchers at KTH have been able to prove that the fossils of animals and plants are not necessary to generate raw oil and natural gas. This result is extremely radical as it means that it will be much easier to find these energy sources and that they may be located all over the world. “With the help of our research we even know where oil could be found in Sweden!” says Vladimir Kutcherov, Professor at the KTH Department of Energy Technology in Stockholm. Together with two research colleagues, Professor Kutcherov has simulated the process of pressure and heat that occurs... KTH Royal Institute of Technology http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2337468/posts#comment Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:46:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2323088/posts Oh, to escape the daily grind, And yet right now that cannot be. I’ll close my eyes and use my mind To dream of what I long to see. Unlock imagination’s door And clear my mind of other things. Look forward to what is in store, To what my fantasizing brings. The grass so green, trees reaching high And wildflowers line the way Of path beneath the sunlit sky. Such beauty words cannot convey. So red and plump, I cannot pass, Delight in taste of berries sweet. Remove my shoes, the luscious grass Feels velvety beneath my feet. TheCypressTimes.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2323088/posts#comment Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:51:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2310557/posts When America disappears 100 or 500 or 1,000 years from now, it will be gone but not forgotten. As the world's leading military, economic, and cultural power since World War II, the United States will linger in the global gene pool and influence whatever comes next. But how exactly will Americanness get transmitted to the civilizations that replace us?A better candidate to serve as America's time capsule: the Mormons. In an aside in 2007's Are We Rome?, Cullen Murphy posits that Salt Lake City could become "the Vatican of the third millennium," with the Mormon Church "propagating a particular,... Slate http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2310557/posts#comment Fri, 7 Aug 2009 15:06:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2287300/posts The nation's hospitals agreed last night to contribute $155 billion over 10 years toward the cost of insuring the 47 million Americans without health coverage, according to two industry sources. The agreement that three hospital associations reached with White House officials and leaders of the Senate Finance Committee is the latest in a series of side deals that aim to reduce the cost of revamping the nation's health-care system and to neutralize influential industries that have historically opposed such reforms... Most of the savings -- about $100 billion -- would come through lower-than-expected Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals, said... The Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2287300/posts#comment Tue, 7 Jul 2009 15:34:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2284956/posts Inside Neverland: The stunning photographs of Michael Jackson's empty fantasy By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE 03rd July 2009 Gone is the zoo with its elephants, tigers and giraffe. The exotic snakes have long since slithered away, and the amusement rides have been dismantled. The gates to Michael Jackson's fabled Neverland Ranch swung open yesterday to reveal a shell of the fantasy the boy-man had created when he was the King of Pop. [Pics in URL] Daily Mail (UK) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2284956/posts#comment Fri, 3 Jul 2009 17:40:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2243169/posts On April 27, The New York Times reported that the percentage of black Americans who believe race relations in America are generally good has doubled since July. This statistic forces me to ask: Why are African-Americans feeling so good about our country in a time of economic crisis and international conflict? It is not just the fact of a black president. Instead, with everyone analyzing the 100-day mark of Barack Obama's administration, I think the answer lies in understanding this historic moment through a black cultural lens. I believe African-Americans are feeling racially optimistic because they respect how our first... The San Diego Union-Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2243169/posts#comment Sun, 3 May 2009 14:06:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2240664/posts 2008 Nebula Awards The Nebula Awards http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2240664/posts#comment Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:11:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2224026/posts It is no fun to be the one who rains on the parade, and, if nothing else, President Obama's trip to Europe has been quite a parade....Still, someone has to say it: Although some things went well on this trip, some things went badly. The centerpiece of the visit, Obama's keynote foreign policy speech in Prague...was, to put it bluntly, peculiar. He used it to call for "a world without nuclear weapons" and a new series of arms control negotiations with Russia. This was not wrong, necessarily, and not evil. But it was strange. Clearly, the "no nukes" policy is... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2224026/posts#comment Tue, 7 Apr 2009 13:27:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2191195/posts “I am for socialism, disarmament, and ultimately for abolishing the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion,” wrote one particularly ambitious contributor in his 1935 Harvard 30th anniversary classbook. “I seek social ownership of all property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.” TownHall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2191195/posts#comment Sun, 22 Feb 2009 06:34:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2170432/posts When Barack Hussein Obama places his hand on the Bible today to take the oath of office as 44th president of the United States, Barbara Nelson of Kenmore will undoubtedly think back to the day he was born. It was Aug. 4, 1961, at Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu. “I may be the only person left who specifically remembers his birth. His parents are gone, his grandmother is gone, the obstetrician who delivered him is gone,” said Nelson, referring to Dr. Rodney T. West, who died in February at the age of 98. Here’s the story:... The Buffalo News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2170432/posts#comment Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:08:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2158677/posts Researchers are cloaking materials from light, sound, and even matter itself. Two years ago a team of engineers amazed the world (Harry Potter fans in particular) by developing the technology needed to make an invisibility cloak. Now researchers are creating laboratory-engineered wonder materials that can conceal objects from almost anything that travels as a wave. That includes light and sound and—at the subatomic level—matter itself. And lest you think that cloaking applies only to the intangible world, 2008 even brought a plan for using cloaking techniques to protect shorelines from giant incoming waves. Engineer Xiang Zhang, whose University of California... Discover Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2158677/posts#comment Sun, 4 Jan 2009 22:47:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2158064/posts Last night Ed Hale presented the (heretofore, unseen) divorce decree on Plains Radio between Obama's mother and Obama Sr ( her FIRST marriage). The key bonus in this was the revelation of the specific version of her name in the decree, Stanley Ann D. Obama. Using this precise name variation ( the abbreviated, initial "D" --instead of 'Dunham', was the cipher that broke open the search), they are claiming to have now located a POE (Port of Entry ) document that Obama's mother provided when she returned to the US with her son--soon after Obama's birth, (allegedly in Kenya). The... Restore The Constitutional Republic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2158064/posts#comment Sat, 3 Jan 2009 15:01:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2141750/posts From the US National Archives and Records Administration website explaining the State laws on how Electors may vote: The Supreme Court has held that the Constitution does not require that electors be completely free to act as they choose and therefore, political parties may extract pledges from electors to vote for the parties' nominees. Although some State laws provide that so-called "faithless electors" may be subject to fines or may be disqualified for casting an invalid vote and be replaced by a substitute elector, the Court has not specifically ruled on the question of whether pledges and penalties for failure... The Greater Evil http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2141750/posts#comment Tue, 2 Dec 2008 23:35:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2135619/posts For junior capitalists fleeing the financial meltdown, is the highly leveraged, hotly speculative Middle Eastern insta-metropolis the last, best place on Earth—or a mirage?Business is booming right now! I mean, the place has what, double-digit GDP growth? Like, thatÂ’s crazy!” Brooke Butler tucks her silken hair behind her ears, flashes a wide smile, and digs into her dumplings. ItÂ’s Pan-Asian night at Entre Nous, the restaurant on the ground floor of Novotel Dubai, and Butler, a 24-year-old Texan with an exuberant demeanor and a slim volleyball playerÂ’s build, is taking a pause from a long day schmoozing real-estate executives. She... New York Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2135619/posts#comment Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:16:51 GMT