Free Republic

Gallup's U.S. Economic Confidence Index was -8 last week, matching the five-year weekly high set the week ending Feb. 3. The current score is up from -13 the previous week.

This week the Enquiring Hitchhiker is proud to bring you the New York Times bestselling author of the Monster Hunter series Larry Correia… Question 1. You broke into writing by self publishing your first book. How did you market the novel and what experiences positive and negative did you have with that first book? ------- After getting rejected everywhere I decided to self publish. Since I was already well known in the internet gun community, I concentrated my efforts there. Specifically on a couple of gun forums, including one that I’d been a moderator on for a really long time....

So much of science fiction's core topics intersect with war, one way or the other. Rapid social change and technological innovation both get supercharged during wartime, and some of our greatest explorers are also warriors. So it's not surprising that many of science fiction's most well-known authors served in the military at some point — especially during the era when we had a compulsory draft. But how did serving in the military shape these writers' books? Here's a look at 15 of the authors who served in the armed forces, and how their work reflects that experience.

Of course, 2013 will be fine, because the 1950s sure were. That's the premise for the coming year, especially in regard to the agreement in Washington to raise U.S. tax rates on the well-off. In the 1950s, after all, tax rates were far higher than what the House and Senate have agreed on, a top rate in the high 30 percent range. Back then, they were even higher than what President Barack Obama might have proposed, if left to his own counsel. Republicans in that era went along with the idea that high rates took something away from the rich...

Some may see the films or books as just entertainment, but Tolkien spent a lifetime creating a mythos with far more detail than most writers ever imagine. An Oxford professor, he approached his writing as if it were a scholarly pursuit. Yet it was still entertaining and captivating, full of themes and message (though he never intentionally preached, so to speak, his beliefs informed his work). That’s why it has endured for so long (The Hobbit was originally published in 1937, mainly directed at children. Don’t see many children books like this anymore, do we?). Tolkien drew on many influences...

Washington — Consumers saved nearly $1.5 billion in 2011 as a result of rules in President Obama´s healthcare law that limit what insurance companies can spend on expenses unrelated to medical care, including profit, a new analysis shows. Much of those savings — an estimated $1.1 billion — came in rebates to consumers required because insurers had exceeded the required limits. The study by the New York-based Commonwealth Fund also suggests that the Affordable Care Act forced insurers to become more efficient by limiting their administrative expenses, a key goal of the 2010 law. In some cases, insurers passed savings...

I don’t get the fantasy subgenre of paranormal/supernatural fiction’s obsession with vampires and werewolves. It’s always been around, but has exploded in recent years and now commands whole sections of bookstores. Then, I guess, there are people who don’t get people like me who like epic fantasy like Tolkien, Lewis or Terry Brooks. Nonetheless. So here comes Bruce Hennigan’s The 12th Demon: Mark of the Wolf Dragon, which is a pleasant departure from high school age vampires who are all starting to look and act a lot alike.

For years I had intended on reading the classic fantasies of J.R.R. Tolkien, but never did until a few months before the films were released. Then I was hooked. I had been a long-time sci-fi fan, but I still wondered how did I miss this genre? So I began seeking out more. Of late, however, I have had a tougher time finding new fantasy authors that I enjoy. A couple of times I have, in the middle of a series, given up and moved on. These authors have created detailed worlds and epic adventures for sure. Yet they are afraid...

<p>Dennis Avner, a 54 years old man who spent years trying hard to make his body look like a tiger, has committed suicide. According to DailyMail of November 13, his body was found November 5. He lived alone.</p> <p>The problem of Avner began when a Native chief, guided by spirits, said that Avner should “follow the ways of the tiger.”</p>

... Obama is having Mitt Romney over for lunch on Thursday and their meeting is already generating a lot of buzz. Here are five theories about the White House’s motives.... 1. Obama is extending a common courtesy... 2. Obama will offer Romney a Cabinet job... 3. Obama will enlist Romney in the fiscal cliff debate... 4. Obama wants Romney’s advice on business issues... 5. Obama wants closure on the 2012 presidential election, or something else?....

"...We are calling on you, our Senators, to request our electors not cast their vote! Then the House of Representatives CAN choose the next President (and Republicans still have the majority - 233 (R) to 195 (D) - in the House of Representatives)!!!..."

David Parker in his article, “The Rise and Fall of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a ‘Parable on Populism” looks closer at the many interpretations of the Wizard of Oz and gives us his opinion that sometimes a book is just a book and that interpretations pulled out of thin air are often just as ephemeral.  I have always been very interested in what adults think about children’s literature. More often than not they read into the stories political, religious, and even topical themes of their own time or the time in which the story was written.

By any honest measurement Barack Hussein Obama has been a dismal failure as a President. Few if any Presidents have been given as much power in their first term as Obama and done so little. In fact for two years he had an unassailable super majority in congress and still his administration has been unable to do something as simple as craft a budget much less control runaway unemployment, a crippling deficit, and the terrorist overthrow of the middle east. While contemplating how anyone could do much worse than Obama, it came to me: Obama is such a failure that...

This week we are proud to bring you an interview with Daniel Knauf. You may remember Daniel as the creator of the hit HBO show Carnivàle. He is currently working to recreate the story telling genre with his Bxx internet format. Bxx presents a non-linear method of telling a story in which the viewer can follow the story from multiple angles, out of sequence, or even follow specific characters through the story.

As Democrats gather in this Southern city on the eve of the convention, we look at the changing political landscape of the South with Democratic Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Kareem Crayton. He's a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, and he studies race in politics. And we thank you both for being with us...

Actually, I would appreciate if people didn’t remake anything. Some originality would be nice.  While, I would appreciate no remakes, this goes double for ones with Arnold Schwarzenegger.It as actually quite interesting how many of Arnold’s films were science fiction or fantasy based.  It is also interesting how every remake of one of them is a complete flop.  The latest edition of Total Recall going to the remake scrap-heap is prime example.  Great CGI, No originality and No Arnold equals epic fail.  It seems the original which was recently called ‘cheesy’ by some critic did far better at the box office than the new one which...

It was widely reported back in June that the producers of the HBO series “Game of Thrones� deliberately used a gruesome image of former president George W. Bush’s head impaled on a stake during the drama’s season one finale. The backlash was so great that DVD shipments were halted, digital copies were edited, and an apology was issued via press release. Now the author of the books, George R.R. Martin has shown his true colors, blaming conservatives in swing states for what he called “voter suppression�.In a recent blog post titled “Show Us Your Papers�, the avowed Democrat from New Jersey who thinks...

Join up for our fifth successive season. Join at Yahoo Fantasy Football. Free Republic Football League 2 (ID# 211856) Password cowboys

President Obama's agenda for a second term includes bringing peace to the Middle East. "I have not been able to move the peace process forward in the Middle East the way I wanted," he said in an interview with WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. "It's something we focused on very early. But the truth of the matter is, that the parties, they've got to want it as well."

After a monumental 2010 midterm election that saw them swept from power, Congressional Democrats are fantasizing again about holding the levers of the House of Representatives. Politico's Arena has a discussion among both Democrat and Republican legislators that sees a surprising optimism for Democrats. This comes in the wake of John Boehner putting Dems' chances at about one-in-three. Democrat Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio thinks the Ryan budget will be the GOP's millstone, claiming they want to "dismantle" Medicare. (If only, right?) The hat-loving Rep. Frederica Wilson dips into delusion, saying that Republicans "are intentionally starving efforts to jump start...

wrote my first commentary for BizPac Review a year ago out of a sense of frustration with the TV media. I awoke last May 2 to the news that Osama bin Laden was killed by a U.S. Navy SEAL team. The details were scant but nonetheless fascinating. He was killed on May 1 at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. This area is the home of the country’s equivalent to our U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His body was removed and his wives were taken in, along with his papers and records. Fox News finally reported that our intelligence agencies...

TODAY’S POST IS BROUGHT TO YOU (UNOFICIALLY) BY THE “MAKE A WISH” FOUNDATION "It is hard to sneak around and do what you want," Michelle Obama said today. "I have done it a couple of times. But you know one fantasy I have, and the Secret Service they keep looking at me because they think I might actually do it, is to walk right out the front door and just keep walking." Yes; her fantasy. That’s what Lady M chose to share with the kids who attended an Executive Office “Take your children to work day” function. Coincidentally, that’s the...

Liberalism is a mental psychosis where the inflicted cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality. This is evidenced by the Obama supporter in Arizona who threatened to kill Sheriff Arpiao and his family because the Arizona Sheriff's "cold case" team discovered fraud associated with Obama's birth certificate. Further evidence of this liberal psychosis is Bill Mauer calling Mrs. Palin a "-unt" and the liberal left celebrated this name calling.

"I am staggered at how easily the concepts of Democracy and the Rule of Law – two of the pillars of the modern world – have been brushed aside in the interests of political expediency." SNIP---- I am not well equipped to navigate bubbles where tactical views and secular views are all thrown into the melting pot together, where there is no visibility, where – as one client put it to me recently – we have Monetary Anarchy running riot, where the elastic band between the ‘real’ economy and the current liquidity-fuelled markets is stretched further and further beyond credulity,...

Gingrich says Pelosi is living in a fantasy worldBy Alicia M. Cohn - 01/25/12 09:32 AM ET Newt Gingrich said Nancy Pelosi is living in a fantasy world if she thinks she has dirt on him. "She lives in a San Francisco environment of very strange fantasies and very strange understandings of reality," Gingrich said Wednesday as he laughed off the notion that the House minority leader could derail his bid for the GOP presidential nomination. "I have no idea what's in Nancy Pelosi's head," Gingrich said on NBC's "Today" show. "If she knows something, I have a simple challenge:...

Anne McCaffrey wasn't just the inventor of Pern, the world where a whole society is based on dragon-riding. She was also an incredibly influential author who helped transform the way science fiction and fantasy authors wrote about women, and the way all of us thought about bodies and selfhood. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award, as well as a Grand Master of science fiction.

Patient: Wayne, Bruce DOB: 2/16/1971 Occupation: Industrialist Insurance: Self-pay Emergency Contact: Dick Grayson, XXX-269-9637 Interval History: Patient was seen for his last annual physical approximately one year ago. Since that time he has had numerous visits for acute illnesses or injuries, generally accompanied either by his companion Mr. Grayson or Alfred, a senior member of his household staff. These recent maladies appear to be in keeping with the pattern that has emerged over the past several years, in which significant medical problems are associated with odd or incongruous explanations. Most recently, patient was seen for numerous areas of lower extremity...

Everybody knows the modern world lacks enchantment. As a premise, that assertion is unprovable, but movies and TV shows have been saying it forever, so we just accept it as a trope, like, “The suburbs are shallow” and “When the railroads came, the Wild West became civilized.” Any program built around it is therefore better off not dwelling on it, and focusing its energies instead on other, more basic pleasures: characterization, plot, atmosphere. Two new network shows are built around fairy tales and the absence of magic in modern life — ABC’s “Once Upon a Time,” which debuted Sunday at...

Welcome to Storybrooke, Maine where the townsfolk are fairy tale characters - but they don't know it. The fantasy series Once Upon a Time premiered last night on ABC. Who watched it? Read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia. Watch the pilot online at ABC.com. Review at The Hollywood Reporter. Analysis at The Hollywood Reporter. IMDb

A girl with hair dyed cherry red wears goggles, a tight corset, a lacy Victorian dress and black military boots. Her friend, a gent, dons a top hat, an early 1900s gas mask, fingerless leather gloves and crimson canvas trousers. He holds a pistol that looks like a fusion between the Wild West and a 1950s sci-fi flick. All of this is not some new fashion trend. It's Steampunk, and it's been around for a while.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's decision not to run for president is predictable and offers the possibility of changing the dynamic of the Republican primary election. With Florida, South Carolina, Nevada and New Hampshire all moving up the dates of their primaries and caucuses, it simply became impossible and impractical to raise the money and organize campaigns in those states in the less than 100 days that remain. In the long term, the renewed speculation about Gov. Christie's candidacy can only raise his profile nationally as well as his stature in New Jersey where poll numbers have been steadily climbing...

Having been a fan of NASCAR for decades, I've noticed what some others may have realized about Sarah Palin, and the importance of timing in official entry into the race for the nomination. Sarah Palin's been in the race, whether anybody realized it or not, since November 5th, 2008. Her position as McCain's running mate and the very positive influence she had on the race meant that the party's base would look to her for leadership in that position unless she openly demurred. After stepping aside from her office in July 2009, Governor Palin began to carry the burgeoning...

FReepers, I need at least three new teams to sign up to play fantasy football. Last year in my first year I won the league. It was a blast too! So, Go to Yahoo Fantasy Football sign up page and use our League ID# 673974 and PW Blitz to join our custom by invitation only league. See you on the gridiron. Our drafts this weekened

Join up today, this seasons gonna be a blast. We are opening things up at bit to make ours a more realistic FF league. Please join us or let Obama isolate us and we all die'

More than 5,000 of you nominated. More than 60,000 of you voted. And now the results are in. The winners of NPR's Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy survey are an intriguing mix of classic and contemporary titles...

I have one league that's going strong into its 6th year and is full. I have, however, started a second league that's "experimental" in that it's designed to produce regular NFL type scores (i.e. 17-10, 24-20, 14-13) type stuff. It may or may not be renewed next year but thought I'd try it. If you'd like to join, FReepmail me for league ID and password. Note it's a LIVE ONLINE DRAFT on Yahoo! scheduled for the weekend before the regular season starts.

Dear Football Patriots, Below is the enrollment information you'll need to join up. Did you play with us last year? You need to give me your FR user name and real name for my records alone. All it takes is one disruptor from DU to ruin it for all of us. How long have you been posting on FR? What are your pet FF peeves? How can we make the game more exciting for you? What rules would you like to see altered/eliminated? Remember, we can change any rule we don't like. This is still America! Give me all your...

SO, Let's get ready for some FOOOTTBALLLLs, a nightime Party Let's face it, last year we had about a dozen lame, slow witted dolts who were not exceptional Americans. Let alone exceptional American football fans. These folks only joined FR, so they could play in a FF league. Not FReepers playing fantasy football, but posers who can't get invited into any other league. FReeper People, we can do so much better!

SO, Let's get ready for some FOOOTTBALLLLs, a nightime Party Let's face it, last year we had about a dozen lame, slow witted dolts who were not exceptional Americans. Let alone exceptional American football fans. These folks only joined FR, so they could play in a FF league. Not FReepers playing fantasy football, but posers who can't get invited into any other league. FReeper People, we can do so much better!

Joel Rosenberg, a Minneapolis gun rights advocate and author of several fantasy novels, has died. His wife, Felicia, posted a message on the “Free Joel Rosenberg” website, saying he died Thursday evening at Hennepin County Medical Center. “On Wednesday afternoon, June 1, 2011, Joel had a respiratory depression that caused a heart attack, anoxic brain damage and major organ failure. Despite the very best efforts of the paramedics and the team at Hennepin County Medical Center, Joel was pronounced brain dead at around 5:37 p.m. Thursday June 2nd, In accordance with his wishes, he shared the gift of life through...

As lefties gloat over the political implications of Osama bin Laden’s demise, and the media ramp up an “Obama bounce� meme, conservatives should politely but persistently shift the conversation from politics to policy. In my latest column for Townhall, I draw on a number of fascinating news accounts elucidating how the our military and intelligence community finally nailed bin Laden. US officials describe a “mosaic� of intelligence that ultimately led a team of Navy SEALs to a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan — suggesting that it took many years and myriad sources to pinpoint bin Laden’s precise location. As we now...

We have confirmation that Joanna Russ, 74, died this morning peacefully around 7:15 a.m. in hospice care in Tucson AZ. She has been ill since suffering a stroke in February 2011. Russ was a critic and SF writer, best known for The Female Man (1975).

Like it did with Boardwalk Empire in September, HBO just renewed Game of Thrones moments after the ratings for the premiere episode were in. For Game of Thrones, those ratings were solid, not great. But, also like with Boardwalk Empire, HBO invested in elaborate sets and designs in re-creating the world from George R.R. Martin's books, so a second season was considered a sure thing. And while HBO brass pay attention to ratings, the numbers have never been the deciding factor in the network's renewal decisions as proven by the pickups of shows like Treme, Bored to Death and In...

So JRR Tolkien walks into the HBO meeting and pitches his great new fantasy idea: "It's set long ago, and there's this magic ring, and some hobbits – they're like organic dwarves – and there's this wizard with a long white beard, and, and …" Four hours later he gets to the end of his summary. "Not bad," says one executive, "but what about the second season?"

At first glance, the numbers released by the Census Bureau last week showing a precipitous drop in Detroit’s population — 25 percent over the last decade — seem to bear a silver lining: most of those leaving the city are blacks headed to the suburbs, once the refuge of mid-century white flight. But a closer analysis of the data suggests that the story of housing discrimination that has dominated American urban life since the early 20th century is far from over. Detroit is not the only American city to face persistent residential segregation, but it is among the worst: it...

Famous British writer Diana Wynne Jones has passed away on 26th March, 2011 after fighting a long battle with lung cancer. Among her famous books are Howl’s Moving Castle, Archers Goon, Dogs body and Fire & Hemlock. Diana Wynne Jones was one of the most renowned fantasy writers.

What to Make of SEIU Official's Supposed Socialist Fantasy PlanBy John Hudson Mar 22, 2011 A new tape posted on Glenn Beck's political website, The Blaze, purportedly shows a former Service Employees International Union official sharing plans to "destabilize the country." In the seven-minute video, a voice that sounds like Stephen Lerner, the former director of private equity at the SEIU pictured above, details plans to "bring down the stock market," bankrupt major U.S. banks and create an environment where a weakened financial sector cedes power to union organizers and the middle class in general. The talk purportedly happened at...

I am the commissioner for two Yahoo! based fantasy baseball leagues. We need one replacement manager to take over "Home of the Braves". You can choose your own team name when you register. This is a standard, 5x5, rotisserie,keeper league. You can protect 3 batters and 3 pitchers. The number of keepers may change at the end of the season based on the consensus of the managers. Draft is a serpentine autodraft in order of notice to me of intent to participate. FReepmail me with a subject of 'Free Republicans' if you are interested. The other league is a standard,...

Radio host and author Paul A. Ibbetson's fictional version of Animal Farm with a conservative twist. The delightful tale of Oliver the Squirrel unfolds on this departure from the conservative political discussions found previously in Ibbetson's books. Oliver's Tale is a thinker's piece and while written in the same spirit as George Orwell's Animal Farm it has its own unique social, political, and religious message to be discovered by readers. Surrounded by a colorful cast of animal characters, Oliver experiences a spiritual growth in his relationship with God as he becomes privy to the secret plan of the Gray Skunk,...

A challenge: Find some example of government overreach, describe it briefly, and suggest not only its repeal, but some replacement language that might prevent a repeat.