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That Marley was dead there could be no doubt. All the papers carried the news, the coroner had performed a thorough autopsy, and Scrooge himself had identified the body and bore witness at the funeral. Was Scrooge certain in his identification? Of course he was! Scrooge and Marley had been friends for more years than either could remember and both considered the other to be family. In reality, each others’ only friend and the only family either cared to associate with. Marley was a long time politician spending many years at different levels of politics, holding the office of U.S....

Over the past few weeks, Ayn Rand’s classic, Atlas Shrugged, has been mentioned in articles in the Wall Street Journal and among conservative and libertarian bloggers. Two questions are being debated by those who have read the book. Are we living in a time line that follows the book? What chapter are we in? Besides those who have read the book, there are FReepers with little awareness of Rand and her work. Some are turned off by the length of her works of fiction. Some of a more religious bent have problems with Rand’s atheism. Some wish she had left...

Perhaps the most anticipated popular fiction offering of the year for readers of this column is Heart of the Assassin, (Scribner, $25.95) Robert Ferrigno's final volume in his trilogy about a future America split by civil war and dominated by Islamic rule. http://frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36278#disqus_thread

OK everyone, it's time again for my quarterly "What Are You Reading Now?" survey. I always ask this because I consider most Freepers to be extremely well-read, possibly some of the more well-read groups on the Web. What you are currently reading can be anything - a technical journal, an NY Times bestseller, a classic novel, in short anything. Please do not defile this thread by replying "I'm reading this thread". It became un-funny a long time ago. I'll start. I'm reading "The Approaching Fury: Voices Of The Storm (1820-1861) by Stephen Oates. This book covers the major controversies and...

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.

“Sergeant could you please tell the Committee what your involvement was in the incident that took place outside of Kabul on August 1st of this year?”

This is a Vanity. If it shows up in the wrong place, would some kindly soul remove it to a better place. I have recently seen the movie "Amazing Grace", with Ioan Gruffudd, about William Wilberforce and his efforts to end British participation in the slave trade. At one point, his friend, PM Pitt, tells him that one of the reasons he's having trouble is that it is rumored that WW was corresponding with Thomas Jefferson. Is it true? Does anyone know what they were writing about? Jefferson had slaves, and WW was against it.

Audiobook: In this episode, Father Stephen Keller tries to help a stranger with his social worker friend, Laurie, and fears he's fallen for a weird trap. Will he take the bait and go up to Ruthie's room alone? Watch video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NT9maMHSBE Constructive criticism appreciated.

Even though Father Beachem was his twin brother, the protagonist in this fiction short story helped arrange his twin's surprise birthday party which turned out to be a bigger surprise to the caterer and priest's brother than to the party's man of honor.

"America Libre: A novel by Raul Ramos y Sanchez" "Time: The second decade of the twenty-first century. As the immigration crisis reaches the boiling point, once-peaceful Latino protests explode into rioting. Cities across the nation are in flames. Anglo vigilantes bent on revenge launch drive-by shootings in the barrios, wantonly killing young and old. Exploiting the turmoil, a congressional demagogue succeeds in passing legislation that transforms the nation’s teeming inner-city barrios into walled-off Quarantine Zones. In this chaotic landscape, Manolo Suarez is struggling to provide for his family. Under the spell of a beautiful Latina radical, the former U.S. Army...

DENVER -- President Barack Obama specifically profiled the plight of a Colorado woman failed by the health care system in Wednesday night's nationally televised address. But when 7NEWS started asking basic questions such as where is she from and what is her name, the administration that prides itself on being transparent wouldn't say a word. In Wednesday night's speech, Obama said, "This is about the woman in Colorado who paid $700 a month to her insurance company, only to find out that they wouldn't pay a dime for her cancer treatment, who had to use up her retirement funds to...

So I said to him, "Barack, I know Abe Lincoln, and you ain't Abe Lincoln." You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves. ......Abraham Lincoln

It's fiction but it will someday be very true as the writer of the diary asserts. For now, it's up to Youtube to provide a scary but very believable illustration of how marriage will be defined in America's future.

MOSSAD'S KILLING MACHINE COMES TO BRITAIN A killing war between Israel's Mossad and Islamic fanatics came closer this weekend in Britain. The Israeli intelligence agency has sent four members of its kidon assassination squad to this country, to join fifteen other handpicked katsas, its relentless field agents. Their brief is to "disable" any of the "close to 50" British Muslims that the extremist Islamic group, Al-Muhajiroun, last week boasted were ready to carry out suicide missions similar to the one in Tel Aviv. Al-Muhajiroun spokesman, Asif Butt, said the 50 were "primed and ready to go". The threat was sufficient...

The protagonist of this story "Can of Peas" grew up believing that a humble can of peas saved her parents from certain death on the rocky immigrant boat of their passage from Italy to America. But was it a can of peas or something that sounds like a can of peas that saved the lives on that boat and changed the fortunes of the believers soon to be born of the survivors?

The Obama Numbers Are Pure Fiction. Tony Fratto is envious. Mr. Fratto was a colleague of mine in the Bush administration, and as a senior member of the White House communications shop, he knows just how difficult it can be to deal with a press corps skeptical about presidential economic claims. It now appears, however, that Mr. Fratto's problem was that he simply lacked the magic words -- jobs "saved or created." "Saved or created" has become the signature phrase for Barack Obama as he describes what his stimulus is doing for American jobs. His latest invocation came yesterday, when...

"Saving Mom From Uncle Guido" is a fiction story from "Mystery and Mirth, excerpted for yon enjoyment. For the Micky Mouse head helped her overhear the murder plot and the door disguise helped her stop it in its tracks. It's short and a smile.

Paducah TX. The 32 delegates sat in a smal room around regular tables on metal folding chairs drinking from paper cups from jugs of sweet iced tea and bottles of soda. The speaker stood at the center where a small stage, hastily built from bricks and plywood sat in a clearing. "... as we face the final days of our lives I would like to say I am proud of what I have done. I am proud to be giving my life for the ideals of freedom and liberty. I know we all are, even if we are frightened....

Horror: Theodicy (2:17) Synopsis: In this episode, Chris plots revenge against Stephen by hiring an amateur adult model to lure him into a hotel room with a hidden camera. “OUR MARK HAS TO BE CONVINCED THAT YOU’RE RUNNING FROM A BOYFRIEND WHO WANTS TO KILL YOU. CAN YOU PERSUADE HIM TO GO UP TO YOUR HOTEL ROOM?” Watch Video.

1. Robotics. This is probably the most well-known of these, since Isaac Asimov is famous for (among many other things) his three laws of robotics. Even so, I include it because it is one of the only actual sciences to have been first named in a science fiction story (”Liar!”, 1941). Asimov also named the related occupation (roboticist) and the adjective robotic. 2. Genetic engineering. The other science that received its name from a science fiction story, in this case Jack Williamson’s novel Dragon’s Island, which was coincidentally published in the same year as “Liar!” The occupation of genetic engineer...

We are going on a long car trip, with kids in the back. There will be a long stretch of desert without much radio. We adults would like to listen to something interesting on the trip. We have already purchased the audio to Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny for the way there. On the way back, we'd love a mystery or something really gripping. Here is where you come in. Those of you who listen to audiobooks, or read mysteries, can you think of one that you loved, not too feminine please, got to please the guys, that does NOT...

Audiobook: Horror novel adaptation on youtube. Constructive criticism welcome. Episode synopsis: In this episode, Chris returns home to face another ordeal as the voices torture him to make new concessions. Watch and rate here. Series synopsis: Part II introduces our story's reluctant heroine, Nicole, after an encounter with a mysterious stranger turns her life upside down, and she begins a quest to stop a terrorist cult.

<p>LITTLE ROCK -- An Arkansas woman ran up six figure debts in the names of her five children, ages 3 to 17 over a period of the last 18 months.</p> <p>According to Court Records, Fanny Jennings purchased a $1.2 million home in Little Rock, taking out mortgages in the names of her two youngest children, Missy Mae and Hattie Mae, aged 3 and 5. Records show that Jennings also purchased a Mercedes CLS class car in the name of her son Jed. Jed is unlikely to drive the $85,000 car, since he is 10 years old.</p>

Audiobook: Part II introduces our story's reluctant heroine, Nicole, after an encounter with a mysterious stranger turns her life upside down, and she begins a quest to stop a terrorist cult. In this episode, Nicole tries to prevent Carl from hurting himself in a church and confronts Chris with a warning to leave town.

I've written several books using Dragon NaturallySpeaking software and have pitched to my agent a book on how to write a novel using the software. It'd be useful to hear how others have fared. Any experiences with the software that would contradict my very good experience?

Moon rocks delivered to Earth by Apollo astronauts held a mystery that has plagued scientists since the 1970s: Why were the lunar rocks magnetic? Earth's rotating, iron core produces the planet's magnetic field. But the moon does not have such a setup. Now, scientists at MIT think they have a solution. Some 4.2 billion years ago, the moon had a liquid core with a dynamo (like Earth's core today) that produced a strong magnetic field. The moon's magnetic field would have been about 1-50th as strong as Earth's is today, the researchers say. The MIT team found evidence for the...

The Voice of Twentieth-Century Catholicism by Christopher J. Scalia Since the death of J. F. Powers in 1999, admiring reviewers (all of his reviewers have been admiring) have mourned not only his death, but the general obscurity of his novels and stories. Although his first novel, Morte D'Urban, won the 1963 National Book Award -- over the more familiar names of John Updike, Katherine Anne Porter, and Vladimir Nabokov -- and his work was praised by such major figures as Evelyn Waugh and Flannery O'Connor (more on her later), he is not very well known, even among Catholics whose Church...

George Washington's vision is recorded at the Library of Congress "This afternoon, as I was sitting at this table engaged in preparing a dispatch, something seemed to disturb me. Looking up, I beheld standing opposite me a singularly beautiful female. So astonished was I, for I had given strict orders not to be disturbed, that it was some moments before I found language to inquire the cause of her presence. A second, a third and even a fourth time did I repeat my question, but received no answer from my mysterious visitor except a slight raising of her eyes. "By...

In this episode of our story about the end of the world, Chris invites demons to possess him and kills his first victim to appease the voices. (Please watch and provide constructive criticism.)

You're lucky to live through big history. And you're living through it. The explosion of joy in large pockets of the country Tuesday night was beautiful to see, and moving. For me, at the end of the evening, looking at live shots of the throngs in Chicago's Grant Park, I flashed back to 1960 and how it felt, as a child, to see that the grown-ups had elected a Catholic president. I can't say we stood taller—we were Irish, we already stood tall—but yes, there was a wave of feeling: "What a country," "What a development!" The other day, when...

... It's been 22 days since the President's court found the 2nd Amendment to be unconstitutional and things look bad outside Billings, many dead and wounded lying are in the streets, we've no time to bury them. Last night we ran dangerously low on ammo but we received a night drop from a group called Liberties Kids of which we were previously unaware. We were able to repel the Enforcers one more time but we are in serious doubt that we can withstand another assault. We hear other loyalists are dug in deep and well fortified in Coeur d'Alene and...

Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed. Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference -- just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more...

Appraising 'The Jewel of Medina' “The Jewel of Medina,� a controversial work of historical fiction by American author Sherry Jones, was supposed to have gone on sale Oct. 15 in the United Kingdom. A series of events, however, have delayed its British release indefinitely. The book, which went on sale in the United States on Oct. 6, describes the life of Aisha, the young girl who became the Prophet Mohammed’s third — and according to many sources, favorite — wife. Some Muslims have labeled the book blasphemous and have branded the author an enemy of Islam. An associate professor of...

“Anybody here?” No response. He scratched a balding pate. “WAITER!” A girl of sixteen with too much makeup applied in too isometric a fashion sauntered up to the podium, apologizing quickly: “Sorry about the wait. The Rex’s were in the grass-pool again. They had to remove an outside wall and wheel in a forklift—” “Fine. Just get me a table. Now.” “How many?” “How many does it look like? ME! C’mon…”

Freeps. My son is a tremendous fan of history and devours books and media on the subject constantly. Today, while rummaging through some sale items at my local library I acquired a copy of "The Hornet's Nest" by former US president Jimmy Carter. The book is a fictionalized account of events in the south during the American Revolution. It is read by Edward Herrmann. I would not have purchased the CD had it been read by Carter. Has anyone read this book, or know anything about it? I'd like to just spin it up and listen to the story with...

Durham, N.C. — The woman at the center of the 2006 scandal that rocked Duke University, Durham and the lives of the three lacrosse players she accused of raping her is coming out with a book. Crystal Gail Mangum worked as an exotic dancer in March 2006, when she performed at a party hosted by several Duke lacrosse players. It was at that party, Mangum alleged, that three white members of the team trapped her inside a bathroom and raped and sexually assaulted her. David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were later indicted on the allegations. The claims also...

It is the stuff of escapist fantasy. A tall, dark and handsome type sweeps a cream-and-roses Home Counties heroine off her feet. In its 100 years of publishing, the exotic alpha male has been a staple of the Mills and Boon romance. The tale of the passionate desert sheikh who sweeps secretary Janna Smith off her feet in Violet Winspear's 1970 romance Tawny Sands is perhaps the quintessential Mills and Boon story. "His tone of voice was softly mocking, but she knew he didn't really jest. He was Raul Cesar Bey and the further they travelled into the desert the...

"You promised me a honeymoon but trapped me in a Bible-boot camp. Why was sex okay before and not now?" Synopsis: (Part 1 introduces Carl, the main antagonist in the story.) Since the death of his fiancée, Carl has become a drop out, heavy drug user and, most recently, a homeless street performer in Washington, D.C. Recovery seems possible after he saves the life of a congressman's relative and gains access to her wealth, but hidden enemies and his own inner turmoil threaten to drag him to new lows.

Tagline: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." In this segment, Helen's sudden mid-flight outburst about an Islamic passenger makes Carl fear arrest upon landing. Watch segment 10 and comment.

"Theodicy" Part 1: Carl's Choice "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."Watch and comment on Part 1. (Part 1 introduces Carl, the main antagonist in the story.) Since the death of his fiancée, Carl has become a drop out, heavy drug user and, most recently, a homeless street performer in Washington, D.C. Recovery seems possible after he saves the life of a congressman's relative and gains access to her wealth, but hidden enemies and his own inner turmoil threaten to drag him to new lows.

To great popular culture fanfare, the Sex and the City movie opens on Friday. I don’t expect that I shall see it, so I thought I might offer a comment beforehand. Indeed, I rather missed the entire television series, but for a rather extraordinary confluence of events. Some years ago, I was asked by my friends at Maclean’s to arrange for the participation of Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec City, for their big 100th anniversary bash in Toronto. The program featured leading Canadians from industry, literature, science, show business, politics, etc., all giving various summaries of the decades of...

Short film: Join recent college grad Rachael as she goes on a job interview in New Orleans that might actually kill her. Will she conspire to extort a federal official? Please watch the video and comment. "JOB INTERVIEWER Make a list. Name all the types of news stories someone might manufacture to push a client's scandal off the front page. RACHAEL My job interviewer had introduced himself on the phone as Frank McCoy, a partner at one of the world’s top public relations firms. What type of client? I asked. JOB INTERVIEWER That's not important. Make one up in your...

Maybe the reason the misperception persists that there are no atheists in foxholes is that nonbelievers must either shut up about their views or be hounded out of the military. Just ask Army Spc. Jeremy Hall, who is making a splash in the news because of the way his atheism was attacked by superiors and fellow soldiers while he was risking his life in service to his country. Hall, 23, served two combat tours in Iraq, winning the Combat Action Badge. But he's now stationed at Fort Riley, Kan., having been returned stateside early because the Army couldn't ensure his...

Fiction (short film) Detective Milton Comeaux investigates a double murder involving an academy award winning actor. Please rate and comment. Has anyone here ever heard of LisaNova?

Today, John McCain detailed what he envisions achieving as President by the end of his first term in 2013. John McCain will put the national interest ahead of partisanship to build an America that is safer, freer and more prosperous than when he was elected. When John McCain is President, the era of the permanent campaign will end. He will work with anyone who wants to get this country moving again and will listen to any idea intended to solve our problems, not make them worse. In forming government policy, John McCain will work with members of Congress from both...

'Wolf woman' invents Holocaust survival tale By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels  Last Updated: 4:14pm GMT 29/02/2008     A woman's best-selling account of how she lost her parents to the Holocaust and survived by living with wolves in the forests of Europe has been exposed as a fabrication.   Mrs Defonseca's book became a runaway bestseller   "Surviving with Wolves", first published 11 years ago, has been translated into 18 languages and was recently turned into a film. But in a statement issued by her lawyers, Misha Defonseca, who was born Monique De Wael, confessed that while her parents, members...

Transformers: Genesis actually. Years ago I was reading philosophy and watching daytime cartoons and out of this unlikely combination I told myself a story as an effort to explore the concepts I was reading about. As a result, this is not your average fanfic. It is set a long, looooong time ago in Cybertron's Golden Age. There are absolutely NO humans mentioned (except in the forward, which briefly speculates on if South Park's creators had made the old Transformers show). Expect to be entertained and maybe even challenged. The worst you can say is it was worth everything you paid...

...I don't know about you but I have had it with the legions of hustlers, grifters, drunks, junkies, pathics and drooling layabouts that keep waddling and teetering up to the public trough from that swamp of puke called New Orleans...

Just to let everyone know the 26th book in the long running popular military/history/fiction series "Casca" had just been released. This is the series begun by Vietnam Green Beret legend Barry Sadler back in '79. The publisher in Tennessee released this latest book - about the American Civil War - in late October this year.

There is a excellent book on the bookshelves titled Mass Exodus by Carlos Perez (SgtMaj USMC). Though it is written from conversations with his father, it can be realted to real life exploits. Support this fine American!