Free Republic

Under the liberty and freedom section of the new GOP website America Speaking Out, more Americans voted to legalize Internet poker than weighed in on any other issue. That should come as no surprise. When President-elect Barack Obama solicited ideas on his new website, www.change.gov, legalizing Internet poker was one of the two top issues. It would be easy to dismiss this as a coincidence or as a manufactured grass-roots campaign, but there is more to this story. There are plenty of issues that face the American people and plenty of big trade groups to push those issues. But it...

Determined to change the terms of debate about the lackluster performance of the economy during his Administration, a combative President Obama asked voters to remember what it was like when President Bush was in the White House. “Under the previous Republican Administration over 95% of the labor force was forced to work for a living,” Obama reminded. “We’ve gotten that figure down to 90% and many of those are only working part time. Expanding the opportunity for leisure means more time spent with families, more opportunities to play golf or basketball, more time to do home repairs that had to...

As the oil arrives on the Louisiana shores, Obama goes golfing Posted by Jeff J Latest News May 22, 2010 Beaches closed in Louisiana.. Officials closed the public beach here Friday as thick gobs of oil resembling melted chocolate washed up, a very visible reminder of the blown-out well that has been spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico for a month. Up to now, only tar balls and a light sheen had come ashore. But oil was starting to hit the beach at this island resort community in various forms – light sheens, orange-colored splotches and heavier brown sheets...

Criticism that data on unemployment statistics don’t properly account for people being shifted from full-time to part-time jobs was brushed off by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev). “What these critics fail to consider is the fact that part-time jobs offer more leisure time,” Reid countered. “This extra leisure is a benefit that the Democratic Party has bestowed upon an overworked population. We don’t get proper credit for that.”

CBS’ Mark Knoller reports that the Obama Administration is on pace to more than triple the output of rounds of golf played by a president while in office. In his first nine months in office, President Barack Obama has played 24 rounds of golf. It took President Bush 34 months to play as many holes. The President’s Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, attributed the feat to “the superior dynamism of an agenda focused on hope and change. The faster pace set by the President is emblematic of the energy he has brought into the White House. It should bolster confidence in...

President Barack Obama conceded that unemployment would continue to “tick up” for the next few years, but this is not “all bad.” “Those who’ve lost their jobs have gained leisure,” Obama pointed out. “Leisure is a man’s preferred state. It requires compensation for him to sacrifice it. So, shifting a growing portion of the population toward leisure enables a greater share of our nation’s people to enjoy it.” The President said that a further advantage would be that “it will allow more people to be well-rested for the challenges of transforming our country into the more socially just nation that...

Shari Arison, the controlling shareholder in Bank HaPoalim and whose net worth declined by more than $1 billion last year, has put her “My Shanti” yacht up for sale. The asking price is $100 million. It includes a movie theatre and a banquet hall, a glass-enclosed sky lounge and a gym.

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. — The men gathered in a new golf clubhouse here a couple of weeks ago circled the problem from every angle, like caddies lining up a shot out of the rough. “We have to change our mentality,” said Richard Rocchio, a public relations consultant. “The problem is time,” offered Walter Hurney, a real estate developer. “There just isn’t enough time. Men won’t spend a whole day away from their family anymore.” William A. Gatz, owner of the Long Island National Golf Club in Riverhead, said the problem was fundamental economics: too much supply, not enough demand. The problem...

Storm-battered and abandoned in winter, Sweden’s harbor-side restaurants come alive in the summer. But two million boat lovers’ thirst for good food and seaside relaxation means tough work for the seasonal restaurant owners.

http://www.uclick.com/client/azc/blmd/1985/02/07/index.html

IN an effort to capitalize on the megadollars that megayachts can bring to a harbor area, coastal resorts around the globe are racing to build or retrofit their marinas to accommodate the colossal cruisers. [. . .] . . . new marinas . . . are being developed . . . To keep megayacht owners busy - not to mention spending - while their boats are parked at the marina, developers are surrounding their ports with high-end restaurants and retail shops. To entice yacht owners and their entourages to stay longer, they are also building luxury condominiums and five-star hotels....

From North Carolina comes a report that a State Senator wants to erase all game applications from state workers' computers. His belief: that preventing government employees from playing Solitaire and Minesweeper will recoup millions of dollars worth of productivity for the state. "...The solitaire crackdown here, though perhaps rare in its specificity, is part of a behind-the-scenes battle over personal time that's affecting not just unionized state workers in North Carolina, but sales reps in Washington and phone-bank workers in San Francisco..." This effort is, itself, a giant waste of time. It makes about as much sense as teaching Mandarin...

Ok, so I know we're all still celebrating (and praying - go US troops), but I wanted to start a thread here... What are you reading? What's your leisure reading after this great election? I'm re-reading one of my favorite books, "In the Gravest Extreme" by Massad Ayoob. Not sure what I'll read next. Any suggestions? Tell me what you're reading, fellow freepers.

Oprah's Book Club may help sell millions of books to Americans, and slam poetry may have engendered a youthful new breed of wordsmith, but the nation is still caught in a tide of indifference when it comes to literature. That is the sobering profile of a new survey to be released today by the National Endowment for the Arts, which describes a precipitous downward trend in book consumption by Americans and a particular decline in the reading of fiction, poetry and drama. The survey, called "Reading at Risk," is based on data from "The Survey of Public Participation in the...

It seems like every time we go out, I’m pleased to see that my lawn is not the worst looking one in the neighborhood because I can always count on this one house on the corner. Yeah, my grass is kept a little high but it gets mowed whereas these guys on the corner have a front yard full of various weeds with no grass I can discern. Hey, this isn’t personal and I have nothing against them. I also view my neighbors in Texas as incredibly environmentally conscious; doing their part to aid in oxygen production now that the...