Free Republic

"Right Turn on Sunset":Prequel to a Documentary... ...[Conservatives] don't need to be a majority in Hollywood to make a Big Difference in the entertainment influence that gets to the TV and silver screen. A healthy third of this towne will do nicely; it's just that most conservatives don't even know how many of their own red-state kind are all around, for they are all silent as lambs, for fear of losing their job, income, health insurance, children's college fund...

In trying to make sense of the Oscar nominations, it always helps to remember one thing: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences likes movies that are socially liberal but artistically conservative. And this has been the case from the beginning. So Terrence Malick ("The New World") shouldn't feel bad today, any more than King Vidor ("The Crowd") or Charlie Chaplin ("City Lights") or Spike Lee ("Do the Right Thing") should have in their respective years. If you want to be nominated for best picture, don't make the most artistically adventurous film of the year and don't push the...

Many of you have heard conservative traditionalists rant about "The Gay Agenda." But no one really knows what that agenda is. Well, I've discovered a copy, and I will summarize it for you: 8am - Protein shake 9am - Work out at the gym 10am - Rape straight men, give pornography to children, bulldoze all churches and destroy the sanctity of marriage (or what's left of it after Fox's "Married By America.") Hey, wait a minute... Some of the most important people in my life are gay men and lesbian women. And I can assure you, being gay does not...

The assumption that America's campuses are impenetrable bastions of liberalism--where left-leaning faculty predominate, progressive student activism flourishes and conservatism is fiercely marginalized--still rules the day. But in reality, since the 1970s the conservative movement has become the dominant political force on many American campuses.... "We didn't have our act together," says Joshua Holland, a fair-trade and antiwar activist.... "We tried to keep things nonhierarchical and loosely structured, but at the end of the day... we weren't getting anything done." ...At the University of North Carolina senior Jessica Polk says students have long been "sick of what the left is doing--they...

Al Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri, in videotape on Al-Jazeera, says U.S. airstrike against him in Pakistan failed.

Al-Qaida's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri called U.S. President George W. Bush a "butcher" and a "failure" in a videotape aired on Arab television Monday, his first appearance since an American airstrike that targeted him this month in Pakistan. Al-Zawahri, shown in the video wearing white robes and a white turban, said the Jan. 13 airstrike killed "innocents" and said the United States had ignored an offer from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden for a truce. "Butcher of Washington, you are not only defeated and a liar, but also a failure. You are a curse on your own nation," he said,...

The CBC has apologized to a viewer who complained that a news graphic appeared to juxtapose the name of the prime minister-designate with the German word "heil" -- a salute usually associated with Adolf Hitler. The graphic was flashed during Tuesday night's edition of The National. It appeared beneath a shot of a Stephen Harper election sign. In an e-mail to the viewer, the executive producer of The National explained the graphic was a freeze frame of typing intended to promote the show's "campaign confidential" segment. An editor chose to capture part of the word "their" for the graphic and...

I just got done watching the Oprah interview where she tore author James Frey apart for lying in his "memoir," "A Million Little Pieces." Others joined in such as Richard Cohen and Frank Rich who DEMANDED honesty in memoir books that are supposedly non-fiction. Not too much of a problem for these folks to make such a demand on Frey since his lying "memoir" is non-political but would they make such demands on lying "memoirs" by liberals? "I, Rigoberta Menchu" leaps to mind since it is supposed to be the TRUE memoir of a Central American Indian who was oppressed...

BENNINGTON, Vermont (AP) -- A high school teacher is facing questions from administrators after giving a vocabulary quiz that included digs at President Bush and the extreme right. Bret Chenkin, a social studies and English teacher at Mount Anthony Union High School, said he gave the quiz to his students several months ago. The quiz asked students to pick the proper words to complete sentences. One example: "I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes." "Coherent" is the right...

The following is an update from Daily Pundit who has chronicled the UNBELIEVABLE behavior of CNN employees in the wake of the X/Cheney incident. A switch board operator who berated callers to CNN telling them "Bush and Cheney should stop lying" and that "Putting the X over Cheney's face was freedom of speach" has been fired by CNN. This has been confirmed! Visit this link to hear the tape. I just got off the phone with Laurie Goldberg, Senior Vice President for Public Relations with CNN. Her statement confirms the authenticity of the tape recording and reveals the actions CNN...

CNN'a story neglects to say that it could have been done manually, but that they had ruled that out somehow. I once was a control room operator for a live TV production and though it was over 30 years ago, I remember how I could manually reproduce what was done to Cheney. One way you switch between video sources to select the one to go out over the air to move the "wiper". It looks like a T-handled lever, like an automatic transmission lever on your car's console. Except, instead of being one handle, it's split down the middle into...

Commentary: Also, bloggers -- I want to hear from you NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Sad to say, at the start of the holiday season, I'm a typical journalist. That means I am one of the many now reeling in the wake of the Judy Miller and Bob Woodward fiascos. And yes, I'm cringing in the corner as Maureen Dowd flexes her columnist's muscles and shamelessly bullies Miller in print. I'm waiting helplessly for columnist Robert Novak to be a mensch and finally do the right thing by going public with his role in the CIA leak investigation. I'm a typical...

It is fitting in more ways than one that Ted Koppel devotes the final program in his 26-year reign on ABC's "Nightline" to the charming sociology professor who died from Lou Gehrig's disease and inspired Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays with Morrie." The three 1995 "Nightline" shows in which Koppel talked with Morrie Schwartz about living life and coping with death were among the most memorable of his 6,500 programs. Additionally, his last show, which airs at 11:35 tonight on Channel 7, will show "Nightline" fans what they will be missing with Koppel's departure: The time to devote to one captivating story...

Warren Community College President Defends Professor’s Harassment of Young Conservative Professor Admits Radical Diatribe Student Fights Back HERNDON, VA –Young America’s Foundation exposed Warren Community College’s radical Professor John Daly, who in an email to student Rebecca Beach, vowed to intimidate those students who host conservative speakers and called for American soldiers in Iraq to murder their superiors. Instead of admonishing the professor’s intemperate attack on a student’s right of free expression, Warren Community College President William Austin said Prof. John Daly has “first amendment rights” to harass Rebecca. Furthermore, the President is trying to bully Rebecca into silence. He...

DUmmies have NO problem when Democrat politicians invoke religion. Such was the case when Bill Clinton invoked religion to try to get a gun control bill passed and later, in order to deflect attention away from getting a Lewinsky in the White House, he suddenly started attending church while carrying a King Size King James Bible around with him for all to see. However, DUmmies have a big problem with "fundamentalists" because most of them vote Republican. That is the root cause of their antipathy to "fundamentalists" as you can see in this DUmmie THREAD titled, "How should we...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Only half see press as fair to BushBy Jennifer HarperTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished November 10, 2005 About 50 percent of Americans say the Bush administration is being treated fairly by the press, the lowest number since President Bush was elected, and an increasing percentage say the press is too critical of the president, according to the Pew Research Center.     "There has been a notable rise over the past two years in the percentage who say the press is too critical of the Bush administration," the survey released Tuesday stated.     Many stories that appear to methodically build a...

CBS REPORTER TO WHITE HOUSE: ALITO 'SLOPPY SECONDS?' Mon Oct 31 2005 11:26:56 ET CBSNEWS Chief White House correspondent John Roberts described the President’s selection of Judge Samuel Alito as “sloppy seconds” during today’s press gaggle with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. John Roberts: “So, Scott, you said that -- or the President said, repeatedly, that Harriet Miers was the best person for the job. So does that mean that Alito is sloppy seconds, or what?” Scott McClellan: “Not at all, John.” Sloppy seconds” is described in the United Kingdom’s A Dictionary of Slang as: Noun: “A subsequent indulgence...

Liberal Elites: Why They Can't Sink America By Tim Condon October 22, 2005 Can "liberal elites" doom America and its position of world leadership? Jonathan Last has written a fascinating piece in The Weekly Standard titled "Rule America?" where he suggests that there are ominous parallels between the United States of today and a sinking, subdued Great Britain of the 1930's, dragged down by the hostility of the liberal elites of the time. In fact, go ahead and read it yourself! Go on! Do it right now, at http://www.weeklystandard.com/. (Don't continue with this article until you read Jon's piece.) And...

Army Special Forces Soldiers, as my U.S. News colleague Linda Robinson writes in her riveting book, Masters of Chaos, are very much aware of "the tradition of their military history." On the eve of a difficult mission, "more than one soldier went to sleep hoping that the next days would prove him a worthy member of that lineage." That's one reason the military maintains old units, so that soldiers will be motivated to match the deeds of those who came before and prove worthy to those who come after. Similarly, one of the comforting aspects of attending religious services is...

After the love (for Bill) is gone THE WAY WE WERE Writer recalls the betrayal that ended their political affair I BROKE up with Bill a long time ago. It's always hard to remember love — years pass and you say to yourself, was I really in love or was I just kidding myself? Was I really in love or was I just pretending he was the man of my dreams? Was I really in love or was I just desperate? But when it came to Bill, I'm pretty sure it was the real deal. I loved the guy. As...