Free Republic

If we hadn't gotten inured to the relentless outpouring of "crazy" ideas from the extreme right, we would be forced to wonder what is going on - and what it means. By "crazy" I mean the birthers or those who see a fascist (or communist) take-over of the Federal Reserve Bank, or attempts to indoctrinate school children. In America, we have always had conspiracy theories and exaggerated suspicions of political or economic plots. Richard Hofstadter wrote "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" 45 years ago, but he was referring largely to fringe groups. Now, however, these paranoid ideas are mainstream,...

Rush Limbaugh made headlines by announcing ... "I'm not going to take it because you're now telling me I must." Glenn Beck has declined to say whether he's getting vaccinated. But he's...saying he wants the "U.S. out of my bloodstream." On the left... for the Huffington Post, Dr. Frank Lipman recommended against getting vaccinated, arguing that the virus seems benign and the vaccine is unproven. Earlier this year, Jim Carrey—yes, that Jim Carrey—penned a HuffPost column reiterating the oft-made (and widely discredited) point that vaccines may cause autism. Robert F. Kennedy made a similar argument in a famous (and also...

I did a bunch of Internet work on Thursday evening and Friday last week, then went out of town. When I returned on Sunday I could smell a man's cologne in my kitchen and could tell someone had been in my home while I was gone. Nothing was stolen or missing, but I checked with my neighbor who is a retired cop from NY City to see if he noticed any activity at my house. As a matter of fact, his dogs were barking Sunday night and he looked in my driveway to see if my son's truck was there....

Apologies for the tease (can you post pics here? I'm a FR noob...) but follow the jump for perhaps one of the rarest photographs in existence. Of the beloved Bella Pelosi. Prepare yourselves...

Those who are whipping up hysteria over the president's address are playing a dangerous game with an unhinged segment of public opinion. While it long ago crossed the borders of reason and civility, the hysteria over healthcare reform is -- at some level -- understandable, because wellness and infirmity are really just stand-ins for those most terrifying of issues, life and death. But there is no similar way to rationalize the bizarre controversy now raging over President Obama's plan to deliver a brief televised address on Tuesday to the nation's grammar school children. According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan,...

An Iranian official Sunday accused Israel of using psychological warfare to force Iran to halt its uranium enrichment programs, authorities said. That warfare includes Israel's assertion the International Atomic Energy Agency is hiding evidence of an Iranian military nuclear program, Amir Mousavi, a top Iranian affairs analyst said in an interview in Tehran with Israel Radio. Iran's nuclear intentions are peaceful, Mousavi said, noting Iran will have10,000 nuclear centrifuges in operation within two months. Mousavi said Iran is prepared to talk with the West about the nuclear programs but will demand Israel's nuclear stockpile be placed under international supervision, The...

"I'm worried, and I think more bad stuff is on the way. There are huge, right-wing operations behind this. They've got money; they've got corporate interest behind them. I think there are professional folks out there agitating people with doomsday scenarios," Michael Huttner tells Inside the Beltway.

An uncontrollable, deadly virus ravages America, shutting down civilian institutions and triggering martial law. Vaccinations are compulsory, and there are mass quarantines throughout the country. It's the stuff of Hollywood — but rumors that it could be real are spreading like the flu in the blogosphere, where some people are loudly expressing their fears that the federal government is seriously considering such measures as it maps out a worst-case-scenario response to the swine flu pandemic. During the bird flu scare of 2005, the Bush administration added novel forms of influenza — including the swine flu — to the official list...

"Let's be very honest about what this is about. This is not about bashing Democrats. It's not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea party was about. They don't know their history at all. It's about hating a black man in the White House," she said on MSNBC's "The Countdown" with Keith Olbermann Thursday evening. "This is racism straight up and is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. There is no way around that." Janeane Garofalo received much criticism regarding her comments about the teaparty movement. Some even tried to figure out why she could say...

Offbeat: Paranoid lawsuit attempts to link Apple to Italian mafia By Neil Hughes Published: 08:10 AM EST A new lawsuit from a Beverly Hills, Calif., man alleges that Apple conspired with the Italian mafia to secretly track him, transmit threatening messages to his iPod, and insert the word "herpes" into the song "Still Tippin'" by Mike Jones. Not just his iPod, Gregory McKenna is convinced that many things in his life were bugged, including his bedroom, living room, upstairs bathroom and Toyota Camry. McKenna alleges in his lawsuit that two iPods he owned – an iPod shuffle bought on eBay...

Last night on YGCRadio, a caller seemed to be suffering from the same dysfunction that viewers of MSNoBodyCares suffer from – namely Palin Derangement Syndrome. Our caller is already so in the bag for Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty it caused me to speculate if he resides under Tim’s desk! The exchange got me to wondering if the GOP is riddled with this same dysfunction. It also caused me to do some deep analysis of Gov. Palin’s surprise resignation. On the resignation I have come up with a theory*. It is my belief that Gov. Palin will take a stab at...

Scott Roeder, the killer of abortion doctor George Tiller, observed Sabbath from Friday night through Saturday, according to his ex-wife. But he apparently was part of a church based on the Old Testament, and not Jewish. Here's an AP story interviewing his ex-wife: Scott Roeder's family life began unraveling more than a decade ago when he got involved with anti-government groups, and then became "very religious in an Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye way," his former wife said ...Lindsey Roeder said from her home in a Kansas City suburb that the early years of the marriage were good and that Scott Roeder...

They say government scientists messed with their minds. Now, veterans of secret psychedelic tests want answers. Their stories are a staple of conspiracy culture: broken men, suffering hallucinations and near-total amnesia, who say they are victims of secret government mind-control experiments. Think Liev Schreiber in The Manchurian Candidate or Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory. Journalists are a favorite target for the paranoid delusions of this population. So is Gordon Erspamer—and the San Francisco lawyer's latest case isn't helping him to fend off the tinfoil-hat crowd. He has filed suit against the CIA and the US Army on behalf of the...

May 15, 2003- A jumbo jet - larger than either of the planes that exploded into the twin towers - flew low along the Hudson River and buzzed the Statue of Liberty yesterday before veering toward the heart of midtown. ...The plane was carrying U.S. troops on their way home from Iraq. But almost no one watching from below knew that - and the jittery city braced for the worst. Mayor Bloomberg got only a two-minute heads-up from the Federal Aviation Administration that they had given the pilot special permission for the unusual flyby. "Considering the world we live in...

It’s expected. At a job interview, during an introduction, when saying goodbye . . . The handshake is as American as apple pie. But -- eewww -- just imagine where that person’s hand might may have been before being clutched into yours! Touching a subway rail ... flushing a toilet ... changing a diaper ... maybe blowing a nose … As a variant of swine flu H1N1 makes its way around the world, escalating the fears of millions and prompting many to wear face masks, perhaps it's time to ask: Is it time to stop the handshake?

DHS Chair Janet Napolitano and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack took pains to avoid using "swine flu" or "pig flu" today, opting instead to call the virus by its given name "Obama's Flu"...er, H1N1. Look. I don't care what they call it, but let's fix the problem before it becomes a worldwide pandemic! You can put lipstick on a swine, but it's still killing people! Overseas Immunodeficiency Operation? What is it with these people? U.S. officials want 'swine' out of flu name What's in a name? U.S. pork producers are finding that the name of the virus spreading from Mexico is...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano rejected calls to close the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the swine flu outbreak, saying the costs to both countries at this point outweigh the medical benefits. "That's something that always can be considered," Napolitano told NBC's "Today" show Tuesday, before adding that the virus has already spread to several states across the United States. "You have to look at what the costs of that are. We literally have thousands of trucks and lots of commerce that cross that border. We have food products and other things that have to go across that border. So...

Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes has given perhaps his most dire warning yet, saying that the Obama administration is preparing to stage terror attacks, declare martial law and cancel the 2012 elections, which is why they are demonizing their political enemies as criminals and terrorists. Keyes is best known for his performance during the 2000 Republican presidential debates, when he was accredited by many media outlets as being the clear winner during a series of debates with George W. Bush and John McCain. “It’s obvious that they will stop at nothing,” Keyes told attendees of a reception in Fort Wayne,...

Google "Tea Party" ...You won't get anything about the organization or locations anywhere near the top level of the search. Funny, it was right on top last night. What do you think?

In the last few months, there have been several cases of mass murders on U.S. soil. On April 3, 2009, Jiverly Wong went into an American Civic Association and murdered 13 people. Wong wounded over 20 others and allegedly held hostages for hours before killing himself. The forty one year old had been going to the Civic Association to attend language lessons, and was angered over losing his job. He was teased due to to his lack of English language skill as well. These massacres follow a predictable pattern, and it is certain that there will be more attacks as...

A couple weeks back, I expressed on this forum my curiousity about how jkffjkff is enjoying the man for whom he cast his unquestionably genuine ballot for president. The point was to highlight how little of such obviously fraudulent ACORN activity is Scroole.org is a screen scraper for Google; I highly recommend it. It will return the first page of results. Scroogle (or Google if privacy is no concern to you) "bamster". What might you expect to see? Am I living in a parallel universe or am I not alone in seeing the obvious discepency between this obviously Obamaesque nickname...

The White House announced last week that the President "does not believe the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated." The Fairness Doctrine, which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) -- acting under Ronald Reagan -- repealed in 1987, would dictate that broadcasters cover issues of public importance and devote equal time to both sides of controversial issues. On its face, the administration's recent comments seem to deflate hopes of the expanding roster of groups and politicians calling for revival of the Doctrine. The American Spectator reported recently that Henry Waxman (D-CA) already met with the FCC staff to discuss ways to...

The actor, 46, is believed to have alerted the FBI and begun increasing security around him and his family. It is thought he received clear warnings from groups opposed to his religious organisation. The Mail on Sunday reported that Cruise now lives in a separate location to his wife Katie Holmes and their two-year-old daughter Suri, and that the couple travel in bomb-proof cars. The newspaper added that other protesters have been angered by Cruise's decision to star in Valkyrie, in which he plays Claus von Stauffenberg, a German army officer who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. Some...

The decision on granting a hearing challenging President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship is still pending. The "Washington Times" reports that the U.S. Supreme Court held a private conference Friday morning to discuss whether to take up a lawsuit but it was not on the list of court orders for the day. According to the "Times" a Supreme Court spokesman said the decision to hear the case will most likely be announced next week.

If you think they're out to get you, you're not alone. Paranoia, once assumed to afflict only schizophrenics, may be a lot more common than previously thought. According to British psychologist Daniel Freeman, nearly one in four Londoners regularly have paranoid thoughts. Freeman is a paranoia expert at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College and the author of a book on the subject. Experts say there is a wide spectrum of paranoia, from the dangerous delusions that drive schizophrenics to violence to the irrational fears many people have daily. "We are now starting to discover that madness is human...

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - A Republican congressman from Georgia is calling President-elect Obama a Marxist and warning that he might be planning to form a Gestapo-like security force so he can rule as a dictator. Two-term Rep. Paul Broun of Athens cited a July speech that has circulated on the Internet in which Obama called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.

The problem most of our less than intelligent trolls have in coming to a Conservative website in order to spread discord and dispirit the troops is their own leftist insticts to throw bombs. Poeple, people, people, you can't ALL be Bill Ayers! The world would be a terribly anarchistic hell-hole if everyone was throwing bombs. Some of you have to learn subtlety, in infiltrating the ranks of the Conservative Right -- infiltrate and form a fifth column from within. Allow me to explain how it can be, and has been done. Selecting a screen name When selecting a screen name...

A beautiful woman, at once a scheming, ambitious right-wing ideologue, and the powerful, evil forces behind her, plot to seize the presidency from the man—foolish enough to have made her his running-mate—who may be concealing just how seriously sick he is, both physically and mentally! As the stuff of straight-to-video filmmaking, not bad, perhaps. But as the theory of an ostensibly serious column in America's newspaper of record? And yet, that is the paranoid picture that Frank Rich paints today in Pitbull Palin Mauls McCain. Annotated excerpts: "[T]he 2008 election is now an Obama-Palin race . . . and the...

My Scandinavian brothers and sisters in Norway and Denmark were raped by Nazi Germany during WWII. Finland was viciously attacked by the troops of Stalin, an army mostly consisting of young Russian farmer sons who never where told why they had to go to Nordic territory and have their throats slit in the cold winter night by a "puukko knife". These small countries, small even from my nation's perspective (I'm Swedish), fought back like hell and in the end they triumphed. Look at the performance of these countries of today. I'm not asking anyone to whine over the hardship the...

Keith Olbermann is threatening to quit unless his bosses beef up his security, sources say. Olbermann - upset to be anchoring at the Democratic National Convention from an outdoor set near Denver's train station - "announced that his bosses [had] better find a more secure location for him to broadcast from at the Republican National Convention [in St. Paul, Minn.] or he's not going," one insider said. "He thinks someone will assassinate him." MSNBC had no comment. Even before he left New York, the biggest mouth at MSNBC was worried about his safety. When a car was late to take...

LAKE FOREST, Calif. — When John McCain and Barack Obama appear on the same stage today, they will vividly demonstrate the reach that has made the Rev. Rick Warren among the most significant evangelists of his generation. He's a megastar who leads the nation's fourth-largest church and reaches thousands of ministers through the Internet and crusades against poverty and AIDS. That globe-trotting work and his successful book — "The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?" — puts him at the vanguard of a movement that inspires young, socially conscious Christians. But his willingness to soft-pedal political issues...

An outraged father of three enjoying a day out with his young sons in a U.K. park was branded a "pervert" by other parkgoers after he snapped photos of his own kids, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday. (snip) "What is the world coming to when anybody seen with a camera is assumed to be doing things that they should not?" Crutchley asked in an interview with the Daily Mail. "This parental paranoia is getting completely out of hand. I was so shocked."

Saddam Hussein confided to his diary that he was afraid of his American captors - because he thought he might catch HIV from them. The Iraqi tyrant, who was hanged in 2006, kept a diary following his capture by US troops three years earlier. In extracts published by the London-based Arab daily Al Hayat, he reveals that he feared catching a sexually transmitted disease from his guards. Saddam said he was concerned to find out that US military guards were using his laundry line to dry their own clothes. He wrote to them to ask them to stop but some...

Ever since former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton proclaimed that she and her husband were the victims of a "vast right-wing conspiracy," "conspiracy" has been the hot word used to ridicule your opponents. When President George W. Bush wanted to avoid answering questions about whether the Security and Prosperity Partnership is the prelude to a North American Union connected by a three-country superhighway, he accused SPP critics of believing in a conspiracy. By definition, conspiracies are usually secret. There's nothing secret about right-wingers organizing to criticize the Clintons and their goals, and there's nothing secret about plans to morph the...

Drudge was flashing "NOT PERFECT NY GIANTS TAKE SUPER BOWL LEAD" after the Giants scored their touchdown with less than a minute ago. Granted, it might've been over by then, but either 1) Drudge is a psychic, or 2) there is a 10-minute delay in broadcasting that Drudge doesn't have, or 3) Drudge's staff simply exercised bad judgment.

The tought crossed my mind today while watching the election centered news - If Obama wins, how will America respond to a Black govenment? What do I mean by that? When you look forward to a Hillary or Rudy or whom ever led government, you see a traditional colection of mostly white men, a scattering of white women and a black here and there. The Cabinet and inner circle - all the sameOne has to think with Obama's election, the inner circle will be largely black.It is natural. They are his associates. Will the Black community expect a large number...

INTRODUCTION This is a review of Al Gore’s recent book. I could put a “barf” after the title. Or, I could make a point by changing it to “The Assault on George Bush.” Neither of these approaches advances understanding. This book mirrors the views of Al Gore and the Democratic Party. If we are to prevail we must know what these views are and how they are justified. I will try to understand the thinking of our political adversaries. I will not give a point-by-point rebuttal of all issues. Rush Limbaugh often refers to liberalism “as a mental disorder.” Some...

Big Brother Spying on Americans' Internet Data? AT&T Whistleblower Describes Secret Room That Sends By Z. BYRON WOLF Nov. 7, 2007 — It would be difficult to say whose e-mail, text messages or Internet phone calls the government is monitoring at any given time, but according to a former AT&T employee, the government has warrantless access to a great deal of Internet traffic should they care to take a peek. As information is traded between users it flows also into a locked, secret room on the sixth floor of AT&T's San Francisco offices and other rooms around the country --...

In a week when Democratic senators tried to intimidate executives at Clear Channel Communications based on a false interpretation of Rush Limbaugh’s “phony soldiers” comment, MSNBC host Chris Matthews on Thursday decried what he said were complaints from the Bush White House to MSNBC executives about the content of his show. “They will not silence me!” Matthews declared at a celebration of the 10th anniversary of his "Hardball" show, the (Washington, D.C.) Examiner reported. Talking about the Democrats’ threats to silence Limbaugh on Tuesday, Matthews put all of the onus on Limbaugh’s speech, not liberals’ attacks on the First Amendement....

". . .Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?" (Luke 12:56)      In last week's commentary I wrote about the recent onslaught of accusations being leveled in print against evangelical and charismatic Christians to the effect that we are really trying to turn America into a theocracy---that tyrannical right-wing Christians want to systematically dismantle democratic institutions and usher in an American facism.  As laughable as this may seem to most of us, these authors are deadly in earnest in pressing their attacks.  Unfortunately, just as some folks took seriously the absurd fictions of the Da Vinci Code, people are reading these books.  I...

It wasn’t long ago that most conspiracy theories came from conservatives. The right, after all gave our country the John Birch Society. But these days, liberals have a virtual monopoly on loony ideas -- and they seem to be getting crazier all the time. For example, in case you haven’t noticed, the United States is sliding into fascism. Well, not sliding, actually. We’re being driven into fascism. By you-know-who. “Beneath our very noses, George Bush and his administration are using time-tested tactics to close down an open society,� Naomi Wolf wrote this year in Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “There is essentially...

Man Claims Panic Led Him to Chop Up Dead Pal's Body, Stuff It In Barrel Wednesday, July 25, 2007 BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A man charged with improperly disposing of a corpse claims he chopped up his friend's body, stuffed the parts in a metal drum and rolled it into a river in a panic after the friend died of a drug overdose, police said. The drum, with the body parts inside, was found floating in the Pequonnock River in Bridgeport last week. Felix Rivera, 23, was charged Tuesday with improper disposal of a dead body after he told police his...

Anti-American activist Cindy Sheehan has reportedly claimed an attempt was made on her life after her controversial appearance in Charlotte, N.C., last week.In a posting on Action Center for Justice blog, Sheehan allegedly wrote:In Charlotte, NC, the car that I was riding in that has "Peace Mom vs. Pelosi" had a flat tire when we were going down I-40 toward an interview. Later, when we were having the tire repaired, we found out that it had been cut. We think that's attempted murder.Sheehan canceled her appearance at the Charlotte rally when she arrived and found that a sizable counter-protest by...

Russian military men predicting war against USA 17:00, 18/07/2007 The blood-curbing declarations have been made: Moscow military experts are suggesting terrible scenario according to which the USA is going to attack Russia for providing itself with access to the Siberian natural resources .The cold war participants’ assumption is very clear, Manfred Quirring from the “Die Welt” German edition writes. “The war between Russia and the USA is probable in the near 10-15 years”, Major- General Aleksandr Vladimirov does not exclude. And its aim, according to him, “is obvious even now. It is the removal of the powerful geopolitical rival capable...

North Korea announced it is closing down all the nation’s karaoke bars. Sing Low, Minister of the People's Happiness Ministry, explained that the action was “necessitated by the government’s obligation to protect the morale and mental health of the people of the People’s Republic of North Korea.” Sing said many of the songs featured by “these emissaries of capitalist imperialism” directly attack the people’s sense of well-being. “Take the Rolling Stones’ favorite—‘Satisfaction,’” Sing said. “It’s not really about satisfaction. It’s about dissatisfaction. When our people sing or hear songs like this it encourages them to question whether they are happy....

Swedish magician Joe Labero has provoked a strong reaction with suggestions that Las Vegas is controlled by "Jewish business syndicates, American dollar millionaires and homosexual booking agents". The magic master's comments were made in an interview with rail company SJ's on-board magazine Kupé. As a prelude to his controversial thesis, Labero explained that he has long been close to getting his own show in Las Vegas. "But at the end of the day it seems to be impossible - unless you are a homosexual, a Jew or an American. "I don't mean to sound prejudiced of course, I'm just cynical....

WASHINGTON -- D.C. police officers helped U.S. park police execute a search warrant in Northwest Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. News4's Jackie Bensen reported that possibly as many as 20 guns as well as ammunition, swords, bows, arrows and machetes were seized from a unit of an apartment building in the 5300 block of Eighth Street. Authorities also recovered a replica grenade and what appeared to be a grenade launcher, which does not work. Authorities also recovered literature that may have been anarchist in nature. Park police told News4 that the raid was part of an open investigation that stemmed from...

April 17, 2007, 0:00 a.m. Paranoia and the U.S. Attorney ControversyIs Chuck Schumer losing his mind? By Rich Lowry In A Beautiful Mind, her bestselling biography of mathematician John Nash, Sylvia Nasar describes the process whereby he went mad. He spun coincidences and unrelated incidents into a pattern utterly detached from reality. Nash’s example suggests that if Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is at risk of losing his job in the flap over the firings of U.S. attorneys, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer might be at risk of losing his mind. He and his fellow Democrats leap from one hypothesis...

Once again, Google could find no special graphic to denote Resurrection Sunday. Recall it always has a special graphic for secular fad days (like Earth Day or AIDS day or Women's day).

What in heaven's name has gotten into Sam Harris? The Los Angeles Times regularly lends its op-ed page to the atheist activist. In God's Dupes, Harris took advantage of the opportunity today to make a bizarre and slanderous accusation against American Christians. He began by equating conservative Christians with Jihadist murderers: "Within every faith one can see people arranged along a spectrum of belief. Picture concentric circles of diminishing reasonableness: At the center, one finds the truest of true believers — the Muslim jihadis, for instance, who not only support suicidal terrorism but who are the first to turn...