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SOLIPSISM [sol-ip-siz-uhm] (noun): 1) Philosophy: the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist. 2) Extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one’s feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption. 3) Barack Obama. President Obama is undoubtedly many things to many people. Liberals see him as a genius, conservatives see him as a meddlesome dilettante. Liberals fawn over rhetorical skills, conservatives say the credit goes to his teleprompter. Liberals think he knows it all, conservatives think he’s a know-it-all. Fine. But if there’s an attribute central to Barack Hussein Obama which all objective, reasonable people should be able to...

The shooting happened just after 12:30 a.m. on the 900 block of NE 125th Street. According to police, someone drove up and the passenger got out of the car and shot Bell multiple times. North Miami Police said that multiple suspects were possibly seen leaving the scene in a dark colored vehicle with a spoiler on the rear, or a light colored car. “At this time, we don’t have a motive but we can tell you that nothing was taken. He had jewelry on him, money on him, his car keys, so we’re looking for why this happened,” said North...

President Barack Obama smiles as he tours POET Biorefining in Macon, Mo., Wednesday, April 28, 2010.… US President Barack Obama, seen here addressing workers at the Siemens Energy Inc. facility in Fort Madison, Iowa, reached out Tuesday to Americans yet to feel the nascent economic recovery, firing up the Democratic campaign to avoid a drubbing in November's mid-term polls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbBhMnlXBTE

And I thought her dancing was wretch-inducing....

As I watch the World Series this year, I am reminded, once again, how I miss the poetic voice of VIN SKULLY. His lyrical narrative in describing the game was very inspiring and went far beyond the sport he was observing. A talented broadcaster with a Word Paintbrush. For those who remember, here are just a few more quotes he was known for. (Please click Link for a just a brief reminder of his talent).

Beautiful flowers by the pulpit In such a magnificent array Bring back to me, old memories Of another time, of bygone days It was here that I first heard the word Preached so many different ways The once new varnished pulpit Now like me, weathered and aged It was here that I had first believed And here I accepted the Lord It was at this altar by the pulpit Where we prayed in one accord

PESHAWAR: Suspected militants blew up on Thursday the mausoleum of a 17th century poet revered in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, apparently because women visited the shrine. The ethnic Pashtun poet, Abdul Rehman, is commonly known as Rehman Baba, and is loved by Pashtuns for his mystical verse. People regularly go to his white, marble mausoleum on the outskirts of Peshawar to pay their respects but no one was hurt in the pre-dawn blast. 'The structure of the shrine has been badly damaged but there were no casualties,' said police officer Zar Noor. Militants had warned people to stop women visiting...

The tradition that a president-elect should choose a poet for his inauguration goes back to JFK and Robert Frost. Frost stole the heart of a nation with his performance on an icy January afternoon in 1961, reciting his poem "The Gift Outright" from memory when he found he could not read the faint typescript of the poem he'd written for the occasion. I was a kid, watching the inauguration on television, and it was the first time I knew that it meant something to be a poet. Poets could inspire a nation, as Frost did. Since then, I've watched as...

AMMAN - The Jordanian Writers Association (JWA) strongly criticised on Tuesday the indictment of poet Islam Samhan for allegedly insulting Islam after incorporating verses from the Holy Koran into his love poetry. The writer was referred to the court by the Press and Publications Department (PPD) early this week for violating articles in the Press and Publications Law after he published his first poem collection “Grace Like a Shadow”. “The prosecutor general of a magistrate’s court in Amman charged Islam Samhan with insulting Islam and the Koran as well as violating the Press and Publications Law,” Zeina Karadsheh, his lawyer,...

I wonder what happened to Thomas Newton, Conservative Poet? We haven't heard from him in a while. --Tarquin Farquart, snoops.com Your post will not be visible until a moderator has approved it for posting. --snoops.com THE BASTIONS OF INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM Let the name of Moses be stricken from every book and tablet, stricken from every pylon and obelisk of Egypt. Let the named of Moses be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of man for all time. --Sethi, The Ten Commandments screenplay We have the power. We can block the printing Of every important sonnet that He writes, and...

CONCORD, N.H. — Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic, who learned English as a teenage immigrant, will be the new U.S. poet laureate, the Library of Congress announced Thursday. Simic, who lives in Strafford, will replace another New Hampshire poet, Donald Hall of Wilmot, the poet laureate program, which promotes poetry across the nation. "I'm overwhelmed," he said. Simic taught at the University of New Hampshire for 34 years before moving to emeritus status. He won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1990 for his book of prose poems, "The World Doesn't End." He also is an essayist, translator, editor and...

"Can a Conservative Poet Survive Today’s Liberal Hegemony?" --This thread was deleted from a prominent intellectual message board, so it must be a great conservative topic. With the recent takeover of Congress by the Democrats, the firing of Donald Rumsfeld, and the problems that Judith Regan is having; is it possible for a Conservative poet to survive in today’s Liberal-left world of poetry? Thomas Newton Conservative Poet

Joyce Kilmer, a Catholic poet most widely renowned for the poem “Trees,” was very popular in the early 1900s. He was author of three books of poetry and editor of Dreams and Images, an anthology of then-modern Catholic poets of England and America. Trees was probably the most printed poem of its time, put to music, and memorized by more school children than any other. But that’s not important. What’s important is that Joyce was more than a poet—he was a Catholic poet . . . and, in fact, more than a Catholic poet—a unabashedly Catholic writer, interviewer, husband, father,...

When Denise and Roger Friesen planned a Valentine's Day dinner for their Omaha, Neb., church, they immediately knew their theme: the Song of Solomon -- sometimes called the Song of Songs -- the sexiest book in the Bible. "O, that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth!" says a woman to her lover as the book begins. "For your love is better than wine." Later language compares male legs to alabaster columns and female bosoms to clusters of fruit on a tree. The Friesens, both 47, credit the little book in the Hebrew Bible with helping to...

This is a poem that can be found published in my new book of poetry published through Publishamerica called " From The Inside Out " and it shares my view on abortion that I hope I can also share with you good folks here. - See It’s Carried On - Freedoms have no boundaries like our hearts and like our minds. Freedoms they are endless and they have no ties and binds. But I question motives when they’re used to maim and kill. Can you take a life by drinking water and a pill. If your life’s in danger then...

Despite the influence of the west on Iran's popular culture, Hafez, a poet who died over 600 years ago, still gets the crowds flocking, writes Robert Tait The pilgrims could have been on day out at Graceland. Representing the full range of the age and socio-economic spectrums, they came to pay homage to an icon of modern popular culture. But the hero being saluted was not Elvis Presley or any comparable figure from the age of mass communication, but a poet who died centuries ago, and whose messages remain disputed and obscure among even the most literary of his fellow...

Wake! For the Sun, who scatter'd into flight The Stars before him from the Field of Night, Drives Night along with them from Heav'n, and strikes The Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light Portland, Oregon -- So begins The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, one of the best-known poems in the world and perhaps the most famous piece of Persian literature. The several hundred quatrains that make up this enduring 11th century work have been translated into dozens of languages and inspired countless readers and scholars with their beauty. At least nine editions of The Rubaiyat are currently in print...

The famous investigative journalist Akbar Ganji is said to be dying. He has been urgently transferred from his cell in Evin to a hospital in Tehran. On July 16 it was the 36th day of his hunger strike as a protest not just against his own and his fellow-prisoners’ illegal detention, but also against the undemocratic Islamic Republic and its unelected Supreme Leader-for-Life, a harsh dictator with absolute power. Ganji’s hunger strike is a scream for the world’s attention for the persistent violations of the most fundamental human rights in his country. And for the fate of the vast number...

WASHINGTON, July 6, 2005 – Pfc. Jamie A. Goldstein so touched Kristin Johnson with his poem about the eagerness of soldiers in training to fight for their country that she dedicated a Web site to sharing his poems and the stories of other poet warriors. "I was just blown away by this wonderful poem," Johnson said. "The voice he puts to the military is so incredible." Johnson said Goldstein's poem inspired her to showcase his words and those of others like him. "The men and women of our armed forces are bright, intelligent and committed - especially those serving now...

HANOVER, N.H. - Richard Eberhart, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet admired for mentoring generations of aspiring writers, has died at the age of 101. Eberhart died at his home Thursday after a short illness. He wrote more than a dozen books of poetry and verse during a career that spanned more than 60 years. He received nearly every major book award that a poet can win, including the Pulitzer, which he received in 1966 for "Selected Poems, 1930-1965." "Poetry is a natural energy resource of our country," he said in his 1977 acceptance speech for a National Book Award. "It has...

Ukraine apologizes to Russia for vandal destruction of Pushkin monument 23:08 KIEV, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - Advisor to the Ukrainian Culture and Tourism Minister Igor Pristavksky condemned the vandal destruction of the monument to the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin in Lvov (Western Ukraine). Unidentified vandals broke the monument made by local sculptor Kassel and unveiled in front of the Russian Cultural Center in Lvov on June 8. "I apologize to the great Russian nation for this vandalism," Pristavsky said adding that Pushkin was highly popular in Ukraine. "I am sorry to say this because I was born in...

Mike Dukakis hasn't been governor since 1990, and he's still molly-coddling criminals in Massachusetts. Just ask double-murderer Norman Porter, Chicago's ``beloved anti-war poet,'' who's finally - finally - back in Massachusetts. The Duke commuted one of his life sentences, tried unsuccessfully to commute the other, and then finally let him walk away from a prison so ridiculously lax in 1985 that the warden - excuse me, superintendent - ate dinner every Friday night in the special cell bloc for organized-crime thugs. And the Democrats wonder why they still can't elect a governor. Everybody is afraid we'll end up with another...

Michael S. Dukakis, former ultra-liberal Governor of Massachusetts observed, "Who would have thought he'd turn out to be a poet?" That “who” is Norman A. Porter, also known as J. J. Jameson, one of Chicago’s prominent anti-war figures and a member of the community of leftist anti-war poets.  Jameson, the author of two books, a congregation leader at a church, and named Chicagopoetry.com's poet of the month in March 2004, was the very model of a modern “enlightened” cultural leader.  He is also a man whose two life sentences were commuted by Mike Dukakis. Porter is a double-murderer.  He...

In Chicago, he is one of the city's most beloved antiwar poets, an author of two books and a congregation leader at a West Side church. But in Massachusetts, he is notorious for executing a clerk at a Saugus clothing store in 1960, aiding in the murder of a Middlesex County jailer in 1961, and then escaping from a Norfolk County correction center in 1985.

BILOXI, Miss. - A California investor has paid $820,000 at auction for a Biloxi home named for Civil War chaplain Abram J. Ryan, who was known as the poet laureate of the Confederacy. The previous owners, Dr. Jefferson McKenney and Rosanne McKenney, are missionaries in Honduras. Funds raised from the sale were to be invested in Hospital Loma de Luz, which the McKenneys founded in that country. "I don't have a plan," said investor Henry Lee, who recently returned to Biloxi and learned of Tuesday's auction "kind of by accident." Lee represented Golden Bay Investments, a company owned by his...

Natan Yonatan - Obituary JERUSALEM (AP) - Natan Yonatan, an Israeli poet who won several Israeli literary awards with works that wove together themes of nature and war, died Friday near Tel Aviv. He was 81. Yonatan won the Newman Prize for Hebrew Literature in 2001. His 20 books of poetry have been translated into several languages, including English, Russian and Spanish. In one of his best-known poems, "That Man," Yonatan eulogized Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by an ultranationalist Jew in 1995. Yonatan was born in 1923 in Kiev, Ukraine, and immigrated to Israel at age two...

Wanted: Conservative Major American Poet A Conservative Major American Poet is wanted to fill the void left by the Modern Poetry Movement and bring back sanity and gravitas to American poetry. Qualifications: 1. Patriotic 2. Christrian 3. Veteran 4. 2nd Amendment Supporter 5. Anti-Feminist 6. Anti-Multiculturalist 7. Family Values Man

Today I learned that FreeRepublic's lost a valued contributor and someone I had come to consider a good FRiend. John J. Lindsay (aka "poet") passed into the Lord's kingdom on the 21st of November 2003 at the age of 70. Not only was he a wise commentator on world events, he also wrote some very moving poetry that I was honored to have periodically posted on the Black threads. I am thankful I got to know him as much as I did and will most certainly miss his participation on FR.com. Utmost FReegards, Mr. Lindsay...Steve/MUD

<p>The 14th century Italian poet Francesco Petrarch left hundreds of letters detailing his life and thoughts. Now scientists plan to dig up his remains to find out more about his flesh and bones.</p> <p>Researchers will open the poet's marble casket this month in Arqua Petrarca, a village in northern Italy where he died in 1374 and that was renamed for him. They will scrutinize his remains for clues on his physical appearance and health record.</p>

Roses are red Violets are blue Oh my, lump in the bed How I've missed you. Roses are redder Bluer am I Seeing you kissed by that charming French guy. The dogs and the cat, they missed you too Barney's still mad you dropped him, he ate your shoe The distance, my dear, has been such a barrier Next time you want an adventure, just land on a carrier.

WASHINGTON - Laura Bush says her husband is a poet even if, uh, Americans don't know it. At a gala Friday night kicking off this weekend's third National Book Festival, Mrs. Bush celebrated the written word in an age of visual media, thanking American authors for their "tales of mystery, history and heroism." "A good book is like an unreachable itch; you just can't leave it alone," she said at the Library of Congress, repository of 126 million books, recordings, photographs, maps, manuscripts and more. She revealed that President Bush had penned a poem for her when she got back...

<p>SHAFTSBURY, Vt. -- The most striking thing about Robert Frost was his eyes. My mother remembers how piercing they were, the palest of blue, and how everyone whispered when he walked in to the Bennington bank where she worked summers as a teller.</p>

In Final Hours, Despair Defeated Poet Indian-Born Writer Apparently Killed Herself, 2-Year-Old in D.C. Home By David A. Fahrenthold and Simone Weichselbaum Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, July 18, 2003; Page A01 A prize-winning poet who used verse to describe her experiences as a child and as an Indian immigrant was identified by D.C. police yesterday as the woman who apparently slashed the left wrist of her 2-year-old son and her own Wednesday and then died with him in a pool of blood. Reetika Vazirani, 40, and Jehan Vazirani Komunyakaa were found lying next to each other in the dining...

In the spirit of Amiri Baraka, each American state ought to have at least one poet who can speak for its Jew haters Frankly, I did not know we had our own poet laureate. I thought it was a national thing. But jeepers creepers (see, I can rhyme, too) we've got one right here in New Jersey, and Amiri Baraka is his name. This "poet," who used to be named Leroi Jones until he became a Muslim, has written something that has caused quite a stir. Here... why not let him tell it, since he's a poet and I'm not:...

American poet Amiri Baraka, who was stripped of his title of New Jersey's poet laureate for writing a poem saying Israel had advance knowledge of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, was invited to the Jerusalem Foundation's Mishkenot Sha'ananim center to take part in this fall's International Poets Festival. Baraka set off a furor last year with his poem "Somebody Blew Up America," which states that Israel was involved in the terror attacks. It includes the lines: "Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed/Who told 4,000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day?/Why...

VIENNA The U.S. Embassy on Tuesday criticized an Austrian multimedia artist for comments about America's role in Iraq. The remarks were made in a speech remembering victims of a Nazi concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops in 1945. Andre Heller, a poet and singer who has won acclaim for staging circus, music and theater events, addressed about 10,000 people Sunday at a commemoration of the 58th anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp. It is estimated that 200,000 people were imprisoned and tortured at Mauthausen, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Vienna, as well as in smaller...

Eleven thousand soldiers lay beneath the dirt and stone, all buried on a distant land so far away from home. For just a strip of dismal beach they paid a hero's price, to save a foreign nation they all made the sacrifice. And now the shores of Normandy are lined with blocks of white, Americans who didn't turn from someone else's plight. Eleven thousand reasons for the French to take our side, but in the moment of our need, they chose to run and hide. Chirac said every war means loss, perhaps for France that's true, for they've lost...

... "Schroeder's opportunism is the worst," Biermann says. "He's a victim of a democratic pratfall. All this guy wanted to do was get elected, and he turns out morally to be under Chamberlain and Daladier. Their appeasement policy was wrong, but at least they were serious. There was no historical experience to go on then." He slashes on, turning to Goethe and Brecht for verbal flanking fire. ."Every error has its time," Biermann insists, calling on phrases from the two German giants as witness. "There are mistakes that are on the level of history, and those that are under the...

Say he moved in - and killed mom By ROBIN HAAS and RICHARD WEIR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Houseguest Tony Sexton confessed to killing Marie Rogers on Valentine's Day. A 33-year-old drifter has been busted for killing a Queens woman after her daughter invited him into their home - and he became the guest from hell, police said yesterday. Tony Sexton, who claimed to be a poet, confessed to detectives how he beat and suffocated Marie Rogers, 57, on Valentine's Day, wrapped her body in a plastic couch cover and stashed it in the back of her car, police said....

A Poet Dissents By Frederick Turner 02/20/2003 When the petitions came round on the Internet, asking me to join a nationwide list of poets opposed to the apparently imminent war with Iraq, I erased them at once, but gave them little thought. Perhaps I should have replied, stating that I disagreed with the premises, logic, and conclusions of their position. But now the whole affair has turned into brutal blow against the good name of poetry in this country, and an insult to a person—Laura Bush—who is, according to mutual acquaintances, a good, gentle, and well-intentioned person, I feel...

A little bit of verse for everyone's entertainment! Courtesy of yours truly. --------------------------------------------------------- What if All the Soldiers Went On Strike? WHAT if all the soldiers of the world went on strike? "Hey politicians! shoot it out 'mongst yourselves, if you like! But as for myself, I've better things to do. Tell me, why should I go out and die for YOU? You've got your global agenda; but what do I care? I've no quarrel with those poor saps over there. Yes, I've realized that they're men just like me. They don't really want war either--they'd rather be free. "They're...

When I was an undergraduate majoring in creative writing, I often heard poet members of the department (both faculty and graduate students) complaining about the status of their craft in today’s society. “Poetry is undervalued and overlooked,” they would say. “People just don’t pay attention to poetry anymore. They don’t realize how important it is.” And I would think to myself, well it isn’t helping your cause any having Robert Pinsky (the Poet Laureate in 1997) popping up on PBS’s Newshour all the time looking painfully self-conscious and reciting verse with all the grace of a vacuum cleaner while trying...

Here they go again, The Yanks in their armoured parade Chanting their ballads of joy As they gallop across the big world Praising America's God. The gutters are clogged with the dead The ones who couldn't join in The others refusing to sing The ones who are losing their voice The ones who've forgotten the tune. The riders have whips which cut. Your head rolls onto the sand Your head is a pool in the dirt Your head is a stain in the dust Your eyes have gone out and your nose Sniffs only the pong of the dead And...

King celebrated Poet calls Bush a fool, speaks out against war during King Day event   By MONTE MITCHELL Record Staff Writer   Amiri Baraka gestures during a speech at Lenoir-Rhyne College on Monday.(ROBERT C. REED/RECORD)   HICKORY - Amiri Baraka, a poet, playwright and political activist, spoke out against a war with Iraq during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration Monday morning at Lenoir-Rhyne College. “If we want to continue in the spirit of Martin Luther King, we must resist this war,” he said during a wide-ranging speech in which he called President Bush a fool and...

<p>Newark poet Amiri Baraka did us all a great service last week. He showed us how much politicians care about multiculturalism.</p> <p>Beats me. So I called Baraka the other day to ask. But first I read some of his other poems. Check out this one from the'60s: "Rape the white girls. Rape their fathers. Cut the mothers' throats. Black dada nihilismus, choke my friends."</p>

Amiri Baraka, the new Poet Laureate of New Jersey (yes, there is one) is under fire for composing a ghastly poem full of loathing for U.S. President George Bush, "Israelis" (by which he means "Jews") and whites in general. On Wednesday, he took the podium at a Newark literary festival and embraced the conspiracy theory that Mr. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon knew in advance of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. We at the National Post are commemorating his artistic achievements with a poem of our own. Unlike the Poet Laureate, we apologize in advance for any pain...