Free Republic

The glossary of inadmissible words in 21st-century American society has shrunk to what seems, at times, a null set. Deprecations and excretory references that once got kids' mouths washed out with soap are dropped with aplomb and immunity, and not just in Quentin Tarantino films. On the rare occasions when the Federal Communications Commission chastises a broadcaster for letting an expletive pass uncensored or unbleeped, cries of repression ricochet from sea to shining sea, quickly followed by passionate defenses of the First Amendment. But the set of inadmissible words is not quite null just yet. For, to paraphrase St. Paul,...

Well, well, well, so Obama has embarked on his third war in little more than two years. You've got to admit that "flexibility" is his middle name. Or at least one of his middle names: Barack Barry Hussein "Flexibility" Soetoro Obama, Jr. Those are the names we know so far, but The Donald thinks there might be more. Whodda thunk? Here we are barely into the first week of what started out as a "No-Fly Zone" and it is now turning out to be Air Al Qaida. Ten years ago, AQ had a mere four civilian airplanes to crash into...

Culture Challenge of the Week: Movies "Selling" Sex to Children Can you name the last five movies your teenage son or daughter has watched with friends? How strong was the sexual content in those movies? And does it really matter? New research suggests that it does. The study, conducted by Dr. Ross O'Hara and soon to be published in the journal Psychological Science, found that promiscuity on-screen promotes promiscuity in real life. "Adolescents who are exposed to more sexual content in movies start having sex at younger ages, have more sexual partners," and engage in riskier sexual activities says Dr....

Art begins in the mind of a creative individual. The artist takes his significant experiences and thoughts as raw material and creates a perceptual embodiment for them. Each artist makes independent judgments about which of his experiences and thoughts are significant. And to the best of his ability and with his unique style, each artist employs the techniques of his perceptual medium of choice. The result is an object that, at its best, has an awesome power to exalt the senses, the intellects, and the passions of those who experience it. Those individuals who over the centuries accepted art's calling...

The new issue [of Playboy] features an interview with [current Batman comics writer] Grant Morrison, talking superheroes. This is the kind of thing he says… "Gayness is built into Batman. I’m not using gay in the pejorative sense, but Batman is very, very gay. There’s just no denying it. Obviously as a fictional character he’s intended to be heterosexual, but the basis of the whole concept is utterly gay. I think that’s why people like it. All these women fancy him and they all wear fetish clothes and jump around rooftops to get to him. He doesn’t care—he’s more interested...

The culture war might be likened to fighting a war against a coalition of powers. Imagine WWI-style trench warfare on a long front. In the center of the enemy lines are the forces of moral relativism. These forces oppose the idea that there is a universal moral law. On one flank are the forces of the sexual revolution, including gays, feminists, adulterers, the promiscuous, and the pro-abortion folks. On the other flank are the cultural relativists, and multiculturalists. This camp opposes the ideas of truth, beauty, and intrinsic quality. It seeks to suppress the literary, philosophical, and artistic heritage of...

With the 2012 presidential election fast-approaching, one has to wonder if the Grand Old Party will again manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Obama regime has certainly greased the skids for a GOP win but will the Republican National Committee (RNC) engineer another defeat as it did with candidacies of McCain and Dole? The core problem is that the GOP is a philosophically schizoid entity. It's effectively two parties: middle-American conservatives and internationalist RINO's (Republican's in name only) casting one shadow. Conservatives are nationalists who adhere to Constitutional principles emphasizing individual liberty and limited government. The...

At a press conference announcing his split form the Labor party Defense Minister and Labor Party head Ehud Barak slammed the remaining Labor MKs who he said "have been dragged to the Left, to post-modernism and post-Zionism."

LOVELAND — About 25 to 30 residents stood outside the Loveland Museum/Gallery this morning protesting a portion of an exhibit that appears to show Jesus Christ involved in a sex act. "This is not art, it's smut, pure and simple," said Ronald Minto, who said he's not against graphic art per se. But the color lithograph produced by Stanford University's Enrique Chagoya is outright pornography, he said. "This is a museum, not an X-rated book store," said Minto. The lithograph is spread over 12 panels, each about 7- by 7-inches, and is called "The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals." It's...

Since I am, by nature, a compassionate individual, I had been thinking of how we might Sokal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). It is for their own good. Alan Sokal: remember him? He’s the physicist who submitted the scam article “Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity” to the oh-so-prestigious postmodern journal Social Text. Postmodernists are intellectuals who are so jealous of the success of real scientists, that they pretend that scientists’ accomplishments are nothing special. They are the sort of people who authoritatively state, “There is no truth,” or “‘Truth’ is a...

The entertainment industry is in the full throes of the changing of the generations; films and television are beginning to reflect the visions of Generation Xers like Jason Reitman, (Up in the Air), Judd Apatow, (Knocked Up), Brad Byrd (Up, The Incredibles), and other young artists who dare to buck the tired irony-cool cynicism that has shaped and stifled too much of the culture. Suddenly, after decades of being shut out, minimized, or mocked, film characters have room in their lives for optimism, and even something almost like faith. The Church, if it seeks to be relevant in the future,...

Today's liberal is the political expression of postmodernism and those we know as liberals tend to represent all the characteristics of postmodern thinking foisted on them by contemporary higher education, exposure to modern media etc. To successfully thwart modern (not classical) liberalism, some understanding of postmodern thought and its vulnerabilities must be considered and acted upon. Using this line of reasoning has helped me understand the liberal mindset and the stubborn incapacity of liberals to see something other than the truth of things. I haven't made many conversions, but the postmodern argument helps me make inroads as it takes the...

Like the "fatal error" message that pops up unexpectedly on a computer, the phrase itself is menacing: "post-normal science." I ran across the phrase as I was reading Climate Change and the Death of Science. The author's explanation did nothing to allay my anxiety. Once there was modern science, which was hard work; now we have postmodern science, where the quest for real, absolute truth is outdated, and "science" is a wax nose that can be twisted in any direction to underpin the latest lying narrative in the pursuit of power. Except they didn't call it ‘postmodern' science because then...

N. Pierce: “Great metropolitan regions...not nation-states--are starting to emerge as the world’s most influential players.” Cities are growing in the ‘Third World’ at an enormous rate and are regenerating in the U.S. and Europe. In the U.S. even smaller cities have seen a renaissance of their downtown cores, as professionals, immigrants, international business leaders, empty-nest baby-boomers, artists, and the ‘young and hip’ move back in. The coming world ‘order' will be a global, multi-cultural, and urban order. So globalized city-centers are the strategic ‘leading edge’ of world culture. So what are they like? Would we say that young city-center dwellers...

No wonder Whoopi Goldberg said what she said. She can’t help it. She is a victim. She is a victim of the liberal propaganda she believes in. That same propaganda that is based on emptying the words of our language of any moral meaning. So when it comes to applying moral meaning to words, she is confused. “Rape-rape” or “just rape”? “I don’t necessarily want my 13-year old to have sex with a 45-year old man.” What does that phrase mean? She probably wouldn’t be able to tell. Does she say that it is not “necessity” that tells her what...

- Big Hollywood - http://bighollywood.breitbart.com - ‘Heeb’: Brought to You By the Director of ‘Schindler’s List’ Posted By John Nolte On August 1, 2009 @ 1:33 pm In Featured Story, Politics, culture America’s long past being shocked by anything Roseanne Barr will do for even a smidgen of attention. Why just the other day I was sitting around thinking it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if she dressed as Hitler and made fun of the Holocaust. To be honest, though, it wasn’t much more surprising to find Steven Spielberg’s name attached to this: “Domestic Goddess Hitler” eats a “Jew Cookie”...

Think about it. Has there been a lousier 10 years in American history? OK, the Civil War, granted. And the Great Depression wasn't so hot, either, the pictures suggest. But this one has been close enough to an all-time bad to merit the kind of willful amnesia that I'm proposing. sajohnson@tribune.com

I guess I shouldn't be amazed at the number of slacker ignoramuses who are up in arms about my frank review cutting down the absolute crap they worship a/k/a "The Watchmen", coming out in theaters late tonight. The e-mails they send me and the comments they make about how "deep," "edgy" and "profound" this vile piece of trash (which is none of these) reminds me of the blind statements of followers of Jim Jones. And we all know what happened after they drank he purple Kool-Aid. If only this movie could achieve that result, it would be the most fantastic...

You’ve likely heard the expression, “Mugged by reality.” It usually refers to having a treasured ideal shattered by some stubborn feature of human nature or unbending aspect of science or geopolitics. I’ve been eager to proclaim that the financial meltdown shows our world being mugged by economic reality. But increasingly, it seems humanity is attempting to perform a multitrillion-dollar mugging of reality. This is the first postmodern recession. It combines baby-boomer self-absorption with the ahistorical ignorance of the following generation, plus the acute narcissism common to both. The accompanying histrionics erase perspective and proportion – and the chance for rational...

Two mainline denominations have announced decisions indicating a further move away from Bible-based Christianity. In Michigan, the new bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan is an ordained Zen Buddhist. Northern Michigan's Episcopal congregations and delegates overwhelmingly elected the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester at their convention on Saturday. The diocesan website says Thew Forrester "has practiced Zen meditation for almost a decade," and the Buddhist community welcomed his commitment by granting him "lay ordination." The website also says Northern Michigan's new bishop "resonates deeply" with "his own interfaith dialogue with Buddhism and meditative practice." Meanwhile, Presbyterian Church (USA) representatives...