Free Republic

Marie Antoinette, on hearing that French peasants had no bread to eat, suggested, “Let them eat cake.” This quip perfectly captured the haughty indifference which many people attributed to the French monarchy. A few years later, she was punished for her hauteur: execution by guillotine. The famous quote was probably never uttered. Real or not, it’s a handy symbol for an arrogant elite, indifferent to the suffering of the people. When you read in the newspaper that the US has 50 million functional illiterates, the disdainful queen should flash into your mind.During the 1920’s, the American population was moving toward...

AP The NBA is a personality-driven league.As a result, the trials and tribulations of its players are amplified, and the league is filled with more "crazy people" than any other sport.Everyone has their own definition of "crazy."We'll define it as instability either on or off that court in results in some confounding headline-making antics. Delonte West AP ImagesTeam: Dallas Mavericks Age: 28Crazy anecdote: Arrested for having a shotgun in a guitar case slung over his back while driving a three-wheeled motorcycle. Ivan Johnson APTeam: Atlanta Hawks Age: 27Crazy anecdote: He was "banned for life" from the Korean Basketball League...

CAMP ZAMA, Japan – The Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training. This week, 14 noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new mothers. Army enlisted leaders all over the world are being ordered to take the Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course, or PPPT, according to U.S. Army Medical Activity Japan health promotion...

February 20, 2012 (LiveAction.org) - I listen to talk radio sometimes, mostly just while driving to and from work. (For you Occupiers out there, here is a link where you can learn more about this “work” thing. See in particular section 1.2, “Getting a Job.”) For the past two days, a work assignment has required me to listen to talk radio all day long. I don’t really mind except that it gets me riled up. Right now everybody’s talking about the HHS mandate requiring all employers — including Catholic hospitals and schools and other religious institutions and individuals – to...

It would cost $852 quadrillion dollars to build a real Death Star That's 852 with 15 zeros following it. I know, that figure is insane. You know what that means. It means Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader were rolling in the money like filthy rich rappers. I guess ruling the Galactic Empire isn't so terrible when you're ballin'. Finally putting some questions to rest, the smart folk over at Centives calculated how much iron it would take to build the planet-destroying space station and even figured out how long it would take to build. Here's the reality-check breakdown: • Based...

Have this year's negative political ads really "taken dirty to a whole new level, as CNN's Anderson Cooper frets? Is a "return to civility...a relic of a bygone era," as President Barack Obama laments?

Anthony Federico was sacked for writing a caption reading "A Chink in the Armour" on Friday night, following the Knicks' first and only loss since Lin joined the team. Anchor Max Bretos was suspended for 30 days for using the same phrase. Lin has been the source of numerous jokes and puns since bursting to the attention of the sports-loving public last month with a series of record-breaking games. As the first player American-born player of Chinese origin in the NBA, he is enormously popular in the United States and Asia, particularly because he was sleeping on his brother's couch...

'I'm The Girl With The LadyDad' What happens when your dad becomes a woman? Mainly, Natasha Ozimek tells Maureen Paton, you end up disapproving of his makeup and clothes Maureen Paton The Guardian, 17 February 2012 Jane Fae (formerly John) and Tash: 'He's still Dad, just with a different outer layer.' Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian Natasha Ozimek was 16, and two days away from sitting her physics AS-level, when her father John told her he was planning to change sex; a process known as transitioning. "It was awful when I found out. My throat was doing a wobbly...

It is understandable that libraries have to limit what they can put on their shelves when they have a limited budget to work with and limited space. But when a free donation is offered without restrictions and the space is available, why would a library accept some items and not others? Why would they accept just part of the items and not others? Rather than leaving a couple dozen dvds to collect dust on my shelf, I offered them to local libraries. So far I have received 2 responces: one said "There are some of the DVDS that are not...

When opium was cheaper than whiskey – and Great Britain waged a "wicked" drug war When Opium Was Cheaper Than Whiskey - and Great Britain waged a "wicked" drug war The bottles have a beautiful aqua color to them. If you hold them up to the light, rainbows fire across the delicate patina. But their beauty belies the deadly reality behind the delicate hues. The bottles once held opium based "elixirs," such as Dr. McMunn's Elixir of Opium, most claiming to be a cure for a host of ailments, including the relief of "convulsions and spasmodic action," as well as...

I watched a movie last night on Netflix called "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" that started out as a decent movie. After I had gotten interested the movie and around the 30 minute mark, the 2 main male characters suddenly embrace and start kissing. At first I was revolted and then the revulsion changed to anger. There was nothing in the Netflix description to indicate that this was about gays. I personally believe homosexual activity is wrong and sinful. I remember the first time I ever heard of someone being homosexual and i knew right then and there in my...

Now we know why Hollywood & Broadway liberals love Communism. Lots of job opportunities in "all singing , all dancing musical extravaganzas"! "http://www.wimp.com/ceausescuvisit/"

Earlier in the week, we posted the criticisms leveled at Bank of America by the former head of their Merrill Lynch brokerage unit, Lyle LaMothe. LaMothe said he grew weary of the emphasis on the "goals of the bank rather than specific needs of Merrill's brokers and clients" and that many brokers were dissatisfied. Following that post, we received a series of emails from a source close to the company backing up LaMothe's claims that Merrill Lynch brokers are increasingly unhappy at Bank of America. The source said that "many brokers are saying they are not happy with management and...

Ron Fouchier, a giant of a man at more than two meters tall (6'6"), has dark circles under his eyes. His life has been stressful lately. "They want to paint me as a homicidal idiot," he says heatedly. He is referring, most of all, to a powerful institution from the United States, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB). … Fouchier is attracting so much attention because he has created a new organism. And although it is tiny, if it escaped from his laboratory it would claim far more human lives than an exploding nuclear power plant. The pathogen...

Now that the left is successfully employing this wedge argument over insurance birth control mandates, what can we do on an individual basis to counteract it? I am suddenly seeing local boards and even my face book page being flooded with emotional posts by hysterical women who claim their uteruses (uteri?) are being attacked. They are being successfully distracted from the real issues and seem quite anxious to throw their vote away for red herrings. They have been tricked and I am trying to figure out the best way to dodge their emotional arguments and enlighten them. Some (most) of...

Caterpillar: Goodbye Illinois, Hello Indiana’s Right To Work February 17, 2012 Caterpillar digging into Indiana Caterpillar has been a mainstay Illinois-based company for generations but no longer. The power and influence of big labor has impacted the company for too long, damaging its bottom-line and hurting workers. Now that Illinois’ neighbor, Indiana, has become a Right to Work state, Caterpillar is exploring their options, according to The Detroit News’ Robert Laurie: Back in 2009, Barack Obama announced that Caterpillar had promised to rehire some of its laid-off workforce if his stimulus proposal passed. This week, the nation’s largest manufacturer of...

It was a big week for John Besh, even by his eventful standards.... Apparently, several attendees of the “workshop” took Besh to task for lecturing about healthy eating on one hand while serving high calorie food at his restaurants on the other. “I went on to address a complex issue in very simple terms only to only be heckled by those that feel we can regulate restaurants to the point that our children will be happy and healthy,” Besh writes in his blog, which appears on epicurious.com. “In response to these suggestions, I pointed to a variety of other options...

If you lack something and can, get it now. The Greek people have taken to the streets stating irrevocably that they don’t think they should be impoverished for a generation or more to make good on bad loans made by international bankers.... If the Greek deal falls through, or Greece defaults and walks away from the debt…..it burns $340 billion out of European bank equity. It also causes nerves to fray on the debts of Spain, Italy, Portugal, and even France…..all countries with far larger debts and therefore larger threats to the equity of the European banks...... Now....we find World...

Where it the comprehensive list of Tea Party rallies and other events for 2012? Here is the wiki, suggest updating that as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_protests I do not see any in Manhattan. We need to have one a month until election day. Let's get on the street, good people of the United States!

New York Knick point guard Jeremy Lin is a one-man economic recovery that even Ben Bernanke couldn’t dream up in his Federal Reserve meetings. Lin-sanity has taken the country by storm and as a result created a spending frenzy that’s benefiting a broad range of companies, tax rolls and even the stock market. Lin’s salary this season is a modest (by NBA standards) $800,000, but by some calculations, he’s turned into the $170 million man. The most tangible impact has been on the market cap of Madison Square Garden (MSG), whose stock has jumped 7% to close Thursday at $31.87...