Free Republic

Saw Avatar tonight in 3D at the 4:20 showing. I was split between disgust with the "message" and curiosity about the CGI and 3D, and the latter won out. ( SPOILERS BELOW ) The 3D works very well, with only occasional funky edges to it in some of the busier scenes. I had read about people getting sick from it, and I did feel a little funny after just a few minutes of watching some of the 3D previews, but I got used to it after that. In the beginning of the movie I felt a lot of "Gee, this...

Women in chadors are really feminist ninja warriors. Rather than allow themselves to be gawked at by male strangers, they choose to defeat the “male gaze” by hiding from it in plain view. But don’t you worry: Beneath that chador, abaya, burqa, or veil, there is a sexy courtesan wearing “Victoria Secret, elegant fashion, and skin care lotion,” just waiting for her husband to come home for a night of wild and sensuous marital lovemaking. Obviously, these are not my ideas. I am quoting from a piece by Naomi Wolf that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald a few days...

These extraordinary pictures are the first glimpse inside the squalid back garden compound where Jaycee Lee Dugard was kept captive for 18 years. A hand-painted 'Welcome' sign leads the way to a rundown world of tattered tents and outbuildings amid overgrown trees and bushes.The first words Jaycee said to her mother when the pair were tearfully reunited were: 'Hi Mom, I have babies,' it has emerged. The 29-year-old's stepfather also claims that she had developed a powerful emotional bond with her abductor, Phillip Garrido.

The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, who famously wrote for President Ronald Reagan but slowly become a RINO thanks to spending way too much time in the Beltway (see this embarrassing clip of Ms. Noonan from September of last year declaring the GOP dead meat) is no longer a must-read. In her post today, she bashes Sarah Palin one final time, just to make sure that the almost former Alaskan governor knows what the main streamers think about her and her policies. Among the pathetic quotes: Her history does not need to be rehearsed at any length. Ten months ago...

June 29, 2009   Mr. GRRRRR   Re: The American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, H.R. 2454   Dear Friend:   Thank you for taking the time to contact me about the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), H.R. 2454.   For 2009, our top goal should be energy independence.  I support exploring for energy off our coasts, expanding nuclear power and building a natural gas pipeline across Canada to lower heating costs in the Midwest - an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy.    As a Navy veteran, I think is time to set America's policy towards defunding Middle Eastern dictatorships by cutting...

In November 2008 a Dutch journalist, Joanie de Rijke, was abducted by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. She was held captive, raped repeatedly, and released after six days for a ransom of 100,000 euros ... Wilders said, “is a perfect illustration of the moral decline of our elites. They are so blinded by their own ideology that they turn a blind eye to the truth. Rape? Well, I would put this into perspective, says the leftist journalist: the Taliban are not monsters. Our elites prefer to deny reality rather than face it. One would expect: a woman is being raped and...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief urged India on Monday to counter suspicion against its Muslim minority following the Mumbai attacks and warned the country's strict anti-terror measures threatened human rights. India is still on edge after gunmen killed 166 people in a three-day rampage on the financial hub last November. Hundreds of Muslims were detained and questioned over the attacks, angering rights activists who said innocent people were caught up in the backlash. ... After the Mumbai attacks, the government rushed through new laws in December to allow police to hold suspects for up to 180...

KUDLOW OFFERS DETAILS OF OBAMA DINNER Wed Jan 14 2009 12:15:47 ET CNBC’s Melissa Francis: I HAVE TO ASK LARRY, I'M DYING TO HEAR ABOUT IT, YOU HAD DINNER LAST NIGHT WITH PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA. WHAT WAS THE TONE LIKE? WAS HE TRYING TO WIN OVER THE CONSERVATIVES? IS THAT WHAT IT WAS? THERE WERE ABOUT TEN OF YOU THERE, RIGHT? CNBC’s Larry Kudlow: THIS WAS AN OFF-THE-RECORD DINNER AND I'M GOING TO KEEP IT OFF THE RECORD IN TERMS OF DEEP CONTENT, BUT PEGGY NOONAN WAS THERE, PAUL GIGOT OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, BILL KRISTOL, MYSELF, CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER,...

Emily Nordling has never met a Muslim, at least not to her knowledge. But this spring, Ms. Nordling, a 19-year-old student from Fort Thomas, Ky., gave herself a new middle name on Facebook.com, mimicking her boyfriend and shocking her father. “Emily Hussein Nordling,” her entry now reads. With her decision, she joined a growing band of supporters of Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who are expressing solidarity with him by informally adopting his middle name. The result is a group of unlikely-sounding Husseins: Jewish and Catholic, Hispanic and Asian and Italian-American, from Jaime Hussein Alvarez of Washington,...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A soldier used the Quran -- Islam's holy book -- for target practice, forcing the chief U.S. commander in Baghdad to issue a formal apology on Saturday. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, flanked by leaders from Radhwaniya in the western outskirts of Baghdad, apologized for the staff sergeant who was a sniper section leader assigned to the headquarters of the 64th Armored Regiment. He also read a letter of apology by the shooter. It was the first time the incident -- which tested the relationship between U.S.-backed Sunni militiamen and the...

Bush administration targets language in war on terrorism WASHINGTON - Don't call them jihadists any more. And don't call al-Qaida a movement. The Bush administration has launched a new front in the war on terrorism, this time targeting language. Federal agencies, including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counter Terrorism Center, are telling their people not to describe Islamic extremists as "jihadists" or "mujahedeen," according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Lingo like "Islamo-fascism" is out, too. The reason: Such words may actually boost support for radicals among Arab and Muslim audiences by giving...

I'm getting something of a chuckle out of reading all the Chicken Little "WOE IS US" posts over the primary election results from yesterday. Why? Simple. Because the one viable conservative candidate with the best chance of winning in the General Election is in a better position than ever. In case you haven't noticed, Mitt Romney now has more delegates than all the other candidates put together. McCain's win in South Carolina has hurt Mike Huckabee bigtime. However, McCain will be much easier to defeat in the primaries in the long run than the Huckster which is good news. And...

Halal food in US schools BSS, New York The powerful US Senate (sic) is likely to witness a bill from Democrat Senator John Sabini, who is pursuing to ensure 'halal food' for Muslim students in schools of the city and the state as well. "The 'Halal Food Bill' will be placed before the State Senate shortly," John said at a fund-raising meeting in the city on Thursday. Bangladesh Expatriates in New York organised the programme, where John Sabini also said that he and some other Democrat senators have been trying their best to raise funds from US business community for...

(Based on this story)

Our elected officials in the House of Representatives are voting on an important resolution today. H. RES. 635 Recognizing the commencement of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting and spiritual renewal, and commending Muslims in the United States and throughout the world for their faith. Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas (for herself, Mr. MEEKS of New York, and Mr. ELLISON) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs...

So, you're happily married to the Muslim man of your dreams when, suddenly, he drops the p-bomb: polygamy. For Aneesa Azeez, a 23-year-old Muslim convert and college graduate, her husband's announcement of his intention to marry a second wife devastated her. "I am shocked, hurt, angry and confused, all in one," she wrote in a letter to him. Seems like a recipe for divorce, right? Polygamy is illegal, after all. But Azeez didn't play that card with her husband, 15 years her senior. Under the law that mattered to her—classical Islamic law—she accepted her husband's right to take up to...

In "Kosovo conundrum" in the Washington Times, Michael Djordjevich of the Studenica Foundation discusses U.S. aid for the Kosovo jihad: ...Kosovo is unfinished business, left over from the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia in the past decade and the legacy of fundamentally flawed American policies promulgated by the Clinton administration and then perpetuated by his successor. In terms and perspective of American long-term geostrategy and the ongoing struggle with radical Islam, it is indeed unfathomable how our foreign policy establishment has rationalized its strategy in the Balkans. Already, a body of impartial evidence strongly suggests an inexplicably steady policy of accommodation...

Here is a very odd music video by a group calling itself "Burka Band" where three women in full body blue burqas sing their song about...burqas. Very strange...but it's a must see.

No link yet...

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was an avid reader, fed birds and told jokes while he was in US custody, an American military nurse who looked after him said in interviews with US media. Robert Ellis, 56, an operating room nurse assigned to Saddam during his US military detention, described a courteous, contemplative figure in stark contrast to the brutal reputation Saddam earned during his rule over Iraq. "He basically talked about his wife, and his children," Ellis told CNN on Monday. "He was an avid reader. Loved to read and write. He had a lot of stories that he...

While Americans celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, Saudi Arabians already had theirs over the weekend. Tomorrow, we eat turkey. Over the weekend, the Saudis had us begging to eat crow over a man named Turki. In an utter display of American weakness and shame, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers traveled to Saudi Arabia to apologize. Apologize for the American justice system and virtually everything else that America stands for. Suthers went to Saudi Arabia to apologize for the conviction of Homaidan Al-Turki. Just before Labor Day, Al-Turki was sentenced to 27 years to life in a Colorado prison for keeping a slave...

The first cracks in the united front over Iraq between Tony Blair and President Bush appeared last night as the Prime Minister offered Iran and Syria the prospect of dialogue over the future of Iraq and the Middle East. Mr Blair said there could be a new “partnership� with Iran if it stopped supporting terrorism in Iraq and gave up its nuclear ambitions. Syria and Iran could choose partnership or isolation, he said. The Prime Minister tried to exploit moves in Washington to rethink strategy on Iraq by holding out the prospect of engagement with two countries once dubbed by...

Minister Welcomes Sharia In Netherlands If Majority Wants It THE HAGUE, 13/09/06 - Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner considers the Netherlands should give Muslims more freedoms to behave according to their traditions. Muslims refusing to shake hands is fine with him. And Sharia law could be introduced in the Netherlands democratically, in the minister's view. Muslims have the right to experience their religion in ways that diverge from Dutch social codes, accordign to the Christian democrat (CDA) minister. He thinks Queen Beatrix was very wise not to insist on a Muslim leader shaking hands with her when she visited his...

An American woman who lost eight relatives in the 9/11 attacks has embraced Islam. Elizabeth, now Safia Al Kasaby, 43, lives in Tampa, Florida. She is a former sergeant first class of the US Air Force National Guard. According to a report on the Florida based St. Petersburg Times, she lost one uncle and seven cousins in the attacks on the World Trade Center. She found Islam in 2005 on the third day of a Moroccan vacation.

'I Can't Hate Them for What They Did,' Olaf Wiig Says Aug. 31, 2006 — - Despite being taken hostage at gunpoint in Gaza by a jihadist group and held captive for 13 days, Fox News cameraman Olaf Wiig says he can't condemn his captors. "It's really complex," Wiig said on "Good Morning America." "In some ways, I feel such sympathy for the Palestinian cause. You know, in my heart. You know, I can't hate them for what they did. I resent on behalf of my family what they did. But there's a funny bit of me that's sympathetic to...

Fox News journalist Steve Centanni's credibility is SHOT. He will forever be viewed as "the journalist that converted to Islam" to save his skin and then "unconverted" when he thought he was "safe", and as the "journalist" who praised the terrorists and their cause and told the west that they and Israel are the bad guys and admonished more reporters to “come to Gaza and report on the plight of the poor Palistinians”. The reality is his conversion was presented and viewed by MILLIONS of Muslims (along with the rest of us) world-wide. According to Islam, he has now become...

Per Fox News

An Austrian teenager recovering after spending eight years in an underground cell is grieving for her captor. Natascha Kampusch, 18, said Wolfgang Priklopil was "part of my life, that's why in a certain way I'm mourning him". He killed himself by jumping in front of a train after her escape last week. It is still unclear why he abducted her as she was on her way to school. "Give me time until I can tell my story myself," Ms Kampusch said in her first statement read by her psychiatrist. She said she understood the media "curiosity" about her life with...

The identity of the kidnappers of the two Fox News journalists released un-harmed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday was still shrouded in mystery as Palestinian Authority leaders remained tight-lipped on the case. Cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, and US-born correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, were handed over to PA security officers two weeks after they were seized by unidentified gunmen in Gaza City. For a Jerusalem Online video of events click here The two were driven to the Beach Hotel, where they were met by several Palestinian journalists and PA officials, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. "I want...

Two Fox News journalists freed by militants Sunday described a harrowing two weeks of captivity during which they were blindfolded, tied in painful positions and forced at gunpoint to say on a video that they converted to Islam. After their release, the men met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and left Gaza, but first appealed at a brief news conference for foreign journalists not to be deterred from covering the plight of the Palestinians in the volatile coastal strip. "I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the...

Veteran CBS journalist Mike Wallace described current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an "impressive fellow" following their meeting Tuesday in Tehran. "You'll find him an interesting man," the 88-year-old Wallace said. "I expected more of a firebrand. I don't think he has the slightest doubt about how he feels ... about the American administration and the Zionist state. He comes across as more rational than I had expected."

Hundreds pay respects to Ta Mok In a traditional Buddhist funeral ceremony, incense was burned and prayers recited over Ta Mok's body, which was daubed with white powder. The ceremony took place in Ta Mok's former stronghold of Anlong Veng, in the north of Cambodia. Ta Mok, who died on Friday, was the regime's military commander and linked to many atrocities of the 1970s. About 1.7 million people died under the Khmer Rouge, through a combination of starvation, disease and execution. Ta Mok was the only Khmer Rouge leader who refused to bargain with authorities following the collapse of the...

Sigmund Freud was the fellow who had the copyright on the ego, the id and the superego. He was also the guy who managed to turn the couch, formerly just another piece of over-stuffed Viennese furniture, into a legitimate business expense. But even he acknowledged that he was unable to decipher what it was that women wanted. Strangely enough, that happens to be one question to which I actually know the answer. Women want men to be manly chaps, strong and virile, while at the same time they want us to be completely open and in touch with our emotions....

Freed US hostage says Iraq insurgents 'will win:' video 18 minutes ago US authorities guarded freed hostage Jill Carroll in Iraq after insurgents released her from nearly three months of captivity and published a video showing her praising them. US officials declined to say when the 28-year-old freelance journalist would go home to the United States, but a top Sunni leader at whose office Carroll showed up on Thursday said she could arrive "anytime in the US." Video footage posted on the Internet late Thursday showed Carroll in an interview with her kidnappers before her release in which she praised...

American reporter Jill Carroll has been released after a three-month hostage ordeal in Iraq and was with US officials inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. -snip- Video interview A video posted on the internet, which could not be independently verified, showed Ms Carroll in an interview apparently conducted by her captors before they released her. "Did you think the American army or the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) would save you at any time," a muffled male voice asked Ms Carroll in accented English. "Sometimes I thought maybe that they might come, they might find me, they might find a way to...

Why is Jill Carroll dressed as an Iraqi Muslim female in her interviews with the press? Better yet, why does not some reporter ask her the same question? Something does not seem right. But what do I know sitting at my computer 8,000 miles away?

By Mike Fancher Seattle Times executive editor Why hasn't The Seattle Times published the Danish cartoons that sparked an international crisis? Readers who have asked that question see it as central to a complicated set of issues involving free expression, religious tolerance and international conflict. Those issues are complicated, but the answer to the central question is simple. We haven't published the cartoons because we believe they would needlessly and deeply offend a portion of our readers. That is the standard we routinely apply to potentially offensive material, asking ourselves whether there it is a compelling journalistic reason to publish....

Although freedom of religion and freedom of speech are both fundamental rights, they sometimes come into conflict with each other, as is the case with the caricatures recently published in the Danish newspaper "Jyllands-Posten" depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). This has provoked uproar among Muslims, not just in Denmark, but across the Islamic world as it is widely understood that Islam forbids the depicting of Muhammad. The issue at stake here is not "self-censorship", which Flemming Rose, the newspaper's culture editor, claims has befallen Europe since the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. It is whether...

"It is extremely important to point out that the aim behind these cartoons was not to attack the Prophet at all or devalue him, but as an opening to dialogue on freedom of expression," Sunday's apology said. "We did not realize at the time how sensitive this issue was for Muslims in Denmark or millions of Muslims around the world." The adverts included a previously published statement from the Danish embassy in Riyadh declaring respect for Islam. The apology was dated February 5, but an advertising spokesman at al-Riyadh said it might have taken time for the papers, which are...

Here is a tale of two hostages, one British, one German...Both are Arabic-speaking and Islamophile, both on self-appointed missions to "help" the Palestinians and the Iraqis respectively. Both were initially treated as heroines by the British and German media; both ended by colluding with their kidnappers, and both gave Islamism a propaganda coup. 'snip' Faced with this hullabaloo, the new coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel panicked. A ransom, believed to be as much as $5 million, was paid, thereby rewarding blackmail and offering an incentive for future abductions. But the kidnappers wanted more...One of the most notorious terrorists in...

DUBAI (AFP) - A former German hostage who spent 24 days in the hands of unknown captors in Iraq said her kidnappers were not criminals and had demanded humanitarian aid for Sunni Arab regions. Speaking to Doha-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera, Susanne Osthoff said her captors told her not to be afraid as her kidnapping was "politically motivated." "Do not be afraid. We do not harm women or children and you are a Muslim," she quoted them as saying. "I was so happy to know that I had not fallen into the hands of criminals," she said. Osthoff, a Muslim convert...

Dear Sen. Clinton: Greetings to you from Bethlehem, the birthplace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the center of the world for billions of Christians in the 2,000 years since the Word became flesh, and the home of a dwindling population of Palestinian Christians who, despite the continued pressures of living under Israeli policies of occupation and segregation, still hold onto their lands and dignity. I was encouraged when I met your husband here in Bethlehem in 1999, during the preparations for the Bethlehem 2000 millennium celebrations. I was also encouraged when in 1998 you said that “it will be in...

I hadn't seen a discussion on this, but after seeing part of the press conference from 2 of the rescued aid workers I thought that especially the one who did most of the talking was showing marked signs of Stockholm Syndrome. This is a condition in which people who are held captive become sympathetic - sometimes shockingly so - with their captives. (See the original Die Hard movie for a rather funny take on this, misnamed "Helsinki Syndrome" there). I thought it interesting that she went out of her way to say how well they had been treated... but later ...

If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, what do you call a Swede who's been kidnapped? Somebody you wouldn't want to cross, that's for sure. Ulf Hjertstrom has redefined the term Stockholm Syndrome, the bizarre attachment some hostages develop for their captors, first observed during a bank robbery in the Swedish capital more than 30 years ago. No such bonds were forged between Mr. Hjertstrom, a Swedish oil engineer, and the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq, which held him captive for 67 days. "I have now put some people to work to find these bastards," Mr....

OKLAHOMA CITY - The wife of a deputy prison warden who vanished 10 years ago with an escaped killer told authorities after she was found that he had held her captive the whole time, a federal agent said Tuesday. A tip generated by the TV show "America's Most Wanted" led law enforcement to a mobile home in Campti, Texas, where escaped convict Randolph Dial was arrested Monday, said Salvador Hernandez, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oklahoma. The assistant warden's wife, Bobbi Parker, 42, was found a short time later working at a chicken farm not far from...

A PRISON warden’s wife who vanished after being kidnapped by an escaped killer has been found still living with him nearly 11 years later, running a chicken farm in Texas.Detectives said that Bobbi Parker, 42, a former Sunday school teacher with two children, had numerous opportunities to flee Randolph Dial over the years but chose instead to settle down with him to a quiet, rural lifestyle. Some believe that she may have been a willing accomplice. Others speculate that she may have developed Stockholm syndrome, whereby hostages develop a sympathetic bond with their captors as a survival mechanism. Mrs Parker...

The story of the rilasciata journalist "my kidnappers? He never considers you enemy " Sgrena speaks from its bed of hospital: "They said to fight for the liberation irachena, were not sgozzatori". ROME - Mentre it speaks has the look turned to the television, where the images slide that will remain. She that to the mattino he comes down malferma from the dell’aereo ladder, the Ciampi president who to deep night caress the coffin of Nicholas Calipari. Giuliana Sgrena has not still understood. Still account that every its word, now, will come put under to a microscope, analyzed, read...

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian aid worker held hostage last month in Iraq said guerrillas there were right to fight U.S.-led forces and their Iraqi "puppet government." In comments that were bound to annoy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government, Simona Torretta also called on Rome to withdraw the troops it sent to Iraq to support its U.S. ally. "I said it before the kidnapping and I repeat it today," she told Corriere della Sera newspaper in an interview published Friday. "You have to distinguish between terrorism and resistance. The guerrilla war is justified, but I am against the kidnapping of...

September 09, 2004 Muslims rule major Swedish city An exclusive series of translations from the Swedish press, made for Jihad Watch by Ali Dashti, who writes: Sweden is one of the worst hit countries in Europe of Muslim immigration and Political Correctness. Now, the police themselves have publicly admitted that they no longer control one of Sweden's major cities. I have made some exclusive translations from Swedish media. They show the future of Eurabia unless Europeans wake up. I’ve seen the future of Eurabia, and it’s called 'Sweden.' Malmø is Sweden’s third largest city, after Stockholm and Gothenburg. Once-peaceful Sweden,...

Yvonne Ridley, the reporter imprisoned by the Taliban and then vilified by Fleet Street, found Islam and an unlikely supporter. But her new career at al-Jazeera has come to a mysterious end, she tells Julia Stuart It was a curious way to be given the boot. At 11pm a secretary from al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite news station, popped round to Yvonne Ridley's home in Doha, Qatar, and informed her that she was "terminated". Ridley, who had worked as a senior editor on the station's English-language website since July, was warned not to go back to the office and that security...