Free Republic

A noted left-wing author who teaches at a bastion of so-called progressive education recently delivered a surprising defense of Western civilization—and an attack on prevailing academic attitudes towards it. Unfortunately, Christopher Hitchens said, confidence in the superiority of the West has been eroded in recent decades. Hitchens teaches at the New School in New York City. Hitchens criticized those Americans (on both the Left and the Right) who responded to the September 11 attacks by asking what America had done to deserve them—a question belonging to a mindset he called “moral suicide.” Such relativism, Hitchens said, is the result of...

Feb. 9, 1957:  Television’s Wyatt Earp, actor Hugh O’Brian, on left, and Al Jennings, onetime western bad man, draw guns for Los Angeles Times staff photographer Al Markado. O’Brian won, but Jennings, at 93, had the experience to make the shot count – if he needed too. Times staff writer Norman Dash reported:TARZANA–A 93-year-old “bad man.” who was once allegedly the fastest man with a gun in the West, met up with television’s Wyatt Earp and immediately went for his clippings, memories and tales of the Old West at his modern-day hide-out in Tarzana.Al Jennings, last of the real...

Egypt is loss; Yemen is a mess; Syria is going even more radical; Somali Islamists are gaining ground everyday; Sudan is a lost cause. Libya is a stupid civil war and will go for sometime. The only ME western supporting nation of Jordan is also in trouble. Once it falls, Israel is in big trouble. We know about Egypt's long-time peace agreement. Well, that no longer exists. If Jordan falls to the Islamists, then it is war. I don't need to be a historical scholar to realize that WWIII will start in the ME.. Reason: Israel will not go without...

This new interview with American author Alice Walker gives a brilliant insight into what motivates trendy pro-Palestinian sentiment in the West today. Notice how effortlessly she flits between talking about Palestinians in Gaza and chickens in factory farms. In one breath she talks about the “cruel and inhuman” treatment meted out to Palestinians, who are “frazzled and suffering everyday”. And in the next she talks about chickens that are “raised under horrible, torturous conditions”, and the fact that people who tuck into chicken dinners don’t realise that they are eating “something precious, beautiful, rare”. Palestinians and chickens – these seem...

In a TV slip caught by Al Jazeera, yet another Zero Hedge prediction has been confirmed: namely that it was only a matter of time before NATO "boots on the ground" would promptly replace the CIA's "sandals on the ground" in a fully Western-backed land invastion of Libya. Since it is too early to predict the nationality of the armed invaders, we will assume they are British as Al Jazeera speculates, because otherwise Congress is about to find itself in an unprecedented scandal for completely ignoring its duty to impose the War Powers Act, which in turn would mean that...

China’s vehicle manufacturer Foton is setting up an assembly plant in Kenya in what is set to heighten the battle between China and Western nations for business in Kenya. The Sh1.2 billion assembly plant is expected to churn out 10,000 units of prime movers, tippers, buses, pick-ups, and light commercial trucks per year, making it one of the biggest foreign direct investments by a Chinese company. Foton said it is setting up the plant to avoid paying a 25 per cent import duty on cars to allow in its low cost products putting it in a head-to-head battle with Japanese...

Western states facing 'all-day onslaught' from massive winter stormBy the CNN Wire Staff December 19, 2010 6:37 p.m. EST (CNN) -- A huge winter storm was affecting the West Coast on Sunday, poised to dump up to 10 feet of snow in some higher elevations, and causing flooding and potential mudslides in lower spots while impacting driving conditions and air travel, forecasters said. A winter storm warning remained in effect through Monday afternoon for California's Sierra Nevada mountains, from Yosemite to Kings Canyon, according to the National Weather Service. "Storm totals of 5 to 10 feet above 7,000 feet are...

Making the rounds on YouTube these days is a film of a group of manly looking women preparing for and conducting a "flash dance" in a Philadelphia food store. The crew of ladies, dressed in tight black clothes and sequined accessories, arrives at The Fresh Grocer supermarket, breaks into a preplanned chant ordering shoppers not to buy Sabra and Tribe hummus and telling them to oppose Israeli "apartheid" and support "Palestine." From their attire and attitude, it is fairly clear that the participants in the video would congratulate themselves on their commitment to the downtrodden, the wretched of the earth...

The Palestinian government has removed a report claiming that Jerusalem's Western Wall isn't holy to Jews from an official website, after it provoked furious reaction. The five-page report has been condemned by the U.S. and Israel as incorrect and provocative. Palestinian officials would not comment on the report Wednesday. But its author, Al-Mutawakil Taha, a civil servant in the Information Ministry, says he stands by it.

The Palestinian Authority’s rewriting of the Bible has reached a new peak or – low – with a “scientific study” claiming that Jews did not begin to claim a connection to the Western Wall (Kotel) until 500 years ago. The Western Wall, also known in pre-State times as the “Wailing Wall,” is the outer wall of the Second Temple compound and has been a symbol of the deepest connection between most of the Jewish world, both religious and secular, and Judaism for two thousand years following the destruction of the Second Temple. “Jews did not worship at the Wailing Wall...

It's too late to back out now because President Obama is already racking up frequent flier miles on his Western campaign swing, allegedly to help out embattled Democratic senators. But a new Gallup Poll out this morning puts the top Democrat himself at his lowest approval rating ever and finds most Americans do not want the Real Good Talker to have a second term. Other than that, Obama should be a real help to Washington's embattled Patty Murray today and Nevada's embattled Harry Reid and California's embattled Barbara Boxer later, trying to salvage the large Democratic majorities in both houses...

Good question, huh? I've wondered about this for awhile. Cordoba House changed its name to Park 51 which is odd since the address of the location is 45 47 Park Place. Look to the Koran-the book of islamic conquest Qur'an CHAPTER 51, Verses 45-47 explains all: 51:45 And they were unable to arise, nor could they defend themselves. 51:46 And [We destroyed] the people of Noah before; indeed, they were a people defiantly disobedient. 51:47 And the heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] expander. The numbered Qur'an verses celebrating the Muslim conquests match up to the...

While only a few political strategists are predicting a Republican takeover of the Senate in November, Democrats may, in fact, lose the Senate if they cannot win several key races in the West, where incumbents such as Washington's Patty Murray are fighting for their political lives against surprisingly strong GOP challengers. Pollsters and political experts rate the Washington Senate race a tossup, which is hardly good news for Murray as she seeks a fourth term. Other Democrats west of the Mississippi are also in difficult battles. In California, incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer is in a statistical tie with her...

You’ve met TED, haven’t you? Maybe you’ve sat through a patronizing video here, or a read a condescending article there, lately? Contrary to what you may think, TED does not stand for Tediously Egocentric Dweebs — at least that is not what they intended. The acronym is meant to signify the bright ones getting together to lead the rest of the world with planned Technology, Entertainment, and Design. Wait, am I being redundant? (Taking a moment, thinking to myself… T… E… D… above.) Yes, sorry, please pardon the tautology. TED is essentially an attempt to indoctrinate the generators of the...

06 July 2010 "TOP TEN LIST 2010-07-06" SNIPPET: "The temporal context in which this list was generated is important, and will likely be forgotten over time. So for future reference, see the posts at Internet Haganah which immediately preceded the making of this list."

If you like westerns,, here is one I have never seen,,, I'm 50 yrs old.

leftist content in today's new movies plus dvds including AVATAR and V FOR VENDETTA

A researcher from The University of Western Ontario has helped solve a 37-year old space mystery using lunar images released yesterday by NASA and maps from his own atlas of the moon. Phil Stooke, a professor cross appointed to Western's Departments of Physics and Astronomy and Geography, published a major reference book on lunar exploration in 2007 entitled, "The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration." Yesterday, images and data from Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) were posted. The LRO, scheduled for a one year exploration mission about 31 miles above the lunar surface, will produce a comprehensive map, search for resources...

An astronomer at the University of Western Ontario has found a Soviet moon rover in recently released images from a NASA satellite. Phil Stooke combed through data and images of the moon's surface from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that NASA released Monday. Stooke compared the images to his own recently published reference book on moon geography, The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration, and pinpointed the location of the Soviet rover Lunokhod 2. "The tracks were visible at once," said Stooke, in a statement. The location of the rover was already known through laser ranging experiments, but there's no telescope on...

IMDB only has Sarandon, Phillippe, Bruce Dern and our very own Jason Alan Smith from Do Not Disturb listed as the attached cast, but in Phillippe’s latest interview he revealed that there’s more people involved… According to Phillippe, “I think I’m doing a Western in May, with Susan Sarandon, Billy Bob Thornton, Richard Dreyfuss [and] Bruce Dern,” he said. “It’s called The Big Valley, which was a [television] series in the ’60s, and so it’s sort of based on that.”

SNIPPET: “Western economies, with the United States at the forefront, would likely be targeted by terrorists, according to a research by an Israeli expert on terrorism. Professor Gabriel Weimann of the University of Haifa noted that since the attacks on Washington and New York on Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist organizations have realized that enormous damage can be done to the economy and have been increasingly aiming at economically and financially heavyweight targets.” SNIPPET: “Several of the world’s leading experts on terrorism and the Internet gave varying responses to Weimann’s research during interviews with Xinhua. “I believe it is an accurate...

American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent children from their beds and shooting them during a night raid that left ten people dead. Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were killed, all but one of them from the same family. Locals said that some victims were handcuffed before being killed. Western military sources said that the dead were all part of an Afghan terrorist cell responsible for manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have claimed the lives of countless soldiers and civilians.

We have all watched this scene in ... Western movies. The sheriff says his prisoner will receive a fair trial when the judge arrives in the morning. But, one loud mouth stands on the steps of the jail house and works the crowd into a frenzy. The enraged mob breaks down the door,...drags out the prisoner and hangs him. It is later discovered that the prisoner was innocent. ... I am amazed that the president of the United States uses the same technique as the loud mouth guy in the movies. To pass his stimulus package, President Obama... created an...

"Nevada Smith"-classic western starring one of my favorite movie cowboys, the legendary Steve McQueen is on Turner Classic Movies today at 12:00 PM EST. Co-starring Brian Keith as his foster father, Karl Malden, Martin Landau, Arthur Kennedy as his adversaries, Raf Vallone as a compassionate and wise priest and the late and lovely Suzanne Pleshette(in one of her best performances as the smoky voiced Cajun named Pilar), Janet Margolin and Joanna Moore(in an unbilled part) as the women in his life. Directed by Henry Hathaway("The Sons of Katie Elder") and a great score by Alfred Newman. Definitely worth catching if...

It has been said that director Howard Hawks made Rio Bravo (1959) as a reaction to two popular westerns which angered him - High Noon (1952) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957). His comment on the former was, "I didn't think a good sheriff was going to go running around town like a chicken with his head off asking for help, and finally his Quaker wife had to save him." Hawks also considered 3:10 to Yuma, which had outlaw Glenn Ford playing psychological games with lawman Van Heflin, "a lot of nonsense." So Rio Bravo was the director's take on heroism...

A spy network believed to have been controlled from China has hacked into classified documents on government and private computers in 103 countries, according to internet researchers. The spy system, dubbed GhostNet, is alleged to have compromised 1,295 machines at Nato and foreign ministries, embassies, banks and news organisations across the world, as well as computers used by the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles.

The website of a New York TV network whose aim is to improve American perceptions of Islam was shut down this morning, two days after its founder admitted to the beheading of his wife. And while that irony might bring a momentary smile, another attempt to conceal the facts behind an honor killing right here in America should stir nothing short of outrage. Muzzammil Hassan, CEO of Bridges TV, whose motto is "connecting people through understanding," apparently didn't think Thursday's honor killing -- and make no mistake about what this was -- at the station might somehow blur that message....

Your daily routine -- switching on a light, cooking a meal, driving down the street -- would generate less greenhouse gases under a first-of-its-kind regional strategy to curb global warming unveiled Wednesday at the state Capitol in Salem. The strategy emerged from the Western Climate Initiative, an alliance of Western states -- including Oregon and Washington -- and Canadian provinces trying to jump ahead of any federal move to regulate greenhouse gases. Large utility companies and factory owners would feel the effects first, followed by fuel distributors, as they face limits on their greenhouse gas emissions. Individual Oregonians would not...

CIA director Michael Hayden said today al-Qaeda was training operatives who "look western" and could enter the United States undetected to conduct terrorist attacks. General Hayden said the terror network over the past 18 months has established a safe haven in tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan where they are preparing militants for attacks against the West. "They are bringing operatives into that region for training - operatives that, a phrase I would use, wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles (airport near Washington DC) with you," Gen Hayden told NBC television. The new...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A huge survey of the world's Muslims released Tuesday challenges Western notions that equate Islam with radicalism and violence. The survey, conducted by the Gallup polling agency over six years and three continents, seeks to dispel the belief held by some in the West that Islam itself is the driving force of radicalism. It shows that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 and other subsequent terrorist attacks, the authors of the study said in Washington. "Samuel Harris said in the Washington Times (in 2004): 'It is time...

The London Daily Mail reports this week that one in four Britons don't believe Prime Minister Winston Churchill actually existed. They suspect he is a mythical character, rather than a historical one. Likewise, they think historical figures such as Florence Nightingale, Sir Walter Raleigh, Mahatma Gandhi and Cleopatra were also fictional personalities created for literature or films.

PHOENIX - Six western states and two Canadian provinces announced a regional goal Wednesday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The Western Climate Initiative includes Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington and the provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba. The group wants emissions cut by 15 percent over 2005 levels within 13 years. Governors of the most of the states created the WCI in February, pledging to work together to significantly reduce emissions, partly by designing a market-based system such as a cap-and-trade program planned by California. "The regional goal reflects the combined impact of the individual...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Western U.S. states and Canadian provinces eyeing a joint carbon trading market are hoping to resolve differences over issues such as how emissions are calculated. Representatives of the six U.S. states and two Canadian provinces in the Western Climate Initiative began three days of meetings in Vancouver on Thursday. Two provinces and two states that are thinking of joining the group are also expected to attend. British Columbia Environment Minister Barry Penner hopes the meeting will help narrow down the options the group will consider as it struggles to set regional greenhouse gas reduction goals...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Wildfires raged on Sunday across the western United States as firefighters scrambled to prevent flames from spreading across rugged terrain thick with tinder turned bone-dry by scorching hot weather. Some of the intense blazes forced hasty evacuations of rural homes and recreational areas and officials temporarily shut highways and railways in some fire zones. California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana each reported wildfires of varying severity amid a heat wave blanketing the western United States. Fanned by high winds, a fire in Utah had grown into a massive blaze of more...

A wildfire burned into a wilderness area of Los Padres National Forest on Saturday, threatening some campgrounds and showing no sign of slowing down as it moved through tinder-dry chaparral in Santa Barbara County. The fire was heading east and threatened some campgrounds and the historic Manzana schoolhouse, a century-old wooden building, fire spokesman Andy Yamamoto said. The fire was burning in a steep, remote area in brush and oak woodlands that had not seen flames for some 40 years, Yamamoto said. More than 1,200 firefighters were on the line, battling flames by hand or with bulldozers and aided by...

And why not? John Wayne was born Marion Morrison 100 years ago last month in the dreaded Midwest, before his family moved to a California that had yet to see the "golden days" of left-wing infiltration. He played football at USC before a surfing injury caused him to lose his scholarship and he soon found work as a Hollywood stuntman before stardom found him. He was incredibly handsome in youth and despite his large and rangy frame, had a lithesome quality to his bearing, even late in life. It is a cliche used in reference to many actors that women...

EUGENE, Ore. - A federal judge sentenced two women to prison Thursday for their roles in arson fires around the West that caused more than $40 million in damage over a five-year period. Suzanne Savoie and Kendall Tankersley were the fifth and sixth of 10 radical environmentalists to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Eugene after they pleaded guilty to arson and conspiracy. All were members of an underground cell of the Earth Liberation Front known as "The Family." U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken sentenced Savoie to four years and three months in federal prison. In order to recognize...

Zimbabwe to chair major UN body Mr Chidyausiku says the row is a storm in a teacup Zimbabwe has been elected to head the UN's commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) despite strong objections from Western diplomats. They had said Zimbabwe was unsuitable because of its human rights record and economic problems. It is suffering food shortages and rampant inflation. But Zimbabwe has dismissed such criticism, calling it an insult. The country was chosen by other African nations. The CSD post rotates every year between the world's regions. Travel ban Zimbabwe was elected to lead the commission by a 26-21 secret...

Source: University of Maryland, College Park Released: Mon 16-Apr-2007, 16:30 ET “Bird Flu” Genome Study Shows New Strains, Western Spread A team of researchers report the first ever large-scale sequencing of western genomes of the deadly avian influenza virus, H5N1, that confirms not only that the virus has very recently spread west from Asia, but that two of the new western strains have already independently combined, or “reassorted,” to create a new strain. The arrows represent the movement of the H5N1 virus into the three distinct regions represented in the genome study. The green, pink and yellow arrows depict the...

Tony Blair's decision to withdraw 1,600 troops from Iraq is understandable. The prime minister had to make a difficult decision about where to allocate Britain's scarce resources, and he decided, reasonably enough, that the top priority was to send reinforcements to Afghanistan, where 5,500 British troops are struggling to hold back a Taliban onslaught. The tragedy is that he had to rob Peter to pay Paul because Britain can't maintain 7,000 troops in Iraq and 7,000 in Afghanistan. Those are hardly huge numbers for a country of 60 million with the fifth-largest national economy in the world. Yet even as...

Laddies need ladies: apply Western Isles By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent Last Updated: 1:35am GMT 08/02/2007 A remote chain of islands issued an urgent appeal for women yesterday. A study in the Western Isles revealed that more women than men were escaping to the mainland. Research found that the number of child-bearing women there could fall by almost 25 per cent over the next 12 years. It also revealed that more than 70 per cent of those moving to the islands were male. More than 26,000 people live on the principal islands of Lewis, Harris, Benbecula, North Uist, South Uist...

Anyone who has been keeping up with British opinion since the July 7 bombings will have noticed that "multiculturalism" is under sharp attack. Multiculturalism preaches that we should allow and encourage immigrants and their children to maintain and celebrate their own culture apart from the national culture. Society should be not a melting pot but, in the phrase of former New York Mayor David Dinkins, "a gorgeous mosaic." That mosaic, of course, looked less gorgeous as people surveyed the work of the British-born-and-raised bombers

Table of Contents Authors’ Foreword PrologueDramatis Personae The SceneThe Dialogue The so-called “Cartesian Split” What is “all that there is?” Pure, blind chance? First reality and second realities What is knowledge? Does science “have it in” for God? Is Intelligent Design science? What is matter? What lies at the beginning of “all that there is?” Aristotle’s Four Causes What is “randomness?” First Adam, Second Adam Is science “killing the soul?” The Public Square: a “values-neutral zone?” What is science? What is the universe? What is life? What is reality? Endnotes Appendix Nuts and Bolts Numbers Big and Small Combinatorics,...

I wanted to share a link to our web site for a new action Western feature motion picture nearing completion. This is an "indie" movie being made by folks who are just in love with Western movies and wanted to make one ourselves. It is based upon a true story.It is being shot in state-of-the-art high definition digital video. This movie has been shot completely within the United States over this summer and fall, in Idaho, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and South Dakota.You can watch a two-minute trailer of scenes from the movie at our site.www.thehayfieldmovie.com

Westerners sometimes assume that Europe and North America are always on the side of the angels when it comes to religious freedom, so that the “reciprocity” question dear to Pope Benedict XVI is largely a matter of bringing the Islamic world up to Western standards of tolerance and liberty. In fact, however, the reciprocity question can be complicated in the West too, in a way that certainly doesn’t escape the attention of Muslim eyes. The rubber hits the road in places such as the blue collar neighborhood of Cornigliano in the Italian port city of Genoa, where plans by Italian...

Kremlin 'bullying' leaves western energy companies furious By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow (Filed: 23/09/2006) In the past few years, mention of Vladimir Putin at the dinner table of some western leaders could have brought on a case of indigestion. In the past week, though, the Russian president has been causing ulcers. Sakhalin Energy extracts oil and gas from one of the world's most inhospitable regions On Monday, Russia suspended an environmental permit for an oil and gas project led by Royal Dutch Shell on Sakhalin Island in the Pacific Ocean. The international community has watched with queasiness as democracy in...

OBITUARY 'Pavarotti of the Plains' Don Walser dead at 72 Late-blooming musician sang and yodeled his way to country heights in early 1990s. There's never been a more special relationship between a musician and his fans in Austin than when rotund National Guardsman Don Walser started over in the music business in 1990 at the now-defunct Henry's Bar on Burnet Road. His improbable rise and signing to Sire Records, the label of Madonna and the Ramones, at age 64 was the feelgood story of the Austin music scene. Dubbed "the Pavarotti of the Plains" for his clear, powerful tenor, Walser...

BAGHDAD, Sep. 4, 2006 – Two Longbow Apache helicopters provided air-to-ground support to American soldiers by blasting enemy vehicles during action in western Baghdad yesterday, U.S. officials reported. The flight of choppers from Multinational Division Baghdad’s Combat Aviation Brigade teamed up to assist U.S. ground forces from the division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. The combined effort resulted in one terrorist killed, four captured and two terrorist’s vehicles destroyed, officials said. The Apache crews were conducting a combat air patrol mission when they received the call to assist. At about 4:45 p.m., the pilots noticed two abandoned vehicles...

Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) If this western isnt your cup of tea, then on channel 7 is Pearl Harbor. Or on channel 13 (PBS) is the britcom "Keeping Up Appearances", followed by another britcom called "As Time Goes By". After that, still on PBS, will be the Doris Day movie, "The Glass Bottom Boat" at 9pm (EST)