Free Republic

I have been a minor participant at Free Republic, the Internet’s leading conservative forum, since September 2004. An online friend referred me to a discussion where members of Free Republic were talking about the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections, and using my maps from this page to make a point. I had to join FR to introduce myself to that group, and thank them for visiting. Because that was right after the “Rathergate” scandal, I thus became one of the “Pajamahadeen” that had just brought down the Sauronic eye of CBS. Being a “Freeper” has been an interesting and fun...

Cultural observer Joseph Epstein pinpoints the transition from adulthood to adolescence as American culture's default "moral condition" in the decade following the 1951 publication of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. In his 2004 essay, The Perpetual Adolescent, Epstein notes: "Salinger's novel exalts the purity of youth and locates the enemy... in those who committed the sin of growing older, [Holden Caulfield's] parents, his brother ... and just about everyone who has passed beyond adolescence and had the rather poor taste to remain alive." Adolescence as the new adulthood is a widespread but thankfully not a universal phenomenon....

Open season on black politiciansBy ELINOR TATUM Publisher and Editor in Chief Published: Thursday, September 10, 2009 1:20 PM EDT It seems as though hunting season has begun, and it seems that politicians of color are the main targets. Or maybe they always have been. But the reactionary and repressive forces in our society seem to be unleashing aggressive attacks on African-Americans—particularly men—who have amassed unprecedented political power and influence at state and national levels. Suddenly, we are seeing an America for the first time with a number of black men with real political power. It is not just the...

notice the ads on Drudge and Fox for Dish and Vontage, cannot close them, they cover half the text. It is almost not worth going on the page any longer.

Palin hits back at 'malicious' photo Posted: 10:22 AM ET From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney (CNN) – A week after a high-profile uproar with comedian David Letterman over the late-night host's joke about her daughter, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is again sharply responding to the appearance of her children in the public sphere. Palin's latest response comes after liberal Alaskan Blogger Linda Kellen Biegel doctored a photograph of the former Republican gPresidential candidate with her 1-year-old son Trig, who suffers from Down Syndrome. Biegel, who blogs in support of the Alaska Democratic Party under the name "Celtic Diva," superimposed...

WASHINGTON (May 24) -- The conservative vs. moderate split threatening to rupture the Republican Party played out across the airwaves Sunday, with Colin Powell and Tom Ridge denouncing shrill and judgmental voices they say are steering the GOP too far right. Karl Rove challenged Powell to lay out his vision and "back it up" by helping elect Republicans. At stake is the GOP's status as a major party, Powell and Ridge suggested "I believe we should build on the base because the nation needs two parties, two parties debating each other. But what we have to do is debate and...

...Here are a few things Congress can do: Bring copyright laws into the age of the search engine. Taking a portion of a copyrighted work can be protected under the "fair use" doctrine. But the kind of fair use in news reports, academics -- republishing a quote to comment on it, for example -- is not what search engines practice... Publishers should not have to choose between protecting their copyrights and shunning the search-engine databases that map the Internet. Journalism therefore needs a bright line imposed by statute: that the taking of entire Web pages by search engines, which is...

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) today said he was guaranteed seniority on committees by Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) in the final negotiations before his party switch last week, talks that, according to Specter, also included a pledge that he would become the next chairman of the Judiciary Committee in several years. Specter stood by his version of the one-on-one talks with Reid, despite the Senate leader's contradictory statements on the matter and the resolution that passed last night placing Specter in the most junior slot on most committees on which he serves. "When I talked to Senator Reid he...

Don't ask why I do it. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment. I love to patrol the liberal blogs to get a glimpse at their thought process, or lack of which. I drop a comment from time to time, which normally kicks off a flurry of name calling, hair pulling, and all sorts of other forms of serious debate. Today's waste of time was spent on FireDogLake, where they seem to have a problem with Paul Ryan's comments regarding the future of Social Security. Keep in mind one thing: liberals love them some social security.

Barack Obama is so many things. To far-right conservatives during the campaign he became a radical Marxist who was going to make us into a communist country. To far-left liberals we was Bush-lite, a compromiser who wasn’t going to end the war fast enough. He even was tagged as a radical Muslim by some of the same detractors who said he went to the wrong Christian church. He was accused of getting elected solely on his charisma when he drew throngs of admirers to his campaign appearances. Now those same naysayers claim, after every news conference, that he’s too boring...

Most oil drillers are fretting after crude prices fell 70 per cent since last July, but a group of Oklahoma oilmen pin much of the blame for their plunging profits on an unlikely culprit: Canada. Producers led by driller Harold Hamm have asked local authorities, including Oklahoma's attorney general, to investigate whether Canada--the largest oil supplier to the United States--is selling crude at prices below production costs from its vast oilsands reserves. The Oklahoma group, Domestic Energy Producers' Alliance, says it may seek to halt new Oklahoma-bound pipelines, or ask the state to temporarily fix prices -- a measure it...

Palin: Media sought to seek, destroy By: Andy Barr February 23, 2009 11:12 AM EST Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) believes that the media deliberately tried to bring her down during her vice presidential run. As part of an interview with conservative filmmaker John Ziegler for his new film out this week, Palin said she believes the media made a decision that “we’re going to seek and we’re going to destroy this candidacy of Sarah Palin’s because of what it is that she represents.” “Obviously something big took place in the media,” she added. It is “very frightening, I think, what...

(CNN) -- Sending a letter will soon be a little more expensive, the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday. The U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday a 2-cent increase on first-class stamps, effective May 11. The Postal Service said the price increase was necessary because of rising production costs. Under law, the price of stamps is not allowed to rise faster than the U.S. consumer price index, which measures inflation.

Let me begin by reproducing a short-but-powerful article: University of Vermont President Engages in Double-Speak and Double-Standards When It Comes to Disavowing Pro-Intelligent Design Commencement Speaker Ben Stein“In today’s academic double-speak, invitations to far-left revolutionaries and race-baiting Congressmen are apparently ‘inclusive,’ while inviting a speaker who favors free speech on the issue of evolution is beyond the pale,” says Discovery Institute’s John West. today’s academic double-speak, invitations to far-left revolutionaries and race-baiting Congressmen are apparently ‘inclusive,’ while inviting a speaker who favors free speech on the issue of evolution is beyond the pale,” says Discovery Institute’s John West. Apologizing for...

Are Catholics Born Again? | Mark Brumley | IgnatiusInsight.com http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2007/mbrumley_bornagain_nov07.asp "Have you been born again?" the Fundamentalist at the door asks the unsuspecting Catholic. The question is usually a segue into a vast doctrinal campaign that leads many ill-instructed Catholics out of the Catholic Church. How? By making them think there is a conflict between the Bible and the Catholic Church over being "born again." To be honest, most Catholics probably do not understand the expression "born again." Yes, they believe in Jesus. And yes, they try to live Christian lives. They probably have some vague awareness that Fundamentalists think...

Bill Ayers Special to the Star Whew! What was all that mess? I'm still in a daze, sorting it all out, decompressing. For the past few years, I have gone about my business, hanging out with my kids and, now, my grandchildren, taking care of our elders (they moved in as the kids moved out), going to work, teaching and writing. And every day, I participate in the never-ending effort to build a powerful and irresistible movement for peace and social justice. In years past, I would now and then – and often unpredictably – appear in the newspapers or...

Obama Appoints Fairness Doctrine Backer Monday, November 10, 2008 10:41 AM By: Jim Meyers President-elect Barack Obama has designated former Federal Communications Commissioner Henry Rivera to head the team that will select the next FCC chairman — an Obama move that bodes poorly for conservative talk radio. That’s because Rivera is widely believed to support the reinstitution of the so-called Fairness Doctrine. Originally instituted in 1949 by the FCC, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters over the public airwaves to give equal time to opposing political views. Since talk radio is overwhelmingly dominated by conservative hosts, and liberal talk radio draws...

Fred -- The NRA is currently attacking Barack Obama with TV ads that are so deceptive they are not fit for broadcast. The ads purposefully misrepresent Barack's position on illegal guns to scare and mislead voters -- the non-partisan Factcheck.org concluded that claims in the ads are simply "false." TV stations airing them have the legal authority to prevent the broadcast of false and misleading advertising, and they will respond if their viewers apply enough pressure. You're receiving this message because these ads are running on TV stations in your community. Send an email to TV advertising representatives in...

Two Republicans who know say McCain has settled on Mitt Romney as his running mate. Developing...

Spoiled rotten It's a meme we've hit before. Americans have it so good, we don't even know how good we have it anymore.We hit the topic hard in What a bunch of whiners we are! and What a bunch of whiners we are, Part 2. We also hit a related theme in a thorough essay on the perils of jealousy in I really don't care if someone has more money than I do.These themes cannot be stressed enough. If you're sick of 'em . . . if you already "get it," then forward them on to someone who still needs...

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Saturday strongly criticized the chamber’s Republicans, accusing them of stopping “efforts to bring change to Washington.” Durbin, who delivered the Democratic radio address, said the founding fathers would be troubled by the gridlock in Washington and he blamed Republicans for the situation. “Just last month, they blocked bills to combat global warming, halt the mortgage meltdown and bring down fuel prices,” Durbin said. He argued that the Republicans in this Congress have already “shattered” the filibuster record. “With gasoline at $4 a gallon and rising -- an energy crisis -- a global warming...

What a bunch of whiners we are! (Part 2) In What a bunch of whiners we are, I reported on some really shameful poll numbers describing an America where people think things are just soooooooo terrible. I tried to get the point across that things are NOT so terrible, and that we should all stop whining. Apparently, America didn't get the message, otherwise Mr. I'll give you hope and change never mind what it will be I said change damn it change wouldn't be riding so high in the polls.So let me say it again. The fact that Jen wasn't...

It’s not easy being Mormon. No cursing, no premarital sex, no Mountain Dew. Perpetual good neighbors, their religion – so inherent to their existence – is a mystery even to those of us who have grown up in predominantly Latter Day Saint communities. In fact, most people know Mormons as the demographic that keeps FamilyFlix in business, Chevy Suburbans on the road and children from divorced families feeling cheated. Thus, it’s a shame that the one opportunity the country may have to get to know the faith is when political spin taints the message. The high hopes that the Mitt...

Both Hillary and Obama have explicitly stated that we need to "tax the rich" so each pays "their fair share". I recently came across a report titled DISTRIBUTION OF CERTAIN FEDERAL TAX LIABILITIES BY INCOME CLASS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2000, as Prepared by the Staff of the JOINT COMMITTEE ON TAXATION. The following table from that publication is interesting. Income Category...................Individual Income Tax ................................................Income......Percent Less than $10,000.......................-5.........-0.6% 10,000 to 20,000........................-7........ -0.8% 20,000 to 30,000........................10..........1.1% 30,000 to 40,000........................30..........3.4% 40,000 to 50,000........................39..........4.4% 50,000 to 75,000.......................114.........12.9% 75,000 to 100,000......................113.........12.8% 100,000 to 200,000.....................213.........24.1% 200,000 and over...................... 377.........42.7% Highest 10%........................... 587.........66.4% Highest 5%.............................478.........54.0% Highest 1%.............................297.........33.6%...

IRON MAN, Batman, Big Angry Green Man — to judge from the new popcorn season it seems as if Hollywood has realized that the best way to deal with its female troubles is to not have any, women, that is. Not that it hasn’t tried to make nice with the leading ladies, in films like “The Invasion” (with Nicole Kidman) and “The Brave One” (Jodie Foster). Yet, after those Warner Brothers titles fizzled, the online chatter was that the studio’s president for production, Jeff Robinov, had vowed it would no longer make movies with female leads. A studio representative denied...

Just finished, watching a Discovery Channel special on the tornado which demolished Greensburg KS in 2007. Pretty much leveled the entire town, right down to the house slabs. The entire last half of the "documentary", turned into yet another leftist moron screed on going "green". What was never mentioned, in the propaganda-laced entire last half of the one-hour show, was whether the new buildings in Greensburg KS, would actually withstand the same wind forces - which destroyed the town to begin with. It wasn't an issue. What appeared to be the issue, was the word "Green", in the name of...

Over the last seven years, the lunatic fringe in control of the Republican Party -- the people who believe in torture but don't believe in evolution -- have hijacked our democracy, aided and abetted by the news media. The heart of the problem is not the bias of Fox News or the blowhards on AM talk radio but a mainstream media that has completely internalized how the right frames all political debate. The right-wing message has become a part of the news media's DNA. The latest confirmation came with this week's announcement that Tony Snow, formerly a host at Fox...

Mitt Romney on Monday told Republican rival Mike Huckabee to quit “whining” after Huckabee accused Romney of trying to suppress turnout on Super Tuesday.

One day after a disappointing second place finish in South Carolina, Mike Huckabee got back in the saddle Sunday to party at the ranch of action movie icon Chuck Norris, and repeated a claim by his campaign chairman that Fred Thompson was his biggest barrier to defeating John McCain in the Palmetto State. Huckabee came a close second to McCain in the seven-man Republican presidential line-up, 33-30 percent. But Thompson took third place with 16 percent, and exit polls showed many of Huckabee’s and Thompson’s supporters shared the same priorities on issues like values, immigration and taxes. “We obviously wanted...

This letter to the editor appeared in the Savannah (Ga.) Morning News. The letter is self-explanatory. After you finish reading this there will be no need for any further commentary:Modified community needs civil rights protections Because of my body modifications, including tattoos and piercings, I consider myself to be a member of the modified community. Due to my modifications, I not only have to deal with the daily routine of turned up noses and annoying questions from those without any body modifications, but I have to fight even harder to get a job than someone without any visible modifications.So this...

...The issue with Coulter is not whether she can sell books, but whether she helps or hurts the side of the political debate she claims to support. In my opinion, Coulter has never been a big help to the effort to build a conservative and Republican majority. Her most recent comments on the relationship of Christianity to Judaism, made on the CNBC show " The Big Idea" with Donnie Deutsch on Monday of this week , may prove particularly damaging... At a time when party affiliation is fraying and a third of Americans consider themselves independent, to build a majority...

Here is Fred Thompson speaking on why he is running for President. He was speaking to the Des Moines Register Editorial Board.

Bush Visits Iraq, Lefties Go Nuts Mon, Sep 3, 2007 at 9:53:46 am PST On his way to Australia for the APEC economic summit, President Bush made a surprise stop-over in Iraq. And the “progressive” bloggers are freaking out, of course. UPDATE at 9/3/07 10:07:47 am: Daily Kos: How dare Dubya smile while in Iraq? newsvine | reddit | del.icio.us | | email this article 296 comments

We are coming up on the two-year mark since the Katrina debacle in Louisiana and Mississippi. I hesitate to call this date an anniversary because the word implies, in some way, a celebration, a birth. What we are scratching on the calendar is more like a notch on a raw gravestone, a count of the days and years that have passed without a reckoning for those who died, those who lost loved ones and for a city that is still in critical condition. Not only did our government fail to answer the call of its most vulnerable citizens during that...

The Supreme Court's decision overturning school desegregation policies in two U.S. cities yesterday culminates a fractious term in which the new Roberts court moved the law significantly to the right, legal analysts said. In a series of 5 to 4 decisions this term, the court also upheld a federal ban on a late-term abortion procedure and gutted a key provision of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Along with yesterday's schools case, each of these decisions left open the possibility of more change in areas of the law on which the court had seemingly ruled definitively within the past decade. "Conservatives...

SLAMABAD, 17 May 2007 — Foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) yesterday expressed grave concern at the rising tide of discrimination and intolerance against Muslims, especially in Europe and North America. “It is something that has assumed xenophobic proportions,” they said in unison. Speaking at a special brainstorming session on the sidelines of the 34th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM), the foreign ministers termed Islamophobia the worst form of terrorism and called for practical steps to counter it.

My goodness, people! Don't you realize that there are things in your life that you really need to be worrying about? What's all this weeping and moaning over gas prices? With every single paycheck the Imperial Federal Government seizes about 14% of the money you have earned. This money is put into an income redistribution fund from which you may or may not draw a check when and if you reach a certain age. Die too soon and that money goes to someone else .. not to your heirs. Live long enough and you may .. just may ... get...

UNITED NATIONS, New York: The United Nations Security Council debated the impact of climate change on conflicts around the world this week, brushing aside objections from developing countries that global warming was not an issue of international peace and security. Britain, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, organized the open session on Tuesday to highlight what its foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, said was the "security imperative" to tackle climate change because it can worsen problems that cause conflicts and can threaten the entire planet. "What makes wars start?" she said. "Fights over water; changing patterns of rainfall;...

Bill Clinton has lashed out against an old ally, the New York Times, saying the paper wasn’t giving his wife Hillary "a fair shake.” At a fund-raiser for Hillary on Tuesday night at the Trump World Tower in Manhattan, the former president spoke for two hours and devoted much of that time to attacking the Times, according to the New York Post. WABC radio host Curtis Sliwa, one of the attendees, told the Post: "He said his wife wasn’t getting a fair shake from the Times. "Clinton said the Times is attacking Hillary because she won’t apologize for her vote...

Fishermen say navy vessels chase their boats, make them swim over naked for interrogation, then bring them back to sea where they have to swim back to their boats. IDF: Boats sailing in forbidden area, suspected of arms smuggling Ali Waked Published: 02.23.07, 04:03 / Israel News Israeli Human Rights group B'Tselem says IDF navy soldiers are arresting Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Gaza, making them swim over to the military's vessels on which they are taken to Ashdod for interrogation. Then, they say, the soldiers return them to middle of sea where they took them from. The IDF...

The “United States is the leading terrorist agency in the world." Such, at any rate, is the view of Julian Kunnie, a professor and a director of Africana Studies program at the University of Arizona. Not only that but, according to Kunnie, America’s "War on Terror" is “racist.” With a doctorate in something called “Systemic Theology and Philosophy” from the Graduate Theological Union at the University of California-Berkeley, Kunnie has become notorious at the University of Arizona for his widely-publicized extremist views. The fires of ground zero were still smoldering when Kunnie condemned America’s response in an article that appeared...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Pilgrims in Mecca expressed outrage on Saturday that Iraqi authorities had chosen to execute former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on a major religious holiday, saying it was an insult to Muslims. Sunni Arabs at the haj were shocked at Saddam's death which followed his conviction for crimes against humanity against Iraqi Shi'ites. Nawaf al-Harbi, a Saudi national speaking outside the Grand Mosque in Mecca, said Saddam's hanging during the Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice, was an insult to Muslims. "I don't want to believe it. Saddam cannot die. Is this the good news...

They are crying voter fraud already. What losers. Talk about defying the will of the American people. This is the sixth time today that I heard the Dhimmicrats say if the Republicans win, it was a stolen election. Sheesh. They cling to voter fraud like the Palis cling to occupation (stole that metaphor from Dan G.) Insane? You damn right considering all the voter fraud recently uncovered was Democrat voter fraud.

DEMOCRATS SEND CEASE-AND-DESIST LETTER TO REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE OVER AUTOMATED PHONE CALLS TO VOTERS

It's a pretty lurid conversation including, I kid you not, Playboy magazine, "when did you first know you were "different", "I thought it must be because I was circumcised", "as I go around the country see young homosexual people in excruciating pain", etc, etc.

"Arabs get preferential treatment" said Hanoch Weber, whose article was posted on the Hebrew Ynet site . His arguments are clearly a combination of his frustration over what he considers the erosion of the State's Jewish symbols, coupled with his own personal opinions and attitudes towards the Arab minority. He chose to hinge his arguments on a limited number of incidences that were taken out of context - their use is both erroneous and misleading. He has a blind and distorted view of the crushing of Israeli Arab citizens' rights in all walks of life. The State of Israel is...

KOLBE COMMENTS ON AZ 08 PRIMARY (Washington, DC) -- Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) released the following statement in response to Randy Graf's win in the Republican primary for the eighth Congressional district of Arizona: "I congratulate Mr. Graf on his victory in the Republican primary. However, there are such profound and fundamental differences between his views and mine on several key issues that I would not be true to my own principles were I to endorse him now for the General election in November."

NEW YORK -- I hear Osama bin Laden laughing. I heard him all day on Sunday and Monday as the mass murder of Sept. 11, 2001, was memorialized at the Pentagon and in that field in Pennsylvania and especially here, where the most people died and where countless cameras recorded it all for posterity and an abiding, everlasting anger. He laughs, the madman does, whenever George Bush says, as he has over and over, that America is "winning this war on terror." Bin Laden knows better. He has already won.

Less than 72 hours before ABC's "The Path to 9/11" is scheduled to air, the network is suddenly under siege. On Tuesday, ABC was forced to concede that "The Path to 9/11" is "a dramatization, not a documentary." The film deceptively invents scenes to depict former President Bill Clinton's handling of the Al Qaeda threat. Now, ABC claims to be is editing those false sequences to satisfy critics so the show can go on -- even if it still remains a gross distortion of history. And as it does so, ABC advances the illusion that the deceptive nature of "The...

If your favorite uncles dropped in from out of town for a rare visit, you'd probably be surprised if the mood turned somber and they started lecturing you. You'd be downright shocked to find yourself enthralled with the strange turn the evening had taken. That's probably how most people felt in the packed house at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young raged on for three hours Sunday night. The granddaddy of rock's "supergroups," touring for the third time as a quartet since Neil Young rejoined in 2000 after a 26-year absence, wore its...