Free Republic

I'm writing to address a problem of increasing scope -- duplicate threads. Let me be clear: I'm not talking about the rare threads that are blessed by management, and are duplicated because of their critical importance. I'm talking about the everyday duplication of the same story over and over again. There are several reasons I see for us getting duplicate threads: people thinking they get special credit for being "first to post", so multiple people post a breaking story. people who are too lazy to search People who think they are too important to search. bloggers who think that if...

Denial, arrogance and self-pity are ingredi ents for a pretty toxic cocktail. And yet it seems that the occupants of the White House bunker, shell-shocked by Scott Brown, are coping by mixing all three with a little Kool-Aid. In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, President Obama offered his nuanced analysis of the Bay State Gotterdammerung and his first year in office. In short: I did nothing wrong. Well, with one caveat: "One thing I regret this year is that we were so busy just getting stuff done . . . that I think we lost some of that sense...

Unfair? Why? Do they have something to hide? "Saudi US Students Fear 'Unfair' Enhanced Security," by Hadi Faqihi and Mina Al-Oraibi for Asharq Al-Awsat, January 10. "There is deep concern among Saudi students with scholarships to study in the United States, following the introduction of enhanced security search measures affecting passengers from 14 states, including Saudi Arabia. These measures have been taken against the backdrop of the attempt by a Nigerian extremist to blow up an American airliner on 25 December 2009. The fear of these students is all the more acute as they have returned home to spend the...

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...