Free Republic

If you really want to understand the horrors of war, don’t just read accounts written years after a battle, but instead read first-hand accounts by soldiers who were on the front lines. Similarly, to understand what has happened in the hostile takeover of American college English departments, it’s best to read a description by a professor who fought to preserve them as places where students are taught to write well by studying books by great authors. Fought and lost. His story is at once enlightening and depressing. The book at hand is Broken English Departments: The Repair Manual by Reynolds...

Kamala Harris’s book tour continues to generate interesting soundbites, with the former vice president blasting President Donald Trump’s administration, saying “These motha****kas are crazy!” during one recent appearance. Harris shared her assessment while speaking at the “Day of Unreasonable Conversation” summit in Los Angeles on Monday. The ex-VP told the crowd at The Getty Center: VIDEO AT LINK............... We are living history right now, and you all storytellers are living this. You’re not passive observers, you know that. You’re living it, and I would ask you that all the emotions that we are feeling — give those emotions, give that...

I am reading it now and I want to watch out for major themes, that might be false there. I already recognize it employs that literary trick of starting to explain something in a too positive way and then revealing the harsh reality in order to draw in sceptical readers. I have noticed small mistakes, but I can live with them. Is there anything you know, that is majorly wrong with it? Thank you!

I talk a lot about the Founding Fathers but you should not think that this means I forgot about our Founding Mothers. In the early 1900s, an effort was made to catalog early prominent women in the U.S. and the British Colonies. The result of that effort is a three-volume set, "The Pioneer Mothers of America". Here we have the release of the first volume, which covers the years prior to the 1700s and some of the early 1700s. The second volume contains the bulk of our Founding Mothers and many of the Wives of the Signers, however this book...

They want to justify killing you. No really, it's as simple as that. Yes, that is mega-successful horror author Stephen King saying that Charlie Kirk "advocated stoning gays to death" as justification for his murder. His post was so outrageous that sitting members of Congress called publicly for a lawsuit over the statement. What King did is frame an ideological opponent as the most extreme example of a straw man. Either unknowingly or purposely, he lied about who Kirk is in order to better justify the shedding of blood. If this was not the case, then woke men like Stephen...

While in college back in the mid-1970s, I wrote a short story on AI. I give a little background on the early mini-computers I operated with a photo of the Honeywell H200 I took. I don't have the original short story anymore but I wrote a pretty good summary highligting the major theme. Essentially, a computer operator was given the opportunity to train a computer as it discovers the world and asks questions.

Most Americans firmly believe that educational institutions should be places where all ideas can be discussed and no one need fear reprisal for saying the wrong thing or pursuing the wrong research topic. That ideal, however, is not embraced by all people. There are powerful forces, here and abroad, that want to dominate education in order to advance their goals. They have no qualms about telling students what they must believe or telling faculty members not to research certain topics. Of course, the leaders of our colleges and universities would never cooperate with those authoritarian forces—or would they? In her...

The following post contains discussion of alleged sexual assault, stalking, and predatory behavior. Most links are to conversations on Threads, some of which contain victim blaming and defense of assault. Please exercise caution and look after yourself before clicking links. … The con drama has been nonstop this year, as people try to launch weekend events and one, two, or nineteen things go wrong. The latest: Sinners & Stardust. Sinners & Stardust is a weekend event that hosts an author signing and a Dark Romance Ball to celebrate the readers and authors of dark romance. At the ball, apparently many,...

...The following passage contains text from the book, published in 1910, Betrayed Armenia, by Armenian writer and diplomat Diana Agabeg Apgar: “The genealogy in Genesis runs thus : "The sons of Japheth, Gomer and Magog and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meschech, and Tiras...Only the names of the three sons of Gomer, and the four sons of Javan are given in Genesis, and by these we are told were the isles of the Gentiles divided. So much for Genesis. Later history records that these Gentiles spread themselves over part of that stretch of terra firma which now goes by...

My startling chat with Grok Grok tries to serve Elon Musk, the aggressive censors at X, and me X deleted several of my posts with no explanation. Instead of complaining to X, I contacted Grok and asked why my posts were being vaporized. We communicated for 45 minutes, which resulted in more than 25 pages of single-space copy! People wonder what AI is all about. I can report that Grok does everything super-fast. He (she if you prefer) does not make grammatical or spelling mistakes. Like me, he loves alliteration. Whatever you say, he weaves that into his conversation so...

This is a work in progress for a trilogy that is 60% written. I would very much value any questions, feedback, or criticism as I craft it! ---------------------------------- Prologue A light breeze brought Rhora awake. She was lying in her bed in rich chambers in what used to be Pernil Manor, with a window cracked open to provide fresh, cool air. As she lay there, another breeze, sweet with the aroma of spring, wafted inside. “Rhora.” It was only the slightest whisper on the wind, so faint that she thought she imagined it. “Rhora,” a woman’s whisper repeated. Her eyes...

The Count of Monte Cristo

I'm proud to mention that I’m a columnist with Renew America. The editors suggested I provide a review of my new novel. The problem with reviews, good, bad, long, short, is that each is one person's opinion. Surely I can be more helpful. Here are the first six reviews: ——————————————————————- “I LOVED IT. It's interesting and fast-paced." —Laurie Endicott Thomas, author of "Not Trivial: How Studying The Traditional Liberal Arts Can Set You Free” —————————————————————— "A riveting sci-fi thriller that delves into artificial intelligence, government surveillance, and the nature of free will. At the heart of the novel is Carlos,...

After enjoying many decades of high public support, higher education in the U.S. is in serious decline. Polls show that a sizeable percentage of the populace now doubts that college is worth the cost and that it contributes to the public good. Enrollments keep falling, and the luster that a college degree used to confer on graduates has become tarnished, especially since recent events indicate that, instead of helping them mature, college turns them into ideologically obsessed activists. What has gone wrong? In his latest book, Let Colleges Fail, economics professor Richard Vedder employs his insights to answer that question....

I recently came across an alarming 2014 article on academic freedom in the Harvard Crimson. “Let’s give up on academic freedom in favor of justice” was the subtitle. The author was an obviously very bright female student. Academic freedom exists to allow a university to be unimpeded in its search for truth. It has been known since the 18th-century philosopher David Hume, if not before, that justice depends on first getting the facts right. A just conviction depends on true evidence. Academic freedom is necessary to achieve real justice. But not according to then-Harvard student Sandra Korn, whose first target...

84 years ago today, Bob Dylan was born. At his Nobel Prize winning best, from 1961 to 1966, he challenged us to rethink everything with everything he wrote. Donald Trump, born about 5 years after Dylan, in 1946, looks to me like he is just entering into a period of his Dylanesque best. Trump forces us to revealuate this modern world all the time. Bob Dylan mastered and elevated American music twice to great literature in a few short years, first as a folkie but then as a great rock n roller. Potus 45 surprised everyone to come down a...

Sorry, I have time on my hands, and I don’t trust ANYBODY in politics except Scott Adams and he’s not long for the world 🥺😥😱

mysterious Lord: the silent hidden God mercy and refuge lodge inside the shadows of His wings My friend, anglo-catholic Anglican bishop David Farrer, describes George Pell’s prison journals as “remarkably uplifting” and said he is grateful for the way they help us to pray. Above is a prayer which I have shaped today from words of the Cardinal about mass in the May 20, 2019 entry to the journal and from the words of Psalm 57 which he quotes in that entry. Lest We Forget: Cardinal George Pell, a truly great man of God, thrown to the lions by a...

For people like me, the Australia I was born into, was a meritocracy where one wage could get a family a home. Times have changed. The forty hour week is gone for far too many people. But endeavour still inspires me. Youth brings me hope. As in my above poeticised image from a Maribyrnong Park Football Club match last Saturday. Today we need them to be lions. Reminds me of Shakespeare: “To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms...

Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, “If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,— One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country-folk to be up...