Free Republic

Saturday, April 18, 2009 there will be a Tea Party and Pork Roast at Wooten Park in Tavares, Florida from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. A can of food is required for entry and the food will be donated to the Salvation Army. Free pork for everyone.

Two columns last week about the staggering amount of bond debt in The Villages and an IRS investigation into whether those bonds should be tax-free prompted a rare response from folks who live in the mega-community of retirees: They listened. This is not to say that Villagers typically are not thoughtful, open-minded people. But in the past, many folks have rushed to attack anyone who expressed an opinion the least bit critical of their development. Slowly, they are coming to realize that The Villages is not a free fantasyland created by developer Gary Morse just to please them personally.

Racism may contribute to some black women's developing hypertension at a higher rate than others, according to a national study looking at black women's health over an extended period of time. Nearly 43,000 women tracked over a four-year period reported experiencing racism, according to the study. But researchers found that foreign-born black women were more than twice as likely to experience racism compared with others they tracked using a questionnaire. Among that group, the researchers found 2,316 new hypertension cases.

BLAZING TRIBUTE By MARK BULLIET and ANDY GELLER The silhouette of Nicole duFresne burned brightly last night on the Lower East Side corner where her shooting star of a life was snuffed out by a gunman's bullet. With drums, candles, incense and heavy hearts, some 200 friends said goodbye to the 28-year-old actress at a unique and poignant memorial service. It began with mourners marching to the corner of Clinton and Rivington streets, where duFresne was shot in the chest during a mugging at 3 a.m. Jan. 27. Four men twirled balls burning on the ends of chains during the...

THE scraping sound you hear next month will be Hollywood's anti-Americanism hitting bottom with the CBS movie "Hitler: The Rise of Evil." Executive producer Ed Gernon says he sees the miniseries - starring Robert Carlyle, Peter O'Toole and Julianna Margulies - about Germany falling under Hitler's rule as a cautionary tale for, you guessed it, the American people during the Bush administration. Gernon tells the upcoming TV Guide that he, Margulies and director Christian Duguay believe it's a good idea to look at the Bush White House through the prism of the Germany's genocidal psychopath. A fearful American public's cooperation...