Free Republic

Free Republic's first big event occurred on this day in 1998 in response to malfeasance in the Clinton Administration. Happy Anniversary! However, it is 15 years later and apparent that we are circling the drain. That said, it was a great time in D.C. low those many years ago.

Ignore, for a moment, the pea soup. Forget the head swivel, the crucifix, those 75 stone steps that tumble from Prospect to M Street. Forget that demonic voice and what your mother may or may not be doing in Hell. The creator of the scariest movie of all time would like very much if you’d remember that he wrote the Peter Sellers caper “A Shot in the Dark,” that his early collaborator in Hollywood was the comedy director Blake Edwards, that an esteemed book critic once wrote that “Nobody can write funnier lines than William Peter Blatty.” This career in...

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the release of “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.” Critics frequently laud the Nintendo 64 title as the greatest video game ever. And yet the ways it deals with class, race, gender and animal rights are all deeply problematic. Some readers may take criticism of “Ocarina” as dismissal of the game. But this isn’t the case. As Feminist Frequency blogger Anita Sarkeesian says, “Remember that it’s both possible and even necessary to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects.” Because games’ technological capabilities have increased...

On September 26, 1983, the world came very close to nuclear war. Shortly after midnight, alarms inside Serpukhov-15 -- a bunker in Moscow where the Soviet Union monitored its satellites over the United States -- began to go off. The satellites had detected the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a base in the United States. Then the system reported that five missiles had been launched and were heading toward the Soviet Union from the U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, who was on duty that night, had no way of knowing that it was a false alarm: The satellites...

NEW YORK – Was the JFK assassination a revenge killing masterminded by CIA Director Allen Dulles? The provocative question is raised by WND’s Jerome Corsi in his new book “Who Really Killed Kennedy,” published by WND Books. Corsi’s extensive research shows JFK may have signed his death warrant the day he fired Dulles, accusing his spy chief of lying and manipulating him in the Bay of Pigs fiasco. “Who Really Killed Kennedy,” released this week as the 50th anniversary of the assassination approaches, is bolstered by recently declassified documents. Corsi sorted through the mountain of evidence, including tens of thousands...

Beginning early on the morning of this day in 1862, Confederate and Union troops in the Civil War clash near Maryland's Antietam Creek in the bloodiest one-day battle in American history. The Battle of Antietam marked the culmination of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the Northern states. Guiding his Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River in early September 1862, the great general daringly divided his men, sending half of them, under the command of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, to capture the Union garrison at Harper's Ferry. President Abraham Lincoln put Major General George B. McClellan...

10 September 1998 I became the virtual man I have become (ie jobim). That was an eventful year - Paula Jones, Monica, Ken Starr report, impeachment - but more importantly, it was the crescendo of scandals that revealed the flaw that even the towering genius of the Founding Fathers could not circumvent in crafting our blessed Constitution. That flaw was, and oh so woefully is, bad men with their hands on the reins. George Will said that Clinton was not necessarily the worst president, but the worst man ever to be president. But we can wax nostalgic about those days...

Twenty years ago tonight, I sat down on the couch in my little apartment in Ogden, KS, and flipped on the TV to watch the debut of a new show. The promotion blitz for the show had been dark and mysterious, and apart from some vague references to UFOs and the FBI, gave little idea as to what the show was actually going to be about. It had piqued my interest, as it was no doubt intended to do, and I figured with much of my life still ahead of me, I could spare an hour to check it...

This was on my parent's anniversary, right after my dad gave my mom a new wedding ring!! Made her cry!

While over 100,000 people were expected to show up at today’s ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, late estimates put the crowd numbers at 20,000. Mike Levine of ABC News reported at 2:10 p.m. ET that unofficial crowd estimates from law enforcement sources put the number at “over 20,000.”

Tens of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall Saturday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington, listening as political and civil rights leaders reflected on the legacy of racial progress over the last half-century and urged Americans to press forward in pursuit of King's dream of equality. The event, which was sponsored by the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, Martin Luther King III and the NAACP, featured a roster of speakers, including King, Sharpton, Attorney General Eric Holder, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. They spoke...

... Obama said on Friday that America's history of racial discrimination had contributed to a persistent economic gap between blacks and whites in the 50 years since Martin Luther King's landmark "I have a dream" speech.

US President Barack Obama will mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech by speaking from the same steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The August 28 event in the US capital will take place on the exact spot where King delivered his famous address on the same day in 1963.

August 6, 2013 marks the 68th anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb, and August 9th the last. Japan did not surrender for five days after Nagasaki was bombed, during which time the Soviet Union declared war and the Americans conducted additional, conventional firebombing raids on a Japanese city. Emperor Hirohito was asked to break a deadlock in the imperial cabinet that had blocked an unconditional surrender up to that point. To this day, Harry Truman is viewed by ardent critics as a war criminal and the United States is deemed as being stained by a sin as...

Ninety years ago today, on August 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding died at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California. It was sudden, shocking, and has been fodder for conspiracy theorists ever since. His wife, Florence—described derisively by some as “The Duchess”—didn’t allow an autopsy, so we’ll never know exactly what caused the demise of the 29th President of the United States. It might have been congestive heart failure, or food poisoning, or even something more sinister. Seen in retrospect, through the prism of the scandals associated with his White House tenure, Harding is usually ranked well toward the...

Ninety years ago today, on August 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding died at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California. It was sudden, shocking, and has been fodder for conspiracy theorists ever since. His wife, Florence—described derisively by some as “The Duchess”—didn’t allow an autopsy, so we’ll never know exactly what caused the demise of the 29th President of the United States. It might have been congestive heart failure, or food poisoning, or even something more sinister. Seen in retrospect, through the prism of the scandals associated with his White House tenure, Harding is usually ranked well toward the...

Not more than a few days after I bought my first computer I was wandering the net, lost and alone, in a sea of liberal crap. Fate brought me to an island of sanity and they ain't been able to get rid of me yet!

Due to the initiative of Coalition Chairman Yariv Levin the Knesset will mark Gush Katif Day every year starting Tuesday, "To always remember to never repeat the mistake of the Disengagement, and to keep in mind the fact that we must take responsibility for the many families still waiting to be resettled in permanent housing...

The armies are already beginning to arrive, days ahead of the big battle. Tucked away in the rolling Adams County countryside are rows of billowy white tents. Men in blue and in gray march with shouldered muskets. Officers on horseback ride by with sabers jingling at their sides. One hundred and fifty years after the bloodiest clash ever fought on the continent, Union and Confederate forces are again gathering like storm clouds around tiny Gettysburg, this time for a bloodless re-creation of the epic battle fought there.

A highlight of the reunion was the Confederate Veterans walk on the path of Gen. George Pickett’s charge that was greeted, this time, by a handshake from the Union Veterans.