Free Republic

War Before Civilization; The Myth of the Peaceful Savage by Lawrence H. Keeley, 1996, Oxford University Press, paperback edition, 1997, 245 pages. War Before Civilization is one of those works that cause observers of the human condition to have an "Aha!" moment. I first read the book over a decade ago. I have recommended it to many, including my friend, Curtis Eykamp of Medway, Quirindi NSW, Australia. He ordered a copy, and while I was helping take care of his 100 year old father, Roy, I had the happy occasion to entertain Roy by reading to him. War Before...

The role-playing adventure books sold 20m copies in the 80s, before being eclipsed by video games. Now they’re back with a new story by Charlie Higson, can they captivate the web generation?

It will come as no surprise that this year Hillsdale College has chosen to commemorate the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Douglass. Born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland, Douglass fled north to freedom in 1838. Eventually, he became a celebrated orator, and a leading figure in the abolition movement. Douglass also became a friend of Hillsdale College. He was twice an honored guest of the college. His first visit took place in January 1863, a few weeks after the final issuance of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. On that occasion, Douglass delivered an address entitled “Popular Error and Unpopular Truth.”...

We're all expecting and anticipating Hillary's descent into madness. Given that, I'm thinking a tie-in to Lady Macbeth might be appropriate. No time soon, perhaps. Months, years? Yet madness will overtake her I think. With apologies to William Shakespeare... At the beginning of Act 5 of Bubba Macbeth, Lady Hillary, who has apparently dropped out of the story is brought back upon the stage that we may see how she too pays the penalty of her crimes. The strong will that enabled her to defy her woman's nature has broken down utterly; left alone in her castle while Bubba is...

You’ve surely gotten the memo by now. As a fan of The Twilight Zone, you’re supposed to be head over heels for Black Mirror. I wish I could join the chorus. I don’t mean the show is without merit. It’s well-produced, acted and directed. It has some intriguing storylines. But it’s no Twilight Zone for the 21st century. Sure, it’s an anthology with fantasy/sci-fi touches. But it’s also incredibly pessimistic...Yes, TZ had its share of downbeat endings (hello, Henry Bemis). And it’s true that Serling didn’t shrink from showing us the dark side of human nature (“The Shelter” and “The...

Ava DuVernay, a black activist who directed a whole movie arguing that mass incarceration (a multi-racial problem) is a continuation of race-based slavery, suggested that racism explains why her latest movie, "A Wrinkle in Time," got bad reviews. DuVernay gave a back-handed compliment to Vulture's Kyle Buchanan, who wrote about the "subtle, resonant" theme of the black main character's insecurity about her hair. "You were the only Caucasian journalist of any gender to see it, understand it and seriously ask me about it. Appreciate the chat, the sensitivity and the writing," the director tweeted. snip) Hair is indeed a sensitive...

By Philip Cottraux In George Orwell’s 1984, all freedom is a thing of the past and the world is run by an authoritarian government known as Big Brother. People live under misery and oppression, every move they make being watched carefully by the sinister party, INGSOC. Every room of every home is equipped with a telescreen that monitor’s one’s every move, the slogan “Big Brother Is Watching You” playing over and over again. Even showing a facial expression of slight disinterest over one of the Party’s big announcements can cause one to be arrested for suspicion of “thought crimes.” Our...

For years men have waged war and, of course, sex is not a novel concept or construct. Lysistrata portrays women in a powerful role, namely in control of their sex and sex in general. They have authority over the men. When the absurdities of war have taken their men away, the women use sex as a weapon in order to obtain peace. By withholding sex, women come to essentially control their men. The men eventually succumb to the women and yield in their determination to carry out a war. This is interesting because in Ancient Greek tradition, the women are...

Intriquing story of AA Milne, Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh.

"Heroes are not to be criticized..." The official Soviet narrative of the Second World War used the concept of heroism to imbue war commemoration with an obligation towards the State. Such a concept was designed to make subsequent generations feel inferior to their predecessors and obliged to give of their best. Today, the victory serves as the strongest connection between Soviet and modern Russian patriotism. The paper argues that the memory of the Siege of Leningrad (1941-1944) as treated in museums in St Petersburg today is an appropriation by present-day Russian propaganda of the Soviet narrative. Soviet memorial sites are...

The audio version of my book, GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones, was just released.

It isn't the emperor who has no clothes, it's Wolfman Hack Michael Wolff who has none Gossip monger supremo Michael Wolff is convinced that “the story” he told in his book ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House’ is the one that will take down President Donald Trump. Welcome to the promise of Wolfman Hack, the assassin sent by the Democrats to shut up the most outspoken president in all of U.S. history. “In an interview with BBC Radio on Saturday, Michael Wolff, the author of the dubiously sourced gossip book targeting President Trump, boasted to host Nick Robinson...

Fire and Fury: When you’re trying to pass off outrageous claims in a book planned to make you rich, make sure you get David Axelrod to “astroturf” it before it’s ready to launch. The formula is as surefire as it is simple. Write all the rot you can possibly think of while holed up in the White House West Wing; make claims you have videos to back it up, then get former Obama advisor David Axelrod to astroturf it as legit.

The first tell-all of the Trump presidency is out -- but it's not by a former Trump aide. Instead, it's by Michael Wolff, the controversial media columnist who embedded himself inside the White House during the chaotic early months of the Trump administration. Wolff's book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" will be released next Tuesday, but some copies have already reached booksellers. That's how The Guardian newspaper says it snagged an advance copy -- by buying it from a bookstore somewhere in New England. The Guardian posted a story with some of the highlights on Wednesday morning,...

Donald Trump was "befuddled" by his election win, did not enjoy his inauguration and was scared of the White House, according to a new book. Journalist Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House also purports to lift the lid on Ivanka Trump's secret presidential ambitions. The book details Mr Trump's regard for media titan Rupert Murdoch, though the admiration was apparently not mutual. Michael Wolff's book was reportedly based on more than 200 interviews. But White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the book was filled with "false and misleading accounts". The author says he was able...

Osaka University’s Kazue Muta alleges that the princes in Snow White and Sleeping Beauty were guilty of sexual assault. “Stories about kissing a comatose person without her permission promote sexual violence,” Muta said. “This is the wrong message for children to hear. These men had no right to force themselves on these women. A better lesson would be a story where these men respect the women’s right to be left alone.” The University of California San Diego is weighing whether to impose disciplinary sanctions on Gregory Lu, a student who who put up posters of Kate Steinle (the young woman...

“Felicem Natalen Christi!” “Christus Rex” My friend Kathie in Indialantic, Florida, who wrote me that she would be at Midnight Christmas Mass tonight and as usual would be in tears when the priest carries the figure of the Christ Child up the church aisle to place in the Nativity Scene manger, can expect to find me standing there with her, if only in spirit. This Christmas is a special one for Kathie as only weeks ago, she was taken seriously ill from toxins left by kidney stones.

Conservatives tend to regard the growing trend of single-parent families as an issue of personal responsibility, but what if the liberals who blame society are partly right? What if they can point their finger to a bill sponsored by two Republicans and signed into law by a Republican president? Prior to the 1930s, the labor force participation rate for black Americans was roughly equal to that of whites. Following passage of the first federal minimum wage in 1931, these rates started to diverge, and from the 1950s to the present, national black unemployment has remained at double the rate for...

A federal court in New York City has dismissed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump that alleged his failure to divest from the Trump business empire violated anti-corruption provisions of the Constitution. U.S. District Judge George Daniels, a Clinton administration appointee, ruled Thursday that the case could not proceed because the plaintiffs could not prove that Trump’s actions tangibly harmed their businesses. The lawsuit was brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an anti-Trump watchdog group formerly led by Clinton ally David Brock. A number of accomplished lawyers and legal scholars participated in the effort, including Professor...

Not everyone who feuds with Donald Trump loses his job or reputation. But enough do that no prudent person would risk the humiliation. John Skipper, skipper of ESPN, was not prudent. He did not fire Jemele Hill after she called Trump a white supremacist. Skipper fired Curt Schilling after he called Obama Hitler. But not Hill.