Free Republic

Definitions of Words and Idioms that Mean Something Else in Illinois; posted as a public service for the consumers of news... City Council: A rectangular block of rubber, affixed to a rounded wooden handle. Ordinarily used in conjunction with an ink pad. (Alternate definition: a justification for tax increases). City Jobs: Political jobs. (Alternate definition: Bitter people who thought they were getting one of those cool ghost-payrolling jobs, but were surprised to find that they didn't). Collective Bargaining: The union boss talks; you listen. There’s nothing collective about it, and there’s no bargaining either. (Alternate definition: a justification for tax...

Liz Phillips, Brooklyn principal: I have never seen a worse ELA exam. Other principals agree. See below comment from Liz Phillips, principal of PS 321 in Brooklyn, who was scathing about the 2012 exam as well, but says this one was as bad or worse. One would think with all the controversy and parents opting out, NYSED and Pearson would be careful to construct a better set of exams. But perhaps they are simply incapable of doing so. PS 321 PARENTS--Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders have just completed three days of the New York State English Language Arts Exam....

When I list these I can track downloads on Amazon. As soon as the FR listing disappears the downloads stop so I relist it and they start again. http://amzn.to/1dSYZ7h “Havelock’s Inheritance.” Havelock is on a voyage of discovery involving fraud, deceit, two crime families and enough dead bodies to start his own morgue. http://amzn.to/1fR47nx “A Plague of Dragons.” Something is trying to kill Kyle Fortune and when it does, an ancient menace will return to enslave and devastate the world. Please write something kind in the ratings section. (I thank you.)

http://amzn.to/1dSYZ7h “Havelock’s Inheritance.” Havelock is on a voyage of discovery involving fraud, deceit, two crime families and enough dead bodies to start his own morgue. http://amzn.to/1fR47nx “A Plague of Dragons.” Something is trying to kill Kyle Fortune and when it does, an ancient menace will return to enslave and devastate the world.

The first chapter is available to read there if any are interested!

The loss of Doctor Richter's suggested reading list that saved my life was tragic, a fact that I am constantly being reminded of. Some books -- Whittaker Chamber's Witness, for example, or Orwell's Homage to Catalonia -- were unforgettable. Others, especially those that I could not locate at the time, never got read, so I had no memory at all in order to reconstruct. I did have a wisp of a memory about a book that had, I thought, the words "rebel colonel" in the title, but was marked down in Richter's precise handwriting as "American political economy." Imagine...

Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit (1855-1857) CHAPTER 10. Containing the whole Science of Government Mr Arthur Clennam, scion of a merchant family, seeks to intervene with the Government to assist William Dorrit, held in Marshalsea prison for debt for more than twenty-five years.   Mr Meagles is a successful banker, retired, with whose family Mr Clennam shared confinement in quarantine for some weeks at Marseilles.   Daniel Doyce is a successful inventor but unsuccessful as a patent applicant for more than twelve years. The Circumlocution Office was (as everybody knows without being told) the most important Department under Government. No public...

Desperate to keep his job at defense contractor Prospero Industries, Havelock must locate their mysterious top salesman, Nick Necropolis, and report the status of a planned $30 million cash deal. But Nick is dead. Now, to keep his job Havelock must hide the corpse and complete the deal. But Nick’s body keeps getting moved to where it will be found…then, Havelock is threatened. The Israelis will kill him if the deal goes through and the Syrians will kill him if it doesn’t. As if matters couldn’t be worse…Havelock discovers what it is he’s selling. Humor. Action/adventure.

On Friday 14, 2014 “Havelock’s Corpse,” by Bern Pearson on Amazon.com will be .99 cents. Desperate to keep his job at defense contractor Prospero Industries, Havelock must locate their mysterious top salesman, Nick Necropolis, and find out the status of a planned $30 million cash deal. But Nick is dead. Now, to keep his job Havelock must hide the corpse and complete the deal. But Nick’s body keeps getting moved to where it will be found…then, Havelock is threatened. The Israelis will kill him if the deal goes through and the Syrians will kill him if it doesn’t. As if...

As a conservative, I have often bemoaned movies, tv shows, and musical acts that relentlessly push a progressive liberal agenda that is anathema to the American character. I know many others look at the entertainment industry and education and throw their hands up in despair or, even worse, meekly accept the garbage being spewed. Too often we are willing to turn the other cheek in the ongoing culture war, and I think that's a colossal mistake. I agree with the late Andrew Breitbart that we need to engage in the culture war as it impacts every facet of our lives...

Freepers wanting to use this list to announce their latest book or a book giveaway, etc. Freepmail me. You got on this list by being intemperate enough to let me know you downloaded one of my novels. If you want off, mail me. If you want on, likewise. BTW, I’m new at this so your suggestions (other than the one about what I should do with my head) are appreciated.

Looking to buy a book or books that accurately and honestly cover the life of George Washington. Something I can find on Amazon. Any comments why you liked the book would be appreciated. Thanks

Dispatches How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations A page from a GCHQ top secret document prepared by its secretive JTRIG unit "One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents. Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously...

RUSH: Salon.com. This is a huge piece here. This prints out to six pages. "Why You're Wrong About Communism: 7 Huge Misconceptions About It (and Capitalism) -- Most of what Americans think they know about capitalism and communism is total nonsense," and as I read through this... I'm not gonna read the whole thing to you, but we will link to it at RushLimbaugh.com. As you read through this, if you take the time to do it, this could very easily be the kind of gobbledygook that's being taught in college. "As the commentary around the recent deaths of Nelson...

This is a shameless vanity. As this is the last day of February, I would like to offer my freshly published ebook for free to my fellow members of the forum. Please go to:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/413324 and use this download code to receive the book for FREE!: ZV87U The code is good until March 27. The story, while suitable for all humans, was written for children between the ages of 8-14. It is not political, or agenda driven story. Unless, one considers wholesomeness an agenda. All that is asked is that if you download the book and read it and like the...

President’s Day: University textbook claims Reagan was sexist, Conservatives view people as incapable of ‘charity,’ ‘lazy’ February 16, 2014 by Charlie Kirk University of South Carolina textbook has one student whistleblower outraged over its accusations that President Ronald Reagan was sexist and conservatives view people as incapable of “charity” and “lazy.” The textbook, obtained by Turning Points USA Founder Charlie Kirk, was authored by Karen K. Kirst-Ashman and used for the three credit course “Introduction to Social Work Profession and Social Welfare.”

Have a look!

via OUR LIBRARY CAVED IN :: Reader comments at Daniel Pipes. h/t Atlas Shrugs who writes, “Remember this is Boston, as in the Boston Marathon bombing.” Submitted by Anne (United States), Feb 10, 2014 at 14:00 I work at a university library in Boston, Mass., and books are shelved according to the Dewey Decimal System, not by title or “importance”. Muslim students (most of them from abroad) told administrators that they were offended because the Koran wasn’t given a place of honor on a top shelf, as dictated by Islamic law and custom. Library staff were then ordered to shift...

Hillary Clinton refused to allow her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to alter her 2008 Democratic Convention speech with his own "poetic flourishes," according to a new book on the former secretary of State. The anecdote – described in the soon-to-be-released "HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton" – marks rare friction between the power couple amid the burgeoning debate over how the former president would influence his wife's candidacy if she were to seek the White House in 2016. "While she had been on the mock stage at the convention center, Bill had delivered edits. He had...

Ol' Backwoods just finished a book that I have been avoiding since my teen years, a book, I supposed, so utterly despondent in its outlook, so stolid in its prediction of failure of civilization, that it would cast its pall of darkness over me, without recovery. But I was wrong. Earth Abides (Amazon) Earth Abides by George R. Stewart is one of the most important, one of the more comforting, and one of the more hopeful books I have ever read. Surprised?  Yeah, so am I.  What could an atheist Berkeley professor write that should impress a backwoods Christian engineer...