Free Republic

Chuck Thacker is something of a hero in the world of technology yet outside of it, he remains a virtual unknown. Show people a photo of say Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and I bet quite a few people on the street will know who they are. Certainly they will have heard of them and probably have one or more of their products but Chuck Thacker is a different kettle of fish. And that's a shame given the influence he has had on so much of our lives. In short, Chuck is the man who essentially gave us the...

RUSH LIMBAUGH: A BOMBASTIC BLOWHARD, BUT OUR BOMBASTIC BLOWHARD! I’ve been listening to Rush, off and on, for some 22 years or so, ever since my bride told me that some guy had been on Sixty Minutes and he said the things I had been saying for years. So, of course, I sent for the transcript to find out who this alter ego of mine was all about. I discovered the bride was right. I don’t listen for all 3 hours of his syndicated broadcast; some days I don’t listen at all and on others I catch him for just...

Any P2P experts/insiders on the FR forums here? I've been trying for several months to catch an "open registration" period at Demonoid, but it's always closed. The Demonoid FAQ says it's open for a couple of days each month, usually the first day or two of the month, but that wasn't true this month -- or last month -- unless it's only for an hour or so each time. No matter when or how often I check in, the registration is always closed. Any inside info on when the registrations are likely to be open? I'd ask if any of...

Peggy sent me this. Emily Nordling has never met a Muslim, at least not to her knowledge. But this spring, Ms. Nordling, a 19-year-old student from Fort Thomas, Ky., gave herself a new middle name on Facebook.com, mimicking her boyfriend and shocking her father. “Emily Hussein Nordling,” her entry now reads. "I mean, like, isn't that, you know, like, just you know like the coolest thing like in the world?" Or sumpin' like that. With her decision, she joined a growing band of supporters of Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who are expressing solidarity with him by...

... The Democratic Party recently concluded a primary season where over 36 million individuals cast their votes for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. The Democrats look at this huge turnout as a sure sign of victory at the polls in just a few short months. The dominant media has chimed in regarding the fact presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has seemed to energize voters like never before in our nation's past. If one watches the mainstream press carefully, there seems to be an air of certainty surrounding an Obama victory and an eventual January 2009 inauguration. However, what...

Most purists would agree the standards applied to the field of journalism have declined during recent years. From tawdry periodicals to the proliferation of the Internet, the art of the written word has been spread thin. At one time, there were hard and fast rules adhered to by reporters, columnists and authors which gave the practice of journalism continuity. Today, as in other professional and artistic forms, rules no longer seem to matter and with this new paradigm has come a devolution of journalistic standards. A case in point regarding how the lines between journalism and gossip have become blurred...

"...He also suddenly supports the notion that Tax Cuts and rebates can stimulate the economy, he wants to make a $1000 tax rebate a permanent part of the tax code. Suddenly, we are supposed to believe that Obama is a supply-side economist, someone who believes that tax breaks actually create more tax revenue. He has said this will stimulate the economy, it runs counter to everything we know about him up to this point, except for the fact that he wants to tax Corporations and our most successful to pay for it. These so-called tax rebates that he is promising...

Is guilt by association fair? Many blogs and websites, including APRPEH have made an argument that Barry Obama's true feelings towards Jews and Israel can be measured by his associations. Undeniable facts about Obama, many of them posed as questions left unanswered or not answered in a credible or believeable fashion have formed the core of the No-Bama effort. These questions remain legitimate campaign issues and concerns. Obama DID indeed maintain a 20+ year relationship as a member of TUCC in the Jeremiah Wright flock, listening to what is undeniably anti-US and antiJew rhetoric only distancing himself when his crusade...

Connecticut’s Senator Christopher Dodd (D) is sponsoring legislation that would require all merchants that accept credit cards or electronic payment to forward the details of every transaction to federal regulators. Current law only permits the government to have access to a limited number of targeted transactions as part of law enforcement activities and then only with a court order. Dodd said his 630-page bill is meant to implement Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama’s proposed crack down on the irresponsible use of credit. “As Senator Obama says, too many people are spending money they don’t have for things they don’t...

Is anyone aware of an attack on the American Spectator web site? Upon attempting to access the site (using Windows 2000NT with a Firefox 3 browser) I received the following warning: Looking up the site in Google, I found the following at the top of the entry list: I have sent an email to the editor's attention, but was curious as to whether anyone else has had the same problem. I wonder whether the Kos Kids or the MoveOn Morons have been at work here....

HOW TO START YOUR CAR WITH A DOG (A breakdown patrol man who came to the rescue of a woman motorist has managed to get her car started using her dog.) How do you start a car with a dog? I guess you can stick its tail in the ignition and see if it starts or maybe attach the car to the dog like a rickshaw and pop it into gear when it gets rolling fast enough. What other solutions could there be? (Juliette Piesley, 39, had changed the battery in her electronic key...

Quote:This poster design inspires you to learn about design history. There are a lot of interesting artists and art movements. The past is a rich design resource that can have a positive influence on your designs.It is a poster design inspired by an art movement called Russian Constructivism. I cut up some images and paste them together to create a stylized revolutionary design and then tied it all together by overlaying some texture to give it a vintage feel.

Some people have focused on the legal issues involving Barack Obama and his campaign's creation of his own "great seal." I am not going to go there, because firstly, no one is going to charge him, and secondly, it is questionable anyway. However, it does show a few things about this candidate. It shows a lack of taste. It shows a height of arrogance and disrespect for the office and the process. And, it shows a little bit about a man who claims to be against an imperial presidency but yet has to have his own seal before he even...

The Michelle Obama Rant Tape was filmed between June 26th - July 1st 2004 in Chicago, IL at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Conference at Trinity United Church: specifically the Women's Event. Michelle Obama appeared as a panelist alongside Mrs. Khadijah Farrakhan and Mrs. James Meeks. Bill Clinton spoke during the Conference, as did Bill Cosby and other speakers, but not at the panel Michelle attended. Michelle Obama spoke at the Women's Event, but referenced Bill Clinton in her rant --- his presence at the conference was the impetus for her raving, it seems. For about 30 minutes, Michelle Obama launched into...

There is a considerable demand for a feature on cell phones that would record conversations. Given today's technology and cheap memory, it would be very easy. Moreover, It would be legal in the approximately 37 states and the Federal government that allow recording of conversations when a person involved in the conversation approves of it. It would be an excellent tool for recording conversations with "customer service" who record us all the time, and for any official or contractual conversations where matters of law might be involved. Manufacturers of cell phones seem to have gone to considerable lengths to insure...

Jonah Goldberg at The Corner: I caught the beginning of the Daily Show the other night and saw what appears to be a recurring segment: “Barackaphobia.” This, as you might guess, is where Stewart mocks anybody who is overly concerned with Barack Obama’s ideas, background, whatever. In short, anybody who takes stark exception to Obama or the cult of Obama is paranoid. [...]The left loves to characterize conservative dislikes and disagreements as “phobias” and other maladies of the mind. Specifically, conservative “hate” is based on “ignorance” and “fear.” Rhetorically, this tactic amounts to a way for liberals to avoid arguments...

Bloggers, like me, are voicing their views and commentary on the news (and falsehoods, etc) of the day as is our right under the constitution.  When a corporation tries to tell me I cannot comment, criticize (and more often correct) their lousy product I lose all interest in being reasonable.  There are lines you do not cross because they cannot be uncrossed. The-news-source-that-shall-not-be-named, which went after bloggers for excerpting and linking their biased and error prone ‘news’ articles, crossed that line - in full hypocrisy it seems: 1. The AP is essentially arguing that anyone who excerpts 33 to 79...

The question of weather Barack Hussien Obama is a Muslim, ever was a Muslim, is a good or bad guy brand of Muslim, is still haunting Barack Obama. As he scrambles to set up an internet war room to counter what he calls e-mail lies and smears, allegedly being spread about him, Obama continues to deny that he was ever a Muslim, or that he ever went to a Muslim school. I wrote nearly 3 months ago facts about Obama's Muslim & Communist ties including photos. There is so much Obama baggage it just keeps building and building until it...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday dismissed accusations from two United States lawmakers that it had hacked their office computers as alarmist and unfounded.

So there's an online movement calling itself Party Unity My A$$ that seeks to... I'm not sure what. It opposes Barack Obama and seems to oppose the Democratic party because "It is no longer the party of FDR and shared responsibility. Now, it is the party of wannabe rich libertarian Democrats." I wonder what there problem is with libertarian Democrats. All we want is social freedom (the right to do mostly what we want so long as we aren't harming others), reproductive freedom (and in general the right to make private medical decisions) and equal treatment under the law (as...

Plausible deniability - keep that in mind for the coming days and weeks. Clinton needs to derail the Obama Express somehow without the entire planet figuring out that her campaign and/or surrogates were behind the dirty deed. Right now Clinton has a great case to make for stepping into the breach to replace a damaged Obama campaign. She has the popular vote lead right now in many reasonable scenarios, and the party is clearly split 50-50. Yet all indications are she may suspend her campaign tomorrow in New York. So what gives with this whisper campaign about a video showing...

Senator Obama came to his senses yesterday and resigned from Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s south side. It doesn’t matter whether Rev. Wright said and did goofy things five times in the last twenty years or one hundred times in the last twenty years. It doesn’t matter that Father Pfleger (whose regular clerical stomping grounds are St. Sabina) was simply a guest of Rev. Moss delivering the guest sermon last Sunday at Trinity. It doesn’t matter if Obama was in the pews all, some or none of the times when Wright and Pfleger were spewing their venomous, hate...

This is why Obama should have laughed off Rev Wright. Hillary would have. She would have just snorted "That's a minister for you, always preaching hellfire and damnation. Of course I'm not responsible for anything a minister says!" But Obama didn't do that. He accepted the Republican frame that he was tied at the hip to the preacher in his church. He took it all seriously. So now here we go again -- this time with a white guy, a Father Michael Pfleger, who belted out a mean-spirited, ugly, gratituous anti-Hillary skreed last Sunday at good old Trinity United: "....

The audience for Internet video will hit one billion viewers by 2013, driven by increasing broadband penetration and the rising connection speeds available to a growing percentage of the world’s population, according to ABI Research. That’s 1 in 6 people in the world that could be the potential audience for your Internet video! “The rapid expansion of broadband video creates opportunities,” notes ABI analyst Cesar Bachelet. “A wide variety of actors aim to gain a share of this fast-growing market: not only content owners such as the BBC and NBC Universal, and Internet portals such as AOL and Yahoo!, but...

OK you FR MacHeads.   Having had good experiences with a used eMac, I'm considering replacing my 5 year-old main desktop PC with a Mac. Cost is a factor, so I’m trying to decide between a maxxed-out Mac Mini (can use my existing LCD screen, mouse and keyboard) or an iMac (longer useful life) Here are the PC desktop's specs.     CURRENTLY HAVE MAC EQUVALENT OR BETTER? CPU AMD Athlon 2600+, 2.13 GHz ? RAM 1 GB DDR266 SDRAM 184-pin DIMMs ? HDD 120GB ATA/133 ? VIDEO ATI All-In-Wonder 9000 PRO 64 MB DDR AGP with TV display ?...

Just a couple of questions to people who have installed xp service pack 3. Is it worth the installation? What benifits are they? I did a little research and found a ton of info and a lot of people complaining about problems, would you recommend a person with mediocore pc problem solving skills install this?

This morning, I decided to drop down to my local coffee establishment for a breakfast of coffee, eggs, and some morning reading. I had a lot of new things, and pre-coffee I’m not up to making decisions, so I just brought several things to read: Peter Kramer’s Against Depression; Marianne Williamson’s The Age of Miracles; Wayne Dyer’s Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao; and for a little more rigorous reading of Buddhism I brought The Dhammapada, D.T. Suzuki’s Manual on Zen Buddhism, Steve Hagen’s Meditation Now or Never, and Buddhism Is Not What You...

I have been checking out various on-line IT courses for my college age home schooled son. I found this site for $149.00 that features a full menu of options for a flat one year membership, SECURITY+ CERTIFICATION A+ CERTIFICATION ACCOUNTANCY ADOBE CISCO CLAIT CONTACT MANAGEMENT COREL DATABASES DESKTOP DTP ECDL E-QUALS GRAPHICS I-NET+ CERTIFICATION INTERNET LOTUS MCSE MICROSOFT MOS NETWORK+ CERTIFICATION NOVELL PROGRAMMING SERVER+ CERTIFICATION SOFT SKILLS UNIX WEB DEVELOPMENT and the other one in the link--whose typos on their web page do not inspire me with confidence.(My typos I attribute to my Saturday ration od Sam Adams) Bottom Line:...

I've long speculated that one of the reasons that Hillary Clinton is still in the race is because she wants to be running should another bombshell like the Rev. Wright scandal hit the Obama campaign. According to Hillary Clinton supporter Larry Johnson, there is another bomb out there, but it won't see the light of day until Obama is nominated: I now have it from two three sources close to senior Republicans that they have video dynamite–Michelle Obama railing against “whitey” at Jeremiah Wright’s church. Republicans may have a lousy record when it comes to the economy and the management...

Hillary Clinton is to MSNBC what teenage girl-fights are to Fox News. They're obsessed and preoccupied with her. They may know better -- the attention Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann give her may be focus-grouped to snag some demo we can't even imagine. But we're obciously not hat demo: the endless speculation as to why she's still in the race: the ponderous surmising and apprising of her wile and guile is just bad teevee. You don't know why she's still in the race, boyz? You think she (and Bill) are so self-deluded they don't know she's not going to get...

Looking for someone who can answer some questions about EA NCAA 2008 football

Does it make Cindy Sheehan a racist if she makes fun of Senator Barack Obama's name? By the way, nice language in a church. Funny how the Left ran away from her after building her up and encouraging her. Now that she's running against Speaker Pelosi, where are the cameras now?

'ODE TO OBAMA'Written by: Publius IIRecitation: MineThere once was a man named Obama His life began with drama An African Muslim father An eccentric white mama Obama's white grandparents They gave him a charmed life Raised on the beaches of Hawaii Far from ghetto strife He went to private schools Fourteen thousand dollars a year Working-class white folks They were nowhere near He attended Columbia Then Harvard Law A very soft and liberal upbringing Something Americans eventually saw He then went to Chicago Nation of Islam, Farrakhan, Black Panthers and Jackson The only friends he made All from the extreme...

I live in an area which is not served by cable TV companies. That has limited the Internet access choices to either dial-up or sattelite. I currently have both, using dial-up on my MacOS9 and Hughesnet on the PCs. I have learned that DSL has suddenly been extended to my area by Verizon. Hughesnet is costing roughly $90.00/month for less than satisfactory service because of their "Fair Access Policy" and because towering thunderheads frequently block the sattelite signal. I could get Verizon DSL for about $30.00/month--and if the in-house networking goes right, I might even be able to ditch the...

"Once they invent the Sexaroid, that's it for marriage" — Cliff Spears Whither the Droid? The personal servant/buddy/crapworker robot was a staple of the Wonderful World Of Tomorrow that we kids of the '60s were sold back in the olden days. That world turned out to be a BIG FAT LIE — and no part of it more so than the foretold robot pal. I can live withot my rocket belt and flying car, but, dammit, why didn't I get the robo-butler I was promised? It's not due to any lack of effort on the part of industry. The factories...

After the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial came in, Americans heard a new phrase. The term "jury nullification" explained how a jury comprised mostly of African-Americans could let a black man go free, even though there was overwhelming evidence pointing to his guilt. Imagine if there was a videotape of Simpson brutally slaying his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman. Many believe, even with such evidence, the jury still would have found the former football star innocent of the murders. The same can be said about the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Even though there was a film of Kennedy...

How can I remove system integrity scan wizard from my system? Since yesterday, this keeps popping up. I have run my Professional AVG AV software as well as Adaware and this is the one thing that I am unable to get rid of. Is there a free online program that will remove this? Thanks!!

(from Laptop Security blog)Even the most carefully laid plans can go awry. Federal prosecutors charged a Southern Californian woman this week with aggravated identity theft after she used a genealogy website to locate people who had recently died and to take over their credit cards. Tracy June Kirkland was using Rootsweb.com to find the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of people who had died. She would then call credit card companies randomly to see if "she" had an account, if "she" did, she would request a mailing address change and, in some cases, would add her own name...

Thursday, May 01, 2008 LieStoppers is open for Business Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Blog Hooligans we have now opened the Meeting Place for viewers. A giant thanks is given to our "Tony Soprano." What he has personally accomplished since last Saturday is truly amazing! Viewers can now read the threads without registering. More importantly it means that the efforts of those who tried to prevent them from learning the facts of the Hoax/Frame have failed. The dirty laundry of those in Durham and at Duke who perpetrated this attempted frame of the 2006 Duke Lacrosse Team will...

The MAC was supposed to be better than a PC. Does anybody out there know how to use this thing?

[UPDATE, 8:12 PM: Welcome, new readers! The scenario I predicted in this post is now happening. Some leaked exit poll numbers show Obama winning, others Clinton leading by a slight margin. Regardless, it's all meaningless. Likewise, CNN's statement that the race is "competitive based on the exit polls" should be not taken as predictive of the final outcome. CNN initially said Ohio was "competitive," too. Anyway, I'm liveblogging the results on my homepage.] Following up on a point I made yesterday -- in a post that just got Instalanched -- as we political junkies giddily await the first hints of...

Summary: Microsoft are disabling WebDAV access to all hotmail.com accounts. This means Hotmail Pop Links and Outlook Express access to hotmail.com accounts will stop working at the end of June 2008. {snip} ...Microsoft have changed to using a new protocol. Rather than offering an open and standard protocol such as POP or IMAP, they’re using a new one they call DeltaSync for their live.com and new hotmail.com accounts. This protocol is not an open or standardised protocol. It’s a Microsoft proprietary one and only works with their Windows Live Mail, Vista Mail and Outlook Office Outlook Connector.

anyone know how to re-install vista on a new pc? turned on the power and it came up in the familiar black-screen: not shut down properly, offering either standard or manual set-up. without vista, the usb for the mouse and keyboard do not work. i've used another mouse from another pc and it doesn't work. thanks.

WMAL just updated and improved their web site last week. Next to the "What's Hot" red tab section, there's an "Insider Central" red tab on the right side of the screen. I see nothing inside that Insider Central box, which is perhaps 2" x 3", except a blank powder-blue colored box. I was told that I should see a 7-tab slide show under "Insider Central". In the "What's Hot" box I see all kinds of things going through -- Top News, Local News, G&A, Chris Plante & Insiders ( a 5-tab slide show). I contacted Comcast customer service (I have...

The screen on my laptop has died again; 3 times in two years. I need a portable computer but do not need the instant convenience of a laptop. Do these smaller computers (cubes) provide an alternative, especially if I'm willing to take a keyboard and screen into the various hotel rooms? I'm not a gamer. I have word publishing and some photo shop applications. 60 Gig of HD and 1Mg or Ram minimums to accomodate MS Office 2007 and Adobe PS. Any suggestions from the freeper community?

Palm Beach—In what may be Rush Limbaugh’s most brazen move to flaunt his wealth, a new operation has been born. On the eve of the first mailings of the economic stimulus checks, Limbaugh has decided to promote “Operation Stimulus,” beginning with his show on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. A source close to Limbaugh said that the operation consists of three phases: Phase 1: Receive and deposit your check into your bank account. Phase 2: Use those funds to pay your credit card bill. Phase 3: Spend your entire tax refund at the EIB Store.The new operation was devised, the unnamed...

Today’s Jackass of the Day Award is given to one very deserving jackass, indeed. Mr. Dick Cavett, you should be proud. You, sir, are the biggest jackass I think I have awarded this to. I don’t know. It’s such a hard call, and “jackassishness” is such a hard thing to measure. I think we’ll have a vote at the end of the year to elect our top five over all jackasses of the year. You are sure to be elected in that poll.

Looking for a good proxy server. There are no real links on my site about who I really am but I have received a few threats lately. Threats of violence and one even was going to kill my wife and baby too. These are all coming from Chinese servers and I thought for a little added security I should start posting things here and on my site with a proxy server. Any ideas guys?

I had a financial setback and to help me through a buddy is going to pay me $1,000 a month to keep a website optimized. It is a commercial website, he used to be on the first page of results for the major search engines but has slipped back to page 2 and it has hurt his business. He is going to teach me what he knows about optimization. I put out an e-mail to friends breifly mentioning the setback and what I would be doing for my friend and an acquantence from a Bible study who owns a communications...

The editors here at Blogger News want to congratulate our political writer ‘The Stiletto‘ on her honorable mention at the 12th annual Webby Awards. The Webby’s are to the Internet what the Oscar’s are to the movie business. As the Webby folks said “This honor signifies an outstanding caliber of work. Congratulations to all of our Official Honoree selections!” Our intrepid writer was up against some stiff competition in the Political Blog category, when you can hold your own against the like of the CNN Political Ticker; NewYorker.com; Swampland (TIME); The Caucus (New York Times) and Thought Leader (Mail &...