Free Republic

John H. McWhorterToward a Usable Black History It will help black Americans to recall that they have a history that transcends victimization and exclusion. Summer 2001 You brought me here in CHAINS! You brought me here in CHAINS!" James Baldwin exclaimed to a white interviewer in the late 1960s, summing up the sense of our history that most blacks have. Yes, we pay lip service to our having "survived" in this country, but the image most resonant to us is being brought here packed in ships, treated like animals for 250 years, and pushed to the margins of society...

Coach Inc. (COH) is opening its first men's-only store as the retailer moves to extend its reach beyond traditional female customers. The store will be on trendy Bleecker Street in New York City's West Village, taking over space that was occupied by a Ruehl boutique that was closed as Abercrombie & Fitch Inc. (ANF) shuttered the concept last year. Coach, known for its leather handbags and accessories for women, wants to explore "a broader men's opportunity for the brand globally," said Mike Tucci, Coach's president of North America retail. Coach is also opening a few men's shops in department stores...

FRiends, I almost posted this last night...but since that giant walking wanker Robert Gibbs pulled his little stunt today, I thought we ought to take it a step further. Here is my hand today: I may change it tonight or tomorrow or some time in the future, but I would suggest we all put some messages on our hands...at least for a little while. Some conversation might be generated, and you might find more people agree with you than you think! :)POST your pics to this thread, and let's have fun!

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a division of the National Institutes of Health, is giving Dr. Lynn Fiellin, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, $3.9 million over five years to develop a video game to teach “sex, drug and alcohol negotiation and refusal skills" to children 9-14 years of age. The game will feature “virtual characters or avatars” that are guided by the children playing the game to make decisions about whether to engage in behaviors that put them at risk of being infected with HIV. The game’s effectiveness...

Defending ‘Don’t Ask’In the military, open homosexuality harms unit cohesion.  In a February 3 Wall Street Journal op-ed, I argued that the current law forbidding homosexual military members to discuss their sexual orientation ought to remain in place. I based my contention on the importance of non-sexual bonding as the glue of unit cohesion, which is an important contributor to military effectiveness. As expected, I received a great deal of feedback, some positive, some negative. I thought it might be useful to respond to my critics’ most common objections. First, some argued that the studies indicating the importance of cohesion...

Berkeley's $144 million budget is in the trash can - literally. In a $10 million deficit announced last week, the single biggest factor - $4 million - was a decline in its refuse revenues. The city says, in part, that it's a victim of its own success. Residents pride themselves on aggressively recycling and composting, so they're switching to smaller, cheaper trash cans - the only collection for which the city charges. "The whole business model for recycling and garbage has been to incentivize recycling," said Andrew Clough, the city's deputy director of public works. "We're going to have to...

WASHINGTON - As the region braces for another major storm, one local government is having trouble keeping their plows on the roads, WTOP has learned. As many as 60 of the District's snow plows are not working -- bad news for thousands of residents still waiting for their streets to be cleared. According to an internal email obtained by WTOP, 25 percent of the District's snow plow fleet is down and they're having trouble getting replacement parts. D.C. is also now rationing their salt supply. The email states they'll have enough to get through the upcoming storm. DDOT has 9,000...

Imagine if you could get full salary and benefits for a decent paying job and you didn’t have to work to get it. All you had to do was be accused of a crime. What crime, you ask? How about molesting school kids? That’s what the teachers‘ unions in states like California and New York State are doing: coddling accused criminals — at your expense. And it’s probably going on elsewhere as well. Believe it or not, New York is a lot tougher on them than California. From the New York Post: "At the beginning of his 32-year career as...

The leftist pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood has released a new report calling for children as young as ten years old to be given access to contraceptives and taught to be "sexual beings"...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Even the White House's top spokesman is getting in on the act of mocking former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin for looking to talking points written on her palm during a speech to "tea party" activists. Robert Gibbs showed the words "hope" and "change" on his hand as he started his daily briefing with reporters on Tuesday.

Employing a broad-based lobbying effort, the soft drink industry has smothered a plan to tax sugared beverages — a plan advocates said would have reduced obesity and helped finance health care reform. Only months ago, public health advocates thought the tax would be a natural for congressional Democrats looking for revenues to fund expanded health insurance coverage. The soaring costs of treating ailments related to excess weight — including diabetes and heart disease — added urgency to the issue. But the White House staff reviewing funding options never embraced the idea even after President Barack Obama expressed interest last summer....

Sen. Inhofe’s Family Builds Igloo for Global Warming Spokesman Al Gore in Snow-laden D.C. Tuesday, February 09, 2010 By Christopher Neefus (CNSNews.com) – The family of Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) had some fun at former Vice President and global warming spokesman Al Gore’s expense over the weekend after record snowfall blanketed the nation’s capital. The family spent Saturday and Sunday building an igloo near the U.S. Capitol building, and the Oklahoma senator posted photos of their handiwork on his Facebook page. They added signs to the snow dwelling that read, “AL GORE’S NEW HOME!” and “HONK IF YOU (LOVE) GLOBAL...

EXCERPT Now, some critics are questioning whether using her own daughters as examples is fair to them. "Was it hurtful to her girls?" asked one blogger who focuses on Mommy issues. Psychology Today even questioned the first lady for using the word "chubby" to describe her daughters. While her heart is in the right place, Michelle may not have considered or been familiar with the delicate balance between preventing obesity and triggering eating disorders. She mentioned that she put her children on a diet after her pediatrician and their father felt they were getting “chubby.” Words like “chubby” don’t cause...

Newspapers Blast NOW for Saying Tebow Ad Promotes Domestic Violence Washington, DC -- Just as they defended the pro-life Tim Tebow commercial before it aired during the Super Bowl, newspaper columnists are defending the commercial from the latest attack by the pro-abortion National Organization for Women (NOW) claiming it promoted domestic violence. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5983.html

Can her fans really relate to quitting job, making millions? It was nearly a year ago when I first saw "How's that Hope and Change Working Out For You?" on a bumper sticker. As I said at the time, that's maybe the most cynical slogan of the century. Of course it's legit to criticize President Obama and his policies, but there's something so snarky about that phrase -- as if to say, "You don't have a job? You're still without health care? Obama wasn't able to heal the sick, change water into wine, bring peace and harmony to the world?...

State legislators are criticizing a $35 million bailout plan for the cash-strapped city of Lawrence, as Beacon Hill prepares to debate the proposal amid growing public outcry over the new mayor’s refusal to resign his state representative post. With the city nearing bankruptcy, a key legislative committee will launch discussions today of a measure that would allow Lawrence to take out millions in loans to repair its tattered finances, while appointing an outside overseer to help the city stabilize its budget. Facing a deficit of close to $25 million, the city is in danger of running out of money this...

  It seems Michael Jackson's longtime doctor, Arnold Klein, was telling the truth about Michael's propensity to pee in bottles ... based on the L.A. County Coroner's autopsy report and a strange item found by the foot of the bed. TMZ first published the autopsy findings yesterday. Among the items found in the bedroom where Dr. Conrad Murray was treating Michael Jackson -- "a closed bottle of urine atop a chair." Back in November, we posted a story about Dr. Arnold Klein, who told us that Michael Jackson had a habit of peeing in cups and other objects, often in...

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, February 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new country music star has been born - and with a pro-life ballad, no less, that is steadily climbing the country music charts. Matt Kennon’s debut hit single “the Call” has risen to No. 39 on the Billboard 200 list of top country music hits and packs a compelling pro-life, or what some may call a “whole life," message. Accompanied by his guitar, Kennon sings about the lives of two individuals that would have ended very differently without the timely intervention of a phone call. The music video for “The Call” –...

EXCERPT Democrats should also give Republicans plenty of room to do themselves in. By openly declaring themselves for sale to Wall Street, Republicans are displaying the kind of crony capitalism that drives Americans to form Tea Parties. Ironically, this doesn't seem to bother Sarah Palin. Faced with a choice between subsidizing the banks and poor kids, she went with the banks, warning the Tea Party activists that the Obama administration is "taking over" everything, including "health care, student loans." With views like that, she won't have any trouble getting speaking gigs at $100,000 a shot. (The writer is editor of...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - You know smoking is bad for you. You know inhaling someone else's smoke is bad for you. Now a US study says third-hand smoke -- tobacco residue clinging to surfaces -- is also bad for you. Deepak Chopra on Quit Smoking Related Articles Third-hand smoke also bad for you: study (AFP)'Third-Hand Smoke' Could Be Troublesome, Too (HealthDay) Deepak Chopra on Quit Smoking All Related Articles » smoking HOME » Related Topics Heart & Vascular Health Lung Cancer Respiratory Health Did you find this helpful? Rate this story: Thumbs up Thumbs down thumbs up thumbs down 59% of...

Francisco "Pancho" Real, a former shot caller for the Drew Street clique of the notorious Avenues gang out of Los Angeles, CA, is spilling his guts, and among his allegations is that criminal defense attorneys "provided him with addresses of witnesses so that he and others could threaten them" as reported by Sam Quinones for the Los Angeles Times. Real has named the attorneys, and "Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, declined to comment."

Below is the entirety [VIDEO] of Andrew Breitbart’s remarks during his Keynote address to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville last weekend. During Breitbart’s 33 minute long address, he threatens to upend the entire media establishment, calling them out on their hypocrisy while demanding they change their ways, or else.

"You can't be a great country without doing great things and a great thing would be to return to the Moon and build a laboratory there and open it up to the world," Hickam said on Tuesday's MetroNews Talkline. Hickam says he's angry about the cut. "It's really a foolish decision to take away the goal of going back to the Moon. I can certainly see figuring out a better way of doing it, but simply to take away the goal, I think, is so shortsighted and so foolish that it's almost breathtaking in its stupidity."

It was readily discernable that New Mexico was in trouble when a local radio ad for a mattress store made reference to “your sleep partner”… This bill is relevant to both heterosexuals and to homosexuals. The heterosexuals demand that the government commit to offering them the benefits without themselves making a marriage commitment. Homosexuals who, given the choice, may or may not want to get married are demanding marriage benefits even while having chosen a lifestyle to which marriage does not pertain (although, this is litigiously changing). Demanding benefits while choosing against marriage is tantamount to wanting an athlete’s body...

Marketers’ lack of confidence in the effectiveness of television spots is being reflected in smaller TV budgets, according to a fresh joint survey from the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research Inc. The report surveyed over 100 national advertisers whose budgets will stay flat this year; last year they allocated 41 percent of their media budgets to TV, compared with 58 percent in 2008. About 62 percent of the survey’s respondents said that TV ads have grown less effective in the past two years, citing clutter as the biggest challenge to commercial effectiveness. “As the overall marketing landscape is...

MADISON, Wis. -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducted a threat assessment of local pro- and anti-abortion rights activists before an expected rally last year, even though they did not pose a threat to national security. The DHS destroyed or deleted its copies of the assessment after an internal review found it violated intelligence-gathering guidelines by collecting and sharing information about "protest groups which posed no threat to homeland security," according to a department memo written last year. The report was only shared with police in Middleton and with the director of the Wisconsin Statewide Information Center, an intelligence-gathering...

"Small business owners entered 2010 the same way they left 2009, depressed," said William Dunkelberg, NFIB chief economist. "The biggest problem continues to be a shortage of customers." ... Owners reported workforce reductions that average .52 workers per firm, basically unchanged for the past several months. Nine percent of the owners increased employment by an average of 3 workers per firm, but 19 percent reduced employment an average of 3.9 workers per firm (seasonally adjusted). ... still more firms planning to cut jobs than planning to add.

As the record federal budget deficit draws increasing scrutiny from Washington to Wall Street to Main Street, deficit hawks may take aim at entitlement programs including Social Security. And, the nearly 80 million Baby Boomers phasing into retirement will set in motion a dynamic that—if not addressed by Congress—could result in the next generation getting fewer benefits. However, despite fears that Boomers will trigger a collapse of Social Security, experts say the system can and will survive for decades and generations to come. Congress made significant fixes to Social Security during the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s, and there...

Times are tough in Vallejo these days, a city with more street violence than nearby Richmond, and a rapidly shrinking police department. In the last week alone, the city has witnessed two homicides, a knife attack that injured three people, the shooting of an ice-cream vendor and a mob assault on a city employee - an incident captured on video at a local gas station. One of the homicide victims was Matthew Allen Hicks, the father of one of two teens suspected in the attack near the gas station. Hicks was found shot in the head early Monday. "It has...

Obama Admin Admits It Tracked Abortion Groups in Wisconsin Madison, WI -- The Department of Homeland Security admitted today that it improperly conducted a threat assessment on pro-life groups in Wisconsin. The assessment came before an expected rally last year in response to the University of Wisconsin Hospital board decided to allow abortions. http://www.LifeNews.com/state4796.html

Drivers have also started a Facebook group called Toronto Transit Operators against public harassment, mainly in response to a video recorded by a passenger last week showing a bus driver taking an unscheduled 7-minute stop outside a doughnut shop to get his nightly coffee. The driver was subsequently suspended. Another member of the group advises operators that if they see someone filming their actions, they should pull over and request police assistance: "You don't know why these people are recording your vehicle, you just know that they are not supposed to do it." The TTC's general manager, Gary Webster, then...

Mad Men sure are angry at women. Advertising execs unleashed their fury Sunday night, one lady-hating Super Bowl commercial at a time. From Bridgestone tires to Dodge cars to Bud Light, it was bros vs. hos on the boob tube, with ads depicting women as spine-stealing nags.

Daniel Rubin in today's Philadelphia Inquirer has exposed another egregious example of a prominent federal agency's absence of common decency and sense. This involved a businesswoman who wound up facing felony charges after a dispute stemming from her objections as to how screeners for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) handled her underwear during a private baggage screening at Philadelphia International Airport. She was acquitted of all charges. (snip) The TSA is the federalization of baggage screeners that occurred after 9/11. It was not wanted by the Bush Administration nor recommended by security experts but was insisted upon by leading Democrats...

Last May, I wrote about why I thought Florida governor Charlie Crist was an acceptable fiscal conservative (the Cato Institute had given him an "A" on its Fiscal Policy Report Card) and why I believed he gave Republicans the best chance to retain Florida's U.S. Senate seat. Even though I was chided by fellow conservatives for saying something favorable about the governor, who had embraced Obama's nearly $1 trillion stimulus package (which by the way has failed to reduce unemployment), I believed that a more important goal was to stop the Democrats from strengthening their filibuster-proof Senate majority. I subsequently...

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT SIGNING OF MEMORANDUM ON CHILDHOOD OBESITY Oval Office 9:16 A.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. I am so proud of the work that the First Lady, along with the Cabinet Secretaries behind me, have done in trying to tackle one of the most urgent health issues that we face in this country, and that is the increase of childhood obesity. And because of the outstanding planning that they've done, they are going to be rolling out a terrific plan of action that involves the private sector as well as government agencies coordinating much more...

The Panic of 2008 led to a sharp contraction in the U.S. economy last winter. But by midyear 2009, the U.S. economy got back on the growth path. Real GDP growth spiked 5.7% in the final quarter of 2009, the fastest pace since 2003. Despite this spike in growth and a drop in the unemployment rate, pessimism is still prevalent. Many economists argue that fourth-quarter growth was a function of inventory building, not real growth. This past weekend former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said the recovery in 2010 will be "trudging." We think these pessimists are wrong and that...

More than 70 years ago, Toyota entered the auto business based on a simple, but powerful, principle: that Toyota would build the highest-quality, safest and most reliable automobiles in the world. The company has always put the needs of our customers first and made the constant improvement of our vehicles a top priority. That is why 80 percent of all Toyotas sold in the United States over the past 20 years are still on the road today. When consumers purchase a Toyota, they are not simply purchasing a car, truck or van. They are placing their trust in our company....

WASHINGTON (AP) - By now, it is abundantly clear that Michelle Obama loves french fries. The first lady talks about this "guilty pleasure" all the time, trying to ward off any notion that she is a nutrition nanny even as she cajoles Americans to eat better. Now, her conversation with the public about the nation's health and fitness is about to get a lot more pointed. After laying the groundwork for nearly a year, she launches a campaign on Tuesday against childhood obesity that she hopes will change the way millions of Americans eat, exercise, look and feel. < snip...

Wake up investors. Are you prepared for the economic anarchy coming after a global-debt time bomb explodes? Are you thinking outside the box? Investing differently? Act now -- tomorrow will be too late. Start by looking past the endless cable skirmishes between Rush, Glenn, Bill and Shawn versus Harry, Nancy, Ben and Barack. Look way past the insurgency bonding Sarah and her diehard Tea Party revolutionaries with Ron Paul's Neo-Reaganite ideologues, Fat-Cat Bankers and the Party of No, all planning a massive frontal assault on the 2010 elections, hell-bent on destroying the presidency. All that's the sideshow. The Big One...

Imam Zaid Shakir came to speak at my school, Claremont McKenna, on December 9th to respond to the “tragedy of Ft. Hood.” Rather than respond to the massacre of American servicemen, Shakir spent the evening indicting the United States – saying “we were born in genocide.” The reason for the Ft. Hood Massacre, according to Shakir? Not jihad or Islamic fundamentalism, but the “pervasiveness of violence in our society” and because of Americans’ “easy access to guns.” Zaid Shakir – Final [1] from The Claremont Conservative [2] on Vimeo [3]. For those wondering who Mr. Shakir is, he’s the go-to...

The state's largest teachers union, which stood against Minnesota's application for millions in federal "Race to the Top" funding, plans a 10-week TV ad campaign to push the Legislature for more funding. Don't cut schools to balance the budget, Education Minnesota will say. But that plea leaves out important context, such as this from our side of the river: 1. During a deep recession, the union drives through $10 million worth of salary and benefit increases. 2. Which amounts to close to half of this year's operating deficit. 3. And then will be followed by TV ads urging the Legislature...

I've been waiting all day to unload this, so sit down and get ready for a good belly-laugh... Remember Susan Estrich? She was Michael Dukakis' campaign manager for his disastrous presidential run in 1988. But washed-up liberals don't shrivel up and blow away, they reinvent themselves as pundits and news analysts. Apparently Ms. Estrich, the Grand-Dame of feminist victimology, has taken great offense at Apple Computer's decision to name its newest electronic gizmo, iPad. So last week she penned a column called "The Value of Diversity." Blazing away with her gendered six-shooter, Estrich issued this scathing pronouncement: "Is there a...

We all blinked furiously when we read the government's claim that the number of unemployed ROSE in January by 20,000 but the unemployment rate FELL from 10% to 9.7% Somebody has obviously been cooking the numbers in a most ingenious way. On "Meet the Press" Alan Greenspan explained the absurdity.

What has very much been seen often on Free Republic, the famous "Miss Me Yet?" picture of former President George W. Bush who has taken a LOT of garbage from President Barak Obama now has a billboard. Here is the article by Jim Vicevich: President Bush has remained characteristically quiet during President Obama’s first term. It used to be the norm and is demonstrative of his class. This despite the constant whacks the young President has been taking at his predecessor, apparently in the name of deflecting criticism and bolstering his falling poll numbers.

People are afraid to lose money and an unusual study released on Monday explains why -- the brain's fear center controls the response to a gamble. U.S. | Science | Health | Lifestyle The study of two women with brain lesions that made them unafraid to lose on a gamble showed the amygdala, the brain's fear center, activates at the very thought of losing money. [...]

A drug to treat advanced kidney cancer has been rejected for use on the NHS in draft guidance, a health watchdog has announced. While evidence shows everolimus (Afinitor) is clinically effective, it is "expensive" and there is limited data on how much it can extend people's lives, said the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice). snip... Novartis offered a risk-sharing scheme to give patients the first treatment pack for free followed by 5% off the cost of subsequent packs but this was rejected. Professor Peter Littlejohns, Nice clinical and public health director, said the draft guidance is open...

As D.C. continued to dig out from Snowmageddon and is keeping an eye on another storm system, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was busy making a climate change announcement. NOAA, part of the Department of Commerce, is going to be providing information to individuals and decision-makers through a new NOAA Climate Service office. “More and more, Americans are witnessing the impacts of climate change in their own backyards, including sea-level rise, longer growing seasons, changes in river flows, increases in heavy downpours, earlier snowmelt and extended ice-free seasons in our waters. People are searching for relevant and timely information...

Is it me or were the Super Bowl commercials this year unusually ugly, misogynistic, and, worst of all, unfunny? Some of America’s biggest corporations seemed to be trying to play to Teabag America, and the results were as bitter as the teabaggers themselves. Amidst the dreck was a commercial from Audi featuring the “green police.” Here it is:

Fox News has a business strategy of seeking to "undermine" the MSM by alleging that it has a liberal bias. That was the allegation that Chuck Todd made on Morning Joe today. Todd, NBC's political director and chief White House correspondent, was reacting to Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon's statement on "Fox News Sunday" that "the mainstream media hates the tea party movement almost as much as it hates Sarah Palin." View video here.

The best stock market rally in 74 years may have ended on Jan. 19, the same day Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat held by Democrats for 57 years. We don't know yet whether the alarming move down in stocks since then is simply a correction or something more serious. But the coincidence of these two history-making events raises troubling questions—especially since a Republican resurgence, on the face of it, would seem to be good for business and good for stocks. [snip]Just 24 hours after Mr. Brown's upset win, the White House let it be known that...