Free Republic

The singer has the political talent to take stands – on gay rights, or child literacy – without losing her conservative heartland fans At 77, Dolly Parton is justly being celebrated, along with her more established virtues, for an ability to unite disparate groups. She has, it’s claimed, an equally strong fanbase in the Trumpian “Rust Belt” as among the gay clubbers of New York City, to pick two of America’s polarised stereotypes. Her London visit to promote a new rock-influenced double album and a book is proving just how broad that Parton cultural spectrum is. Gathered in a grand...

A reimagined version of Dolly Parton's hit song, "Jolene," featuring the late Olivia Newton-John was released on Friday and it's giving a glimpse into the two stars' friendship. Their duet, which will be part of Newton-John's last album that she recorded before her death, "Just the Two of Us: The Duets Collection," was released with a music video on YouTube. In the video, Newton-John says that she "always wanted to sing with Dolly." "I'm so excited to be working with Olivia Newton-John, one of my favorites of all time," Parton says in another clip. "We've always kind of stayed close...

It’s been 55 years since Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first premiered on NBC, and watching the beloved TV special is still a Christmastime tradition for many families. You couldn’t ask for a more inspiring gang of outsiders than Rudolph, wannabe dentist/elf Hermey, and everyone’s favorite prospector, Yukon Cornelius. After being cast out by their respective tribes, the trio turns to each other for companionship. One question that has plagued the stop motion animation classic for years is why the doll, known as Dolly for Sue to some, is on the island. She never reveals what’s "wrong" with her, and nothing...

The gates and doors were barred And all the windows fastened down I spent the night in sleeplessness And rose at every sound Half in hope of sorrow And half in fear the day Would find the soldiers breakin' through To drag us all away And just before the sunrise I heard something at the wall The gate began to rattle And a voice began to call I hurried to the window Looked down into the street Expecting swords and torches And the sound of soldiers' feet But there was no one there but Mary So I went down to...

Concerns that Dolly the cloned sheep suffered from early-onset arthritis were unfounded, a study suggests. In fact, wear-and-tear in her joints was similar to that of other sheep of her age, regardless of how they were conceived, say researchers. Dolly, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, made countless headlines during her lifetime. She came under close scrutiny, due to fears that cloned animals might develop health problems or age prematurely. Researchers at the University of Nottingham, have re-examined her skeleton. "We felt we needed to set the record straight - how bad was Dolly?'' said Prof Kevin Sinclair....

About four years ago, Kevin Sinclair inherited an army of clones. Very fluffy clones. "Daisy, Debbie, Denise and Diana," says Sinclair, a developmental biologist at the University of Nottingham in England. The sheep are just four of 13 clones that Sinclair shepherds, but they're the most famous because of their relation to Dolly, the sheep that made headlines two decades ago as the first successfully cloned mammal. " 'Sister clones' probably best describes them," Sinclair says. "They actually come from the exactly the same batch of cells that Dolly came from." Recently, Sinclair and his colleagues celebrated the sister clones'...

“I try not to get political but if I am, I might as well just run myself ’cause I’ve got the hair for it, it’s huge, and they could always use more boobs in the race,” she wrote.

we will destroy you." Dolly Kyle is a former childhood friend of former President Bill Clinton. Recently, Kyle was interviewed by Fox News host Sean Hannity. During the in-depth conversation she revealed some shocking information about Hillary Clinton — information that could change how people view the Democratic nominee. “Watch the imperious way Hillary treats anyone beneath her, especially young black women,” she told Hannity. When Hannity asked if she was accusing Clinton of racism, she acknowledged she was and even went further to call Bill Clinton a racist. I am absolutely suggesting she’s racist,” she said. “And I talk...

Working 9 to 5 on her campaign! Hillary Clinton shows off her Dolly Parton costume from her 48th birthday party in 1995 in Instagram throwback snap A photo of Hillary Clinton dressed up like country singer Dolly Parton for her 48th birthday party in 1995 emerged online this week. Clinton's Instagram account shared a photograph on Thursday of the 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful at the bash, which showed her with a long blonde wig and a red gingham skirt. **SNIP** The photograph also showed her husband Bill Clinton, who was serving as US president at the time, wearing a plaid...

Keith Campbell, the scientist who helped pioneer the birth of Dolly the sheep, the world's first mammal cloned from fully developed adult cells, has died, according to The University of Nottingham. Campbell, 58, died on October 5, according to a university statement released Thursday. His funeral has been scheduled for October 24. The university did not say how he died. Campbell was part of a team at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, Scotland, that cloned Dolly in 1996. Her birth made headlines worldwide, capturing the scientific imagination of many while generating intense controversy over the ethics of cloning. While Campbell...

Ian Wilmut, the scientist who achieved international notoriety for cloning the sheep Dolly, is now urging his fellow scientists and researchers to abandon embryonic stem cell research.His comments at a conference follow on the major news that Geron, a cloning company the Obama administration funded to undertake the first human clinical trials involving embryonic-like stem cells, abruptly canceled the trials and got out of the embryonic stem cell research business.Wilmut spoke to researchers at a late November event in California and said that embryonic stem cells are not likely going to show promise because they lead to the development of...

MATAMOROS, Mexico — Usually, the 9,000 people on Officer Arcadio Escobar’s beat aren’t too happy to see him go by. But as the deluge from Hurricane Dolly turned the rough Independencia neighborhood here into a nasty brown lake that filled people’s houses Wednesday, he suddenly became one of the most popular guys around. Escobar had exactly 12 hours and 10 gallons of gas — his allotment for the day — to follow a single order: Evacuate people. But the gas ran out before his city police shift did, and the floodwaters, already up to the doors of the patrol pickup,...

Oil companies and offshore drillers continued evacuating workers from facilities in the western Gulf of Mexico Monday as Tropical Storm Dolly tested the companies' storm procedures for the first time in the 2008 hurricane season. Shell removed 60 workers from production platforms Monday after evacuating 125 the day before. Drillers including Rowan Companies, Diamond Offshore, Noble Corp. and Pride International pulled employees off drilling rigs. Oil refiners with facilities on the Gulf Coast, including Valero Energy, Citgo Petroleum and Flint Hills Resources, said they also were monitoring the storm closely but had not halted fuel production or removed workers. The...

MIAMI (Reuters) - A hurricane watch was issued for the southern portion of the Texas coast on Monday as Tropical Storm Dolly emerged from the Yucatan over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and appeared likely to become a hurricane, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Newly formed Tropical Storm Dolly over the NW Caribbean Sea near 18.4N 84.2W. 1008 MB at 11AM this morning. Max sustained winds 40KT, gusts 50KT, moving NW at 15KT. Caribbean BuoysWunderground Tropical UpdatesVisible Satellite imageInfrared Sat Loop

As the creator of Dolly, the world’s first cloned sheep, announced he had abandoned cloning to pursue more promising ways of tapping the potential of stem cells, Democrats in Congress will introduce legislation this week to fund research “to find other good reasons to create and destroy embryos.” Prof. Ian Wilmut’s choice to turn his back on the highly-inefficient and ethically-controversial “therapeutic cloning,” in favor of procedures that would use a patient’s own cells to spawn stem cells, may send shock waves through the scientific world, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it doesn’t discourage Democrats. “There’s no reason to...

BRITISH scientists are planning to create human-rabbit hybrid embryos to speed up research into the causes of inherited conditions such as motor neurone disease and Parkinson's. The controversial work, which involves placing the nucleus of a human cell inside a rabbit egg, is rejected as immoral by churches and anti-cloning campaigners. One of the key ethical problems is whether the hybrid embryo should be treated legally as a human or an animal. Edinburgh University's Professor Ian Wilmut - who created Dolly the Sheep - and colleagues in London believe the hybrids will help them circumvent a shortage of human eggs...

Country superstar Dolly Parton was thrilled when Yusuf Islam agreed to collaborate with her on her new covers album because she wanted to show fans he's a "really sweet man." Parton has been a longtime friend and fan of the folk icon, formerly Cat Stevens, and was horrified when she learned he had been refused entry to America last year. Islam was turned back when his name appeared on a mysterious list of potential terrorist sympathisers. He has been fighting the humiliating immigration mess ever since. And, by including him on her new album, Those Were The Days, patriotic Parton...

Top cloning experts gather in South Korea for clandestine testTop cloning experts from Britain, South Korea and the United States working on ways to use stem cells to treat incurable diseases gathered here to kick-off a week-long secret experiment.The scientists were led by South Korea's Hwang Woo-Suk, Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and the creator of the cloned sheep Dolly, Professor Ian Wilmut of Scotland's Roslin Institute.They would not say what the experiment would be about, but said it was expected to be over early next week.Schatten however told journalists it would be a scientific...

FRANKFURT, Germany - Dolly the sheep's British creator received Germany's most prestigious medical prize Monday amid criticism of the partly state-funded award by opponents of cloning. About 40 protesters gathered outside the ceremony in Frankfurt to protest the award to Ian Wilmut, the head of the team that created Dolly at Scotland's Roslin Institute in 1996, calling on Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (news - web sites) to voice opposition to the decision. Inside, Wilmut said he would spend the $134,000 payment that comes with the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize on projects to help people with muscle ailments such as...