Free Republic

This past weekend, President Obama’s top economic advisor, Larry Summers, said the “recession is over.” But in the next breath he called for more government action to stimulate the economy, in particular, the pace of hiring. As far as the Administration is concerned, it is government stimulus that brought us this recovery. Now, it’s just a matter of piling on even more government spending to generate job growth. In one sense we agree completely with Mr. Summers. The recession is over. In fact, the economy has been growing since June. This came as no surprise to us. “An economic recovery...

I thought I would start a thread for all of you Science Fiction and Fantasy readers. I know it has been done in the past, but it seemed like a good time to run it again. If you have any favorite books or stories to recommend post it for others to share. I have received some excellent advice on some good reads. Maybe you have a good title or author to recommend.

A young woman cried rape after 'fulfilling a fantasy' of having sex with two strangers, a court heard yesterday. Chloe Dolton, 22, was 'bored' with her life and willingly engaged in the threesome after an argument with her boyfriend, it was alleged...

Here are my selections for the most pretentious science fiction - fantasy TV shows (RELAX - THE CYNICISM IS ALL IN FUN!): 5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003) - Pretty much a chick series. 4. V (original - including miniseries' - 1983 - 1985) - Nazi lizard people invade the earth. 3. Alien Nation (1989 - 1990) - A message series with one message - racism is evil. We get it. Next. (amazingly enough, this series spawned five made for TV movies, which were viewed by all 500 of its fans) 2. Beauty and the Beast (1987 -...

The United States and its ally South Korea have drawn up a contingency plan to cope with emergencies in North Korea, including a possible regime change there, a report said Sunday. "Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029" was completed by Seoul and Washington recently, Yonhap news agency said, quoting an unnamed Seoul source. It dictates how to respond case-by-case to such emergencies in North Korea as a civil war, an outflow of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), a mass influx of refugees or a natural disaster, Yonhap said. Under the plan, the United States assumes the role of eliminating North Korea's WMDs,...

According to Democrats, health care reform must be passed this very moment even though it would not kick in until 2013. But don't worry, it would start taxing Americans in 2010, three years before you get nothing. All of this probably adds up to the most expensive dependency program yet devised.

Sarkozy said it: Obama and his fellow progressives are trying to live in a virtual world. Sooner or later, this attempt always fails. Before it is too late, we must make our leaders understand that we all live in the real world. Only then can we hope to deal with the real world’s all-too-real dangers. When we must take advice from France on facing danger, we know that things have gone too far.

for anyone interested.. yahoo league..click join custom league, league ID is 156061, password is "starters" 2-g 2-f 1-c 5-bn Auto-draft Line-up changes daily

It would be foolhardy to attempt to describe all of human stupidity. So I will try to describe only two examples that are relevant today: (1) I can’t manage my own affairs, but I want to manage yours. (2) If I imagine it, it must be true. Einstein was correct. There is no limit to human stupidity. But even he could not predict how much damage would be done by self-anointed elitists living in their own fantasy world.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus formally unveiled a 10-year $856 billion bill that would extend health insurance to tens of millions of Americans not now covered, moving an important step forward on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. The sweeping measure is designed to steer a more moderate course on health policy than other major bills moving through Capitol Hill, and doesn't propose to create a new government insurance plan to compete with private insurers, as proposed in rival House legislation and favored by many liberals. Instead, the Montana Democrat is proposing to expand coverage by creating...

Chairman’s Mark The Chairman‘s Mark would establish Federal rating, issue, renewability, and pre-existing condition rules for the individual market. Issuers in the individual market could vary premiums based only on the following characteristics: tobacco use, age, and family composition. Specifically, premiums could vary no more than the ratio specified for each characteristic:  Tobacco use – 1.5:1  Age – 5:1  Family composition: o Single – 1:1 o Adult with child – 1.8:1 o Two adults – 2:1 o Family – 3:1 Premiums could also vary among, but not within, rating areas to reflect geographic differences. States would define...

Researchers at KTH have been able to prove that the fossils of animals and plants are not necessary to generate raw oil and natural gas. This result is extremely radical as it means that it will be much easier to find these energy sources and that they may be located all over the world. “With the help of our research we even know where oil could be found in Sweden!” says Vladimir Kutcherov, Professor at the KTH Department of Energy Technology in Stockholm. Together with two research colleagues, Professor Kutcherov has simulated the process of pressure and heat that occurs...

Oh, to escape the daily grind, And yet right now that cannot be. I’ll close my eyes and use my mind To dream of what I long to see. Unlock imagination’s door And clear my mind of other things. Look forward to what is in store, To what my fantasizing brings. The grass so green, trees reaching high And wildflowers line the way Of path beneath the sunlit sky. Such beauty words cannot convey. So red and plump, I cannot pass, Delight in taste of berries sweet. Remove my shoes, the luscious grass Feels velvety beneath my feet.

When America disappears 100 or 500 or 1,000 years from now, it will be gone but not forgotten. As the world's leading military, economic, and cultural power since World War II, the United States will linger in the global gene pool and influence whatever comes next. But how exactly will Americanness get transmitted to the civilizations that replace us?A better candidate to serve as America's time capsule: the Mormons. In an aside in 2007's Are We Rome?, Cullen Murphy posits that Salt Lake City could become "the Vatican of the third millennium," with the Mormon Church "propagating a particular,...

The nation's hospitals agreed last night to contribute $155 billion over 10 years toward the cost of insuring the 47 million Americans without health coverage, according to two industry sources. The agreement that three hospital associations reached with White House officials and leaders of the Senate Finance Committee is the latest in a series of side deals that aim to reduce the cost of revamping the nation's health-care system and to neutralize influential industries that have historically opposed such reforms... Most of the savings -- about $100 billion -- would come through lower-than-expected Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals, said...

Inside Neverland: The stunning photographs of Michael Jackson's empty fantasy By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE 03rd July 2009 Gone is the zoo with its elephants, tigers and giraffe. The exotic snakes have long since slithered away, and the amusement rides have been dismantled. The gates to Michael Jackson's fabled Neverland Ranch swung open yesterday to reveal a shell of the fantasy the boy-man had created when he was the King of Pop. [Pics in URL]

On April 27, The New York Times reported that the percentage of black Americans who believe race relations in America are generally good has doubled since July. This statistic forces me to ask: Why are African-Americans feeling so good about our country in a time of economic crisis and international conflict? It is not just the fact of a black president. Instead, with everyone analyzing the 100-day mark of Barack Obama's administration, I think the answer lies in understanding this historic moment through a black cultural lens. I believe African-Americans are feeling racially optimistic because they respect how our first...

2008 Nebula Awards

It is no fun to be the one who rains on the parade, and, if nothing else, President Obama's trip to Europe has been quite a parade....Still, someone has to say it: Although some things went well on this trip, some things went badly. The centerpiece of the visit, Obama's keynote foreign policy speech in Prague...was, to put it bluntly, peculiar. He used it to call for "a world without nuclear weapons" and a new series of arms control negotiations with Russia. This was not wrong, necessarily, and not evil. But it was strange. Clearly, the "no nukes" policy is...

“I am for socialism, disarmament, and ultimately for abolishing the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion,” wrote one particularly ambitious contributor in his 1935 Harvard 30th anniversary classbook. “I seek social ownership of all property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.”

When Barack Hussein Obama places his hand on the Bible today to take the oath of office as 44th president of the United States, Barbara Nelson of Kenmore will undoubtedly think back to the day he was born. It was Aug. 4, 1961, at Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu. “I may be the only person left who specifically remembers his birth. His parents are gone, his grandmother is gone, the obstetrician who delivered him is gone,” said Nelson, referring to Dr. Rodney T. West, who died in February at the age of 98. Here’s the story:...

Researchers are cloaking materials from light, sound, and even matter itself. Two years ago a team of engineers amazed the world (Harry Potter fans in particular) by developing the technology needed to make an invisibility cloak. Now researchers are creating laboratory-engineered wonder materials that can conceal objects from almost anything that travels as a wave. That includes light and sound and—at the subatomic level—matter itself. And lest you think that cloaking applies only to the intangible world, 2008 even brought a plan for using cloaking techniques to protect shorelines from giant incoming waves. Engineer Xiang Zhang, whose University of California...

Last night Ed Hale presented the (heretofore, unseen) divorce decree on Plains Radio between Obama's mother and Obama Sr ( her FIRST marriage). The key bonus in this was the revelation of the specific version of her name in the decree, Stanley Ann D. Obama. Using this precise name variation ( the abbreviated, initial "D" --instead of 'Dunham', was the cipher that broke open the search), they are claiming to have now located a POE (Port of Entry ) document that Obama's mother provided when she returned to the US with her son--soon after Obama's birth, (allegedly in Kenya). The...

From the US National Archives and Records Administration website explaining the State laws on how Electors may vote: The Supreme Court has held that the Constitution does not require that electors be completely free to act as they choose and therefore, political parties may extract pledges from electors to vote for the parties' nominees. Although some State laws provide that so-called "faithless electors" may be subject to fines or may be disqualified for casting an invalid vote and be replaced by a substitute elector, the Court has not specifically ruled on the question of whether pledges and penalties for failure...

For junior capitalists fleeing the financial meltdown, is the highly leveraged, hotly speculative Middle Eastern insta-metropolis the last, best place on Earth—or a mirage?Business is booming right now! I mean, the place has what, double-digit GDP growth? Like, that’s crazy!” Brooke Butler tucks her silken hair behind her ears, flashes a wide smile, and digs into her dumplings. It’s Pan-Asian night at Entre Nous, the restaurant on the ground floor of Novotel Dubai, and Butler, a 24-year-old Texan with an exuberant demeanor and a slim volleyball player’s build, is taking a pause from a long day schmoozing real-estate executives. She...

Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed. Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference -- just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more...

The Sun Times today gave a major clue that Barack Obama will indeed go down with Tony Rezko, sooner rather than later. It looks as though Rezko is about to turn on Alexi Giannoulias, the 30-year old State Treasurer of Illinois (who was elected only because Obama backed him). Here’s where all the clues are…and then we’ll walk you through the local Chicago politics on how today’s hint by the Sun Times has us convinced, for the first time ever, that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could indeed send Barack Obama to jail. We need to repeat that: we never believed, until...

General invite for a Basketball Fantasy league for conservatives. Anyone who would like to join is welcome. Name: Nobamicans Password: nobama any questions please post them. Thanks!

DEVELOPMENT of alternative energy should create more than 20 million jobs around the world in coming decades as governments adopt policies to address the depletion of resources, according to a UN report. Some 2.3 million people around the world already work in alternative energy jobs with half of them in biofuels, said the report. Speedy creation of the jobs will depend on countries implementing and broadening policies including capping emissions of greenhouse gases, and the shifting of subsidies from the oil and natural gas sector, to new energy including wind, solar and geothermal power, it said. "If we do not...

Need 3 more Freeper teams in a Head to Head Fantasy Hockey league...... We had a lot of fun last year! Freepmail me for details if you are interested. First come, first served.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's defence spending will grow by 27 percent in 2009, Interfax news agency quoted Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as saying on Tuesday. "Nearly 2.4 trillion roubles ($94.12 billion) will be allocated for the needs of national defence and security (in 2009)," Interfax quoted Putin as saying. "This is an increase of 27 percent."

It's Hockey Time again.....Live Free or Die Fantasy Hockey league has been created in Yahoo Sports. Let me know if you are interested and I will give you the league information.

Union T-shirts and baseball caps mingled with organic sweatshirts and dreadlocks Saturday afternoon as leaders from local environmental and labor groups met in a rally for promoting jobs in renewable energy. Speakers at the rally argued that by the federal and state governments investing in projects that would promote cleaner energy and more energy efficiency, more than 2 million jobs would be created in the country, including 37,000 in Dane County."We've heard that for a long time, that that's why we can't have more renewable energy jobs, we can't solve global warming without losing jobs. We're kind of saying, 'No,...

Speculation is that that Baldwin and Barr are stepping aside so that Paul can become the nominee of both the Constitution and Libertarian Parties The Montana Constitution Party has removed Chuck Baldwin from the ballot and is putting the ticket of Ron Paul for President and Michael Peroutka on the ballot for Vice-President.

The Observer finds that Teresa Heinz Kerry appears to believe that the results in Ohio in 2004 are illegitimate: This convention, Ms. Heinz Kerry said, is “full of meaning and full of opportunity, and if you, as I, believe, and I know a lot of you do, we did not lose the last election, nor did Al Gore lose his last election. We won it.” While many Democrats remain angry about conflicts over voter registration and the provision of voting machines, in particular, fewer believe that those provided the margin of victory, or that Kerry was robbed of victory the...

Carter: Oil Industry Will Hold Down Prices to Help Republicans Former President Jimmy Carter tells 'Early Show' crude costs will remain low to benefit GOP in 2008 election. By Paul Detrick Business & Media Institute 8/27/2008 4:57:00 PM Former president Jimmy Carter predicted on August 27 that “oil companies will hold down oil prices a little bit, you know, to try to help the Republican ticket.” Carter, who was talking to co-host Harry Smith on “The Early Show” that morning, also said that the economy would be the most important issue, “as it was when Bill Clinton was elected the...

Al Gore did not claim he invented electricity last Thursday. But the words he uttered in his challenge on energy carried just as much fantasy. According to Gore, the goal of producing every kilowatt of the nation’s electricity from carbon-free renewable sources like solar, wind, and geothermal within 10 years is not a far-fetched vision. In his address at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall, Gore challenged America to abandon its fossil fuel usage altogether. "This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative,” the former vice president said. To achieve Gore’s lofty objective, the American way of life will...

He's not president yet, but Barack Obama has already given some thought to White House decor. Asked at a town hall-style meeting in Fargo, N.D., about any decorating plans for the Lincoln Bedroom, Obama described a visit to the White House after he became a U.S. senator. "You have all these mementos of Abraham Lincoln, but you have this flat-screen TV in there," Obama told the crowd at the outdoor event.

To be an American is to be the best. Every American believes this. Their sports champions are not U.S. champions, they're world champions. Their corporations aren't the largest in the States, they're the largest on the planet. Their armies don't defend just America, they defend freedom. Like the perpetual little brother, Canadians have always lived in the shadow of our American neighbours. We mock them for their uncultured ways, their brash talk and their insularity, but it's always been the thin laughter of the insecure. After all, says University of Lethbridge sociologist Reginald Bibby, a leading tracker of social trends,...

When Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev talked at the 1986 Reykjavik summit about giving up all of their nuclear weapons within a decade, it was dismissed as a trick or more frightening proof that the American president was out of touch with strategic realities. The deal fell apart over Mr. Reagan’s refusal to limit testing of a missile defense program that was notional then and is still. In the days after, Mr. Reagan’s advisers denied that he had seriously entertained any such idea, until the Russians released quotes from the meeting. Britain’s prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, flew over to bludgeon...

Could the General Motors truck manufacturing plant in Janesville be converted to a green technology use that could preserve high-paid jobs? Participants in a teleconference Tuesday afternoon about job opportunities for a green economy said such conversions have worked elsewhere nationally. Tom Peplinski, a journeyman instrument electrician for New Page Corp. in Whiting, WI, said that the Spanish company Gemesa Corp. launched manufacturing centers for wind turbine blades and towers on a former U.S. Steel industrial site in Pennsylvania. And after Newton, Iowa, lost 1,800 jobs after Whirlpool closed Maytag operations there, TPI Composites Inc. is building a factory to...

A surprise appearance and endorsement by Clinton - who is scheduled to hold her own event in Manhattan - would allow Democrats to mark that territory in history as the heart of a new and perfect unity for the party. The election-night festivities would begin as usual with Obama mounting the stage before 20,000 wildly cheering voters. He would start his victory speech and then pause. After a dramatic silence, he would say he wants to introduce a very, very special guest. Already buzzing with giddiness, the puzzled crowd whispers and speculates. The curtains spread, and to the tune of...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declared open season for fantasy-sports companies. The high court effectively ended a three-year legal battle when it rejected an appeal from Major League Baseball and its Players Association that, if successful, could have given professional sports leagues the ability to control the lucrative fantasy-sports business. Instead, the court's decision solidifies the rights of fantasy-sports companies to run their businesses without having to buy licenses from the major sports leagues or their players' unions anymore. The Supreme Court ruled that fantasy-sports companies aren't required to pay for licenses from leagues or players' unions. Fantasy sports...

There must be a lot of SF fans here. Who are you favorite authors or books? What are you currently reading?I enjoy SF books that focus on character development over hard scifi themes. Robert Silverberg, IMO, is about the best there is. I also enjoy Gardner Duzois' short stories--some gut-wrenching stuff. Jack Vance's are also very entertaining. Orson Scott Card is pretty good too.I am currently reading Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan...it's kind of slow and hard to follow. Not likely to read his other novels.I have enjoyed some, but not all, of Niven and Pournelle's works.

2 Nephi 25   19 For according to the words of the prophets, the Messiah cometh in six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem; and according to the words of the prophets, and also the word of the angel of God, his name shall be Jesus Christ, the Son of God.   20 And now, my brethren, I have spoken plainly that ye cannot err. And as the Lord God liveth that brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and gave unto Moses power that he should heal the nations after they had been bitten by...

Not to be outdone by Democratic presidential rival Senator Hillary Clinton’s bogus claims to have been named after the man who climbed Everest six years after her birth and narrowly escaped death in Bosnia, Senator Barack Obama claimed that a 1965 civil rights march in Selma Alabama encouraged his parents to give birth to him in 1961. According to Obama, “the 1965 civil rights march inspired my father to abandon his wife in Kenya and come to America in 1960—even dodging sniper fire when his plane landed at the Honolulu airport—just so he could marry a white woman and father...

My name is Terry Pratchett, author of a series of inexplicably successful fantasy books and I have had Alzheimer's now for the past two years plus, in which time I managed to write a couple of bestsellers. I have a rare variant. I don't understand very much about it, but apparently if you are going to have Alzheimer's it's a good one to have. So, a stroke of luck there then! Interestingly enough, when I was diagnosed last December by those nice people at Addenbrooke's, I started a very different journey through dementia. This one had much better scenery, interesting...

When I was about 18, I went to a science-fiction bookstore in Berkeley, Calif., to attend a book signing by Harlan Ellison. I had a couple of well-thumbed paperback collections for Ellison to sign, and was totally unprepared for the long line of fans, many of them bearing 10 or 15 pristinely preserved hardcover books. The college-age woman in front of me had just such a pile, but was carrying something else too. When she got to the front of the line, she cleared her throat and thrust something toward Ellison. "Mr. Ellison, I wrote a story and you're in...

The fourth/fifth (at least) version of this freep leauge needs two more teams. Our beloved commish is in love (great for him) but not taking care of business. I have become the dominant creature of this league the last few years. There are some real players. Freepmail LonePalm on freereublic or email me at jjchierich1@aol.com. If you ain't a playa, don't email me (Lone may let you in)

Speculation grows on Utah's young leader completing a McCain ticketWASHINGTON - In Utah political circles, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. seemed to be hitching his future on a John McCain presidency with an eye toward a big-time ambassadorship or high-level Cabinet post. Not even the most starry-eyed of the Utah GOP had the audacity to hope for a McCain-Huntsman presidential ticket. But now that McCain is the presumptive nominee, Huntsman is appearing on several short lists as a possible running mate. The Washington Post, The Associated Press and the Atlantic, among others, have floated Huntsman as a possibility for rounding out...