Free Republic

Of all post-war decades, the 1970s has undoubtedly had the worst press, but the truth is that most ordinary families in 1970s Britain were better off than ever, writes historian Dominic Sandbrook. The 1950s are symbolised by the television and the washing machine, which transformed the lives of so many families. We misremember the 1960s as the decade of the Mini, which was actually invented in 1959, the mini-skirt, which surprisingly few women actually wore, and the Pill, which most women never took. We remember the 1980s as the decade of gigantic hair, shoulder-pads, the Filofax and the home...

Music video by Sammy Hagar performing I Can't Drive 55. (C) 1984 Geffen Records In 1974, the federal government passed the National Maximum Speed Law, which restricted the maximum permissible vehicle speed limit to 55 miles per hour (mph) on all interstate roads in the United States.1 The law was a response to the 1973 oil embargo, and its intent was to reduce fuel consumption.

This month marks the 43rd anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. We have been fed some false information about this war. For starters, Israel did not strike first unlike in the 1967 Six day war when Israel was forced to launch a pre-emptive strike as her enemies amassed on her borders and as the UN stood aside and allowed them to do so. The Arabs shot first  On the night of September 25, King Hussein secretly flew to Tel Aviv to warn Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir of an impending Syrian attack. Throughout September, Israel received eleven more warnings...

A little known Swedish-Canadian oil and mining conglomerate human rights groups have repeatedly charged produces “blood minerals” is among the Clinton Foundation’s biggest donors, thanks to a ($100 million pledge) in 2007, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found.“Blood minerals” are related to “blood diamonds,” which are allegedly mined in war zones or sold as commodities to help finance political insurgencies or despotic warlords. When the Vancouver, Canada-based Lundin Group gave its $100 million commitment to the “Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative,” the company had long been cutting deals with warlords, Marxist rebels, military strongmen and dictatorships in the...

The “infamy” of December 7, 1941, is deeper than most Americans have ever imagined. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was almost certainly the result of a Soviet plot—“Operation Snow”—carried out by Harry Dexter White, a figure of enormous influence in the Roosevelt administration and a known Soviet spy. Americans remember Pearl Harbor as the work of a Japanese military machine hell-bent on a war of conquest. The truth is more complicated. The imperial regime had faced severe political shocks throughout the 1930s. Two attempts on the life of Emperor Hirohito—one by a Japanese communist whose father was a member...

How a Soviet mole in FDR's inner circle triggered Pearl Harbor – and its dire relevancy to our conflict today. ... On December 7, 1941, 353 Japanese aircraft delivered a shocking blow .. Nearly seven years later, Harry Dexter White, a senior official in the Roosevelt Administration, appeared to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities . Numerous witnesses, including Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley, had implicated White in involvement with the Communist Party and the Soviet Union. ... Harry Dexter White, a Harvard PhD and Assistant Treasury Secretary, had played a major role in creating the World Bank...

This fall marks the fortieth anniversary of the Arab oil embargo, a painful episode in American history that had a profound effect on both the economy and psyche of the United States. It began in mid-October 1973, following the US decision to resupply Israel with weaponry after Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. In response to President Nixon’s decision, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, the Arab members of OPEC, declared an embargo and cut off oil supplies to the United States and its allies. In the three...

(BRUSSELS) - The EU agreed an embargo on Iran's oil exports Monday as well as financial sanctions as the West ramped up pressure on Tehran's suspect nuclear drive to press it to return to the negotiating table. "This is an important decision. It will be a major strengthening of the sanctions applied on Iran," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. "It is absolutely right to do this in view of Iran's continued breach of UN Security Council resolutions and refusal to come to meaningful negotiations on the nuclear programme," he added. After weeks of tough talks on the timing and...

-excerpt- Diplomats said the measures, which were adopted in Brussels by the EU's 27 foreign ministers, include an immediate embargo on new contracts for crude oil and petroleum products, while existing contracts will be allowed to run until July.

Exclusive: EU agrees to embargo on Iranian crude Photo 1:30pm EST By Justyna Pawlak and Parisa Hafezi BRUSSELS/TEHRAN (Reuters) - European governments have agreed in principle to ban imports of Iranian oil, EU diplomats said Wednesday, dealing a blow to Tehran that crowns new Western sanctions months before an Iranian election. The prospective embargo by the European Union, along with tough U.S. financial measures signed into law by President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve, form a concerted Western campaign to hold back Iran's nuclear program. Iran says the program is strictly non-military, but Western countries say a November U.N....

Whereas Obama is trying to crush Arizona by suing it into the ground to prevent it from defending itself from illegal immigration, and it is preventing any clean up efforts in Louisiana after 71 days, it has just been learned from one of our conatcts in Texas that Obama by way of the EPA has just shut down today 33% of the country’s refining capacity. While Obama was unsuccessful at putting a moratorium on oil drilling, he was able to accomplish the same thing by putting a stranglehold on oil refining which accomplishes the same thing. With 1/3rd of the...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Monday for an immediate embargo on Iran's energy sector, saying the U.N. Security Council should be sidestepped if it cannot agree on the move.

Energy Policy: It's tempting to make fun of Hillary Clinton's prophecy of oil prices plunging with her inauguration. But a female reincarnation of Jimmy Carter, reviving his disastrous energy policies, is no laughing matter.There's an overarching dream that animates many politicians of the left: to lead a government in peacetime that inspires the populace to sacrifice with the same zeal they would if they were living in wartime. President Carter was all set in the summer of 1979 to give a speech calling the country's energy challenges "as serious as war itself and deserving of the same sustained national effort."...

Mexican government fines Sheraton Hotel for expelling Cubans By Ioan Grillo ASSOCIATED PRESS 7:51 p.m. March 24, 2006 MEXICO CITY – A U.S.-owned hotel that expelled Cuban guests under pressure from the Treasury Department must pay $112,000 in fines for violating Mexican commerce law, the Mexican government said Friday.The Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel, located at Mexico City's Angel of Independence monument, kicked out 16 Cuban officials attending a Feb. 2 meeting with U.S. oil executives after receiving a warning from the Treasury Department that it was in danger of violating a four-decade trade embargo against the regime of Cuban President...

DAVOS, Switzerland (FORTUNE) - Be afraid. Be very afraid. That's the message from two of the world's most successful investors on the topic of high oil prices. One of them, Hermitage Capital's Bill Browder, has outlined six scenarios that could take oil up to a downright terrifying $262 a barrel. The other, billionaire investor George Soros, wouldn't make any specific predictions about prices. But as a legendary commodities player, it's worth paying heed to the words of the man who once took on the Bank of England -- and won. "I'm very worried about the supply-demand balance, which is very...

"Oil is the lifeline of the West, and most of the West's military industries are dependent on it,” the Tehran Times suggested in an editorial last week. Irritated by a recent resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that called for a halt to Iran’s uranium conversion program, the newspaper suggested that oil-rich states form a united front and use oil as a tool to confront "western neocolonialist countries." In Venezuela, Pres. Hugo Chavez has taken the idea a step further, threatening to halt oil exports if alleged attacks on his country continue, according to Agence France Press. Appearing...

Caracas, Venezuela (AHN) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatens to cut off oil exports to the United States, after tensions between the two countries mount. During a recent speech in Caracas, President Chavez denounced the "aggressive" actions of the U.S. government against the South American country, threatening that Venezuelan oil "instead of going to the United States, could go elsewhere." Tensions between the two countries have risen after Venezuela stopped assisting the U.S. in their War against Drugs. In response, the U.S. canceled the military visas of Venezuelan military personnel, working with U.S. anti-drug agencies. Venezuela then deported U.S. Drug...

London, Jan 28, SPA -- Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland, has shed light on the policy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its role in the Middle East. Lecturing at ST. Anders University in Scotland on Tuesday evening, Prince Khalid said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia maintains friendly relations with all countries. He pointed out that King Abdulaziz at his meeting with Former US President Franklin Roosevelt in 1945, had reiterated the independent policy of the Kingdom, as well as its great concern with the Palestinian problem. 'With the grace of the...

Papers released under the 30-year rule show Britain worried about Middle East conflict and what to buy for a royal wedding The British Government believed America was preparing for a lightning war in the Middle East to end the 1973 oil crisis, including an invasion of Kuwait, documents released today to the National Archives show. The Joint Intelligence Committee, the body that acts as the link between the intelligence services and Downing Street, warned the Prime Minister, Edward Heath that Washington was planning to seize oil fields in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait to secure the Western economies. The...

Investigations The tyrant withinMost relevant passages have been boldened -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This February Mark Lilla sat on a New York University panel about 9/11 and was shocked to hear a fellow panelist, the French intellectual Jean Baudrillard, "offering his fanciful take on the attack as a [symbolic] suicide by the towers." Lilla recalled the moment recently while keynoting a U of C Women's Board luncheon. "An act of suicide by the towers-because of the evils of capitalism and globalism and despite the loss of life-was actually, according to this respected intellectual, a predictable thing." Lilla, a professor in the Committee on...