Free Republic

In NATO the smallest members tend to be the most aggressive. It’s probably because they know they wouldn’t be called on to fight any wars they caused. They simply are too small to make a difference. So Lithuania, with an army of just 8,850 active-duty personnel and 5,650 reservists, is now enforcing a blockade of sorts against Russia through Kaliningrad. The latter was seized from Germany at the end of World War II and ended up separated from the rest of Russia after the Baltic States seceded from the Soviet Union. Vilnius is forbidding transport of coal, metals, electronics, and...

A "wall of moms" gathers to confront federal officers on Sunday, July 19, 2020 in downtown Portland: ------------------------------------------- A wall of "Portland Moms" shields rioters from Federal forces in downtown Portland: President Donald Trump deployed federal police to Portland to quell six weeks of protests. He has achieved the opposite effect. The crowds gathering outside downtown courthouses on July 18 and 19 were as large as any Portland has seen in the past month. The crowd also appeared significantly older than at any previous demonstration. That's in no small part because reports of aggressive tactics by federal officers—including shooting a...

Oh my God, I’ve made a bad impression already,” Dick Cavett says apologetically after I ever-so-gently correct his pronunciation of my name. When I suggest that I should be the one worried about interviewing one of the all-time great interviewers, he’s quick to put me at ease. “You’d better put that aside and out of your mind,” he tells me. “I can’t detect any faults in you so far. I’ve reached the 83-year-old talk show legend by phone at his home in Connecticut just a few days before the new documentary, Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes, is...

Rocker David Crosby went after President Donald Trump during an appearance on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time on Friday, describing him as having “no morals” and accusing the president of dragging America “to a new level of low.” During his interview with Chris Cuomo, the founding member of Crosby, Stills & Nash argued Trump was damaging America on purpose.

Hanging out on a street corner has taken on new meaning in San Francisco. Several dozen men and at least one woman took part in a naked protest Saturday in San Francisco's Castro District that has become known for its nude visitors. Some participants carried signs that read, "Nudity is Not a Crime" and "Get Your Hate Off My Body," . . .

Consider yourself warned: those naked guys in the Castro are going to turn out in force on Saturday for a noon-time “nude-in” at what they call The Buff Stop. (For non-nudists, that’s the plaza at the corner of Castro and 17th Street.) Though the naked guys aren’t fans of Supervisor Scott Wiener’s recently proposed legislation mandating that they put a towel down on a public chair or bench before sitting on it, the nude-in is actually unrelated. It was planned weeks ago as a sort of pre-party for Sunday’s Folsom Street Fair. Because, you know, that day-long celebration of all...

The Chronicle's Will Kane, one of the reporters covering last week's BART demonstrations, overheard more or less - the longer quotes in the following aren't verbatim, but approximations of what was said, says Kane - the following exchange: Angry older male protester to officer: "You cop, you're a pig. You bitch. You're a bitch. That's all." Angry older female protester to angry older male protester: "Excuse me, sir, can you please not use a derogatory term for females, even when you're insulting a cop." Angry older male: "Oh, OK. I am sorry. You're right." African American male cop, at whom...

Jesuit priest Stephen Kelly, 62, of Oakland, and Sister Anne Montgomery, 84, of Redwood City, were among a group of five senior peace demonstrators who were sentenced to federal prison in Tacoma, Washington, today. The group were all convicted of conspiracy, trespass, and destruction of government property in December and were facing up to ten years in prison for cutting through fences at Bangor Base on November 2, 2009, to get to an area containing ten Ohio-class submarines. The protesters had put up banners near the bunkers, sprinkled blood on the ground, scattered sunflower seeds, and prayed until they were...

Will Sarah Palin's Tea Party dinner be a bust? Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips likely assumed that scoring a dinner speech by the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate would guarantee a huge turnout for his National Tea Party Convention, scheduled to start Feb. 4 at Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Hotel. But according to Tea Party insiders, the tickets for the Palin banquet aren't selling—and some conservative activists who have already paid to attend are now demanding refunds. With the controversial event shaping up to be a potential flop, some Tea Partiers are urging Palin to cancel her...

"People are discouraged," said Susan Lamont, a Santa Rosa resident who drives a Subaru wagon plastered with bumper stickers. Donations that fund the nonprofit center were down 10 percent last year and another 20 percent this year, a trend that has crimped budgets for many nonprofit groups. But political activism has also waned, with many on the left now merely signing e-mail petitions, which Lamont considers a "worthless effort."

Recite them in K-12 classrooms and college campuses. Print them out and distribute at all Townhall meetings! Oppose the manufactured right-wing slander with the heart-felt truth of Party-approved slogans! 1. Long live the Great Psychedelic Woodstock Revolution - the main event of the 20th century, the beginning of the worldwide historic turn of humanity away from the monochrome past, towards a bright, vividly colorful future! 2. Let live for centuries the name and work of Timothy Leary, the splendiferous leader and creator of the psychedelic revolution - the new objective reality! 3. Long live sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll -...

From San Francisco to Berkeley to Washington, D.C., peace activists plan demonstrations across the nation today to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. More than 600 events are scheduled. Anti-war activists say their goal is to use the occasion to renew interest in the conflict when many Americans are focused on the troubled economy and the presidential election. "We want to make sure that this war is put back into the American consciousness as an issue," said Bill Hackwell, spokesman for the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism coalition, or A.N.S.W.E.R. "This has...

A bunch of aging hippies from Farmington Peace Action have been holding a vigil at the Monument in Rochester for long time, long enough to agrivate the hell out of a few of us. We met up under cloudy skies at Big Heads Bar and Grill and proceeded to set up on Main Street across from the monument with flags and signs supporting our troops and their mission. The first commie to show was the Ur hippy with a cane, white hair, shorts and sandles. The next was a scrawny guy with a correctly folded American Flag, looked like he...

Aquarius Sunset by Cal Thomas Posted Jan 30, 2007 The ideologically decrepit anti-war crowd returned to Washington last weekend for a reunion. The older among them abandoned hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Vietnamese to imprisonment, torture, death and re-education camps. Their demonstrations were encouraging to the communist Vietnamese, sending the message that America lacked the will to win. These aging hippies and their progeny now want to do the same to millions of Iraqis, who have democratically elected their leaders. This is the sunset of the “Age of Aquarius.” Yesterday, when they were young, they were the pampered generation...

Their hair, once a symbol of youthful rebellion, is mostly gray. Bodies that writhed with wild abandon when a guru invited them to "Tune in ... turn on ... drop out" now sport stiff knees and age spots. "How many of you are on acid right now?" rock critic Joel Selvin asked an audience of former hippies who turned out this past week to mark the 40th anniversary of the Human Be-in, the counterculture event that unofficially launched the Summer of Love. "How many of you are on antacid right now?" In many ways, the '60s as we now know...

3,000 people attempt to get by without buying new things - For Shawn Rosenmoss, the deal-breaker was a drill bit. John Perry's worst temptation was a plumber's snake for his clogged drain. Sarah Pelmas and Matt Eddy succumbed to the siren song of new white paint. But aside from the occasional hardware crises, the Compact -- an ever-growing group who have vowed not to buy anything new except food, medicine and underwear -- is going strong on its first anniversary. The Compact originated in December 2005 at a San Francisco dinner party, where guests decided to take recycling one step...

Students often use the excuse that the best times of their lives are in college so they can use drugs and abuse alcohol, but I recently found out that you can still party well after the convocation ceremony. While attending the Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band concert in Knoxville, Tenn., with my father, I saw baby boomers doing everything college students do today. I expected the concert to be fun, but watching these 40-, 50- and 60-year-olds partying was truly a learning experience. While rocking out to tunes like "Still the Same" and "Turn the Page," the older...

CLARK — The Rainbow Family peace gathering turned hostile Tuesday when a group of attendees began hurling rocks and sticks at law enforcement officers, U.S. Forest Service officials said. The incident forced the officers to abandon a checkpoint they had established near the entrance to the Rainbow gathering campsite in North Routt County, Forest Service spokeswoman Diann Ritschard said. Officers had not returned to the checkpoint as of Tuesday afternoon. The incident happened at about 11 a.m. and involved Forest Service officers who were manning the checkpoint set up to issue citations to anyone attempting to enter the gathering. Citations...

My teenage daughter and I attended an anti-war rally last weekend in Walnut Creek, but you couldn't really say we made a point of it. It was more like we were going by, saw the crowd and stopped in to hear the music. There was an old-fashioned folksinger there, complete with an acoustic guitar and a Bob Dylan-style harmonica holder around his neck. His look may have been retro, but he certainly wasn't. We estimated his age at 20. And that was the funny thing. He was one of the few young people there. There were a lot more people...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Leftist leaders at the University of California, Santa Barbara have begun distributing a profanity-sprinkled "Disorientation Guide" that calls for a return to the activist spirit of the 1960s. The guide, which came out last week, features interviews with the college's "most politically active" professors, a directory of local liberal organizations and commentaries on subjects including feminism, corporate media, proper "queer" terminology and the value of blogs.It also chronicles the history of UCSB activism, including the infamous 1970 burning of the Bank of America in Isla Vista."A lot of people have passion for certain issues, but never...