Free Republic

The last year has been a whirlwind. From the economic fall to America's lost position on the world stage to the attacks upon those “un-American, bigoted, religious hate mongers who are attempting to keep America in the shadows of progressive accomplishment”. Time magazine, as every year, has chosen their Person of the Year. Was it someone that has done good for the country, like members of our Armed Forces or Emergency personnel (Firemen, police, EMS, first responders) that place their lives on the line day in and day out? No

“Invictus” means “unconquered.” The poem of that name, by 19th century Scotsman William Ernest Hensley, is said to be Nelson Mandela’s favorite. As the title of Clint Eastwood’s new film, which opened last week in the U.S., the word has a dual significance. Mandela, played to perfection by Morgan Freeman, claims that it helped carry him through his 27 years of incarceration at the hands of the Apartheid. When Mandela writes out the verses and gives them to Springbok team captain Francois Pienaar --- another perfect portrayal, this by Matt Damon--- they become the symbol and inspiration for the South...

Movie events don’t get bigger than this. James Cameron’s long-awaited follow-up to Titanic, the most successful film to date, is immense in every way: from the ambition and scope of its vision, to the ground-breaking technological wizardry, to the staggering size of its budget. ...................................... It’s a world that takes a little getting used to. Cameron’s vision owes something to Hayao Miyazaki’s meticulous fantasies and something to the 1992 Australian animation FernGully: The Last Rainforest. ................................................... Sully finds himself a pawn, caught between two camps: the empathetic scientists led by Sigourney Weaver and the corporate guns for hire who want...

The subtitle "an American Life" describes the book perfectly. As I read the book I kept noticing similarities to people I have known. Sometimes I was reminded of Grandma Smith, from rural Tennessee. Sometimes Sarah sounded like my sister. A couple times I was reminded of Prime Minister Thatcher. I believe most of Sarah's fans see important people in their lives reflected in this wonderful story. Sarah, you magnificent patriot, I read your book! (Apologies to General Patton)

The “Precious Blind Side” By justinwashingtontheblogger Seeing these two movies one day apart was a major juxaposition — a clash of what the world can be in two completely different ways. “Precious” is a deeply dark and depressing world; a huge, young, black, underaged girl who finds herself pregnant for the second time (!) by her own father, living in a two-story, run-down Section 8 (government) housing project with an incredibly abusive “mother” (played beyond belief by actress Mo’nique who had better win an Academy Award for this indelible performance). Precious’ mother is supported by (government) welfare programs; she is...

If the standard, boring, 1001bhp, open-top Veyron Grand Sport is just too commonplace for your exacting standards, how about a one-off Grand Sport Sang Bleu? Bugatti unveiled this special edition convertible Veyron at Pebble Beach over the weekend. As the Sang Noir special edition Veyron featured a black-on-black livery, so the Sang Bleu – yep, it means ‘blue blood’ in French – is decked out in blue carbon fibre and polished aluminium. Mechanically, the Sang Bleu identical to the standard Veyron Grand Sport – though it’s tough to argue with a thousand-bhp 8.0-litre W16 engine and a 0-60mph time...

The Men Who Stare at Goats, the latest George Clooney fiasco, is like getting stung by a wasp on the inside of your eyelid. You are blinded to all reason and the agony lasts for days. Despite Mr. Clooney’s easygoing charm and obvious good looks, his film choices point to an appalling lack of both intelligence and taste. He just doesn’t seem interested in narrative movies that make sense, and even worse, he has an exasperating tendency to turn his projects over to buddies and basketball cronies, whether or not they have any talent. (In George Clooney movies, talent is...

The new Interior Department looks into a move to lock in beneficial royalties and regulations for companies with leases on public lands -- denounced by some as a massive giveaway to the oil industry. Reporting from Washington - The Obama Interior Department is reviewing a decision made by the Bush administration in its final days that attempted to lock in lucrative royalty rates and favorable regulations for oil companies holding leases for oil shale development on public lands.

Team Sarah is a diverse coalition of Americans dedicated to advancing the values that Sarah Palin represents in the political process. The Team is setting up a process whereby people volunteer to review specific pages of health care bills and provide anaylsis of the implication of the language in those pages in real time. The review team and process is being set up so that any bill presented can be analyzed by Team Sarah reviewers in its entirety in a matter of a couple hours! End Stalinism Now! Step up!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House has been presented intelligence estimating Taliban-led forces battling U.S. troops in Afghanistan have nearly quadrupled since 2006 and are increasingly independent of leaders in Pakistan, officials said on Friday. A U.S. intelligence assessment, showing the number of fighters in the insurgency has reached an estimated 25,000 from 7,000 in 2006, spotlights Taliban gains and the tough choices facing President Barack Obama in trying to reverse the trend. Some of Obama's advisers see a more concerted crackdown by Pakistan on militants on its side of the border as key to turning the tide in Afghanistan,...

Twilight - Giving heed to fables… By: Pastor Bill Randles Why “Twilight” is spiritually fatal, and what it shows us about the state of Christian youth. “…and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside unto fables.” (2 Timothy 4:4) If someone would have told me 25 years ago, that one day a popular series of “vampire romance” books would be accepted and promoted by evangelical ministries, I wouldn’t have been able to believe it. That’s why I was shocked to read this article by Christian documentarian and researcher, Caryl Matrisciana and Paul Villanueva, http://carylmatrisciana.com/x2/content/view/81/1/...

Movie Review: The Hurt Locker by: Brandon Friedman Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 08:45:00 AM EDT And now for something not-so-serious. I don't typically write book or movie reviews, but after this weekend, I really felt compelled to. This movie just stuck in my craw. But take heed: This is a review for military people. So if you've never been in the military or never been to Iraq, just stop reading this. Because if you keep reading, I'll probably ruin what could be a pretty good action flick for you. The Hurt Locker is a high-tension, well-made, action movie that...

Writer, Gail D. Welborn's review of The Watchers, by Mark Andrew Olsen. Withing this review, Gail says, "Christy award finalist, Mark Andrew Olsen’s new release is an unusual title that mixes spiritual genealogy and the supernatural to produce a mind-blowing twist. His fresh, innovative-plot and characters are anything but typical."

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has ordered his national security team to investigate reports that U.S. allies were responsible for the deaths of as many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners of war in Afghanistan. Obama told CNN in an interview that aired Sunday that if the United States violated international norms, he wants to know about it. He also says he will make a decision how to proceed after he has all the facts

WASHINGTON – A federal judge said Thursday that he wants to look at notes from the FBI's interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney during the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's decision to review the documents followed arguments by Obama administration lawyers that sounded much like the reasons the Bush administration provided for keeping Cheney's interview from the public. Justice Department lawyers told the judge that future presidents and vice presidents may not cooperate with criminal investigations if they know what they say could become available to their political opponents...

Quentin Tarantino has made an eye-catching return to the Cannes Film Festival with Inglourious Basterds, an epic World War II movie set in Nazi-occupied France. Tarantino swaps fact for pulp fiction in Inglourious Basterds, a comic revenge fantasy about Jewish freedom fighters bringing down the Nazis in 1944. Brad Pitt plays Lieutenant Aldo Raine, the leader of a gang of Jewish-American soldiers operating in occupied France whose self-proclaimed mission is "to kill as many Nazis as possible". They succeed in Tarantino's usual grisly-comic fashion, carving swastikas into the foreheads of any German soldier they do not scalp. The plot culminates...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has ordered an internal review to determine how the decision was made to send of one of his official airplanes on a low-flying photo op past the New York City skyline. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that deputy chief of staff Jim Messina will lead the review. Gibbs said the point is to determine "why that decision was made and to ensure that it never happens again." Gibbs said Obama was "furious" when he heard about the incident. Obama has called it a mistake.

NEWPORT, Rhode Island (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department will take a "hard look" at whether it needs a projected $13.2 billion General Dynamics Corp program designed to hurl combat-ready Marines from ship to shore, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday. Widening a drive to reshape the U.S. military for what he sees as its most likely future fights, Gates raised questions about the "expeditionary fighting vehicle," or EFV, an amphibious tank being developed by General Dynamics for the Marine Corps.

Patriots predicted a financial meltdown and the ensuing chaos. Now it’s a bestselling manifesto. Survivalist James Wesley, Rawles talks to Sara Nelson from an undisclosed location. Every once in a while, a book you’ve never heard of by a writer you’ve never heard of comes out of the woodwork to become a bestseller. That was the story with the Tim LaHaye Left Behind novels of the 1990s, and with last year’s The Shack, by William P. Young. Both “faith-based,” and both originally either self- or tiny-house published, these books would never be reviewed by the likes of any of the...

Whew! Tinseltown's go-to graphic-novel guy didn't ruin Watchmen. But he doesn't get it either. The most eagerly anticipated (as well as the most beleaguered) movie of the year (if not the century), Watchmen is neither desecratory disaster nor total triumph. In filming David Hayter and Alex Tse's adaptation of the most ambitious superhero comic book ever written, director Zack Snyder has managed to address the cult while pandering to the masses. Warner Bros., which battled Fox for possession of the property — from which author Alan Moore has, typically, removed his name — is marketing Snyder, who remade George Romero's...

Dave Barry Year in Review: Bailing out of 2008BY DAVE BARRY Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson How weird a year was it? Here's how weird: • O.J. actually got convicted of something. • Gasoline hit $4 a gallon -- and those were the good times. • On several occasions, Saturday Night Live was funny. • There were a few days there in October when you could not completely rule out the possibility that the next Treasury Secretary would be Joe the Plumber. • Finally, and most weirdly, for the first time in history, the voters elected a president who -- despite...

Minnesota State Canvassing Board review of challenged ballots in the U.S. Senate race HERE

If you're looking for chuckles this holiday season, bypass the miserably unfunny "Four Christmases" and go where the real comedy is -- "The Day the Earth Stood Still," a clumsy, moronic remake of Robert Wise's brilliant 1951 classic about an alien invader trying to save the human race from its own self-destructive impulses. What did poor Wise do, incidentally, to deserve such treatment? His chilling horror masterpiece "The Haunting" was already put through the meat-grinder with an effects-heavy 1999 remake, and his thriller "The Andromeda Strain" was revisited with ill results in a SciFi Channel re-do earlier this year. What...

In his now-infamous I'm-running-away-from-home note to National Review posted on the cyberpages of leftist publisher Tina Brown, Christopher Buckley, conservative legend William F. Buckley Jr.'s writer/novelist son, clearly stated reasons why someone like him would -- under normal circumstances -- utterly refuse to vote for someone like Barack Obama (words in italics are Buckley's): “He [Obama] is … a lefty. I am not." We'll take "Christo" (as his friends call him) at his word, for the moment. His essay is subtitled "The conservative case for Obama," but for reasons I illustrate below, I think it should be instead "A conservative's...

A Word on Christopher Buckley [Rich Lowry] Chris is up with a post at The Daily Beast, "Sorry, Dad, I Was Fired." I’d like to clarify this “firing” business. Over the weekend, Chris wrote us a jaunty e-mail with the subject line "A Sincere Offer," in which he offered to resign his column on NR's back page and said that if we accepted, there "would be no hard feelings, only warmest regards and understanding." We took the offer sincerely. Chris had done us the favor of writing the column beginning seven issues ago on a "trial basis" (his words), while...

The plot: It's the Fourth of July, and a goofy grandfather, Leslie Nielsen, is telling his grandchildren a fairy tale about the grinch who stole Independence Day. Only it's not a grinch. It's Michael Moore, er . . . "Michael Malone." And it's a true story, not a fairy tale. Moore/Malone wants to eliminate the Fourth of July and has enlisted a number of liberal groups to do it with him. Meanwhile, Islamic terrorists want to recruit Moore to do a terrorist movie for them, to make it easier to recruit jihadists. Moore's nephew is in the military and wants...

If anyone is more arrogant, condescending and smug than Bill Maher, I don't want to meet that person. Funny and insightful, yes. Someone I'd want to hang out with, no. This comes into play with "Religulous," Maher's smarmy documentary that basically forces us to hang out with him as he travels the world interviewing the dumbest, least eloquent, most extreme religious adherents he can find. His goal? To convince the audience that God is imaginary, that the people who believe in him are delusional, and that organized religion is a blight that must be wiped out if humanity is to...

I need ballot help from the Washington State Forum. Would any of you mind moving the discussion to this thread so that I can get a handle on the candidates? This impressive video is Randy Neatherlin running for Representative District No. 35 Position No. 2.

UNC chief says Mary Easley's raise under review Link only

Can anyone that has seen this movie comment on it. I had an acquaintance recommend it.

The Great Hall at the University of Reading is a lively piece of Victoriana: a broad neo-Romanesque structure suggestive of a nave, with a concave arched ceiling of gilt-edged rectangular sections painted a pastel green and decorated with rosettes. The uniformity of its architectural style contrasts with the people I can see under its roof. Perhaps 200 students are at work here, and my guess, from their faces, is that between them they could trace their ancestry to Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, the far east and perhaps the Indian subcontinent. These observations collide with Kenan Malik's insistence in his new book,...

That’s because it’s a country striving for normality, whose normal aspects rarely make their way into media reports that highlight violence, mayhem, and failure. On TV, Iraq looks like a nation of masked, gun-toting fanatics, but in person, one finds friendliness, solidarity, and reasonableness amid the chaos. “Just because Iraqis have ‘Allahu Akbar’ on their flag,” Yon writes, “doesn’t mean they’re going to blow up the World Trade Center any more than ‘In God We Trust’ means we’re going to attack Communist China.” “Iraq does not hate America,” he insists. “If they hated us, I’d be urging an immediate troop...

Incoming state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass on Tuesday said one way to solve California's continual budget mess is to revamp the state's tax code, possibly raising income taxes on the wealthy, levying sales taxes on services and closing tax loopholes. In an interview with The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Democrat said she wants a bipartisan panel to examine the code and recommend ways to change it. "The state of California is in a crisis," Bass said. "I want to set up a commission outside of the Legislature that will look at more long-term solutions and evaluate whether the tax...

John McCain faces a dilemma when it comes to choosing a vice president. He needs a running mate who will be a contrast to him in a few key ways — younger, more knowledgeable about economic issues, and, especially, more conservative. But if McCain selects a running mate whose conservative credentials are beyond dispute, he’ll be choosing a candidate who likely disagrees with him on some issues of great importance to the Republican base. On Sunday, I spoke with two leading contenders for the McCain ticket, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, both in Washington for...

Richard Feldman, former lobbyist for NRA and various firearms industry groups in the 1980’s and 1990’s, has created a fair stir with his book Ricochet: Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist. The book has the appearance of a turncoat insider dishing up hot gossip from the bowels of the gun lobby. But despite its cover – and despite some angry reviews – Feldman has not joined the anti-gun side. He has staked out a pro-gun, but anti-NRA position. Feldman’s thesis is that the National Rifle Association’s High Command has cultivated “a cynical, mercenary political cult” that it is “obsessed with wielding...

Avoiding the Critics -- Again In order to answer one's critics, one must first face criticism honestly. Unfortunately, the authors fail to do so in their latest book. The primary criticisms of the FairTax fall within three categories: (a) the FairTax rate would need to be extremely high in order to replace our current tax system and still fund the government, (b) the burden of the FairTax will fall primarily on the middle class, and (c) the FairTax will be virtually impossible to enforce. Despite listing these criticisms among the many that they allegedly refute, the authors fail to address...

Decline and Fall: Europe’s Slow Motion Suicide, by Bruce S. Thornton (Encounter Books, 300 pp., $21.95) It used to be said that when it came to worldviews, Americans were from Mars and Europeans were from Venus. But a new school of thought posits a different role for our continental counterparts. Europe, in this schema, is more like a dying star: a once-brilliant civilization whose best days lie behind it, that has lost the internal strength to endure, and that is headed toward oblivion. Bruce Thornton, a classics professor at California State University, is the latest to take up this thesis....

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Harry Forbes, the Director of the USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting, who provoked disbelief from U.S. Catholics when he praised both "Brokeback Mountain" and the explicitly anti-Catholic "The Golden Compass," has again endorsed movies rife with explicit sexuality and extreme violence, this time in the USCCB's just released yearly top-10 movie listing.The USCCB reviewer introduces his January 25 top-10 list by praising the quality and "morally grounded" nature of such films as "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and "Eastern Promises". "Though on-screen violence, like sexuality, can often be gratuitous, 2007 saw a...

....It's pretty likely that some people will be heartily offended by Rambo; once again an American hero is mowing down hordes of brown skinned people who have no redeeming qualities or humanity. The leader of the Burmese troops is not only a killer and an %#%^!, he's a gay pedophile! I believe the guy had a mustache but I don't remember it being twirled. But the fact is nobody expects - or wants - reality or complexity in a Rambo movie. Hell, one of the main themes of this movie is that killing is necessary, and missionaries who spend the...

"The Archdiocese of Baltimore is grateful that the Conference withdrew the review because it caused much confusion in the Catholic Community," Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien said in an e-mailed statement. "From all reports, the review failed to adequately warn parents about the movie's widely recognized dark themes and anti-Catholic imagery." . . . "We saw this thing exploding over the weekend," Donohue said. "It was just a matter of time before they had to take it down."

Archbishop’s Column, Denver Catholic Register December 12, 2007 Sympathy for the devil: thoughts on ‘The Golden Compass’ When the first Harry Potter movie arrived in theaters several years ago, many Catholic families had divided views about the film. Some enjoyed it as an innocent and intriguing fantasy. Others avoided it because of its emphasis on magic. But the screen adaptation of Philip Pullman’s book, “The Golden Compass,” which opened in Denver on Dec. 7, will likely produce far more agreement. No matter how one looks at it, “The Golden Compass” is a bad film. There’s just no nicer way to...

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has withdrawn a positive review of the film "The Golden Compass," after more than a week of criticism about the church's apparent approval of a pro-atheism work. The review, which had said that the film "can be viewed as an exciting adventure story with, at its core, a traditional struggle between good and evil, and a generalized rejection of authoritarianism," was not available on the USCCB.org Web site last night.

Christians staying away from a movie that wants to "Kill God in the minds of children" isn't the only challenge facing the new film Golden Compass. The critics just don't like it.

US Bishops asked to Fire Chief Film Critic over Glowing Reviews for "Brokeback" and "Compass" "Bishops horrified at what has been done in their name" By John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, DC, December 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Bishops of the United States are being asked to fire the chief movie reviewer for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Harry Forbes, the Director of the USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting, has reignited scandal by praising the film "The Golden Compass" which is based on an anti-Catholic novel. Forbes caused similar controversy two years ago when he issued a glowing...

In the News & Record last Sunday, Lewis Beale of Newsday wrote about how "War films can be hard for Hollywood to peddle." It seems that "of the four flms released in the past six months dealing with the current world situation -- all with big-name stars and the full Hollywood studio push -- none earned a profit in its initial theatrical release." Stephen Bochco explains the failure of these war films (as of his own TV series on the war, Over There) by saying, "It's a hugely unpopular war, and there's a staggering amount of depressing coverage.... I don't...

The Simpsons have been on TV for eighteen years—the second-longest running primetime program behind 60 Minutes. So unless you've been in the Peace Corps for a good chunk of that time or simply don't watch any television, you probably already have an opinion about America's favorite animated family. The show's creators know this, and, in a stroke of genius, use it to their advantage in the uproariously funny self-aware opening to The Simpsons Movie. Let's face it. Most television shows don't translate well to the big screen, and that's especially true for 15- or 30-minute cartoons that don't have the...

Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater [DVD] Zeitgeist Video // Unrated // $29.99 // July 31, 2007 (excerpts) Zeitgeist Films has released Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, a documentary on the legendary Republican Senator from Arizona. Co-produced by Barry Goldwater's granddaughter, CC Goldwater, Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater attempts the rather ridiculous transformation of the unsuccessful 1964 presidential candidate and author of The Conscience of a Conservative into a rebellious liberal, while hinting that his personal life may have been troubled. Perhaps significantly, no screenwriting credit is given, but one must assume that despite the film's listing of Julie Anderson as...

Here is a song that really hits home for right-favoring conservatives but may initially be hard to swallow.

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2007 – Americans have a moral obligation to provide the best possible care and treatment to the men and women who serve their country, President Bush told members of the American Legion here today. In order to ensure that troops get the best care, Bush introduced a new bipartisan presidential commission that will review servicemembers’ health care. “This review will examine their treatment from the time they leave the battlefield through their return to civilian life as veterans, so we can ensure that we’re meeting the physical and mental health needs involved,” Bush said. The commission,...

Introduction to the Scientific Method The scientific method is the process by which scientists, collectively and over time, endeavor to construct an accurate (that is, reliable, consistent and non-arbitrary) representation of the world. Recognizing that personal and cultural beliefs influence both our perceptions and our interpretations of natural phenomena, we aim through the use of standard procedures and criteria to minimize those influences when developing a theory. As a famous scientist once said, "Smart people (like smart lawyers) can come up with very good explanations for mistaken points of view." In summary, the scientific method attempts to minimize the influence...