Free Republic

MOUNT SHASTA, Calif. — It is a glorious day in Northern California, and Lewis Elbinger, a 68-year-old Bernie Sanders supporter, is feeling great — or, as he puts it, “high vibe.” In the five decades since he first painted a white peace sign on his forehead, protested the Vietnam War and hitchhiked to India to become a monk, in fact, he has never felt more optimistic about the country than at this very moment. “A consciousness is rising,” he says. A case could be made that this is not exactly so in the sense that Elbinger means it. Donald Trump...

"When officers pulled Short over it was for a routine traffic stop. Since he's on supervised release for previous meth sales they searched his car. "When the officers searched the car they located four ounces of methamphetamine in the car, which is a lot of methamphetamine, so that's consistent with somebody who's selling," said Fresno police Lt. Joe Gomez. After searching his apartment, they found a half pound of meth, heroin and materials for a meth lab. "Just shocking someone that age would do that, but actually a perfect place to do it, right? Retirement village, who would suspect it...

Mitt Romney has done it now. He has attacked the Left where it lives -- on PBS and NPR. Mass-attending Catholics rightly perceive that President Obama launched a direct attack on their church. Their bishops have informed them. Evangelicals and other people of faith have mobilized to support Catholics against the Obamacare regulations that will oblige Catholic hospitals, schools and human welfare agencies to close rather than provide the morning-after pill, sterilization, and other drugs and procedures prohibited by Catholic doctrine. Catholics are angry, and they will vote that anger in key swing states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, Virginia, Iowa...

Obama's comrade Ayers: "We never threatened to kill people, we never killed people."

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 21, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The pro-life movement in America is growing in leaps and bounds, attracting young, zealous women to defend the unborn in droves - a fact that even the president of NARAL has now admitted.NARAL's Nancy Keenan told Newsweek last week that she considers herself a member of the "postmenopausal militia" – a phrase that captures the situation of pro-abortion leaders who are aging across the board, including the leadership of Planned Parenthood, and the National Organization for Women. Newsweek's Sarah Kliff notes that "these leaders will retire in a decade or so." Keenan also...

I'm trying to understand what it says about the state of American music and culture that, in every Super Bowl half time show since the wardrobe malfunction, a song less than 30 years old hasn't been sung. I have plenty of fond memories of the Stones, Bruce, and to a far lesser extent, the Who. But what will the NFL do when all these guys are dead?

There are conservatives, including some of us here on Free Republic, that consider the song "We don't get fooled again!" to have a conservative theme. The Who saved that for their final performance last night. Did anyone else note the extraordinary amount of cheering from the audience the first time they sang the refrain? Did you also catch Daltry's final line: "DON'T YOU GET FOOLED AGAIN!!!" ?

Many baby boomers (Americans in the generation born between 1946 and 1964) are continuing to use illicit drugs as they grow older, causing the rate of illicit drug use to go up within the 50 to 59 year old age segment of the population. According to a new analytical publication produced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), those aged 50 to 59 reporting use of illicit drugs within the past year has nearly doubled from 5.1 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent in 2007 while rates among all other age groups are statistically staying the same...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Baby boomers, now well into middle age, are still turning on to illegal drugs, doubling the rates of illicit drug use for the older generation, according to U.S. government statistics released on Wednesday. The rates of people aged 50 to 59 who admit to using illicit drugs in the past year nearly doubled from 5.1 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent in 2007 while rates among all other age groups are the same or decreasing, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported. "These findings show that many in the Woodstock generation continue to use...

I fancy myself open-minded and easygoing, which is why I was disturbed at my behavior last week when a pair of cyclists, riding side-by-side, blocked a lane of traffic and slowed my car to a speed that fell between trotting and brisk skipping. I laid on the horn, something I normally wouldn’t do, while my passenger, a generally subdued gentlemen and an avid cyclist himself, yelled at them to get out of the way. Discuss COMMENTS (41) It was only the next day that I realized the reason for my aggressive behavior. I was annoyed with these two because they...

Five members of the “Rainbow Family” — a loose-knit band of hippies that preaches love, tolerance and peace and is best known for its large gatherings every July — were arrested Tuesday night by Boulder County sheriff’s deputies after a violent brawl broke out at the group’s campsite near Ward. at a fight had broken out among a group of a dozen people camping out in the area of Ruby Gulch, located on state Forest Service property ... When deputies arrived, witnesses reported that one man, a Nederland resident aged 34 or 35, was hit in the back of the...

Authorities have recorded more than 370 incidents, including 120 violation notices, in the past week as people flock to the Santa Fe National Forest ... between 10,000 and 12,000 people are expected to attend the gathering from July 1-7. Forest Service spokesman Lawrence Lujan says most of the violation notices handed out since June 14 are related to alcohol, and drug and traffic violations. Some of the people who were issued notices were required to appear Monday in federal court in Albuquerque.

Between 5,000 and 10,000 people are expected to attend July 1-7. The gathering will be 22 road miles northeast of Cuba and southeast of the San Pedro Parks Wilderness.

Let's first acknowledge that we've moved well beyond the irony of "I hope I die before I get old" and the fact that the Who's Pete Townshend, who wrote the lyric, did get old, though his band's drummer didn't. Let's also let Mick Jagger off the hook for famously declaring, "I'd rather be dead than singing 'Satisfaction' when I'm 45." With the Rolling Stones singer turning 66 in July, he has had more than 20 years and several world tours to eat those words. We will, however, give consideration to Robert Plant's explanation earlier this year that he shot down...

America's 20-something "millennials" have driven, hitchhiked, walked, biked, and bussed their way to Washington in hordes this week to witness the must-see, must-be-there event of their lives - the swearing-in of Barack Obama. Many of their Baby Boomer parents can relate: they remember this thing called Woodstock. No one is suggesting that a rock concert on a farm in upstate New York where guitarist Jimi Hendrix wailed the "The Star Spangled Banner" - don't even mention to the sex, drugs and three days of rock and roll - approaches the weight of the inauguration of the first African American president....

"There is such excitement in this town, with millions coming in," gushed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was accepting an arts award Monday from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "All these people coming in to see me get this award, it makes me ecstatic," the governor joked to the mayors at the Capitol Hilton, with inaugural crowds filling the streets outside. Schwarzenegger was given the award for public leadership in the arts because of his support for art and music programs in the schools — programs that face cuts because of the state's budget crisis. The governor talked about the painting,...

Green Revolution Hits Dead End In Georgia Cemetery Proposal Ms. Collins Thought Natural Burials Were a Killer Idea; Locals Saw Grave Threat By PHILIP SHISHKIN MACON, Ga. -- Elizabeth Collins, a gardener, birdwatcher and a self-described "renaissance woman," wanted to start a "natural" cemetery where bodies would be buried without embalming, coffins or vaults. [Elizabeth Collins] Elizabeth Collins She and a partner bought a plot of land here and wrote a business plan that identified pagans, "old hippies," penny pinchers, environmentalists and Muslims -- who traditionally bury the dead without caskets -- as their target market. There would be room...

Camelot or the return thereof...

The day after the election, on the quad of the university where I teach, a young lady wore one of those t-shirts with a visage of The One that has grown ever larger, with profile turned increasingly upward towards the heavens, as the campaign went on. The latest fashion statement was emblazoned “Commander in Chief” in shiny gold. She gathered with a professor, also in an Obama t-shirt, and other similarly attired students as they blared rap music from a boom box. Seldom have we seen such entrepreneurial spirit in the name of the advancement of peace and justice through...