Free Republic

The "George Hayduke" of Loompanics and "Getting Even" fame is named after the character Heyduke in the Edward Abbey books. Other than the pseudonym of the author, the revenge books aren't connected with the Abbey novels.

I think it's nuts. But I was on jury duty recently and was asked by the defense attorney about the biography of Richard Nixon I was reading. He also wanted to know my political persuasion [he asked everyone this, but he asked me a lot more questions about it.] Apparently my answers were satisfactory because I wound up on the jury [unfortunately!]

And people wonder why I switched to the Republican party. I just got sick of the mean-spiritedness from the liberals.

I used to tutor kids in the public schools, and just on a practical level it was really hard for kids with reading problems to read stories in their reading books when all the characters' names in the stories were ethnic and unfamiliar to them. They would get so frustrated that I would finally just tell them to make up a name.

I could be snotty and say there is no Republican candidate, but I'll refrain. This was a Democratic runoff. Green will face the "Republican" Bloomberg in the general election.

God bless you and your family. I lost a cousin in a similar way seven years ago, and I never go for very long without thinking about her. In a lot of ways, it brought our family closer together, and I hope that your family has been able to do the same in these horrible cirumstances.

I think they're selfish, and they also don't understand the teachings of their religion very well. I'm a Christian, but that doesn't mean I'm supposed to be afraid of every little thing involving a devil [or a CARTOON of a devil.] Christians are taught that we have victory over the devil, so what should we care about mascots, etc.?

It depends on the school, and on the makeup of the student body. I was in college during Desert Storm, at a fairly liberal school, but there were only a handful of anti-war protesters, and it was obvious the majority of the school supported the military action.

Even Bill Clinton was offended by Sistah Souljah!

I'm 29, male, Native American [I don't look it, but lots of the other people in my family sure do--I'm a little over a quarter Cherokee], and live in Tulsa, OK. I have a Bachelor's in English, which of course did me absolutely no good in getting a job. I've been working for the Post Office for the last five years. I'm interested mainly in books and movies, and am involved in church activities. I still try to write on occasion. I have a cat. That's about it.

In fairness to the union, they pretty much have to defend their membership no matter what. That's their job. The employee is entitled to representation. So I don't expect them to refuse to do their job just because I think the teacher should be fired.

I've seen rotten.com, and I think I would be less disturbed at the idea of her visiting a "regular" porn site than that.

Fleischer should stay out of it, and let the audience, advertisers, and the network sort it out. Maher is not worth their attention.

I agree they should can the show. I always thought it was fast-food political discourse--good for entertainment sometimes, but not much else. I'm sure there's bias in always having 3 libs to one conservative, but another reason might be that most conservatives have better things to do than be on some brain-dead network talk show where they can only speak in soundbites.

I'm glad you guys mentioed that tax on the rich. I wasn't sure I was hearing that correctly!

When I saw Pat on O'Reily tonight I thought, "Wasn't he just on?"

He peaked over a decade ago, and despite numerous movie flops and failed television programs, he's never even came close to the success of Roger and Me. About the only good thing was that Moore's connections allowed Ben Hamper, one of the GM auto workers, to publish a great book about life on the assembly line called RIVETHEAD. It's non-political for the most part, and Moore comes off looking pretty stupid in it--an auto worker wannabe who just clamors to spend time around Real Honest to Goodness Factory Workers--while driving a Toyota.

I have a feeling his recent actions will alienate him from the beloved working people he claims to represent, though I doubt if many of them have paid much attention to him since '89.

He could be the second Pork Bomb after Rosie.

I couldn't even get through the first few paragraphs. But it does makes me chuckle how a man who has never worked a day of hard work in his life passes himself off as some working class Man of the People, while living in his fancy Central Park West abode. His excuse is that "real working class people are glad, because it means one of them has made it out." What a joke.

Oh, it's a monopoly, but only because no one else wants it. These days, first class letter mail is not a moneymaker, and I don't believe it has been for a long time. At this point, I doubt anyone else would want to handle that even if they could.

Most of these kids will grow out of it. I wouldn't worry too much. I was in college during Desert Storm and there was a minoriy of war protesters, but the vast majority of students supported the war effort. I doubt the anti-war types have any more numbers this time, in a case where our country has been attacked. And a lot of them are probably not all that sincere about it either--I know a lot of kids back then would get into "radical" politics just to impress someone they had the hots for.

And to be fair, I do recall some of these people being against Clinton's military actions as well. At least they're consistent, even if they're consistently wrong.

Nationalizing I'm definitely against, but bailing out an industry that is essential to the financial well-being of the nation is another matter.

Actually, the USPS is private, but it's owned by the gov't. It's proving to be a bad mix. They aren't allowed to have a profit, yet tax dollars haven't gone to the Post Office in nearly 20 years. They've been losing a lot of money over the last few years as the Internet has changed mail patterns both from companies [from which the majority of their revenue comes] and individuals, hence the frequent price increases. Their recent partnerships with FedEx are a portent of things to come--I imagine within 20 years they will become a subsidiary of Fed-Ex or UPS. And I know this stuff because I work for them.

I agree with you about the bailout. To me it's perfectly appropriate to use government funds for things people need and can't do for themselves--like the police, fire departments, roads, etc. Way too much rests on the airlines for them to be allowed to go under, especially when it's due to this kind of situation. It would be irresponsible not to bail them out in this case, and would spell disaster for the country. I think it would also mean a victory for the terrorists--they crash two of our planes and nearly destroy the airlines as a result.

But I found the Boortz piece entertaining, and didn't think it was meant to be taken seriously.

I read it as saying that he was from a liberal wing of a right-wing party, not that Forza Italia itself was liberal. Maybe "from a less conservative wing" would be a better choice of words.