Free Republic

The Old West: When men were men and women knew their place How many times have we heard men declare of the days of the old West, ‘men were men and women stayed at home and knew their place’? This is a common refrain after folks watch a movie based on the period. A peek behind the myths reveals difficult and trying lifestyle most modern men would never concede to and when a seeming minor health issue that would be easily cured today would take lives by the thousands. The ‘cool’ concept of a man that stands tall for all...

Obama's brothers in Egypt: "Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Party Member Mahmoud Khalil: Americans Are Cows, Not Cowboys; 'America Will Disintegrate' Jews Control World’s Gold" MEMRI Following are excerpts from an interview with Mahmoud Khalil, a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, which aired on Al-Nas TV on September 11, 2012. Click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV. Mahmoud Khalil: "Your regular American is not such a great intellectual as we imagine him to be." Interviewer: "He is not interested in politics..." Mahmoud Khalil: He has a huge body. Eats like a pig. He is like...

One of the best of the Anthony Mann-directed Jimmy Stewart westerns of the 1950s. Love the scene at the beginning when Stewart tosses the guns to the two cowboys. It's definitely one of his grittier roles.

Breath-taking photographs have captured America's last cowboys, as the age-old profession, or art-form, all but dies out. A national icon, and an integral part of the country's story, the cowboy is a romantic, rugged metaphor for America's frontier past -- and one that has captivated Hollywood for decades. For years, photographer Adam Jahiel has been taking pictures of the cowboys of Nevada's Great Basin, perhaps one of the most inhospitable regions of the already harsh West.

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in Montana when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust. The driver, a young man in a Brioni® suit, Gucci® shoes, RayBan® sunglasses and YSL® tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?" Bud looks at the man, who obviously is a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?" The yuppie parks...

'Cowboy cop' who planted crack under couple's car seat to boost arrest quotas escapes jail after SOBBING in court. A veteran NYPD detective framed an innocent couple by planting crack in their car during a search. Arbeeny was convicted of ‘flaking,’ the practice of planting drugs on blameless people to reach their quota of felony collars and claim overtime, the New York Daily News reported. He was found guilty of putting a twist of crack under a car seat in Yvelisse DeLeon and Juan Figueroa’s car during a January 2007 bust in Coney Island, New York. The trial which ended...

There was a time when the saying “a man without a horse” was widely understood.  Its meaning may not be as quickly grasped as it once was.  However, the phrase certainly is applicable even in this age where many folks do not or have never owned a horse.  “A man without a horse” is one who is incomplete.  He is lacking.  Perhaps, a similar situation today would be a man without a car, a job, or his spouse.  Figuratively a man’s horse is that which gives him the desire to go forward and conquer in life and when it is...

O'Connor pleased with exhibit of her lifeIt's been 30 years since Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. An exhibit about her life opens this week at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. O'Connor is an El Paso native who spent summers on her family's Arizona ranch that initially didn't have electricity or water. She said Wednesday she was pleased with the exhibit. She said her time on the ranch taught her responsibility and how to solve problems on her

Trying to host a live thread for our "Smart Phones".

Feb. 9, 1957:  Television’s Wyatt Earp, actor Hugh O’Brian, on left, and Al Jennings, onetime western bad man, draw guns for Los Angeles Times staff photographer Al Markado. O’Brian won, but Jennings, at 93, had the experience to make the shot count – if he needed too. Times staff writer Norman Dash reported:TARZANA–A 93-year-old “bad man.” who was once allegedly the fastest man with a gun in the West, met up with television’s Wyatt Earp and immediately went for his clippings, memories and tales of the Old West at his modern-day hide-out in Tarzana.Al Jennings, last of the real...

Unlike politicians, a cowboy still makes a deal with a handshake and his word is his bond. .....A cowboy lives by a set of unwritten principles hard wired into his DNA. It is instinctive because it is the example set by those that surround him. Cowboys don't whine and stomp their feet like spoiled children and politicians often do when things don't go their way. They know that whining and wringing your hands don't get the job done. In my interaction with cowboy and ranching community up in Idaho, I have learned it is very close knit and neighbors and...

There was something quite Roman in the killing of Osama bin Laden, something reminiscent of the manner in which the Romans eventually dealt with a rogue’s gallery of charismatic tribal enemies—Spartacus, Vercingetorix, Jugurtha, Mithridates, Boudica, and others—all of whom claimed victory over the Romans and invulnerability from their global reach, only to be eventually defeated, forced to kill themselves, executed, or killed in battle. The killing reminds us that there are official rules we cite and unofficial ones that, thankfully, we actually follow. Pakistan is to be praised publicly as a partner, even as privately it is recognized as the...

There was something quite Roman in the killing of Osama bin Laden, something reminiscent of the manner in which the Romans eventually dealt with a rogue’s gallery of charismatic tribal enemies—Spartacus, Vercingetorix, Jugurtha, Mithridates, Boudica, and others—all of whom claimed victory over the Romans and invulnerability from their global reach, only to be eventually defeated, forced to kill themselves, executed, or killed in battle. The killing reminds us that there are official rules we cite and unofficial ones that, thankfully, we actually follow. Pakistan is to be praised publicly as a partner, even as privately it is recognized as the...

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How mean-spirited are House Republicans? So mean-spirited that they would end federally funded cowboy poetry! Last Tuesday, Harry Reid, the majority leader, took to the Senate floor to thunder that this town ain’t big enough for both him and the Mean-Spirited Kid (John Boehner). “The mean-spirited bill, HR 1 . . . eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts,” said Senator Reid. “These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy-poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands...

As we now all know, Harry Reid LOVES cowboy poets. Luckily, my good friend Todd Greenberg has some experience with cowboy poetry: They used to bring cowboy poets to our schools in Arizona.  I can't believe this is federally funded stuff.  Don't get me wrong... cowboy poetry can be cool, I guess, and it's good work if you can get it, but last thing I wanted to do in H.S. was get dragged to the amphitheater to watch four old guys dressed like cowboys and dramatically read poetry like it was down home Summerstock/Shakespeare and tell us about campfire life. I...

In the middle of his tirade against House Republicans' "mean-spirited" budget bill on the Senate floor Tuesday, the Senate Majority Leader lamented that the GOP’s proposed budget cuts would eliminate the annual "cowboy poetry festival” in his home state of Nevada. (See also: Reid’s prostitution lecture bombs.) Reid clearly has a soft spot for the Baxter Blacks of the poetry world and thinks Republicans don't. “The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1 … eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts,” said Reid. “These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have...

On Sunday, a statement issued by the White House called for an "orderly transition" in Egypt to a government that better reflects the aspirations of the Egyptian people. He also spoke on the phone with Middle East and world leaders about the ongoing struggle in Egypt. On Tuesday, the President took a harder line with Egypt: "It is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must begin now," he said. On Wednesday, the White House said the violence caught Obama by surprise. It is unclear if there will be a further statement...

He says, "Unlike Obama, I have nothing to hide. I've already been vetted by the media...and it felt good." From USA Today: Times Square's 'Naked Cowboy' Announces Presidential BidJust keep your transparency covered by the guitar: Check out these other Useful Info Nation pages: